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!

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.

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.

I’m in no way a superstitious person. But this was so incredible I had to take a photograph. It took me a while to get the time, and idea, of how exactly to represent the thoughts behind this. So I hope this works out as I intended.

The backstory: Since the first ultrasound I have always referred to my unborn son as ‘my little alien’. OK, not always, the very first sonigram I actually called him my little peanut, as that’s about all he resembled back then. But from then on out I said he looked like an alien in there.

So two days before my wife gave birth earlier this month, we were out to lunch with my mother. We went to this great Chineese place near my mother’s house. At the end of the meal we all checked our fortune cookies. As I opened mine I gasped in amazement. And at that same moment, my mother opened hers, and she too was amazed.

I saved the two fortunes in my wallet. My son was born two days later. It took me a few weeks to even remember I had them in my wallet. So here they are, hope you enjoy. My fortune is the one on top, my mother’s the bottom. Tell me that is not the most odd thing ever? These are NOT photoshopped.

This entry will be a little different than normal, as the subject does not rotate around photography. So please excuse me while I express my joy with the arrival of my newborn son. Here are the events of his birth:
8:00 am – Trisha and I are admitted to the hospital
11:30 am – After tests, paperwork, and other procedures, the Oxytocin drip is started to induce her labor
1:30 pm – Trisha is 4cm dilated, and her water is broken
1:45 pm – She is administered her first pain meds through IV, as the contractions get excruciating
2:45 pm – The first dose of pain medicine wears off, another dose is desperately needed. Trisha is holding on strong.
3:00 pm – The pain is now unbearable, Trisha gets an epidural
4:30 pm – 7cm dilated
5:15 pm – 9cm dilated
5:45 pm – Trisha is ordered to start pushing. Even with an epidural the pain is excruciating as her face turns purple. She continues pushing, never missing a beat as the doctor makes her hold and push 3 times for 10 seconds each. Trisha never messes up a single push.
8:30 pm – The baby’s head is almost crowned, but after hours of pushing, a little snip is required as Trisha cannot push much longer.
8:31 pm – My hero … my wife … manages after hours of excruciating pain and hard work gives birth to our son!!!

And here is my newborn son, Jason Marshall Beck, born 11/15/2006 at 8:31pm EST weighing in at 6lbs. 15.3oz. and 18″ tall.

As I am sure you all know, time is hectic for me. We’ve only been home from the hospital for roughly 3 hours so far.  My wife and baby are sleeping, so I took some time to share these two pictures with you all. I can promise you, that you’ll grow sick of him soon, as the pictures start flooding in more and more;)

So we took a trip to Amicalola Falls, GA. We brought our two nieces, and nephew, and of course our daughter. The falls were great. My legs were completely sore, and I realized just how out of shape I am. Anyways, got a few good pictures from the trip.