Katie - Wedding Dress Portraits

About a month ago I got to do a great portrait session with a friend of the family. Katie is the morning traffic person for Fox 5 Atlanta. She was getting married on Memorial Day weekend but wanted to create a special present for her Grandmother. Katie had picked out her own dress for her wedding, but her grandmother still had the dress she was married in so many years ago. In fact, Katie's Grandmother and mother were both married in the dress. Katie wanted to make some special portraits in that dress, and also wanted a few of herself in her new dress, without all the wedding day pressure and insanity.

I started scouting locations but Katie had an idea to use a wedding venue that her friend owned. We met at the Wheeler House in Ballground GA. I had seen their website so knew I was going to be able to get that classic southern look. Graciously, The Wheeler House gave us access to both inside and out for the entire shoot. A week or two out I was getting really excited, but also a little worried as I had never visited the location.  It was a pretty good drive away from Johns Creek and my day to day schedule just made it impossible to scout it out. 

Finally the day of the shoot arrives and it is pouring rain all day. It figures. Now I am getting really worried, but due to the wedding schedule and restrictions on Katie's time, this is the day we have to do the shoot. We scheduled for 6pm and it looked like we were going to get a 2 or 3 hour window of no rain. I figured we would do an hour outside and an hour inside. It worked out perfectly. We worked our way around the yard racing the storm clouds (with blue tarp for under the dress in tow - Thank You Cindy and Katie's mom for hiding it so well!). Just as we hit the last location that I had picked out in my walk around, the rain started coming down again in buckets. We went inside, Katie changed into the dress she was going to be married in, and we did the indoor shots. It all worked out great and we got some great images. We (Courtney and I) were unable to attend the wedding as we had all the kids and were unable to get away for the weekend, but on the wedding day I got an iPhone picture of Katie presenting the framed pictures to her Grandmother and there was not a dry eye in the house!

On a final note, some of you that read my blog know I am moving away from DSLR's and Nikon. This is the last shoot done with my Nikon gear. From here on out it is Olympus and Micro 4/3rds and the Fuji X system. No more Nikon Safety Blanket! I'm not really worried about the camera and lenses but more so trying to wrap my brain around a new lighting system.  Wish me luck!

Nelson Street Portraits - Atlanta Georgia

For whatever reason the summer has just gotten away from me and I feel like I have not taken anything but vacation pictures from our various road trips. I saw that my favorite photography group Portrait Photography Group - Atlanta was having a Meetup to do some pictures down on Nelson street in downtown Atlanta. It was a really nice evening and as always a great group of people showed up to take some pictures and talk photography, lighting and composition. I really felt like I needed to get out and shoot a little bit and it worked. I am really re-energized after getting some portraits that I really like. 

In addition I decided to leave all my Nikon DSLR gear at home and shoot everything with my Micro 4/3rds Olympus OMD-EM5. It was kind of funny. There were about 20 people there all carrying huge heavy DSLR rigs with monster 70-200 zooms and I showed up with my little EM5 around my neck and got the below images. I continue to be amazed at the image quality that comes out of this camera.

Contemplation

Tatiana

No parking

Christian

Looking for the Exit

Jayden Fowler Park

I have been delinquent in posting some of my recent shoots. Life has a way from getting away from me like that. Earlier in the summer I got the opportunity to take pictures of Jayden. What a great kid. No muss no fuss. He was all smiles and really seemed to enjoy the whole process.  I didn't use any off camera lighting, it was just too hard to get him to sit still. At the end of the day I am glad i didn't. These images just have a great natural look and feel that represent the day and Jayden very well.

Lianne at Bulloch Hall, Roswell Georgia

Courtney and I have a friend Lianne who is a great local musician. Earlier this spring ( Actually I guess it was more like late this last winter) she needed to have some photos done for her promotional materials and social media outlets. We set a time and she left it to me to pick a place to do the pictures. Knowing she grew up in Roswell I wanted to do something local that she was familiar with. I walked around Historic Roswell  and while I liked a lot of the areas downtown, it was a bit of a zoo on one of the first sunny warm days of the late winter early spring. I stumbled over to Bulloch Hall and knew I wanted to do the portraits there. I went into the office and asked if it was okay to shoot and was told it was fine. By the time we did the pictures in the afternoon it was pretty much closed up anyway. We really just wanted to use some of the outside structures and gardens. We made sure to stay out of the way of other visitors and found our spots. We shot for about an hour and half and got a number of shots that we all really liked. 

The first two are some of my favorites from the day. There was an old irrigation pond and a work shed that had wonderful textures and tones. The first shot was of Lianne playing in front of the shed on an old tree bench. She was lit with a 30 inch softbox camera right and another small strobe back lighting her hair giving her a lot of separation from the background. I really love the mood it sets. Just a girl and her guitar playing without a care. 

The second image I stole right from Lianne's phone. I was going through some of her pictures and there was one of her against a wall knock kneed just looking back out at the camera. I don't know what it was about the pose but it was very much exactly who Lianne is. I knew I wanted to recreate the photo and go for an album cover look. I think we really captured it. The sun was side lighting her from the left and I just positioned the softbox a little bit left and front and shot away. It came out perfect.

This third shot was more of a traditional portrait set up and shoot. Beautiful location, the sun was back lighting her perfectly and we just added light to the front and shot away. Simple, beautiful.

And here is the last one I will show from the session. I know that when I got out to do photographs for a client they almost always have images in their mind like the first three I showed. Beautiful light, nice settings and normal compositions and lenses. I always make sure I get those shots. It is what they expect and why they asked me to take their pictures. Often times when I know I have all those shots I will try something completely different. This last one is one of those. We were working our way around the house towards the herb garden and there was this huge Tim Bortunesque tree in the corner of the garden. There were a number of ways to approach this to make more "beautiful" images but I wanted something different. We took away the softbox and went with some very harsh reflected light. I put on the superwide angle lens and got right up in Lianne's grill ;-) The hard light gives a much more gritty feel and the wide angle lens keeps the tree in focus and gives a lot of perspective distortion to Lianne. Will everybody like it? Probably not, but I liked it a lot. I think the important thing to remember is that there are rules and sometimes you need to go outside of the box and try something different. I always figure that as long as it is intentional and I know why I am doing it, it is all good. Sometimes the results are really bad. Sometimes you make your favorite image of the day. You never know unless you try. Lianne liked this one as well. It shows a different side to her which is always present beneath the soft exterior. Often times it is just not visible. I think we brought it out in this image. 

Marie - Decatur Square

A few weeks ago I attended a workshop down in Decatur. It was going to be all about shooting in the high noon sun. I have a pretty solid grasp of High Speed sync and overpowering daylight with small strobes but I am a big believer that you can always learn something new. Of course we got there and it was grey and rainy. If your intent is to have soft light and shadowless photos (which is what we usually want for portraits) then it was a perfect day. It wasn't a great day for learning to deal with the big issue very bright sun creates in your portrait work. That being said we did a bunch of pictures anyway and I here are some of my favorites. 

 This first shot was taken right in the Square, natural light.

 My favorite of the day - I especially like the very graphic background

 When the rains really kicked in we went indoors. This picture was straight natural light with Marie just looking up and out the window

Some days the sessions don't go quite as planned but it has been my experience that when I am forced to improvise I create some strong pictures. 

Tough Mudder Georgia 2012 Anonia Pass

Yesterday I headed out to Washington Georgia to photograph the Tough Mudder event. I don't know what inspired me to go last year but I thought it would be fun to photograph. It was, so I went back this year. Tough Mudder is really good about giving out Media passes. I do this one strictly for fun but they are so accommodating to photographers that i certainly like to pay them back by posting images to their Facebook page. If anybody wants to buy a print of any of the shots I just have them make a donation to the Wounded Warrior Foundation which Tough Mudder supports. 

Last year the event was in March and by mid morning it was 70 degrees. Not so this year. When I woke up it was 20 degrees and was about 40 when the first wave went off on Saturday. Add to that the 20 mph winds and the water, the obstacles such as the Arctic Enema (a construction dumpster filled with water and ice that you have to swim through) and you have the makings of a miserable day if you are a competitor. Not so much if you are just taking pictures. As I write this it is Sunday. It was even colder today. I have to imagine it is down right dangerous on that course today in terms of hypothermia. Here is wishing everyone a safe event. I cant wait to see what they do next year. Here are a few pictures from the event. I spent the day concentrating mostly on Hi Speed flash techniques. For the most part I am happy with the pictures but it is clear i need more juice in some circumstances.... I have been struggling whether to buy a studio strobe but they just dont do Hi Speed Sync like the Nikon TLS system. There are work arounds but none seem consistent. Anyhow enjoy.

Each Pre Race Mullet or Mohawk equaled a $4 donation to the Wounded Warrior Foundation. Team Craig. These guys cracked me up. I knew I needed a group photo before the start.

Shredded....The only warm place on the course
Electro Shock Therapy. A definite No No if you have a pacemaker or any metal in your body

Sisters....

Keeping witht he theme of being very behind in posting sessions' I wanted to post these pictures of the McGowan sisters just before Christmas. I met them all at Autrey Mill park on a FREEZING December day. It was on with the coats off with the coats. Try to not to look cold! They were a lot of fun and were great sports but working with three kids at once is a bit like hearding cats. We got some fun pictures and I recieved a wonderful Christmas card in the mail with many shots from the day.

 

 

The Thompson Family

I have been a little delinquent regarding posting to the blog. The holidays and the year end pressure at my day job have made time limited. I wanted to post a few pictures from a shoot I did right before Thanksgiving with the Thompsons. It was a rainy dreary day but it eventually dried up and we got out around noon. We went over to The Roswell mill. It is usually a photography mob scene on the weekends because there are a lot of cool areas at the park but we tried to find a few different areas off the beaten path. We came out with some nice shots and Eileen was able to get her Christmas cards out on time. 

 

The Family Holiday Card

Eileen
Just for Fun!

It Aint Christmas till Somebody's Crying

Each year I do a few hours at a local subdivision doing Santa Claus pictures for all the families. I know it doesn't sound very exciting or challenging. In fact, they have trained monkeys do the same thing at every mall across the country. That being said I do like to think that I light the scene pretty well and the parents get good pictures for a reasonable price without the mall hassle. On top of that a whole bunch of families end up going to my portfolio site at northfultonphoto.com to pick up their pictures. It is a good way to get people exposed to me as a person and my work as a photographer. Besides, this was my first ever paying job. The photographer that was going to do it a couple years ago got sick on the day of the event. I got called about 2 hours before it was scheduled and asked to do it by a friend. I was terrified. I didn't even have a light stand. I set my SB900 on a tripod and had my then 8 month pregnant wife hold up a big white reflector to bounce the flash. In the end it all worked out and I was asked to come back. Anyhow I digress. 

Click for Larger SizeWhat struck me while doing the pictures was the lengths some of the poor parents will go in order to get a picture of their child smiling with Santa. I had a lot of different kids and families come through and just about everyone got their kids to settle down and take a nice smiling picture with Santa. It helps that the Santa they hired is the real deal. He has been doing it thirty years and is just about the nicest guy ever. I think he really is Santa. Anyway, while processing the photos it struck me that the real pictures in the bunch were the screamers and criers. The pictures of the kids with the forced smiles, while OK for a Christmas card, will probably be forgotten as soon as the card gets tossed out with the rest of the mail. The true iconic photos that will survive in family legend and lore are of the screamers. I have a whole bunch of them but above is my favorite. We got a few of this little boy calmed down with Santa and his sister but this one is classic. Santa with his stoic smile, the little girl on the left with the smile pretending to be oblivious to the chaos ensuing two feet to her left, and the poor little boy screaming bloody murder. I probably took 300 frames throughout the day. This one is a classic. If these were my kids this would be the shot I remember. I might not make a card out of it but it would certainly go down in family history. 

 I did get one other picture during the day that I really liked. It was of my daughter making her way over to Santa after the crowds had died down. It will be an important picture for our family in the years to come. 

Click for Larger Size

Savanna's Homecoming

I have been a bit delinquent in posting these photos. Life has been a bit crazy lately and I am a few jobs behind in terms of posting pictures to the Blog, but I guess being busy is a good thing. I do a lot more portrait sessions than events but I had the opportunity to take pictures of Savanna for her homecoming. Her mom who would normally take the pictures had to be out of town but didn't want to miss the event in terms of pictures so she asked me to fill in. Eventually I got to do a family session with the rest of the family but that will be another post. Here are a few images from the event that I really liked.