Munro Photography

Keith and Killian: A Marine family portrait

2011-12-30T18:46:00.000-05:00

Keith and Killian are two really great guys and Killian recently completed his training for the Marines. Next month they'll be visiting relatives and wanted a really exciting, unique portrait to take to family members -- so we happily obliged.

What do you guys think of our super dramatic portrait of Keith and Killian?

Let us know in the comments.

Merry Christmas! The Holiday Season in the Tri-Cities

2011-12-24T11:54:00.001-05:00

So since today is Christmas Eve I've decided to share a little bit of what the region does during the holiday season.

Santa at Magnolia Grange

Here's a few photos I picked to share. The funny thing is, I coincidentally picked 25 photos. I didn't set out to pick that many, but I did. Kind of funny since this is sort of my Christmas gift to you, the blog reader.

What are some of your Christmas traditions? Let me know in the comments below!

The moon at the Parade of Lights on the Appomattox in Hopewell.

Poinsettias at Boulevard Flowers.

Raggedy Ann and Andy at Weston Manor

Santa at the Prince George County Christmas Tree lighting

The Colonial Heights Christmas Parade.

The lighting of Petersburg.

The Hopewell Christmas Parade.

Checking Santa's beard.

Marley at an event in Colonial Heights

The Colonial Heights Parade

Ghost of Christmas Present

More of the Colonial Heights Christmas Parade

The Petersburg Festival Chorus.

The Grinch at the Prince George County Christmas Parade

The Parade of Lights on the Appomattox River in Hopewell

Ebenezer Scrooge

Family Portraits: The Boland Family!

2011-12-16T18:35:00.000-05:00

Meet the Boland family!

I had the pleasure of taking their family portraits Wednesday. This family was a natural talent in front of the camera. They knew exactly how and where to pose themselves and it just made taking their portraits a lot of fun.

The first photo shows Mr. and Mrs. Roussell with their daughter Mrs. Boland, Mr. Boland and their two little girls "Maddy" and "Abby."

One thing is for certain, the family resemblance means that no one but Jeremy can claim Maddy or Abby as their own.

Mr. Boland is actually a really amazing guy who is loaning his services as an electrician to Uncle Sam and has been over the past few year.

Even though he's been providing his services, he was able to come home to spend some time with his family. They took the opportunity to get some family portraits done while he was here.

The shot just above was actually a lighting test, but the girls and Mr. Boland look so natural that I decided it was a keeper.

They knew I was getting a picture, but I don't think any of us knew just how amazing the photo would be.

Finally a really great portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Boland in front of their tree.

I must be a lunatic... get it?

2011-12-10T22:21:00.000-05:00

OK, so since the moon was so pretty tonight I decided to go out and get some more shots of the moon, this time of the moon rising. So how exactly does one show the moon rising?

With a tripod and an intervalometer of course!

An intervalometer as I believe I've mentioned before on this blog, takes a photo at a given interval. In this case as I wanted to show the moon rising, I decided to have the intervalometer take a photo every minute.

I also must have knocked the tripod just before one of the photos as evidenced by the moon's slightly weird position in the second part of this nice little arc.

Anyway, since we on the east coast didn't get a chance to see that nice full lunar eclipse, I figured this is as good as it gets.

What do you think?

New blog home for 11:59 Photography

2011-12-09T09:32:00.000-05:00

After nearly a year of co-locating the photos of 11:59 Photography and Munro Photography on this blog, I've decided to change things up a little bit.

There's a new home for all 11:59 Photography images from this point forward.

Now, that means all previous posts will stay right where they are, but any new 11:59 images, information on sales, etc... will be here -- http://1159photography.blogspot.com/view/magazine

That's just the view I like the most, but basically, you just swap out the munro-photography for 1159photography and it's the same address.

The reason for doing this is simple -- I want this blog to concentrate more on the core Munro Photography business.

You can also expect to see new updates to both blogs on a much more frequent basis. Possibly even some new regular features.

But with all that being said, the most important thing to remember is this... you can still see images from both businesses and if you bookmark or follow the other blog, it will be just as easy as following the progress here.

When the moon hits your eye...

2011-12-08T21:38:00.001-05:00

The moon was just so beautiful tonight, I decided that I would take a photo of it as soon as I got home.

This isn't your typical blog post because it's just sort of a photo from my day, not from anything that we've done today or recently. This wasn't shot for a client. It was just a photo that I thought was really pretty.

I wanted to share it with you all so, let me know what you think in the comments below!

Another New Video: the Adkins wedding fusion video!

2011-11-27T20:17:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to share this newly finished video with you all, it's a new cut of the Adkins-Ellis wedding fusion video.

So take a look, and let me know what you think!

Brian and Joanne: married!

2011-11-23T08:07:00.000-05:00

Back in October I shared a few photos from the amazing wedding of Brian and Joanne Ingle. Well, I have a little something else to share... this fusion video!

In addition to taking still photos on their wedding day, we also took some video and kind of blended it all together into what you see above.

You can get more of a feel for just how wonderful their wedding day was with this and it's something we offer all of our clients.

Now accepting...

2011-10-28T17:10:00.000-04:00

Great news, just in time for a promotion we're planning in November, we now are accepting credit cards!

That's right, in addition to standard check and cash, we now will be accepting Visa, Master Card, American Express and Discover credit cards. It's all safe and secure and works just like any other credit card transaction, only you'll be signing on a touchpad.

So exciting news for us, in part thanks to Square.

Square is the name of the app and device which plugs into my phone that makes the magic happen.

Munro Photography Seniors: Karleen

2011-10-27T18:24:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend we had the fantastic opportunity to take some senior portraits for Karleen a senior at L.C. Bird High School in Chesterfield.

Karleen is a natural beauty and we were proud to have her as our first senior portrait for the graduating class of 2012.

Here's a sampling of the great photos we created for her.

11:59 Photography: Implied nudes and costumes

2011-10-26T18:27:00.000-04:00

Amanda wanted some new photos for her portfolio and a couple of photos to enter into a costume photo contest so we helped her out with both!

Here are just a few of the photos we took over the weekend.

Brian and Joanne: Married! Sneak peeks.

2011-10-13T23:00:00.000-04:00

Ordinarily as soon as I get back from a wedding I instantly know a handful of images that I want to post to the blog.

Ordinarily.

Sunday was an exception. There were just so many fantastic images it was hard to pick just a few to put up here on the blog!

Sunday we had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of Brian and Joanne Ingle.

They had a wonderfully beautiful and meaningful day filled with personal touches.

Quite honestly it was one of the most beautiful weddings I've ever been to. They had their ceremony and reception at the historic Yorktowne Hotel in York, Pa. This place was fantastic and their coordinator Layla was a dream to work with on getting just the perfect shots for Brian and Joanne.

I really can't say enough about the fantastic people involved in this wedding from the couple to the venue.

So without further ado -- the sneak peeks!

Joanne's beautiful dress.

Joanne wore blue shoes for her something blue.

Joanne and Brian dancing their first dance as a married couple.

Joanne and Brian share a kiss on the rooftop at sunset. According to Layla it was one of the most beautiful sunsets she has ever seen from the roof of the hotel.

Joanne and Brian in front of the hotel.

This was a really fun and playful shot of the couple in the old fashioned circular door.

Day 5: Sunburst Trout Farms, Canton NC

2011-09-30T17:23:00.000-04:00

Trout.

Sausage.

Trout sausage.

Yes, you read that right, trout sausage. In fact, that's what's in that photo above -- trout sausage.

I hadn't heard of it before either -- but I've heard of it now. I've even tried it.

First let me back up somewhat. One of the places that we decided to look at while we were down here is one of the south's first trout farms. Opened in 1948, Sunburst Trout Farms in Canton has been raising trout in a sustainable way ever since. They're located just below the Pisgah National Forest and they have a beautiful location.

You know what's even better than having a beautiful location? Having really good food.

With the case of Sunburst Trout Farms, that's just what they have. Great food. You can buy fresh trout, smoked trout, trout dip, smoked tomato jam, and trout sausage.

The trout sausage was of course one of the most unique offerings that they had. (At least I've never seen a fish sausage before.)

What can I say other than that the trout was really, really good. We talked to the guys that were netting the fish and they said that they work 4-days a week nearly every week of the year. The only days that they get off are Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Perhaps not so surprisingly since they work with the fish so much, they said that they don't really eat it that often anymore. "The first couple of years here it was an almost every day thing," said the guy with the net. But he said since then, not as much.

Day 4: 12 Bones, Antiques and Asheville

2011-09-29T18:52:00.000-04:00

Wednesday we took the opportunity to go to one of my favorite barbecue restaurant's of all time -- perhaps my absolute favorite barbecue restaurant. We'll just leave it at one of though.

So what am I talking about? 12 Bones Smokehouse of course!

This restaurant is amazing. It draws its customer base from hippies. Hippies and tourists. Hippies, tourists and bikers. Hippies, tourists, bikers and artists. Hippies, tourists, bikers, artists and professionals.

Do you get it? Everyone.

They draw their customer base from everyone. But knowing that and knowing that most barbecue restaurant proprietors have a pretty good sense of humor (at least the one's that I know -- ) it also explains some of the signs around the place.

Like look to the left in this photo... see it.

Now, it's true that barbecue is a great unifer. But I've been to only a handful of other restaurants that seem to draw everyone in the way that this one does.

But enough about the clientele, what about the food?

The food is amazing!

I've never had something from there that wasn't good -- great even!

The 'cue is good, the sides are amazing (macaroni and smoked cheese, greens with bacon in them, smoked potato salad, corn pudding with jalapeno...)

After the restaurant, we did a little antiquing. This image... was one that I saw immediately and it made me laugh.

The rug, is of course, blocking the sign that says "Do Not Block."

Moving further into town we encountered some pretty cool places.

Loft for instance, was in Amber's best description was a store completely indicative of Asheville. she said that if Asheville was a store, it would be this store.

This was just a really pretty fall view of downtown, not exactly with a lot of fall color in this photo since it's a black and white. But, it's a great street view.

This is actually inside the book store seen in the street view photo above. Quite a world of difference from the one from the day before, eh?

Not only did this store have an excellent selection... you could move around inside to see if there was anything worth seeing in the first place.

These two were for sale at an antiques store.

Another antique store in downtown Asheville held this wonder.

This was just a pretty cool site near the chalet.

As was this. This was down the hill, the tree and fence post were up the hill.

Now the cool thing with this last photo is that I actually took that with my phone. There's an app that allows you to do some extended shutter type shots and that's what I took this one with. (Others in this entry and previous entries were taken with the hipstamatic app which is also pretty cool.)

Alright, stay tuned for more of our adventures and photos from the road.

Day 3: Continued -- China and Frog's Leap Public House

2011-09-29T18:11:00.000-04:00

I'll be perfectly honest... the bookstore experience so blew me away that I forgot to write about some of the other perfectly exciting things that we did on Tuesday.

Immediately following our departure fro the bookstore we stopped at a really unique store that deals primarily in China, flatware and dishes. That's both new and mismatched and even some really cool vintage stuff.

For dinner Tuesday night, we went to one of the most exceptional restaurants I've ever been to. The restaurant, in Waynesville, NC is Frog's Leap Public House.

It's honestly also got one of the coolest concept's I've ever seen and one that seems to be unique -- at least to the extent that it was carried out here.

Sorry, let me explain.

The restaurant is in on the eat local or locavore concept. They buy most if not all of their ingredients locally. On top of that they support sustainable farming.

So what did we have to eat?

Unfortunately I didn't whip out my camera to take photos of everything that we ordered, but here's what we got: Tuna Tataki (seen above), sliders, heirloom tomato flatbread pizza, "Angels on Horseback" which was a type of barbecue oyster, an onion griddle cake with barbecue pork, lamb sausage and a barbecue chicken flatbread pizza.

Great stuff! Totally flavorful.

We even (after all that) had room for dessert: a pecan and sweet potato bread pudding and a frozen toffee coffee crunch type thing.

Delicious stuff.

Day 3: An uncommon bookstore

2011-09-28T18:54:00.000-04:00

There are some experiences, which for one reason or another become a positive -- even when you may not see it that way at first.

Growing up I was a huge fan of the series "The Twilight Zone" and going to this particular bookstore that we went to, for many reasons -- reminded me of the show.

To really understand that, you'd have to have been there.

Notice how close I am to the books? Yeah, that's out of necessity. The shelves are filled with books. The shelves are close together as well. Very close together. Very, very close together.

So close it was actually more effective to move through the aisles sideways.

Then there were aisles like this that had shelf extensions going out into the aisles making it even more challenging to move around.

Perhaps the most challenging aspect of moving around in the store were the 'booby traps.' The things -- cast iron skillets, kettles and metal and glass lamps -- hanging from the ceiling.

There were of course signs to warn you of these obstacles.

There were also signs warning people not to steal things. An example, and I'm really not making this up at all: "Book thieves, if you steal your blood will be spilled."

It was quite the experience going into this store. However, probably the worst part of all was this -- with all these books in this store -- many of which had duplicates. It was hard to find anything worth buying. The books were arranged so you couldn't see the spines to know what book was what in many cases. Those books were so tightly packed you didn't want to move them out for fear of toppling everything else on top of you.

But worst of all was the condition of many of the books. They had torn covers. Stains. Worst of all, many were just damp to the touch.

In short, it was a very sad store.

Ahh well, more to share later with other -- more positive -- book experiences as well.

Photos from the road!

2011-09-27T11:26:00.001-04:00

Sunday we headed off on the road to North Carolina and along the way we've had some great adventures already!

Here are just a few photos from the road.

These first few photos are from a sculpture exhibit called "Beyond the Frame: Impressionism Revisited."

A really fascinating exhibit, the sculptures are all inspired by paintings from the impressionism movement. All the sculptures were crafted from aluminum and automotive paint.

We found out about this exhibit when we stopped in one of our favorite wine stores, which we actually stopped in at on our honeymoon. The owner had given us some good advice nearly 2 1/2 years ago on where to have lunch -- this time he told us about this exhibit.

Now here's another really fascinating part about this exhibit. The sculptor, J. Seward Johnson, is the grandson of the founder of Johnson&Johnson. Yes. That Johnson&Johnson.

So I obviously didn't make the video of the installation, but I thought it was a pretty cool video and shows some more of the exhibit. So check it out!

I don't think that this last sculpture was part of the exhibit, but I just thought it was pretty cool. But it was at the same museum with the J. Seward Johnson works.

Day 2: Waynesville.

So on Day 2 of our trip we stopped in Waynesville, NC. This place was pretty cool. A fantastic downtown area. Super walk-able and with a ton of really neat, unique shops.

This sculpture was near where we parked the car and was made entirely out of industrial components and was part of a pair of sculptures meant to reflect the musical history of the city. The city apparently had its first music festival in the early 1800s when a choir provided a public concert on the steps of the courthouse.

From the basement of the Mast General Store. A general store in the truest sense, it has clothing, shoes, some housewares and of course... candy. Lots of barrel candy. And most of the stuff, isn't stuff you can find anywhere else, at least not easily or all year round. Here, you can.

Alright, I just had to share this one because the weather here has been fantastic so far. The weather called for mostly cloudy with scattered thunderstorms all day yesterday. We didn't get any rain until well after we were back to the chalet.

These last two photos I took when we were stopped at a side of the road fresh vegetable stand. I'll be honest though. They had a lot more than just fresh veggies. They had jams, jellies, fruits, some souvenir type stuff, boiled peanuts and so much more.

Well, stay tuned, more photos to come!

November Calendar Girl

2011-09-11T20:28:00.000-04:00

OK, so how cool would it be to be the star of your very own pinup calendar?

Very, right? Well Amber, one of our clients (who happens to have the same name as my wife, but is not my wife) is in the process of having just that done.

Today we took some photos for three more months of her calendar, and they look amazing.

I'm only going to share one!

The photo for November.

Doesn't that photo just make you ready for fall, Thanksgiving and the leaves to change color?

Well, here's hoping it does. If you want to start your own calendar, just contact us. The rate is very reasonable and we can shoot the calendar at your own pace (no more than 3 months in one shoot day though, please.)

So what are you waiting for? Christmas is right around the corner and this would make an excellent gift for your boyfriend or spouse. I have that on good authority from previous clients!

Some photos from this weekend

2011-08-21T20:28:00.000-04:00

I'll post at least one photo from what I spent a good portion of today doing later, but first... some photos from yesterday.

In addition to looking for houses, I decided to go check out the Dinwiddie County Fair.

There's something kind of just fun about taking photos of amusement park rides, especially, carnival or fair rides. They spring up out of almost nowhere and then disappear almost as quickly. As an example, the Dinwiddie Fair only began Thursday and this was its last night in the county.

Well that's why yesterday I went out and decided to take some photos of the rides, at dusk, with all of their lights glowing in their glory.

Here's just a few of the photos that I took.

I might post a few later this week as well, or a video comprised of some of the clips that I took later in the evening.

Collins wedding from July 9: Assisting Kelly Ann Photography

2011-08-11T19:40:00.001-04:00

Back in early July, we had the opportunity to assist the wonderful and amazing Kelly Clemens Settle of Kelly Ann Photography on a wedding in Blacksburg.

The couple was beautiful, the day was beautiful and the locations were simply amazing.

It was really hard to narrow down just what we shot to these 18 photos, but, I did.

Now... as we were assisting Kelly, these are her photos even though we shot them. She has graciously allowed us to use them on the blog to share with you, and that's why instead of the typical Munro Photography or 11:59 Photography branding, you'll see her branding on the photos.

Cookout!

2011-07-17T09:40:00.000-04:00

So yesterday as I mentioned in that previous entry on the delicious bacon explosion -- we had a cookout. The weather was perfect for it, and we had a lot of good times with great friends.

Here's a 'snapshot' of just what I'm talking about.

Alright so that's more like 20 snapshots artfully arranged into one nice post-card shaped thing. But you get the idea.

From health food to... this.

2011-07-16T23:25:00.000-04:00

OK, that last post was all about health food.

Well, here's something that's not at all healthy for you. Bacon explosion. I know, it's the weekend and this is like the third post in a row that's not exactly a photography related post, but bear with me.

In making this bacon explosion I decided to engage in a little photography experiment -- to see if I could make a time lapse video.

Well, the results were mixed. Yes... I can... but next time I need more photos. What you'll see below is actually 183 photos -- in nine seconds.

Don't blink!

And as I'm sure you're all dying to know just what exactly goes into such a thing... here's the link to the recipe. I've obviously gone off and done my own thing by not using Italian sausage. I also made my own barbecue sauce for the glaze which was really a tasty addition.

To make the time lapse I just put my camera on a tripod and used my intervalometer, (in this case a Canon TC-80N3) which allows you to tell the camera to take a picture every set amount of time. In this case every 10 seconds.

Once I took the photos, I used this little add-on for Adobe Lightroom to make the movie. I decided nine seconds of footage with no sound was pretty dull so I popped it on over to Adobe PremierePro, added in the sound a title and extended the end just a bit.

The song in the video is "Bare Knuckles" which I got from this site.

Farmer's Market

2011-07-16T13:44:00.001-04:00

One of the joys of Saturday morning for Amber and I is to go to the Petersburg farmer's market in town and get our produce for the week. It works really out great for us because we can normally spend about $20 and have enough produce for meals throughout the week.

The best part is: it's fresh, healthy, we're supporting local growers and it's really tasty.

So just what can you get at the farmer's market and how many people go?

Well, in the last two years that we've been going -- we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of people that come out each week including both growers and customers.

But, there are a lot of people that go.

Here are a few photos of our trip from this morning. I will say we spent a bit more than our usual this morning, but that's because we're having a cookout and wanted to get plenty of fresh ingredients. (More on that later.)

For those that are curious, these are all SOOC -- Straight Out Of Camera. Exposure values vary, but they were all shot with a 50mm f/1.4 and Canon 5D Mark II.

Canoeing on the 4th

2011-07-15T09:27:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in the previous post Amber and I went canoeing on July 4th.

I have to say I highly recommend this to anyone. Just go do it, you'll have a lot of fun.

But here's the story of our canoe trip. We don't own a canoe -- so how does one go canoeing without a canoe? Simple -- go to someplace that rents them.

In this case we went to Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield County. This is probably one of my all time favorite places in the world and I've got tons of childhood memories from going camping there.

In fact it was a regular summer vacation that my family would take a few days and go to the park and go camping by the water (when the campground was located by the water -- the park has subsequently relocated the campground) and we'd usually rent a canoe -- one time a row boat -- to take out on the water and paddle around with while we were there.

There was the time we were camping there and while using a row boat we found a blackberry bush along the water and my mom picked as many as she could while my dad kept the rowboat close to the bush. I think I may have helped primarily by holding the cooler we were using to hold the blackberries. I may have eaten a few too.

But when we got back to camp mom made blackberry cobbler on a camp stove! To this day still one of the greatest desserts ever.

Another time -- with a canoe this time -- I was old enough that mom let me paddle around by myself and in so doing I located maybe across 20 feet of water from our campsite a beautiful bright brown copperhead coiled on a branch among some honeysuckle. I was so excited that I was able to somehow convince my mom to get in the canoe with me and I paddled her to check out the snake. She promptly told me she didn't need that close of a look at it.

OK... one more memory... so this must have been a summer after I had been to Boy Scout camp and earned my canoeing merit badge. One of the requirements for the merit badge is to swamp a canoe -- that means fill it with water -- and paddle it. Well I remember demonstrating what I learned to my mom while we were camping at Pocahontas.

Anyway, so I wanted to show Amber this place that was filled with so many wonderful childhood memories. So that's just what we did.

We got there a little early as the rental hut doesn't open until 10 a.m. and we had to wait about 10 minutes for them to open. Once they did we rented a canoe for a half-day and went out on the water.

There are two choices for a direction to go from the dock -- left or right. Left leads to the area with the old campground and most of my childhood memories and right leads to the spillway and generally (in my opinion anyway) a bit of a less interesting area.

And interesting is just what we found when we went to the left.

It wasn't long before we saw a Great Blue Heron. In case you're unfamiliar they're a very large, prehistoric looking wading bird.

They're also fairly shy. No sooner had we seen the bird than it took off. That led us on the 'quest' of seeing if we could get a photo of it while naturally paddling around Swift Creek Lake. It seemed though that the bird ended up leading us, as we naturally ended up running into it several times. Each time the bird -- whether or not it was the same bird, I'm not sure -- would take off before we could even raise a camera.

Eventually we reached a point where most people probably just turn around. There was a large tree across the water -- apparently blocking any further paddling. That is how it appeared. However, upon a closer inspection of what was actually before us, we were able to see that there was just enough room between the tips of the branches at what had at one time been the top of the tree and the shore opposite the one it fell from.

We continued and once again ran into the or a Great Blue Heron -- twice more before coming to what looked very much like the end of our journey to the left of the docks. In fact it was the end and we went back to where we started and then to the right of the docks.

Going that direction eventually led us to some geese which were more like a gang of beggars. They surrounded the canoe and kept looking at us expectantly hoping we had some food that we'd share with them. Obviously the influence of humans was greater on the geese than on the more prehistoric looking bird.

Having no food (which given that the birds are already too tame anyway, we wouldn't have given them any even if we did have some...) we went back to the dock to turn in our canoe and end our adventure...

That's when we saw it.

It being once again a Great Blue Heron. This time though it was so preoccupied with hunting for food that it paid us little attention and continued it's odd stilt like walk through the lily pads as Amber snapped a few frames of it.

Assisting the amazing Kelly Clemens Settle

2011-07-14T17:57:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend Amber and I had the opportunity to assist the amazing Kelly Clemens Settle with a wedding in Blacksburg.

First a little background on how I know Kelly.

Kelly and I met in San Diego at the PictageU Lighting and Boudoir workshop in May of last year. We've maintained contact since then because I've got to tell you, as a photographer you really need to network and if you can't network with people in your home area for whatever reason, network with photographers from other markets. It's a great way to learn stuff and what works and what doesn't work from a business perspective.

Anyway, we met at that really great learning opportunity last year and have maintained contact since then. Her home market is in the Dayton/Cincinnati area of Ohio. Earlier this year she informed me that she would be doing a wedding in Virginia and asked if I'd be available to help.

I of course said yes and last weekend -- July 9 -- Amber and I did just that.

This was a fabulous couple and a really beautiful wedding filled with awesomely beautiful people. At this point I can't share any of the photos that we took from the wedding or any of the video, but rest assured when Kelly gives me the OK (the couple was her client and we were just assisting, bear in mind) believe me I will be sharing, because we got some awesome photos and so I'm sure that Kelly did too and if she'll let me, and I don't see why she wouldn't... I'll post a link to her blog as well when she posts photos.

So stay tuned and we'll keep you updated.

I also have to post some photos in the immediate future from a great little canoeing trip that Amber and I took over the July 4th weekend.

Amber took some really great photos and I got some cool ones too.

So I should have those posted either later this evening or by the end of the weekend.

Upcoming stuff:

More commercial gigs and some fashion work.

Another visit to Union 206

2011-06-29T22:42:00.000-04:00

Today was another fantastic day of shooting at Union 206 Studio in Alexandria.

I really love that place, it's fantastic for both creativity, inspiration and just a fantastic workspace. We were there to help a friend of mine from Pennsylvania, Brian, learn a little bit more about lighting.

So here's a few photos from the day.

The wall that greets you as you arrive at the studio.

Brian taking a photo of Amber on the white cyc wall using a pretty complex 3-light setup.

Amber as Mrs. Wall Street.

Jonathan, one of our models today, in a unique pose with a pretty cool 3-light set-up. Hard as it may be to believe, this is on that same white cyc wall.

Alla with some fantastic make-up by Maliki.

Another one of Alla.

Jonathan on the cyc with an urban trendy look.

I told Jonathan that he shouldn't be allowed to break the laws of physics like this.

This is one of the photos that Brian took using a pretty basic 2-light set up.

Brian used my favorite 3-light set up to take this photo of me.

A single light set up that Brian used with a grid, and using the Tungsten white balance to create a moody blue glow.

Amber as Mrs. Wall Street in another of Brian's photos from the day.

A Taste of India

2011-06-26T17:40:00.000-04:00

Today we visited the 8th annual Taste of India event in Chesterfield County at the Cultural Center of India. This is a fantastic event and it was going on all weekend.

Actually this weekend has been packed with activities and events going on around the area including this, a motorcycle rally, the premiere of "The Odyssey" and some other stuff we had going on like a visit to the local farmer's market and airsoft (more on most of these later.)

So without further delay, the photos from A Taste of India.

Kaelyn and Ryleigh

2011-06-12T21:25:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you get things done just in time.

Such was the case earlier today when we went to take photos of Kaelyn and Ryleigh at Appomattox Manor.

These two kids are extremely cute and we had a blast taking their photos this afternoon. I just had to share a few of the photos.

I will say though, at the end Amber was asking me where the kids got all the energy from, and on top of that -- thunder started rumbling overhead -- showing us just how much we had finished right on time.

Congratulations HHS class of 2011

2011-06-10T23:43:00.000-04:00

My little sister graduated from Hopewell High School tonight and I couldn't be prouder!

She's growing up! It was about nine years ago that I actually was standing approximately in her spot and graduating from Hopewell High School.

Things have changed a bit since then, they changed the direction the graduates face, and there is a field house going up at one end of the football field. But it was largely the same. (Even some familiar faculty faces and names.)

So without further delay, the photos from the event.

Additionally, let me apologize now for the erratic placement of the photos, as an aside, Blogger has changed the way I can make entries and it's changed how I can edit the entry too... but it hasn't made it easier. Just different.

John Paul Jones -- one of my heroes.

2011-05-31T17:55:00.003-04:00

With a title like that, you know that this entry can't be about photography -- well you'd be wrong.

OK, first a little background for those that don't know. John Paul Jones is essentially one of the father's of the U.S. Navy. Jones, reportedly said during a fight with the British in which they taunted him to surrender, "I have not yet begun to..." and sources variously attribute the last word as either fight or piss.

Basically a very determined individual. In another naval battle the British asked him if he had struck his colors and ones is reported to have said something to the effect that his boat may sink but he wouldn't strike the colors (effectively admitting defeat or surrender.)

With that background, I now proceed:

Since roughly February I've had an idea for a great project. A calendar. A calendar inspired by wine. A calendar telling the story of wine with models in various states of undress and either covered or not covered by something else present in the environment -- however, it would entirely be done in a tasteful manner because I don't create anything other than tasteful images.

I even recently decided to try "group-sourcing" the funding to pay for the printing of the calendar. Group-sourcing is essentially a nicer way of saying begging on the internet.

However, the hosting company -- Kickstarter -- and the company which accepts donations for them, Amazon -- decided that my project didn't meet their standards.

From Kickstarter: "All Kickstarter projects must meet Amazon's Acceptable Use Policy and our own internal guidelines. Because of Amazon's restrictions we are constrained in the kinds of projects we can allow, and anything that's too explicit won't work on our site."

Really?

Amazon's Acceptable Use Policy determined that my project was too explicit?

The same Amazon.com that sells pornographic magazines? Adult movies? Sex toys?

That Amazon?

That's pretty incredible.

See, Amazon says according to their own acceptable use policy that you can't sell anything that is of a pornographic nature or explicit or illegal. Hmmm... that's kind of interesting. Speaking of which... what exactly is the difference between pornography and nude art?

The Beginner's Guide to Photographing Nudes (Includes look inside the book, which features... you guessed it, nudes.) "Artistic and Fine-Art Nudes, Defining Qualities. Artistic and fine-art nudes are classic nude images that you would see in an art gallery. Many artistic images are done in black & white, though color photographs have gained increasing acceptance as art. Some people consider these to be the only acceptable types of nude images and diminish all others."*

OK, well that's pretty self explanatory I guess... so what's pornography?

The gook goes on to say this:

"Defining Qualities. Pornographic images are intended to arouse. They are usually sexually explicit and push the limits of what many people find "acceptable." A photograph of a model engaging in sexual activity would probably be considered pornographic by most people. An image of a woman with her legs spread open could have different interpretations, depending on the exact pose, the setting, the lighting and even the context in which it is presented."*

So what does it all mean?

It means that pornography is in the eye of the beholder.

For instance, the former Attorney General John Ashcroft made waves when he covered a statue of Justice at the Department of Justice. Justice is sometimes shown with one breast exposed -- that apparently was deemed offensive by Mr. Ashcroft and he had it covered. More recently in Virginia, the Attorney General had an alternate design of the state seal on pins issued to his staff. In this case it was Virtus -- or Virtue -- again with one breast exposed that was deemed inappropriate. In the alternate version, Virtus is wearing a breast plate, safely covering any chance that her virtue may be spoiled.

So what does this have to do with my project?

I can only assume that someone, somewhere out there assumed that I would be creating something lewd and so they complained about my project (as it had been up for several days before the Memorial day holiday going online May 25) and thus some type of action was taken.

We're coming into the home stretch now....

But what does it all mean for me, for the project? What does it have to do with John Paul Jones?

Well, as Jones is attributed as saying: "I have not yet begun to fight."

I'm still going to pursue this project. I'm going to make it happen. I don't know how yet, but I'm going to. By December, you will have the opportunity to buy a calendar from me and it will be a great calendar -- and now, Kickstarter and Amazon have given me the opportunity to say -- I did it without their help.

* The Beginner's Guide to Photographing Nudes, Peter Bilous, Amherst Media, 2010, Buffalo N.Y. (Which apparently has a companion blog located at http://photographingnudes-bilous.blogspot.com -- a quick check shows that there are no entries.)

Remember Memorial Day's True Meaning

2011-05-30T08:24:00.002-04:00

I made this video last year with the help of my friend Ricky who made the awesome voiceover for the video.

But I thought I would post it again since it is Memorial Day. A day when many people have cook-outs or take a vacation -- or maybe are coming back from vacation. A day that many take for granted the sacrifices made by service members -- that's Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard and Reserves.

So take a moment, watch the video and if you happen to see one today -- thank a service member or veteran. And, if you are a service member or veteran: Thank you for all the sacrifices you make for freedom and justice.

So you want to photograph weddings?

2011-05-23T12:41:00.002-04:00

Over the weekend we shot a wedding and one of the guests pointed out that I have a pretty cool job -- I get to go to nice places and take photos. There's a little bit more to it than that, so I decided I'd take this opportunity to explain a little bit of what it takes to shoot a wedding. Mind you, some of this is just opinion and a good deal of it is fact.

1) Gear.
This one is a little obvious I suppose. It does take some gear to photograph a wedding. But what type? Well that depends on what kind of photographer you are and what style you bring to the table. But if you want to blend contemporary, photojournalism and traditional styles together you'll need at least two camera bodies and a few lenses. (There's a debate among some photographers as to whether or not you should use flashes or not, so I'll get into that a bit later.)

Here's what we use:
2 Canon 5D Mk II camera bodies
1 Canon 1D Mk II camera body
1 Canon 40D camera body
1 24-105mm f/4 L-series lens
1 15mm fisheye lens
1 16-35mm f/2.8 L-series lens
1 70-200mm f/2.8 L-series lens
1 50mm f/1.4 lens
1 28-135mm f/4-5.6 lens

Like I said, I'll talk about flash equipment later... so just keep in mind this isn't all the gear you might want to have.

2) Stamina.
This is more of a physical characteristic that you've got to know about yourself. But I'll put it in these terms. Shooting a wedding requires moving around, standing on your feet a lot, crouching down, hauling the gear around and being energetic the entire time. For even a 6 hour wedding that actually might require 8 hours of intense activity including loading and unloading your vehicle at the wedding location and the reception location.

3) A winning, friendly attitude -- even under pressure and stress.
Ask almost any couple and invariably they'll tell you planning a wedding is stressful. That stress can rub off on others around the couple that's getting married. On top of all that brides and grooms too want a perfect day. They want nothing to go wrong, so when and if something does go wrong, you need to be able to stay cool, calm and collected and keep them that way too. You have to remember to always smile and be helpful.

I can't tell you how many grooms and groomsmen I've had to help with ties, studs (the little button like things for tuxedos) and cufflinks.

If a bride sees that you're worried about something (where you left your car keys, whether or not you remembered your tripod, if you have enough memory cards) she'll start to worry and that's something you don't want. So if you do start to worry about something -- keep it to yourself and don't let it show.

4) Flashes (optional?)
Alright most churches have a pretty simple rule -- and it's a good one -- a wedding is a sacred thing and the couple and the ceremony should be the primary focus here, not strobe lights. For that reason most churches will restrict the use of flashes during a wedding ceremony and some will even limit where you can take photos from (only the balcony or the back row.)

This means that during the ceremony you will be asked to get the greatest photos, in a room that to a camera's sensor or to film is not that bright.

That's where monopods and tripods come in handy as well as fast lenses.

But what about after the ceremony for those group shots?

You can definitely use flash then. I've never run into a church that didn't allow it. But what kind of flashes? Off camera (hot-shoe mount) flash units -- or a portable studio strobe system?

Personally, I opt for the latter. It's more powerful allowing me to really light up dark church sanctuary's. It's also a bit more versatile. And -- costs about the same with the added benefit of using fewer AA batteries. I still need the AA batteries for the radio trigger system I use, but I don't need as many because the radio triggers draw a lot less power.

So what do I take with me?

3 WhiteLightning X800s
1 WhiteLightning X1600
PocketWizards
Two 50' extension cords
Four reflectors
Two 20 degree grids
1 power strip

I also take 1 WhiteLightning Vagabond II portable power system if I'm going to be shooting on location. All of those lights also need at least -- lightstands and sometimes modifiers such as an umbrella or softbox.

Now, as I said there's a bit of debate when it comes to flashes. The debate mostly centers on the use of the words "wedding photojournalist." Why?

Well some photographers that label themselves as wedding photojournalists adhere to a standard that you can not interfere at all, whatsoever with the event including the lighting. As such they don't take group portraits. They don't use flashes (they're distracting) and they probably have a lot lighter camera bag and don't drag around nearly as much equipment as I do.

But -- as a photojournalist -- I can tell you that sometimes you need light. If you have a camera flash and you use it to help tell the story, you haven't changed the surrounding environment in an unethical way.

What? Scoff those "true" wedding "photojournalists" -- that's not true they say. They say it defeats the purpose and blather on and on about how it changes things and ruins the story etc...

Well, I happen to know for a fact that several Pulitzer Prize winning photos would not have been possible without a camera flash, in fact a much more distracting flashbulb variety of flash far more powerful than today's Electronic Through The Lens metered and controlled flashes.

I've shot numerous receptions with large, powerful, portable studio style units (See above for names of the units) and very, very, very few people tend to notice the effect of said strobes.

So, I use them -- most of the time.

5) Software and Time.
Sticking with the theme of equipment for a moment... Something else you'll need is time.
I'm probably a little bit more heavy handed than most people, but when we shoot a wedding typically we end up with about 2,500 to 3,500 photos.

That's a lot.

Here's the good news: not all of those are keepers. Deleting photos from cards during an event takes time. You can miss key moments and worse... it could possibly corrupt a card making you lose all the photos on the card. So some of those photos might be sample/test shots to check settings for lighting in a room. Some might be accidental shutter bumps from carrying two cameras at one time. Some are duplicates such as multiples of a group -- one is good, but the other three something's not quite right. Someone blinked, someone was looking away... whatever the case may be.

So, that might eliminate between 1/3 and 1/2. But that's still a LOT of photos to go through.

Even on your best day and even on a simple portrait shoot you should only be keeping and editing 30 percent of your photos.

If you take 3,000 photos in a wedding -- that's still 900. Way more than most people can conceivably think of looking through. So you want to take it down even further.

But all of this requires time.

Once you get it down to the 450 you think are top notch, A+ photos... you need to edit them. What goes into an image edit?

Here's just a partial list for group shots:
- powdering the skin (removing shine)
- whitening teeth and eyes
- removing spots
- touching up skin
- stray hair removal
- color balance and correction

For candids, the list is still kind of long:
- removing shine
- blemish removal
- color balance and correction

That can take quite a bit of time. Professional retouchers -- that is people that only do retouching, all day every day, might be able to do it in 5 minutes per photo or less. Larger studios that hire out photographers to shoot events they book who may not have the same style as the sample book you looked at also probably have professional retouchers on staff and can do it fairly quickly.

Small independent stuidos and photographers might take up to 30 minutes on an image.

I'll say that again; 30 minutes per photo.

Check the math on that -- 450 photos x 30 minutes = 225 hours / 24 hours in a day = 9.375 days.

But wait... you can't possibly work 24 whole hours in a day... so that's about 36 days = 5 weeks worth of work.

We're not done yet either! There's still an album that has to be designed.

That's probably another week's worth of work -- so 6 weeks. Six weeks on one wedding.

All that work takes software. Your choice in software can run as little as $500 to as much as $2,000 worth of software. Which, if you want to stay up to date on is about $2,000 every other year in just license renewals and updates.

So... in short... there's a bit more to shooting weddings than just taking photos.

Curtis Schmidt -- future DJ? Newborn photos.

2011-05-22T19:20:00.003-04:00

Today we had the opportunity to take some photos of a new person! Curtis Schmidt. Curtis was only born about a month ago, and he's already a cutie!

Curtis is the son of one of my coworkers from The Progress-Index, Markus Schmidt. Markus is also a huge music buff and in his kind of alternate life, away from the newspaper does work as a DJ -- known as DJ Pari.

That's part of the reason that this photo is just so awesome.

Plus, it's just a great photo, right?

Alright, so here are a few other photos of Curtis including one with his mom, and one with his dad.

Jennifer and Paul Sneaks!

2011-05-22T18:11:00.008-04:00

OK, so this first photo isn't really a sneak peek so much as it is a "finally revealed."

Jennifer wanted everyone at her wedding to be really surprised by her dress, so we promised not to post any of her bridal portrait photos until after her wedding. That's the official bridal portrait that we also printed and displayed at the reception.

Jennifer and Paul as some of you may remember were the winners in our Dream Wedding Contest. We might hold a similar contest later this year, so be on the lookout if you are getting married in the near future!

Jennifer and Paul had a gorgeous day to get married, with perfectly blue skies and just enough clouds!

The groom and the groomsmen arrived in style.

Paul proposed to Jennifer at the beach and hid her ring in a shell. Here are their wedding bands together.

Jennifer peeks through a window of a door just before she walks down the aisle.

If you look really closely, you can see a time-honored wedding gag... Paul's best man Carly painted "Help Me" on the bottom of Paul's shoes before the ceremony. It was a little faded though by the time he showed everyone what was on the bottom of his shoes.

"If you hadn't been pacing around so much it would have been really white."

Jennifer and Paul during one of their dances at their reception.

Paul grins at the camera, just before tossing the garter.

Congratulations Jennifer and Paul

2011-05-21T18:18:00.000-04:00

Jennifer and Paul just exchanged vows and are now officially husband and wife.

Show your support!

2011-05-11T12:30:00.004-04:00

Over the weekend we had the opportunity to work with Amanda and a wonderful make-up artist, Aleasesa.

Amanda knows two people that are dealing with breast cancer. Now it may not be the official breast cancer awareness month, but she wanted to do something special to show her support for those going through cancer treatment and the search for a cure.

So she actually came up with this concept. I thought it was a really great concept and we shot it for her.

We also did some other really cool shots with her on Sunday including a Vegas themed shoot and some other implied nudes. But I'm not going to share those today.

I want this image to stand alone. I want this one to be here by itself.

I'll post the other photos later.

Engagement Shoot at the Pagoda!

2011-05-05T13:22:00.003-04:00

We were in Reading, Pa. yesterday to shoot some engagement photos for a really wonderful couple, Brian and Joanne.

To make their session really unique, we took the photos at the same place that Brian proposed to Joanne, a really neat little park in Reading with a Pagoda.

At any rate, it's a little unusual to see a Pagoda, atop Mount Penn, in Pennsylvania -- a state more closely associated with German roots. As Brian told me, it's also become a bit of a locally famous "make-out spot." With the incredible views, it's not hard to see why.

Brian actually proposed to Joanne where we took that last photo, so I just knew it had to be used for one of our photos.

By the time we got to the location, the sun was just setting, but it yielded some amazing photos, including some that were shot with just ambient lighting. We did bring one light with us and used that for a few of the photos.

A Taste of Philly here...

2011-04-19T12:56:00.006-04:00

I love food.

That's no secret, and in fact I don't know of anyone that I've ever met that doesn't like food.

So I share with you today, a bit of my lunch... believe I would have loved to have actually shared the food, but you weren't here, so instead I'm going to tell you about it and where you can get it, should you want some.

First let's take a step back and look at the "phoster" above -- cheeseteak, not just a sandwich, an art and a craftsmanship. Well I'd say that's pretty well true. Additionally, depending on where you are and who you are it's about as similar as a political debate in the fact that there are two competing restaurants in Philadelphia who both claim to have originated the thouroughly unhealthy, and yet appetizing sandwich.

Most of the debate I think centers on how one "cheeses" the sandwich and in what order one puts the ingredients on the roll.

So there is the conundrum bit of the "phoster." (More info on that below.)

So all in all how a cheesesteak is made, what it is made with and whether you side with Pat's King of Steaks or Geno's Steaks (the two competing restaurant's in Philly) will greatly influence your opinion of anyone else's Philly Cheesesteak sandwich.

Now that we have the philosophical discussion set aside, let's continue to the point of this now rambling entry.

A Taste of Philly.

Located in Petersburg at 21 W. Washington Street, the restaurant is owned by a native of Philadelphia... the sign inside told me so.

I actually have to admit to making a bit of a mistake -- I ordered not the cheeseteak, but the cheeseteak hoagie -- the difference is that the hoagie includes lettuce and tomato.

But it's not as bad as you might think. Unlike some other sandwich shops and national chains that might over stuff the roll with lettuce, you can barely see any in the below photo. Look to the center of the cut of the roll.

That's the other thing, the aestetics of the sub were perfect. Look at the sandwich! Go on, look at it! It's stuffed with meat. There's hardly any roll there. Then there's the wrapping, good ol' fashioned butcher paper. That's what I expect such a sandwich to be served in.

And just look at all that meat!

This is really a superior value for just under $10 for a large sub.

Now the last time I did anything on a restaurant, I ended up going back and doing a video on the restaurant too. If the owners of this fine establishment will have me, I'll be glad to do something there too!

Photos captured with Verizon iPhone 4. Manipulated using the following apps: phoster, instagram and bleach bypass.

Also debuting a couple of new tags with this entry: 3.2(5.0) in honor of the original mobile phone captured photo tag of 3.2 but in recognition of the fact that my new phone has a 5.0 megapixel camera.

Food: Obviously... this entry deals with food, so there is a new tag for it as it appears to be a continuing trend.

iPhone-ography: all photos captured were captured with the iPhone and manipulated with the iPhone.

Playing with Lighting Concepts

2011-04-04T14:12:00.004-04:00

Sometimes you want to just shoot something for fun, something wacky and completely different. Something... maybe even a little crazy.

After we got done our engagement portrait session with Jennifer and Paul, Amber and I went into the studio and shot some great conceptual stuff with Ashley.

Here I both wanted to create something fun, colorful and playful with the bright pink wig -- isn't it awesome? -- and the green from the apple that we added with her eyeshadow as well.

But it wasn't all about color... we also shot some stuff specifically with black and white in mind and even shot low key.

That shot above is a high key or hi-key image...

What's the difference between high key and low key?

Both High Key images and Low Key images make an intensive use of contrast, but in a different way --- say the difference between light and dark.

When approaching a shoot of a dramatic portrait, the decision of making it a High Key, Low Key or "just" a regular image has great impact about the mood that this picture will convey. While High Key images are considered happy and will show your subject as a tooth-paste poster; Low Key portraits are dramatic and convey a lot of atmosphere and tension. Another way to think of it is the dominant colors in the photo -- high key photos are bright, white and generally cheerful, low key photos are dominated by black, shadows and can have a moodier tone -- that doesn't mean they're sad though.

They can be sensual, they can be serious, they can be what you make them.

In fact, because the real key difference between high and low key is all about exposure and lighting... you might not guess it, but the same background was used for all four photos. It was just a difference in how the lighting was used and what mood we wanted to convey in the images.

Ashley was a wonderful model to work with and really worked with us to create some of these somewhat far out photos. This is just a taste of what we shot in roughly four hours Sunday, and we'll have a few other sneak peeks up later on our facebook page.

Ashley was really pleased with the photos that we were able to show her Sunday.

What do you think?

What kind of crazy concept would you like to shoot?

Jennifer and Paul sneak peeks!

2011-04-04T13:45:00.007-04:00

These two are just so great looking together, aren't they?

Yesterday we had the opportunity to capture some great photos of Jennifer and Paul together for their engagement photos. Jennifer and Paul are also the winners of our Dream Wedding Giveaway contest that we did at the end of last year.

Here's their story.

They were amazing to work with and had a blast with us in the gorgeous weather Sunday. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and for the most part there was only a slight breeze -- unless you were standing in an alleyway that turned that slight breeze into a near constant gust!

The weather was actually so nice that we weren't the only ones shooting some engagement photos in downtown Petersburg. There was at least one other photographer making good use of the great weather and the amazing downtown area.

On a technical note, all of these were shot in the afternoon sun, but to fight that really flat lighting we brought some of our own lighting in the form of a Paul C. Buff White Lightning and the Vagabond II portable power-pack.

Busy day!

2011-04-03T22:15:00.002-04:00

We had such a fantastic and busy day today!

I can't wait to share some of the photos with you tomorrow.

First we got to work with the fantastic and amazing Jennifer and Paul creating some really great engagement photos for them. They're getting married in May and I'm already getting excited about shooting their wedding. Jennifer was the winner of our big contest last year where we gave away an entire wedding shoot for free!

Jennifer and Paul were great sports and we got some fantastic photos of the two of them together that I think really captured their personalities. And it was a fantastic day for doing some on location work.

Later in the day we went into the studio and got some great shots of Ashley to help expand her modeling portfolio.

We played with some really interesting and far out concepts and I really can't wait to shoot with her again. She said she had a lot of fun and really liked what she saw from what we shot with her. These photos are just so funky and some of them are just plain hot!

We'll be getting some of these up tomorrow and later this week so be on the lookout!

Just relaxing today.

2011-03-27T18:18:00.003-04:00

So today it has been gray, gloomy and cold outside all day. Sometimes I wouldn't mind going out to shoot in it. But, today just wasn't one of those days. So instead I spent most of the day kind of geek-ing out. I've been reading the sixth book in the increasingly, inaccurately named, Hitchikers Guide Trilogy and watching some Farscape and at one point I even made some hot cocoa in a Star Trek: The Next Generation mug.

So here's a little bit of a photo tour of my day.

Tomorrow it's back to the grindstone as I get deeper into a video project, some commercial photo work and who knows what else!

Calendar Girls!

2011-03-23T09:28:00.004-04:00

It's no secret that guys love pin-up girls, so why not give him one of his own... or better yet 12!

We're not talking some other girl though, we're talking YOU!

We're offering five, and only five this year, Calendar Girl packages. For a special price we'll give you 12, 1/2 hour sessions. These sessions can be scheduled one per month, two per month, 6 per month -- however you want to do it! At the end of the year we'll give you a special calendar with all of the best images as part of the calendar.

This is an exclusive offer and only the first 5 people to sign up can participate!

We've already booked one person for this special package so that means we have four slots left.

Here are just a few preview shots.

Extra! Extra! More photos of the newspaper dress and makeup!

2011-03-21T09:37:00.004-04:00

Alright, so here, as promised are a few extra photos of the newspaper dress, and the make-up that was used to create some really awesome photos.

These are a couple of closeups of the make-up as Ellie was still working on it. Here she's hand painted on the names of three Virginia cities: Richmond, Petersburg and Charlottesville. As you can see in the other shots, she accented the make-up with a few other details before we actually got to shooting.

We also played around with a couple of different lighting designs, starting with a four-light setup on a stark white backdrop and finishing with a single light with a grid to provide some dramatic lighting for an already pretty dramatic concept.

These aren't all the photos I took and actually it will probably be a couple of weeks before I get to see some of the final shots because I used some Black and White slide film. I did part of this shoot with my trusty 35mm.

It may not be the last time we do this concept either. Amber was pretty excited by how everything turned out, and the next time we do it, who knows, maybe it will be with a medium format camera!

Read all about it!

2011-03-20T09:36:00.006-04:00

OK so the title of this post is an obvious reference to the Hollywood stereotype of newspaper boys hawking copies of a newspaper's "extra" addition -- back when people read newspapers instead of getting their news online, through TV and their mobile phone.

So why the newspaper references?

Check out what we did yesterday!

That's just a sneak peek of what we did! I can't wait to show you all more of these fantastic photos.

This photoshoot would not have been possible without a TON of teamwork. Amber made the newspaper dress in part based on a tutorial that said construction would take 8 hours. How long did it take her? Two hours!

The amazing make-up job was done by our good friend and a top-notch make-up artist, Ellie.

And Rebekah is modeling the dress that was crafted pretty much from newspapers, a little bit of tape and a little bit of thread.

I've wanted to do a shoot like that for a long time, but I'm glad I hadn't done it yet because without all the people we had working on it yesterday I know it wouldn't have been as good. How do I know? The text on Rebekah's face... that was all done freehand by Ellie. She didn't use a stencil, just a make-up brush and the make-up.

How incredible is that?

Later today I'll probably post a close up photo and an in progress photo of the make-up that Rebekah is wearing.

One Saucy video...

2011-03-13T08:05:00.004-04:00

Alright so earlier this week I promised that I would be making it and there it is, the short film about Saucy's. If you go there because of reading this entry, order a sandwich "slammin'" and tell them that you went there because of the video.

I came home and I could still smell smoke on me from the smokers... it made me want barbecue all day yesterday.

I'm hoping that at least some of that comes through in the video. And, as seen in the video here are a few extra pictures... some that I took with my iPhone and some I took with the Canon 5D Mark II. If you actually go to YouTube to watch the video, you'll see that some of the video was taken with my iPhone. Can you tell which bits? Comment below if you think you know and you might win something special.

Some Saucy photos... get it?

2011-03-07T13:28:00.003-05:00

Alright so this might be a bit of a different direction for this blog, but I wanted to share with you all one of my favorite restaurants.

The food is good, and it's really just a fascinating concept for a barbecue joint.

It's called Saucy's and I'm going to showcase them again (hopefully) a little later this week.

But for now, here's just a couple of photos of what I'm talking about.

Yup, that's a shipping container. The restaurant is built into a shipping container.

As the one photo very clearly shows, it's just a walk up. You walk-up, place your order, wait for your food and depending on how long the line is that day and at that moment you might see someone you know to mingle with or you might meet someone new to chat with.

And in the last photo, if you look at the sign... you can see that they make their own sauces. Each is really great, my favorite is probably the coffee based sauce.

Anyway, as promised, more on this will come in the near future.

Can you do a Sexy photo shoot? The answer is...

2011-03-07T12:26:00.002-05:00

“I could NEVER do a sexy photo shoot.”

Why not?

We've met lots of women in our short little time that 11:59 Photography has been a reality. Few of them have had what the magazines tell us as consumers is the “perfect” body -- you know what I mean here, ultra-skinny, ribs poking out, size 0 body. The few that have had a near “perfect” body, were just as nervous about doing a boudoir or sexy photo shoot and thought they'd need a few drinks in them before they did anything like that ... but in the end, they loved it.

Most people think they don't photograph well; that's in part because of how the eyes work and how we're used to seeing ourselves. Something to do with how mirrors work versus how photos look to our eyes. But... one thing I do know is that when our friends – that is to say our clients – look at their photos, they're always pleased.

But that begs another question that I get asked fairly regularly. Just who is your clientèle? Is it models? Is it just young women?

The answer to both is NO.

I've shot women as old as their mid-40s. I've shot models. And I've shot moms of three.

Some are nervous. Most are nervous. Most are worried how they'll look in front of the camera with clothes on let alone next to nothing or nothing at all.

One recent client, whom we'll just call, “Meg” (not her real name due to privacy issues.) Was nervous. She said she wanted to do it, but then backed down, then committed, then backed down, finally she agreed to do a shoot and convinced a friend to join her.

She was like most people, nervous about it. She arrived on set literally shaking! But Amber and our Make-Up Artist assured her that she'd look great. By the time her shoot was over and she'd seen some of her images. She was ready to do another shoot! She hasn't committed yet, but I'm sure she will do one and here's why: even though she was a little nervous how her fiance might react to the photos, when she gave him the album with the photos she had picked out he was pleased.

More than pleased.

Apparently he said that he had always wanted his very own pin-up girl, something that “Meg” had never known. In short, the album with the images that showed off all of his favorite parts of her while still being tasteful, was the perfect Christmas gift.

Tiffany is another client and friend who not too long ago gave her husband a similar present for their anniversary.
It's something she hadn't thought about before, but that she wanted to do. She wanted to show her husband that she was sexy and to prove to herself she was sexy too. She's survived cancer and been through a lot of other challenges in her life and she was nervous too.

By the time we had her out of make-up, she knew she was beautiful. Going in she was worried, but when she looked in the mirror, you could see how she was truly believing she was beautiful.

Then there's “Isabelle.”

“Isabelle,” her husband, Amber and I recently had dinner together. (I told you, our clients aren't just clients, they become friends!)

She was not at all scared or timid when she arrived on set. The resulting images and DVD we produced for them have led them to decide they want to do a couples shoot!

It's going to be a great time and we're excited about doing the shoot!

So challenge yourself. If you don't think you can do it, think again!

Awesome shoot from Sunday

2011-02-21T12:32:00.006-05:00

We had another awesome shoot yesterday. We worked with two really great models, Victoria and Amanda.

Here are just a couple of the great images that we created Sunday at Union 206 Studio.

BlackBerry vs. iPhone

2011-02-10T09:26:00.002-05:00

So it's been a few days since I received my Verizon Wireless iPhone. I've been on Verizon for a while now and love the network. My previous phone/device was a BlackBerry Storm. Additionally... today is the day the rest of the world can buy one... so I thought I'd share a more in depth review of the phone in comparison to my last one.

Battery Life
Well, the iPhone requires a recharge every night and sometimes in the middle of the day. In short, it's a hungry little beast. At first you might attribute this to app usage... but realistically, I don't use that many apps throughout the day. So what does that leave? I don't know. I seriously don't. With the BlackBerry my phone was constantly receiving emails and since I typically left it on vibrate you would think that would draw down more juice... but it didnt' seem to. I'd do just as much web browsing on the BlackBerry and would actually take a few more photos with that than I have with the iPhone.

Maybe I just haven't found anything photoworthy yet?

So the winner here has to be BlackBerry. It could go two or three days sometimes without being charged. In fact, I think it still has one battery bar left and I haven't used it since Monday or charged it since Saturday or Sunday.

Winner: BlackBerry.

Web Browsing
Alright, like I said Monday... realistically the iPhone isn't so much a phone as it is a computer that fits in your pocket. Same with the BlackBerry.

Both can play music, allow you to watch videos on YouTube, find your way if your lost, provide you with access to e-mail etc... But one feature both phones are known for is their ability to get you to the Web. I'd say in this case the iPhone has a bit of a heftier reputation.

With good reason too.

Browsing sites on the BlackBerry was cumbersome at best, tedious at worst and downright frustrating. But... if you're a BlackBerry user, you get used to the little quirks and 'roll with the punches.'

Browsing the Web on the iPhone is anything but cumbersome and is frequently easy, beautiful and intuitive. Apple and the phone community at large have a real winner here with the Safari mobile. Zooming is a bit easier, and the results of zooming in are instantaneous and beautiful. In other words I do find myself checking headlines on my iPhone before I even get up and out of bed in the morning now... that saves me all of five minutes of going to my computer, logging in and bringing up my favorite news sites.

Winner: iPhone

Call Quality
Alright, I'll admit it...

I haven't had a chance to engage in a side to side comparison between a Verizon iPhone and an AT&T iPhone as far as service goes. So in all fairness... I'll just say that the Verizon one wins hands down.

But, that leaves a comparison of actual call quality.

Hmmm this is a tough one!

Overall it's seemed to be pretty equal, but I'll have to say given the form factor (more on that a little later) of the iPhone, there have been some complaints from recipients that they can't hear me. That's because of my natural tendency to help balance the phone with my pinky on the bottom and thus obscuring at least one of the microphones.

But... voices have been bright and clear most of the time. No tinny quality to the ear piece.

On the Storm, call quality was about equal. However, sometimes it would seem like I'd need to turn the volume way up because the ear piece sounded a little muffled. This however, could have been due to my OtterBox Defender Series case I had for my BlackBerry.

Like the iPhone, sometimes I also covered the microphone with my hand, however with the OtterBox in place this wasn't very frequently as the case was nice and chunky. Additionally the silicone grippy sleeve on the outside made for a sure grip of the phone.

Winner: draw

Form Factor
This is where it's another tough call.

The Storm is kind of wide and squat. It's a little shorter than the iPhone in length... a little wider... and a little thicker.

The iPhone is a little taller, a little skinnier and a whole lot thinner. But... it also weights a bit more. (Aluminum and Glass add up.)

Here's the issue. The iPhone is much slimmer so it fits into a shirt or pants pocket a lot easier. It weighs a little bit more, or seems to and all that's not too much of a problem.

I hate bluetooth. This is where the issue comes in.

The BlackBerry even without the OtterBox is thick enough... and only just so... that I can pinch it between my head and shoulder for some short periods, albeit slightly uncomfortably. The OtterBox makes things a bit easier with the grippy silicone and the additional girth.

The iPhone is so slick it won't stay between my shoulder and head and it also is too thin to even really pinch there in the first place. But, the storm was a little chunkier feeling in the pocket and wasn't as comfortable in a shirt pocket either.

So...

Winner: iPhone By reason of the fact that it fits in the pocket a little bit easier.

Apps
Alright. I think we know who the winner is here.

Despite the fact that BlackBerry is advertising the 'wealth' of Apps they offer... I didn't seem to be able to find that many, let alone very many that were practical or easy to use. I'm sure there are BlackBerry fans out there who know of some great apps and can share that information with me, but seriously... I couldn't find many.

I had purchased one game... flight control or something, where you fly a plane through hoops using the accelerometer on the phone to control the plane. I had a few free apps that weren't very much use... or fun.

I had a calorie tracker ... that didn't work well or at all on the storm. I had a Vuvuzela sound machine. (That drained my battery one time because I couldn't figure out how to turn it off.)

I think all that though is actually pretty much par for the course. RIM (Resarch In Motion) is advertising their 'wealth' of apps because Google Android Powered phones and the iPhone both have way more in terms of apps that people actually want and want to use.

Android powered phones still (if sources out there on the Web are to be believed) have fewer apps available than Apple. However, the apps are being developed probably at a quicker pace because there are no quality controls on those applications. They just get put up there by whoever developed it. That also means the possibility of Malware.

Apple on the other hand maintains tight controls over its appstore... some might even go as far as to say totalitarian regime like controls. But they have more and the apps are generally of a higher quality.

So, the question becomes... how many apps do I have?

Well... I've got facebook and twitter and four games that I got for free... google goggles also free and my favorite local news station's app. I've also got a couple of fitness related apps including the Livestrong Lite (free) and Nike Boom (also free.)

I've even downloaded some cool photography apps including Photoshop Express (free) Pocket Light Meter (free) and DSLR Slate (a way of keeping track of video like a regular slate, but ... on the iPhone...)

In short, I've got more apps for my iPhone in less than a week than I think I ever had (and in some cases were even available) for the Storm.

Winner: iPhone

E-mail
This is where RIM, the Storm and BlackBerry in general really take the cake.

This is what they're all about and have built their brand on. Portable e-mail.

When they were first starting it was a revolutionary concept and they're in my mind, still the best at this game. Like I said earlier, I got e-mails on my phone constantly. I also got them immediately. No waiting around. In some cases they even came to my phone before they were availble (by mere seconds) on my computer.

All of my emails went into one really cool central location on the Storm.

Not so on the iPhone.

Unless there's an app I haven't found yet that does what the Storm did... the process is a few steps longer... and usually way longer as far as even knowing I have any e-mail.

There's one mail icon, sure. But under that are needless choices, all inboxes (sort of like what I had going on with the BlackBerry) or individual ones. Then (again unless I've yet to learn the control methodolgy here) I have to actually open an email to have it marked as open or to even delete it.

You might ask... well why is that a problem. Simple... spam.

I don't need to open every e-mail from Adobe telling me about workshops that are taking place hundreds of miles away from me. I don't need to open every offer from Books-A-Million or DoubleTree or whatever.

Instant Update: While writing this very entry about e-mail I received on my phone emails that I found in my inbox on my computer nearly an hour ago. I also found I can delete them as a group... but not nearly as easily on the Storm.

So...

Winner: BlackBerry

Other stuff:
Alright, so here are a few other minor things... one sentence things really...

Expandable memory slot, and ability to buy additional memory cards to use (if need be?) Not that I ever went over the 8GB card included: Winner: BlackBerry

Removable battery door to do a hard restart if needed, or replace the battery on my own (as I had to late last year due to a malfunctioning battery: Winner: BlackBerry

Indicator light to let me know... when I have a new message, when I'm getting a call if the phone is completely silent, and when the battery is low ... or if I so choose, if I have signal! Winner: BlackBerry

Feedback in the form of some sort of physical button or a satisfying push on the screen (YES, I liked suretouch by RIM) Winner: BlackBerry

Cool points... as in that mythical just... thing, that aesthetic quality of the phone and the ambiance it provides. Winner: iPhone

So there you have it... my review of the iPhone vs. the BlackBerry Storm and some crucial points... who was the Overall Winner: iPhone.

I'm sure if you go back, and count, the BlackBerry might have actually come ahead in some ways, but really... the iPhone is the winner.

It is.

It has more useful apps, and even some frankly... stupid, somewhat pointless features that provide an answer to promises made in the early to mid 1990s of video phones. (Hello, FaceTime! But really... when am I going to use that and how useful is it anyway?)

Amanda's Super Sunday Photoshoot! 11:59 Photography...

2011-02-07T20:24:00.006-05:00

So Super Sunday we were taking photos! We got to watch the last quarter of the "Big Game" but during most of the game we were taking photos for Amanda. This shoot was a lot of fun and we got some amazing photos.

It was a little bit pin-up inspired, and a little bit just crazy fun.

We even ended up with a little bit of implied nude photography and all the results were just fantastic... and it helps when you've got a beautiful model like Amanda.

Unboxing the iPhone!

2011-02-07T20:07:00.004-05:00

Alright... Here it is, the photos from the unboxing of the Vz iPhone. Sorry the photos aren't that great a quality... but they were taken on my blackberry, not with a 'real' camera.

Basically... the phone came in a plain cardboard box and then a slightly hefty white and graphic box.

This is the only place other than the cool little marketing/activation guide/receipt in the red folder and on the outside of the brown box that it was clear this phone was a Verizon phone.

The only other place is when the phone is turned on (and activated) and it lists Verizon at the top of the phone.

Inside the box of course is the black glass and metal phone. It's got some solid heft and of course... looks great.

So on use of the phone? Well... it works great!

After nearly two years of using a blackberry storm, it's definitely got a different feel. I'm going to have to get used to it, but it's not going to take that long! I'm looking forward to using it too and I've gotten a couple of apps already and I'll let you guys know how it all works out and how each app is as I try it!

I can hear you now!

2011-02-07T11:11:00.002-05:00

Ok, so it's been years since I've had AT&T. Actually probably about two years before an iPhone was a reality in the minds of the public and before smart phones were even common, let alone owned by nearly everyone you meet. Touchscreen phones? Best left to the imagination.

But, last night while watching the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl, Super Bowl XLV, I saw a commercial for the Verizon iPhone.

I am now the proud owner of one such Verizon iPhone!

Technically speaking, I suppose I have been since I placed the order at 3:50 a.m. Feb. 3 -- the day existing verizon customers could start ordering the device. (Because let's face it, a smartphone for all intents and purposes isn't so much a phone as it is a computer one can shove into a pocket that allows you to look at videos, photos, access the internet and... oh yeah, sometimes make phone calls!)

Anyway, today is the day that it actually arrived and I could actually begin using it.

I'm going to post an informal review later today. As I have several friends with iPhones, I might drag one of them with me and we might go on a signal hunt -- dropped call tour. I read one recently that was performed in New York and San Francisco that showed that the Vz iPhone generally speaking out performed its AT&T counterpart.

I'll probably update this post later with some photos of the phone itself and the 'unboxing.'

On another note... keep a look-out on this blog... because either later tonight or tomorrow I'm going to have a bunch of fantastic photos to show you all including:

Photos of the space at The Gardener's Gate in Hopewell where currently I have senior portraits and wedding photos displayed.

Photos from a shoot that I did yesterday. This was an absolutely amazing shoot and a lot of fun.

And... who knows what other kinds of photos!

Anyway, I'll keep you all posted.

Did you miss me?

2011-02-02T14:50:00.004-05:00

I'm sorry it's been so long since I wrote a blog entry. It's been hectic around here!

I'm going to update you all as quickly as I can on what's been going on, (that I can talk about) and what's to come (that I will talk about for now... more to come!)

Well, I'm very close to finishing the paperwork to be officially a part of a wonderful non-profit with an amazingly touching mission. Since I haven't finished my portion of the work on my end yet and am therefore not officially a part of that mission, I'm not going to say any more for now. In fact, I may not say any more about it at all or something very small if at all.

That being said...

I've also been working on putting together an amazing commercial portfolio which I'm going to order a few copies of soon. This thing is going to look amazing and I'm probably going to start sending two out into the wild by the end of this month and I might just keep one at the office/home. They're really that beautiful.

If you've wanted to see more work than is here on the blog...

If you've wanted to see more work than is on our site(s)...

If you've wanted to see how our photos look on print (or canvas!)...

Well... now you can! A large display of bridal and senior photo work is now on display at The Gardener's Gate in Hopewell. The Tri-Cities premier florist, it will allow high school junior and seniors looking for flowers for the prom to see what we can offer them and allow brides to get a glimpse of our work too. We'll also soon have some sample albums there as part of our comprehensive display.

Now, on to more exciting things... like... the pre-announcement of our biggest promotion ever!

This thing is going to knock your socks off!

What is it?

I'm not saying yet!

Come back here on Valentine's Day. (That's a hint as to what this announcement deals with!) This thing is seriously huge.

Alright... we'll keep this thing more updated too! In fact next time, we'll even have some photos of that wonderful display at The Gardener's Gate in Hopewell.

Cutest baby so far this year!

2011-01-09T20:03:00.005-05:00

So our first shoot of this year was... Sydney Smith.

Sydney is the daughter of Beth and Micah. She is just absolutely adorable and was amazing to shoot. Beth was going to try and have Sydney asleep in time for her first big photo shoot, but Sydney was too excited. She was also absolutely remarkably well behaved and mostly just looked at me, the camera and her mom while we were taking photos.

Even with a couple of different things going on, like cute hats and an attempt to put on a different outfit, she took it all in stride.

That last photo is Micah holding Sydney. I like how her tiny feet contrast with his hands. It's just a great shot.

I just think that it was also really appropriate to start off a new year, with photos of a new baby. Sydney was only a little over three weeks old today, so these were just the perfect time for photos and the perfect photos to start the year off with.

It was also a great day for photos like this, with some sun coming in the windows (even though all these I used White Lightning flash units to capture.) But the sun coming in the window added a good vibe to the day, an overall good feeling.

This will also mark a new 'tag' for entries as well, and the last time that "Something Completely Different" is used with infant photography. So here it is, the new tag: "Infants and Newborns." This will only apply on entries from here forward, I'm not going to retroactively apply it.

Old Stuff

2011-01-03T20:58:00.005-05:00

So today I went back through some old files and I've got a couple of really cool... well at least one really cool older image to share.

The first one and the bottom one were both taken with a rented Hasselblad H3D-31II.

The middle one was taken in April 2006 on 35mm film. I'm pretty certain I didn't use a tripod, but the building looks a little too sharp for me to believe that I did it handheld. Unfortunately I really don't remember. I think it was an extended shutter... but again I don't remember. I don't even remember what ISO the film was that I used, but I suspect it was 200, maybe 100.

I do remember that when I shot film more frequently than I do today that I was in the habit of using film of 400 ISO or less. My favorite was Ilford PAN-F 50.

That brings me to another point, I'm going to try and shoot more film this year than I did last year. I'm also going to see what I can do as far as medium format shooting this year as well.

To continue the theme of old stuff... all three photos also feature one of my favorite old neon signs (sadly now 'dead' and never illuminated) at the Petersburg Trailways/Greyhound station.

Happy Anniversary Dan and Sarah!

2011-01-01T09:05:00.007-05:00

One year ago today Dan and Sarah Gauvin got married and we were there to take the photos!

It was an amazingly beautiful day, but one that at least for us started with a couple of difficulties. During the night, some revelers had apparently decided to make off with my license plates from my car. To compound matters, Amber's car was in the shop for a fairly major repair.

Luckily we were able to borrow a vehicle and made the trek to Staunton where with equipment in hand, we were able to capture these special memories for Dan and Sarah.

I think that where they held their wedding was absolutely perfect, with the large windows behind them, they looked even more radiant as a couple!

It was also kind of neat because they had it in a hotel, and people would stop and watch for just a second and it would put a smile on their faces to see Dan and Sarah celebrating this special day.

And those two are just awesome anyway, how could you not smile when you look at them?

Dan is just a bunch of fun to be around and Sarah is just always beautiful. In their first year we've also helped them to celebrate another major milestone as a couple. In October they welcomed Evan into their lives -- their first child.

Dan is the picture of the proud father. When we went to take pictures he asked us each to hold Evan and took pictures of us holding Evan. And Evan is truly the cutest baby. He just is and you can't deny it.

So wish them a Happy Anniversary if you know them or just leave a comment wishing them a Happy Anniversary.

We've got another little surprise for them that we'll be getting to them this week.

Top 10 IMages of 2010: Number 1!

2010-12-31T08:24:00.003-05:00

Here it is, the top images of 2010!

I'm really proud of both of these images and obviously we've got one each from each of the two brands.

Playing some Hot Sax

This first one is way cool, right? And hot all at the same time! This is a picture of Cori, and it's actually a tight crop on the original photo, which is a vertical. But I think it's pretty obvious why I love this photo... we got to set an instrument on fire for Cori's senior photos. We honestly can't thank Cori and her mother enough for trusting us and allowing us to do that.

I've heard word that a lot of the other rising senior's in Cori's school band want the same kind of thing for their photos, so I might have inadvertently started a trend with this photo too!

But all-in-all I'm really proud of this photo.

Chair and Renee

This is just another one of those incredible studies in light, shape and form. I absolutely love it.

Obviously I do if it's one of the top photos of the year! But aside from being one of my favorites, it's one that many of my peers have complimented favorably on, as well as just people who have seen the photo itself.

I think that one of the reasons the photo is so well liked is its classical lines. At least I guess that's why I like it. Do you like it?

Let me know what your thoughts are on all of the work presented in the top 10 photos of the year.

Top 10 images of 2010: Numbers 2

2010-12-30T07:51:00.003-05:00

Alright, here's two more of our top 10 images of the year.

Gates Senior Photo

This is a photo of gates, part of our expansion into the senior portrait market.

The things I really like about this photo are the way the colors are similar, they're all in a kind of brown hue, with the exception of Gate's white shirt, but Gates still manages to pop out from the background. That's in part to how we used lighting here. It may look like it's a natural light shot, but we did incorporate a monolight with a beauty dish to create that really nice popping effect.

Believe it or not we also shot this on a really cold day. It was about 40 degrees outside when we took this photo, but that just goes to show that temperature doesn't have to have a major impact on your final photo.

Renee with Yashica #2

This obviously is another shot of Renee with the Yashica. But unlike the last shot, we can see her face in this photo.

This was inspired by a photo taken by the famous Helmut Newton. In his photo though the model was standing perfectly straight in the center of the white seamless backdrop and wasn't holding a camera... that's why this was inspired by, but isn't exactly a direct copy. Who wants to do that anyway?

Some more interesting things about this photo are the way the lines are in the photo, right foot and leg at the bottom left of the frame lead your eye up, and then her own eyes lead your eyes out of the frame as you follow the sight lines out of the right edge of the frame.

We've got two more photos tomorrow... chances are good you might be able to predict what they are. Especially if you've been following this blog throughout the year.

Top 10 images of 2010: Numbers 3

2010-12-29T08:21:00.003-05:00

We're getting close to seeing what the top images of 2010, the absolute top that is, but while we're on the topic of 'top' the first photo in today's post shows the top of a Christmas tree.

Christmas Town Tree

This is a photo I didn't take that long ago, but I was really happy with how it turned out. The color is just fantastic and the tree looks amazing. If you just go back through my December entries it won't be too hard to find the entry on the visit to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens. That was a fun little trip and if you get the chance, I highly recommend it.

Of course at this point you might have to wait until Christmas of next year, I know they said it continues through New Year's eve, but I can't remember if they also said New Year's day... and I think it was only open on weekends.

Oh well, no matter. Go next year anyway! It's fun and really affordable and really, really beautiful.

Yashica

This is another photo from a shoot at Union 206 studio in Alexandria. They have an AWESOME facility that I can only sing my praises upon.

This is Renee holding a Yashica TLR. I think this is one of my favorites for several reasons, one the somewhat implied voyeurism of this photo is inherently reversed. You can't see renee's face but it feels like she's looking back at you because of the camera. You're looking at the photo and it seems to be looking back with its stacked eyes.

Secondly, just that little hint of bright red hair at the top of the frame. There's not a whole lot of other color in the photo. Renee is very fair skinned. The background is almost lit to be the same color as her skin, and then there's the camera which is stark black and silver. In effect, it's almost a black and white image.

Going back to the camera for a second, even without the censored bars there, your eyes are actually (because of the color situation outlined above) drawn to it first. It's really interesting how people will notice it first or comment on it first. This kind of touches on the whole face thing again because people look for eyes to draw a connection with the photograph, in absence of that, we have the other focal point here, the implied eyes of the camera.

Anyway, that's my statement on it... what do you think of it? If you want the original without the bars is available on the 11:59 Web site.

Let me know what you think of the photo.

Snow and Tea

2010-12-28T21:27:00.006-05:00

This is a compilation of some photos from today enjoying the snow that we had hit the area since Christmas and a really cool still life I actually took on Christmas day.

Still Life of Tea

So this is a still life of a cup of tea with some cream in it on the kitchen table at my in-laws house on Christmas morning. It actually is part of a series of photos I took, which I might post later detailing the making of brunch. I kind of wish that I had also taken some video. It was pretty neat to watch everything come together and then everyone opening presents. But this was probably one of my favorite photos. I've toned it a little bit to enrichen the colors.

Footprints in the Snow

Alright this one is pretty self explanatory. It's a black and white photo of some of my footprints in the snow. I took it this morning when I went out to take a couple of pictures both with my new 50mm lens (review coming soon along with a comparison to the old 50mm lens) and some photos with some of that black and white slide film that I got recently. I can't wait to get that roll of film developed. I took a similar photo with the black and white film, along with a photo later on in this post.

Harvell Dam at Sunset

This is actually a HDR or High Dynamic Range image of the Harvell Dam on the Appomattox River taken just around Sunset. It's actually made with about nine different images and I don't typically do HDRI, but I really wanted to bring out the river, the dam, the water flowing over the dam, and the sky. So to do that, I either needed to use flash (didn't take any with me) or use HDRI. So, I went with the more simple approach, the HDRI. In addition to the 9 exposures I've added a ragged border and increased the brightness a little on the dam so that it was a little more visible.

I think it's a pretty neat picture, and I enjoyed taking it too... I think the next time I get a couple of days off, and a 400mm rental lens, I might head back to that same spot because it apparently would be a great place to do some birding.

Fence

This is actually the photo I took before taking the photo of the footprints above. I didn't quite know where to go to take some nice snow photos since most of the snow has been cleared away or melted in places, so I decided that the best place was just in the backyard.

I used some of that black and white slide film here and then took some digital images as well.

Then I spun around and took the photo of my own footsteps.

So there you have it, some photos form today and one photo from Christmas that I really thought was special and worth sharing.

Senior Photos

2010-12-28T21:26:00.001-05:00

Hey check out this awesome video I put together with some senior photos and video to promote senior photos in 2011.

Top 10 Images of 2010: Numbers 4

2010-12-28T09:49:00.003-05:00

We're in the home stretch now.

Last eight photos (one each for Munro and 11:59 photography.)

Sarah ready for Vows

This shot was captured by my wonderful assistant, business partner and wife, Amber of Sarah right after she had put her dress on. Remember Evan, this is his mother on her wedding day, Jan. 1, 2010.

It's one of the most unique and incredible wedding photos that I know I've ever seen. As Amber tells me, she was in the somewhat crowded hotel room and decided to hop up on the bed to get this great shot and at just the right moment.

That's part of what hiring a professional photographer is all about... knowing to expect these unexpected moments like this. The other part is, she was able to be there while I was with the groom and the groomsmen. At any rate, it is most definitely one of my favorite photos from 2010.

Modern American Justice

Alright, this is just a fantastic photo, right? I've had the idea for this photo since 1998 and just hadn't had the chance to shoot it until this year.

Let that be a lesson, if you've got a great photo idea... never give up on it. Even if you get to try it and you don't like how it looks the first time, do it again. Do it again and again until it looks right to you and makes you happy.

I got lucky and Sharon was so great that she helped craft this photo into an even better photo than what we started with. With a little shaping of the flag, it was made into an even better photo. It also ended up being one of Sharon's favorite's from the shoot. Once again, this was taken at Union 206 Studio in Alexandria.

Top 10 Images of 2010: Numbers 5

2010-12-27T09:32:00.000-05:00

We're halfway there with our number 5 images.

The first one is one of my favorite group portraits.

Osage Executives

So one of the company's that I've done a bit of work for over the past year or so needed a group executive portrait. This one was what I pitched to them and they loved it. Basically without getting into too much detail the company takes barley and converts it into ethanol which can later be used as a fuel additive.

I really like that they're taking a crop that isn't really used for food and turning it into ethanol, as opposed to corn based ethanol.

Well anyway, back to the photo... here are the four top executives and they're standing in a field of barley. The sky couldn't have been more perfect. The photo looks a little flat on a monitor, but printed it just pops! The sky helps make the green stand out more and the guys themselves. Part of this photo was also a logistical accomplishment.

To light all four executive's faces I took the studio lights into the field. That's something I like to do anyway, but it still requires taking four lights, stands and a power source somewhere.

Sharon #39

This was one of the photos that I took at Union 206 Studio in Alexandria in October. Sharon was an excellent model to work with and this space was simply amazing to use.

Obviously the black bar with the word Censored isn't part of the actual final image, but I've put it there out of respect for my blog readers that don't need or want to see the entire image. The photo is outstanding and looks amazing printed as well.

While I love to use flash, none was used for this particular shot. It's all just that light coming in from the window.

* Ok, obviously this wasn't actually posted Dec. 27. If you were here between Dec. 23 and Dec. 28, you'd know that. But, to maintain a certain continuity and flow for the blog I've back-dated this entry. So you'll see that with the next couple of entries too.

Top 10 Images of 2010: Numbers 5

2010-12-26T09:13:00.001-05:00

No ties this time, just a couple of really cool images!

Evan

Evan is just too cute! I couldn't NOT put this photo in.

Dan and Sarah are Evan's parents and got married Jan. 1. We had the pleasure of shooting their wedding AND in November taking some photos of Evan, their beautiful and amazing baby boy. He was exactly one month old when we took this photo but he was already setting up a little on his own and trying to push himself up.

This was just an amazing photo and a great couple to work with.

11:59 July

Alright, in May I had the opportunity to go to San Diego and participate in an amazing workshop, PictageU, Lighting and Boudoir. Coming back from the workshop I felt armed and ready to take on setting up a new brand, 11:59 Photography.

This was one of the first images created under the new brand, 11:59 Photography. We worked with four really outstanding models and got to shoot in an awesome space, a model unit at an apartment community that was built into an old school building.

That's where these windows came from. They're part of the design of the old school building. Seeing four windows, and four models, we couldn't resist putting them up there.

* Ok, obviously this wasn't actually posted Dec. 26. If you were here between Dec. 23 and Dec. 28, you'd know that. But, to maintain a certain continuity and flow for the blog I've back-dated this entry. So you'll see that with the next couple of entries too.