Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Listen to your wife!


One thing I've learned when shooting weddings especially is to listen to my wife.

When we were very quickly shooting these images (due to drizzle) this past weekend in front of the courthouse in Harrisonville, my wife called out to the groom of this couple to "dip your wife!". Well, that little dip provided a moment for the bride and groom to have some fun, and I think it gave me a great shot that showed something more than a posed shot would have. Often times on shoots Dionne will speak up that she wants to try something and people will even say that the pose she puts them in feels uncomfortable or unnatural, but inevitably later they will love the result of the pose.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 78mm, f5.6, 1/180 sec., fill flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened, cropped, changed to B&W, colorized the flowers, added diffused glow filter. Adjusted Contrast and Brightness.

Tunes listened to while editing: Angels & Airwaves - I-Empire. I'm on a huge Angels and Airwaves kick right now. You need to check them out if you haven't. They are a really great "supergroup"!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Still alive and shooting!


Yes, I am still alive and shooting pictures. 24 hours ago I didn't feel very much alive, but after a nights rest I am feeling better. Yesterday my lovely wife and I traveled down to Harrisonville to shoot our first wedding in 2 years. Now we both remember why we stopped chasing this kind of work. It is a tough way to make money.

Anyway, despite the rainy conditions we managed to squeeze in a few shots outdoors. The groom managed to secure the use of this 1937 Chevy (I think) and really wanted a few pictures using it. Dionne and I saw this neat court house and as it was only a few blocks away from the church we knew we had to swing by between the ceremony and reception.

As the day was kind of gray, I decided in this version to go with Black and White. Plus I kind of wanted the "old time" look as we had the old car and the old courthouse.

As I'll be editing over the next week or so, I hope to post more frequently again here. I hope you enjoy seeing images from me again.

Shot spex: RAW Image, Pentax K10D, ISO 800, 18mm, f4.5, 1/180 sec., no flash.

PhotoShop spex: Smart Sharpened, cropped to exclude sky, changed to B&W. Adjusted Contrast and Brightness.

Tunes listened to while editing: well today I've listened to 5 disks while working on images. The one that I listened to while working on this image was Angels & Airwaves - Love.