Well it’s the second year I’ve gone to see the Dundalk Fireworks and the second year it has absolutely poured on us.  I tell you, if you’ve never been, it’s like no other fireworks display I’ve been to before.  I swear I’m in the Wild West when I go.  Not only is there the big main display put on by the Dundalk Firefighters, but there field where the fireworks are set off are surrounded by houses and everyone in the surrounding neighborhood has their own display going on, so throughout the evening, leading up to the main fireworks wherever you look fireworks are being set off from the houses, bottle rockets are being set off by other people at the field waiting for the official fireworks - it’s crazy! 

The 4th of July is Kristy’s absolute favorite holiday so we arrived early in order to sit right up against the caution tape where you couldn’t get any closer to the fireworks.  When you sit that close you have to look straight up to see the fireworks and it feels like they’re falling down on top of you.  We arrived at 7:00pm, a full two hours and fifteen minutes before the official fireworks display was set to begin. The next two hours was filled with fireworks being set off all around the field, and two kids right next to us with little cap explosives that the little girl was kind enough to share with Kristy and me.   We had a great time even with the rain and I can’t wait for next year’s fireworks!

Check out the images below, and I hope to see you at the tape line in Dundalk next year!

Kristy and I arrived early with hats on!  

Here’s one of the ‘neighborhood’ displays before the official ones began.  The private displays were awesome on their own, the official ones were just the icing on the cake! 

 Fireworks under the umbrellas!

Here’s a collage of the fireworks from the grand finale, click on the image above to see a larger version. 

My friend and personal hair stylist Rudy is opening a new salon in Perry Hall, MD called Chrome.  He is an amazing hair stylist, and I spoke about him in my post about the Virginia shoot.  He recently asked me to work with him in creating images that would be displayed throughout his salon as well as on his website, showcasing his work.  I was thrilled to collaborate with him, and Nicole came along to do make up for all the models.  We had a great time the first day, and then decided to do some more creative work that we could use for our personal portfolios.  Below are some images from the first day.  I’ll be making a separate post for our second day of images. 

What happens when you take four photographers, one makeup artist and assistant, one hair stylist and twelve models to a farm in Virginia? Well, I guess a lot of things COULD happen, but the answer I was looking for was ‘you get some really amazing images’.

At the beginning of June, Nicole Palermo (who I know you’ve heard me talk about before) drove to a farm just west of the Shenandoah Mountains to spend the day photographing and making up some really amazing models. Rudy Solorzano drove all the way down after doing hair all morning for a wedding that day. When he arrived he tore through the twelve models and did some amazing hair in record time! 

We had an amazing day too! We had overcast skies, bright sun, a little bit of rain, and some really ominous clouds (look at them out in the second to last image!)I’ve only selected a few images from the day (I shot a ton) but check them out below.  

Those are real clouds! The only photoshop work I did was to darken the skies a bit, ok, a lot, but the color, and everything was in the file, crazy clouds! I love them!

Thanks to all the models for coming out I had a blast meeting and having the opportunity to work with all of you! And special thanks to Nicole for getting twelve models to show up at a remote farm in Virginia with only four days notice!!!!!!!