Essence Photography

A Photographer's Journey
Photography is my passion and my calling. I am inspired by the creativity of others and I hope that my creativity can be an inspiration to you

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  • January 26, 2011 11:42 am

    Jasmine Star! - Bryan/College Station Photography

    Jasmine Star - Bryan/College Station Photographer

    So monday night our local chapter, the BVPPA, hosted Jasmine Star at the Hilton College Station, in the Bluebonnet Ballroom.  For those of you who don’t know Jasmine Star - she is a rockstar!  She is currently one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the world and has only been in business since 2006!  It was a major accomplishment for our ppa chapter to be able to get her to come to College Station, and it was due greatly to David Willis with Leather Craftsmen.  Thanks David for all you did for us that night, we really appreciate it!!  

    Jasmine was great.  She spoke truth that we all needed to hear and spoke very candidly about being successful and standing out.  She talked about being able to take advantage of what makes you different and brand and market your business featuring those assets.  She also spoke about how the photography has changed, both in 2006 when she got started, and how it has changed since then.  The faster the technology changes the faster the industry changes.  Some people look at this as a negative thing, but it is neither a negative or a positive.  It is what it is.  As a business owner, you can either except it and use it to your advantage, or deny it and be left in the dust.

    I am still buzzing from getting to meet and listen to Jasmine and have lots to process and apply to my relatively new business.  This June will make 3 years in business full time as a professional photographer.  I can’t wait to see what the rest of this year holds for Essence Photography!

    Thanks Jasmine for what you do and for coming to College Station TX to talk to us!

  • January 20, 2011 7:53 pm
    Bryan/College Station Photographer - 1st place in Print Competition Hey hope all is well this week and I hope you enjoyed the article I posted in my last blog.  Above is the the image that I submitted to our first local print competition with the BVPPA for 2011.  I won first place!  It is actually cover art that I created for my Dad’s book that he is writing.  The book is called Aaron’s Fire and is based in Texas in the 1860’s.  It deals with a texas ranger, a beautiful native american woman, and the angel pictured on the cover named Scorpa.  The series of books will follow a family lineage from the 1860’s through to present day and beyond.  It will center on how God has set them apart to play a pivotal role in the battle for the souls of America.  It will be awesome and I will link to my dad’s site just as soon as we finish it.  Maybe even tomorrow! View high resolution

    Bryan/College Station Photographer - 1st place in Print Competition

    Hey hope all is well this week and I hope you enjoyed the article I posted in my last blog.  Above is the the image that I submitted to our first local print competition with the BVPPA for 2011.  I won first place!  It is actually cover art that I created for my Dad’s book that he is writing.  The book is called Aaron’s Fire and is based in Texas in the 1860’s.  It deals with a texas ranger, a beautiful native american woman, and the angel pictured on the cover named Scorpa.  The series of books will follow a family lineage from the 1860’s through to present day and beyond.  It will center on how God has set them apart to play a pivotal role in the battle for the souls of America.  It will be awesome and I will link to my dad’s site just as soon as we finish it.  Maybe even tomorrow!

  • January 18, 2011 12:09 pm

    Bryan/College Station Photographer - Article for TPPA

    Hey everybody,  Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I wanted to share an article that I wrote recently for the Texas Professional Photographers Association.  The article is a summary of January’s BVPPA meeting.  I serve as the Director of Publications for the BVPPA and this is one of my monthly duties, as well as design/upkeep on our website, updating our facebook and twitter, and sending out our monthly newsletter!  The group is great and if you are a photographer wanting to meet other pros and share in learning every month, check us out at www.bvppa.com.  Oh I also won 1st place at this month’s print competition, but I will share more about that tomorrow!

    The BVPPA hosted Aric Hoek for our meeting in the month of January.  Aric Hoek, BFA, CPP, Author, spoke about “The marketing and selling of Wedding Photography”.  Aric owns Solaris Studios(solarisstudios.com) located in Houston, TX and has founded a professional photography forum, which can be found at http://prophotobusinessforum.com.  He is the “Photographer of the Year” for 2010 for the Houston guild and is also a dad to two loving 5 year old twins.  Throughout the evening Aric impressed us all with both his information and his passion for the business side of photography.  His talk consisted of ways to skyrocket your website in google searches, as well as, how to quickly get thousands of twitter followers and use twitter effectively in your business.  He informed us about the importance and proper use of a blog, and other social media.  He also spoke to the importance of marketing and how to know exactly if your marketing is working for you.  He entertained us with his story of getting kicked out of “The Louvre” while shooting a couple on their honeymoon and explained to us the importance of using stories in your consultations to capture the imaginations of potential clients.  Overall, it was clear that with 25 years of experience and a no nonsense ability to adapt his marketing to what works, Aric is a true “Professional” photographer and a great mentor to those just starting out in the world of professional photography.

                Aric was also kind enough to serve as guest judge for our monthly print competition

  • January 15, 2011 5:09 pm

    Bryan/College Station High School Senior Photographer - Lauren Barnett

    Here is a little behind the scenes from Lauren’s Photo shoot, shot by my awesome assistant for the day, Andrew Williams!

  • January 14, 2011 12:15 am
    Sometimes I wonder who I am.  More accurately who I am going to be.  How can I get there.  How does that effect the others in my life.  Throughout the years I have been a wedding photographer, a portrait photographer, a baby photographer, a child photographer, a fine art photographer, a stressed out/broke photographer, a full time photographer, a professional photographer, an amateur photographer, a lazy photographer, a senior photographer, a daycare photographer, a commercial photographer, an aspiring photographer, a successful photographer, and a contest winning photographer.  Well the above image has inspired my latest photographic tangent - a book cover photographer.  I created the image above mainly for me.  It was something I had in my head and I felt good that I was finally able to bring an idea to full fruition.  My skills have finally caught up with my dreams(at least my current dreams) to the point where I can express myself through my art in a way I am happy with.  This image as well as another image I will post about tomorrow have inspired me to start to build a portfolio to try and land some work producing cover art for books.  So if you would love to by in an image of a similar caliber please contact me as I am looking for models for this portfolio endeavor.  Enjoy the weekend.  Oh and high school seniors, February is booking up fast so contact me to setup your session.  The above image features one of my favorite high school seniors to photograph, Lauren Barnett. :) View high resolution

    Sometimes I wonder who I am.  More accurately who I am going to be.  How can I get there.  How does that effect the others in my life.  Throughout the years I have been a wedding photographer, a portrait photographer, a baby photographer, a child photographer, a fine art photographer, a stressed out/broke photographer, a full time photographer, a professional photographer, an amateur photographer, a lazy photographer, a senior photographer, a daycare photographer, a commercial photographer, an aspiring photographer, a successful photographer, and a contest winning photographer.  Well the above image has inspired my latest photographic tangent - a book cover photographer.  I created the image above mainly for me.  It was something I had in my head and I felt good that I was finally able to bring an idea to full fruition.  My skills have finally caught up with my dreams(at least my current dreams) to the point where I can express myself through my art in a way I am happy with.  This image as well as another image I will post about tomorrow have inspired me to start to build a portfolio to try and land some work producing cover art for books.  So if you would love to by in an image of a similar caliber please contact me as I am looking for models for this portfolio endeavor.  Enjoy the weekend.  Oh and high school seniors, February is booking up fast so contact me to setup your session.  The above image features one of my favorite high school seniors to photograph, Lauren Barnett.

    :)

    Filed under:  bryan college station photographer tx,.
  • January 12, 2011 3:37 pm
    Parenthood on NBC is one of my favorite shows, and for good reason.  The cast is amazing and the writing is great.  The story lines portray perfectly to me what it is to be a parent.  I was watching the show this morning on Hulu.  In the episode a teenage daughter is singing and playing guitar for her mom, so that her mom can hear a song that she wrote.  All of the sudden I was flooded with memories of my best friend, Spencer Green.  Back in high school we had a band together with another best friend of mine, Lindy Bennett (now Borski).  I can remember being the first to listen to a song that Spencer wrote and I cherished those times.  It was special that he trusted me to be the first to hear a song he had written.  As I watched the show I just sat there and cried.  I’m having a hard time holding back the tears now as I sit here and type.  Spencer struggled with cancer for about 5 years until he passed away.  He was in and out of remission 3 times.  It was hard to see him suffer like that, but he showed me what it was to have faith.  He was also a huge inspiration for me to follow my dream of being a photographer.  When my wife, Angela, had to go with our first son Ty(age 2 at the time) back to Oklahoma to finish her schooling, Spencer and I would get together every Thursday night.  We would eat, watch our favorite show “The Office” and talk about our futures and our passions.  There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think and miss my best friend Spencer.  The same day that he passed away we found out that Angela was pregnant, with our youngest son, Jake Spencer Greenlee.  I consider myself very lucky to have been friends and really, brothers with Spencer.  I watch Jake grow up more and more each day and someday will tell him of the man that was by my side through thick and thin and inspired me to go after me dreams with tenacity.   Thanks Spencer and I will see you again, dear friend. I thought about all this today as I was working on my website and rewriting the “What We Offer” section.  I am so passionate about photography and would love to share that with you. Click below to see the new “What We Offer” section http://essencephotobcs.com/#/what-we-offer/ View high resolution

    Parenthood on NBC is one of my favorite shows, and for good reason.  The cast is amazing and the writing is great.  The story lines portray perfectly to me what it is to be a parent.  I was watching the show this morning on Hulu.  In the episode a teenage daughter is singing and playing guitar for her mom, so that her mom can hear a song that she wrote.  All of the sudden I was flooded with memories of my best friend, Spencer Green.  Back in high school we had a band together with another best friend of mine, Lindy Bennett (now Borski).  I can remember being the first to listen to a song that Spencer wrote and I cherished those times.  It was special that he trusted me to be the first to hear a song he had written.  As I watched the show I just sat there and cried.  I’m having a hard time holding back the tears now as I sit here and type.  Spencer struggled with cancer for about 5 years until he passed away.  He was in and out of remission 3 times.  It was hard to see him suffer like that, but he showed me what it was to have faith.  He was also a huge inspiration for me to follow my dream of being a photographer.  When my wife, Angela, had to go with our first son Ty(age 2 at the time) back to Oklahoma to finish her schooling, Spencer and I would get together every Thursday night.  We would eat, watch our favorite show “The Office” and talk about our futures and our passions.  There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think and miss my best friend Spencer.  The same day that he passed away we found out that Angela was pregnant, with our youngest son, Jake Spencer Greenlee.  I consider myself very lucky to have been friends and really, brothers with Spencer.  I watch Jake grow up more and more each day and someday will tell him of the man that was by my side through thick and thin and inspired me to go after me dreams with tenacity.  

    Thanks Spencer and I will see you again, dear friend.

    I thought about all this today as I was working on my website and rewriting the “What We Offer” section.  I am so passionate about photography and would love to share that with you.

    Click below to see the new “What We Offer” section

    http://essencephotobcs.com/#/what-we-offer/

  • January 11, 2011 2:50 pm
    So this is my son Jake.  I have always loved this hoodie and found it buried in a basket of clothes last night.  I set it out so that he could wear it today.  Once he put it on this morning it looked like it had gotten a little tight in the sleeves.  It looked better actually i thought, then it used to.  Toddler clothes are always understandably baggy and most children’s clothes in general.  I thought it looked a little more tailored now that it was a little tighter.  He looked like a little man to me and this image popped into my had.  I set it up a little before lunch today and just finished the processing on it.  For those of you wondering how i got exactly the pose I was going for, I will let you in on the secret…cookies!  I say use whatever works when photographing children.  Now if anybody out there can get close to telling me the lighting setup I will give you a box of my homemade cookies!  Yes I bake…and yes they are awesome!  Put your lighting guess in the comments.  Whoever is closest by the end of the week wins!!(I’m serious, by the way) View high resolution

    So this is my son Jake.  I have always loved this hoodie and found it buried in a basket of clothes last night.  I set it out so that he could wear it today.  Once he put it on this morning it looked like it had gotten a little tight in the sleeves.  It looked better actually i thought, then it used to.  Toddler clothes are always understandably baggy and most children’s clothes in general.  I thought it looked a little more tailored now that it was a little tighter.  He looked like a little man to me and this image popped into my had.  I set it up a little before lunch today and just finished the processing on it.  For those of you wondering how i got exactly the pose I was going for, I will let you in on the secret…cookies!  I say use whatever works when photographing children.  Now if anybody out there can get close to telling me the lighting setup I will give you a box of my homemade cookies!  Yes I bake…and yes they are awesome!  Put your lighting guess in the comments.  Whoever is closest by the end of the week wins!!(I’m serious, by the way)

  • January 10, 2011 10:30 am
    Something awesome that happened at my house yesterday. I was preparing for small group and cleaning off our side table with a sponge and the varnish started to come off.  I looked at it and thought, “That looks awesome”…so i grabbed some sandpaper and went to town.  It took all of about five minutes.  I put the vase of gerber daisies I had just bought for my wife on there and had to photograph it.  I hope it brightens your day a little :) View high resolution

    Something awesome that happened at my house yesterday. I was preparing for small group and cleaning off our side table with a sponge and the varnish started to come off.  I looked at it and thought, “That looks awesome”…so i grabbed some sandpaper and went to town.  It took all of about five minutes.  I put the vase of gerber daisies I had just bought for my wife on there and had to photograph it.  I hope it brightens your day a little :)

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