At the 2008 Professional Photographers of America (ppa) annual convention we received a special honor of having a portrait that I entered in competition selected to be in the Loan Book. This is a high honor because only a few select best are chosen from thousands of entries from around the world. The title of the portrait is "Beautiful". I would love to take all the credit but how could a judge resist a beautiful child like the child in this portrait. I would let this honor go to my head but I believe you're only as good as the last portrait you made. And considering the last portrait I made today was a 2 year old and I had to do everything you can think of to get the expression I wanted, I guess I'm doing ok. Allen Griggs
These are some images from our trip to Disney World. Believe it or not, prior to this, I have never been there in my entire life. I think it was just as magical for me as my children. I am always behind a camera and I gave my self the challenge of taking some really unique images while on this trip. There is a very special one that has a unique story...
Jennifer, my wife, wanted a picture of the castle to enlarge and hang in the girl's bathroom. After questioning me a thousand times if I had a good image I eventually even started questioning myself! I knew I did, but "what if" kept creeping in my head. I just knew what would happen if we got home and I didn't have that image of the castle. On our last day there, she kept on with the questioning and in my frustration I just turned around and snapped a shot and said once again, "yes I have it!". When we got home and I was viewing some of the images, I came across that last image of the castle and it was the best. It's so ironic because the time of day was not good lighting for photographing something like that. The images that I took during early morning and evening (which should have been the best) fell very short to that "last" image. I was able to create something very magical and totally impressed Jennifer and our friends. Now, I'd like to share it with you.
Allen Griggs
We have a new addition at our home. She was named by Sophie (my 5yrs daughter) and her name is MaeMae. We have always had larger dogs but wanted a dog that we could carry with us daily to the studio. She is a TOY Australian Shepard and will only weight 10-12 lbs. full grown. This breed is very intelligent. I am glad because I have a 120lbs. rotty at home and she is very very intelligent so the same training I used on my rotty I can use on MaeMae. We have had her home now for 2 weeks and she will sit and is house trained. Our home now consists of Jennifer and myself with our daughters Izzy and Sophie with 2 cats and our Rotty and now MaeMae.
Never say never! I lost one of my best friends to cancer several months ago and said I would never have another dog because of the loss I had felt. I had found Delphi inside the Titans stadium 10 years ago. After time Jennifer talked me into looking and we found MaeMae.
Allen Griggs
This little girl goes to school with Izzy. I have seen her at birthday parties and school functions and thought her personality was so adorable. I am always looking for unique personalities to work with and get me out of my box. I envisioned her in a very formal setting. After her session started, I watched her little personality shine and felt she was more than adorable in our pink tutu and her jean jacket. She won me over and I decided the tutu was all her! Here are two images to show how different lighting and clothes give such a different feel to my portraits. Enjoy! I would like to thank this family for allowing me to photograph her and use her portraits as studio samples. -Allen
I have been photographing this little boy since he was 3 months old. He has grown into a wonderful child. I made this image a unique crop to emphasize his eyes. I also painted this portrait for a studio display and it will also be added to my competition collection as well. This family comes from Clarksville. -Allen
This is a perfect example of a portrait made very simple. When this mom arrived, this child was wearing these clothes. I'm sure she didn't have intentions of wearing them for her portrait session, but I found them to be very cute. True, many times only the beautiful outfits make beautiful portraits, but sometimes simplicity can make a portrait just as beautiful! -Allen
This little girl's personality reminds me a lot of my oldest child. She's smart as a whip and able to wrap me around her finger with just one look.
