Charleston

This Christmas week has been relaxing and enjoyable. Amy and I made a run down to Charleston to visit Hilliary and Francois for a few days. I had a chance to do what I call a "walk about" around the city during a couple of mornings doing some photography.One thing I do when traveling is to get up early and walk the area looking for interesting photographic details. I guess I am like a mailman taking a walk on his day off. I can't get away from photography. Its in my blood. Here are a few of the images I captured.

MERRY CHRISTMAS. Here is an easy way to take your own family portrait. Get the family together with three dogs and try to get everyone to look at the camera. First I set up the pose with a couple of test shots. I got into place with my remote control for the camera and we got the dogs ready." Ok everyone look at the camera and smile" I would then throw a shirt and a gift box toward the camera.It worked a few times until the dogs ran off.Everyone was here for Christmas. Lori, Ian, Me, Amy, Francois and Hilliary. Of course we have Howard, The Worm and Cooper.We wish you all the best this holiday season.

Note Cards

We have just a couple of days left until we close the studio for the Christmas Holidays. Amy and I are looking forward to the time off. The kids will be with us this year and it will be great to have everyone together. Ian and Lori will be arriving on Thursday morning around 10:30 am and Hilliary and Francois will be driving up on Thursday evening. Last year was our first Christmas without the kids.This year should be better. It will be a full house of kids and dogs.
I just completed a new product which is a line of note cards. I have finished a series of coastline images and I will be packaging them for display in the studio for sale next month. They are 4.25 x 5 cards that are blank inside for adding your special information. We will be highlighting our cards in our January newsletter.I am going to give some away through the blog so keep in touch.
Have a Merry Christmas and I hope to post some of our family adventures over the hoildays.

The Shrine Bowl

It has been a long time since I had a chance to post to the blog. The studio has us on the move trying to keep Santa's work shop going.
Amy and I had a chance to attend the Shrine Bowl on Saturday. It was exciting and the first time in years since I had the chance to photograph from the sidelines. I would have enjoyed it more if it didn't rain the whole time. I am glad I had the plastic bags with me to cover my cameras. I did have a chance to meet some other photographers on the field that live in the sports world of photography. They are a different breed. If you want to check out the action from the sidelines go to www.shrinebowlphotos.com
This is a web site I came up with just for the game. It links over to billgoode.com to our photo store.
Amy has been sick for the last week and I know sitting in the rain watching that game on Saturday was not a help. I had tickets to see the Pathers on Sunday. This would have been the first game in a couple of years I had a chance to see and I had some killer seats. We gave them up to a friend of our in Charlotte. It was a cold day and I know another day outside would have put her over the edge.

Gift Cards

This will be a big weekend at home. I will have a chance to finish the house for Christmas. Since we traveled to NJ last weekend it put us behind. I want to put a plug in for the studio and tell everyone not to forget starting Monday we will be offering studio gift cards for 25% off. get a $100 gift card for just $75. This will make a great gift and if you are looking at a beach portrait next summer this will be the chance to get a discount. If you are out of town we can ship the cards right away.
I will be posting more Jersey pictures this weekend so stay intouch. I will be planning a few photo contests this year for some cool prises. All you will have to do is email in a photo. Our first one will be in January. You may win a nice dinner or something even better!

New York

Right before you get to the start of the "Jersey Shore" over looking the town of Highlands are the Twin Lights. The view from this hill top is just beautiful right at sunrise. On a clear day you can see the New York skyline and on down the Jersey coast. The town looks like an old fishing village with a New England feel.

On our way to the 34 street pier for dinner in Long Island City at the Waters Edge we stopped off to visit Grand Central Station.They had a awesome holiday lightshow in the main area of the lobby.Now I know what it means when someone says its busy as Grand Central Station.


The boardwalk in Asbury Park is coming back to life. " Its cold out on the boardwalk" Starts a famous Christmas song.I had a chance to get up early Friday morning and visit a few photo spots.


Big Weekend in the Big Apple! Amy and I were in Jersey this weekend because my sister turned 60 years old. It was a full four days and one very cold one walking the streets of New York. I am going to post a bunch of photos tonight when we get home but we had a major Tarboro moment in the big city. This is a small world. We were walking through Time Square on Saturday cutting our way through thousands of people and I was pulling a small case on wheels. We were on our way to Pen Station on 34th street to drop off my nephew James off to make the train to JKF airport.I am crossing the street in a NY christmas way with wall to wall people when someone say " hey the zipper on your bag is openning" I look up and its April Fretwell from Tarboro with a group of freinds. Wow! You can't go anywhere in the world without seeing someone from Tarboro. I guess it took someone from NC lend a helping hand.