Tiffany and Ashley

Greetings internet. Well, I must say I was hoodwinked, bamboozled, conned. By who you ask... Nashville weather of course. Friday brought us a high of 70 degrees and loads of sunshine. So, I called up Ashley and told her that I think we should do their shoot outside since the weather is soooo nice and she happily agreed. OK, so Saturday morning rolls around and we are sitting chilly at about 45 degrees. Thanks weather, for nothing.
But enough of that evil mistress, weather. Let's talk about the shoot. Tiffany and Ashley are best-friends ("brothers-from-another-mother-except-girls" type of vibe going on). These were some high energy girls and loads of fun to work with. We did this shoot in downtown Lakewood. I had to keep reminding them to think warm thoughts because it was so freaking cold outside. But they were troopers about the whole thing and as a result they have some awesome pictures they can cherish FOR-EV-ER (a la 'The Sandlot').

The Lewis Family

I met with the Lewis Family this weekend out at Opryland Hotel to take some family portraits for them. What ended up happening was that we were able to create some awesome, memorable pictures. This family was great to work with and we had a fun time trekking around looking for cool spots for these pictures. Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot. Hope y'all like them, and please let me know what you think.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Hope y'all enjoy this time with your families and remember that we all have so much to be thankful for. I myself can't wait for a big slice of pumpkin pie and some honey-baked ham!
And be sure to check back next week for some new pictures. I will working with Becca and her family out at Opryland Hotel to capture some cool images. It should be a fun time!

Michael's Senior Pics

Alright, so Michael is a senior this year at Mount Juliet High. I wanted to do something cool but classic with his senior pictures. So when I was leaving my dentist the other day I see this cool brick wall and thought "hey that would be a great place to take some pictures." So sure enough, we went there for our shoot. Once we started exploring we found some really cool spots. And best of all these are all in downtown Lakewood...literally within walking distance from my house. Anyways, enough of my ramblings. Check out these pics of Michael!

NCG Images now on Twitter

Hey guys,
Just got my twitter up and going today. Pretty cool stuff. I can update from my phone, so expect to hear lots more from me in the future!
You can follow me at http://twitter.com/ncgimages.

Updates coming soon- I promise =)

Sorry for not posting in so long... Things have been a little crazy at work with year-end and everything. But stay tuned for some new posts in the next couple of days.

Happy Birthday Google!

Google turns 10 today! For their birthday they want to help change the world. Check it out here.

Tip Time: Setting a Custom White Balance

One of the keys to getting a great picture is choosing the right white balance. Choose the right one and your colors appear vivid and make the picture pop. But choose the wrong white balance and your pictures look just downright weird. Blues take on a green tint, your skin becomes orangey, not very flattering at all.
Most modern cameras come with a few preset white balance options (i.e. cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent) that you can choose from depending on your lighting situation. But often these presets are not adequate and will require you to have to do some post-processing work to correct the colors. So in these situations, you need to know how to make your own white balance.
Now you could go and buy a $150 white balance tool called the expoDisc. Or you could go down to your local fast food chain and pick up a free fountain drink lid. Yep, you read that right. Try and find you a large, white opaque lid. Most fountain drinks use these type lids, so do most coffee cups.
So now that you have your drink lid, we can set our custom white balance. Grab your lid and your camera. Set your camera to Manual Focus. Now hold the lid about 6 inches away from your lens. It should look like a gray blur thru your viewfinder. Get your exposure set how you want and snap a picture. Check to make sure this image will work by checking the histogram by pressing the info button while viewing the image (for Canon users). It should be a giant hill somewhere around the 18% mark. Now go into your menu and choose 'Custom WB'. It will ask you to choose an image, choose the one we just made. Now go into your White Balance options where you can choose from the presets or a custom and choose the custom white balance.
There you go. Simple and painless and if done right will save you time in post-processing work.
That's it for now. Check back later for more tips.

LaCheka

LaCheka is an up-and-coming plus model. She asked me to help her get some fresh new pics for her portfolio. We had a blast during this shoot. Here are just a few samples from the day. Hope you enjoy them!!

Welcome to NCG Images

Hey!! Well, with the recent launch of my new website, I decided that I wanted a way to keep you guys up to date with what was going on. A blog seemed like the perfect way to get this done, so here we are. Make sure to stop by every now and then. I hope to be able to update weekly or even more often.
Thanks for stopping by (stay classy).