Malik kept us all laughing pretty much the entire time. As we finished up at the Art Whino gallery, he walked by an exhibit and slightly brushed it causing it to fall all over the floor. It looked to be one piece but as it fell, we quickly noticed that it was about 10 pieces. As it was falling all we could here him saying was “I am SO sorry”. We all stood with a blank stare scared to find out how much it cost. Come to find out it was only about $90 but what’s even better is it wasn’t broken.

Here are a few images from their shoot!

The image below was from a photo shoot earlier this year for The Bridal House in Charlotte North Carolina.

 My goal is to always get my composition as close as possible to what I am looking for in camera. However adding my personal taste and creating a Clark Bailey Signature image is often times done in post production. In this particular image, I made some adjustments to her skin tone to warm things up just a little. Also her left arm was blocked in the shadows so I wanted to bring it out more. Again it could have passed but it was just one of those things that annoyed me a tad bit. There were also some contrast adjustments made and I brought the detail in the table out just slightly.

Location: Duke Mansion
Wedding Dress: The Bridal House, Charlotte North Carolina
Makeup: Kelley Woods

Eric back on the saddle after almost a 2 year layoff with a broken leg.

Turn 5! One of the craziest turns I have encountered yet!

2 wide going into Turn 5

Mike’s bike all ready to go.

During a practice session, another rider came into Turn 1 to fast, hit Eric’s bike and sheered off part of his tail section.

Track side BBQ!!!!! This is how we roll at the track.

Enjoying a hot day at the track!

Bikes lined up on the grid in 2 waves.

Heading into Turn 1

Mike in Turn 1. The yellow shirt meant this was his first race weekend.

On the next lap, Mike gets aggressive and tries to make a move on the outside.

This wedding could not have played out any better for me. The venue was incredible. Dave and Talisa exchanged their vows at the beautiful Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg Virginia. Now because I did not have the opportunity to meet Dave and Talisa before hand, my introductions had to take place on the big day. As I walk to the grooms suite and proceeded to knock on the door, he opens the door and for a moment we have a brief stare down. He then says, “Yes you know me”. OMG this Dave! We went to the same high school (Riverdale Baptist) and were basketball teammates. Instantly we clicked and I knew the photographs would be that much better because of our connection. When I went back to the brides suite and mentioned it to Talisa, she just laughed, “Dave knows everyone!” Needless to say there were a few other people at the wedding that I attended school with as well. And finally to make the day that much better, the weather. The rain was forecasted to begin at 1pm which was the start time for the wedding. As it turns out, the clouds held back just long enough for us to finish all of our outdoor shooting. Here are a few images from Dave and Talisa’s wedding:

Talisa looking stunning even toward the end of the evening!

A little put-put before the reception.

Dave is a big guy…I found the perfect couch for him.

Daddy and daughter. They smiled and talked the entire dance.

I take thee…

Well everyone, I figured it was time for me to give a real deal inside look at the P90X fitness program by Beach Body. As much as I would have liked, this blog post is not the one that will list my tremendous results that I have achieved over the last 90 days. Nope…this post will be my thoughts on the program about 200 days into it. Yes you read it correctly. But before I get started I will make this statement. The program does work!

I am currently on my 3^rd time of restarting the program. I had initially planned on being complete with my first round of P90X and about to complete my first round of Insanity…but it didn’t work out quite like that. P90X is without a doubt the most intense workout I have ever been involved with. It truly pushes you to ALL of your limits and that is a rare find in the thousands of exercise programs that are on the market today. Early this year, I had decided to become a coach with the company. Now you may be saying to yourself, “You haven’t finished it yet, why are you a coach?”  That is exactly my reasoning. I wanted to be able to inspire others while I am in the trenches with them. Here are the main reasons (not excuses) that I have not completed the program as of yet and I hope that these assist you with your fitness goals especially if you are considering or currently doing P90X.

 Enemies to P90X:

 1. Lack of proper rest. This program has taught me that I HAVE to get sleep. Your body will drain quickly if you don’t because of the amount of energy it takes to complete each workout.

 2. Scheduling conflicts. Doing this program has showed me how busy I actually am. This is something that you do 6 or 7 days a week which means you have to schedule time to fit in your workouts. It’s essential!!!

 3. FOOD FOOD FOOD.  Eating right is so key. It is easy to be on either end of the spectrum. On one end, you can eat ALL the wrong things. On the other end, you can skimp out on eating and then realize you have NO ENERGY and that means NO ENERGY TO WORKOUT. Diet is probably the biggest component to the p90X system.

 4. Taking breaks. I have not met anyone who has told me they did 90 days straight. Usually you will hear, I missed a day or two during any given week. However your body can quickly adjust to that and a couple of days turns into a couple of weeks. At that point you realize that you may not have the strength or energy to just jump back in where you left off.

 BFF’s of P90X:

 1. Plenty of rest.

2. A good clean diet: will help yield fast results

3. SHAKEOLOGY: OMG!!! This stuff is amazingly good. You won’t believe the nutritional value. I make a mean chocolate almond shake to live for!

4. A good support group: It’s always good to talk to people that are in there with you.

5. Goals: Why are you doing it? For me it was about: living healthy, being more fit so I have greater endurance on my motorcycle when I am racing, and of course I wanted to look fit.

Regardless of my setbacks I believe this is a truly amazing fitness program that yields amazing results. I have seen results even where I am now and I personally know others who have finished the program and look incredible! I am dedicated and determined to finish as well as move on to other programs offered through Beach Body. I also love supporting those who are on their fitness journey as well.

If you are looking for more information contact me as well as visit my Team Beach Body website: http://www.fitphotographer.com/ (shameless plug I know… whatever LOL)

Let’s all make a choice to live a healthy life. We owe it to ourselves and to the people that love us.

Oh yeah…because I know some are itching to see progress photos, I promise to post them when I finish. I will probably do the Day 1 and Day 90 photographs.

After a couple of incidents, aka off track excursions, aka wrecks last year… it was time for me to purchase a new helmet. For the last few years I have been wearing a Shoei helmet. This year I opted to go with an HJC. Here are a couple of images of the new dome piece.

In keeping up with my typical yearly tradition, I always buy something new to wear to my first track day or race of the year. This year I picked up a shirt. Now I really like the style and layout of this shirt but what I like a little bit more is the INSIDE JOKE that most of my wedding photography friends will get by looking at it.