This one is from Amanda and Justin’s engagement session at our portrait gardens.
I asked Amanda and Justin if they could get in the hammock together. That was easier said than done. It took a couple of failed attempts but they finally managed to both stay in the hammock together. They got to talking and what resulted was a great photo of a young couple in love.
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Okay, this would be one of the most unusual session I have photographed in a while.
I photographed Ashley and Ben’s wedding about eight? years ago. Since then, I have photographed a family portrait with them and their two dogs. I was excited to hear they were expecting. It’s always fun to see couples start families after you have photographed their wedding. Well, Ashley wanted some maternity photographs to chronicle this time in their lives. As I talked with here, it became clear that she was not looking for the normal, dramatic lighting, black-and-white, highly glamorized, maternity photographs. She was after something different. This is not unusual for Ashley. She wanted something outside and with buildings. As the session progressed, I began to catch “a vision” for what she was looking for.
Ashley specifically asked for an image that showed her “big ole belly”. Make it look big? No problem. I called this one, “the belly that ate Oklahoma City”.
I got to photograph the CUTEST one year old girl the other day. Her mother had called earlier in the week and said she had few days off and needed to get this done. We managed to find a time in her schedule and we photographed her daughter outside. The variety of expressions we captured was amazing. The little girl just had fun looking at things and smelling flowers and the images were a great representation of her at this age.
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Tara had seen the photographs I had done for some of her friends (Staci McCart-Johnson and Melissa Richardson-Jones). The wedding was at the Capitol with a reception at the History Center. Both of these locations offer wonderful opportunities for creative and fun images.
Tara had one very specific request at the reception. She wanted a photograph of her and Bryan in front of the large window that looks out at the Capitol. At twilight. When you can still see the Capitol. With the airplane. No problem. I looked up what time sunset would be and informed her when we had a 10 minute window for the image.
Whatever it takes to get the shot.
We had a great time and Tara and Bryan loved their photos!
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This is the view of the new camera room after the sheet rock was installed. Light painting with a flash light.
I happen to be looking at a website of a videographer who was suggesting that the still images taken from his video could substitute for hiring a professional wedding photographer. It is to laugh! That would be the equivalent of using a 3 mega-pixel camera. My wife’s camera has better resolution than that!
Now, there is a lot more to photography than the megapixel size of your camera. There is exposure, focus, compostion and lighting. I’ve seen very few videographers who understand and apply all four of those fundamentals. Granted, the videographer does have the advantage of not having to ‘time’ when he takes the photograph. However, the lack of resolution and lack of light control, composition and posing would make this scenario no better than what your friends are taking with their point-and-shoot cameras.
Just add dirt.
a stem wall
add some more concrete…
and then some wood
then a roof to keep the rain out
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Yes, it is true. We are building a studio/office next to my current office [in my house.]
Some history for those of you who may not be aware…
I had a retail/store front location on west Main St for 13 years. It served me well and I enjoyed my time there. As my business developed and my focus shifted toward wedding and outdoor/location photography, I was using my camera room less and less. There came a point when I had to ask why I was paying retail rent and not using all the space I was paying for. That is when we moved into a house on two acres and I moved my office into the house. It’s been great having two acres of green rolling hills and big trees to take photographs in. As nice as this was, it was also limiting. Outdoor photography is dependent on the weather and the time of day. There are certain times of the year when you just can’t photograph outdoors because it’s not pretty and can be downright cold.
Earlier this year I rented a warehouse space to photograph high school seniors in. The warehouse was nice, but had it’s limitations – mainly a lack of air conditioning. It was successful enough to pursue the dream we had when we moved out here; and that was to build a studio out here.
It took longer than I thought. I was hoping to open the studio in September. I’m thinking October is more realistic. When it’s done, I will be able to do studio and outdoor in one location. I’m excited!
From time to time I will visit other photographer’s websites. It amazes me how “casual” wedding photography has become. I saw a sample album on site that contained no nice photos of the bride and her mother (she appears in the candids as the bride is getting dressed), the groom’s parents are absent from all the photos (maybe they didn’t come to the wedding) and there are no images of the families that traveled to this event. Sure, there are lots of photographs of the wedding party having fun and it looked like everybody had a good time; but there are key people that I’m sure were important to the bride and groom who are absent from the photographs.
Another photographer claimed to have “World Class Photography”. Dig a little deeper and you will not find any awards from their peers or the professional organizations. In fact, you won’t even find memberships in the professional organizations.
Possessing a scalpel does not make one a surgeon. Possessing a nice digital camera does not make one a professional photographer. A true professional photographer controls exposure, focus, composition and lighting to produce consistent and repeatable results.
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I had gotten to know the Shelton family when I photographed the double wedding of Elizabeth’s sisters about 10 years ago. Yes, a double wedding – two brides, two grooms and whole lot of bridesmaids, groomsmen and three different families.
Elizabeth’s wedding would not be the large production of her sisters. This is a good thing. Her wedding was at the Dominion House. I had overheard that following the reception, the couple were going to tour by carriage downtown Guthrie at night. I asked them if they were up for some more photographs and they were. We met them in downtown and created some fantastic images on street corner in downtown against the buildings lit for Christmas. What the photo does not show is how cold it was. It was really cold. Maybe 18F.
Anything for the shot.
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