We were fortunate enough to get the opportunity to photograph these two beautiful families. The Hudocks and the McGoverns were a joy to shoot. They have adorable children and they were all ready to play and let us be creative in getting just the right shots.
Family portraits are a very special way of recording your family through the years. We were honored to be a part of such a personal endeavor, and we look forward to being a part of the telling of your personal family story, as well.
On October 22, 2011, Macbeth Photography was out shooting the PCL company picnic. What a fun group of people!
Games were played, food was eaten, a great time was had by all, and Jim Hobart was there capturing all the moments that make these kinds of experiences so memorable.
Macbeth Photography recently shot the Annual Turner Classic Golf Tournament, where a fantastic group of people came out to support the efforts to raise funds.
This was our third year covering the event, and once again, we had a great time with all the golfers and volunteers.
Thank you to all of you who were generous enough to participate, whether you contributed financially or with your hardwork and time.
Our first official family portrait shoot, in our new studio. Jim decided to record the whole shoot with timelapse photography, which made it even more fun. Check it out!
The new studio space is perfect and Jim, while being a complete professional, is quite adept at keeping people comfortable and even entertained during his shoots.
Tristan and Sierra were thrilled with the whole experience, and I loved the pictures Jim got of us. We had a blast and we can’t wait to do it again!
Come be the next family to experience our new studio space and get some fantastic family portraits!
So, we are in our new studio, and we decided to photograph our first time setting up lights for a simple portrait shoot. Only, instead of just snapping a few shots here and there, we opted for mounting a camera in the corner of the room and shooting some time-lapse footage of the process. We’ve got a great space and would love to show it off.
So come downtown Friday, October 7, and join us for our [FREE] First Friday Fotos. We will be doing executive portraits/headshots. You will get an image suitable for your social media, web bio, etc. If you would like a bigger image or prints, they will be available for purchase.
Here’s how it’s gonna go…..light snacks, good company, and 15 minutes in front of the camera. We plan on having a great time and know you will, too! We are located at 130 S. Orange Ave. Ste. 204, Orlando, Fl. 32801. We are in the Kress building, directly across from The Plaza. There is parking available in the parking garage behind The Plaza. When you come into the Kress building, you will find the elevator behind the stairs by EgoLab. Take the elevator to the 2nd floor and follow the signs to Ste. 204/Odyssey Creative.
Come have fun with us and check out our new space!
Call us at 407-454-2902, with any questions.
OPERATION CATNIP: My self-assignment this month was to travel to Gainesville and document the Operation Catnip program for July. A friend (Lisa Durant) told me about it last month, and I thought it would be worth it to go and see it for myself, and bring back some photos to show everyone else.
Once a month since 1995, the University of Florida veterinary school hosts this program to spay & neuter as many feral and stray cats as they can trap. People volunteer to trap them and bring them to the Sunday morning event, and then take them back where they were found at the end of the day.
This girl and her family brought in several strays from their neighborhood.
First a group of volunteers completely covers the floor with plastic, to keep who-knows-what from the random stray and feral cats off the linoleum.
The cats are separated by sex, and each given a sheet with a unique number for the day, to track everything that happens to them.
To prepare for the rapid pace once things get started, the volunteers prepare pre-measured doses of anesthetics, in bins based on the size of the animal.
Everyone gets into their place, and checks his or her station to make sure there are plenty of supplies for the 200 or so customers they are going to see today. The logistics and coordination involved in this project are mind-boggling.
First: corner the cat in the trap, and administer a quick shot of anesthetic through the cage. In a few minutes, the cat will be under.
My friend Lisa Durant -- who's the reason I'm here in the first place -- is assigned to work with the anesthetic team, starting each animal's chart, and recording the exact dosage each receives (it varies by weight).
Once the cat is under the anesthetic, the volunteers move quickly. They begin by checking for a chip, to make sure this isn't someone's housecat that just happened to escape.
Next they "tip" the cat's left ear, as a permanent indication that it has been through the Catnip program, and is sterilized. This saves time if the cat is caught in a trap again in future.
The females are then strapped to a board in position for their operation, and their bellies are shaved.
After they've been shaved, they get swabbed with alcohol and some other sterilizing substances. The last one looks like soy sauce.
Order up! Racks of anesthetized, shaved, cleaned and prepped female cats, waiting for the next available surgeon.
Ready for surgery.
A prepped cat is delivered to the next surgeon available. It takes about half an hour for an experienced vet to do a female operation.
Despite the mass numbers of patients, the doctors are meticulous, and don't seem at all rushed. They treat every operation with care.
The male cats get a different operation, of course, which is quicker and doesn't require them to be strapped to a board.
This is the team working on the male cats. They don't require a full surgical table, and so can be done in much less space.
Here you can get a sense of the logistics involved in this project. There are so many people it's hard to keep track, but each one knows his or her job, and the system works surprisingly smoothly.
Once in a while you'll hear someone shout "NOT BREATHING", and a team will immediately go to work on a cat that has had a reaction to the anesthetic. They use a combination of techniques, including oxygen and a drug that stimulates respiration. They get them breathing again quickly, and then tag them for careful observation during the procedures.
The crash-cart team gets a cat breathing again, after it's had a bad reaction to the anesthetic. This only happens in a very small percentage of the patients.
Everyone is a volunteer, but this is also an opportunity for teaching and learning. Here a veterinarian demonstrates stitching technique to a student.
Once a patient has had a "not breathing" incident, she is kept on oxygen throughout the procedure, and is watched closely until fully awake again.
Immediately after the patients are anesthetized, their eyes are coated with some kind of gel, which stops them from drying out during the 30 - 45 minutes that they are unconscious.
Finally, the patients arrive at the end of their ordeal, and their paperwork is filed. They have already received their injection to reverse the anesthetic, and must be put back in their cage before they start to wake up.
Rows of cages containing groggy cats. Until they're awake, they can't properly regulate their body temperature, so the cages are placed under heat lamps (along the far left wall) until the cat is fully awake.
This guy had woken up, but was still very confused and didn't seem able to focus properly. Seems it takes a while for the anesthetic to fully wear off.
Well, that’s a summary of this enormously complex and detailed project, as I saw it.
Follow this link to see the full set of photos from the day, including all the doctors and most of the volunteers.
Big thanks to Lisa Durant for letting me know about this, and to the team of dedicated volunteers who make it happen every month, and who gave me access to document it. I’d love to hear your comments… please let me know what you think below.
Where were you at dawn three Sundays ago? You were probably not at New Smyrna Beach- but MACBETH Photography and REBUILD Globally was! This was not only a fantastic project but also an honor to work with such an amazing organization.
REBUILD Globally is a non-profit that was formed after the devastating earthquake on January 12, 2010. REBUILD Globally was established to improve the lives of those most affected in Port-au-Prince and the surrounding area of Haiti via provision of living wage employment opportunities. How do they do this? They recycle tires into the soles for sandals! REBUILD Globally has turned trash into treasure with these affordable and stylish sandals that help Haitian self-sufficiency and education.
The first day of shooting started at dawn in New Smyrna Beach. With a dedicated staff and models- everyone was excited to get started! We began on the roof and finished on the beach. We were blessed to have amazing weather despite seeing rain literally surround the location of the shoot- definitely lucked out! The sun wasn’t too harsh and consequently the light was much easier to work with. This was a great shoot for a great cause.
This Memorial Day, MACBETH Photography was pleased to do a photo shoot for Latham, Shuker, Eden & Beaudine, LLP’s new office. They are now located on the 14th floor of the building formerly known as the Dynetech building on Lake Eola- what a view!
We decided to shoot on Memorial Day, while the office was empty, in order to get the photos online in time for the open house later in the week. High Dynamic Range (HDR) technique was used in order to balance the bright outdoor light from the floor-to-ceiling windows with the relatively low interior light. With spacious windows overlooking the lake, law services have never looked so inviting.
In my continuing series, I am trying to find and photograph sites that are shown in old aerials of the Orlando area, which the History Center has shared with me.
Last week, we were flying over the Orlando International Airport after photographing a construction site, and I happened to notice a building on the northwest corner of the airport property that looked familiar. I fired off a couple of shots, to investigate later. After getting back to the office, I went through my stack of images, and found a shot of what looks like a static display of wartime aircraft. The photo is titled “Pine Castle AFB”, which I had thought was a third Central Florida airport that had been eliminated as the area grew.
But no, apparently Pine Castle AFB is actually the Orlando International Airport, as my new photo illustrates. Notice the rather unique building indicated by the arrow… like nothing else out there. This is right off Tradeport Dr (and next to what is now the Continental hangar). Anyone know what this building is for?
I know that the angle is completely backwards, and that I’m way too high, but when air traffic control tells you to fly 270-degrees (west) at 2,500 ft until clear of the airport, you follow those instructions. I was already almost past it by the time I noticed it, so I just took a couple of quick shots to verify that I had the right building.
I’ll go back and see if they’ll let me match the original angle and altitude.
Any idea when the original photo was taken? Please leave me a comment if you have any ideas…
A couple of months ago, I had an appointment to speak to the curator of the photography archives at the Orange County Historical Society in downtown Orlando. I wanted to see what they had in the way of historical aerial photos of Central Florida, and it turns out they have a treasure trove of great stuff.
There were hundreds of aerial images of Central Florida, including some incredible shots of I-4 being constructed, as well as the city before there was an I-4 bisecting it at all.
My idea was to find some interesting historical photos, and then attempt to shoot the same shot today, matching the area of coverage, direction, altitude and lens. I thought it might be interesting for people to see what landmarks were on a familiar place, say, 50 years ago, and what’s changed since the first photo was taken.
Well, today my friend Brokaw Davis and I went flying for a couple of paying jobs, and then took a detour to see if we could get a couple of test shots done. Below are the first 3 attempts to match an existing photo. Turns out it’s much harder than it would at first seem. None of these are quite right, and in all cases it seems we need to get closer to the site (almost on top of it), and shoot down more. Probably need to use a wider setting on my zoom lens, too.
The ‘original’ photo in each pair is a scan of a photocopy of an original print, so the quality is pretty poor. But when this project is done, I will acquire the high-resolution scans of each of these original images.
I’d be interested to get feedback on what you think of these first shots, and whether this sort of thing is interesting. If so, let me know what locations you’d like to see featured in future THEN AND NOW series. This will be an ongoing project, until I run out of historical photos, or people who want to see them.
This photo was probably taken during 1963; the mall opened in August of 1964, and was one of the first fully air-conditioned shopping centers in Florida. It has since been torn down and replaced with the Winter Park Village, but it was great in its day. Learn more about the Winter Park Mall.
This shot of Loch Haven Park looking east across 17-92, shows how little there was there at the time. I’m still trying to determine the year this photo was taken. Any ideas?
This appears to be a diagram of a proposed structure in the center of Loch Haven Park. It was never built, as far as I know, but I’d love to know more about how it came to be proposed, and how far the planning went. Looks like the Hall of Justice. I would love to know more about this project… any information, please add to comments below.
Well, that’s it for now. I’m looking for feedback, suggestions, critiques, and ways to make this project better. I have many other images to try to duplicate, so I’ll keep adding them as I shoot them.
Thanks for your interest, and your comments below.
