I had the interesting experience of visiting a pumpkin patch yesterday for a birthday party where Sonia, Eva, and David were invited. Much to my surprise, about a third of the families that were there were caring digital SLRs, mostly D40s and Canon Rebels, but I did see a guy with a 5D (probably Mark II) and a bulky battery grip that almost made me think it was a 3Ds or something similar. I chose to carry only my 50mm f/1.8 lens, although I had the rest of my equipment in the car as well. In any case... I felt quite awkward among the multitude of expensive cameras... it's very strange to see all these people walking around with what used to be "professional cameras".

This photo was taken right before we left. The light balance and colors were simply magical, so I snapped a couple of shots of my hyper-three-year-old daughter who had just discovered that there was another exit in the hay labyrinth :).

You can see the very similar original file here. Other than a couple of local curve & sharpening adjustments, the two versions are pretty much identical. I did spent quite a bit of time working on the color balance on the face, but that's about it.

On a different note, I am very glad to have the time to post today's photo... not because I haven't taken any photos, but simply because our lives have taken a completely different turn over the last few months. Back in May I was very certain that I was going to get my doctorate in Piano Performance at some fancy university up North. At that time Laura was pregnant still with David, and our business was running quite nicely, with about 10 weddings over the summer. Well, in July I met with a friend of mine who told me that offices were relatively cheap downtown Murfreesboro, and that he was thinking about renting one. That thought inevitably made me look for "For Lease" signs, which weren't very many in any good locations. We did find one, which we visited, but decided it was way too expensive and poor location for what we needed.

Just as we were driving home from one of the streets downtown Murfreesboro, we noticed a "For Lease" sign on Main Street, right across Bank of America, and close to the most popular restaurant in town. Long story short, we met with the landlord, rented the place, and started taking apart a 100 year old office (which by the way, was one of Al Gore's first offices). I had never worked anything in construction due to my "fragile" piano hands... so when I picked up a 10 pound hammer to completely demolish our studio in order to make it look like I envisioned it. That happened at the beginning of July... and four months later we are ordering prints, books, and our very first Made in Murfreesboro window sign.

For those who don't know what Made in Murfreesboro is, it is our photography studio & gallery, where we do lots and lots of weddings, portraits, sell prints from The Obvious, and also teach digital photography classes. We started it in our home, mostly online, without knowing anything about running a business and what it meant, and here we are one year later opening the doors to our very own photography studio on Murfreesboro's busiest and most popular street.

I am writing all this not only to thank those of you who have encouraged me to pursue photography, but to also encourage those of you who are just now getting started, or dreaming about opening your own studio. And if you are a photographer, more than likely you have a dream. It's simple: if you love what you do, you will get better at it. Once you get better, people will start paying you. And once people start paying you enough, you get to choose what you want to do, whether it is weddings, editorial, fine art, or advertising photography.

Our dream started last August - we wrote everything down, read a bunch of books, asked hundreds of annoying questions, paid everything out of pocket, and prayed consistently for God's guidance, which we got abundantly. It may not be what most people write nowadays, but in spite of all our planning and dreaming, all these events could not have fallen into place except through God's providence. Yet one more reason for Laura and I to stay humble and be thankful that we don't have to take any credit for our accomplishments.

Titus