The Davis family welcomed me into their home to help capture Christmas photographs for this year. There was a lot of laughter, healthy banter back and forth and just the overall spirit of Christmas was in the home.
Below are Caden and Tony posing for a father and son portrait.
This last photograph contains the entire family.
Click here -> www.ivanwatkins.com to learn how you can schedule your photoshoot.
The Browns were a fun family to photograph. Between the mom and the daughter the pictures came out just wonderful. The two of them are very photogenic and they seemed to be made for the camera. One major perk associated with capturing them was that they were natural models. They knew how to pose and would just create different postures on the fly without hardly any thought.
Below are more lovely portraits of mother and daughter.
Last but not least here is the princess of the house..
Click here -> www.ivanwatkins.com to learn how you can schedule your photoshoot.
This is the Watkins’ family pet “Ace Jamal Watkins”. He joined our family at the tender age of 5 weeks old when my daughter Aleah  was only 6 months of age. Aleah and Ace are two peas in a pod and he will watch out for her because they’ve literally grown up together. He is one of the most docile American Pit Bull Terriers that one can meet. When he’s not outside entertaining the children he goes into a SERIOUS relax mode. As you can see,  he has it very good. When I’m not harassing him he lives a tranquil life.
The Christmas season brings warm thoughts of family, friends and more important the remembrance of the birth of Christ. On Sunday afternoon I had the privilege of helping to capture some memories with the Pearson family. It was a fun photo shoot, the boys are full of life and energetic.
Click here -> www.ivanwatkins.com to learn how you can schedule your photoshoot.
North East Baptist Church held a powerful workshop for women.   I invite you to watch the 4 parts of this workshop.  Â
“How To Reach Your Divine Destiny”
North East Baptist Church
3204 Highway 55
Durham, NC 27713
Facilitated by Minister Yvette Crawford and Reverend Shirrell McNeill of Butterfly Wings Restorative Ministry
Each part runs about 25 minutes.
PART ONE DEPOT “HYPE”
PART TWO DEPOT “DIVERSION”
PART THREE “MINISTRY”
PART FOUR “UNAUTHORIZED PASSENGERS”
Statement From Back Of Bulletin:
 “Sisters in Salvation and The Women’s Support Group would like to thank you for your support and participation in this seminar. We pray that this even had helped you to stay on your “Spiritual Train”. Your presence here today is not an accident. It is part of your journey and God’s plan for your life. We hope you have enjoyed this part of your train ride. Continue to listen to the Conductor (Jesus) because only HE can take you to your “Divine Destiny”!!”
If this workshop has been a blessing to you and you’d like to watch it from the comfort of your livingroom then DVD’s are available for purchase. The cost per DVD is only $10.00. To order a copy contact me at http://www.ivanwatkins.com
These images may disturb those of you that feel that a Christmas tree must be immaculate . The purpose of this experiment was to see if I could take a sad looking Christmas tree and use it to help me make an artistic photograph. This is right in line with the phrase “When life gives you lemons make lemonade”.
Here is the background. The children put up the Christmas tree (if you want to call it that). Let’s just say that the Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree looks better than ours. By the looks of it my youngest kids put this up with NO help from their older brother. I think that my 6 year old did the lights because all of them are bunched and grouped towards the LOWER part of the tree.
Some of you may wonder… why don’t I fix the tree and make it look “purty”? It is because I don’t care. After all, its just a tree.
Moving on……
My experiment was to see if I could take this poorly dressed tree and turn it into an artistic photograph.
For this task I drafted my buddy Christian. Here is an inbetween shot that was used to check the exposure on my camera.
Here is the final picture that I had in mind. This is the same poorly dressed tree but it is used in conjunction with tight composition and shallow depth of field to create an artistic feel. In a nutshell, I had to balance the intensity of the lights on the Christmas tree with the light on Christian so that the light on Christian would be twice as bright. A shallow enough depth of field had to be used to blur the lights on the tree into blobs of light.
Note: At the end of this post is a link to complete gallery of photographs that were taken.Â
I’ve been asked how could this be a Smith reunion and my last name is Watkins. This reunion is on my Mother’s side of the family.
This past Thanksgiving my family held their reunion. The location was Winston-Salem,NC and the hosts where my cousin Brian and my two sisters Eileen and Benita. We had a joyous occasion and there was plenty of fellowship, laughter, thoughts back to the past and new moments to be remembered.
  One major surprise to all of us was the appearance by our cousin Pete from St. Croix whom we haven’t seen in years. During the reunion I was busy running around with my camera to try and capture all the people and highlights of the evening. This will allow us to revisit our reunion for many years to come and it also serves as a historical record of who was in attendance.
The hosts for this family reunion where my cousin Brian and my two sisters Eileen and Benita. During the family reunion we decided to show a documentary on our family history. It was an honor putting this documentary together. Visiting with my great aunts so that they could share history with us was invaluable. Special thanks to cousin Patty for having the foresite to videotape the older generations many years ago. Some of her footage proved to be priceless for this project. I thank all the family members that sent in pictures for the show.
You can view our family’s documentary/slideshow by clicking on the video below.Â
 NOW IT IS TIME TO RELIVE OUR FAMILY REUNION THROUGH PHOTOS
Click on the link below to view the pictures. Note: If you want a picture for yourself then you can buy them straight from the website or download it to your computer.  Just click the “buy photo” or “multiple photo” link above any picture.Â
This past week our church conducted a Youth Music Workshop Extravaganza. Minister Roland Perry and the other clinicians did an outstanding job of working with the youth. On Friday night a concert was held and all of the children sang their hearts out. Towards the end of the concert Mr. Best (NEBC Drummer) had his wife hand me their camcorder because there was a special guest that was about to sing. I had NO idea of the magnitude of the gift that was about to be captured on film. This child worshipped God through song. Once he was done he reverted back to a quiet and humble child and that made his worship even more inspiring. Hopefully this video clip will bless you the way it blessed everyone that was present.
WATCH THE ENTIRE VIDEO.
To GOD be the glory for all the gifts that He bestows.
Singer contact
Anthony Brown
c/o Mt Olive Missionary Baptist Church
118 Johnson Street
Fayetteville, NC 28303
Phone: (910) 868-2770 Fax (910) 864-9667
Email: mtolivefay@mountolivembc.org
I have one more thing to share with you before you leave this blog entry.
CLICK HERE IF YOU ARE A CHURCH MUSICIAN
Visit www.ivanwatkins.com for your photography and video needs. Serving North Carolina.
This is a special overview of Youth Transitions Christian Academy (YTCA) in Durham, NC.
The Mission of Y. T. Christian Academy is to develop the talent and leadership potential of youth through academic, social, physical and life skill experiences. We will seek to provide opportunities that enhance the growth of our youth so that they are forever striving for excellence in self and the community.
YTCA was created from the collaborative efforts of Mrs. Shondah Allen (Founder and Director)
and Mr. Darius Grissom ( Director of Instruction)
These two are supported by a staff of dedicated teachers that love teaching children integrated with Word of God.
Rev. Shirrell McNeill of Butterfly Wings Restorative Ministry featured YTCA on her “Friends of Restoration” TV show. She conducts an interview with Mrs. Allen and Mr. Grissom. We invite you to watch the show and learn more about this growing Academy. To view the video click on the triangle below.
The youth at the school are smart, driven and full of energy. You can tell by their faces that they are in an environment in which they can enjoy their learning experience.
During a TaeKwon-Do session . . .
One of the goals at YTCA is to expose children to several scientific disciplines.
In the picture below you see a student designing a circuit board.
THERE ARE MORE PHOTOS FOR YOU TO VIEW.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE COMPLETE PHOTO GALLERY.
For more information on YTCA please visit their website http://www.youthtransitions.com
Every now and then each and everyone of us would like to talk to a person that understands everything from our point of view. Earlier this week I had a chat with Me, Myself & I to figure out what would be the best way to create a unified paradox. As you can probably imagine, the conversation was all one sided but with subtle twists. Eventually all the details were worked out. Before the meeting came to an end I was able to grab this photo.
