PBPhoto

 The tough thing about this one is just deciding which photos to post.  So here are a bunch of them.  Some black and white, some color.  Some use strobes some are just natural evening light on the beach.  We enjoy a visit with these special people.







Here is a group that I would title HAIR/Girlhood.




 



 



Someone could have a career in modeling I think.





One of my favorites of the bunch here.



Mommy is one of my wife's best friends since college.




So thankful to call these gals friends.  See you soon.

It's great to be one.  Especially for this little girl.  There is a long wonderful story about this one that would be great to share.  But I'll let you ask her Mommy and Daddy about it.  

So a year ago she looked something (actually she looked exactly) like this.

 
















And now, a mere 12 months later . . . 
 

I have to admit that Mommy had all of the good ideas on these.  I only had to capture it.  I love the mirror.  I took a little thinking to decide where lights should be placed but we did it.


   


















The pew bench is a great prop (out of our living room).  The decorations . . . all Mommy.  Although I think those ladybug wings are ours.  I still only have a cross-light pattern here.  A strobe light with an umbrella for key and a bare strobe for accent.  But they had to be placed strategically when working with the mirror.  And we had to work hard to keep everyone and the equipment out of the shot.

 








 

We are really happy for this family.  Happy to call them friends.  Happy that they have been blessed with this little thing.  

Spent some time with my buddy Bryan Boliver and his wife.  He is a singer/songwriter and we took some photos to feed his websites for a while.  We used a few different lighting styles.  In the lead photo above you see side lighting with bare strobes.  Very harsh shadows.  I love the technique.  Gives  a good edge to the photo.

Here are some more.


Then we took some ambient light stuff as well since the sun was setting.  Placed the sun behind him and exposed for his face and let the background blow out.


Also used an umbrella for key light with an accent light behind and opposite the key light for a more classic look.


Be blessed!

During our vacation to north Georgia, we visited Anna Ruby Falls in the Unicoi State Park. I'm certainly not a landscape photographer but this location was very inspiring. Funny thinking back to what I thought I would do as a photographer when I first began. I imagined National Geographic or something. But as it turns out I have never been able to capture the landscapes that I envision. Maybe just need some more practice.

I was inspired by the weather. It had rained most of the time since we arrived. So it was overcast and damp. I brought my tripod with me to get some pictures of us as a family but then it struck me that there was moving water (I know I'm really quick on my feet). I knew that it would be possible to get some blurred water shots using a slow shutter speed and my tripod. I shot multiples of these at different shutter speeds so that I could choose the level of blur that suited me best. It's necessary to have a very stable tripod so that the still objects in the frame are tack sharp. I used manual focus and the live view setting (just like your point and shoot cameras) so that I can zoom in 10x to the area that I want to focus on. I stopped way down on these. Anywhere from f8 to f22. This allows for a slower shutter speed but also gets the lens out of its soft spots when it is nearly wide open.

I took some of the falls themselves as you see at the top but I was more interested in the details in the creek. The colors were great. Greens of the trees, grays of the rocks, browns of the fallen trees, and then the yellows of these mushrooms. They were being backlit and looked like they were on fire.

My son saw this guy so I got him too. Thankfully he wasn't a fast mover.

Be blessed!

 

It's hard to know where to start with this one.  An amazing couple with amazing friends, an amazing wedding, filled with joy and sharing of their faith with others.  There is plenty of technical stuff to share about photography.  How you can get sharp photos.  How you can use ambient light in different ways with and without supplementing with flashes to create a mood.  There is something over which the photographer has no control and that is the personality of his/her subjects.  My friend and photographer that works with me on weddings, Mark Morgan of http://www.mmorganphotography.net/, commented that the personalities of these two come through in the photos.  I think you'll agree.

I worked with the Bride and Bridesmaids as they prepared.  A funny bunch.  And very kind to the photographer (coffee, creampuffs).

They did something cool that we haven't seen before.  They had their first look at each other before getting to the church.  At the hotel where the girls were preparing.  A great idea.

On a technical note.  The value of having two photographers.  The sequence that you see below is really cool.  We are shooting from different angles covering both bride and groom.  During post-processing we sync up our photos so that you get a chronological sequence of the shots from both of our cameras.  The third shot below was taken by Mark.  And captures the instant that he sees her.  One photographer would not have been able to capture this. 

They are both skateboarders, so the boards must be included.

One of my favorites.

Back at the church the preparations continue along with the hilarity.

The ceremony was great.  They read vows to each other that they had written.  The groom had some trouble getting through it.  Which is awesome.  Sign of a great man. 

The reception.

We can't forget the superheroes. A great photo from Mark.

At the end of the reception we got them outside for a few shots with the late afternoon sun creating some great light.

We are so happy for these guys.  And wish them tons of blessings as they start down this new walk called marriage.