The seashore, salty air, sand dunes, and shining sun – all reasons for a Crystal Coast celebration in Atlantic Beach last week. Oh yeah, and life…beautiful, wonderful, amazing life! Three years ago to the day, Allie received a bilateral lung transplant ensuring she would experience a lot more days like this one. If you’re like…

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This past weekend I happened to post a couple of photos on my personal Instagram account (@mikegothard) which mentioned I was logging some time photo shoot location scouting in preparation for several photo shoots over the next couple of weeks. A friend in the film industry messaged me asking if “location scouting” for a photo…

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The best photographs always leave something to the imagination; they leave us wondering and thinking and wishing and “What iffing.” It’s the same with a good book or an engaging film or a compelling poem. Anything that shows everything and leaves nothing to the imagination tends toward the boring and predictable. As human beings we…

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“Booking 2017 weddings today,” read the magazine ad I saw yesterday. Upon reading that ad, the optimists among us will likely think, “We’re just half way through 2016. No need to rush into these things. I’ve got all the time in the world.” However, the pessimists among us will think more along the lines of,…

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“To infinity…and beyond!” Okay, I confess…this post has absolutely nothing to do with Buzz Lightyear of Toy Story fame. But it does have to do with light years and light. Astronomers tell us that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is just one of billions of galaxies in an astoundingly vast universe, each of which contains…

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Photography 101: ISO Light is an amazing thing. I once viewed Saturn through a telescope and was able to actually see its rings. I was looking at a planet that was 746 million miles away. How far away is that? Light travels at 186,000 miles per second or 670 million miles per hour. Traveling at…

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Fields of gold. There’s just something about fields of gold. Can’t resist them, don’t want to. Whenever I come across a field of gold – or red or yellow or blue or pink or orange – I just want to stop, drop, and roll. It’s funny how some photo shoots stick in your mind more…

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There is a 100 percent chance you’re reading this blog post right this second. And there is a 100% chance someone else is not. I’m a sucker for a good statistic. But statistics can be tricky things. It’s been said that a statistician is someone who stands in a bucket of ice water while he…

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