Hemhofen Medieval Festival | Festival | 10 October 2015

Hello Friends!

This past Saturday my usual group and I went to a medieval festival about an hour away from us. It was an awesome little festival. It was the smallest festival I've been to since I've been to Germany. Thankfully it was a little bit warmer then we expected, although it was still chilly.

The first things we saw once we got our tickets into the festival was the Blacksmith. It was pretty cool to watch, and it took a little bit of time to try to get a picture of him working. I showed this to someone in my unit and they told me they thought I had taken a picture of an old picture. I laughed and told them that it was a picture that I took myself. 

In the center of the outside ring of the festival was this little stage where these three German girls were singing together. I loved their outfits, I only wish that I could've actually understood what they were singing.

Once we got to the center of the outside ring, we stopped for some food. Dom was a little cranky around this time so his mother let him play with her spoon. When it was time to give the spoon back, he because extremely upset. I tried to distract him by taking pictures of him. This one turned out to be my absolute favorite picture.

In the center of the event there was a field fenced off that was used for both jousting and dancing. It was quite entertaining to watch. This was the perfect action shot of the jousting, they eventually dropped all of their weapons and shields and ended up rolling around on the ground. 

These were the pretty dancers

Eventually it was time together and Dom wanted to walk, so I couldn't resist taking this picture. I only wish I hadn't gotten the stroller. It can't always be helped when you're taking candid shots though. 

I hope you guys had an awesome weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival | Festival | 03 October 2015

Hello dear friends!

I know it's been a while since I've posted, and that's simply because I've been busy I've been going on adventures to festivals and things here in Germany, but since they revolved around alcohol, I wasn't comfortable bringing my camera with me. 

This past Saturday, my friends and I made the 2.5 hour trip to the Ludwigsburg Palace, near Stuttgart, for the annual Pumpkin Festival. It was something I went to last year (but it was too rainy to bring my camera then), so my friends and I were anxious to go this year. Thankfully it was such a beautiful day to go to the festival!

When you walk in the front gates of the Palace grounds, this is what you see (it's more in the distance, there is a long walkway between the front gate and this point because it's all gardens). Then there is this giant pond in the center, and then the palace. On either side of the palace are gardens as well, and then you take a walkway on the right side of the palace to get to the actual festivities in the back of the grounds.

according to my Translate app... this means fly

Once you get around the back, there is so much to see! The grounds are insanely huge, there are lots of garden areas, and for this event, they made sculptures out of pumpkins. There were some awesome sculptures and I didn't get a picture of each and every one because I got side tracked with some other awesome things.

These are the sculptures I did get a picture of. 1) piano, 2) airplane, 3) man on a flying carpet with a magic lamp, 4) man with wings, and 5) eagle. If you want to see more pictures (or individual pictures) check out my Facebook page. I am pretty sure that every year they have a different set of sculptures, and yes, they are made entirely of pumpkins.

On the palace grounds, there is a beautiful little tower, this is Repunzel's tower. The picture on the left was taken at a distance once you enter the festivities area. The picture on the right was a closer picture once we got up toward the tower. As you can see on the right side of the picture on the right, they have Repunzel's hair raised and lowered (it has a giant pink bow on it)

This is a beautiful little cottage on the way to Repunzel's tower. I had never seen it before, but it was cute and I almost missed it, tucked in among the plants.

In the kids area of the grounds, there was a giant pond with this fountain in the middle of it. There were too many people to get a decent unobstructed view of the entire pond, but I like how this picture turned out.

This entire building is covered with shelves of pumpkins (this is a little store where you can buy different merchandise- I bought a Halloween candle holder and a post card). I just thought the walls of pumpkins were awesome. I believe these are all different types of pumpkins!

When you walk into this event, this is one of the views you see as you walk down the sloped walkway. It didn't occur to me to get this picture until we were about to leave.

At the top of the slope at the back of the palace they always have a main sculpture, this one was of a rocket. Last year it was a giant pumpkin crown!

The gardens around the palace grounds are absolutely gorgeous! So well taken care of and colorful!

This is the back side of the palace in all it's glory. The entire building is just insanely gorgeous! I just had to try to capture this beautiful picture.

I hope you guys and gals enjoyed the pictures from this festival. For the rest of my adventures, I will try and take my big camera so I can get more pictures before I leave Germany. Next weekend I am supposed to be going to Berlin with a friend of mine, so be on the lookout for those pictures. If you have any questions, please feel free to get ahold of me, or if you just want to talk.

Hope you guys enjoyed another glimpse of the beautiful architecture that is all around Germany!

Be on the lookout later this week, since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, there will be another round of Hope Mini Sessions to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness. The flyer will go live later this week and be valid until the end of October.

CPT Nolan Retirement | Military Event | September 2015

Hello friends!

One of my favorite parts of being in this unit here in Germany, is when I get asked to take photos of events that involve my coworkers. Earlier this week I was asked to photograph the Retirement ceremony of one of our Captains. 

I had the fortune of originally meeting this gentleman back in Afghanistan in 2012, when his company replaced mine before we came back to the States. He was a company commander at the time, and I always thought he was a little goofy. Imagine my surprise last year in 2014, when this same gentleman walked into the food court with his family one day at lunch, and remembered who I was. We had only known each other for 3 weeks during our time in Afghanistan, before I left, so I was incredibly surprised that he would remember me at all.

He came here to be a pilot, flying helicopters until his official Retirement date in November of this year. When you first see this guy, most people just think he is goofy, you have to know him to know all of the awesome things he has done. He spent the first part of his 26 years in the military as an enlisted man, then when he got bored with that he decided to become a Warrant Officer, and then we he got tired of that he decided to become a Commissioned Officer. He's done a lot of awesome things, he's Air Assault qualified, he's got a Ranger Tab, I can't remember all of his awards. Needless to say, this man has done a great many things that most people probably aren't even aware of. 

He's been a hoot to be around since he got here. He's a goofy guy and he likes to come stand in my office and we talk. We discuss our deployments to FOB Shank, my old company commander that we both knew, and other shenanigans. He's going back to Florida, near where my parents live, and is going to open a pizza shop. 

Captain Nolan is the man on the left of this picture. He is highly decorated!

Of course I had to get a picture of the flags before the ceremony began. I just love practicing these pictures, it gives me a chance to get my settings correct before everything starts!

These are the three gentleman that presented everyone's awards and such to them (there were about 7 people that were a part of this Retirement ceremony). The gentleman on the left holding everything is the S-1 Captain, the gentleman in front of him was the one that presented everything to the retiree, and the SPC in the background took everything back once the pictures were all taken. For the most part, they would collect all these items after the ceremony once they were all officially ready to leave the Army.

This is CPT Nolan's Retirement Certificate for serving about 26 years in the US Army. 

CPT Nolan about to be presented his Retirement flag for his years of service.
These are always my favorite series of shots to get during a retirement ceremony!

Once given his flag, he is then saluted for his years in Service.

This is Captain Nolan after his portion of the ceremony. He was about to sit down and forgot that I wanted a final picture of him. Silly guy!

I just love being able to capture these moments for fellow Soldiers and their families. His wife was stoked to know that I would be there to take pictures (she had already returned to Florida to get their house set up and the business things finalized).

Once I leave the Army, I plan on going back to Ft. Bragg and continuing this part of my photography.  I want to continue taking pictures for Retirement Ceremonies, Promotion Ceremonies, and other awesome military events like this.

And hey, I am willing to travel for events! 

Just get in touch with me to work things out!

Falcon Softball | Sports | August 2015

Hey friends!

Here with another round of Falcon softball pictures. 

I was asked to attend a game and take pictures, so of course I agreed. I happen to adore a couple of my NCO's, so I was more then willing to take photos for them. 

This is one of my favorite NCO's in the picture above.

One of the best NCO's I had while in Germany.

This is my new NCO

Trying out some new editing techniques!

I love getting group shots of the team!

I just wish I had gotten a group shot of them all facing me.

I will definitely miss these guys when I leave!

They won first place on post!

And second place in the Europeans!

Jordan C. | Senior Session | Dunedin, FL | 04 June 2015

Hey dear friends!

I went on vacation this past week to surprise my younger brother for his high school graduation. It was pretty awesome to be able to surprise him with the help of my awesome NCO and my parents (my mom was just glad it wasn't her that I was surprising!) 

My family wasn't happy with the people taking senior photos (it's your generic photo studio and she didn't feel they were able to properly show his personality). So to start off my work in Senior Portraits, I got to practice on my younger brother. It also kind of turned into a mini family session (we don't have a lot of current photos).

Due to the time constraints (I had to fly home later that night), this was a very short session. 

Proud parents of the latest graduate of the Caldwell family!

He's a momma's boy (it's a good thing)

These happen to be two of my favorite photos from the entire session

My family :)

((self-timers are the bomb)

Funny story, this picture actually took a few tries because I had never used a self timer before and I kept slipping on the deck trying to get behind my father.

My parents favorite line is always "Act like you like each other"

Overall it was a fun afternoon and I am glad that I got to take pictures for him. 

Also glad he agreed to be my test subject!