Hey hey hey

We’re back for week 2! As I was posting this week I was thinking about how strange it was that this might be the first time I have posted SO MANY days in a row! Maybe I should post more in 2020? Do you think it’s important that I squeeze content out every day? Let me know.

Anyways let’s get right into the content.

Day 8 was a surprise proposal into an engagement session in Historic Ellicott City. I initially had this saturday morning off after 3 straight months of weddings but this seemed so cute, I couldn’t resist. We were able to squeeze it into the one saturday I had free.

Courtney was under the impression that she was getting brunch with her girls and then going shopping….but what she didn’t know was that Phil was waiting right outside the restaurant where she was eating! We took a little walk into the forest and once we were a bit away from the trail path he popped the question, and it was all history from there.

Shot on Sony A7III, 24-70GM

This was part of a marketing series I was shooting for the Baltimore Waterfront Partnership, “Waterfront Wellness”. The series is part of an effort to get city residents to get out and exercise with local fitness professionals.

This was shot during a MidTown Yoga class from on a nice sunday morning at 8am. Everyone else was pretty into it….except for this kid. Me too, dude.

Shot on Nikon D810, Sigma 70-200

Another image from the Waterfront Wellness series!

Taken near the end of a Hiit Cardio class. Don’t let this posture fool you, this lady was crushing the workout in 90º heat the entire time.

Shot on Nikon D810, Sigma 70-200

Ah!

This was a frame from bridal prep at Christina and Johns beautiful Elkridge wedding. At our pre-wedding consult I asked them if there was anything special that they wanted to do before the ceremony, like a first look, or anything like that, and they told me they wanted to pray together!
They were getting ready in houses literally across the street from each other, so as soon as Christina was all dressed and ready, we got John to come over, hide himself around the corner of their kitchen. She would come down, they’d hold hands around that corner, and they prayed.

It took EVERYTHING for them to not have a peek at each other, but this was one of the final frames from that beautiful moment. Christina giggling her way up the stairs. John wiping his eyes with tissues from Christina’s father. One of my favorite images of all time.

Shot on Sony A7III, 24-70GM

This was an image taken on my trip to Madison, Wisconsin! After I graduated I pulled together a few of my friends and we decided to road trip it up to Wisconsin! Eating the finest local foods, like Taco Bell, Hot Cheetos and custom olive oils and vinegars from Galena Garlic.
It just so happened that one of the biggest fighting game tournaments of the year, Combo Breaker was also happening that weekend so we also dropped in there for a few hours. If you grew up in the arcades or have any sort of love for fighting games like Tekken/Street Fighter, I’d HIGHLY recommend you check this midwest regional out. Rick and co put on an incredible time every single year.
The next day we decided to just chill out and take a walk through downtown Madison. I thought it’d be fun to toss the drone up and was able to catch a local family taking their boat out for a spin.

Shot on DJI Mavic Pro

An insane experience. To kick the year off I was invited to help work on the live-stream team with VG BootCamp at Genesis 6 in Oakland, CA. While I wasn’t contracted to work on photo coverage, I was put in charge of managing the Smash Ultimate stream on stage, which gave me prime real estate for photographing during the off-moments.

The days were insanely long, running nonstop from 9am-2am, but it was an experience I’d absolutely fight to experience again. If you play Smash Ultimate and have an itch to compete, Genesis is coming back this year for G7. Register on their Smash.gg page: Genesis 7.

Shot on Nikon D810, Sigma 70-200

The final day. Genesis, much like most tournaments, run brackets that span Friday to Sunday. Massive crowds of contestants are eliminated in single/double elimination setups and before you know it, 2000+ contestants have been narrowed down to the top 128, top 64, top 32…and before you know it: the top 8 have been selected at the end of Saturday night. While the bulk of the event happened in the Oakland convention center in downtown Oakland, the top 8 grand finals changed venues to the Paramount Theater.

The room wass dark. With no lights anywhere except for two spotlights highlighting competitors that fought their way up over thousands of others in various games, such as Super Smash Brothers 64, Melee, and Ultimate as well as Rivals of Aether. The atmosphere was absolutely unrivaled, and unlike anything I’d ever seen before.

Thanks for reading this weeks blog! You can find the other weeks right here:
Week One
Week Three
Week Four