2009 Mission Sports Cary Academy Holiday Tournament

Jan 01 | Evan | Comments Off |

First of all, happy new year to everyone! I hope your 2009 holiday season ended well and was a safe one! Hope 2010 brings everyone happiness and joy!

As for me, I spent most of my last week of 2009 at Cary Academy, photographing some great high school basketball. After being away from high school basketball for so long, it was really wonderful to see some exciting games and good players. There were 8 teams in both the girls and guys bracket at the 2009 Mission Sports Cary Academy Holiday Tournament, and I think I was able to watch/photograph at least a half of each of the 16 teams. Overall I was impressed with most of the teams, but I think my team from my senior year of high school could have played with and beat most of, if not all, of them! On that note, congratulations to the girls from Southern Durham High School and boys from Wayne Country Day!

For those teams in the tournament looking for more photos of the basketball tournament, they are located at my shop.

My favorite photos from 3+ years in Japan

Nov 30 | Evan | Comments Off |

The title pretty much says it all! As I gear up to photograph a wedding in Japan in January I thought I would put together a slideshow of my favorite photos I made while over there. Make sure you turn your sound on as there is an awesome song by Gunsolo called “Arcadia.” Also, if you are heading to Japan, or know somebody else who is, don’t forget I am available as a photography tour guide for your trip to Japan!

Engagement Session With a Dog

Nov 26 | Evan | Comments Off |

I had the pleasure of meeting another great couple that is starting off their new life together! I love the fact that being a photographer lets me meet all sorts of people, but nothing tops meeting a glowing in-love, sincerely nice couple. We did their session where they had their first date, Susquehanna State Park in Maryland. It was the perfect backdrop for a wonderful couple and their adorable dog! I probably love dogs more than anyone else that is in the “never had a dog” club. So as you can imagine, I was stoked when I heard they wanted their dog in some of the photos. What a great idea! Again, congratulations and looking forward to the wedding, which sounds like it will be incredible!

My Student is a Japanese Pop Star | Hitomi Takahashi

Nov 17 | Evan | Comments Off |

Well technically, since she graduated and I am not teaching anymore, Hitomi Takahashi is not my student anymore, but while she was in high school and I was her teacher I couldn’t really blog about it. Hitomi was my student when she was a freshman in high school at Shiogama Girls High School. She was this shy, teeny-tiny girl (147 cm, what is that, about 4’8″?), who sat in the back and never volunteered to answer any questions unless she was called on. When I realized who she was, and after hearing her music I couldn’t believe that such a loud, incredible voice was coming from this little girl! Even more incredible than that was when I went to see her perform live. On stage, she was a completely different person. In class, Hitomi was a quiet, down to earth, humble, shy girl, but on stage, she was this all powerful, attention commanding, loud women. What an incredible transformation it was! Seriously, it is so hard to believe how much power–and what an incredible voice– this girl has, especially at a live performance. After a teaching few months, I had found out that we had a common interest in photography, so we made a trade. I gave her a small book of some of my photographs and she hooked me up with a autograph on her CD… I definitely got the better end of the bargain there! 😉 Thanks Hitomi!After the break are some of her songs, even if you can’t understand Japanese, I think you will still appreciate her voice! This first one was her first single that debuted at number 1 in the Japanese Pop Charts, something only one other women singer had done at that point. I am not a huge fan of JPOP, and maybe it is because I am biased, but I really like Hitomi Takahashi’s music! More

Senior Portait Photography | Katja | Raleigh

Nov 16 | Evan | Comments Off |

Katja senior portrait session was such a blast! She was a natural in front of the camera and made my job really easy! There are some people, for whatever reason, just don’t feel comfortable in front of the camera– like me for example. Katja was totally the opposite and every photo seemed to come out great. I am so thankful for getting this opportunity and previous ones to get to know some students from my former school. Yay! Thanks again to Katja and her wonderful family!

Alexandra’s Wicked Bat Mitzvah | Raleigh, NC

Nov 04 | Evan | Comments Off |

Wow.

Where to begin!? Good thing I am a photographer, because I am having trouble coming up with the right words to describe just how awesome of a party this was! This Halloween Bat Mitzvah was not your typical costume party (or typical Bat Mitzvah for that matter)! Moreover, the family was one of the nicest and most loving families I have ever met. Don’t get me wrong, I have a great family and a wonderful, loving relationship with my parents and sister, but Alex’s family is just bursting with love and anyone who has the pleasure of meeting them can immediately see this. It was a very special Bat Mitzvah, for a very special family and I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to document the day! Oh, and did I mention that just about everything was a surprise to Alex!? Her parents did an incredible job of planning out the event and put together an amazingly “wicked” cast of vendors for this Wicked themed party:

Lauren Kennedy || staring as Elphaba
Andrea Schultz Twiss || staring as Glinda
Ray Walker || staring as Fiyero
Randy Wogick || staring as the party organizer and planner
“B” Sharp Productions || staring as the band and DJ
CE Rental || set design (elegant linens, chairs, cushions, chargers, salad plates)
English Garden || art decoration (gorgeous flowers and table pieces)
Showtime Events || visual effects (incredible wall and table lighting)
Swank Cake Design || Wicked (and of course delicious) cake
Charlie Weeks || cinematographer (did the video of the service and the party)
Maria Steiner || costume designer (service and evening gowns for all girls in the family)
Megan Brewer || catering manger at the Raleigh Renaissance Hotel

Also, I want to thank Megan and Dean from the Raleigh Renaissance Hotel! Not only did they do a fantastic job with this Bat Mitzvah, but were incredible for me as well for my own wedding at the Renaissance!

Congratulations to Alex and a HUGE thank you to the whole family!

Missing Japan: Why Autumn in Japan is Better Than Here

Nov 03 | Evan | Comments Off |

Anyone who has ever lived in Japan has probably heard multiple times, from multiple people, that Japan has four seasons. A lot of my friends and coworkers were really proud and excited to tell me this fact. At first, I couldn’t understand why so many were so eager to tell me this, after all, most places that I have been to, do in fact have four seasons. I kept asking myself, “Why do they think they are so special for having four seasons?” It took me a while to realize that they were not thinking this way at all and the more likely reason I heard this so many times is because there is such a heavy emphasis on the changing of seasons in Japan. More

How to and How NOT to do #FollowFriday

Oct 30 | Evan | Comments Off |

One of the most powerful, but greatly misused, ways to use Twitter is networking with #FollowFriday. For those of you that have yet to give in and sign up with Twitter, #FollowFriday is a trend where every Friday, you share with your followers somebody you follow. Basically an introduction.

The problem is, too often, people just try and squeeze as many names as possible in the 140 character tweet that will look something like this:

#FollowFriday @ZackTM, @27518, @SmugMugPro, @andrew_bryant, @samandjt, @myfunkycamera ……

And some even turn the “#FollowFriday” part to “#FF” to get one extra name in. Sounds nice and generous right? Maybe, but highly ineffective! Just listing off a bunch of names, tells me nothing about them. Not only does that not give me any incentive to follow any of those listed (unless I know them already), but even if it does catch my attention, I don’t have time to check everyone that is recommended, especially when multiple people do #FollowFriday this way. I am more likely to skip the entire tweet completely rather than clicking on even one of the links. Think about it, Twitter has a limit of 140 characters for a reason. We want quick, to the point, information. If I had time to read everyone’s blog, I would be reading your blog, not using Twitter as a RSS feed to weed out information from my network. If I find something interesting, I will check it out, but if it doesn’t intrigue me, its getting scrolled over. Think of it as a tweet becoming the new elevator pitch and just dropping names won’t sell me on following any of them.

The solution is to keep it simple! More

Adventures in the Al Capone Suite at The Biltmore

Oct 27 | Evan | Comments Off |

Okay, so it was actually only one adventure and probably “adventure” isn’t even the right word to use, but to say I was excited about shooting in the Al Capone Suite at The Biltmore — where a scene from one of my old school favorite movies, Bad Boys, was shot — is definitely an understatement. Thanks to Andrew Bryant Photography, I was sent to Miami to shoot with and learn from some awesome photographers, including Ray Santana, Becker, Kenny Kim, Kenny Nakai and Lawrence Chan (SEO guru, Tofurious). It was great to see how these guys and the rest of the photographers worked and shot and feel like we all learned a lot from each other. Besides the fact that we were in one of the most beautiful cities, at one of the most famous hotels in the world, with gorgeous models, what made it extra special was the good people that were there. Anytime I can return to Miami in the fall or winter is a win for me, but coupled it with such a wonderful experience made my trip perfect.

High School Senior Portrait Photography | Raleigh | Melissa

Aug 20 | Evan | Comments Off |

Another senior portrait session with another awesome senior! It was such a pleasure to work with Melissa and her parents, and even more wonderful just to meet and get to know them. Just like my previous senior portrait session, Melissa was a natural in front of the camera! Even though it was about a million degrees, I was sweating up a storm and mosquitoes were attacking us, we managed to have a great time and come out with some great shots from her senior portrait session. There is still time for 2010 seniors to have your portrait session with Evan Pike Photography, please contact me for details!

Las Vegas Portrait Photography | Samantha

Aug 15 | Evan | Comments Off |

While visiting Las Vegas this summer to see some high school and university friends, I was happy to get some work done as well! I already posted about one portrait session in Vegas and here is the other one I did. Samantha was such a pleasure to work with and made my job easy! Also a HUGE thank you to my friend Leon who was kind of enough to let us run all over his house, move furniture and even his car for our photo shoot!

High School Senior Portrait Photography | Raleigh | Emily

Aug 12 | Evan | Comments Off |

A few weeks ago I had my first high school senior portrait session for the 2010 graduating class. Emily admitted that she didn’t particularity like having her photo taken, but by the end of the portrait session, she was a natural! Also, it was wonderful to get to know a senior from my old high school. It was great to hear about my old stomping grounds and know that seniors like Emily are giving it a great name! If you are interested in getting your senior portraits done, please contact me.

Daneille and Caleb | Wedding Photography

Aug 04 | Evan | Comments Off |

You might remember being introduced to Daneille and Caleb when he proposed at a Carolina Railhawks game. It ended up being one of those things where the stars aligned just right, and along with Andrew Bryant Photography, I was able to finish what I started and shoot their incredible wedding. What an amazing wedding it was! Especially considering the amount of time they had to plan it in! We did ours in about 10 months…they had about half that! Beyond that, I cannot say enough nice things not only about Danielle and Caleb, but also about their families, who went above and beyond to make sure we were taken care of. It was such a pleasure to shoot a wedding with such wonderful people, and more importantly, to make such wonderful new friends. Again, thank you and congratulations to Danielle and Caleb!

Las Vegas and some Portrait Photography | Amy

Jul 29 | Evan | Comments Off |

Since my friend was doing so well playing poker out in Las Vegas, he invited me to come visit him. It was a lot of fun pretending I was important as he would get us past lines and into places that I could never get to by myself! Also, I was approached by a few people wanting me to take some portraits of them. So not only did I get to catch up with my best friend from high school, but actually did some work as well. It was a great trip all around.

Amy is one of the girls that wanted me to take portraits of her. Amy is actually in law school and will be a lawyer soon enough, so when I asked her why she wanted me to take some portraits of her, she told me that she just likes my work, especially some shots I did with her friend, so she wanted some as well! Of course I was super pumped after hearing that and knew that our session together would be great… and it was! Thanks Amy! Here are a few of the shots:

[fancygallery id=’09amy’]

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