linnea

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Sarah and I are more thankful than ever (more to come on that topic shortly).  I have been shooting a lot these last few months, most of which has been  for personal use.  I did, however, have the honor of shooting the senior pictures for Linnea.  She was great in front of the lens!  I wish all of my photo sessions were as successful as hers!

A small sampling of her pics can be found via the following link. 


http://lakeshoreclick.com/linnea/


Gobble, gobble!


D

It's Never Perfect...

Shooting a wedding is one of the greatest challenges, stress tests and pains in the butt a photographer chooses to put themselves into. Fortunately, it also yields some of the greatest rewards. You just have to remember that wedding photography shares a common tenant with the wedding itself... no matter how much you plan, it won't be perfect. Things happen fast, and some mishaps will happen - especially if you are shooting by yourself. When mishaps do occur just keep 'flying the plane', as my best friend would say.

At the most recent wedding, there were three mishaps during the day. But much like everything else, most people won't notice if the mishap is small. The biggest of the three... I missed the signing of the marriage license. I was outside setting up for the traditional throwing of the bird seed, thinking the signing would occur later. Nope. While I was waiting outside, they were signing inside - and nobody thought anything of the fact that I wasn't there. Fortunately, I had a good relationship with the bride and groom, and they were very gracious regarding the missed shot.

Which brings me to an important point... the single most important prep work you will do before shooting a wedding is building a relationship with the bride and groom. Have lunch with them. Shoot their engagement photo. Talk with them several times before the big day. This does a lot for you... you learn their style and personality, you gain a foundation to work from when things don't go as planned, and most importantly, you learn to trust each other. That last one can't be understated. You get much more authentic pictures when the bride and groom trust the person behind the lens.

By day of the wedding, I want my clients so used to me and my camera that is easy for them to ignore me and go about their day as if I wasn't even there. Trust me, this is how you get the best pictures. Not that I am against posed pictures, but they do lack the authenticity that comes from a client who trusts you and let's you get in a little closer.


I've mentioned this before, but I also choose my clients carefully. I won't work with a couple if I don't think we can have fun together. Now, the day is all about them - that's a given. But if we can't have fun together, they won't ever relax in front of the camera. Without that, the images aren't fun either - and they have to be a little fun.


Of course, you still have to have the traditional posed shots in your toolkit. Practice the lighting beforehand and be ready on scene to grab the perfect pic when the moment presents itself.


Nope, it's never perfect, but it doesn't have to be...

D

(Stacey and John's wedding highlights can be found here. Thank you, Stacey and John, for letting me share your day and for being such a great couple to work with!)

Spring Break

Working in education, it is always fun for me to watch the bulk of our students and teachers leave town, as fast as they can, for spring break. As we live in Michigan, warm destinations are the popular norm. Personally, I don't get it. Michigan is awesome, and enjoying your home turf when the masses have left affords one with an oft-solitary journey into the local, surrounding beauty. Even more, it seems each spring break we get a 'freak' snow storm. As the temperature is warm, the heavy, wet snow sticks to everything, leading to some fantastic images. Would you believe this was shot on April 6th???

Then, there's this image... funny story - I'm on the side of the road with my gear, and the county plow is coming down the road, 45MPH and headed straight for me, spraying an 8ft trail of wet-salty &%^&$. Fortunately, the driver slowed to a crawl, lifted the plow blade, and just waved as he drove by. Don't know who that guy was, but THANK YOU!

Then the police cruiser stops next to me... dano's busted again... Surprisingly, he roles down the window and tells me he's jealous. He's a fellow photog and would rather be out shooting. I understand.

Finally... Yes, Sarah, I was wearing my new Polo jeans as I walked through six inches of wet slush and mud to get to this spot. Sorry....

Sometimes the best photo destinations are right where you are!

d

Ansel Adams I Am Not...

Artists are blessed and cursed. We create from visions within, yet cannot help but see those subtleties separating the good from the excellent and the excellent from the genius. We apply this ‘eye’ to our own work, whether music, painting or photography, and become our own toughest critics when we see just how much we fall short of our sources of inspiration. I look at the work of Joe McNally, Bryan Peterson, Glen Johnson, John Shaw, Annie Leibovitz… Henri Cartier-Bresson, and work hard to incorporate their genius into my style – ever aware just how much I fall short such high standards. Of course, Ansel Adams belongs on this list as well. His darkroom skill will likely never be bested, and the powerful simplicity of his compositions is a hallmark of fine photography that others, myself included, aspire to.

I was honored to win the Ansel Adams Award for Fine Photography my senior year of high school – signed by Virginia Adams herself! I spent many of those days hiking around with a 4x5 view camera, plates, and the largest tripod I’ve ever carried, trying my best to imitate one of my heroes. The better I became, the more I was able to appreciate just how large the gap was between what I could produce and what Ansel did.

Ansel was very methodological in his approach. He would visualize an image from start to finish even before the first meter reading. He’d mark on his plates exactly how he planned to develop the film back in the darkroom. Of course, Ansel had his happy accidents - Moonrise Over Hernandez, his most celebrated image, chief among them. This image was also one of those happy accidents. I was meandering about with my wife and sister, looked over my shoulder, saw this scene, and instantly knew it would be the shot of the day. The composition was a no-brainer… the horse in the foreground with the triangular s-shaped fence leading the eye to the rest of the horses and the rancher’s house was practically gift-wrapped. I’d like to think even Ansel himself would approve.

The sky was mostly cloudy, creating a relatively low dynamic range and affording me an exposure that captured the detail in the clouds and snow. Still, it’s easy to see where I am not Ansel…. he would have kept detail in the shadow areas of the horses and the brightest whites in the fence line. He would have known they would be important to the final image, and would have exposed and developed accordingly. Me, I just wasn’t paying enough attention to recognize it at a time when I could have done something about it. I still love this image, flaws and all. Absent my studies of Ansel Adams, I might not have noticed these flaws, maybe enjoying the image more – but then I wouldn’t be as good of a photographer.

Yes… a blessing and a curse. The trick in all this is not to become discouraged as your awareness of what separates good, excellent and genius increases. Rather, allow that awareness to inspire you on to higher levels. Take the curse for what it is and improve your skills. Just never forget to enjoy the blessing along the path to becoming a better artist.

d

(this blog is a partial except from dan's portfolio - click here for the full page)