ten1 Photography's Blog

Blog Move

ten1photography — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:02:22 +0000

Instead of trying to keep up with a Blog on a separate website, I’ve moved my Blog over to my main page. You can find it here. See you there!

2010 Weight Loss

ten1photography — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 18:42:14 +0000

Here’s a comparison shot from 2008 of me when I was heavier compared to where I’m at now. I’ve lost 68 lbs. thus far and am shooting for 100 lbs total loss by the end of the year. Hopefully I can get there before Thanksgiving and the kick off of the eating…I mean holiday season!

2008

2010

- Dave

Summer….wait, where did it go???

ten1photography — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:17:26 +0000

Not that there is anyone here reading this, but it’s been a whopping 3 months since my last update. Amazing that it has taken me this long to come back here and write something. I guess this summer has been a little disappointing for me as I was really looking forward to spending a lot of time at the ball park and honing in my skills as a photographer with some live baseball action. When that all fell apart I really kind of lost the urge to keep track of things this summer since I had planned on keeping a running Blog going about my experiences with shooting for a MiLB team.

So it’s August now, and even though some things didn’t work out the way I had expected them to there have been some amazing things that have happened this summer. First and foremost, I have lost 68 lbs. since January in my effort to get myself into better shape. I’ve dropped at least 3 pants sizes and 2 shirt sizes in that time frame. I’ll have to post a picture from December and then one from now for you to see the difference. Not only have I gotten into better shape but my lovely wife Sarah has also lost 50+ lbs since January which is no small feat in itself. I’m very proud of her for her hard work and for keeping me on the straight and narrow!

We are also working in the background to come up with a different name for our photography business (which we also need to fully get off the ground) other than just ten1 Photography. While ten1 means something to us (it’s our anniversary) it really doesn’t mean anything to anyone else and will probably draw more questions than anything. Plus it’s not like it’s a very snappy name so I won’t shed a tear over changing it. The problem is that we’re having a hard time trying to come up with something that’s personal to us (using our last name of Douglas) and still be able to create our own niche on the web with a unique URL. Unfortunately my last name is so dang common it’s almost impossible to come up with something that is unique. However, there are a few ideas in the works and hopefully in the next month or so we’ll have changed the name and gotten a new URL. Then maybe I can move the Blog onto my main page instead of having to link it to WordPress, but one step at a time.

One thing I am looking very forward to is our upcoming trip to Alaska. 11 wonderful nights (4 nights in Alaska on a land tour, then a 7 night cruise back to Vancouver) of vacation away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life where Sarah, Belinda (my mother in-law) and I can sit back, relax, eat some good food and take tons of pictures and enjoy our wonderful landscape. I’ll be sure to upload all of our shots once we return (and I spend the hours going through them, deleting the blurry ones and processing a few of them).

There are other things happening in my life that I’m not quite ready to share just yet. When the time comes I’ll be sure to post something about what has been going on. Everything on the everyday job front has been going well. I had my 10 year anniversary with my company back in July, which is a milestone for me. I finished the summer USTA tennis season with a record of 3-1 in singles. Our team isn’t playing ALTA this fall so I’ve signed up for the K-Swiss league to play some singles during the week and will be joining another friend’s ALTA team for some Saturday doubles tennis. I’m looking forward to this quite a bit as I feel like it’s a good chance to meet some new people and have some different competition.

I’m going to try to put some updates on here at least 3 or 4 times a week as I enjoy writing about what’s been happening. (I think it helps my memory too!)

I’ll leave you today with a picture from back in early July off Matt Young (of the G-Braves) stretching to get back to the back after he over slid it in a stolen base attempt. He was safe…

- Dave

ALTA Tournament…we tried!!!

ten1photography — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:01:29 +0000

Been a while since I’ve updated this blog, so here is an update. Charles and I entered the ALTA men’s double’s tournament that took place this week at the Sandy Springs Tennis Center. We played our first (and unfortunately our only) match last night and lost to a couple of guys that play C2. That’s important because Charles and I play C5 (3 levels lower than those guys) but we did win one set. The final score was 6-3, 1-6, 6-1. It was the first time we have had to go to a 3rd set, and I think Charles and I could have played 5 sets if we could. Sometimes I wish it was best of 5…that would force some of these guys who aren’t in good shape to actually get in shape. Oh well, I get the summer off from competitive tennis since our USTA team is playing at 3.0 still and for some reason I got bumped to 3.5 so I can’t play with them. So I’ll resume my competitive tennis in the fall with ALTA. In the meantime I’ll continue playing against my good friends Daniel, Brian, and trying to beat Charles in singles.

Mother’s day is this Sunday, and my sister and my 2 nephews are coming into town today and will be spending the weekend with us. It’ll be good to see them as we haven’t seen them in a few months and I’m sure they are both growing like weeds. My oldest nephew is playing T-Ball now which brings back fond memories I have of playing T-Ball and little league growing up for 14 years of my life. Those were the days. I can’t even play baseball at all now, it has to be Softball, at least until I turn 35 that is. Then I can play in the Adult baseball leagues, and I am excited about that! I’ll have to rehab and strengthen my shoulder that I separated about 7 years ago though as it is still weak and hurts occasionally.

Sarah and I saw an amazing end to the Gwinnett Braves baseball game on Saturday 5/1. By the time we had gotten to our seats in the top of the first, the Braves were down 4-0. They fought and clawed their way back but were still down 6-4 in the bottom of the 9th. After making the first out of the inning, Matt Young singled, then stole second and was driven home on a single by Wes Timmons. Freddie Freeman singles and Wes moved to third, and Wes scored on a single by Barbaro Canizares. So the game is tied with runners on first and third with 1 out and up steps Mitch Jones who has already homered in the game. He promptly puts one over the left field foul pole that the home plate umpire signals as a home run. The celebration begins! Of course, the argument from the PawSox manager begins as well, and after a brief meeting with the other umpires, they revers the call and say the ball was foul. So Mitch comes back to the plate and promptly walks to load the bases. Brent Clevlen is up next and he walks on 5 pitches, bringing the winning run home. So 2 walk off wins in one night…simply amazing and the fans were eating it up!

I’ll leave you today with a shot of the celebration of the victory.

(Also, the picture of the day on the right is of the Braves #1 prospect Freddie Freeman displaying his sweet swing)

- Dave

I Hate Hospitals

ten1photography — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:19:25 +0000

So my father called me on Tuesday and told me that his doctor wants him to have a heart catheterization just as a precaution. He doesn’t think there’s anything seriously wrong, but he wants to get it done just to make sure. So I got up at 4:30 AM this morning and drove out to his house to take him to the hospital to have this done. Since my mother hasn’t driven in a while and we’re not sure if she would be able to drive him home, I wanted to take him to the hospital and also take him back home just to make sure he is safe. So I’m sitting here in the waiting room right now trying to keep busy so that I won’t think about what he’s going through back there. Hopefully the procedure goes off without a hitch and they don’t have any blockages in his system. I told him he needed to stop eating fried chicken.

It just came on the news here that the pollen count in Atlanta is 1470 today. Oy Vey! ***Knocks on Wood*** Thankfully this year I haven’t really had a flare up of my allergies that I seem to always have around this time of the year. I’ve even worked in the yard for 2 weekends straight with Sarah and still I have yet to need an allergy pill. I hope this is a sign of things to come for me this year!

It looks like the work for the City of Suwanee is about to pick up here now that spring is upon us. I’ll at least have some more time this summer to devote to that contract now that I am not doing anything for the Gwinnett Braves, so I guess that’s a good thing considering that they actually pay me and the GB’s were not paying me.

Sarah and I did attend a game here recently though, so I’ll leave you this morning with my favorite shot of the game we attended on 4/10 of the team celebrating after their 2nd win of the season (they’re 2-5 so far).

The Weather is Beautiful

ten1photography — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:37:21 +0000

So after getting a good 10 hours of sleep last night (the first time I’ve slept a full night in about 3 days) I feel really refreshed today. The weather is gorgeous outside with a high of 71 today and not a cloud anywhere to be seen. Unfortunately Sarah had some work to do this morning while I was finishing up my long slumber, but now we’re about to go out and attack the day. I think we’ll go to the park and get a good walk/run in first to get our exercise out of the way, then after that…who knows!

I’ll update later…

- Dave

A New Day

ten1photography — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:18:23 +0000

The thunderstorm that rolled through Atlanta yesterday washing away all of the yellow/green pollen that had accumulated over everything (and is still on my car since it spent the entirety of the storm in the garage) is like a cleansing of the palette. Today is a new day, the sky is blue, the sun is shining and the weather is gorgeous again. I think Sarah and I might go to the Gwinnett Braves game tonight and try to locate us a new section to sit in this year. I don’t think we’ll be buying season tickets since that’s a tough commitment to make, but we’ll definitely attend our fair share of games as we both enjoy going out to the ballpark from time to time.

This has been a rough week at work for me. After putting in a 13 hour day on Monday, then a 19 hour marathon day from Wednesday to Thursday (early morning) and then back at work at 12:30 AM early this morning, I’m beat. I’m going to get out of here in a couple of hours though and head to the house and catch me a well deserved nap. It’s been a while since I’ve had to work such crazy hours like this, and it really takes a toll on your body when you get out of your normal routine. Hopefully next week will be better…because it’s spring but I am not a spring chicken anymore that’s for sure.

I finally got around to uploading the pictures we took in Venice, Italy back in 2008 to it’s proper gallery on our site yesterday. After looking at the shots again, it really makes me want to just take off, sweep Sarah away and go somewhere. We love to travel so much, but her paltry 2 weeks of vacation she gets with her job is a real buzzkill for any major trips that we try to plan. We can get normally one in per year, but I want to do so much more! What else am I going to do with my 5 weeks of vacation that I get!

Enough rambling for now…I needed to do something to help keep me awake. Writing is always good therapy and keeps my brain working which in turn will keep me awake. For your viewing pleasure today, I have one of our favorite shots from Venice…Sarah took this as we were passing under a bridge on our Gondola ride. I miss Venice…and I love my wife so very much!

- Dave

Internship Giveth…and then taketh away…

ten1photography — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:39:05 +0000

Well, that was probably the shortest lived internship for anyone…I never even got to shoot anything for the Gwinnett Braves before being told today that they would have to sever our relationship. I guess I figured you had to have a relationship before it could be severed, but apparently not. Oh well, you live and learn I guess…tomorrow will be better than today.

As for now, I need to concentrate on my job that pays the bills and make sure everything that is going on tonight will go through without a hitch. I’m feeling more confident about it now though…too bad I’m stuck here at work until at least 11 PM.

- Dave

Media Day

ten1photography — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:10:58 +0000

It’s been a while since I have posted here, but since my internship with the Gwinnett Braves is about to get started at their Media Day this afternoon I figured it was time for an update. I’m really excited to be able to meet all of the players and get some candid shots of them interacting with the media, and also get a chance to walk around the baseball stadium again. Opening day is only 2 days away now. Unfortunately they are predicting thunderstorms for that day, so I’m not sure if they’ll get the game in or not, but we can hope!

I’ll try to post some shots from today when I get a chance later this evening.

- Dave

Blah, Blah, Blah

ten1photography — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:49:09 +0000

It’s been a pretty boring week for me as far as anything exciting happening. Just going to work every day, exercising at night, spending time with my wife and then going to bed. The Winter Olympics have been interesting to watch though as the Americans have really ramped up their effort and are winning a lot of medals. Currently team USA is leading in the overall medal count with 28 total medals and 7 gold. Germany has 7 gold too but only 24 total medals. The host country Canada is in 4th place with 15 total medals (even though 7 of them are gold).

I have about another month before baseball season starts and I’m going to get really busy attending most of the home Gwinnett Braves games. I will be shooting the game on 3/13 between Oglethorpe University and Denison University as a sort of “spring training” for me. I’m a bit rusty on my baseball shooting as I haven’t shot a game since last year until I went to the Georgia Tech baseball game this past weekend. It was relieved to see it only took me a couple of innings to get my timing back, so hopefully I’ll be on top of my game by the time the 13th rolls around.

Speaking of the Georgia Tech game, I went to that game with my friend Joey who is a student at GT. He invited me to go and I’m glad that I did. We were questioned while we were there though about not having any credentials. For some reason the guy gave me a full season photography credential for all of the GT baseball games this year. He asked that I send him some shots that I take, so I’ll be sure to send him a link from all of my galleries. I guess I’ll have to go back down there a couple of times this year since I have free reign now to shoot what I want at the games.

Today’s picture of the day is also this week’s picture in my weekly photo project. If you click on it and look closely you can see the dust cloud coming off the bat due to the hitter making contact with the ball.

-Dave