I’m not used to being in front of the camera, but after seeing a could of pretty cool self portraits on the interwebs, I got inspired to do my own. Here are two for your enjoyment. The second one really shows that I need a haircut — and a shave!
To see me smiling, you’ll have to head on over to my Flickr page.
Quickly going over the pictures from tonight’s light painting session and here’s a wacky one I hacked together. It made me laugh, so I had to share it.
I’ve seen this guy hanging out up on his perch for the past few days during my morning commute. He didn’t seem to mind me taking his picture, though I’m sure his nest isn’t too far away.
No wedding ever goes according to plan. When you go to plan your wedding, accept that fact and you’ll have the best time of your life. This wedding was no exception. First, we had a week of gorgeous weather only to get snowed on the night before (nearly 3 inches on the ground!). Second, the church was a photographer’s dream with abundant natural light, yet the priest wouldn’t let us in the same time zone as the couple during the ceremony. Third, the church decided to keep their 4:00pm mass instead of switching to the usual 5:00pm mass, leaving us with less time for pictures after the ceremony. Fourth, well, you get the idea, right?
This is how weddings go and you learn to roll with the punches. What I love about Rachael and Chris is that they didn’t let any of these distractions get in the way of having a good time. Sure it was cold outside, but they charged right out there for a great series of pictures.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the crazy series of pictures of the groomsmen reenacting a combination of Fight Club and West Side Story. I laugh every time I look at those pictures, and I think you will too. Scroll down for some pure awesome.
The other day, I was talking with a gal about doing photos for her upcoming album and we got to talking about fun things you can do with lighting at night. So, as a refresher/test of the types of things we might be doing for her album, I headed out to the shores of Lake Monona the other night to try out some light painting. On one hand, it was really cool to be out there by myself trying different things and having fun with my craft, but on the other hand, this kind of thing requires a few more hands to make things easier (and more fun).
I’ll be heading out again soon to try some more things out, shoot me an email/text/tweet/facebook/yada yada yada if you’re interested. For now though, here’s my favorite from the night, the rest are on my Flickr photostream.
It’s cold here in Wisconsin. You may not expect to be outside taking a lot of pictures at a wedding this time of year, but Megan and Justin don’t listen to the naysayers. Yup, that’s right, Megan and Justin are tough as nails and are willing to do what it takes to get the picture that they’ll remember for years to come. Ok, it took a little coaxing, but they were good sports about me dragging them outside every 20 minutes. Luckily I could remind them that they’d be in Saint Lucia soon and it would be nice and warm there.
This is one of my favorite series of images from the wedding. Three generations of hands (Megan and Justin, Megan’s parents, and Megan’s grandparents).
This makes two years in a row! I would like to thank all of my clients who wrote a review, there’s nothing more rewarding than hearing from my clients that I’ve done a good job.
I picked up a used Lensbaby the other day. I’ve been wanting to play around with one for a while and when I saw a used one on Craigslist for a good price, I snatched it up. This morning, I did some experiments with it so I could get a feel for how well it would perform.
The model I have is the 3G with the optional macro kit. This is the same as the newly rebranded Control Freak. It has double glass optics and a handful of aperture discs.
Just like I read in every other Lensbaby review, it is difficult to focus and get used to, but with some patience, you can get a good feel for it. As you use smaller aperture discs, it becomes more difficult to see and focus, which means that working with a lot of ambient light is essential. I found that shooting with at least the 5.6 disc, and preferably the 11, I was able to get a respectable depth of field. Anything wider and the depth of field was so tiny that it became nearly impossible to find a focus point.
When I first heard about Lensbaby lenses, I was under the impression that they were an inexpensive option for tilt/shift. Unfortunately, that is not true. While they do allow you to tilt the focus plane, the design of the lens is such that there is a central circular focus sweat spot with the sharpness of the optics falling drastically towards the edges. What this amounts to is a fun and unique tool for playing with focus and depth of field, but not a tool for architectural photography.
I have some hopes of using this for my wedding photography, most likely it will be relegated to ring and flower shots, but probably not too much for portraits. It’s fun to play around with, but I’ll need to use it for a while before I feel comfortable enough to pull it out during a fast-paced wedding when time is short.
Would I recommend a Lensbaby? It depends on how you want to use it. With the macro attachments, shooting closeups is fun and rewarding (and more cost-effective than an expensive macro lens). As a portrait lens, it will never be a primary lens, but if you allow yourself the time to become proficient with it, you should be able to get some fun and creative shots with it. In the end, it falls in the same category as Holga cameras for me. It’s fun to use and gives you a non-traditional image, but is not going to be a primary lens in any camera bag.
Aaron and Melanie are now forever known as Mr. and Mrs. They got married this past Saturday at the Madison Club in Madison, WI. It’s a safe bet that if you book a wedding in Madison in January, it will be cold. Sure enough, the high for the day was 14 degrees. Luckily, though, the sun was out and they were willing to tough it out and take some pictures outside. We didn’t stay outside for too long, but we made the most of every opportunity we had.
This was a great way to kick off the wedding season of 2010. Aaron and Melanie are a great couple and they have wonderful families and friends. I’m blessed for having the opportunity to be a part of their special day.
It’s time to celebrate the new year. This candle holder was a gift from Vicki’s aunt Jane and always brings back fond memories of her. Now we use it to celebrate the start of a new year.
