PBPhoto

Recently got a Christmas card from friends/clients.  It included the above photo.  In large lettering, "Happy Everything".  Man does that fit.  They are so fun and easy to work with. 

So we took these with combinations of natural light filtered through bed sheets to the left, bare strobes into the ceiling, bare strobes directly aimed at the subject, and my new favorite light modifier, the small softbox that I use with my battery strobes.

Here is an example of the natural light from the window to the left.  The sun was hitting it directly so we hung bed sheets to diffuse it.  I also bounced a strobe into the white ceiling to the right.


















Here's a fun one.










For more of an edge, here I blasted bare strobes from each side.


















Here's the love.


















And more of the love.
















And I'll finish with some of the expressions of the rock-n-roller above.

















































Be blessed.  More photo shoots to come . . .

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!

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.