Looky Looky!

Just put a teaser up on the biz blog, but I'm SO excited about this new project that I'm working on! :)
Over the winter, I had this idea to rent an underwater camera housing for a couple weeks in the summer and offer pool shoots to new and existing clients. It would be a package deal...you'd get a DVD with a combination of video and still shots set to music, with a $$print credit and maybe a few extra prints...something something...I hadn't exactly figured it all out yet.
So I started scouring the internet for a place where I could rent a camera housing. The place that I usually rent gear from wasn't carrying housings anymore so I was totally bummed as I perused the 'net looking for something because just to RENT a housing for about a week would run me in the $600 range. Would i make that money up in sales from the shoots? I wasn't sure....1 week wasn't very much time to promote and squeeze in enough shoots to make my money back.
SO THEN I thought, "well, heck. I live in Georgia and it's warm here 9 months of the year. Why don't I just BUY a camera housing?" Lord knows I'll have plenty of opportunity to use it.

So I did.
And a video camera housing too.

And with a fluttering heart, I read (and re-read, and re-read again) the directions, packed my cheapest camera and a decent lense into that baby and sank it into the pool. GULP. I might as well have taken $1200 in cash and dunked it in.
NO WORRIES!

It worked like a champ - no leaks, no problems and we spent several hours practicing with it. Casey and I played with the video camera, and the regular camera - Steve and the boys were our subjects and they swam their little hearts out.

3 hours and 2 minor sunburns later and we had learned a few things and were ready to hit the pool again the next weekend with better methods (boat anchors, bungee chords, flippers, dive masks, weight belts, wider-angled lenses.....don't ask).

We hit the pool again yesterday with even more success and I'm starting to feel like this could be a REALLY cool thing. How many photographers do YOU know who can take professional photos of your family UNDERWATER??

Anyway....the end product isn't ready to show to the world yet, but I think it'll be pretty cool. A combination of shots in and out of the pool combined with video....I think it would be an awesome treasure for any pool-lovin' summer-lovin' family.
Plus I think the options for creative portraiture are endless.......I won't even tell you the wild ideas I've got in my head for THAT.

What do YOU think??

A.J.

Couple more to see as a teaser on the blog.
And don't YOU feel special because you guys are the first I've told about it. :)
And I'd love feedback....do you think it's a good idea? Would you pay money for it? What do you think would make it even cooler? What would give it more value for you?

AJ's 5 yr. Old Pics

More on the biz blog.....
And more to come once I get around to editing the rest. :)
Life is busy.
Good...but busy.

Vote for me!

I'm pulling out all the stops to get friends, fam, and strangers to vote for me as the area's Best Photographer!

So if you read my blog, like my work, think I'm the sha-zizzle, or even if you don't...Vote for me, purty please???

:)

Vote HERE.

Our Christmas Card....

It went out late, so I didn't want to post it and "spoil" the surprise....but probably everyone has got it by now and/or they're over it anyway.
Here's our Christmas Card from this year:

here's the back....I'm not sure why it's showing up blue on here....obviously, in real life the colors are just like the front. :)

I'm sure my parents were appropriately appalled by the front, but we thought it was funny and an honest portrayal of this time in our lives. 3 boys under age 6??? Smiling nicely for the camera?? Yeah, right.
True. Life.

Just keep'n it real, peeps......keep'n it real. :)

IN Case you Missed them......

Maybe not as amusing as last year's family picture post, but in case you missed it on Facebook or the other blog, and with the assumption that you even care to see them, you can head over to the biz blog and see our family pictures from this year.
I didn't put the one we used on the front of our Christmas card on there though, so you can be surprised by it when you get it in the mail (or see it on the blog on Christmas, whichever comes first).
:)

8 Years Later......

And I'm still hot for him:

Happy Anniversary Babe!

*photos compliments of Casey Perkins*

My Kid Is So Freaking Adorable.

Seriously.

Go check out his annual pics that I just posted on the biz blog.
And try not to swoon....he IS only 6, you know. :)

Here's a preview:

As Promised.....

Photos of the ever-elusive Steve-o, on the eve of his 30th birthday. :)
The entire "shoot" took all of 6 minutes - and he hated every one of them.

I am Sooooo clever.
LOL :)

This was his reaction when I told him to stare directly into the camera and "look badass"

:)

Eating Apples

Tyler is my wild man.
I've said before that "he's awful" or "he drives me bonkers" because well....a lot of times he does. And is.
Just this morning we had to pay plumbers to come out to the house and unclog the toilet because Tyler threw something down there. It was a rubber bathtoy/snail. The plumbers had a good chuckle from that one - I wiped away a tear as I wrote out the check. *sigh*

He requires most of my energy during the day and leaves me weary by bedtime. He is belligerent, stubborn, cheeky, demanding, fun, comedic, high energy, and into everything all the time. He demands 100% of my attention all the time - he rarely plays alone or quietly and requires constant attention and entertainment. He want to sit in my lap, or have me carry him, or tickle him, or read him books, or play with him ALL DAY LONG WITHOUT EVER STOPPING. For these reasons I simultaneously can't stand him and love him so much that I want to eat his little face. There's honesty for ya.

In many ways, he reminds me of myself, and of what I imagine that I was like as a child.

Today we had a good day.
He demanded, as always - but today I gave him all I had and it was amazing how happy we both were.
Just being together.

He worked on an apple the entire time I was taking these pictures

This one isn't in focus, BUT:
1) Tyler is hard to photograph because he NEVER holds still
2) I like it anyway. So there.

A total accident when he moved from the dark into the light of the window and I didn't have time to change my settings.
I think it was a happy accident.

He looks so big in this one, with his long lean legs and his mouth full of apple.

The wings...I'm mildly obsessed with the wings.....

This is one of Tyler's favorite tricks. He does this to his brothers and it totally infuriates them (and it annoys daddy too). He goes up to the tv armoire and pushes the button to turn off the television. Then he turns around and grins at whoever was watching tv and runs away.

What the Duck

Every day I read this blog/comic strip called What the Duck. It's about a duck who's a photographer and it makes me laugh a lot. :) LOL
This one is one of my favorites and it pretty much sums up the ebb and flow of my business/photography life cycle:




Just thought I'd share.
Happy Thursday!

OY VEY.

Talk about an eventful (and awful) photo session tonight.....if you're interested in hearing the gory details (and about my call to 911 and the blood on my hands and shirt) then maybe I'll share tomorrow, but for tonight you can just read the condensed version on my biz blog HERE.

*sigh*

What a night.

Well, Dontcha Know?

(said in my best annoying Sarah Palin accent) I just feel so special now, dontcha know?

My printing lab, ColorInc, choose one my images as their favorite staff pics from the week...tada!:

ColorInc Staff Pics of the Week

This Will Be One for His Senior Page in the Yearbook....

This evening, I came upon this scene.......

Wonder what he's reading??


Rolling Stone, of course.

Forgotten Photo

A few weeks back, I had a photo session at The Veranda so Steve drove separately with the boys and they rode their bikes around the trails and played in the water fountains while I worked.

When I was done, I forced the kids to let me take their photo (they didn't complain TOO loudly...except for AJ - he did. Loudly). I had actually forgotten that I had taken these pictures until I stumbled across them last night when I was proofing.

Their hair isn't combed, they're wearing play clothes, their faces are dirty, but I love these two photos.

And I love my boys.

*warm fuzzies*

I Laughed So Hard I Died. The End.

I had this idea for a fun picture to put on my business blog, or in my scrolling header on my business blog...or....something. I don't know....when the creative juices flow, I just roll with 'em and figure out what to do with them later. They still need some work, but this was my quick and dirty edit so I could get them on here and show them to the world.

So I grabbed my camera and my muse, and asked him to pose. We wet his hair and slicked it back. I popped the lenses out of a pair of 3D glasses from the movie theater (thanks Erica!) and grabbed this book.

Funny, right?

But when I opened THIS one off the CF card, I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants.

Tyler....Via Another Photographer

A couple weeks ago my friend (and fellow photographer) Greta took pictures of Tyler for me. Technically, they're his 1 yr pics (3 months late).

It's so....WEIRD to see another photographer's "vision" on MY kid! Go check it out and leave her some blog love! :)

Not to Beat a Dead Horse, but.......

***whack! whack! whack!** (*horse whinny*)

I've posted it on Facebook, the old biz blog, and Myspace....but have you seen my new business blog?

then you must.
Because it makes me really happy.
Go admire our handiwork. :)

http://tamminowackphotography.com/blog/

And then rejoice!! Because in a few weeks this blog will be public again and you can add it to your blog reader list. :) yay!

Small Things

Fall has arrived in Georgia. I was hesitant to post that last week, when the weather had just started to turn towards cooler pastures, because I know how dastardly Georgia weather can be. Undoubtedly, no sooner had I uttered a sigh and proclaimed How I Love Thee Autumn, it would've turned back into a 98 degree inferno.
But one week in, and I think it safe to proclaim that Fall is indeed, here to stay.
After 6+ months of grueling Southern heat, my Michigan blood breathes a sigh of relief and relishes the intoxicating breeze that blows through the air. It's hard to not just sit outside all day and enjoy every last minute of it.

Yesterday after we got home from picking Owen up at school, Tyler went down for a nap and the (big) boys and I headed outside. I laid in a chair, the boys played in the dirt, the sandbox, the playset, the grass - looking for lizards, building castles, digging for treasure.

And then I went inside and grabbed my camera.......

Autumn + small things= me happy. :)

A spiderweb in the canopy above the playset

A rusty bolt on the monkey bars...

A watchful dog...

A few lone tomatoes hanging on the last straggly vines in the garden...

A largely overgrown cilantro bush that fills the backyard with it's beautiful scent every time a breeze blows....

A silly child....

A soulful child....

Citronella candles on the table...

An abandoned sandbox toy...

Climbing flowers on the back fence dying to make room for new growth...

Giving our caterpillars some fresh air and anticipating their metamorphosis....

The chain on a swing....

A long-forgotten clothespin on the line...

What small things make you happy?

Upgrade On My Brain

Taking a break from politics, religion, weird videos, and pictures.....I'm totally drooling over the upgrade from the 5D that Canon announced today:

Canon EOS 5D Mark II: with 21MP and HD movies

DROOL.

ING.

I'm off to search for change in the couch and hope for a big tax refund this year.
I SO need to upgrade so I can move on to bigger and better business things. :) My brain is full of too many ideas to be limited by my dated camera any longer! Full-frame sensor here I come! Well....in a few months anyway.

I hope.

:)

Don't Hit Me

Back to politics for a second....if, like me, you don't understand Sanskrit, then you probably have trouble navigating the truth from the...er..."embellishment" of what is this election's political circus.
Go to CNN's FactCheck.org to get the skinny on what's truth and what's not when McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden open their mouths and speak to the nation/world. It's updated by date/event, so currently there's a lot of McCain/Palin bullcrap at the top of the list because of the recent RNC..but for all you Obama haters out there - just scroll down a bit and you can read some of his flubs as well.
It's an easy site to navigate and I like how it gives you the REAL deal on what their talking about. But I do find it quite sad that it's pretty much a given that politician's are so full of crap that we have to make a website dedicated entirely to sifting through the bull to find out what's truth and what's not.
Seriously....go check it out.

Oh, and if you're feeling link-happy, you can go check out my biz blog because I had a really fun senior session on Saturday/Sunday.

That's it....back to your regular scheduled programming.