Thanks for taking a picture of me Jana! You are amazing!

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WHO IS BALD IS BEAUTIFUL PHOTOGRAPHY?

Well, it's me of course! Hi, I'm Scott, just an ordinary guy who loves life and all the little nuances that it brings! Simply put, I'm a father to a wonderful son, a husband to a beautiful wife, and an amateur photographer who enjoys looking at the world through a piece of glass! I took up photography a couple of years ago, after having gastric bypass surgery. Since 12/07, I have lost 180 pounds, but found a real passion for documenting life with my camera. I could say that the big names out there have inspired me, and they have, But my true inspiration comes from the people I meet everyday who share the same thoughts and zeal I have for photography. We are truly blessed with some really great photographers around Nashville. So, what are you waiting for.... ...grab a camera, snap some pics, and enjoy life to the fullest!
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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Time Killers From The Web!

Just a few new additions to my blog reading this week. 

As if I didn’t have enough to do!  ☺


Photoshop Links

Dave Cross : One of the Photoshop Guys. A wealth of information and worth while browsing!

Addy Lane Photoshop Actions : I use her Eye Got The Blues action for removing the blue tint from eyes!

Kim Klassen Cafe : A nice site for textures and tutorials!



I ♥ Faces Links

The Arthur Clan : I have no idea why I haven’t added this site before.  Angie is one of the nicest people I have ever met.  I guess Amy would be the other one!

Mosaic of Grace : I just adore Talysia and her family.  Especially since they live right here in my hometown!

My Two Seasons : Michelle is an avid contributor of I ♥ Faces as well as the co-founder of OpenScrapbook !



Photo Education

Elizabeth Halford Photography : Elizabeth is a regular on I ♥ Faces, but also delivers a lot of information to Digital Photography School as well!

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Drive By Shootings!

Hope the title of today’s blog doesn’t scare you away!  That’s right folks, I live pretty close to an area of Nashville that has had it’s share of “drive-by shootings”.  I guess we’re as safe as can be expected, or safe as anyone else for that matter. 


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 So, yesterday morn, around 4:30 a.m., I decided it was time for me to do some “drive-by shootings” myself!  I mean, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”.  Right?  Just kidding!


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I’ve come up with my own style of “drive-by shootings”.  I get in my car, grab my camera, and drive…that simple!  I drive until I see something I want to shoot (with my camera), and I do just that. I shoot it!


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Another addition I’ve made to my “drive-by shooting” arsenal is our Tom Tom gps.  We’ve had it for over a year, but have never used it, until recently.  When I drive, I just drive until I get tired.   Then I turn on my Tom Tom, input my home address and start home.  Now of course, if I see something I want to shoot, then I do!


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Barns and Mohawks!

This has been the first day I have been able to shoot in quite a while, and man oh man, I miss it! 


My good friend Melinda and I decided that it was time to grab our cameras and head out.  I mean this is the first weekend since “The Great Flood of Nashville”, that it has not rained.  My wife gave me her blessing because she said, “Go, you need this, and so do we”.  I wonder what she meant by that?  I think I know!  Taking photos recharges me, hopefully it will recharge my attitude as well.


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I left my house around 5:30 with fear that it was not going to be a good day.  The fog was thick, and the sunlight that I desperately needed was no where to be found. I picked up Melinda, and we headed toward Starbucks.  Come on, you don’t think I could start the day without my coffee did ya?


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I drove, and Melinda navigated.  She had spotted a few barns and other assorted photo ops earlier in the week.  So we headed out with cameras in one hand and Starbucks in the other.
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A couple of things stood out from this trip:
 
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One was  Melinda talked about a rock formation, and when she described it, I knew exactly what she was talking about!  She called it “The Mohawk”, because she said it looked liked the top of a Mohawk hair cut. The scary thing is, I understood.
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The second thing was the amount of knowledge she knew about this tree.  It was amazing how passionate she was.  I have to agree, the tree was full of character!  It was almost as if it was one of the “Tree People” from The Lord Of The Rings!

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I just love this pic.  I know it’s kind of funky, but the layout almost makes it look “toy like”.  Almost like a tilt shift photo!  The statement “Beauty is in the eye of beholder” is about right here!

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All in all it was an enjoyable day shooting with a friend!  Oh yeah, just for you Melinda…I lied, I did take your pic!


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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Sweet Shot Tuesday

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Good Morning All!  Time for another Sweet Shot Tuesday over at Darcy’s blog!  Although it’s Sweet Shot Tuesday, and this is Wacky & Weird Wednesday, I’m still going to participate.  Sometimes I have to stop and ask my self what day it is?  Lord knows I’ve lost a few in my time.


Today’s shot is one from last summer of my nephews girlfriend/hopefully fiancé's daughter Tinsley.  Between her and her sister Tessa, I have been afectionally been dubbed “Uncle CooCoo”.  When you’re as cute as these girls, you can call me anything you want to.


Jump on over to My 3 Boybarians and check out the rest of the shots from Sweet Shot Tuesday.  And give Darcy a little love, she does an awesome job with her business, photography, and from what I’ve seen, her family!  She deserves a warm and fuzzy internet hug for all she does!


By the way, I also used a couple of overlays from Patti Brown’s new Supernatural collection.  If you get a chance head over and see those as well, and if you use the code “super”, you can snatch up  an extra 30% off before Friday!

  

 

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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Country Music Marathon 2010

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What can I say?  It was a wonderful day that was threatening huge thunderstorms.  It was so bad, the powers that be thought about making it a 1/2 marathon.  Wonder if they gave a refund?  Anyway, I got there early, in fact so early, I was the only one on the corner, waiting for the sunrise.  My vantage point…the 6 mile mark.  You don’t think I would do the full 26 miles did ya?


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It wasn’t too long before we saw the one and only wheel chair runner come by.  Man, this guy was flying.  But right on his heals, were the Olympic runners.  The “Elite Runners” as they were called.  They were flying also.

 

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After a while we started seeing a few more runners and the bicyclists.  I think if I ever do participate in a marathon, it will be on a bicycle! 

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While editing these photos, I could not help but notice the intensity and drive these runners had.  I mean come on, to run 26 miles in less than 5 hours, that’s amazing! 

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I tell ya, I’m glad I’m bald!  There, I said it.  I wonder if pony tail girl had whip marks on her back after the race?  I don’t think I could handle that thing smacking my back for 26 miles! :(  And notice the other girl looks like she’s running for her life!    I think the males behind her  were just trying to catch her.  In my best caveman voice “Ug, she’s mine if I can catch up with her”!  

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I can’t help but wonder what people think when they are running.  Dude on the left must be listening to some killer jam on those ear buds!  And the girl on the right is a good friend of mine from work.  I’m so proud of her, she makes this look so easy!



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Our marathon is noted for some of the crazy costumes people wear when running.  I missed the best one of the day though.  He was running in pink spandex short shorts, a pink camisole and bunny ears!  Wouldn’t you know it, I was changing memory cards as he flew by!  But we had some really cute ones as well!  There was the girl running is a grass skirt.  As she went by, she smiled, and from that smile you could tell she really enjoyed what she was doing.  Then I thought the guy in the tiger stripes was the drummer from  Def Leopard.  But my all time favorite…Juggle Boy!  Come on, that really takes skill.  I’ve seen him before and was really impressed.  Heck, I have trouble walking and chewing gum!

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And then sometimes, you just have to get on your bike and head to the house!  That’s what I did!

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Sweet Shot Tuesday

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Well Hello
Sweet Shot Tuesday, it’s been a while!  Things have been super crazy here at the O’Neal Clan the last few weeks.  In fact, my world has been moving so fast, I’ve not even got my camera out, except to take insurance claim pics.  What’s up with that?

 

If you have not been aware what’s happening in my part of the world, you can hop over to this post here, just to take a glance.  Everything seems to be back to normal, the FEMA Investigator came and we were told we needed to replace the water heater, gas furnace and air conditioner.  Now that’s a chuck of change that we did not have.  But alas, we received a check yesterday from FEMA to cover the cost of all 3!  Hip Hip Hooray!



This shot below is actually from Easter Sunday, that’s how far behind I am on editing photos for me!  I have a tendency to take care of friends before I take care of me.  I know, that’s a bad thing, but it’s who I am!  Anywho, I played around with a few textures from the Flora Bella Fine Art Collection.  Spring is here and everything is in bloom!  I ♥ this time of year.

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Sweet Shot Tuesday, gotta love the thought!  What’s your Sweet Shot?  Thanks Darcy for giving me the opportunity to take a break, grab a cup of coffee, and come out and play with my friends!  Head on over to Life with 3 Boybarians and check out the rest of the entries this week.



I’m looking forward to this weekend.  A friend of mine has asked me to help her with some photos, so we’re shooting on Saturday.  Hopefully we’ll have some dry weather!



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Saturday, May 15, 2010

Fix It Friday - Parker

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Ok folks, it’s been a while since I have participated, mainly because of all the flooding we had in Nashville.  But today I am dry, fully caffeinated on coffee and ready to play!  Meet Parker, the son of Christina over at 3 Sweet P’s.  Here are the concerns Mom had with this picture:

"This is a photo of my 2 year-old Parker. I am bothered by the harsh shadow on his face and the washed out colors of the photo. His eyes are a beautiful blue and you just can't see that. I would love to see what you guys can come up with!"

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OK, here is the photo SOOC (straight out of camera).

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I imported the photo into Lightroom and did the following:
*Adjusted white balance.
* Adjusted exposure.
*Pumped up the following sliders: blacks, clarity, and vibrancy.
* Used the adjustment brush to bring out the blues in his eyes.
Then I sent the photo to Photoshop CS5 for some further editing.

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In photoshop I used the healing tool to take care of Parker’s blemishes and the dark areas under his eyes.  I then ran the following:
* Jessica Sprague tutorial on eye pop.
* Nichole V Skin Smooth
* Nichole V Essential Color Pop Outdoors

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I then proceeded to use an overlay from Patti Brown’s Overlays called “A Touch Of Sunlight”.
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Then it was just time to play with some scrapbooking letters!
All in all, I enjoyed this activity a lot more than pumping muddy water from my basement!  Once again, Thank You to all the I ♥ Faces contributors who sent thoughts, prayers and well wishes during our flooding woes here in Nashville! 
♥ you guys!!!!!

Make sure you head over to I ♥ Faces and check out the other edits in this weeks Fix It Friday!

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And I almost forgot this one!  A friend of mine in Nashville got creative this last week and created a couple of Lightroom Presets.  The on I’ve used above is called “photo umph”.  I applied the preset after I had done my photoshop editing.  My thoughts on presets and actions is this, “It’s a jumping off point for me to start from”.  So after I applied the preset, I decreased the saturation and exposure just a little.  Honestly, I ♥ it!  If you get a chance, head over to Wendy C Photography and check out some of her work.  She’s a really a great friend and a phenomenal wedding photographer!

Enjoy life, snap some shots, and have fun…
That’s what I’m gonna do!
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Monday, May 10, 2010

“The Great Flood” or “The Day Noah Came To Nashville”

Well, I have been kind of busy these last couple of days.  It seems that Noah decided to pay us a visit here in Nashville this past weekend.  The bad part, he didn't bring his ark!


On Saturday morn, we started out with rain.  That’s all it was…rain.  By the end of the day, I deemed that this was a huge rain, not “just rain”.  Our pumps were running, the basement was OK with only a couple of inches of water.  I did the manly thing and stayed up all night, manning the pumps, I mean the worst thing you can have is lazy pumps!  Lazy kids, lazy spouses, lazy animals, I can handle.  Lazy pumps are not allowed at my house!!!


Overnight we did well.  The rain kept coming.  The pumps kept up, and we were dry!   Sunday morning, things changed quickly.  At about 7:30, the creek in our back yard decided it did not like it’s earthly bounds, and decided to move.  And move it did!  Within 30 minutes, I went from 2 inches of water in my basement, to 6 foot!

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The photo above is what it looked like just as the creek rose,   We quickly packed up all that was important, i.e. my camera, my computer, my dogs!  The wife and kid fended for themselves.  Don’t look at me like that, they are old enough to take care of their selves!  Of course I grabbed everything my wife told me to!  The O’Neal Clan abandoned ship house and moved to the in-laws house. 


Once we arrived there, we set down started mapping out a strategy for the future.  In other words, we started worrying about what tomorrow would bring!  While we were sitting there lamenting over our troubles, the ceiling above the dining room table started leaking.  What else could go wrong?


Needless to say, we jumped up on the roof and started singing Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head!  Just kidding, we placed tarps down to alleviate any leaks!


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Finally on Monday morning we headed back to survey the damage.  As I looked in the back yard all I saw was complete and utter devastation.  My fence was down, and the corner of my house looked like New Orleans after Katrina had left.  We still had 3 foot of water in the basement.  Man oh man, depression started to take over.  But then something amazing happened !


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As I looked in the back yard, this is what I saw, a beautiful sunray peaking through.  It was just a reminder to me, that no matter what I am going through, I am not alone.  You know, I could go on and on about how bad things are.  Sure, we’ve lost 15 years of memories that I can hold in my hand.  We have a basement full of nasty water and mud galore.  Yes, we have been put out for a while.  But you know what?  I’m not alone.  I’ve got a God that loves me, protects me, and cares for me!  I’m constantly reminded of the following verse:


"God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength but with your testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it" (1 Corinthians 10:13).


At this point, all that was left to do was to empty the basement.  I mean,  we could have packed up and went to IHOP for all you could eat pancakes, but the wet mess would have still been there!


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Heck, even the Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile went for a swim!


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But this is where we ended up.  The basement is now clean and dry.  So far it looks like the only mechanical thing we have lost is our upright freezer.  And we are still waiting on the gas company to come and look at our water heater and furnace.  That’s a major concern, but nothing we can’t handle.  I mean geez, we just survived a 100 year flood!


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Finally, I can’t end without a mud covered pic of myself! 

For all my friends out there an huge THANK YOU is appropriate.  Without the love, thoughts, well wishes and prayers from you, I would have lost it all! Not only the material things, but my sanity as well.  Because of you, I was able to trudge thorough the stinky creek water, the snapping turtles that decided to make their home in my basement, and the muddy sludge that we are still finding!  My friends on Facebook were a blessing, along with my church family and my weight loss support group.  Thank you Melinda, Steve, Tammy, Jenn and Heather  I mean come on, a complete stranger, that I only knew through the internet called and offered me a washer and dryer that was only a couple of years old!  That’s what friends are for! 


And I cannot and will not leave without acknowledging the I ♥ Faces Group.  WOW!!!  I received so many notes of encouragement from this group alone, that my son would walk by, see my e-mail inbox and say, “Not another one from that heart group!, does mama know you hang out with all these women?”


Guys, through the flood and all that’s happened, I feel cleansed, refreshed and ready to face the world.  That is until the next round, then I might need you again!


Enjoy life, snap some shots, and have fun…
That’s what I’m gonna do!

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