Wright Wedding - #2 for a friend

Angela and Gianfranco ("G") got married back in October of 2008. They're our best friends, and we're sad that we had to leave them in Indiana for North Carolina. They're coming to visit though!

This was the 2nd wedding I had ever done, but it was more of a "I'm a guest but I'll bring my camera" kind of thing. Their official photographer was nice enough to let me follow her around, and even set up a few of my own shots! After having direct contact with many professional photographers, there is definitely a small (but growing) portion of those who have an unfortunately elitist attitude about other people with digital SLRs. But it was wonderful to be exposed to a photographer who was open and willing to let me (get in her way and) set up a few shots. She even took those for her own portfolio, too, which was quite flattering to me.


























































Having been through a wedding myself now, it's interesting to see how little of the wedding the husband is actually responsible for. The picture below, however, was the groom's idea - pumpkin flower pots! He was particularly proud of these, and asked me specifically to snap a few shots. So I did!











Congratulations to the happy couple!

Redbull Superbikes

With yet another stroke of luck, I had another photographic opportunity at my fingertips. During the summer of 2008, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway played host to the Redbull Superbike Challenge. As always, these races have test runs before the day of the official race, so the riders can get a feel for the track and tweak their bikes to get the most out of the race. These practice runs were open and free to the public, and also allowed us to get right up on the track.

This event was a great chance to practice my panning skills (or lack thereof, since I had never had anything previously on which to practice). The benefit of panning allows the subject to have a nice sense of motion because the background is directionally blurred. These were hard for me to get, and even though I was on a tripod, my understanding of the camera had still be only elementary. But I did the best I could, and out of the 500 shots or so that I took (I subscribed to the "spray and pray" technique at the time...), these were some of the best.

DCI Finals

Drum Corp International, founded in 1972, is a non-profit organization that provides a competitive means for youth to express their musicality and creativity while working with a team of diverse individuals, ages 13-21. During the summer, the DCI competitions begin, pitting a large number of corps based all around the country against one another. Some think, "marching band? nerdy." HARDLY. If one were ever fortunate enough to attend of these competitions, it would soon be realized that these kids are in AMAZING shape to do what they do. These shots were taken from the lot in Bloomington, my alma mater. They were going to hold the finals in Indianapolis, but Lucas Oil Stadium was a bit behind schedule, so instead they held it at Memorial Stadium at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Just to give you an idea of the discipline and physical fitness required for this type of event, we'll look at it from two different perspectives; the drummers, and the brass corps. I can't speak for the color guard, as I don't know much about it. These kids practice all summer long, every day, for up to 10 hours a day, outside on the field, constantly running through sections of the show.

Brass corps: tone, pitch, timbre, and overall warmth comes from extreme control of shape/tightness of the lips on the mouthpiece, as well as extreme breath control. Now imagine maintaining this control of the instrument while marching around a football field at 164 beats/minute, all while watching the drum major conduct to keep time, listening for the overall balance of the ensemble, and marching into elaborate, moving formations, keeping the bell of the horn facing at 45-degrees towards the stands, and making adjustments as necessary, after having memorized likely 20+ pages of some of the hardest music. These performances are also often changed and tweaked throughout each season to elicit maximum crowd response. And everyone is under the age of 22.




















From the drum ensemble perspective, imagine this: carrying around a 30 lb+ drum, matching technique for synchronicity with the other members of the line, matching stick heights, special effects, etc. again all while marching at 164 bpm around a field in set/moving formations. This I can only somewhat relate to, as I myself was a snare drummer for several years in the Indiana University Marching Hundred, one of the NCAA Big Ten collegiate marching bands. However, our formations and repertoire were not NEARLY as advanced as those in DCI. These kids are truly amazing at what they do, and if you ever have a chance to catch a DCI show, I highly recommend it. Very HIGHLY. For those of you who live in Indiana and surrounding states, the Finals will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis for at least the next 10 years if I'm not mistaken...







































To learn more, go here.

Sutter Wedding - First Ever!

So I decided to try my hand at wedding photography. I was pretty lucky, in that my brother booked this wedding, and asked me to be a second shooter. This was a less traditional wedding...small, intimate, and "less stress" than many other weddings. But was I less stressed about this? Good God no.

The more I thought about it (and this may already be obvious to many), the photographic documentation of this day is the first photo album for this new family. And if it sucks...well, they'll remember that forever, and THAT will be essentially their memory of their wedding. Crappy photos. So...holy crap, was I nervous. I was essentially the 2nd shooter, taking photos of a lot of the details of the wedding; flowers, table settings, and also different angles of primary events.










After taking and processing this picture below for display (even though it may not be that good), I realized that I really enjoy the transformation of the bride from a "regular person." The details of makeup, hair, dress, shoes, etc. was something I often find myself documenting.





The ring picture below is still, to date, one of my favorite ring pictures I've ever taken.











I love it when a venue has balconies from which to get higher angled shots. Coupled with shots from the primary shooter, these combinations really add a photojournalistic feel to the album as a whole.

Meet Trisha!

Another try at this whole modeling thing. My buddy Paul actually set this shoot up for the both of us, as Trish is one of his friends. She's a professional salon artist, hence her hair was outstanding. At this point in my evolving photography, I had just purchased a 42" silver/gold reflector. We shot early in the morning at the IMA Gardens in Indianapolis. It is an incredible (and very VERY popular) place to shoot. I think for the few hours we were there, we saw about 4 senior shoots, 5 engagement shoots, and a wedding shoot happening. Insane.

A big learning point from this shoot was manipulating light and how it changes the photo. The reflector definitely helped fill in a lot of shadows, and gave a lot of life and energy to the photos. Not to mention the sun was a GREAT hairlight. Paul was a great help, and I also assisted him with his shots as well. All in all, Trish was a joy to shoot, and she really enjoyed the photos we produced for her. And of course, this was another one of those "for the hell of it" shoots.

Caveat: In previous posts, I called myself a photographer I think. I don't really like that term for myself at this point, as I'm more of just a "GWC," or "guy with camera." I just take photos...

Textures/Speculars

I'm intrigued by specular highlights. I'm not sure why this is, but when done well, I'm drawn to them like a moth to a flame. I'm not really sure what the point of this little session was, other than to test out a new lens I had recently obtained, the 50mm/f1.4. This was my first "fast prime" ever, and even though I haven't realized its utility until only recently, this lens wowed me nonetheless. It's bokeh is amazing, and stopped down, this lens gets quite sharp.

These shots were taken at the Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, Indiana, and about 30 minutes in, a "security guard" not much older than what looked like the age of 15 stopped us and told us it was illegal for us to take pictures at this venue. There's a big rift between law enforcement/security services and photographers, in that it is actually NOT illegal to take pictures of public places. At all. There are lawyers who specialize in this field, and have won many a litigation. There are horror stories of policemen confiscating memory cards and camera equipment, and even going so far as to arrest citizens simply walking around taking photographs of architecture, buildings, etc. all in public places. One photographer was even taken to the ground when he refused to give up his nearly $7,000 camera/lens combo, and then arrested for "resisting law enforcement." Don't get me wrong, I very much appreciate what law enforcement implements and does for the general public, but sometimes it can go way too far. Of course, just by the very nature of the interaction, it's always just better to bite your tongue, be polite, and comply, simply to avoid any further problems, regardless of the fact that (in general) law enforcement and security have no right to tell us to stop photographing publicly accessible areas.

ANYWAY, sorry about that little tangent. Just something that has always bothered me....

Another modeling shoot...my wife

Another attempt from me at modeling, this time with my most willing and beautiful model...my wife. Of course, when I first obtained my camera, she no longer saw my face, but rather my face with a camera attached to it. I would not put it down, and always had it pointing at her, adjusting settings, seeing how that would affect the picture, and do it again. Things that normally took her an hour to do suddenly tripled because I would constantly interrupt her with, "hey honey, look at me. Don't move. Ok." Wash, rinse, repeat.

Lucky for me, she was (for the most part) very patient with my learning my new toy. Pretty soon, these impromptu "hold still" photosessions turned into "hey let's go to the park and do a short photoshoot" and "hey let's set up a makeshift studio and do a short photoshoot." These few (of thousands) were some of the better results from these impromptu sessions. A few with natural light, and a few with a 2-speedlight setup with Elinchrom triggers.





These next few were attempts at half-profile headshots. I had seen this done many times before, and had always loved the way the photo gave a mild sense of tension and mystery, as the subject's face was half obscured, either by shadow or by the frame of the photo.