Christmas cards for wounded warriors.

A friend of mine posted this link on her FB page. As a mother of a US Marine, I am especially touched by the idea of doing this so: 


When filling out your Christmas cards this year, take one card and send it to this address: 
A Recovering American Soldier, c/o Walter Reed Army 
Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20307-5001. 


Please pass this on. These wonderful people have sacrificed so much. 

Busy, Busy, Busy

Whew, been a busy few weeks, getting things organized, photographing homes. I had the fantastic opportunity to visit my old "neighborhood" and do some work for the most wonderful Kris Cawley, broker for Harry Norman Realtors, Mcdonough. Hopefully, there will be many more to come.

Crystal Lakes:

Love to do twilight shots!

Elegant two story foyer and winding staircase.

Alexander Lake

Gorgeous wooded lot

Extensive moss path to lower property

Lake view from edge of property

The Madison Produce Company

The weather is just fabulous this time of year. So much fun to get out and take walks. I thought I would add a photo of the green grocer on the square-the Madison Produce Company. It's really a colorful little shop, there's also a co-op option where you pay a fee and get a box of locally grown produce every week - how cool is that?

Courthouse

Another taste of Madison for you. Our courthouse, it's an older building that had a multi-million dollar renovation. It's right on the square in downtown Madison. The reno really came out well, don't you think?

Don't forget to Vote

Just got back from casting my vote here in my sweet town of Madison where I inadvertently learned a great lesson. When I walked into the polling place I was greeted by a beautiful woman with the sweetest smile. She handed me the form and told me what parts to fill out. Witness the contrast of that experience with the rest of the story. I took my paper over to Lady #2, she briefly greeted me, looked over my paper, asked for my ID, Behind her was a worker looking for her diet Coke in the fridge and was upset because she didn't see it. Lady#3 is talking over her shoulder about the missing soft drink and what soft drink she had, something about a crochet project of someone else's, etc., never once looking at me or acknowledging me in any way as she scanned in my ID and handed me the ballot card. I took my card, cast my ballot, when I turned away from the voting machine - beautiful lady #1 greeted me once more with her beautiful smile and gave me my "I'm a Voter" sticker and wished me a great day. Which lady do you think left me with a positive impression of Madison poll workers? 

What I take away from that experience is to never underestimate the value of a genuine smile, to pay attention to someone who is in front of you and focus on your job, not your co-worker or the latest discussion on anything other than the task at hand.

I have been a poll worker and I know it's a long, boring day that begins very early. So I understand chatting and having friendly conversations amongst yourselves and even the voters that come in you may know personally. But when you have a voter in front of you, it is your job to make eye contact, pay attention to that voter. Greet them with a smile, make them feel glad they came out to vote even if all you say is "Here you go, thank you for coming."

Antique Sweets

Oh my, this place is wonderful. My vision of heaven includes the fragrance of a candy shoppe. Delicious and the cutest displays always.

Autumn in Georgia

Even though UGA lost today, again to Florida, this day was perfect in most every other way. Weather could not be better.

Happy Friday!

Hope everyone had a most marvelous Friday. I don't have a photo to post for you today. I spent the day with my mom in Canton.

My Favorite Orthodontist!

Dr. Paschel and his staff make a great team. The man knows his teeth straightening and has a sweet and very nice staff! He finished up Mason's care a few years ago when we first moved to Madison and I was really blessed by the opportunity to have my "late in life" orthodontics done by him. So if you are looking for a great orthodontist who has a great staff - Look up JEP, as he is called up and tell him Debra sent ya!

Amelia's Dress Shop

We have the cutest little dress shop in town. My fantasy is when I get down to that perfect size 10 is to go in and buy everything I want!

Madison Morgan Cultural Center

Went about town today taking photos of some of my favorite places and some are just interesting places I'll be sharing with you. Today, I'm fulfilling a promise of a few photos of our beautiful cultural center. At one time it was the school for the county; the original auditorium is where all the concerts and plays are performed. I love that Madison is so committed to maintaining these gorgeous structures.

Ellis Paul

Larry and I went to a concert at the Madison/Morgan Cultural Center tonight featuring folk singer Ellis Paul. I am so glad we went, the acoustics in the hall are just perfect, The center has this beautiful Steinway piano, the man simply could not say enough good things about it and our beautiful Cultural Center. A mellow, enjoyable evening.

I'll take photos this week to show you all this treasure we have in Madison. Randall Bramlett is performing next month. I've heard him there before, a concert worth attending and with tickets only $15.00 a real entertainment bargain! Can't wait to show you all the photos.

More Summer Fun

During the summer I attended Georgia School. This is a once yearly school held in the North Ga Mountains and it's a week dedicated to learning an area of photography. I worked with Tri-Coast Photography, Mike Fulton and Cody Clinton with off camera flash.

What I love about photography is the creative things you can do with photographs in Photoshop. I know there are a lot of photographers out there that do not want to touch Photoshop, but essentially it is a digital dark room. Professional labs have always done some sort of touch-up and special effects to photographers photos as well as photographers themselves who had dark rooms.

I will show you two of my favorites from Georgia School and a different special effect(called actions) for each one.


Photo 1:
No Special Effects:

 Edgier Look:

 Photo 2:
No Effects

 w/Special Effects

I have some really cool ones I want to try, one is the "Twilight" effect - Anybody want to be a vampire? Give me a ring and we will set up a model session for you.

Summer Work

This summer I had so much fun working with Brian Quinn and Ed Louden both agents for Coldwell Banker Oconee. With real estate photography I get to do the part of real estate I really enjoyed when I worked as an agent - see inside beautiful homes while doing what I enjoy most now - photography.

Here's a beautiful listing I photographed for Brian Quinn (706-347-2368/mobile) it's MLS #27394

And one I did for Ed Louden (706-818-3125) MLS# 26743

Fresh Beginning!

Wow! I did it. A blog! It was much easier than I thought - thanks Google. I am so excited about this journey I am on and I hope you will continue to come along with me and see me grow! I'll be posting about my photography business and about the town and area I live in. Madison and Georgia's surrounding lake country is so beautiful and I would like for you to get to know my town as well as my business and me.

In 2005, I was blessed with a most wonderful job I loved which brought me back into photography. Alas, that job ended a couple of years ago, but I have built on the experience and have been studying photography for real ever since. I am at the point where I need to build a portfolio so stay tuned for opportunities to pose for me and get free stuff like Facebook images, prints, etc., that I will offer my models. I am very shy about asking people for favors - so if you see something I'm doing and would like to be a model - give me a shout. But don't be surprised if I ask you first - I am learning to be brave, uh, pro-active!

There are so many areas of photography I am interested in, it's giving me major A.D.D.! So I'm going to try out a few things and see where my interest and abilities grow. One area that I have already developed and truly love is real estate photography. So any realtors out there who want to take their listings to a higher, more professional level - let's get together!

Other areas that I am into trying out are:

Portraits for:
Seniors
Families
Children
Let's Pretend - Fairies/Rockstar
Babies and Maternity
Commercial

Stay tuned there is more to come!