Although I don’t offer wedding photography as a service, I had to share this image I made last week.  My cousin, who recently got married in Athens, Georgia, wanted an image wearing her wedding gown on the beach.  After some begging and pleading I obliged, and this is the outcome.  The moon was at the perfect height and an off camera flash provided the perfect light source.  The veil was held down by two cousins and released as the image was taken.  Something different!

The next morning we took off early in the morning and started the drive towards Roanoke.  The view along the road was gorgeous, especially when we got up into the mountains.  By late afternoon we arrived in Roanoke and found our way to the Hotel Roanoke right in downtown.

Once in Roanoke we got a chance to explore the downtown area.  Marisha and I had a wonderful breakfast at Tudor’s Biscuit World and then we walked through the farmer’s market and enjoyed the architecture in the area.  Of particular interest was the Taubman Museum of Art with it’s contemporary architecture designed by Randall Stout.

If you’d like to see more, please visit my Flickr Page.

It’s now official, my website has been officially upgraded from version 2.0 to version 3.0.  The entire site has been built from the ground up to work with the WordPress platform making it easier to update and maintain. Also, new work has been added to better show my skills and the level of work a client should expect.  Be sure to check out the latest news where I’ll be keeping posts about all the latest projects I’ve been working on.

Kira, originally uploaded by Tom Smalling Photography & Design.

This weekend I played good husband for the wife and helped her friend Kira with some portraits to build her professional portfolio. Kira has a wonderful personality and is very warm and friendly, and if things go well you’ll see her at the next conference helping companies sell their products. Also, I have to give thanks to Jason Frazier who loaned me one of his flash units. If you’d like to see more from the photoshoot, please check out my Flickr page.

Thunderstorm, originally uploaded by Tom Smalling Photography & Design.

Check out the photo from my backyard as the storms approached last night. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad at the house, but the news cut all the programming to track the storm as it moved across Central Florida.

Wow…  That was one impressive lightning storm we had last night.  Everywhere you looked, there was lightning flying through the sky.  What better time to grab a metal tripod, open the garage and sit with a camera – and a beer.  Shame the batteries were almost dead when I started, I could have made an entire series right outside the garage.

It was a picture perfect launch last night. Marisha and I were considering driving towards the coast, but knew the traffic coming home would be a nightmare. We finally decided to stay home, enjoy a yummy Publix sub for dinner and watch the launch.

March 15, Space Shuttle Discovery Launch from Kissimmee, originally uploaded by Tom Smalling Photography & Design.

It’s been a busy week!   I wish I could have gotten to these pictures sooner, but I couldn’t find the time.  Anyways, Marisha and I had a wonderful time at Gatorland last weekend.  The weather was beautiful and we loved watching all the reptiles.  It’s amazing how close you can get to the animals along the boardwalk.  Just look down & there’s a six/eight foot alligator just watching you walk by.   I’ve gone ahead an upload a dew shots to my Flickr page, so be sure to take a look.

You have to love winter in Central Florida.  Just three days ago we had overnight lows in the high 20′s and today we’re out canoeing on the Wekiva River.  It was a beautiful day on the river, highs in the mid 70′s with a nice breeze off the water.   Below is one of my favorite shots, and there are a few more on my Flickr page.