Chris Fowler Photography

Went downtown for a second night to catch the boat parade and fireworks.  Special thanks to Kelley, Sara and her dad for allowing us to come out and hang with their party at the Hyatt.  We had a great spot for viewing all the action.  Here are a few pictures from the night events, hope you enjoy!

Went downtown tonight for the lighting of the Christmas tree at the Jacksonville Landing.  I wanted to try out the Canon 16-35L series lens that I rented for a couple of weeks and test it out.  I actually wasn’t at the landing, but across the river at the Friendship Fountain (avoided the big crowds).  Here are a fews pics of downtown and the fireworks.    I will post more pictures from Saturday night, as I will be going back downtown for the boat parade and more fireworks!

A few pictures from my trip to Animal Kingdom from earlier this year.  I had a good time, but overall was just not impressed and like the rest of the Disney Parks, it’s WAY over priced.  Guess I was just expecting to much, figured it would have more animals and better exhibits, but ended up being pretty disappointed, unfortunately.  Only good thing to see here were the Tigers and the Meerkats.   Anyway, managed to get a few good photos, hope you enjoy!

Pictures from a recent trip down to the St. Augustine Lighthouse. As you can see the weather was absolutely perfect! Had a great time, although the steps to the top was a workout.

My Buddies house all decked out for Halloween and the big party. House looks awesome, can’t wait for the party, should be a good time, always is!

A good friend of mine got married and I wanted to share those photos with you. It was a beautiful wedding, a memory that will last a lifetime.

I have been trying for weeks to get up early and catch the sunrise at the beach, but I am just not a morning person. But today was a different day, I didn’t sleep any the night before and after falling a sleep about 3am I woke up five minutes before my alarm was about to go off at 5:30am. Strangely, I felt good and wanted to get up and venture out to catch the sunrise.

So after getting setup on the beach with my tripod I started to take some pictures and play with long exposures with a high aperture. After about half hour and 100 shots later, I realized that my “IS” was still turned on, so all the pictures I just took, were all throw aways! But I still had a few minutes left before the sun came up and managed to get a few good shots in.

Here it is, after trying for weeks to get up and get out to take some pictures of the sunrise, I screw up the settings on the lens and am not able to get the pictures I was hoping to get. Oh well, it was still a beautiful sunrise and I learned yet another valuable lesson in photography “Be Prepared”!

Pictures from Brian and Summer’s wedding on September 19, 2009 at the Comfort Inn Oceanfront, Jacksonville Beach, Fl.

A couple of my good friends got married this past weekend and wanted to share a few photos from their special day!

Congratulations Brian and Summer!

Since I am now starting to look at portrait photography, I asked my niece if she would graciously model for me while I took a few shots. Before I get started with this blog post, I want to give a quick shout out to my friend Joe for allowing me to borrow his Speedlite 430EX for the shoot, which I then broke, but more on that a little bit later.

So I picked my niece up in Orange Park and we went to my Townhome community and walked around and got a few shots at night, it was dark, so really the flash was my only light source. Since I am new with the lightning it was all kind of scary at first, but I think they pictures turned out pretty good for my first shoot.

Here are some photos taken on Friday night:

The following two pictures are the ones I think that turned out the best from the entire night.

So that was it from the first night of pictures with Jessica. A special thanks to Jessica for enduring the wet props all night while I got to play with my camera and all of it’s settings!

On saturday we got up fairly early to take some more photos and I thought it would be cool to go down to Treaty Oak Park downtown. For those of you who dont know about this park, its pretty cool, not much there but one humogous tree that almost takes up a city block. Lot of great photo opportunites here in and around the tree and of course there is a ton of shade.

So I got Jessica climbing up and down the trees so I could take some photos and get some experience using a fill flash to help with the lighting. Once again photos turned out pretty good, I do have the white balance a little off on a couple of these and there is a strange tint of red on her face, but other than that, I was pretty pleased with my first attempt at doing portrait photography.

Here are some photos from Saturday:

So on to the bad news, I was hoping to get to shoot alot on Saturday with the Speedlite 430EX, but during the morning session the flash bulb burned out. So now I feel horrible, Joe let me borrow his flash and I used up the last bit of what was left of the bulb. But all is well, Joe got a part number and ordered the bulb directly from Canon so we will probably try and replace it this weekend.  Sorry Joe! 

All in all, it was a good weekend of shooting, I am pleased with the progress and things that I learned, but of course the more I learn, the more I learn that I don’t know!  But I am having tons of fun learning and looking to get better with each shoot I do.

Til next time!

Chris

Jacksonville, Fl. - Main St. Bridge at Sunset

I am just now finishing up the final touches and installation of my brand new blog where I will share my adventures and photography with family, friends and all of you!