Blueye Photography

Just thought I’d post a quick note before Melanie and I head out to dinner. Today’s my birthday and I’m 31. In honor of that fact I’ll be back later to edit this post and add list of 31 things that I love about my life and am happy about (because birthday’s are happy right?).

So I’m back and here’s my list of 31 big (and small) things that I love about my life and am thankful for (in no particular order):

1.  Living in Austin
2. Owning our own house
3. Our obedient and loving dog, Bella
4. My supportive family back in PA
5. My amazing wife, Melanie
6. My health (sure I could lose a few pounds, but I’m not sick)
7. Calling myself a Texan (albeit a non-native)
8. Being able to use the internet to my advantage
9. Actually being on track to becoming debt free
10. Knowing enough about the stock exchange to invest a bit
11. Finding photography
12. Shaving my head… it’s allowed me to become more comfortable with who I am
13. My clients (y’all rock!)
14. Wii
15. Guitar Hero III
16. 70 degree days in January
17. My degree from Drexel University
18. The number 18
19. Growing up in Lancaster, PA
20. Living in Philadelphia (on my own) for 5 years
21. TPF
22. ProPs
23. Traveling (Hawaii, PA, road trip, Vegas, Cali)
24. My freedom (many thanks to our troops here and overseas)
25. Apple
26. Having the desire to keep achieving and keep going for more
27. Being an adult
28. Being a friend
29. Being named Troy (there aren’t many of us out there)
30. Being creative
31. Being 31
T.

One word: amazing!

Amazing Young Organ Player Rocks Out – Watch more free videos

Yes I’m still addicted to the game. I’ve gotten better, but I’m not optimistic that I’m going to be able to beat the game on hard, but I’m going to keep trying. Melanie thought it would be funny to post a couple photos of my GH guitar seeing as I’ve pretty much worn off the stickers that I put on the frets. It’s a completely different game when you play it on hard… lots of crazy chords… it’s no wonder the stickers are wearing off.

Slim DOF shot of the guitar (taken with my yummy 85 f/1.2L)

And one of Miss Bella snoozing at the top of the stairs

I really should title these posts “every other miscellaneous Monday” because I can never get my act together each week to post. In any event, welcome to this week’s entry.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. day. I hope you took the day to reflect on ways that you can have an impact on your fellow citizens and how we can work towards a more equal society.
Here’s the YouTube posting of Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech:

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Who would have thought that the NY Giants would win 3 games on the road (two against arguably the strongest teams in the NFC) to make it to the SuperBowl? They’ve already played the Patriots once this season and came very close to winning so hopefully we’ll see a great rematch. Personally I’m pulling for the Patriots because I would love to see them complete a perfect season.
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How’s the weather in your part of the world? For Texas our weather has been pretty cold. Saturday it was in the 30′s for most of the day.
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This weekend was pretty low key for us. I had a couple of wedding consultations, but other than that we stayed in and relaxed.
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My song of the moment is Calabria by Enur. Great dance song! The remix with MIMS and Natasja is particularly good.
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Super Tuesday is approaching. Do you know who you are voting for? Since I’m a registered independent I won’t be weighing in on the Democrat or Republican primaries.
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I’ve been playing Guitar Hero III so much lately that I wore off 2 of the stickers on the frets. I’ll have to take a snapshot and post it sometime this week.

One of the most frustrating things about being a wedding photographer and doing bridal portraits is that I can’t share the photos until after the wedding . We don’t want to spoil the surprise for Jeremy or the wedding guests.  Laura and I invaded Kendra’s mom’s house (thanks Kathy!) this afternoon to shoot Kendra’s bridal portraits and they are beautiful. Picture a excellently decorated, gorgeous house on Lake Travis coupled with a stunning bride in a fantastic gown and you can imagine we got some amazing photos. Kendra, you are going to love them. Please be patient while I process them and get your password protected gallery put up online. The wait will be worth it.
T.

New Year’s resolutions are always interesting things… do you make them short term so you can achieve them quickly or do you make them more long term to prove your resolve?  Each year I put a few short ones on there (usually to do items that I’ve been putting off) and a few longer term ones.  Here are a few of mine:

- Steam clean the kitchen floor and get the grout sealed.
- Keep a food journal (recording what I eat in hopes of losing a few pounds)
- Start exercising more… in particular hitting the heavy bag and jumping rope
- Get an annual physical
- Go to the eye doctor… need to keep my eyes healthy

What are your resolutions for the year?
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It seems the college football enthusiasts and sports-casters predicted correctly.  LSU is pretty much dominating Ohio State.  The current score is 31-17 with 10 minutes left in the game.  It feels a bit strange that a 2 loss team is about to win the national championship, but that pretty much highlights this crazy season.  I wonder how many more seasons it will take before college football finally institutes a playoff system.
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If you personally know any photographers you know we’re all a bunch of gear heads and gadget nerds.  We all love getting new equipment and gadgets that allow us to do things we previously couldn’t do (or had to do with a lot of effort).  My latest acquisitions are a Canon EOS 1d Mark III camera and a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 lens.  This combination sure does weigh a lot, but it really is amazing.  I used the camera for Kara and Wes’ wedding this past Saturday, but didn’t really get to use the 85.  I have an engagement session this coming Saturday that I’m hoping to use the combination more.
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If you have a game system (Wii, PS3, or Xbox 360) you need to get Guitar Hero III.  I got it for Christmas for the Wii and am completely addicted to it.  If you have it for the Wii send me an email and we can battle online .
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My public service announcement for the week: when it is sunny, wear your sunblock.  It doesn’t matter if it’s January or July.  The sun an be strong at any time of the year and it’s better to be protected than deal with wrinkles and, God forbid, skin cancer in the years to come.  I found out that a very mild case of sunburn is possible in Texas in January this weekend.

Wow! Our first wedding of 2008 and it was amazing. Talk about a perfect day. Perfect weather. Perfect location. Perfect couple. Perfect guests. Perfect Rabbi. Perfect everything. Kara and Wes tied the knot at Star Hill Ranch in the hill country under sunny skies and perfect 75 degree weather. Can you believe it? January 5th and we had 75 degree weather. This was our first time out to the Ranch and we definitely hope that it isn’t our last. The location is amazing. I highly recommend you visit their website to check out what they have to offer. Okay, enough about the location and weather… Kara and Wes were the picture of beauty and handsomeness. Kara looked stunning in her lace gown and you’ll have to see the photos to see just how happy she was. They truly are a couple who are madly in love and you could see it and feel it all day. Congratulations guys! Enjoy the sneak peek.

T.
PS. Let me know how you like the new image framing style. I’m trying to make the photos bigger than before, but still present them with my branding.

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