Here we are already into the second month of the New Year (Groundhog Day!) and I'm just now getting to take a few minutes for reflection. This is my birthday month and it's quickly approaching! I'm hitting a milestone this year but I'm not dreading it at all. I was seriously hurt after being hit by a drunk driver when I was 26 so I count my blessings every day to still be here, be healthy and using the talents that God gave me. The end of 2009 was extremely busy and in spite of doubling up on the Vitamin C and taking extra care to NOT get sick, I managed to catch a nasty bug the WEEK before Christmas...seriously?? I fought it hard and had to work around the clock to hit my deadlines but I pulled it off. That's all that matters! ;)
I had the pleasure of photographing one last concert for the year, Stephen Salyers' Sounds of Christmas Benefit Concert. This is a spectacular fund raising concert with proceeds going to the Billy Ray Cyrus Charities Foundation to benefit children in need. I am so very proud to call Stephen one of my dearest friends. Not only is he extremely talented (not to mention quite adorable!), he is one of the hardest working musicians I know. He's burning Nashville up right now and I hope 2010 is going to be a huge year for him! Along with Stephen, CMT's Can You Duet winners, Steel Magnolia, performed. WOW! If you closed your eyes and listened, you would not have known that was only two people and an acoustic guitar! They are amazing and so much fun to hang out with. Ashland had been hit with a nasty snow storm right before the event so I was worried about the turn out but it all worked out perfectly. It was a beautiful night and nothing warms your heart more than giving back to your community. The new year has started off well, I have had a couple of fun sessions the past couple of weeks and I'm excited for what the year has in store for me! No complaints...except for Punxsutawney Phil saying we have six more weeks of winter. Be well and I'll talk to you soon!
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I can't believe it's already that time in my calendar where every day of every week counts to get it all finished! I have been blessed with some great jobs to finish 2009 and look forward to what 2010 holds for me and my art. It's a wonderful process looking back and seeing your own personal growth.
My last family session was with one of my dear high school girlfriends. Her only wish for Christmas this year was a new family portrait with her children. We spent a beautiful day at Ritter Park in Huntington, WV and enjoyed the Fall foliage. I can't express the joy I get from being a part of that. To capture those special moments that reflect the bond and the love and pride in a Mothers eyes, it is why I love being a photographer so much! At the end of the session I decided to take a few individual images of her and I'm so happy I did. We've known each other since we were teenagers but all at once I was looking at this beautiful woman and mother she has grown to be and it made the day all the more special for me. Thank you, Jennifer, for choosing me to share this time with you and your family! September is already coming to a close and I haven't updated my blog since last month! First Friday for October is just a few days away. Well...let's get to it shall we? XFest was all I hoped it would be. I got to photograph all the bands all day and was pleasantly surprised by being allowed into the pit for the headliners. I had my pass but I didn't think I'd get right beside the stage. I absolutely love festivals, not just for the music, that's a given, but also getting to photograph the people around me. It's so great to capture their excitement and happiness for whatever happens to be going on for that moment in time. I'm thrilled with the images I captured and will be adding a lot of these to my collection soon! Shinedown was absolutely amazing, always a pleasure to catch them live. Split Nixon played early in the day and capped it off by headlining the after party so needless to say I didn't get to sleep until 5:30 the next morning. Some of the guys from Bobaflex and Tantric even made it over for that just to hang out and relax. Thanks to all the guys from X106.3, Brandon, Erik and Shroom for a tremendous XFest 2009! I can't imagine what next year will hold.
I got a last minute job the very next weekend for Ashland's Poage Landing Days. That is a 3 day festival with music every day, family activities, great food and amazing artists. To be a part of it this year was incredible. The volunteers who come together to pull it off are a pretty outstanding team of people. They made it look absolutely seemless...not an easy task. Thank you, Philip Stewart, for the opportunity to work with you all this year! I enjoyed every minute. I got to photograph the meet and greets with the headliners, Joey+Rory and John Anderson. That was the most stressful part of the whole weekend for me. Right before John Anderson came off his bus to meet his fans the tour manager looks at me and says, "One shot each"...no pressure there. It was fine though and out of all the shots I only had one little girl who blinked, not bad. :) I can't even list all the bands who were there this year, the list would be very long and it's getting late. I really enjoyed it because along with the headliners there were a lot of my friends from Nashville playing with their bands and plenty of my local music friends who I love so much! Okay, so to sum it up, I've had a wonderfully busy September filled with music, music, music! Now it's time to get ready for First Friday at the studio. Peace... It's getting quiet around the house, a sign that the weekend is winding down around here. I'm always the last one to bed. I'm a total night owl and it doesn't look like that's ever going to change. I'm glad I got to spend some time with Mom today. She needed help installing her new printer so we got to visit while I did that. Always enjoy my "Mom" time. She's my sunshine.
What an incredibly busy week last week! I have so much work going on right now and that's fine by me. Everyone who knows me knows that I like to stay busy. I work a full time job plus work at night on my artwork and photography projects. I try to get to my art studio as much as possible on the weekends since I do all my painting there. I have a lot to juggle so I have to manage my time wisely. I was happy I didn't have anything planned for this weekend and didn't have anywhere to be so I could relax a little and stay home. I spent all day Saturday in my jammies editing new images and organizing new work files from recent concerts. There's a huge music festival coming up in just a couple more weeks in Huntington, WV that I'm getting anxious for ~ 106.3's X-Fest. This year's line up is 12 bands on two stages. I have t-shirts to finish designing and order for the Split Nixon boys. This year's headliner is Shinedown who I have seen several times and look forward to seeing again! Also looking forward to Tantric, Chevelle and Bobaflex, I haven't seen them live in awhile. There are new acts who I haven't heard yet, Since October and Adelita's Way, I really don't know what to expect from them. All I know is it's going to be an absolutely awesome day of rockin' and rollin' and I can't wait to document it! I love my life! Nice way to start the week, the official announcement for my website went out and "WOW" is all I can say. Thank you to everyone who has already visited and sent wonderful messages. I have to say I was overwhelmed.
I had a really great day yesterday with my photography girls, Libby and JBird. We have been talking about having a little field trip day for ourselves to just go out somewhere and shoot all day so we finally did it. We drove to the historical Greenlawn Cemetary in Columbus, Ohio, founded in 1848 and spanning 360 acres. Unbelievable history there, it was incredible to see. There are six separate areas just for the war veterans, each one dedicated to a specific war with the oldest being the Civil War. The architecture of the crypts is like nothing I've ever seen, described as late Victorian and some Mesopotamian Egyptian and some have Tiffany stained-glass. It has a pond called "The Pit Pond" that is recognized by the Audubon Society, a butterfly preserve and a long list of famous folks. I researched a little and found one person on the list is Otis Harlan who was the voice of Happy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I'm happy to have experienced a place such as this. Captured a lot of beautiful images to remember it and had a really great day with friends. I'm so excited to share my first website design with all of you! I hope you enjoy checking out my galleries and seeing what's new. I look forward to hearing your comments. This is my little space to share my personal and professional happenings with you and I promise to keep you updated! Welcome to Dangy's World :)
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