Brett Long Photography

An ongoing debate in our household is whether or not I can call myself a "photographer." I've been assisting Rebecca for every wedding and been with her for 95% of all other sessions outside of Samford stuff. Am I on her level of skill? Absolutely not. However, I've picked up some stuff along the way. I can operate a camera pretty efficiently and she does actually use my pictures a good bit. She occasionally threatens to fire me, but there's no way she could find somebody to work as cheap as me. I really like taking pictures. Its always different, challenging, and a nice change of pace from my business. Its also great getting to work with my wife. A lot of shoots are at inopportune times, nights/weekends, but we're together so I don't mind.

There have now been two occasions in which I have acted completely solo. I joke that I am going to break off and start my own photography business, but that would quickly take away the fun. The first time was last spring when I shot the Southern Conference Track Championship hosted at Samford. Rebecca and Caroline were tied up with Samford stuff, so the conference photographer hired me as his side for the weekend. It was a good time, but weird being on my own.

The second time came this past Thursday night. A family friend called last minute to see if Rebecca was available to shoot a small premiere ceremony for the movie Courageous. The photographer they usually use had backed out. Rebecca was already doing something at Samford, so I called the guy back to tell him she was busy, but I was available if that would do. He would take whomever at this point in the day. So I drove to the theater and went to work.

The movie is the fourth production from Sherwood Films, a ministry of a church out of Georgia. This film is about the importance of fatherhood and depicts the lives of four sheriff's deputies. So the premise of the premiere was to honor the local police officers around the city. Along with a bunch of officers, the state Attorney General Luther Strange was there. Overall attendance was not that great, but the people there were excited.

We had already planned on going the following night with our small group, so I did not stick around for the movie. So my payment for my time was free tickets for Rebecca and me on Friday night. With movie prices these days, its a decent amount for my skill level.

Rebecca touched up my photos when I got home. She even said they were acceptable enough to but her company name on them for media release.

So Brett Long Photography is available for all your photography needs.

The extremely tall man is Attorney General Luther Strange coming in at 6'9"

Samford's Step Sing

This past weekend while I was out of town my wife was consumed with arguably Samford's biggest event of the year, 'Step Sing.' While most schools have tickets scalped for sporting events, this is the one Samford event where tickets are very hard to come by. Step Sing is basically a show choir production where various groups are competing for bragging rights. Rebecca and Caroline brainstormed the idea of creating and selling posters using their photographs to raise money for their photography department. They took pictures opening night, Rebecca designed the posters, and then sold them Friday and Saturday night. Since posters had never been done before no one knew about them and sales were slow at first. By the second night word had gotten around and they were a huge hit. Some groups sold out and had to take additional orders. I joined Rebecca this past Wednesday on campus to set up a table for order pick ups and last chance purchases of extras. The beautiful weather made for a great midday of hanging out with my wife.

Old Times

I'm going to back track a little. We had our first overnight visitors this past weekend. David and Emily came to spend a jam packed weekend with us.

As soon as they got here on Friday, we headed to Samford for a volleyball game. Rebecca had to shoot the final home game of the season. It was David's first volleyball game to see in person. The girls lost unfortunately. We then headed to Jim and Nick's. This has by far been the restaurant we've frequented the most. Partly because its so good, but also because we can walk to it. After stuffing ourselves with cheese biscuits we came back and settled in for the night. We ended up watching our wedding video since it was the only DVD we've unpacked and it was sitting by the TV.

We had to get off to an early start Saturday because Rebecca had to shoot the NCAA Southeast Regional Cross Country Championship at Spain Park. We got Panera Bread for breakfast. While their bagels are good, I don't get the "desiring of them" quite like the females in our group. Anyways, it was a beautiful day so I didn't mind going out there. David and Emily got their long run of the week in while we took pictures of people running. Also we got to see Matt, Mom, and Nathan and Ashley Taylor as they came to watch Matt's girlfriend, Loren, run for MSU. She did very well setting a new personal record and the MSU girls came in 5th overall. The Samford girls came in 10th. It lasted til about noon. After lunch and showers we headed to some furniture stores for the Franci to look at bedroom suits. Our evening activity took place at my parents house to watch MSU vs. Alabama, since they have cable. To make us feel like we were at the tailgate we took the TV on the back patio and watched the game as we sat around the fire. I had a blast combining the two settings. However, I did catch lots of flack for my split allegiance between the two teams. It is something I have dealt with since my freshman year and shows its head every November. I know in my mind it should be an easy decision to ditch the Tide for the Dawgs, since I spent 7 years at MSU and met my wife there, but in my heart the struggle is still there. My loving wife did not let my struggles go unnoticed all weekend. My determination to cheer for the Dawgs did not last long as the game got one sided pretty quick. Another year to work out my issue.

Some are cold than others

Rebecca's usual reaction to football.

We continued to put a dent in our bagel supply then headed to church. David Platt spoke on missions and evangelizing and how we are all called as Christians. Not just the gifted and not at some date in the future, but right now. Afterwards we tried a restaurant other than Jim and Nicks. Our final stop was Red Mango for frozen yogurt.

The fun and busy weekend quickly came to a close. It was like old times having them over for the weekend and I'm sure there will be more to come.

Samford vs. Furman (Toe Girl Update)

This past Saturday Rebecca had to shoot Samford's football game then we hit the road for Tennessee as soon as she got done editing. I only took pictures for the first quarter, then I started going through her pictures in the press box to help speed things up after the game. Samford ended up losing 27-10.

I'm keeping an eye the old bulldog "Libby." I'm worried she may not make it one game. They've gotten a new bulldog to take its place, which shouldn't be too much longer.

The main reason for this post was to keep updated on 'toe girl' (What Rebecca, Caroline, and I now affectionately refer to her as). If you want to revisit my "Samford vs Appalachian State" post back in Samford it will get you up to speed on my feelings for her. On the 'dress appropriate' scale she has moved up from 'sideline distraction' to 'non-professional.' Still not to where Caroline asked her to be, but better. She still got in the way several times. She stood by me right at the beginning so I tried to get a no-look shot of the toe. Not the best, but you get the idea. The big annoyance this week was she constantly crossed over the media line. There is a line of photographers behind the line and then her, out on the field, blocking all of us. Caroline was about to tell her to stay back, but the ref beat her to it. He told her to "stay behind the line where you belong and I'll stay out here where I belong."

Sweet Justice.

Samford vs Appalachian State

Samford's second home football game was yesterday against Appalachian State, the Alabama of division II football. So nobody was expecting Samford to win. They put up a good fight and kept it respectable though, 35-17. The only bad thing about the game was that it was during the Alabama game and it kept us from going to Starkville to see MSU play Georgia. I solved the first problem by taking a radio and listening while I was on the sidelines.

Once again I helped Rebecca on the sidelines and took a few pictures myself. Rebecca's boss, Caroline, was there so we had three cameras going. I stayed on the sidelines until halftime. At that point I went up to the press box to start unloading her pictures from the first half. The press box was also nice because it was air conditioned, had drinks, and had the alabama game on tv.

It was much easier to shoot in the daylight, especially with my primitive lens I use from Rebecca's film days. I actually got one of my pictures on Samford's website. That was the first touchdown Samford scored. Rebecca and Caroline were on the other end of the field so I didn't have much competition for that shot.

Rebecca and Caroline in their proper attire.

Another interesting sub-story taking place on the sidelines deals with a photographer from the yearbook staff. She has been down there the past two games and managed to get in my way a couple of times. So she already isn't on my good side. A second offense is her dress attire, which to me says 'look at me, not the football game' (She's not exactly Erin Andrews either). Caroline has told Rebecca to wear pants or long shorts and tennis shoes. Reason being is the action often carries over the sidelines so you need to be able to move and if you were to get knocked over, you don't want be a youtube hit when you're dress comes up over your head. Well, the first game this girl wears a short dress and flip flops. She's constantly going over the media line and just not acting professional. I didn't see it, but at some point the action spilled over to where she was and when she got uncovered from the pile her little piggy that went to the market did not come home with its nail. Ouch. So you think next game she would dress a little differently. Nope, short skirt and sandals. It did give Rebecca a chance to get a shot of the victimized toe. She won't be a foot model anytime soon. As you can tell, I didn't have much sympathy.

Gross.