Pictures for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the cure Fundraiser

Well, I was asked to provide a few pictures for the Susan G. Komen 3 Day for the cure Fundraiser at the Blue Crabs game on July 23, 2011. I will not be there for this event. I will be shooting a wedding that day for a great couple. Here are the pictures I'm donating.

The pictures are 12x18 on metallic paper with a double foam core. Please go out to Regency Stadium on the 23rd and place a bid on any of these or the other pictures provided by the other photographers.

The Barn Shoot - October 24, 2010

Well we finally held our barn shoot. It was the day after a very long and very exciting wedding. The whole crew was very tired but also very excited to do this shoot. We had about 11 models and several photographers show up for the day.

We were teaching Studio lighting in remote locations. The barn was great, the hosts were great, the models were great.

Here is Ashley and Nicolas. I met Ashley at a Bridal Show and asked her if she would like to join us in doing this shoot. Both Ashley and Nicolas were great to work with with. Here picture of Ashley from that day.

I met Candace at the Regency Furniture Stadium in Charles County. She is a wonderful person to work with and I love shooting images of her.

I had several ideas of poses I wanted to do with her and her husband. But he had other plans that day. Here are a couple more images of Candace.

Shannon and Alicia are sisters that I met at the Regency Field. They are fans of the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. Their grandmother came to the shoot to do some picture taking of her grand kids. Here is my favorite picture of them from that day.

All in all, it was a very fun day.

The day after the Blizzard of 2010

Cabin fever has set in! But that doesn't mean I can't pick up my camera and take a few pictures. Here are a few images looking at the damage to the trees in my backyard.

Notice all the bent and broken trees? We had so much snow that the dog didn't know where to go to relieve herself.

Zoomed in a little closer.... And one more on the left side of the property.

Then I decided to go look out the front door to see how much shoveling I was going to have to do. Arrrrrg, I should have gone back in and turned on the fireplace!

The builder came through with a plow to clear the streets. Throwing large snow boulders at the foot of my driveway. Took us about 5 hours to shovel the front porch, sidewalk and the driveway. Never did do the street and the end of the driveway. Thankfully the developer came back and cleared that all away for me!

But what a beautiful day it turned out to be. To bad we had another 6-10 inches of snow fall on Tuesday and Wednesday. But my prayers were answered. The snow that was suppose to happen on the 12th and 13th now isn't going to happen until maybe the 15th. So, no issues with getting to the wedding rehearsal on the 12th or the wedding on the 13th.

Stephanie & Jason - June 6th

Talk about fun weddings. This one was a blast. Everyone in the wedding party and the parents are just amazingly wonderful people. The location was just the best. A yacht club near Anne Arundel County.

Here are two "Teaser" pictures from this wedding.

Getting them to all to jump was a lot of fun too. And they were willing to do this for us.

I think the pictures turned out well. Both of these are straight out of the camera. The only editing that was done twas to convert the images to JPG and to reduce the size for better email/web management. Hopefully they will want to do a "Trash the Dress" session in a few months.

I will start the upload process for all of their images tonight.

Engagement Video

Amanda & Terry's Engagement Shoot

March 22, 2009

Shoot Location: Tidal Basin, Washington DC

This was a very fun day. We were confronted by a police officer when we were in front of the Jefferson Memorial. Apparently we (I) needed a permit to take pictures down there. You don't need one if you are a tourist taking pictures. But they could tell, we weren't tourists. So, the cop told me I could be fined and/or arrested for this. Go figure! Well, he was really cool and told us to be quick and wrap it up over there as fast as possible.

I survived a very long weekend

The wedding on Saturday went very well. My entire staff showed up on time (as usual) and everything went without any issues. I had Bill go solo for the first time in his career with me. He photographed the groom preparation portion and his pictures look really, really good. The formal pictures that I purchased the backdrop support system turned out nicely. I've only had time to peruse through the pictures quickly. Emotions were running high as you can see from the photograph to the right.

Having 3 photographers at a wedding has its challenges. But it also has its rewards. This wedding had several things about it that were different from any of the other weddings I've done in the past. As I mentioned in my last blog, the formal pictures were done before the ceremony in a conference room. The second thing that was done differently was the ceremony itself. All the guests where escorted to their tables where they were going to be seated to eat dinner. On the dance floor where chairs for the bride and grooms immediate family. So the ceremony and reception were done at the same location. Once the ceremony was over, the chairs on the dance floor were returned to their tables. The bride's parents did a fantastic job with decorations. Because of this, I had one of my photographers go and take some pictures of the wedding/reception room before any of the guests arrived. I love how the pictures turned out with the Fisheye lens.

 

We all  had a lot of fun doing this. It was a very long day. Fifteen hours long. But in the end it was worth every bit of our time.

Sunday was another long day. After spending 15 hours the day before shooting the wedding, we had to get up early and drive 2 hours to Columbia, MD for a Bridal Show. The show ran from 1:30 til 4:30 and of course I got there when the doors opened up for vendors. Well, we were there way too early. It takes us less than an hour to setup our booth and we got there 4 hours early. I could have used the extra sleep!

The day went well. There was a bunch of interest in our photography. Several things are setting us apart from our competition. The first being our prices. Even though we aren't the lowest priced photographer out there, we are very, very reasonable for the quality of work we perform. The second is that we always show up with 2 photographers. One to follow the bride from the start of her day all the way to the end of the day. And a second photographer to do the same for the groom. But the 3rd thing that really separates us from other photographers is that our price is for the entire day. We set no time limits for our services on the day of the event. 

Once the show was over and we packed everything up, we thought, "whew, this day is finally almost over". But it wasn't. There was a major accident on the Beltway and it took us an extra 2 hours to get home. Dinner wound up being Burger King instead of the BBQ chicken I was going to make. But all and all, it was a very good weekend. 

It's going to be a long, exciting weekend

Well, today I'm getting ready for another wedding shoot. This one is going to be a little different that all the others that I have done in the past. The mother and father of the bride are going to have one of the conference rooms at the hotel for us to do formal pictures in before the wedding. 

I will be bringing quite a bit of my portable studio with me. My strobe flashes, umbrellas, softboxes and several of my muslin backdrops. To accommodate the larger number of individuals that we will be photographing at one time, I went out and purchased another backdrop support system. This one will allow me to turn my 10x20 backdrops sideways to provide a 20' long backdrop. Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow as scheduled, especially since I paid for overnight shipping. Adorama has never let me down in the past. I will be using my standard backdrop support system to shield the flashes and strobes from the one long wall of mirrors.

The brides family also purchased a fold out style backdrop that they want to use for some of the pictures as well. So I will have 2 of the softboxes supporting that and 2 of them supporting my extended backdrop. I think this will work out well. 

The biggest challenge is going to be fitting all this equipment into my Charger. Maybe I'll take a picture of the packing job once its done.