The Wedding Photographer

Sorry I haven’t posted much the past few days, but I was stressing out because I was gearing up for my first wedding shoot. Needless to say, the stress wasn’t all that warranted, and I survived relatively unscathed! I rather enjoyed it actually, I rented a 24-70 f/2.8L lens from Pro Photo Rental - I HIGHLY recommened them, they are US based but had no issues sending me the lens across the border into Canada. FedEx on the other hand - they need to get their act together.

Anyways, I shot the wedding with 2 Digital Rebel XTi/400D’s. One had the 24-70 f/2.8L on it, the other I slapped on my 75-300 f/4-5.6 USM. Managed to snag a 430EX from the maid of honor so both XTi’s had external flashes as well which made a huge difference. Also took my laptop along, was a great idea - offloaded one card after the shooting at the bride’s residence in the morning, and then some from the afternoon shoot in between the ceremony and the reception. Good thing too because all said and done I ended up taking 1897 images, I’ll keep you posted as to how many I show the bride and groom in a week or two. I’d love to show you some of the shots but I told the bride they’d be the first to see them, and I think that’s the way it should be. So that’s why you got a shot of me above with that sweet piece of glass… I don’t want to send it back tomorrow!

Oh yeah, here’s the MOO cards I had made up from the pre-shoot which were placed at every setting at the reception. Great little piece of MOO-vertising if I must say so myself!

Tags: 24-70, 24-70mm, B&W, black and white, canon 24-70 f/2.8L, L series, moo, photographer, photography, self-portrait, wedding

Dr. Draw

Some of you may recall my post from a couple weeks ago about the opportunity I had to shoot Dr. Draw while they performed at The Works Art & Design Festival here in town. I’ve been talking to their manager and will be sending a CD of some of the shots for them to include in the gallery on their main site.

Much to my delight, I noticed a new comment on one of the images I took at the show.

The comment came from Eugene Draw himself:

I love this photo…
I would love to post it as the profile pic on the Dr. Draw myspace page actually all of the photos look just amazing….
you are truly a real deal photographer
e

Thanks for the comment Eugene, glad you liked the shot and hope to see it gracing your myspace page soon! I’ll chalk this one up to the published column…

Tags: B&W, Black & White, black and white, dr. draw, festival, musician, performance, performer, Portrait, Published, the works, the works art & design festival

What makes an image so appealing?

Really… what makes a photograph appealing? Took this on the weekend at the Alberta Railway Museum… and I don’t know why but I really like it.

For an even better view, check it out on a black background.

Check out the rest of my set on Flickr - more photos every day, I only took about 400!

Tags: alberta railway museum, B&W, black and white, bolts, engine, train

DPP Solutions: Proper Contrast In Black-And-White

Been struggling somewhat with a B&W image conversion tonight, stumbled on this article written by Rob Sheppard over at Digital Photo Pro Magazine.

Contrast is critical to a properly printed black-and-white image. There’s no color to define and structure a photograph. It all must be done in the monochrome tonalities from black to white.

Contrast is no simple thing. Ansel Adams spends a lot of time talking about it in his classic book, The Print. Early in the book, he makes a statement that’s quite appropriate to today’s digital photographer, “Some photographers stress extreme black and white effects with very strong print contrasts … [while] others work for a softer effect … their power lies in the ‘seeing’ and the balance of values.”

Adams goes on to say that some photographers use contrast for contrast’s sake, regardless of the needs of the subject or scene. His point is simply that contrast shouldn’t be an arbitrary tool, but that there’s an optimum contrast that comes from the vision of the photographer connected to the needs of the image.

Here’s my original conversion to B&W of the image I was working on tonight:

After reading the article, I really didn’t come up with much better… maybe I am on the right track.

Check out how to use Proper Contrast In Black-And-White over at Digital Photo Pro Magazine.

Tags: ansel adams, B&W, black and white, contrast, digital photo pro, dpp, magazine, rob sheppard, Tips

The last shot…

Well tragedy has struck… dropped my camera at lunch, it didn’t like the concrete sidewalk too much. Dunno how much or how long (they estimate 4-6 weeks) it’ll take to fix so I’m camera-less for awhile… looks like it’s gonna be old photo uploads for awhile. Lesson? NEVER EVER use your camera without the strap on! And if you are, crouch or sit on the ground, preferably away from a concrete or otherwise hard surface…

This was the last photo she took… /sigh.

See you in a while.

UPDATE: took a snap of the damage with my cell phone…

Tags: B&W, black and white, kodak duaflex i, Street Photography, through the viewfinder, ttv

Sign - flickr Fave of the Day

Noticed this shot from a fellow threesixtyfiver, Ter5. It’s a great shot, love the perspective, depth of focus and black and white treatment.

Sign, originally uploaded by Ter5.

Tags: black and white, flickr Fave of the day, no tresspassing, sign, ter5