A couple favs!

As I sit here today and look back over some of the moments that I have had and been able to shoot I think I am a pretty lucky guy! I have been invited to some pretty cool events. I have been honored to get to shoot some cool things for some awesome kids!

Granted in the last bit I have not shot a lot. Obstacles will always arise if you let them I suppose. I am however trying to ease back into getting to put some shots in the books and see what happens. I have traded out some of my old gear for some new. Gotten rid of some heavy stuff for more practical gear. So lets see where we go from here!

I love music especially live stuff. You really can't beat it. So I am going to give  you one of my favs from a while back a long with a new photo from very recent.

It is hard to believe that it is already prom time again but its true! I was very fortunate to have some pretty cool kids to photograph this year! Its always fun and sorta takes you back a bit to a earlier time in life. As it goes I also found a nice place to get some pretty cool photo's so with out further delay here is a sample from this years shoot. If you like it more can be found at http://www.xcellentphotography.com/Clients/Events

Allready a new year?!?!?!?

Wow it is already February in the year 2013. Man am I behind. Seems like only yesterday it was last summer. Where does the time go? So with this new year I am planning some changes in the way I shoot, when I shoot, and what I post. The post part is what is to be talked about here I suppose. I am going to attempt to post at least once a week. Some with photo's some with out. So lets get started. I had the opportunity to take some photo's for the Clear Creek Middle Schools basket ball teams recently. The kids were all great to work with and a lot of fun. It is always inspiring to be around a group of happy fun loving kids!

Prom season has now come and gone. I really had a good time this year with some of my prom photos. It was a chance to be creative pump out some new stuff and see if we could make some folks happy. In the end I think we achieved our goals! Here is a sample from this years pics. Hope you enjoy more can be found on the main site at www.xcellentphotography.com!

This couple was really fun to work with and very open to all the ideals that I proposed! They both have great personalities and wonderful smiles which they share often!

Last year I had the honor & luck (right place at the right time) to photography one of history's great musicians. Who was it? None other than Mr. Charlie Daniels & the Charlie Daniels Band! Okay so I was actually there photographing Dallas with is a very cool up and coming band who opened for CDB! I have to say for a man that who has preformed in all the places and for all the people that Mr. Daniels has he was a very gracious man. He was very willing to speak with us back stage say hello and pose for pics with guys from Dallas. As for the Charlie Daniels Band each member was very approachable what an awesome bunch of guys. THANK YOU all for the experience.

50 Years!!!

I recently had the honor of photographing a 50th anniversary celebration for some very dear friends of our family. Its one of those times you really enjoy just being there in the first place. Surrounded by such positive people. Your also doing something for there family that will let them remember this wonderful event forever. They will always be able to look back on the occasion and remember what a happy day they shared.

Speaking of happy, for a photographer there is nothing better than getting to capture people that truly love life, love their friends and family. People that are just plain happy! Well this couple is that couple. You can see it in their faces, in their actions and all that they do. I was truly blessed to be able to take part in the celebration! Thank you for letting me share in your 50th anniversary!!!

Cold day on the Appalachian Trail.

I got the opportunity to do some really cool
hiking this last weekend.... Well maybe that should say really cold hiking. Either way I had a ball doing it!

You know how you have those ideals in your head that you would really like to get a shot of this or be able to take that photo? Well this was my chance. I love walking along the Appalachian trail and have often thought that it would be cool to get photos of several different places a long the trail if it were covered in snow. So when the snow hit my mind was churning. I probably had smoke coming out of my ears. One of the main places I wanted to visit was the Hawks Ridge shelter on the AT. So I packed up my FStop bag and headed off.

This would be one of those days that you really would never expect to see any one else on the trail but as luck would have it I ran it to the owner of our local outfitter store (really great people) and a young gentlemen that was hiking along with him who were departing for a 6 day loop. My hats off to them I am not sure if I would have started this trip or not. It was 16 degrees when they departed with lows in the single digits later in the night and next morning. I got a couple good shots of them heading out from Three Forks.

Now it was time to head on out to my destination. I wanted to get a shot of the Hawks Ridge shelter all covered in snow. The photo above is of me heading back to the truck after making it to my destination to take the following shot. In all just being out on the trail was worth the effort but actually getting the shot I wanted was very cool. You can't ask for much more than that!

Finally a bag I can live with!!

Ok over the last several years I have been through to many bags to count. It always ends the same way. While liking several aspects of a bag i find that there is more that I don't like than I do. Maybe its just me maybe I am to picky? I don't think so!!! After all have you purchased a camera bag lately? For what we are paying for a bag today you should be able to be happy with it. Well now I am.

So after that rant I want to say that I have found a bag I love. Yes you heard me correctly that I love! I was introduced to this company by Richard Bernabe who is a awesome photographer but more than that he is always in the outdoors shooting. If it works for him there has to be something to it was my hunch. Well I was correct F-Stop makes a great system. The first one that I purchased was the Loka. It is a mid sized bag that offers 3 different ICU bags that you put in the shell for different configurations. I find it to be a very versatile bag I can fit it to the many different situations that I work in.

To make the deal even sweater this company offers a program that they call friends with benefits that in my mind was a no-brainer. Instead of going through all the details here is a link to the site where you can read all about it F-Stop friends.

Bending Rules

I know it is a bit cliche but sometimes you really do have to get out of the box. Bend the rules, go past your own comfort level. Once there you never know what you may come up with. Like the photo above all set up took the photo's on a tripod got ever thing just how I wanted and there another water fall photo. Then just for kicks and grins I thought with all the color lets twist the zoom and take the photo.

I really like this image it looks like we just hit warp speed on the enterprise! It was taken at Noontootla Creek falls. We were going to see Long Creek falls and got turned around by a couple of Army Rangers who informed us that they were doing some exercises in the area and needed to hold traffic off for a few minutes so we went back to this local and I am glad we did!

Here is my Bio for the Show that is opening this week at the Bowen Center for the Arts in Dawsonville, Georgia. I would like to thank Jennifer Julian for all of her hard work. With out it this show would have not been possible.

Bryan Elliott has been a photographer since 2007, when he took his first nature photograph. He has studied with Richard Bernabe at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, and is presently enrolled in the Photography Certificate Program at North Georgia College & State University where he is scheduled to graduate this May. Mr. Elliott enjoys photographing events and has volunteered his time to several Appalachian Community Bank Holiday Celebrations and to various Eagle Scout ceremonies. Elliott’s traditional landscape work has evolved into more a painterly and dreamy landscape world. “This work”, he says, “might be what you’d see if you ever looked at your day to day travels from a different perspective. I enjoy finding a different view of things.”

Shooting Live Concert.

I had an opportunity to shoot a live show this past Sunday night. It was a lot of fun several of the groups that preformed were really quite good. I was really impressed with the group that I was there to shoot. Come to find out this was there first time preforming together and they really did great!

Problem is for shooting in this situation lighting is awful. Not just bad but really bad and the subjects are moving sometimes at a fast pace. Then you get the red stage lights and that makes for an interesting tint on the photos.

In the image above is Anthony Baxter to hear some of his music click here.

For more photos from this show click here

Top Two Tips for holiday photo's.

Everyone wants to make better photo's of their family and friends during this time of year. So here is my short list for how to do just that.

1. Get closer to the person your taking the photo of. It is after all Christmas our homes are full of decorations and such that are often very colorful and in a photo can be very distracting. So make sure that if your photo is of little Johnny opening his present that your photo is of little Johnny and not the Christmas tree with little Johnny sitting in front of it out of focus because the tree was the main area of focus. Getting closer can also help prevent that odd object extruding from someones head. You don't want to have a flower or candle growing from Grammy's head.

2. Get down on your subjects level. Little Abbie has a cute smile but you would never know that looking at a photo of the top of her head. Get down their with them (in a lot of cases this will get you closer too)then your picture will include that great little smile.

Fine Art Photography

I am very excited about an upcoming fine art show to be held at the Bowen Center for the Arts in Dawsonville, Georgia. I will have three photo's in the show from my Journey series. These are photographs of how ones trip home may appear when viewed from a slightly different angle. The complete series can be found here.

The curator for the show will be Jennifer Julian. Jennifer Julian received a B.A. from Auburn University in 1986, but it was not until studying at the Art Institute of Atlanta that she became serious about her life as an artist. Her first break came in 1999 when Fay Gold Gallery of Atlanta showed her work at the prestigious Association of International Photography Art Dealers in New York City. For more on Jennifer please visit her website linked above.

The Bowen Center for the Arts is located at 334 Highway 9 North Dawsonville, Georgia, 30534. The show dates are as follows.

Show Dates: February 3 to March 12

Reception: Saturday, February 5

Curator’s & Artist’s Talk: Sunday, February 28, 2-4pm

Cool Experience!

I had the opportunity to go shooting with Richard Bernabe, dude was super cool. He is very knowledgeable of the Great Smokey Mountains, all the photo opps there, and photography in general! He is very willing to share his knowledge and he has a lot to share. I would defiantly go on another trip with Richard.

On the weekend we were shooting day one was perfect couldn't ask for a better day. Day two on the other hand was packed slap full of rain. Even with all the rain we still managed to get some great shots. With so much water in the creeks the falls we visited were really running strong.
While out we visited the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Above is one of my favorite shots from the trip, it was taken in the Little Santeelah Creek. I have to tell you that was some mighty cold water though! While on the creek we found several spots that made for some cool shots.

Wondering though the forest there you find your self in awe of the huge Poplar trees. They are several of these trees that it would take more than 5 guys to reach all the way around! It is a site worth seeing.

Interesting angles.

Photos taken from eye level almost never look as interesting as the ones from the lower or higher vantage point.

Shooting from above accentuates head, shoulders and chest; shooting from below - legs and hips.

So here it is.....

This has been one of the worst weeks that I have had in a long time. You go pick them out then bring them home. Love them teach them all sorts of things. They become a part of the family. So to get to the point of it all my friend, my pal, my puppy got killed this week. I don't really know how to deal with it. How are you supposed to deal with it? At this point I don't know.

Magazines to the Rescue!

Friday evening in oh so very cool way I hurt my back. For most of my life I have been in fairly good shape riding mountain bikes of late and any activity I could find during my younger years. I have been fairly lucky never to have fallen to serious injury. Well if you have never had back issues let me be the first to tell you so count your blessings. It SUCKS BAD!

The good thing is that I just got some new magazines in mail so I had some good reading material on hand and since I wasn't going out I actually read them. They usually lay around the house for me to pick up once an a while and glance through. I now know why I subscribe to them. These things are very informative. I learned a lot of cool tricks this weekend. So that layers mag that I buy is really worth the money. WOO HOO!

WooHoo!

New blog here!!!! This is exciting. What do I do now?