Just Married! Kasey & Charlie
Kasey and Charlie had a great celebration in Elkhart today, and we had a wonderful time celebrating with the Rodgers and Smith families.
I had a little time to check out the church before the ceremony, and saw the unity sand vases Kasey and Charlie chose for their wedding ceremony. I knew I would have a tricky time getting the one-of-a-kind shot of the sand pouring from where I would be in the pews, but inspiration struck!
I set up a backup camera and fisheye lens on a remote release in the 2 foot gap between the altar table and the front wall of the church. It was a shot I wouldn’t have seen this well if I was permitted to photograph on the platform! Geekiness comes in really handy at times. (Remote cameras, wirelessly updated slideshows at the reception, Apple products all around, some sci-fi references… the works.)
One more favorite shot – I loved the colorful bouquet Kasey carried! This shot had all the vibrant colors straight out of camera, just a slight crop was all the adjustment made to this image (besides resizing and the logo). 
Congrats Newlyweds!
Check out the rest of the Instant Album Slideshow HERE!
No rain no rainbows
Also no tornado, lighting strikes or hail damage.
Between stormfronts I raced up to Lake Michigan with Lauren and Andrew for a great engagement shoot on the almost deserted Weko Beach in Bridgman, Michigan.
“I was hoping for some lightning in the background… but you two are pretty electric!”(yes… I seriously said that. I was rather proud of how fast I thought of it, but man it was cheesy to hear aloud. Thanks for the courtesy laughs!)
Great laughs, SNICK television lineup trivia, and a relaxing afternoon hearing about their exciting August wedding ahead! More photos ahead…
eB
Stunt Groom? Jackpot.
While yesterday was abuzz with the new iPhone OS3.0 updates, I’ve got to hand it to Sprint’s clever direct-connect commercials. And of course, I’m a fan of all things production related. And iPhones. Just to set the record straight.
What if film crews ran the world? On wedding days!
No rain, no rainbows! I’m hoping the weather plays nice for some great shoots this weekend. And by nice I mean dramatic skies and cool clouds. Rain… not so much.
If it doesn’t show up in a feed, check out the video here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J5W3u8lIuk
And of course, second favorite of this theme – What if Roadies Ran the World
Enjoy the weekend, lots more photos ahead!
Sneak Peek – Mary & Josh
Sneak peek from Mary’s salon time at the Beehive in South Bend. Time to head out for the wedding and celebration!
Click HERE to see the wedding day slide show and get a reminder when the entire gallery of today’s fantastic photos are ready!
Just Married – Emily & Michael!
We celebrated Memorial Day with nonstop smiles and laughs from Emily and Michael. You would not believe how many photos I picked as my favorite already. TONS! Here’s one quick photo and a link over to their slide show of dozens more. Next week there will be hundreds more in the full gallery too!
Congrats Newlyweds Emily & Michael! We had an incredible morning and afternoon celebrating with you guys, your families, friends and lots of familiar faces from 2006 and 2007 wedding stories we’ve told!
Click on the photo or CLICK HERE to see their Instant Album Slideshow that was shown during the reception! Enjoy!
Beth and Jeff’s Engagement Session
Memorial Day seriously messed with my internal calendar. From March till November my calendar weeks start on Saturday. This week, Monday became Saturday with a morning wedding and two evening portrait shoots. For all the caffeine I drank that morning and afternoon, I never felt tired out being on the go for 14 hours straight because of one of the best parts of my job – creative energy. It’s the stuff that can keep me bouncing around a reception dance floor till midnight snapping away.
Introducing Beth and Jeff, amazing Memorial Day couple #2 and stars of September 26th!
We had such a relaxing time wandering the wooded yard and rooms of the house. It felt less like fake-Saturday Monday and more like a lounging Sunday afternoon hearing all about Jeff’s proposal in the Hawaiian islands and sharing laughs while photographing these lovebirds.
Enough from me, some photos already!
Ok one fun / odd one too. The bathroom had mirrors at every turn and made for some tricky angles to keep myself out of the photo and some strange reflections once I started shooting.
Hall of mirrors. Lots of reflections, maybe some cloning – the middle set of reflections has 2 Beths!
Click the photos above or
CLICK HERE to see the slide show from their engagement session.
Nikon service saves the shoot!
I am floored. So was my favorite lens.
During a shoot in an old theater’s projector booth, I accidentally pulled a lens of a table when my camera strap caught it. While in a moment of inspiration, I changed lenses and grabbed my D300 off the table after arranging lighting and props. The camera decided to bring a friend with it, and my 50mm lens soon followed. The model, tangled in old film footage from the Lion King, Spawn and an unknown scifi movie saw the horror on my face as I tried to stop the lens with my foot, hacky-sack style. Swing and a miss. Severe ouch.
The glass was fine but the focus and aperture would barely move. We finished the shoot with the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G
lens, the workhorse of my gear, and I was seriously unhappy at my klutz move. I have backup cameras AND lenses plus insurance for a very good reason!
This is, by far, my favorite focal length on the 35mm / DSLR format, the Nikon 50mm f/1.4D AF Lens
I sent it to Nikon that following Monday, got a repair statement and price within the week, and approved it over the weekend. Pretty good speed to get it ready to repair within a week of the drop.
It showed up at my door before 4pm today – Friday. Hokey smokes!
Thank YOU, Nikon repair service! I was fully content to shoot the 50mm f/1.8 this weekend… but you guys put the pedal to the metal to get this one done in a jiffy!
Check out how the photos turned out – lots more in the Trash the Dress Gallery
Enjoy the weekend! It’s stright up summer weather today in South Bend!
Adrian vs spaghetti
Yesterday we found out Adrian loves spaghetti after he grabbed a container of noodles and sauce off the table while Sara was cooking dinner.
The “we both know I’m getting away with this once I smile” look – adorable and dangerous 
Good till the last drop
Adrian loves Mama Sara’s home cooking. Daddy agrees!
Who made this mess? Wasn’t me…
14 months and into everything – everything fun! We love our Adrian!
What can Brown do for you?
Dear UPS,
I realize again that “2 Day Service” means I’ll be waiting a few extra days beyond the timeline you’ve set and allowed me to track while waiting for my purchases to arrive. I’m glad the seller chose to offer free 2-day shipping and not at my expense waiting for your drivers to walk to my door.
I’m glad the delivery trucks are loud and easy to hear coming up our street. It’s fun to wait and see if anyone will get out when I’m expecting a package or if they’ll pretend to stop by and just take off when a signature is required. When a driver carries my boxes to our house and the only sound I hear to announce he’s reached our door is the sound of him slapping a “sorry we missed you, you have rearrange your schedule and wait an extra day or two” sticker on my door, it’s a treat to open the door and see the surprise that I’m not only home but very aware of the disservice being done. I know it must take precious energy to knock on the door at least once to see if I’m home before leaving, and think of all the time saved by ignoring your customers and just having drivers tour the city with our packages in tow.
My package has been “out for delivery” since before the sun came up, and I have been home all day waiting to sign for this package. When a friend stopped over, aware I was expecting your delivery, he was pretty surprised to see the driver stop, climb in back to rustle boxes, then hop back in the driver’s seat and take off. He didn’t get out with a box or even leave a note on the door, just stopped enough to make it look like he tried and took off.
You’ll be happy to know that I have chosen your competitors and have paid for shipping out of pocket to choose an option other than UPS for expected deliveries.
At 8:26, 16 hours after it was sent out to my door, it was rescheduled until tomorrow.
What can brown do for me? For starters, deliver.
Everything I ever learned about lighting…
Was probably from LEGOs and the Strobist blog. (Click the photo to see all the geeky comments on this super LEGO lighting rig.)
It’s fair to say I did learn something from my college courses with Craig Sheaks, and tinkering with Nikon’s Creative Lighting System to get the flash and the light off the camera’s hot shoe. I rigged and patched my school’s set of (maybe) 16 PAR64 cans and 6 ellipsoidal spotlights to light the auditorium for various assemblies, Christmas specials, concerts and video projects. All of it learn-as-you-go style. Photography and lighting go together like peas and carrots. And peas and carrots go together great with a pot roast.
One day long ago I was looking for something lighting related online and came across the Strobist blog and my brain all but exploded from the amount of ideas that flooded my head all at once. This site is a gold mine for using the flashes I already had (or lots of other ones that are far less complicated or pricey!) to get some amazing off camera lighting without hauling a studio strobe rig. If you’ve seen me on a shoot I still haul more than the LEGO rig above.
Though I’d seen his work for years and years in National Geographic I didn’t run across the writings of Joe McNally until this last year. This week his shiny new paperback arrived in the mail.
I don’t read a whole lot, not even camera manuals thoroughly. This one’s been hard to put down. (Click here to check it out if you like – The Hot Shoe Diaries: Big Light from Small Flashes)
Gonna go play and put it all into use again this weekend.
