Beltway Church of Christ Ladies Day

Theme: Boots on the Ground for God, Walking Boldly in Faith. Ephesians 6:13-16

Sisters at the Beltway Church of Christ in Camp Springs, MD held their Ladies Day fellowship on Saturday, November 1, 2025 with Earlene Bryson from Los Angeles, CA as Guest Speaker. A wonderful time was had by all.

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I have been shooting models, actors, families and others for a number of years now and have 5 suggestions that I think will be helpful for those considering a shoot especially for the first time.

1. The Appointment.
Sit down and discuss with the photographer the purpose of the photography and what you expect as far as location, looks, wardrobe, delivery, usage, and any special requests. Ask questions and decide whether or not the photographer can deliver and expect to pay a professional price for professional pictures. If you come to an agreement, decide on a date that you know you can keep, sign the contract, make your deposit, and be sure to keep the appointment. Final payment is expected on or before the day of the shoot.

2. The Wardrobe.
Bring the clothes that were discussed but also bring a few additional backup items in case the key wardrobe items that you brought don’t work. Make sure the items you bring fit properly and are flattering. Oversize clothes or clothes that are too tight can ruin your look. If you are doing a variety of looks I often ask people to include a basic pair of jeans and a basic white shirt as one. Also, have your clothes organized so that you can quickly change from one look to another. When you change clothes, keep all your things in one place so that you are not likely to leave anything behind.

3. The Hair.
Make sure your hair is behaving and is the way you like it. Guys, get your hair cut or make sure that you are comfortable with it. Don’t get to the shoot and be surprised at how it looks. Ladies, make sure your hair is manageable, and that there are not unattractive loose hairs sticking out or other issues. If you get to the photography session and you decide you don’t like the way your hair looks that can be a real downer. Unless you have made some arrangements there won’t be a hairdresser on the set. You can not expect the photographer to edit your hairstyle unless you are prepared to pay extra.

4. The Makeup.
With digital photography everyone except for young children need makeup. This includes men. This makeup should be applied on site by a makeup artist who understands photography. Having this makeup artist on site allows whatever needed changes that need to be done. It also allows the photographer and makeup artist do a check in the photographer’s light before the shoot begins. The photographer is responsible for the final image and is not going to want to try to digitally correct makeup his team did not apply.

5. The Fun.
Photo shoots are work but should also be enjoyable occasions. Come rested, bring music if you like, and be ready for a fun occasion. Relax, trust the photographer and don’t be nervous about how you are going to look in the pictures. It is the photographer’s job to have the pictures turn out the way you discussed. He or she will make suggestions that will help and will check with you to see if you’re headed in the right direction.

Congratulations! Be happy that you have taken the time to create images that you, your family, organization can enjoy for many years.

I would love to know if you have any other suggestions.

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Starting in Anchorage during the early morning, the tavelled along the countryside showing beautiful greenery. Other spectacular views included wildlife, glaciers, and aircraft parked in backyards.

As a photographer I could point my camera in any direction and see something unbelievably beautiful. So much beauty that by the end of the trip my hands were tired!

The price for the approximately 4-hour trip in each direction was reasonable.

The trip on Alaska Railroad was well worth it! I look forward to returning to The Last Frontier for another train ride.

Have you been to Alaska? What was your favorite train journey?

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When looking for professional headshots or portraits, call on Lonnie Dawkins Photography.

Models, actors, and companies have used our photo services and received images that have gotten them great results. Located in convenient Prince George’s County, Maryland we are easily available to the entire Maryland, Washington DC, and Virginia Metropolitan Region.

Headshots that get you noticed! Portfolios, comp cards, and more.

We also coach new models in building a portfolio.

Book your photography today!

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by Lonnie Dawkins

J.P. Ball at one time was considered the best photographer in the Cincinnati area and later one of the best and most successful in the nation, yet few people have ever heard of him. Prior to this study this writer’s knowledge of famous African American photographers was limited to James Van der Zee and those who came afterwards such as Gordon Parks and Monetta J. Sleet. Though not renown today for his work, Ball might very well be worthy of being a peer to other better known photographers such as Matthew Brady. It seems that Ball’s peers are often limited to other African American photographers such as Augusta Washington, Daniel Freeman, and Jules Lion. A closer look at his work as revealed in the book J.P. Ball, Daguerrean and Studio Photographer by Deborah Willis clearly shows that this was a photographer who has left a treasure.

Bio

Born a free man in Virginia in 1825, Ball was a not only an extremely successful Daguerrean/photographer but was a businessman and dabbled in politics later in his life becoming a Montana delegate to the Republican convention in 1894. His reputation spanned from his beginnings in Virginia to Cincinnati to Minneapolis to Montana to Seattle and finally to Hawaii. He produced hundreds of photographs of the white, black, and Chinese community. He was the official photographer of the 25^th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and photographed the construction of the Montana state capital. Many of his studio portraits and photographs of public events are archived by the Montana Historical Society. His photographs chronicle a changing community. They depict immigrants from Asia and Europe as well as migrants from all over the United States.^[i]

Books

The book J.P. Ball, Daguerrean and Studio Photographer by Deborah Willis includes about 300 of Ball’s pictures including people of all walks of life. Mostly it includes portraits of what appears to be well to do people. This collection clearly shows that Ball had a vast array of clients who sought out his work. Curiously it seems that each person has their left arm leaning on a chair, post, or table. There are wonderful group pictures including families and schools. Almost all pictures are of people and only a few are of buildings. Each portrait shows the studio that Ball owned at the time. Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Albumen prints, carte-de-visite and Albumen cabinet card are the mediums. 

Highlight of the book is the pictures of William Biggerstaff which is discussed shortly and the Ball’s Splendid Mammoth Pictorial Tour of the United States Comprising Views of the African Slave Trade; of Northern and Southern Cities; of Cotton and Sugar Plantations; of the Mississippi, Ohio and Susquehanna Rivers, Niagara Falls, & C. and the pamphlet that accompanied it.

Injustices

J. P. Ball’s great contribution to history and photography is his coverage of the injustices of slavery and the lynchings that took place in the 1900. He used his photographic skills to expose the abhorrent institution of slavery by promoting antislavery activities. ^[ii] Deborah Willis, historian and photographer in her book Reflections in Black, A History of Black Photographers 1840 to Present reflects on how “visual representations of black people commonly produced on postcards and sheet music depicted exaggerated features and demeaning situations that have left enduring negative impact, one that has endured to this day.” Ball’s photography and the work of other black photographers contradicted this by showing more realistic depictions of both ordinary and famous people. “Most of their African-American clients wanted to celebrate their achievements and establish a counter image that conveyed a sense of self and self-worth.”^[iii]

William Biggerstaff Lynching

One of his most moving documentation was the photography of the lynching of William Biggerstaff. In a series of photographs Biggerstaff who was accused of murder is first pictured in a suit with a flower pinned to his lapel and a handkerchief in his pocket. The timing was Montana in 1854 shortly before Biggerstaff; a former slave was to be hung for the crime of murdering a man. The next picture is one of Biggerstaff being hanged, again dressed in a suit. Finally, he is shown in a in a casket dressed in a suit. These pictures brought dignity and humanity to a black man. 

Margo Jefferson describes some other photography of lynchings thusly as pictures of perpetrators and spectators who treated lynchings as family affairs, civic celebrations, picnics (the preferred terms was “ Negro barbecue”) and some kind of sexual catharsis. A lot of the men have rugged dusty look of bit players in old westerns, and the strike movie attitudes for the camera or clasp the ankles of the dead man sternly”. Some wear white shirts, ties and straw boaters. (One young man with immaculately styled hair looks dressed to call on his sweetheart once the lynching’s done.) “^[iv] Ball made an important contribution to history by showing how these people were human beings with families and dignity.

Noted Portraitures

At the same time he took pictures of a vast variety of people famous and unknown, slaves and freemen. His sitters included Frederick Douglass, Henry H. Garnet, Jenny Lind, and Ulysses S. Grant.^[v] Even early in his career it was stated that “Ball was able to attract clients to his rented room: “The Virginians rushed in crowds to his room; all classes, white and black, bond and free sought to have their lineaments, stamped by the artist who painted with the Sun’s rays.””

Abolition Work

Ball is famous for his abolitionist work and his photo panorama: Ball’s Splendid Mammoth Pictorial Tour of the United States Comprising Views of the African Slave Trade; of Northern and Southern Cities; of Cotton and Sugar Plantations; of the Mississippi, Ohio and Susquehanna Rivers, Niagara Falls, & C. This work 2,400 square foot antislavery photo panorama and accompanying charted the slave experience through images of the life in Africa, the horrors of the middle passage, and daily routines in America. It included portraits, cityscapes, and significant events in the history of slavery. It was displayed at Ball’s studio and at an 1855 exhibit at Boston’s Armory Hall.^[vi] This work was in conjunction with Robert S. Duncan and African American landscape artist.

Deborah Willis Research

Currently there is not a lot of information available about photographers such as James Presley Ball. The authority on his work and on black photography is Deborah Willis. Every effort to research seems to point back to her work. Just as James van der Zee was relatively unknown until about 1969 but now is prominently recognized as having made a tremendous contribution to photography, it is very likely that in the coming years that James Presley Ball and others like Augusta Washington and Daniel Freeman will likely receive their proper recognition as prominent photographers.

Ball’s Splendid Mammoth Pictorial Tour of the United States Comprising Views of the African Slave Trade; of Northern and Southern Cities; of Cotton and Sugar Plantations; of the Mississippi, Ohio and Susquehanna Rivers, Niagara Falls, & C.

^[i] http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA02/amacker/photo/death/html

^[ii] Willis, Deborah, Reflections in Black, A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present, New York, 2000, page XVII

^[iii]Ibid, page XVII

^[iv] http://www.racematters.org/blacklifephotos.htm

^[v] Willis, Deborah, ed. J.P. Ball, Daguerrean and Studio Photographer, New York, 1993

^[vi] Ibid, page XVI

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The decision to record history with family photography is a powerful and beautiful way to cherish the present and remember the past. A photograph is a timeless asset that grows in meaning and value as time passes by.  David Phillips

We invite everyone – families and individuals – to schedule a time to have beautiful pictures taken.  Don’t be like others who put it off for until some time in the future.  Unfortunately, that some time in the future never comes.  Your taking pictures gives your love ones something that they can treasure for a life time.

Whether they admit it or not everyone wants a picture with their mom, dad, grandmother, grandfather, siblings and other family members.  Your providing those pictures are treasures never to be forgotten.

Don’t put it off.  Today, is a great day to schedule photography to be shared with your loved ones.

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It was a freezing cold January day in 2009 when we stood in a massive orderly crowd as President Barack Hussein Obama was sworn into office.

Those were peaceful times and security was not as tight..

On Monday crowds strolled the streets of downtown Washington and the areas immediately in front of the White House to see the preparations.

On Tuesday, Inauguration Day, there was no personal space on the Metro, the Mall, or the nearby streets and no one seemed to mind because they wanted to see their new president. If you were there with someone you had to hold on to them or you would be separated.

What a day!

Copyright © 2023 Lonnie Dawkins Photography – All Rights Reserved

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No red, no blue, no green. Just black but lots of color.

Colorful black skin

Models: Jamar Reed, Donte Newman, Michael Rice, Eric Dow

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Maryland Fine Art Portrait photographer focusing on large prints, portfolios, and albums.

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Whether you are an actor, model, business executive, high school senior, or an everyday Joe who needs good pictures! We can provide those images!

• Headshots
• Actor and model portfolios
• High School Senior Pictures
• Business card pictures
• Save the date cards and magnets
• Poster Board Pictures
• and more

Photo Shoots start at $275.

We shoot in studio or at locations throughout the Washington , DC area.

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What’s a family trip without those in the back wondering if we’re there yet!

Here, the big guy gathers his little friends for a trip and before long they are asking that question. Looks like he has a full load. Hopefully, they will be there soon.

Model: Darius

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