MBeck Photography

So we recently went to the Georgia Renaissance Festival in Fairburn, GA.  OK, so we actually went twice in a week, and are planning to go back in a few more weeks.  But hey, I’m a big nerd.  I actually took 502 total photos, and posted a large handful of them on my Facebook.   You can find what I call “snapshots” here, and then the “keepers” here.  But here’s the one that made my blog cut …

Casey Martin “Small”
Casey is a member of “Barely Balanced“.  They are a stunt/acrobatics team that travels the country performing.  She is pure hotness, so this picture is worth more than a thousand words.  And to top it off, she is as friendly as can be.  Needless to say, Casey is one of the first people I go looking for at the Ren Fest.   Each year my wife tricks me into going (I have bad allergies) by saying “You get to see the hot girl on stilts”.

Pirate “Bob”
I actually had no clue who the guy was.  After finding him on Facebook though (someone else tagged my photo for me) I realized “Bob” here is quite a famous pirate.  I was standing inside the Pirate Ship (more on that later) and my wife stated that there was a pirate sleeping under a tree.  So we told my 3 year old son to go see if he was real.  This picture resulted.  “Bob” was a very good sport and made for one of the best pictures I took at the festival.

Captain Matthew Post
Matthew hosts one of the most popular “shops” in the entire festival.  The Pirate Ship is a giant armory type store with great deals on swords, shields, and every type of weapon or accessory you could imagine.  And then every day at 4:30pm they auction off tons of items at incredible prices, and of course give away tons of free gifts.  It is a must see at any Ren Fest.  Matthew and his crew are among the best people you will ever meet at any Ren Fest.  His “wenches” are all lovely and sweet.   This shot I took of Matthew just gave him that “Captain” look.

The Pirate
There’s not much to say about this shot.  This is one of the pirates that runs the children’s swing.  The look he had just seemed perfect for an HDR shot like this.

Hope you all enjoyed the photos as much as I did.  The festival was a blast and I can’t wait to go back.

We had a freak storm here in GA this year.   We ended up getting around 6″ of snow across over half the state.   I heard that it was the first time in recorded history that all 48 continental states had snow in them on the same day.   And the worst part is that I am supposed to be moving tomorrow.  But for now, fun in the snow.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.

So my family and I took a walk around the lake at Little Mulberry Park near Hamilton Mill Parkway in Dacula, GA.  It’s a great little place, you should stop by if you are ever in the area.  While at the park we came across a guy walking a gorgeous dog.  My wife asked him if he minded us taking the dog’s picture.  I snapped this photo of the dog, and in post processing I edited out the leash and collar.  Of course I emailed the man a digital copy of the photo for letting me take a picture of his dog.  He loved it!

I also decided to shoot a quick photo of my son.  He is quite the “model”.  Over the years I have used him for almost every shoot I have with kids.  He is my sample model and is quite used to having his picture taken.  He loves to strike a pose and actually gets upset if you don’t take his picture.  He’s changed a lot since the “My son is born” post.

And last but not least, as we walked around a smaller cove in the lake, we noticed a mallard swimming around in the shallows.  We walked down the embankment and squatted deep in the briars to try for a clear shot at him.  I finally managed to take this shot.  The colors are incredible on his head.

A good family friend of ours owns numerous horses.  My wife went to equestrian college.  You can image where she likes to spend her spare time.

Needless to say that she goes there often, and I normally bring my camera.  Our friend’s personal horse is the one pictured here.  His name is “T.C. Stingaree” but she calls him ‘T-Bird’ for short.  I took this photo of him right after he had been given a good shower.  I thought this pictured looked almost poster worthy.  Hope you enjoy it just as much!

Mario Mushroom

So my mother calls me and tells me that the next time I come by her house, to bring my camera.  She says there is a really large and cool looking mushroom growing in her front yard.  She knows how much I love macro shots of plants.  So later that day I go by and check out this mushroom.  It was very cool looking.   While out running errands, I decide to stop by Toys-R-Us and look for a small Mario Brothers toy to position on top of the mushroom for a funny photo. 

Well the Mario I found was perfect.  He is in a jumping pose.  I broke a toothpick and wedged it in his backside (he’s a pencil topper) to prop him up on the mushroom.  I hope you enjoy the photo as much as I enjoyed it.  I think it turned out hilarious.

I recently had an action sports shoot for my company.  Normally I keep business and personal separated.  But these are a few images I just couldn’t keep to myself.  These are two custom sports posters I designed myself from scratch.  They were both donated for free to the child featured.  The one in the black uniform, his father had done a favor for us.  The one in the orange uniform has a more touching story…

One of my photographers had asked the coach if there was any child on the team we should pay extra attention to.  Usually there is at least one kid that spends too much time on the bench.  Someone we could give an “ego boost” to by taking some good shots of him.  Well he told us about one kid with Leukemia.  This would be his last game.  So not only did we pay extra attention to him, but I personally made him this custom sports poster.

Trisha and Jason

Great little picture of my wife and son standing in the kitchen.  Just something about this photo really stands out to me.  Two of the most important people in my life here.  And one of my favorite pictures of them.

I took my kids to the zoo, and of course had to take the good camera with me.  Here are a few of the photographs I felt ‘worthy’ of making my site.  Hope you enjoy them.  Comments are always welcome and appreciated.

Red Tree (HDR)

So I was across town at my family’s house this afternoon. Teaching my daughter (and myself) how to Rollerblade. After we finished up in the driveway, I noticed the color on the tree in front of their garage was completely unreal looking.   It was almost like a dream sequence in a movie.  I couldn’t resist taking a picture of it.  I set up the camera and fired off 9 shots with auto-bracketing for the exposure in 1 stop increments.  I then merged these 9 photos into an HDR photo using Photomatix.

I have obviously been on a slight break from photography.  Between my career and my family (wife and 2 kids) I simply have no time anymore.  And to be quite honest, I am rarely anywhere interesting or worth taking photographs.

But that changed on the 4th of July this year.  I went to an amazing party at a friend’s house.  They had a great fireworks show at the end of the party.  And I took my first set of fireworks pictures ever.  Hope you enjoy them.  I thought they turned out quite nice.