There are so many reasons to love doing what I do. One of those big reasons is the people, specifically the people behind the cameras. This industry is home to some of the nicest, honest people I could imagine...and I love being able to learn from them, hang out with them, share with them, etc. And of course many of those people are those of you who read this blog every now and then-I just want to say thanks for sharing the same goal of raising the bar in this industry through education, sharing ideas, practices, etc. I truly wouldn't be where I am right now without each and every one of you.

Of those nicest people out there, the extremely talented Doug + Chenin Boutwell from the OC would need to be included in that list. I told you guys about an action set 3 weeks ago that they recently made available to other professional (and non professional) photographers alike. I like 'em cause they really enable me to focus on my photography instead of some of the other aspects the trojan horse of digital photography brought with it. It's always nice to receive comments from your peers. They wrote an extremely nice comment about me and thus many of you new readers decided to stop by-I hope you guys stay! If you don't know who the Boutwells are, go visit their blog (click on image) and stop wastin' your time here!! And it sure won't hurt to stop by Becker's and The Image is Found's blogs as well.

In a universe where daylight never ends, yellow cowboy boots grant super human speed and one-liners like "got hot dog?!" produce self-induced uncontrollable laughter, these boys reign supreme. Captured with my Canon G7 and edited with iMovie, a Fred Egan digital short emerges.

*After recent demands that Behind the Camera wasn't getting personal enough, I have buckled under the mounting public pressure. Here's a little excerpt from some park escapades with my boys Harrison & Jonah this past weekend.

A game called Monster is being played where I, yours truly, pretends to give the impression to my would-be victims that I'm experiencing struggle in pursuit of my prey. So confident in their skillz, they go as far as to dizzy themselves up on the swings in order to level the playing field for the chase. In all reality, I fully possess the speed, mental prowess, agility and killer instinct needed to take them down in a matter of seconds.

This is my self portrait [simply a portrait of myself]. One of these will be going on my website and I need your help choosing the best one! Post a comment with your number 1 choice and the image with the most votes will go up on fredegan.com Monday. I need your help 'cause I hate choosing photos of myself!

My best friend Kyle Barnes shot these of me after I decided I wanted to go back to a location I shot Grant and Jenny's e-session.

Dallas, Texas

More good times with couples in love! Jenny was all about color when her and I discussed her engagement shoot prior to braving my camera and crazy ideas. Grant and Jenny were such good sports-I'm almost sure they thought I was crazy when the following exchange ensued:

Me: Guys, let's go sit down against this blue metal container!

Grant: Oh [long pause], that dumpster over there?

Me: Ummmm...yeah, that's it. Hey! This spot looks clean :)

Besides doing some dumpster time, we jumped down into a railroad pit as well. I just enjoyed making some great images in unexpected places-it's a fun challenge and keeps things fresh.

These guys love to laugh and we went with it the whole shoot. These guys seriously look great when they're laughing-that's hard to do for some of us (myself included)! They're tying the knot later this year in November. And of course I always love it when I can say after a shoot, "This is the best modern portrait shoot I've done." A huge thanks to Grant and Jenny...and to all my clients, for taking a risk and trusting me to capture a different you.

A couple of images from a personal project codenamed "car graveyard."

If you haven't already figured this one out, at least you know it works...after all, you've been reading mine ;) I know most of you are into photography to some degree but you can blog about anything-find something you're passionate about and write about it. I've been blogging since November of '05 about photography, music and misc personal stuff going on in my life.

Tip #11: Start a blog about something you're passionate about.

It's a good thing on so many levels.

Top reasons to blog:
-Improves your writing skills.
-Great marketing tool for your business/interest.
-Let's people/clients get to know who you on a continual basis.
-Great way for distant relatives to keep tabs on you!
-Help inspire others with similiar interests.
-It's better than a journal since you can post pictures, movie clips and receive feedback from your readers.
-Creates a ton of content for the big search engines to sniff around for.

Apart from writing Behind the Camera, I stop by the following blogs at least once a week...many of them daily, to continue to be inspired by the work of some of these amazing wedding/portrait photographers. It's my own blogstalker list ;) You should check them out if you already don't.

I haven't done this before but I just received this from Nellie, regarding her wedding...it's so nice to get these every now and then!