Little Lawrence

Look at this little sweetie! I spent just over an hour with little Lawrence and his wonderful family this afternoon and we got lots of fabulous photos.

Here he is all curled up.

Look at his amazing eyes!

A sweet moment with mom.

Love this one!

Here's the beautiful family all together.

We had such a great time making photos today. Thanks for letting me share a little part of your life.

The Kids in the Wedding

The wedding I photographed on Saturday had two beautiful little girls in it.

The first was the cutest little baby in a pink dress with a tulle skirt. She was really too little to be in the wedding but I believe she was an honorary flower girl. Look at those eyes!

And the other was the perfect Junior Bridesmaid. We took her photo in the ladies locker room where the girls were all getting ready.

I love weddings where the kids get to participate in some way. The flower girls and ring bearers always make me smile.

High School Football

Friday nights in Texas in the fall are all about the football. I went to the Fort Worth Country Day vs St. Mark's game this past Friday night and here are some of my favorites from the game.

This was a fun family event and before the game kids were sliding down the grass covered hills surrounding the stadium. I love these little kids. They are having a ball!

The team ran through a banner to kick off the game.

The cheerleaders get the crowd into the game.

The running back stiff arms the defense.

Some cool eye black on the sideline.

The Falcons ended up winning their first home game. How cool is that?

Lightning

It stormed this evening which made me think of a photo I took over 10 years ago of a strike of lightning over Fort Worth. It's funny I shot the photo for the newspaper when I worked there, and I've seen it being used on a facebook fan page to be a fan of Fort Worth. I'm guessing that the person who set up that fan page did not legally buy the photo or the rights to use it but what can you do? It would be nice if the person administering the page would at least give the photographer (ME!) some credit for this awesome picture, right?

It's funny when I think of when I took this photo. I was still shooting film cameras and I was driving back to downtown to process film from an assignment in Denton and it was lightning like crazy over downtown. I pulled over on I-35 and set my camera on the dashboard of my car and just opened the shutter on bulb setting until I saw lightning. I took about 12 frames of film and when I processed the film this was the only one that had any lightning at all in the picture. It's so much easier with digital to look at the back to see if you got the picture but I loved the "old days" when you had to trust your instincts and yourself to be a good photographer.

Wedding Rings

If you follow my blog you know I love photographing the wedding rings. I like to find new and different ways to make that detail unique to the wedding I'm shooting. Here's the latest in my collection of nice ring photos.

This bride had all kinds of cool stuff in the room where she was getting ready and I found this "I do!" ribbon tied around the handle of a bag. I was able to tie the rings up in the ribbon and place them in the window for some nice light and yep...I like it!

Volleyball

High school volleyball was my assignment for the day. If you've ever been there you know that is is not the easiest sport to photograph. You get blocked a lot and it's hard to get both teams in the photo unless one team is all backs. I took about 350 photos and came up with a few I liked.

I love the background in this one. Both teams were wearing red or blue and the flag just makes it work.

A little celebration after an ace.

This is just fun. Mineral Wells had striped socks and the Country Day girl fell to the court diving for a ball and she was surrounded by all the legs. It makes me smile.

More places I was published

See all the red arrows? Those are my photos on the Blogging the Boys website. Yes I'm a nerd. I took a screen grab of the webpage and put the arrows on it to show you. What can I say?

So I totally googled myself after the Cowboys game to see where my photos ran online and I was pleasantly surprised. I was on the ESPN page again and I also got photos on several newspaper websites. So Cool! My mom called today and said my photo was on the front page of the sports section in the Amarillo Globe News and I heard I might have even had a photo run in the Dallas Morning News.

Here's my smiling Tony Romo Photo on NFL Fanhouse.

The nice Vince Young Sack picture in the Sacramento Bee.

A stadium overall on USA Today.

There were a ton of other sites too. I so can't wait for the next time I get to take photos.

Wedding details

I just looked through my wedding photos from Saturday and I got some really great stuff. I'll share a few details with you tonight.

The amazing centerpieces on the head table shot with the cool lighting at the reception.

The Cake.

I got to work with an amazing team of photographers and a way cool DJ. He really kept the party going. It was a fun night.

More Cowboys

I had a crazy work weekend but I loved every minute it. I worked continuously from Friday at 8 am until Saturday at 2 am except for about 6 hours of sleep overnight and a one hour shopping excursion to Kohl's which was actually work related. Call me crazy but I was seriously pumped about my weekend and the photos I took. I haven't even had a chance to look at the wedding photos yet but here are some out-takes from the cowboys game.

Here is Tony Romo taking the field from overhead.

Demarcus Ware was dripping sweat after the game but i'll tell you it was so nice in that stadium. In the past at preseason games in August the field temperature on the turf would be over 100-degrees but it was so cool in the air conditioning with the roof closed. Ahhh...climate controlled sports makes for much more pleasant working conditions :)

Coach was not happy about a call.

One of my favorites from the game. A touchdown pass with a penalty flag. NICE!

Vince Young gets tackled by Demarcus Ware.

I love the expression on the quarterback's face.

The Cowboys defense celebrates a sack as the quarterback walks past with his head down.

I love this one. Vince and Tony after the game on the field. Matt chased the coaches after the game and I chased the quarterbacks. Rarely do I get them both looking my way. I got lucky!

Cowboys

I got the opportunity to take photos on the sideline at the Dallas Cowboys game this evening. It was great. I've really missed being on the sidelines these past few months.

I started out the game way up high in the stands to shoot some over photos. I like the sign. Enjoy the game. I did.

I made my way down to the field in the second quarter to shoot a little action while the starters were still in the game.

Gotta love Tony Romo smiling on teh sideline in the fourth quarter.

Here's me and some of the great people I worked with tonight at the stadium after the game, Donna, Matt and Jessica. Jessica gave me probably the best compliment ever. We were talking about me shooting the games and she said, "You belong here." That was probably the nicest thing I've ever been told about my work as a photographer. Thanks Jessica.

I have a wedding tomorrow so that's all for now. I'll post some more photos from the game later.

Published Photos

It's been a while for me, but I had some photos published today. WOO HOO! I took photos at the Cowboys Stadium for the Associated Press last Friday and the story went out on the wire yesterday. I googled myself today to see what ran and wow. I still get a rush every time I see my photos published. I've always felt that way. I just love seeing my name under the photos that other people are looking at. It gives me such a feeling of pride.

Here are screen grabs from the photos that were published on espn.com These first four are photos from the artwork being installed in the stadium. You can actually go to the page and click on the photos and see them if you like.

This one is a photo I took of the stadium just after the sun went down. There's my name...right there in the caption. So cool!

Do you ever google yourself? Yes it seems weird but occasionally I like to just google myself to see what comes up. It's fun. If i Google Sharon Ellman I come up second to some other Sharon Ellman who also works in the media...weird isn't it. But even weirder...if i google Sharon Steinman I find that there are two of us and we are both photographers! I use Sharon M. Steinman and the other photographer uses Sharon Steinmann. I'm pretty much changing to Sharon Ellman as my byline now since my days at the Star-Telegram are over, I've decided it's time to let it go.

My weekend photos

I had a busy weekend. I spent friday taking photos at Cowboys stadium and Saturday at a resort shooting photos. You've already seen the Stadium pics so here are some resort photos.

I like this one of a kid jumping into the spray from the water fountains.

The resort has some cool waterfalls where you can sit on a ledge and just let the water cool you off. I have a whole series of this kid but I like this one where he looks like a mime pushing on a wall of water.

S'mores are great and they have them every evening at this resort.

This is my favorite photos from the day. The sun was just going down and I filled it a little with the flash.

What will I photograph this week?

Cowboys Stadium Tour

As I blogged earlier I went on a tour of the new Cowboys Stadium today. Actually 2 tours. One was a tour to see the contemporary art that is being installed in the stadium and the other was a tour of the facility. Here are a few of my extra photos from the facility tour.

The stadium is filled with stars and of course I cannot pass up the opportunity to take a self-portrait with a star. And this was quite the star. It graces the ceiling in the lounge for the field level suites on the 50 yard line. The Cowboys will walk underneath it to enter the field.

We were there while they were installing the football turf on the field for the first time.

The sun was setting and reflecting off the mirrored surface of the stadium as I left.

Then I stopped for a different view on my way home.

I can't wait to photograph a game at the stadium. I'm guessing parking won't be as easy as it was today though ;)

Cowboys Stadium

I had a few freelance assignments today and one was at the new cowboys stadium so of course I took the opportunity to shoot a self portrait.

I'll share more of my photos from the stadium later after my tour this evening.

Rehearsal Scrapbook Page

I had a chance to sit down this afternoon and play with a few photos from the wedding last weekend. I decided to make a scrapbook page from the rehearsal.

I used a paper I downloaded from Three Paper Peonies from their Itty Bitty California kit. I liked the color of the paper so I desaturated the photos to make them match the paper. The string and heart are from the Forever Mine kit by SAS Designs and the brads on the bookplate are by Vicki Parker from her Vinegar and Brown Paper Kit. I used Honey and Geneva fonts to complete the page.

If you want me to create cool scrapbook pages for you contact me or view my Scrap4Hire pricing on my website.

April and Adam

Updating my website reminded me of a wedding I photographed a few years ago at the Arboretum in Dallas. April and Adam were getting married and it was a rainy day. They waited until the last minute to decide to keep their wedding outside instead of moving inside and it ended up being a beautiful outdoor wedding. This was the wedding that made me realize I really wanted to be a wedding photographer. There were so many pretty pictures to make and so many great details and expressions.

I like these two photos side by side. I didn't realize that I photographed her before the dress and after the dress from the exact same spot in the room until I went back to edit the photos. I think it's pretty neat.

April surrounded by her bridesmaids as she holds onto her cell phone waiting for the call to tell her if she can have her wedding outside or if she has to move inside. This is one of my all-time favorite photos. I love all the great expressions on the girls.

When the wedding finally started by husband stayed in the back to catch her walking in...

...and I stayed up at the front to get her face as her father walked her down the aisle of rose petals.

The flower girls went without shoes since the grass was wet from the rain.

I always love the kiss!

We are available to photograph you wedding. Check out our website for more photos and pricing or contact us directly.