Anything Goes Wednesday: Zombies & California

For anyone who reads this blog on a consistent basis, how are you liking the new format? I posted Trina & Shawn’s engagement session on Monday full of pictures of the two lovebirds frolicking around Piedmont Park. Then on Tuesday I got a but technical and blogged about the previous weekend’s creativelive event with Doug Landreth and showed some before and after Photoshop pictures from Naz & Amir’s engagement session this past Sunday at Centennial Olympic Park. So now today is Wednesday and here is where I would normally post about a million things at once, but I’m seriously going to try to keep things short and mostly on one or two topics.

First, The Walking Dead! Betty and I are always the last to catch on to new things on TV, partly because we don’t have cable television and with Baby Miles we don’t get out much to watch movies in theaters. We rely HEAVILY on Netflix as our connection to what is cool and new out there. Don’t hate us that we finally saw (& loved!) Lost until about 6 months ago when we decided to watch the entire 7 seasons on Netflix streaming. What we just finished watching tonight actually was AMC’s series The Walking Dead. I have to give a mention to this partly because it was filmed in Atlanta and partly because it’s a zombie series. With the series filming it’s second season around Atlanta this month we had to give it a shot and added the DVDs to our queue. It’s neat to see the locations in and around Atlanta on film, including the early episodes in Downtown that are literally two blocks away from our place! My only complaint, and no one mentioned it on the extra features of Disc 2… is that didn’t anyone watch “28 Days Later?” It’s the same plot! Guy wakes up from coma and in the meantime a zombie apocalypse has occurred resulting in the collapse of society. Okay, it’s not exactly the same, but it’s pretty close! Anyway, back to the series, we really enjoyed the first short 6 episodes that comprise Season 1 and can’t wait to see what happens to our group as they leave a demolished CDC…

Which reminds me that I actually have a soft spot for Zombie movies – not horror movies mind you like “The Ring” or “Saw,” I absolutely hate horror movies – but zombie movies!

Here are my favorite zombie movies, what are yours? Do you have any that you recommend?

Shaun of the Dead
28 Days Later/28 Weeks Later
Zombieland
Fido

And I know it’s sort of vampire creatures, but I enjoyed I Am Legend a whole lot and it has that post-apocalyptic feel of a zombie movie. Which makes me think that I enjoy almost any post-apocalyptic movie from Terminator II to Children of Men.

And now for something completely different, to lift your spirits up and stop talking about zombies… CALIFORNIA DREAMING!!

In August I’ll be making the big photographic journey of 2011 back to my favorite part of the country, Big Sur California. These photos were taken by me back in 2009 as part of Betty and I’s honeymoon trip down the California coast where we spent 2 days exploring Big Sur. I absolutely fell in love with the area, and most of California for that matter. Lucky for me the CFO (Betty) has approved a personal projects trip for me to head back over there for a few days to film some time-lapse and work on fine art photographs of the California coastline. I’m also happy to report that I will be traveling with award-winning fine art photographer Richard Auger who I can thank (blame) for getting me into wedding photography back in Orlando! Seriously check out Richard’s amazing fine art work and his award winning photographs that have placed in such prestigious shows as the annual Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival – which is a big deal if you are familiar with Central Florida’s art community!

These photos aren’t bad, but I just know they could be vastly improved from what I know now. Sure we were photographing everything along the way, but since we were driving from one end of California to the other we passed through Big Sur during the middle of the day both days and not the optimal photographic times of sunrises and sunsets. This will be a short little trip to focus on one area of California that I am in love with and really capture the essence of it’s natural beauty.

That’s it for this Wednesday as I stayed true to form and really kept things off-topic! I already previewed one photoshoot this week with Naz & Amir’s session on Tuesday, next up for the Monday big post is Desiree & Greg’s wedding from May 7th followed by Nishi’s Indian Wedding that I shot later that same day at Zyka (you’ll remember her engagement session from this post). Lots of fun stuff coming up on the blog, stay tuned!!

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Equipment Used in This Shoot – California Photos from 2009 (B&H Affiliate Links)

Nikon D90 Digital SLR
Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 (Kit Lens – the only wide angle we had back in 2009!)

See, it’s not about the gear, right? Sure we shoot with a top of the line Canon 5D Mark II or Nikon D700 now with professional “L” f/2.8 lenses, but we all started somewhere! This was our travel kit back in 2009, a simple Nikon D90 and kit lens that still takes great photos.
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Zachary Long is a fine art photographer and established Atlanta wedding photographer who thinks each and every wedding or portrait session is a chance to create a new masterpiece of fine art for his lucky couple. Check our rates and availability on our main site at http://www.FengLongPhoto.com/ or contact Zac via email at FengLongPhoto@gmail.com