437 Hey Charleston, you’re hot, mind if I snap a photo?

Ok guys, I miss taking photos, like REALLY miss it. Since I’m always playing second shooter I don’t get to take my photos with me, and I love shooting no matter what, but, darnit, I want to stretch my legs a bit. So here’s the deal, I’m looking to restock the old portfolio with some new innovative work, and I want your hot mug to be center stage. If you want a few photos, shoot me an email at athieveryconspiracy@gmail.com  with a few ideas and when you’re available to go out for an hour or so, we’ll coordinate schedules and work it out. How’s that? No charges, no strings, just a creative collab, some new facebook photos for you, and your permission to allow me to use your pretty faces in my portfolio and here on the blog. Sound good? Get those ideas running, check your calender and let’s make some sweet sweet photographic goodness!


420 I’m a slacker, but Independence Day in Charleston was beautiful!

So, sorry guys, I’m a horrible slacker and you have all been so patient with my long absences here, I love you for it! Unfortunately Dave Matthews didn’t play the Joe again this year, which would have been AMAZING, however, I got to spend my 4th of July with my two favorite men at Charleston Harbor for the big Patriots Pointe fireworks display. Not only was it a fantastic time sitting on the docks waiting FOUR HOURS for various other fireworks displays to finish up (we could see them all from where were were, like six different displays!), but we got a chance to really go over the short films we’re about to make and the full length feature that we are collaborating on, we also decided that when my book makes the New York Times Bestseller List and the men make their big pictures we are going to purchase a condo in Dockside, this really REALLY beautiful condo high-rise next to the Harbor. I read an interview and home display in Charleston Magazine about one of the condos that a family purchased and renovated and have been obsessed with the building. But since our families are in the area we want to own a unit there as our vacation home, so we dreamed and planned how awesome its going to be as well. ALWAYS fun! Haha. We also lost my car too, lots of people parked in a community field type area after we parked in the front and we spent like 45 minutes looking for my little bubble, it was a great adventure! I forgot my tripod so the long exposures are a bit shaky but I enjoy how they turned out. These were shot with my old Canon Rebel XT, she’s a beat up little thing, long past her prime, but she was a trooper and they photos are still lovely! Enjoy!



such handsome fellows.


he makes that face pretty much all the time :D


sexy beast!


courtesy of the Mr, who shot through a plasic bag and got really cool light effects, damn his superior talent!


Dockside is the tall building on the left, we picked out our unit and it turns out it’s for sale, just a wee bit out of our price range though… but one day, it shall be ours! And the bar in the building next to it is lovely!

411 Aye, the sun was on our shoulders.

wanted to share a few of the images from this weekend! we live about three minutes from isle of palms, south carolina, one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. turns out, in addition to being a fantastic beach, the community there is really awesome. it reminds me of spending summers in avon on hattaras island, north carolina with my beautiful bestest amanda. i’m still getting used the the fact that it is BLAZINGLY hot here, but it was a fantastic weekend. enjoy!

402 before we pass the blood…

… i couldn’t finish up the vampire line before making sure to include these two pieces. (need i say proceed with caution, these trailers are a tad graphic)

first, everyones favorite storyteller Guillermo del Toro is taking a stab (no pun intended) at the vampire story. if you’re as hip as some of us are and caught his interview in last months issue of wired you’ll know he’s intending to take a decidedly del toro spin on what he views everyone’s favorite monster to be, not quite for the twilight crowd but unbelievably awesome all the same.


and this jewel is going to be mindblowing. a different take on the legend and a decidedly interesting look at how humans and vampires would see each other in a world overrun by the former. i love the concept and this is one i’ve been geekily following though production. from the way its shot to the plot, this one is really supposed to be a (dare we say) breath taking film. plus willem defoe can point a cross bow at me anytime he wants to.

any trailer that integrates a placebo song so beautifully has my vote.

397 addicted.

oh man, i cant get over the true blood opening sequence. dirty and slick, plus, no one can do bad things like jace everett can.

oh, and just for the record, i was addicted to vampires long before they were popular. anne rice and her dark and dirty tomes have been a staple since middle school. just sayin.

393 and… another one bites the dust.

’tis official, i’ve actually killed my camera… again. that’s the third 20d in four years. i’m thinking i need a new bag. haha. i hate that i’m so tough on my equipment, but when one starts out as a sports and nature photographer you get used to shifting lenses on the fly and whatnot. i’m eying the 5d since i’ve been doing more film work recently, but i’m thinking we’ll wait on the advance from the publisher to make a go for that one. hahaha.

the good news is, though, that i’ve been working on the folio website alot and have picked up several new writing gigs and whatnot, so i’m finally feeling a bit more on my feet. since the wedding in august and moving and such i’ve had to really downshift in the workload, and i’m not familiar with charleston in terms of networking quite yet, so i’m glad things are slowly picking back up. i’m at my best when i’ve got lots in the way of design and photo work. contract shooting is great fun and i’ve had the privilege of working with some really amazing photographers in the area, and since i’m a nerd and love to learn by watching, it’s been fantastic to have some really honest and amazingly talented people to ask me along to shoots as their second. i just wish i could post the photos haha. although, i must say, i’ve not enjoyed a job like Apple in quite some time, the people i’m working with are fantastic! the novel is also on the way as well, i’m going through the second stage of rewrites and hope to get it sent off by early fall, for some reason this one has been a real doosey, but, hopefully, it will pay off in the end, i don’t quite remember the last one being so difficult.

so, indeed. i’ve been having a go with one of the ole’ point and shoots and came up with a self portrait to leave you with. a new camera should be on the way in a few weeks, so till there i’ll be enjoying the twin lens and finish working on the short film projects we’re working on. i know selfies tread the fine line but it came out quite nicely, no?

378 Less is more and a few updates.

“The beat of my heart has grown deeper, more active, and yet more peaceful, and it is as if I were all the time storing up inner riches…My [life] is one long sequence of inner miracles.” – Etty Hillesum, from  a Nazi transit camp in 1943, on her way to her death at Auschwitz two months later.

i was browsing around today after a hellish (but utterly fantastic) two days of training, inventories and photo/design/writing deadlines and came across a really lovely article. i’m a great fan of really beautiful and insightful journalism, well, because i hope that those words would be chosen to describe my writing. the world as of late has been forced to find new solutions to the problems related to the economy and we’re having a (much needed) paradigm shift in our collective minds about the things we have. financial woes are a horrible problem that has really touched everyone’s life, whether they are willing (and mature) enough to admit it or not. in the midst of so much turmoil it is easy to get caught up in what we don’t have and forget to look around us and see what we do have. we’re now being forced to find other ways to entertain and support ourselves. no more needless shopping sprees or blowout weddings and vacations.

to be honest i’m really quite happy with this. i didn’t come from a opulent background. my family is proudly blue collar, God fearing and farm owning. i loved my childhood. i grew up in a lovely house set in a beautiful patch of land that played the stage for many MANY adventures. my mother and father made my brothers and i their priority and thus were right there cheering us on at every soccer match, softball game and artistic endeavor that we participated in and even though we didn’t have money to blow on long vacations and designer clothes we spent alot of time together. i’m sure their were financial strains on us, but mom and dad never let us know, they both value hard work and never denied us opportunities because of lack of funds, they made it happen. looking back i can see so much more clearly the sacrifices they made for us, the long days and overtime they pulled to make sure we could go to every camp and game and class that we wanted to. what i can most appreciate now, having spent the last several years working in the high end retail and art industry, is that they never let us blow our money on needless things like clothes that are trendy now and throw away the next month or big ticket accessories that we would have used once or twice and never thought of again. instead they encouraged us to invest in good things, and when we all put our own money into our cars and nights out with our friends, we learned to appreciate the value of the money we spent.

with times being so tough, we’re all having to recognize some of the pitfalls we’ve created for ourselves, namely the emphasis we’ve placed on “things” and wealth. we’ve spent so much of our time trying to make more and more and more that we’ve ceased to stop and see that more and more just leads to emptiness, disillusionment and the neglecting of our personal relationships with the people we love. now we are somewhat forcibly having to refocus ourselves, ultimately, i feel, something that is working to our advantage. like everyone else i’m guilty of getting caught up in the wealth game, especially since rob and i are making plans to strike out on our own away from our families on the west coast. we’ve had to learn to prioritize our needs and wants and understand that a move isn’t going to happen overnight, it’s going to take time, saving, and soul searching. honestly, it’s caused some pretty ugly arguments, but it’s also helping us to learn, and how can that be a bad thing? we’re learning more about ourselves and each other as we discuss the things we want for our future and we’re learning to trust each other and have faith that our dreams and ambitions will come to fullness when the time (and we ourselves) are right.

i was browsing along on the new york times and came across this piece and found myself really humbled and inspired. it’s a very human piece about the joy of having less and focusing on what is important. i really encourage everyone to take a few minutes to head over and read it here. i’m confident that it will help bring a little inspiration to your day, and hopefully, spark some soul searching, which we all have a bad habit of neglecting.

so friends, enjoy the article, as always, thank you so much for letting me share my thoughts with you and feel free to leave thoughts of your own here as well. it’s my desire that this blog will be a conversation between you and i and that you will let me have the privilege of learning more about you and your thoughts while you read and learn about me. there is much coming soon, i’m really excited for things that are going on right now and i’m really excited to share them with you. i’ve got several new shoots soon, lots of design to share (i’m horrible at not blogging projects as they come and go, but i’ll not forget to share from now on!) and some really wonderful projects that are being geared up for. so take a quick sec and subscribe to the rss and check back often for more!

have a beautiful day beautiful readers, grace and peace be with you.

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