Scott Clevenger Photography Blog

As a kid growing up in Garner, NC we often drove by the Christmas tree farm that sits on a hill overlooking highway 50.  There is a beautiful old house that sits up on the hill as well and I always thought it would be so cool to live there and play in the fields of trees.  They have turned the house and grounds into an amazing event, wedding and reception venue called The Rand-Bryan House. I recently had the opportunity to work on some portfolio bridal shots in the house and on the grounds.  A big thanks to my lovely wife Jatana for master minding the whole thing (I just took pictures),  Samantha, Alex, and Shelia (modeling and makeup) and Carolina Bridal World in Smithfield for the awesome dress and veil.  And a big thanks to Martha and The Rand-Bryan House for the opportunity to shoot at a great venue in my home town.

I recently had the opportunity to get some cool photos of Olivia in downtown Raleigh.  We hit a couple of my favorite places and shot until the light was gone.  She made things super easy and was probably one of the best kid subjects I’ve ever had. Here are a few photos from the session.

After wrapping up Olivia’s session I was on the way home when I came upon an AMAZING sky over downtown Raleigh.  I made my way to the top of a new parking deck to get a few shots.  It would have been even better if I could have found a viewpoint that had the moon in it too but I didn’t have time to change locations before it was too dark.  I actually had to put my tripod on top of my 4 Runner to get a clean shot without the parking deck wall in the bottom of the frame.  I climbed up there (trying not to dent in the roof) set the timer and then climbed back down in order to keep the truck from moving while the shutter was open.  Believe it or not the shot below has only minor adjustments made in Lightroom 2.  I forgot to mention that I did fix the lens distortion in photoshop as well.  But that’s it.  I promise.

If spiders make you squirm then don’t go any farther!  The boys came running in to my room saying, “Daddy you have got to see this!”  They took me out to the front porch to find this.  It’s a momma wolf spider with tiny little babies all over her back!  I’ve seen this before but they thought this was the coolest thing.  Imagine being on your belly in a tight crawl space and seeing one bigger than this on the interior foundation wall (minus the babies).  Been there.  More than once.  Earlier this summer I counted six of these things on our front porch at night.  They hang out under the lights and catch the poor unfortunate bugs that fall down from flying around the lights.  Luke decided to get some shots too.

On a side note, Luke is holding a plastic bag containing a fungus called “elegant stinkhorn.”  We found it growing in the yard (I’ve seen this before too) and of course he wanted to keep it.  It lived up to its name though and we had to promptly throw it away due to it smelling through the sealed bag!  I love having boys.  : )

This is my neighbor’s oldest daughter Samantha and she’s running for president at her elementary school.  I jumped at the chance to do some cool shots for her campaign poster.  I don’t know if she will win or not but I think she’ll have the coolest poster in the school.  Good luck Samantha!

Wow, things just seem to get busy without even realizing it.  We recently had the opportunity to shoot Stephen and Sarah’s wedding on the South Eastern Baptist Seminary campus.  A huge thanks goes out to Ken Hall for helping out.  Here are a few shots from their day.