Here’s Rama Dhuwaraha, Chief Information Officer at LFUCG.  He wanted something dramatic for this shot, so I tried to make good use of the perspective and architectural elements.

You know, this job has its perks.  Like the day I went to photograph Tricia Clemons at BabyCakes.  She sent home with me a couple of cupcakes, strawberry and cookie dough.  Katie was quite glad to see me walking in after work with that little pink box.  Side note?  Tricia is awesome to be around.  It’s no wonder that people flock to her for real honest-to-God homemade cupcakes.  You can check out her site HERE.

Matt and Wes at Lift Fitness & Wellness

This has to be hands-down, one of my fave images so far this year.  I was at Al’s Bar during Geeks Night Out, shooting the cover image for an upcoming issue of BG Magazine.  When we were done shooting, I suggested to them that, just for fun, we should do this shot.  I don’t think it will make the cover, but I think it’s pretty dang awesome. 

I met Hanna at a photography workshop.  She’s a GREAT photographer who hasn’t been in the area long, but who is making quite an impact already.  You can check out her work HERE.  Hanna and her husband Dustin picked me as their realtor during the winter.  They’re my kind of people.  We had a lot of fun through the process, and they are now proud owners of their first house, a super-cute craftsmen style home in old south Lexington.

I brought my camera to their new house.  Hanna busted out a dance move.  Dustin did not.  I love them.

UK’s PR department asked me to come out and document in my own style the events surrounding the record-breaking live broadcast of ESPN’s College GameDay.  I knew it was going to be a cool gig, but I had no idea what I was in for. 

Completely ovewhelming.  Electric.  For 4 hours, I raced around trying my best to capture the spirit of the events.  I hope you’ll love looking at these images, but trust me—You just had to be there.  Thanks, Kelley B!

When Coach Cal talks, everybody listens.  Love that guy!

Awhhh, yeah!  Who’s that guy?!  Thanks to Paul Hooper for grabbing this crazy shot of me.

Could I ask a HUGE favor from each of you?  Here in a few weeks, I’ll be hanging some HUGE prints (6′x4′?) inside of Simply Love Studio’s new space downtown Lexington (at the corner of Main and Broadway).  My problem?  I have NO CLUE which three images I want to print.  Would you mind watching this Best of 2009 slideshow and pick out your favorite one or two images?  When people walk into Simply Love for their one-stop-shop wedding planning, I reeeeally want to make a good impression and I’m hoping that you can help me pick images that will resonate quickly and powerfully with folks.  Beyond just being pretty, I think it’s important that the images embody my style as a photographer—warm, clean, real, timeless, emotional, human images.

When the slideshow is finished, you can browse through the gallery and jot down the number.  Leave your favorites in the comment section below, or feel free to hit me up directly by email, facebook or whatever.  Thank you!  I really appreciate any help that you can give.  Bye!

Trying to still carve out time for Katie and Carson during the day, I would work through the night on more occasions than I care to admit.  I leaned on caffeine as a way to keep me moving.  Zero exercise.  Poor eating.  With no time left, I rarely visited with my friends.  I still got to spend some time with my parents and brother, but not as much as I would have liked.

During one of my last weddings of the year, I thought for sure I was going to pass out on the dance floor, right there with my camera in my hand. My heart started racing, my head was spinning, and each thud from the speakers was reverberating through me, almost syncopated with my quickening pulse.  Yikes.  That’s when I knew something would have to change—and quickly.

2009 ended with me taking a 1 month break from blogging.  Real estate and photography were pretty much wrapped up for the year.  I slept—a lot.  I reconnected with folks.  I spent a bunch of time at home recouping.  It was during this period of reflection that I made the decision to hire somebody that could help take the edge of things during 2010.

I will always thank my good friend and equally amazing realtor John Rice for telling me about Candi.  They had worked together before in real estate, and he knew that she was also an aspiring photographer.  Could it be?  Someone organized, who also had some real estate and photography background?  After some informal meetings, I quickly came to realize that Candi was a talented go-getter with a super-optimistic personality.  A perfect fit for helping me with my businesses.

In just the first full month of 2010, Candi has helped me to get things organized and she’s been setting up systems that will allow me to just focus on what I love most—being with people.  I’ll be able to focus on my relationships, personal health, and still keep providing rock-solid service in real estate and photography.  I know that 2010 will be a year I’ll look back on as being a game-changer.  It will be the year that I took back ownership of my personal life.

There’s a lot that I’m looking forward to sharing with you all, and I hope that you’ll root me on as I work to find balance in my life.  It’s not easy!

Let me introduce you to Candi Thies (”h” is silent, rhymes with “peace”).  She’s my right hand from here on out.  Thank you, Candi, for all you’ve already done to improve my life and businesses.  Katie and Carson thank you, too!  2010 is going to rock! 

Instead?  I’ve been enjoying the holidays, chilling with Katie and Carson alot more, and getting things ready for 2010.  It’s good to step away occasionally.  Helps put things into perspective. It’s going to be a crazy-good year professionally and personally.  Can’t wait to tell you all about it in the coming days.

Here are a few pics from Katie’s birthday recently. The cake is from our friend and genius cake artist Brandi Romines.  She owns Happy as a Lark Cakes.  There’s a clip at the end with Carson and I singing Happy Birthday to Katie.  Carson has some mad vocals.  Enjoy! 

Last wedding of 2009!  Woohoo!

What a way to cap off the wedding season. Torie’s and Scott’s Frankfort wedding couldn’t have been better. Crestwood Baptist Church and the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History were excellent choices for wedding venues. Late November in Kentucky can be dicey, but it was a clear and reasonably warm day. Even better? Torie and Scott chose to do all of their pictures together prior to the ceremony (love it), so we got to go into downtown Frankfort for some really sweet portraits of them and the wedding party.

To Torie and Scott—Thank you!  I’m so glad you chose me to be your wedding photographer.  It really was a perfect day, and I’m so glad I got to be a part of it.  You rock!

To Billy Ray and Micah—Good seeing you again!  Stay in touch!

Here are just a handful of my favorites:

Big group!

My favorite shot of the day. Cool, right?

So funny.

Betsy Whiteman was my second shooter for this last wedding of 2009.  Check out this cool setup for the ring shot she came up with.  Awesome, eh?

Love this shot.

Before you watch the slideshow, will you all do me a favor?  I love staying in touch with the friends and family of my clients.  Feel free to add me on Facebook and Twitter.  Oh, and you can go HERE to see all of the wedding images once they’re up.  In the meantime, by preregistering, you’ll get a five dollar gift credit toward any prints you purchase.  Cool, right?

Enjoy the slideshow and please leave a comment below if you feel so inclined.  Thanks for stopping by!  Bye! -shaun

I’m not so sure that I should pat myself on the back, though.  It’s not like I’ve had a ton of environmental factors to overcome.  My parents are still married.  I wasn’t abused as a child.  I always had food.  Probably too much…LOL.  Our family’s home was warm and reasonably peaceful, so before arriving at school everyday, I felt energized and ready to learn.  I had tons of positive role-models in my life, instilling in me a sense of self-worth, potential and hard work.

You know what?  As easy as I’ve had it, even still–I’ve been stupid at times, and I’ve foolishly put it all in jeopardy.  Somehow, I’ve managed to turn out okay, despite myself.

What if I didn’t have it so good growing up?  I wonder where I might be now?

It’s for this reason that I feel compelled to give back, and to encourage you all to keep on doing the same.  If I’m being honest?  I’m not very good at it yet.  Still trying to grow in that area.

Pick something that’s meaningful to you, and give in a way that’s best for you.  I don’t have a bunch of money laying around, but I’ve got photography that I can use to help out.

I’m helping out The Lighthouse Ministries of Lexington.  You can read more about them in THIS post of mine from a few months ago.  More recently, I was asked to go meet some of the folks Lighthouse reaches out to.  I talked with them for a bit and several people allowed me the opportunity to photograph them.  They were very excited knowing that the images would be used to show the face of hope Lighthouse works to provide.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Big thanks to Serif Group, too, for donating their time and talent to the Lighthouse Ministries. They’re designing a van wrap (to be donated by AdColor of Lexington) that will feature some of the images I’ve captured while being involved with the Lighthouse.  Check this out:

Pretty fun, right?

Thanks for taking the time to read this!  Last thought?  Feel free to chime in below in the comments section with other organizations in Lexington that you feel passionate about.  Maybe it will inspire us all a bit to see all the varied opportunities to serve available.  Bye, y’all!  -shaun