News: Large Groups, New Toys and More

As wedding season quickly approaches, my mind has been spinning with ideas on how to pose large groups differently.  I want to get away from having everyone scrunched together staring into the camera.  I'm thinking of going wide and using whatever surrounding are available like steps or around a limo, etc.  No examples to show as of yet, but I will be having a Spring Family special announced shortly so stay tuned for that.  I will definitely follow this up with some images.

For my upcoming clients, you will be happy to know that I have new on location lighting on the way to me as I type this.  This is going to be a highly portable set up that will enable me to give you that beautiful studio light inside the church, at the beach or the local park.  I can't wait to start using my new toys.

In personal news, I can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can hit the bike trail.  If I'm going to be chasing brides around all summer, I'm gonna have to be in tip top shape!!  :)

Here is a non wedding group shot from last year.  Highland High School put on a nice rendition of South Pacific and I was there to capture the play as well as this photo of the entire cast plus teachers.

-click image for large version-

 

Uncle Bob, Big Cameras and the Year 2030

"Wow, getting married sure can be expensive."  You may have said it a few times and you may be nodding your head in agreement right now.  You may be thinking that it's time to cut a few corners or you are never going to make that honeymoon you have been dreaming about.  Surely photography cannot be that hard so why pay a professional to do it.  Perhaps you have a friend or an Uncle Bob (insert name of choice) who took some family vacation pictures that looked great.  He has a "big camera" and will be at the wedding.  You may be thinking of asking him to photograph your wedding.  Don't do it!!

I won't get into all the technical aspects of why you should hire a professional or the amount of work involved in post processing, etc. and why all of those things are worth the investment.  I just have a few numerals for you to consider - 2030.  Presuming you will be reading this the year it was written in 2010, this future year will mark your 20th Anniversary.  You will probably want to pull out your wedding album and have a look back at your big day.  Will you be looking at images that tell the story of your wedding in vivid detail and glorious color and black and white?  Will you be looking at professional prints (not retail store one hour photos) that have stood the test of time?

Wedding Photography is not the area to cut corners on.  On this anniversary and others, the expensive decorations that got discarded will not be remembered.  The extra filling not added to the cake will also be a distant memory.  However, the images will still be there to be enjoyed over and over again.

Uncle Bob's a great guy who means well and will fix your car in no time flat.  However, he does not eat/sleep photography 24/7.  Don't put him or yourself through all that stress.  Think about the year 2030.

Show Off!!

Looking for some cool and unique ways to show off your prints?!!  Check out Photojojo sometime. I have no sponsorship with them.  I just think they have some cool ideas.  I'm not so sure I'd show off the wedding prints with this stuff, but they are definitely fun doohickeys for family, kids, and wedding reception photographs.  Here's a few products for you to check out:

• If you have been to the studio before you may have noticed my Magnetic Photo Ropes where I show off different images I've taken over the years.  It's a low budget, easy way to hang a bunch of small prints.
• Polaroid Picture Frames are cheesy, but fun.  Best of all, you can get a dry erase marker and write your own captions and then hang them on the fridge.
• You can use your family shots in the board game Photo-opoly.  That's right, Monopoly starring your family!!
• Jelly Phone Filters attach to your cell phone camera and turn ordinary snapshots into wonderfully weird works of art.  Take this to the wedding reception and have fun!!

Black and White Wedding Photography

Classy, vintage, romantic, cinematic - this is how I describe black and white wedding photography.  I always include a number of black and white shots for preview.  Since I shoot all in color and then process into black and white in the digital darkroom, you will always have the original color shot available to you.

The best black and white images are not just one click, grayscale photographs.  Leaving a hint of color (even if you cannot see it) will always make for a more spectacular image.  This helps to bring out texture in skies and wedding gowns too.  One of my favorite tricks is too add a 1950's style, hollywood-esque glamor glow.  You can see in the image below that even though the effect has blown out the detail in her dress that it has taken on the style of early hollywood.

One of my engagement packages, called The Chicago Sessions shows off a lot of different black and white techniques.  The image below shows off "blue toning" added along with a fairly intense vignette.

In the shots below, I added "film grain" into the mix and took the digital photographs and gave them more of an analog, film like look.  The second image is at a downtown Chicago vinyl record shop so I gave it that old 1970's aged look.

So when we get together to review your images, if something jumps out at you that screams black and white image, don't hesitate to ask.  There is never an extra charge for these effects.