Campbell arrives: He ain’t no soup!
This has been a great weekend ! I had the pleasure of spending some time with Sara and Troy and their first addition into their family – Campbell. He is such a handsome little boy. Both Troy and Sara are very proud and happy new parents. Recently, Sara and I had been discussing a maternity shoot before his birth. Before the plans could be finalized, Campbell decided that he should arrive about three weeks early. So we never got the chance to do the shoot.
I am so grateful that Sara and Troy gave me the opportunity to capture their son in my studio.
Here are some of my favorite shots of my new friend. It was hard to pick just a few of these images when you have such a great subject!
Campbell’s father is a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. I like this scholarly contemplating look. He must get this from his dad. I can not be positive though as Sara is one sharp lawyer in her own right.
Campbell hanging with Dad! This is nothing like snuggling with your new born.
Mom needs to love too! Here is Sara sharing a smile, a laugh, and a snuggle with her son.
These shots just scratch the surface. The entire image gallery can be found here.
I have been fortunate to have known Sara from many years. We will keep the actual number of years under raps to protect the innocent and the potentially aged. I witnessed and captured some of Troy’s and Sara’s wedding as a wedding guest and friend photography. It was my privilege to witness and enjoy their wedding that marked their new beginning. I am very flattered to be asked to capture Campbell as they embark in the beginning of their parenthood.
Here is a brief video that covers both occasions. If you so not see the video embedding below, click here to see the video.
See you all soon! Thanks for stopping by!
My new friend Daniel
The other night while attending the Hilburn Family Fitness night, I made a new friend. At least I think I did. I am still trying to determine if he liked the flash of camera or me. Anyway, here are a few shots of Daniel. Facial expressions can say a thousand words. What do you think he is thinking about?
Hanging with his uncle.
A raspberry wave with mom.
Larger sizes version of these images can be found in the My New friend Daniel gallery.
Kathryn: Hanging around the farm
I spent the Thanksgiving weekend in southern Indiana. It is the special place for my family. It is great to get back to the farm country that my father enjoyed when he grew up. We also had a great opportunity to spend some time with my uncle and aunt, cousins, and the matriarch of the family my 95 year old grandmother Cleda Sophia Jackle. Yes, my daughter Sophia is named after this very special person in our family.
Among the many blessings over the holiday, I had an opportunity to capture Kathryn in the backdrop of my uncle’s farm. Here are some of my favorites from the session.
A farm shoot is not complete without a plow.
Nothing beats a sunset on a farm to add to a shot.
A beautiful pond was just a short walk from the farm house.
Breakfast at Grandpa’s: Wrightsville Beach, NC
Ok, for the followers of the “Then and Now” section of this blog, my father was the photographer who took the lion share of the “then” pictures. He did it the old fashioned way using film and a darkroom. Man things are easier now for all of us digital photographers. I am still trying to get him to take DSLR digital photography back up again. Fingers crossed.
Anyway, the following series is called “breakfast at grandpa’s.” We visited grandpa’s this past weekend. he still wakes up before everyone and makes sure we have our breakfast. One of his many talents. Well here are some candid shots of grandpa and his NC grandbabies. They sure are cute. I guess I am biased.
A kiss for the oldest. 
Cutting up with the girls. 
The stare off. 
Kisses for Grandpa. 
Sophie’s way of telling me that the session is over.
The full gallery can be found here. Keep checking the gallery. I am sure it will grow.
Station One Pool: Wrightsville Beach, NC
We had an awesome time this past weekend in Wrightsville Beach, NC visiting my father at Station One. It rained most of the weekend but we got a little sun so the girls could hit the pool.
Playing with some shells that they found in the playground sand next to the pool.
Savannah giving the camera some love as she heads into the pool.
Sophie is always on the go! Pool time is no different.
Savannah is looking through the playground rails as she watches Sophie do the monkey bars below.
The daddy’s favorite super models hanging at the pool.
Savannah has recently come out of her shell around the camera. Here are few of her pool session.
Full sized Gallery is located here. More images will be added in the next few days.
Bed Dancing
Well, it was about bed time the other night and you know kids will be kids. They successfully talked mom into turning on her iPod boom box. Next thing you know, they were dancing on the bed to great disco hits like Dream On(Live), 
Here are a couple of shots from the dance session.
You go girls!!!
It is a wrap
Would you rather have an image in a traditional print that needs to be framed for display.…
or add some dimension and texture to your images with a canvas gallery wrap? 
A canvas gallery wrap is high quality print on artist canvas stretched over custom made wood supports. A gallery wrap will make your images stand out boldly on your wall without the need having a traditional picture frame.
I just ordered some studio samples of these babies to add to my offering. The typical turnaround is less than week to get these to the studio. We can have them shipped directly to your door also.
The Weishoff Family – Raleigh Portrait Session
Recently, I had the pleasure to capture some images of my time hanging with the Weishoff family. They are great bunch of people even for some cheese heads from Wisconsin. I guess there is nothing wrong with cheese heads because I am one of them myself. Technically, I am a southern-fried cheese head. If you come to North Carolina in August from Wisconsin, you would be be one also. I have experienced over 28 of these Augusts in the south so I am good and fried now.
Sue Weishoff (formerly Jackle) is someone that I had the pleasure of picking on and protecting over my life time. She is my baby sister. Even though both of us are now forty something, she will always be my little sister.
Before this recent visit to NC, Sue mentioned that she really wanted me to do her family pictures. Though our time was limited, we made some time and headed out to the local Lake Lynn Park and our neighborhood get that accomplished.
Both Marty and Sue were a god send with their help in the Jackie’s birthday party preparation and clean up this past weekend. Sue, forget any mean things I made have said about you when we young! OK !!! You are one great mom and sister that is for sure.
Anyway, here are some of my favorites from the shoot.
The entire gallery can be found here.
Note: Facebook readers can view larger and higher quality versions of any images in this note by clicking the “View Original Post” link on the Facebook page below. This link will show this same post on my blog website.
Swimming Lessons for Nanna
Savannah took her first swimming lessons at a local Raleigh pool. We still need to work with her but she is gradually becoming more confident in the water. Here are shots from her first of five lessons.
She looks like the part here. That is a good start. A Face a father(and mom) can love.
Early on in the lesson she had that Savannah swagger that we all know and love.
A little boogey-board action Savannah style with a little help from the instructor.
The Savannah Plunge
We had to have a grand finale to this blog post. Here is the beginning of the “plunge.”
Mid-air and no turning back! Wetness is about to engulf her!
Ya! Engulfed by wetness!
Safe and sound! The instructor seems happy and encouraging! Not sure about Savannah at this stage. A little overwhelmed perhaps. You probably would be too if someone besides your mom was catching you and let you go under. Oops! I forgot my goggles!
Note: Facebook readers can view larger and higher quality versions of any images in this note by clicking the “View Original Post” link on the Facebook page below. This link will show this same post on my blog website.
Grayson Highlights
The last few posts to this blog have centered around my recent family trip to the Grayson Highlands State Park. My sister-in-law Lori Lipkin and brother-in-law Craig Setzer arranged the whole thing and I was glad that we were able to participate in the festivities. We had a blast especially with the bike ride on the VA Creeper trail. I like the discussions we are having about making this trip an annual event. It is only about a 4 hour drive from Raleigh to the state park. I must say this state park has the cleanest bath houses I have ever seen in any camp ground.
I finally had a chance to put all the images from the trip on the trianglephotoprints.com web site.
This slideshow below showcases my favorite images from the trip. Please place your mouse over the slideshow to see it’s added features like the thumbnail option, gallery link to the images, and full screen display.
This slideshow requires the Adobe flash player.
If you are having issues viewing the above Steve Picks slide show, please try this link directly from the trianglephotoprints.com web site. Do not just take my word for it, please feel free to browse all the galleries from this trip. Let me know what you think. Did I pick the highlights or did you find some images that need to be included in this slideshow?
Thanks for stopping by!! See ya soon!
Creeper trail, Raspberry, and independence.
As mentioned in my previous post, we went camping in Virginia this past weekend. One of the things we did was a 17+ mile mountain bike trail called the Creeper trail. To be honest I was a little scared about this adventure. It has been several years since I rode a bike. What if I could not finish ? What about the kids? etc…
Well, there were 14 of us in our group that either had a bike or rented one. The plan was to rent a trailer to haul the two kids behind a bike for the ride. I was able to talk my brother-in-law Mike who is a more experienced biker to pull the trailer on the ride. Our group ranged in ages from 3 -60+ so if my 9 year-old nephew and my 60+ mother-in-law can do this trail, I better suck it up and finish the ride. The good news that the trail is for the most part a down hill ride. Everyone was able to finish this very scenic and worthwhile ride. I highly recommend this adventure to anyone. You rent(or bring) a bike from the shop at the top of the hill and purchase a shuttle ticket that brings you back to the shop when you are finished with the trail. So there is no uphill biking or walking.
There is just something about Savannah’s confidence and playfulness in this shot that I love. Savannah was playing with these two old bike tires that were replaced on one of the bikes before we went on the trip. She was strutting around them full of energy just like you would expect from a 3 year after they were pulled in a bike trailer for almost 18 miles.
What ever happened to the “raspberry” ? I remember when we were kids it was used all the time as a response to someone proliferating some sort of falsehood. Well, next I hear someone performing such an act, I will definitely think of this picture and maybe even pull the “raspberry” out again for good measure.
3 year independent child with energy + state park with hiking trails = this shot. This shot was taken in Massie Gap at end of a hike.
More from Grayson Highlands to come! Till next time !
Fathers Day: Lake Lynn
I woke up Sunday morning and glanced into the bedrooms and found all my girls were still asleep. So I snuck downstairs and grabbed my morning energy drink and turned on the morning news. Soon after, I heard some scurrying upstairs coupled with some whispers. Mommy and the kids were awake.
Next I heard heard the scampering of little feet coming down the stairs and in a flash I had two very excited young girls in my lap giving me hugs and kisses with their handmade greeting cards and gifts in hand. Overwhelmed by their energy, I could not help but hang on and smile as they both wanted to share their creations with their dear old dad. Jackie stood watching with her family famous ear-to-ear proud smile as our girls in unison provided the details of their precious artwork.
Sophia had hand painted a ceramic “#1 Dad” desk ornament and presented her handmade card. Savannah proudly translated her card graffiti into something I could understand. Savannah was so proud of her card that she would not allow me to take a closer look. Fathers Day had officially begun.
Jackie is queen of making someone’s special day a memorable one. This day was no different. It was quite obvious that she was involved in my special morning wake up. After opening the remaining cards, Jackie asked me what would I like to do for my fathers day. I told her that we should dress up the girls for a photo shoot.
What better way to commemorate fathers day than with pictures that proved your fatherhood. Man, I love my girls!
So, we gathered some outfits for the girls and headed to the local Lake Lynn Park. This place was great! We saw some ducks, turtles, geese, and even a great Blue Heron. All of us had a blast!
Here are some of my favorite pictures of my girls on fathers day.
See ya soon!
WPS Photo Shoot – Amber
Recently, my friend and extraordinary photographer Frank Myers mentioned a local wedding photographers group called the wedding photographic society(WPS). This group was founded by some the best wedding photographers on the east coast.
According to the WPS website, “We’re a network of professional photographers who come together to collaborate on photographic ideas, thoughts, and information in an attempts to elevate the artistic, technical, and business standards of the wedding photographic community.”
Recently, one of the founders of the WPS, Brian Mullins arranged an photo shoot that involved 21 photographers and 5 models with 8 wedding dresses. Four other photographers and I were assigned to a wonderful model named Amber. We walked the streets in downtown Raleigh sharing ideas and getting some great shots.
Here are some of my shots, I took of Amber:
I love the mixture of the ambient light and flash in this one.
One of the photographers Kevin Seifert in my group scouted and setup this location. It was a curved glass block wall in front of a local business. I love the reflection of her face in the glass block.
Kevin and I each pulled out our pocket wizards and speedlites and lit up the curved glass block wall through two side entry doors on its side.
Ed from Dark Lighting Imaging scored this 50s style thunderbird by stopping a driver that was about to leave in this gem.
If interested, you can find the rest of the gallery here.
A Man and his Guitar
In my younger years or my BK (“Before Kids”) years, I was known to play a little bass guitar in a couple of bands that played around the Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham NC area. I never could play quite as well as my bass idols, but my heart was definitely into music and it still is. Besides a good photograph, there is nothing like a good song to get your emotional juices flowing and your memories glowing.
I remember in the old days when I put a bass instructional VHS tape in the player called “Mastering the Groove” by Randy Jackson. He was one of my many bass idols at the time. Yes, this is the same Randy Jackson that sits in judgment on the popular American Idol television show. I can not help to laugh every time I hear a contestant tell him that he does not have any talent. I guess they never heard Randy play the bass guitar or in most cases themselves sing.
When I first met Jackie almost 15 years ago, I knew she had a brother that played drums. He played in some heavy metal band in Tennessee at the time. He was also a black belt in Karate. He would never have any trouble from me. His passion for music and karate continues to this day. He has moved on to play multiple instruments with a broad musical scope and does some shows in the western part of the state. Now, he is a one man band still living his musical dream.
Here are some shots I took of Mike Lipkin that I call “A man and his guitar.” Who knows you may see them sometime on promo flyer hanging on a wall or in a window of a bar or coffee shop in western North Carolina. If you do, try to have a listen for a little while and be sure to tell him that Steve sent ya!!!
Easter Baskets: NC style
What do you think about when you hear the term “Easter basket” ? Some will probably think about the typical woven basket the children closely guard and fill with some candy encapsulated plastic eggs that have been age appropriately hidden for them to find. This term may also have others pondering a family get-together with grandma’s home cooking or childhood stories of the biggest chocolate bunny they had ever eaten.
Well, this Easter came on the “heels” of Carolina Tar heels winning the NCAA men’s basketball national championship game the previous weekend. Other basketball teams like Wake Forest, Davidson, NC State, and Duke also play a little basketball in North Carolina. Apparently just not quite as well as the Tar heels – at least for this year. It seems that a North Carolina family Easter celebration that included a few of these Easter baskets was more than appropriate.
Well, Grandma was not going to be left out. First up, Grandma Carole!!
All the kids get into the act
With a little basket height adjustment, a couple of dunks:
As a Tar heel grad and fan , I love this sequence especially the ending(look closely):
This epitomizes the Duke season !!!!! Go heels!
For those that attended this Easter basket session, the entire gallery can be found here.
See ya soon!!!
Here comes Jeff and John Cottontail
Here comes Jeff cottontail
Hopping down the bunny trail
Hippity-Hopping Easter’s on it’s way.
Bringing every boy and girl
Baskets full of Easter joy
To make your Easter bright and gay.
(Modern day bunnies need modern day footwear – You never know what you may step in)
He’s got jelly beans for Tommy
Colored eggs for sister Sue
There is an orchid for your mommy
And an Easter bonnet too
Here comes Jon cottontail
Hopping down the bunny trail
Hippity-Hopping Easter’s on it’s way.
The entire gallery can be found here for those that participated in this hopping good time.