Tim O'Keefe Photography

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The O’Keefes Head to Imaging USA in Nashville!

Posted on January 14, 2010 by Tim O'Keefe in Life, Misc

Hi Everyone!

Stacey and I just returned from the Imaging USA conference in Nashville. WOW WOW WOW is all we can say! The Gaylord Opryland is huge… needless to say, we got lost a few times. I know – I know… you’re saying that I should just rely on Stacey for directions- You’re Right! She always got us to the right spot… except for that time we were walking for 10 or 15 minutes and ended up right where we began- Hey, it was the first day and we eventually figured it out. We can’t wait to implement so much of the stuff we learned so that we can serve you better and better!

My wife looking good (as usual) inside the Gaylord Opryland Resort during Imaging USA 2010

Inside Gardens in the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, TN

Interior gardens from the catwalk inside the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, TN

Imaging USA tradeshow... it was HUGE and AWESOME

Inside view of balcony rooms, walkway and restaurants at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, TN

Huge Christmas tree inside the Gaylord Opryland Resort during the Imaging USA 2010 Convention and Tradeshow

Another inside view of the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center during Imaging USA 2010 in Nashville, TN

Stacey and I during a break at Imaging USA 2010

Christmas Morning: Stickers, Slippers and “Googley Eyes”

Posted on December 25, 2009 by Tim O'Keefe in Life, Misc

Each year, we give the girls 3 presents to symbolize the gold, frankincense and myrrh that the wise men brought baby Jesus. Here are a few of our Christmas morning memories… We hope you enjoy them! Tim and Stacey

Smiles and a Sticker Book

3 Sisters on Christmas Morning

2 new slippers and 1 that’s not… can you guess which are which? 3 Slippers... Can you guess which 2 are new and which one is not?

3-year-old Joy!

Googley Eyes and Home-Made Glasses! 2 Big Sisters and their "Home-made" Glasses

One of my “Babies” Leaves Home… For Good!

Posted on July 2, 2009 by Tim O'Keefe in IMHO, Life, Misc, Sports, Uncategorized

Well, we gave her a good (although very short) upbringing and now it’s time for her to leave our home and go find her own place in this world. NO… Not one of my three girls! A portrait of the Lou Gehrig Red baseball team from New York.

We met at the GLBL Memorial Day Tournament in Mentor, Ohio and the team chose to purchase one of our hottest new products… the team pano (short for panorama). When I brought the finished product in to show my girls, they stopped playing Webkinz on the computer and shouted out “cool” and “awwwhhhhhhsome” and “who’s is that?”. It’s a good feeling to see that someone else likes it as much as I do.

A Framed Team Pano Finds a New Home in Another State

Well, she’s a 16″x36″ beauty, who will find a new home in New York. The only thing I can say to her in parting is “I’ll miss you baby. Go make me proud!”

At the Zoo

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Tim O'Keefe in Animals, Life, Misc

Roar, growl, bugle, snort, ssssss, honk, pssst, ooh oooh ooooh, howl, ribbit, grrrr, quack, squak, owwooooooo, screach, swoosh!!! These are some of the sounds we heard at the zoo. Our oldest, M1 and M2, have each been there before, but this was the first time for our little one, M3. She looked at the animals with wonder and had a great time! Take a look at the below images and enjoy!

Here are my 4 girls

Giraffe’s look funny when they eat… don’t they? 090416_022_blog Give me a kiss baby!
Give me a kiss baby!

Marissa started to pout and just stopped. She said that she would not come… actually she said “I will newer come”… not newer like a new item, but pronounced like “never” with a “w” sound… So CUTE! After 20 seconds, she decided to start walking again. I will not come!

Beautiful Underwater Colors of the Aquarium Underwater Color in the Aquarium
No trip to the zoo would be complete without an image of the King of the Beasts. This guy was a little sleepy though.
King of the Beasts

An itchy polar bear got all the kids to giggle. Oooooh Ooooooh Oooohhhh... That feels so good
When we were looking at the seals and sea lions, a boy next to us was looking down into the pool and dropped his cowboy hat. Instantly, the animals went from casually swimming around to coming over the the edge of the pool to investigate the new “visitor” in the water. This guy came up on the ledge and just looked at and sniffed the hat. Pretty neat. Curious seal

Marissa’s at it again. On the way our of the wolf exhibit, she started to ride a wolf statue and called it her “doggie”. She wouldn’t come for about 10 minutes. She even started to tell another little boy who came over to see “her” wolf (I mean dog), to go away because this was HER doggie. She finally came and all of us parents got a laugh out of it. I will not come... "Take 2"

I’ll leave you with this image that I really like. It’s one that I call “Defiant Strength”. The light was starting to get lower in the sky by this time and this rhino gave me a look I couldn’t pass up. I subdued some of the color from this image (it’s not black and white though) and sharpened it a bit. I love the wrinkles and fortitude of this guy… it was a boy rhino… trust me! Defiant Strength

PS – I also captured an image of one of the sharks swimming around a very dimly lit viewing room in the aquarium. It will become the first of our “photo lessions”. Stay tuned!

Dave O and the Steelie

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Tim O'Keefe in IMHO, Life, Misc

Ohhh Yeahhhh! Had a chance to get out and enjoy a little R&R yesterday evening. Went with a good friend from church to do a little steelhead fishing in a tributary of the Grand River. (It’s a good spot and shall remain namless! Also, it’s on private land.) Saw a number of fish in the current and had a blast trying to get them to bite. The sun was fading and the pleasantly cool temperatures were a nice break from the office.

Dave O fightin' the monster!

Fish on! Fish on!

The battle continues...

The battle of cat-and-mouse continues!

success at last!

Nice fish for Timmy O

nice steelie

Happy guy with a nice steelhead!

OK, now that I’ve had my fun this morning blogging about yesterday’s adventure, it’s back to work!

Hope your day goes well and that you enjoy the time spent with family and friends during this upcoming Easter weekend. Remember, He’s Alive!

We’ll talk soon… Tim

Church Directory #3 and the “Secret” Cover

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Tim O'Keefe in IMHO, Life, Misc, Portraits

We just finished the process of completing our third church directory. Each one has been different and each has been a pleasure to work on. This one was for the church that we attend (Willoughby Hills Friends Church) and it was good to get to know each of the individuals we photographed a little bit more.

The cover was a special (and secret) part of the process and was only revealed at the very end. It was especially important to me. It was a mosaic of Jesus Christ’s face made out of the images of all of those we photographed (or submitted pictures). It represents how as believers in Christ, we are all part of the same body. I think it’s especially fitting at Easter time. (Following the image is a note about the cover that was included on the inside front cover of the printed directories.) Take a look at it’s uniqueness and I hope it encourages you.

Happy Easter!

church directory cover

ABOUT THE COVER

“The Body of Christ”by Tim O’Keefe

The Church is not merely a building. The Church is the collective group of those who believe in and follow Jesus Christ…in Willoughby Hills, Ohio… and around the globe.

No doubt you have looked intently to see where your picture appears on the cover. We hope this photo mosaic helps you remember an Important point. While, we are each different and unique, God created each one of us to work together- to complement and complete each other. We want to encourage you to remember this so that individually, and collectively, the world will see us unified as we represent Jesus Christ in all we do. Remember, we are His ambassadors whether we minister full-time in South Africa, Russia, or China, but also while we talk with our neighbor from across the street and go grocery shopping.

Chickens, Potties, Dancers, Rollerskates, Rainbows & Magicians… Oh My!

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Tim O'Keefe in Life, Misc

Hi everyone. We’re back online after the longer-than-I-wished-for delay. I’ve been replacing computers (mine and my wife’s), adding software and upgraded to a Vista 64-bit operating system. I know, I know… I’ve vowed I would never go to Vista and that XP ruled as far as I was concerned. Well, Photshop CS4 was drawing me and I couldn’t get away from her… she drew me right into her claws! It’s been really good so far and the upgraded RAM makes a HUGE difference as I process all of your images. Lastly, I want to let you know that I built the computer from scratch… well, I should say that I have “a guy” who did it and I just helped. He was the doctor so-to-speak and I was the nurse handing him the scalpal if you know what I mean. He did a great picking all the parts and assemblying it… I highly recommend him if you need a system and don’t want to be limited by what you can configure through HP or Dell.

Anyway, on to the pictures!!! I have to say that these were taken (mostly) by my kids and the color, lighting, composition, focus, etc… is not what you can expect from us when you hire us as your photograhpers (hey, I had to say that… it’s a photography blog after all!), but these images are priceless from a dad’s point of view. Look at them through that “filter” and we’ll be just fine… OK?

Our little one, M3, is potty training and having pretty good success at it so far… at least for Number 1.
potty training giggles

potty training success!

Again, her big sisters get a kick out of “having fun with Marissa”… it’s all good clean fun, but the chicken does get tired after the extravaganza and needs a drink… almost bed time!
M3 as a chicken
M3 as a tired chicken

Now for bubbles and bed time…
bubble beard
she follows her big sister's games
This is what she calls her “Farmer Hat”… that’s some cityfied farmer if you ask me! the "Farmer Hat"

Some miscellaneous dancing with her big sisters laughing their heads off in the background…
the dancing silly girl

This was a fund raiser that we went to at a local skating place. The girls had a great time with their friends. This was Marissa’s first time on skates and she did great!
three sisters on 24 wheels

happy girls

Next, M2 caught this rainbow out our back window. She was thrilled when I said I would put her picture on our blog… I think she’s a photographer in the making.
M2's Rainbow
Lastly, M3, with the prodding of Maggie, decided to do a little magic work… she forgot to click her fingers and have the stuff automatically get put away when she was done.
magician in the making
the magician's aftermath

I hope you enjoyed some of my “proud daddy moments” above. Take care and we’ll be in touch soon… God Bless. Tim

With a name like “O’Keefe”, You’ve Got to Love St. Patty’s Day!

Posted on March 18, 2009 by Tim O'Keefe in Life, Misc

We get together every St. Patrick’s Day to share a meal with our family. No green milk or green beer here, just a traditional Irish feast! (We even invite a few of our Italian, German and Yugoslavian relatives.) In reality, we figured out our kids nationality one time. From Stacey’s side our kids get Italian and Slovak. From my side they get Irish, Italian, German and either French, French Canadian or French Canadian Indian (… don’t know what was going on way back when). So what does that make our lovely kids? You know, the all-american “mutt” with ancestors from all over the globe. (I’m just glad we have all made the choice to be grafted into the “bloodline” or “nationality” of Jesus by accepting his free gift of salvation!) We hope you enjoy these mouthwatering images of family and food!

delicious homemade irish soda bread

carrots, potatoes and corned beef

the meal
cabbage, carrots, potatoes, fresh homemade irish soda bread, corned beef and an irish ale… what could be better!

4 generations sharing a meal

our crew dressed in St. Patty's Day green
our crew dressed in St. Patty’s day green!

fresh strawberry topping

homemade sweet corn bread shortcake

the perfect end to the perfect feast!

We hope you enjoyed your St. Patty’s Day too! Until next time, take care, God Bless and remember, when you image matters, go to the TOP… Tim O’Keefe Photography.

Confessions from our BLOG… take 3!

Posted on January 27, 2009 by Tim O'Keefe in IMHO, Misc

OK, the “first” post was actually our second try at getting the blog going, and (3 months later) we’re still at it. It was also about that time back in October 2008 that I realized that our website was ready for it’s next round of enhancements and additions. It’s so exciting for me to do that kind of stuff and plan how we can incorporate all kinds of cool stuff into our site and our business for you, our loyal customers.

…but I realized I wasn’t the guy for the task (ouch!). What you say? The same guy who used parts from a filing cabinet to fix the lawnmower frame and leftover nuts from a ceiling fan to fix the front-wheel drive pulley on the lawnmower (yeah, the same lawnmower). YES, Yes, yes… I know what you’re thinking (other than this guy really needs a new lawnmower!). You’re thinking that this is like MacGyver bringing in someone to make his helicopters and nuclear bombs out of paperclips, old chewing gum and dirty socks.

Although I learned how to design my site from the beginning and it was a great place to start off, it’s not where my passion and strengths lie. There are some REALLY COOL things coming in the near future (so cool I’m tingling just thinking about them), and I realized that I could either spend the time designing the website with all the new cool stuff on it, or actually doing and creating all the new cool stuff. Not a hard choice when I think of it that way.

Getting the site and blog ready for you to view still takes a good bit of time, but having the ability and know-how to customize it really helping to convey one of the most important features of our business… our uniqueness. Here is the progression of one of the elements of our new blog- the header image. Take a look and enjoy!

header1

header rev2

header3

header4

header5

header6

… and walaah! Our new header for the blog. We hope you like it!

Welcome to the TOP Blog!!!

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Tim O'Keefe in Misc

Hi everyone! We’ve been wanting to set up this blog for some time and are so excited… it’s finally here!

As we add more content, you will have a chance to see some of our newest work and stay up-to-speed with all the changes and growth that we have been experiencing because of YOU- our awesome customers! You can also expect to see into our lives a little bit and get to know us more. We have some ideas for upcoming contests and even some photo tips that can help you improve your own personal snapshots too. You can post your comments and thoughts on certain posts so PLEASE let us know what you think. We are here to serve you with excellence and love a challenge, so don’t be shy!

It is our intent to keep all content family-friendly (PG or G-rated) so not to worry. We believe that the “possibilities are endless”, so who knows what you’ll find here as time goes by! So get comfortable, check back here often, sign up to our RSS feeds (I think we have those) and hold on for the ride.

We’ll talk soon,

Tim & Stacey O’Keefe