I know it’s still cold out there and it’s only March but, like a lot of people right now, I’m looking forward to summer 2010! Hopefully, spring is just around the corner and we can finally see the back of the frost and the cold!

Here’s a portrait of Amy that we created last summer on vacation in Florida, but could just as easily have been made here in Oakland or Somerville. Spring is coming and we’re ready for it!

On Saturday Feb. 27th 2010, I had the pleasure of attending another wonderful concert by the Wolf River Chamber Orchestra at the First Congregational Church on S. Cooper.  As with all their concerts, I aim to capture a little of the spirit of the occasion, although I know my camera doesn’t do full justice to the talent of both Mr. Langley and the members of the orchestra, all of whom put their hearts and souls into their performance.

The music was so amazing, in fact, that I almost forgot to take photographs at one point because I was so engrossed in the energy of the performance!

I strongly urge anyone who has yet to attend one of these concerts to go to the next one! Mr. Langley is an amazing conductor, and the musicians are all, without any doubt, real professionals at their art. For me, it was most certainly worth the effort of driving from Oakland TN to see it! Perhaps we can persuade them to perform in Somerville TN sometime too.

For more information about the orchestra, you can visit their web site here: http://sites.google.com/site/wolfriverchamberorchestra/

With all the cold weather, rain, snow and ice we’ve had lately, it was a great feeling to be able to get out and about again with the camera for an hour or two (at least before the thunder and rain returned!). This time I wandered from Oakland TN to Somerville TN and back again.

Roaming around with a camera, simply discovering things that catch my eye, is one of my favourite ways to keep my photography fresh. Yesterday, I found some great subjects as diverse as the Grocery Store on highway 194 and graffiti on an abandoned home. Heaven only knows how long that house had been left unoccupied, but it must have been a number of years – it sounded as though the wind itself was about to blow it down!

A rusty drain cover, with some great texture and an old barn also captured my imagination.

This is a great exercise for anyone with an interest in photography – just go out with no particular purpose in mind and allow your inner eye to see the things your “looking” eye might easily miss…

Saturday 13th September 2009 saw the second annual Cotton Pickin 5K run and the first annual cotton candy 1K fun run in Somerville, TN.

As a proud sponsor of the event I had the privilege of photographing the event for Fayette Cares, which is also Merrick Photography’s chosen local charity.

Here is a photograph of the overall winner of the 5K race, which saw almost 300 runners take part this year.

If you ran in the race and would like to see the finished photographs, please go to www.collages.net and login with the username “cotton pickin run 2009″ and password “21925″.