Welcome 2010!

First off, I have to be the worst blogger in the world! I update my blog quarterly verses daily like I should... With the new year I haven't made any resolutions to completely change that, but I do hope to improvement.

So what have I been up to lately... Editing photos and album design. 2009 was a very busy year and we got the opportunity to work with some great clients as well as photograph some fun weddings. So needless to say, I have been busy behind the computer editing images and designing the clients books as well as developing some sample images for 2010 potential clients to peruse.

2010 is looking pretty busy as well and we are very excited with booking season upon us... Lots of great clients, interesting stories and great opportunities on the horizon.

After getting photo editing finished for 2009 and the books designed I plan on adding all new images to the website to showcase our 2009 wedding highlights! I am so excited to get these posted so the site looks fresh.

2010 is going to be a great year and it will be filled with lots of fun and exciting weddings to photograph!

Katie & Matt's Wedding

Today's feature wedding: Katie & Matt Rains!

Katie & Matt were married on July 25th, 2009. Their ceremony was held at Bethel Lutheran Church in Grove City, Ohio. Following we headed out to Homestead Park in Hilliard for some fun photos with the couple and their wedding party. Then we were off to the Makoy Center in Hilliard for their reception... Although we had to get some shots at the old railroad storage sheds along Center Street just before arriving to the Makoy Center...

We were all a little worried, as it rained that morning... Katie was dead set on getting some photos taken outdoors... (us too!). About the time the ceremony started, the skies cleared and left us with a beautiful evening for photos! Like they say, rain on your wedding day is good luck!

Below are some images from their day....

Where has summer gone?

It is almost October already! Geez... Summer is but a distant memory!

We have had a really busy summer. Lots of awesome weddings, lots of fun times with friends and great weather for all of it.

I have promised myself to spend this winter adding photos to the blog and to Facebook... Getting the time to sit down and write blogs and post photos seems to be one of those things I never get around to doing. Things just need to slow down a bit so I can take the time and write my thoughts down!

Well... Back to crazy wedding photographer life... Take care!

The Pieces....

In our circle of friends, we refer to them as "the pieces"... Otherwise known as Jason & Meredith Reece... We had the honor of photographing our friend's wedding this past June. Needless to say everyone had a great time...

Here are some of the details:

The Venue: Athenaeum in Downtown C-Bus

Food: The Athenaeum catered the event in house

Cake: Bakery Gingham

Party Favor: Reece's Pieces (of course)

THE BAND: Katty Whomp Us... Sounds weird but this group rocked the house and kept everyone on the dance floor until the Athenaeum staff had to boot everyone out... I honestly think the party would have went all night otherwise!

Honeymoon: Ireland & Wales

Here are just a handful of photos we shot and edited... The rest can be found by clicking here

CONGRATULATIONS TO JASON & MEREDITH!!!

What will they come up with next?

Imagine this... Hiring a photographer and a videographer simultaneously... No, I don't mean that the photography studio/photographer offers video service as part of their repertoire. I mean the same person doing it all with one device!

Technology is headed in this direction and fast! This year I invested in Canon's newest creation - the long awaited EOS 5D Mark II. I was just hoping for two features - a self cleaning sensor and a bump in resolution.... Instead Canon threw us all off our chairs... They decided to include 1080p video (that is 1080 x 1920 widescreen video)... This is BluRay quality video on a digital SLR camera body...

All along there has been video on point and shoot cameras - that has been around for several years now. This is cutting edge stuff for a pro camera body.

I recently shot some video at a family member's wedding (didn't do the photos for obvious reasons). I have yet to fully edit it because I shot several hours of footage in hi-res video... My PC cannot even push the video it is so intense. So... I am traversing into a Macintosh Pro in the fall to learn all about this revolution before it comes an industry norm.

Here is a video I did shoot and edit when I bought the camera... I am very impressed with what I could do with a few hours of learning... I now need to learn more intense software to make the videos more interesting and professional looking.




(right click and view on YouTube for the HD version)

Canon gave a photographer a beta version of this camera late last year and here is a link to what an award winning photographer shot in a weekend at a very low budget:


http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=2326

My guess is that in the future (near) that the resolution of the video portion of the cameras will be 6 to 10 megapixels (or more) and we will shoot the wedding in moving video and take clips out for the photographs... In 10 years or so, it will be 20 megapixel video where we take screen shots out for photographs...



I don't think this is an end to the still world, but a whole new beginning!

Where have we been?

Geez - such a long time and no blog entries... Kinda broke a little promise to myself to regularly blog... We have been quite busy lately! Between weddings, engagement sessions and fun shoots (see below) it has been a crazy spring/summer.


A few people have told me that I should start adding photos to my blog - especially since I am a photographer (Duh)... So coming soon will be photos from our wonderful wedding and engagement sessions with clients... We typically wait until our clients have seen their edited images - then we will be posting the blog photos with their stories!


Here are a couple sneak preview photos I took at a trash the dress session back in May:

Trash the dress concept!

The new, yet not brand new, concept of trash the dress is catching on coast to coast... What a cool idea - the anti-bridal-bridal photo... A bride in a gorgeous dress in a place where one wouldn't generally place a bride... Very unusual, yet unique!

I have done trash the dress shoots (not as many as I would like) and I do have to say that they are a ton of fun! You get to throw lots of old school rules about the traditional bridal photograph out the window and have fun with various locations or scenes...

Lots of brides ask the question - "do you really trash the dress"... In some cases photographers will go as far as mangling a dress - it really depends on the brides interests... If they want to preserve the dress as a keepsake, then it is recommended that a second hand shop gown is purchased for the shoot. If the bride doesn't care about her actual dress or doesn't intend on preserving it for a generation down the line, then have at whatever comes to mind... In some cases you don't actually destroy the dress - more so you get it a little dirtier than natural... In some cases photographers have reported that the dress sees about the same abuse as a normal wedding day...

A few clients I have worked with just bought the dress via Craig'slist/Ebay or second hand and went at it... At the end of the day we really didn't destroy the dress. The brides commented that they could actually have the dress cleaned and preserved as they normally would... It really depends on how creative one could get with the shoot... If intentional staining (paints, wines, inks, dyes, mud, etc.) is desired for effect - then count the dress out for the preservation. If you just want to shoot in interesting locations - then chances are the dress is going to be fine...

A trash the dress session is a great way to have fun with bridal photos and have something unique to show your grand kids... Who knows what they will be doing in 40 years for their wedding and bridal portraits, but chances are they will think grandma was kinda cool by going outside of the box with her photos to document that time in her life!

Traditions are great ideas to preserve for future enjoyment - but new traditions are more fun to create!