Andi Grant Photography

NEW BLOG ADDRESS

2008-10-08T17:46:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce my new and improved blog is ready-- well, pretty much, just need to figure out what to write about myself in my bio section, the new blog has bigger pictures and a better comments section. Please change your bookmarks and visit me leaving lots of comments :) the address is www.andigrantblog.com

Click here to visit my new blog

Bridal Boudoir

2008-10-07T23:50:00.000-07:00

In September i hosted my first hotel boudoir shoot. I invited all my future brides and other clients and friends. I filled all 8 appointments, and had two "models" come in for my portfolio work- those will be posted soon. This gorgeous blonde is not a model, although she can be, I'll be photographing her engagement photos next week and her wedding next May

All these photos have been ok'd by both Christina and her fiance.

Laura & TJ -- Married!!

2008-10-07T01:05:00.000-07:00

I was especially looking forward to this wedding. Could be because I've had to wait the longest for it to get here. Laura's mother Diane contacted me back in February about doing her daughter's wedding. They hired me long before I had a wedding portfolio to speak of. I'd only done the weddings with Dee and 2 very small weddings on my own, so I wanted to do my very best for them as they because they had faith in my abilities.

A special thank you to my second shooter Rebecca Franklin.

These groomsmen win best dressed for 2008!!! I loved the even number--it was six of them, that made all my pictures so well balanced

Laura picked beautiful bridemaids dresses, brown was the big color in 2008.
this was taken during their engagement session on a chilly evening in March
I wasn't sure how I had them posed in March but this was close - and even better since it has the lighthouse back there.

gorgeous flowers

tasty cake - baked by I think it was TJ's aunt, if not aunt, then a cousin. Beautiful & Delish!

Williams family

2008-10-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here are CJ, Katie and Trey - Katie is Steve's sister. I did Steve's engagement session back in February. This was a gift to them from Steve - I appreciate that kind of thoughtfulness :) I was looking back at the engagement post and I realized I took more time to try to give some of the post process information - I've been keeping so busy this summer I haven't really had time to do that much, but I'm going to try to get back to that, I promise

With family portraits, I do all the traditional portraits like this one.

and then I do something a little less traditional - just for fun. That 70's feel is a cross processing kinda thing called pool party in the totally rad actions set.

Miller Family

2008-09-30T14:40:00.000-07:00

I've only had a handful of people find me on craigslist, and Jenny is one of them. I'm reminded I should put my ad on there more often. Thank you Jenny for choosing me for your family portraits. I drove out to Oceanview for this session, I've pretty much done ever beach around, but this was my first in Norfolk.
Zach was a great sport and I couldn't have asked for a better 4 year old to photograph.

Drew was so good the entire time, he fussed twice but only briefly, otherwise he was fascinated by my camera and so adorable.

I did not enhance or alter the colors of this picture at all, it really was this beautiful. So beautiful it looks fake - it's not fake I promise

Meet Carlisle

2008-09-25T02:27:00.000-07:00

Brandon was back at my side as we hit Norfolk's Waterside for Carlie's senior shoot. It was a very grey day out - perfect for a portrait session!
here she is posing for Brandon

I can't even begin to express how much I love this photo - in fact it will have to go into my portfolio in a minute.

Meet Emily

2008-09-22T01:14:00.001-07:00

Emily took a little bit to warm up to me, I guess that's normal since I was a complete stranger to her, but once she got to feeling comfortable - OMG!!! - we had so much fun, and her images are super happy.

I am so glad I got to see the true Emily - she would fit in so well in my house -- quirky just like at La Casa Grant
Did I mention how stunning she is? Wow, pretty hard to take a bad picture of her.

all her pictures are in the High School Seniors section on my website, be sure to watch her video - you'll find yourself smiling --I know I did.

Brittany - Kellam - Class of 2009

2008-09-17T02:13:00.000-07:00

beautiful sunset made the perfect lighting for this fantastic senior shoot -- to see them all visit my website

you really should watch this video

Meet Chelsea - Class of 2009

2008-09-16T04:17:00.000-07:00

Chelsea is a senior at Ocean Lakes and she since she loves Broadway I know she has great taste. Here are a few from her shoot. Visit my website to see them all.

so see more of Chelsea watch her video set to my favorite Legally Blonde song.

Jason & Kelli. Married. August 30th 2008

2008-09-14T23:34:00.000-07:00

Kelli was so much fun throughout her big day, she never got stressed or short, she also didn't take a bad picture all day-- seriously

We'd lost all the sunlight before we got to the formals portion of the day - we worked it out

first kiss
Sunset vows---wow

a very emotional send off in this 1952 Fleetwood Cadillac Limousine from Unique Car Service
here is their quick video or visit my website for a lot more photos

Raelyn Kay

2008-09-12T18:27:00.000-07:00

Raelyn Kay was born on August 17th 2008. 6 lbs 3 oz, 18 1/2 inches long. Misty had one of the easiest deliveries I've ever hear of. Just over 2 hours long, 15 minutes of pushing. So lucky.

check out her amazing maternity session

Linda - anytime portrait

2008-09-09T16:54:00.001-07:00

when Linda called to make an appointment to have a nice portrait done, she mentioned only needing one. That's just not what I do. I understand she only needed one nice portrait as a gift, but when you take the time to have a session with me, while we are there we are going to take a lot more than 1 or 2 portraits. This shoot took maybe 20 minutes, she ended up with about about 80 nice poses to choose from - that's what I do!

I used MCP's Magic Blog it board actions to create these collages for tonight's post. I am impressed with how easy they were to use. I can see them coming in very handy as I try to blog everyday.

[b] school blog

2008-09-09T03:56:00.000-07:00

I've been following Becker's B School blog and watching his short video lessons for a while now. If you are a photographer you would want to bookmark his page because it's so much fun and he is an amazing photographer who believes that information is to be shared, not hoarded. I have always tried to have that same spirit with all my photog friends, and cyber photog friends. He's got this new networking thing launching in October and I can't wait. You should really check it out

Meet Cameron

2008-09-08T23:14:00.000-07:00

This was an incredibly cloudy day, but I don't think it was a problem at all - Cameron chose Town Center which is one of my favorite locations.

i love the cross processed color treatment - this was achieved with Nik color efex pro

Cameron's mom came with us on this shoot, it was great meeting her and hearing about her time overseas - they lived in London just like we did! I'd never had mom come on a senior's shoot with me so I thought I'd use this as a chance to talk about parents on shoots. I have no rules about parents coming out with us on the shoot, but from my experience the kids are more carefree and ham it up more with mom not watching. (i think I'm more relaxed also) ---The drive to our location for the session is a good chance for me to get to know your son or daughter. I try to figure out their personality and style - this is especially useful since most of the time this is my first time meeting them. As you can see from my senior sessions, I spend a lot of time with them - and this is part of the service that separates me from other studios. If you are a parent reading this know that you are welcome to come along, but you might want to consider waiting for the finished product. You wont be disappointed! Check out Cameron's video

Meet Kaitlin

2008-09-08T03:07:00.000-07:00

Kaitlin is such a beautiful girl, she didn't take a bad photo - a photographers dream!

not really a senior portrait - this was me wanting to play.

I think I can safely say that we have a lot of fun on our shoots --Kaitlin did a great job of choosing her outfits for her shoot - she had her favorite jeans, a happy colored solid tank, traditional black and this adorable dress. Perfect!

her video turned out so great! have a look....and you can see her whole gallery on my website - in the portraits/seniors section.

Brandon - Ocean Lakes High School

2008-09-07T20:02:00.000-07:00

Brandon was a fun session, we headed to town center on a beautiful night. He is like a son to me so I wanted to make sure we got great senior pictures for him. He is super handsome and such a great model so it was pretty easy.

here is his video

Wayne and Heather

2008-09-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

Heather married the love of her life Wayne on August 23rd, Richie Merritt married them with a beautiful lighthearted ceremony. The weather was perfect. I was so happy for Heather as she was able to have the beautiful wedding she'd always dreamed of.

First Kiss taken by my wonderful assistant Zoe.

make sure you check our their video

McLloyd Family

2008-09-01T02:40:00.000-07:00

I photographed Amelia last year for her senior portraits, here she is then

here she is just as gorgeous today

Zoe's view
my view

these three beautiful sisters remind me of my own 3 daughters. No wonder their father has gone gray.

Beach & Boudoir! PG13

2008-08-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

Boudoir photography is a sexy trend that's especially popular as a gift from a bride to her groom. They are great as an anniversary gift, or for a big birthday surprise he will never forget. You dont even need a man to give them to. They can be just for you to remind you of what a beautiful woman you are. This particular session was for her husband of I believe 19 years, how wonderful is that?

amazing shoes!
yes, I loved her shoes
this is probably one of the top 5 of the day

normally a boudoir shoot doesn't include a beach session - but since she drove about 5 hours to get here for this, I thought I'd make it extra great. One of my most memorable moments from the shoot and possibly all summer was when we were up in the dunes taking advantage of some amazing light, we were in the middle of my model getting sand all over when the Po Po rode by on their ATVs. YIKES! Her sister was very nervous, not so much about her nekid sister but because we were trespassing on the dunes...ha ha ha.... what a picture that could have been of us ducking behind the reeds.

This entire series turned out so beautifully - and that is not a farmers tan - it's the way the sun was coming down on her top half.
there is always that photo that makes me smile from any particular session - this is the one
I can't help but take a few nice portraits, even on sexy shoots, I've gotten pretty good at head shots over the last year. I guess it's partly my eye, but I also give credit to my Canon lens & camera

I had a lot of fun with this session and I realized how in demand this type of photography is so I am holding an all day Boudoir marathon on September 19th & 20th. I've rented a beautiful hotel room in the cha cha Westin in Town Center and I'm making appointments throughout the day for any occasion. I have received a wonderful response and I believe there are only 2 appointments left to fill of the 8. Not bad. If you are interested in snagging an appointment on September 20th or to schedule one for another time give me a call or email me.

Landstown High School Senior

2008-08-31T01:26:00.000-07:00

when Christina and I first headed out for her senior's portraits session we got started, the we were rained out, so we met up the following week and had amazing weather, a beautiful girl and beautiful setting - no doubt gave me beautiful images

to see all her photos play her video

Justin & Jenilee

2008-08-26T03:13:00.000-07:00

I am so happy I got to photograph this couple. I always get these weddings with cool stories, their story is, they are both college students at Liberty and didn't have a lot of money to spend on a wedding. He didn't have a minister or even the place to get married, he only knew that he and Jenilee were going to come to Virginia Beach to get married - just the two of them & a photographer & a minister- no guests! I tried to help him find a minister but my go to man Richie Merritt was out of town, probably on some church planting business :) Not sure how they found this pastor but it worked out great because his ceremony was beautiful. I helped Justin pick a location - he knew he wanted beach - I thought we should try for the sunset (Chesapeake Bay instead of the oceanfront), I had recently finished Wayne and Heather's engagement pictures so with the help of those photos he decided on the Lesner Bridge area. We couldn't have had a more beautiful night - the sunset was impressive. It was tough choosing some favorites for today's post because I love so many of them. Click here to see all 330 pics

I have to mention that with Zoe in Florida for this wedding, one of my very first assistants Megan Reger came to help me out. I don't really need to have someone assist me at all my shoots, but I've gotten spoiled. I like the company and it's nice to have someone hold my second camera, not to mention while holding my second camera they are expected to be firing away. I believe God's blessed me with the gift of teaching - so even though I don't know everything there is to know about photography, I'm still able to help those wanting to learn and I love that!!! Megan was the first person who ever came out with me to learn last year, and let me just say she has developed a great eye and her focus and composition are nearly perfect every frame, oh yeah, she's 15! She knows exactly what I'm looking for, is very familiar with my style, and she uses my equipment on shoots, so a lot of times you wouldn't be able to tell which ones she did as opposed to mine - I just happen to know this one is hers!

Bettina wed Dumisani

2008-08-25T14:40:00.001-07:00

the groom
the bouquet

the rings

photo by Rebecca Franklin
This was my favorite picture of the day.

Best friends
Probably the most crying I've ever seen at a wedding, it was a very moving and emotional time.
Dumisani is a Phi Beta Sigma brother, this was Bettina during "The Sigma Creed" (photo by Becca)
these two danced so well together, here they are dancing to R. Kellys Step to the one you Love, and I enjoyed watching them so much.

here's the slideshow

Meet Britney

2008-08-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

Here is a beautiful young lady who had me do her senior portraits last week. That I photographed last week at Seashore State Park - we had an amazing sunset, we had some incredible Virginia Beach weather lately.

A video is something I'm doing for all senior shoots

Meet Ona

2008-08-19T19:02:00.000-07:00

Last week Ona and I went out to the North End for some bikini shots for her portfolio. These annoying drunk guys gave us some really good feedback, in the end they were very helpful and funny.

No kidding - one guy shared this joke to make her smile. Where do Bees go to the bathroom? The BP station. Ha Ha Ha!

out of town vacationers

2008-08-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

This gorgeous family are the friends of a friend, they were in town visiting them. I'm glad Cathy thought to schedule a shoot! We went to Back Bay and had a wonderful setting.

Three boys - so blessed!

this great family was staying in Sandbridge for their vacation and arranged about 6 weeks ago to have me meet them for a shoot.

Meet Alex

2008-08-14T21:40:00.001-07:00

Alex is my first senior shoot for 2009. Someone I was chatting with recently made a comment about how all the seniors on my website are beautiful, it's true and totally coincidental. Alex is no different, she's supermodel beautiful! I've always loved how these girls all make me look good :)

makes me happy

to see all her fun pictures watch her video

James and Lissa

2008-08-13T18:48:00.000-07:00

Lissa wed James in a very private ceremony on August 2nd.

The Thin Blue Line represents police officers. Traditionally, police were dressed in blue. This line represents that the police are the only thing standing between peace and law-abiding citizens and total anarchy. It is a very thin blue line.

first kiss!
St Michaels Lutheran Church, Virginia Beach
best friends goofing off - she was also the maid of honor and the hostess for the reception - what a gorgeous home

to see more of the pictures watch the slide show. It's set to one of Lissa and James' songs. They had a very talented young soloist Jordan Bishop perform it during the ceremony with James' father on the piano - beautiful. If you are looking for a soloist email me and I'll give you her information.

Bettina's Bridals

2008-08-13T04:42:00.000-07:00

I took Bettina to a park I'd been meaning to check out for a while, the oriental pagota in Norfolk. I love it! Very nice and it was such a beautiful evening for this bridal shoot. Her wedding was last week and I'll be getting to post process those next, for now at least I'll share some of my favorites of her bridals.

Raelyn due August 30th

2008-08-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

What a perfect couple to work with - let me rephrase that, what a perfect couple to have fun with. They're picture perfect. They literally didn't take a bad picture. Here are a few of my favorites and a fun video.

makes me happy

be sure to watch their video

here is my very favorite of the day

Kristen and James

2008-08-07T14:55:00.001-07:00

Kristen wed James on July 26th at the Botanical Gardens. Becca was my assistant and did a great job! There are so many great images but I had to pick some favorites - not easy.

Stunning!!!

receiving applause as they meet their limo
precious!

I love the colors in this one

Here is a video of all the formals - very fun! This slideshow can't help but make you feel happy for the couple.

by far the best cake I've ever eaten at a wedding, seriously! It was Mrs B's cheesecake.

I also want to mention Whitney Ketchum with Style Events she did a fabulous job with this wedding. Everything went so perfectly --- that's Whitney's back as they handle the tedious business of the bustle

here I am with the happy couple - thank you so much for choosing me as your photographer for this special day!

meet Raven

2008-08-03T22:53:00.000-07:00

My cousin is staying with us this week, our first scheduled shoot was rained out, I'm so glad we had a beautiful evening for this to happen.
to quote Lizzietish "don't get crazy" she's 14!

This evening was perfect - one of those evenings that I would have been upset if I didn't have a shoot scheduled. Look at this light

Raven doesn't like the pictures of her smiling - she's crazy! - this one makes me happy
so does this one: Brandon was out with me and he got a lot of real smiles from her.

This one just screams New Yorker!

Lissa's bridals

2008-08-02T02:50:00.000-07:00

About a month ago I took Lissa out for her bridals. We called ahead to the Botanical Gardens, she had her hair appointment and what not....then the heavens decided to open up and washed our NBG shoot away. I thought about where we could find a pretty place indoors to shoot and I thought of the Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club. I'd worked a wedding there in May and remembered how beautiful it was. I spoke with the person in charge and she was wonderful and granted us permission to have this shoot there. So here we are posing all over the place and sure enough not only did the rain stop but it became this super sunny evening. So here you have it, a few of my favorites.

Inside

Sun coming in - hey wait a minute...lets go outside!

Lissa is getting married today!!! I'm so happy for her.

Richard & Kelly

2008-07-30T14:52:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my favorites from Kelly & Richard's wedding. We started out getting ready at the Cavalier on the hill. She had her hair done at Ron Paul's Salon, and bought some great make up at Sephora and did makeup herself.

Yes, they got the day going with appletinis - so lucky, and I just couldn't take enough pictures, something about the color and the shape

Seems like simple red roses are rare at todays weddings, shame really because they are amazing.

first dance

Kelly had this vision of taking group pictures at the beach the morning after. Trust me the early hour was her idea - We didn't really get to take formals on the Jewel, and no time after the ceremony before the ship was leaving, so it worked out well because we did the formals on the beach. Good times!
Kelly and Richard brought all these people from all over the country to spend the week in Virginia Beach and to help celebrate their wedding. There are only a few who didn't make the 8am session.

This was how I was feeling -- but I didn't have anyone around to carry me

Mike and Jennifer

2008-07-27T00:07:00.000-07:00

Jennifer and Mike were married on July 11th. I don't think I could have had a more moving experience then I did during Mike's speech that ended with him singing I want to grow old with you from the wedding singer. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. I felt blessed to be a part of their beautiful wedding.

yes, that's a Miami Dolphins garter

My daughter Zoe was my assistant and she did a great job. I'm always so proud of her - this ceremony shot is one of hers, so is the beautiful sunset pic at the end of this post. Pretty impressive considering she's only 14 years old. She's already has great work ethics, is so dependable and is a very hard worker. I love working with her.

Wentland Family

2008-07-25T05:07:00.000-07:00

A long time friend contacted me on facebook after seeing that I was a photographer these days - she wanted me to photograph her family. (SWEET) This is a pretty routine request, except for the fact that they now live in Northern VA. I'll admit I thought the idea was a kindness of sorts and probably wouldn't come to fruition. Ha! I was wrong, I underestimated how much Lisandrea wanted her family portraits to be done for an upcoming gift. They made the drive down to Virginia Beach last Saturday. We did hit one glitch, they got stuck in tunnel traffic so we didn't get started until about 8pm. Not exactly the plan but we made it work and I got to see just how well my canon does at ISO 1600. With the help of photoshop lightroom and CS3 we ended up with great family portraits.

I forgot to mention - She's a former Mrs Connecticut - makes my job pretty easy huh?

I can never say enough about my #1 assistant Zoe - as she is most shoots she was by my side and snapped this action shot of me. I love you Zoe

Kelly & Richard

2008-07-20T23:43:00.001-07:00

I had such a great day today photographing this fabulous wedding. It's an unusual scenario and I feel so blessed to have been chosen as their photographer. Long story short Kelly planned her wedding here from Kentucky, a destination wedding bringing 100 friends and family to VA Beach. I had no idea how beautiful this wedding would be, and I could not have imagined a more beautiful bride. I've never really done a preview post but after such a great day with this great group I just had to share. Come back soon to see the full post.

Dumisani & Bettina ENGAGED

2008-07-19T04:47:00.001-07:00

Meet Dumisani and Bettina. They are getting married on 888 in Chesapeake VA. They've been together for eleven years so I would imagine this wedding is going to be one heck of a celebration. We had such a beautiful day in Virginia Beach's Town Center a couple of days ago and here are some of my favorites.

I love her expression in this one but it's the angle that does it for me.

I love that they laughed a lot.

She is just gorgeous!
yea, he's gorgeous too

Jennifer's Bridals

2008-07-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

I can not say enough about how great Jennifer and Mike are. Their wedding today was amazing. A couple of weeks ago Jennifer, her family and I went down to Munden Point Park at sunset for her bridal portraits, there was still that miserable smoke in the air but it didn't hurt her photos one bit.
one of the brides favorites

ROCK STAR BRIDE

gorgeous

this one is my absolute favorite of the day!

Their wedding photos will be up within the week, I'll try to post a teaser soon.

Jeremy & Audrie are getting married

2008-07-06T05:02:00.001-07:00

When Audrie announced her engagement on myspace I immediately pictured this exact shoot. I waited patiently for them to ask me to do their engagement pictures. At first Audrie was talking about going to the beach, maybe pretty sunset pictures....I am all for giving the client what they want but I knew that we could get some really great photos & have a lot more fun someplace with a city feel. Thats when I thought about Waterside. This is the first shoot I've ever done there, and I can't wait to go back. The options are limitless. (by the way they love their pictures)

she is gorgeous!
We thought we'd have take advantage of the classy feel of the Marriott, we figured we'd take pictures until we got thrown out. Well, no one even questioned us belonging in there, we have no great stories of getting kicked out but we did get a bunch of interesting photos

This shot and the first one up top was snapped by my number 1 assistant Zoe Grant. She did a great job of holding all my gear and shooting away! I tried something new on this outing, I used my new 100mm macro lens & my nifty fifty on my other 40D. Not lugging my baby (aka 70-200L 2.8) around was great and using my legs to "zoom" in and out was great for thinking about each frame.

James and Kristen

2008-07-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

I owe a special thank you to Angela Garfield (the other AG photographer) and Melissa Blue

These great women both referred this couple to me. Thank you. I've been wanting to cover a wedding at the Botanical Gardens since I first set foot in there. July 26th will be the big day. Thank you Kristen and James for choosing me after your photographer backed out of the job.

must praise

2008-06-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

Establishing my brand was important to me and when I was getting my photography business going I called on Irene Davis to help me create with my "brand" or look. We started with my logo, she did a great job delivering a logo that was cool and timeless. If you've ever seen my brochures and post cards well, those are all her and yea, I'll admit it, I have some amazing brochures! Thanks Irene. This is a partnership that I'm sure will last and I'll continue to contract her for all my graphic design needs, after all, I'm a photographer, why spend time trying to work out graphic designs when I can hire someone way more skilled and specialized. Exactly, I wont have to. Hiring Irene leaves me more free time to do what I do - photography.

It was only 2 days ago that I told Irene I needed an ad for the upcoming issue of Vow Bride Magazine. Well, the Friday deadline didn't scare her off. I like that about her, she knew she could get it done. The banner I have on this blog right now is her first draft, I thought it was exactly what I wanted, except it needed to be verticle and I thought it should mention my website. Great thing about working with her is she hears what you have to say and makes it work exactly the way you want it to. It's a gift. Today I woke up and this version was is in my inbox. PERFECT!

We have plenty of other projects in our future including amazing Wedding Brochures this fall :) Irene is a freelance graphic designer who also works in the printing industry. If you would like to work with her on a project email her at idavis001@gmail.com. She is great with web design, logos, business cards, ads, posters, the works!

Thank you Irene!

our new addition

2008-06-26T18:20:00.000-07:00

here is Lola, an adorable great pyrenees we just welcomed into our home. Hopefully Obi will not teach her any escape artist moves!

How cute is she??

Wayne & Heather's Engagement Pictures

2008-06-25T17:30:00.000-07:00

Last week Heather, Wayne, Zoe and I traipsed around the beach by the Lesner Bridge. We had a beautiful night, now if only those crabs didn't live on the beach, ugh!

My daughter Zoe came out as my assistant and in training, and she has really started to get a hang for what kind of shots I look for. She took that first picture. Now that I have my second 40D she is learning about settings and the technical side of photography. I love that my number 1 assistant lives in my house. Now if only I could teach her to post process

this picture is straight out of the camera, and I love it just so. Everyone knows I love lens flare. Boutwell released his newest set of actions and one of his actions makes a flare on your picture, so I'm thinking other people like lens flare as much as I do.

Austen and Priscilla's Wedding Day

2008-06-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

A few months back I took Priscilla and Austen down to the oceanfront for their engagement portraits. I think I received more compliments about that particular session than any other. I learned that day that Priscilla was going to make a fun and beautiful bride, what I didn't see coming was how great Austen would look in uniform, mamma mia!

Amazing dress

Introducing Mr & Mrs Wakefield

A big thank you to Kristi for coming out to assist me with the ceremony. Moving the couch was her great idea.

First dance.

Candids are the best!
I want to say a special thank you to Becca. Kristi wasn't able to stay the whole evening, so with 2 days notice my friend Becca Franklin agreed to come help me for a few hours before she had to go in to work the midnight shift. We had fun playing on the deck with the rings, it was her special touch that had those rings laying just right on the flowers so all I had to do was snap it. She did a great job at setting Priscilla's train to look fabulous throughout the evening, yup, she was a great right hand. More than just good company, she is a great photographer. This one is my favorite.

What a great looking couple!
if you want to see lots more pictures from this day you can find them over in their galleries

129C & Fiance

2008-06-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

Last week was one of the most fun engagement shoots to date. We did the usual beach and pier portraits and then it got fun when they agreed to get wet! I love it when my couples are up for anything....so here they are, they rolled around on the shore and then James decided to go all the way!

Lissa is a VB police officer, this would explain her advice to me as I was shopping for my daughter's graduation party. I'd mentioned how there would be 75-100 people or so coming and going in my house/backyard and she said, without missing a beat "make sure you lock up your valuables" Words of Wisdom, thank you Lissa, I did put away my cameras!

I've known James or as I like to call him 129c only by voice for about 6 years. He is a police officer and I am one of his dispatchers. Here recently I got the opportunity to meet Lissa and James as a couple at Ryan's wedding. I was so excited when Lissa emailed me about covering their wedding coming up later this year. The more I talk to Lissa the more I love her, no wonder James wants to marry her, he'd be crazy to let this one get away!

Johnson's Family Portraits

2008-06-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

Last week I went back to the Lesner Bridge area to photograph Kasey's family. It was her parents, her sister and husband and their precious 2 little ones, and her Fiance.

SISTERS!
The Girls!
The Fellas

Steve and Linda have been married 32 years, our mini shoot was the first time they'd done romantic pictures like these. 32 years and still going strong, what an inspiration. I love it.

I love sunsets!!!

Sean and Jennifer

2008-06-10T23:39:00.000-07:00

Jennifer and Sean have been married for 3 years, after spending an hour with them last week on Ft Story I would have sworn they were a newly engaged couple. They were so cute together. So very loving with each other. We were faced with some of the yuckiest weather possible. Out of nowhere a hot day turned gloomy as a deep fog rolled in and turned the skies grey. We didn't cancel the shoot, and I'm glad because I was able to get some really sweet shots of them. I've learned to work with whatever comes at me. I'm hoping they'll give me the chance to take them somewhere for a beautiful sky shoot! Stay tuned...

going to prom!

2008-06-07T21:26:00.001-07:00

Yesterday in 100 degree weather I had the honor of photographing my daughter Amanda and her friends before prom. We met in Town Center in extremely humid conditions to have a fun photo shoot. I came away with some great shots of such a beautiful group of people.

how cute are they together??
This dress matched Amanda's uniqueness, we both agreed that green and orange are our least favorite colors and yet we loved this dress....shows us we should always stay open minded.
Nina's handsome date (forgive me I don't know his name) was a natural in front of the camera, I think he and Nina looked great together.
something glamorous about shoes...dontcha think?

Diana modeled for me on at least 4 shoots last year. Thank you Diana!

Family Portraits

2008-06-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

Munden Point Park is now my favorite location for portraits. Hands down. It's just so beautiful down there. The drive is soooo worth it.

I've been photographing Ari since she was born, smiles are really hard to come by - atleast smiles at the camera. I am a firm believer that you dont need a smile to make a great shot. It would have been nice to have Lizzie holding the reflector up near her, but with Ari, there is no time for a "set up", snap it fast or forgetaboutit.
here she is almost a year ago
a smile, but i wasn't where I needed to be to catch it.
almost a smile, there is no posing Ariana, she was her running around, paused a second and snap, got it -- cute as can be!

Jennifer Gammill

2008-06-06T02:33:00.000-07:00

Jennifer is a singer songwriter in Virginia Beach. She contacted me with a specific project in mind. She is recording her album this summer and hopefully it will be ready in the fall sometime. She is also 4 months pregnant, so her album photo work needed to get done now. I'm glad she found and chose me. She is obviously gorgeous so that made my job very easy. Here are a few from our hour together in Norfolk. To listen to her music visit her
myspace page

I tried out a few different color treatments on her images, but she really isn't that "edgy" kind of artist, she is more smart and lovely, so I kept the look more classic.

when it was all done, we could both agree we had a lot of fun! Here is the last frame of the day

Kacey Michelle

2008-06-04T23:53:00.000-07:00

You might remember my April 21st post of a very pregnant mom and her family at the botanical gardens. She had her beautiful baby about a month ago and I had the opportunity to photograph her at at only 2 weeks old.

The Art of Dance Academy

2008-06-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

This past week I had the pleasure of photographing roughly 100 little dancers from the Art of Dance Academy. Miss Monique is the director and she gave me this opportunity after a friend referred me to her. I think it was a pretty risky move on her behalf since she'd never seen anything I'd ever done in a studio. That's because I'm not a studio kind of photographer, ah but, now I can say I am....sort of. (I will do it but I'm not so sure I'm a big fan of it) What I am a fan of are little people. I love cute kids, they were totally worth it.
When I first spoke with Miss Monique she said something that hooked me right away, she asked, "will this be too much of a challenge for you?" It was on.... Those of you who know me know I love a challenge. So, about 6 weeks ago I called B&H photo and told them what I was going to be doing, and this great salesman helped me buy my 3 light set up, umbrellas, softbox, light meter, pocket wizards (except the generic brand) and such. I was ready-----well, not really, now I needed to learn how to use it all. A few months ago my mentor gave me a training session, my first true exposure to strobes and such, it was cool, but she was there setting it all up, so I didn't get the hands on experience I needed to truly learn something. Next I read a book, 2 actually, then I had my friends bring their kids over so I could practice. I also did my daughter's cap and gown portraits and was very pleased with them. I realized I had the confidence and the knowledge needed to take on this dance studio project.

This beautiful young lady is Miss Isis, Miss Monique's daughter and a teacher at the academy. I will be working with her again later this summer as she is one of my Class of '09 spokesmodels in Norfolk.
The costumes these little people wore were so beautiful. I especially loved the red and white ones, and the ones with the red feathers. Next time I will insist we have a more neutral color for the back drop. I would have been happy with doing them all high key, white back drop but that's not the what the director wanted so we went with the pink/grey back drop...Next time I will insist we use different backdrops according to their costumes. I certainly don't mind changing them up. Not to mention, my number 1 assistant Zoe is so much help. We would be able to switch them out in minutes.

I should mention the posing. Miss Monique or one of her teachers posed the children in their dance poses and group shots. I posed all the close up portraits

I have a lot more to learn when it comes to this style of photography, ok, make that all photography and fortunately I love to learn. Stay tuned!

Back Bay with the Reger family

2008-06-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

We didn't get the sunset I was hoping for, but we had a beautiful night. I learned something really important this Sunday night. Don't go to Back Bay in June without a big can of OFF, thank goodness they had something in their car, from now on, I'm adding a can of off along with my neutrogena shine removal tissues to my camera bag.

I think this picture captures Barbara's natural beauty. No retouching, just gorgeous straight out of the camera.

Megan totally gets her looks from her daddy

Family Beach Portraits

2008-05-26T21:26:00.001-07:00

This was my first family beach session this year, the first of what I hope will be many more to come this summer. Here are the 5 brothers and sisters

All the grandchildren
All the men
all the women --- don't I always say it -- I get to photograph some gorgeous women, they make my job so easy.
precious little girl

this simple portrait might be my favorite of the day -- he's only 4 yrs old but there is something so very smart in those eyes.

Chad and Kasey

2008-05-24T00:45:00.001-07:00

I felt like it was such a long time coming meeting Kasey. We've gone back and forth via email for several months now and last Saturday we finally met as we went out for her engagement portraits. Her and her fiance Chad are so cute together, not only a good looking couple, but so real, they are fun and laid back, I love them. I'm thinking their wedding in October is going to a great time.

Kasey lives just off Shore drive, and it was her idea to do their pictures on the bay. I've always wanted to do a shoot at or under the Lesner Bridge so this was perfect. Since it was my first time on a shoot near the old Duck Inn I had them trying out every nook and cranny :)

God was smiling down on our shoot --- He made that very clear. Beautiful

a lot of people don't like lens flare....I on the other hand love it!! Lets call it my thing, a rule I like to break, to me it makes it feel real. I wonder what other photographers think about it. Do you go out of your way to avoid letting the light hit the lens directly? If I did that I don't think I would get the look I'm after. To me it doesn't take away from the picture, especially since the subject is completely dark anyway, it's not like the flares are in the way of something important. Maybe I'm just weird. Comment if you have any thoughts on the lens flare, I want to hear your thoughts.

I love her being on her tippy-toes, they fit so cute together

Vince and Jessica

2008-05-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

Jessica and Vince are truly some of the most beautiful people in town. I'm not just talking about their looks either. They treated me like family rather than the hired photographer, and after it was all said and done, I feel blessed to have 2 new friends in my life. What a pleasure it was to be able to capture their wedding day.

This was not a posed shot, I was peeking over to make sure Jess was coming and could hear her cue and she looked up and perfection. It is in the running for my favorite picture of the day, especially since it was a true moment
Virginia Beach has had some of the strangest and sometimes plain ugly weather in 2008. May 10th was no different, it was windy and drizzly all afternoon. Someone made the smart decision to move the ceremony inside from the beach, the guys moved some sofas, and set up the chairs in the living room and this is the beautiful result.

I forgot to mention the sun came out during their vows and it ended up being a gorgeous evening.

As always there are many more pictures from this day on my website.

Jessie

2008-05-17T00:10:00.000-07:00

Jessie and I go way back, what is it 6 years? I was so happy to see her today. She is an aspiring model and has such a great look, really all I had to do was shoot away. Sure I did my usual post process but it was really easy because she is just so beautiful, she would make any photographer look great.

She has the best smile!!

Rock and Ryan

2008-05-11T21:30:00.001-07:00

I work with Ryan as a dispatcher at 911 and she's one of my assistants in the photography world too - I must really love her :) She's coming back from her honeymoon today so I wanted to be sure to blog her fun wedding day. The ceremony and reception took place at the Fraternal Order of Police hall in Virginia Beach. The delicious food was provided by Lendy's. Heather Davis did a great job with the arch, she's a good friend of mine and I can't wait until she goes into business for herself as an event coordinator. Music and fun was provided by DJ On The Side, Chris did a great job! As usual it's hard for me to pick just a handful of my favorites, if you want to see the whole gallery go to her gallery on my website .

I think my clients expect me to make some far from ordinary photos - I think this one delivers.

wedding paparazzi, I love it!
Ryan's daughters are gorgeous, I didn't get very many of just the two of them together so I'm glad this one happened - it's one of my favorites of the day. (I prefer a candid shot over the posed variety any day)
I do
very real and touching moment - this is what it's all about.

This picture was taken by my superstar assistant Megan Reger. She's 15 and while I believe she is a gifted artist I think she can have a promising career in photography if she chooses to go that route.
Men can be more difficult to photograph, for some reason even 3 good looking men like this weren't too excited about having their pictures taken. That's ok, I don't need a smile to make it work.

Young love :)
Partay!!!!

last dance of the night.

brother and sister

2008-05-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

I was really excited that Tyler wanted to do a shoot with his younger sister Moira as a present for his parents. I'll also include a few from Loren and her brother's shoot. Tyler and Loren are going off to college this year and I'm moved by their love for their families. Here are some of my favorites.

Now a flashback to my first brother and sister shoot last year.

Salem High School Senior

2008-05-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

Lacy is another beautiful senior I've had to pleasure of photographing. These girls really do make me look good. I get to thank my daughter Amanda for this referral. Amanda told her mother that I did senior portraits. Lacy's mother is the children's minister at Forefront church and my daughter believes she is the most amazing roll model. I enjoyed reading Becky's posts last week while she hijacked Vince's blog you should check it out. becky's post

As you can see, we had a very sunny day. It worked out because we didn't get started till around 6:20 in the evening. So here she is pretty much looking directly into the sun and it can happen without her squinting because it was during the golden hour. Gorgeous day.
for this pose I chose to use the light in a more dramatic way. I like that both eyes have light on them. I created this black and white in photoshop's lightroom. I started with a basic black and white then used the split tone feature to tint the highlights warm and the shadows cool. I also messed with the white balance to get the look I was after. Once it looked good to me I saved it at a preset so I can use it on portraits in the future with a single click. Smart huh? If I knew how to link a download for an action or preset I would share it here, but I don't have those skills. I will look into that. (if you are computer savvy and want to share that process with me I would love to hear from you)

to achieve this look I made a brown tinted black and white, very high contrast, then added the glow filter= this post process is my favorite of the day.

Katie - Senior at Ocean Lakes

2008-04-26T00:19:00.001-07:00

Today's shoot was fabulous, Katie being a beautiful girl was the key factor, but the gardens and the gorgeous day were also the great ingredients for a perfect shoot. I posted 176 pictures in her gallery on my main website, and here are some of my favorites.

Maternity & family portraits

2008-04-21T13:16:00.000-07:00

I work with Michelle and I planned on doing her belly shots since the beginning, thing is, seems to me she's been pregnant for way more than 8 months. We made it happen last Friday and we had the most beautiful day imaginable. It was actually still too sunny out but we worked around it best we could.

Michelle didn't think I would be able to get Alec to smile for me, thing is I never asked him to smile, I dont think you need to smile for a great portrait. He's 13 and I feel these shots a great representation of him

Tony is getting ready to be the proud Daddy to his baby girl.

and yet again, I captured new mom to be looking hot!

Oh the beauty of window light

2008-04-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

I wish I could shoot everybody next to a big window! Here are some examples of recent captures using only window light. I shot this baby while in Stephanie's tummy, to see those scroll down, but here she is world --- Kendra!

in these pictures she is about 9 days old. For this easy set up I had the father hold her in his arms near the window while drapped with a black cloth.

Austen and Priscilla

2008-04-17T23:42:00.001-07:00

Priscilla and Austen are getting married in June and I've been chosen to be their photographer, I met them Sunday for their engagement shoot and as you'll see from the pictures we had fun. They were willing to try all of my ideas. I put my newest lens to work - the bada bing shot and the other wide angle shots came from my new 17-70mm 2.8f lens.

Bye Bye Birdie

2008-04-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

Salem High School performed Bye Bye Birdie this week and I was invited to photograph opening night. The show was full of energy and they did a great job. To be able to get these great shots I used my 70-200 2.8l lens, I set my ISO to 1600 and took all these with available light. My canon 40d did a great job at keeping noise to a minimum. Good times, good good times.

Expectant Mom Jessica

2008-04-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

Jessica was referred to me by another expectant mother I photographed - YEAH to word of mouth, and thank you Stephanie.

Jessica was so sweet, at thirty six weeks she is a joy. She was however very shy about posing so it did take a little bit to get her comfy. I find this is usually the case. I was a stranger to her when we started out, so she had to get to know me as I worked and as she got to know me she grew more comfortable in front of my lens. I always try to show the model how great they are looking on the back of my camera, this definitely boosts their confidence, try it with you new clients and let me know if you feel like it helps. After Jessica saw how great she looked she relaxed and I think started to trust me more. Let me not forget Jessica's husband Eric, who was the perfect model, smiled a lot and was very easy going. We ended up with a slew of nice shots. I was back at Fort Story for these, I think that's my favorite place in all of Virginia Beach to shoot. It was a beautiful sunny evening. We started at around 6:30 and it was still on the "too" sunny side, but within 15 minutes it got comfortable. I in addition to the usual black and white prints, I played with color and textures. Here are some of my favorites of the day

Vince and Jessica

2008-04-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

Vince and Jessica are getting married on May 10th. No doubt they're wedding day is going to be a lot of fun.

We did their portraits at Little Island Park in Sandbridge and Back Bay. It wasn't really a beautiful day, but it was warm and the cloudy sky made for beautifully exposed high key portraits. The couple as you'll see are gorgeous and look great together, I didn't do much to these in post process, other than making black and whites and cropping. Some needed levels adjustments, and of course the usual cutting down the pictures. I took a ridiculous number as always, I ended up posting 179 shots in their gallery. There were actually only 16 different poses, but since I run off a series of shots with each pose I end up with so many. I'd rather have too many, then risk not getting the perfect shot. Now I'm going to post the ones I think are the perfect shots and why.

Lets start with the best - the sun didn't make an appearance until the last 5 minutes of the shoot, with the sun setting, I felt like the lighting was so beautiful giving me some great shots.

Jess looks like a model in this shot.

any capture like this one that shows their emotion, or happiness together becomes a favorite for me, sure I posed them, but how they interacted once in their positions was all them and my job to capture.
this next series I think are just so hot!
and fun!

they look great together, I love the high key look. I didn't set out with this in mind, but with such a grey day, this is how it all worked out. I didn't use a flash at all for this shoot, the whole time we were in Sandbridge I thought the shots were very white, and I was a little worried they hadn't turned out ok, I was relieved they looked great.

TJ & Laura

2008-03-28T18:55:00.000-07:00

This engagement session took place on Fort Story base, the goal was to make it happen at the Cape Henry Lighthouse, but it was closed, so we moved over to the beach. It was only 48 degrees out and with the wind it felt about 32 degrees - seriously.
I enjoyed trying out every kind of pose imaginable, some worked great, some not so much, best part is they were a lot of fun and up for anything. The sun was setting but it was very bright when we got started, I tried to use the sunlight to my advantage. As for my work flow, the toughest part was cutting down the pictures, I'd taken over 400 pics - I brought it down to 200, keeping only the good shots. I did a bunch of cropping in photoshop lightroom, and I did my color adjustments in there as well. I LOVE lightroom!

most adorable twins

2008-03-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

Tip #526: when photographing 2 year old twins, just let them be and be ready to click that shutter. Here are some of my favorites. these were taken at 4 in the afternoon at Sandbridge's Little Island Pier.

This is Jack and he was the perfect Easter Bunny!

the sun was really high in the sky, but I think we still pulled off some great shots anyway

Wolfe Family

2008-03-23T11:41:00.000-07:00

a fellow photographer told me about the Chesapeake Arboretum, (thanks Meghan!) I'd never even heard of it. I'm glad she did because it made for a beautiful spot for these family portraits. The primary challenge I found was that it was shady in some areas, spotted light in others, sometimes it was cloudy, and sometimes screaming sunshine. I tried to make the necessary adjustments along the way. Looking at my LCD screen all the time puts a kink in my flow and I can't wait until all the settings come automatically and I don't have to spend time playing with the knobs on my camera. The most fun of the shoot came in finding where I was going to pose the family to take the pictures, we set out and walked a path stopping anywhere the mood struck. I made sure to make different combinations, everyone individually, the brother and sister together, the couple, mom and kids, dad and kids etc..... As always with my shoots, I finished over 200 pictures, that's over the top, but I haven't figured out how to make my sessions shorter and be confident I've gotten every great capture possible. I'm curious how many pictures other photographers take on an average family photo shoot.

shooting engagement portraits is a favorite of mine, something about seeing so much love, but I've got to say, I may have found a new favorite--- a couple in love after 12 years of marriage is so beautiful.

This is definitely the best picture of the day - They showed the love and admiration and I pressed the button :)

They need to start a band, just so this could be on the cd's cover

Stephanie

2008-03-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a maternity shoot, Stephanie is a very beautiful girl, 38 weeks pregnant. She was very so easy to photograph, gorgeous and super photogenic. She proves pregnant women can be very hot!!! I had a really tough time figuring out which pictures I would want to share from the day because I think she looks so cute in all of them. I decided a variety, hard to pick favorites, as always you can see the entire session, 206 pictures in total on my website.

On to what I learned: I guess you could say I didn't learn as much as I practiced the stuff I've been studying. I went out to shoot in manual mode, learning to shoot in manual mode is something I've been putting off, I usually shoot it aperture priority, sometimes in program, so since I'm buying a lighting set up soon, I thought I should get used to shooting in manual. Not to mention, I think all pros shoot in manual most of the time. I'm still learning but I only lost about 20 shots due to poor exposure, towards the end of the shoot my exposure was close to perfect. It was an overcast day, these are all natural light. I got beautiful results with F/2.8, ISO 500, 1/400 sec, manual exposure mode, no flash, pattern metering mode, auto white balance. We did them between 4-5pm at Red Wing Park. I am really starting to love that little park, the options are endless.

This picture makes me happy! This is one of the shots that was overexposed, but I didn't care, I set out to save it because of the emotion.
This is another one towards the beginning of the shoot, the whites are too hot, but with those eyes, I couldn't hit delete.

stay tuned, I should have newborn pictures of the baby girl she's carrying in a couple of weeks :)

Sebastian with selective color

2008-03-14T05:08:00.000-07:00

Sebastian's birthday is coming up and I very spontaneously got him to grab his book and come outside with me for a picture so I could use it on his invitations. Sebastian hates taking pictures, but the Horton Hears a Who movie excites him, his birthday excites hims too, so he was very cooperative - we are going to see the movie for his party.

So I'm going to go through the steps I used to get this selective coloring - and how I did it in just a few minutes

I made a copy of the original picture and converted it to black and white. I also burned the edges since the focus is all on him and the book. To "burn" the edges: grab the burn tool, I use a pretty big brush and start going around the picture, then go a second time in the corners or where ever I want it darker. So now I've got the black and white picture done, I select all and copy the b&w version, then I clicked on the color version and pasted the b&w version onto the original, if I look over in my layers palette I can see the new layer. Be sure to be focused on the top layer, the b&w layer in the layers palette. Next I grabbed the quick selection tool, and selected just the book. It did a good job of selecting the book, I only had to hit alt and deselect a small area of his hand. Next I deleted the area I had selected by hitting command x (that would be control x on a pc) and there you have it. Done.

Posing Stephanie

2008-03-03T23:08:00.000-08:00

I think it's important to have solid poses in mind before you head out on a shoot. I think back to a year ago, and the best I would say is strike a pose, well a lot of people have never had to strike a pose, let alone 10. So when I found myself at a loss for poses I studied the art of posing. I took to the every magazine, I scoured them for poses and ideas, when I found one I liked, I ripped it out, then I pasted them on card stock and essentially had a pose book to look to for help. As I've grown as a photographer, I don't really have to whip out my models pasted to card stock anymore, I just remember the poses that I love. I know the ones that work well and I make sure to get all my clients to strike that pose. Each person is different so the pose is naturally different every time, but they are consistently good - in my opinion.

First rule --- never have a girl stand flat footed. Try to have her put one foot in front to the other, making a t with her feet is best but if not, it will still work as long as she is sure to shift her weight to the back foot. This is the best example of the classic S pose.

oops, she's not really posing here, I just love close ups!

here is another example of putting her weight on the back foot, I like to do the hand in the pockets too because it seems very natural.
I love for the model to have something to lean on, or put their hand on.
If the ground or bench is dry, you can bet I'll make you lay on it, I like to have her assume this position, then try to grab the shot from different angles.

I believe sitting indian style is also comfy. If the pose is too concocted it will be apparent. In this picture she probably wouldn't have been so hunched over if I didn't have her searching for that slot of sun poking through, even so, this is one of my favorites because she looks natural.

leaning on the banister - love it
ok, flip and lean facing forward, works every time! I think that's because she is comfy again
again with the close ups :) Stephanie is gorgeous and was a dream to work with, a true natural in front of the camera.

Leave me your thoughts and questions.

2008-02-26T17:36:00.000-08:00

Colby was not in the modeling mood, but this picture is still a keeper, like most of my favorites from a shoot, I look at it and think what might make it better, then I get to playing. First thing is I removed the little scratch near his eye in about a second using the healing brush. His eyes are obviously the focus of this picture, so I made a selection with just his eyes and made a separate layer to run the sharpening action I have. I wish I could remember the exact numbers for this action, Scott Kelby teaches this particular action in his book 7 Point System book.
Next I used the color selection tool to select the face, and I added a little gaussian blur, really he didn't need it, but I did it for the purpose of this touch up work flow. Next, I turned it to my black and white. It's the same process as I mentioned in a previous post with the addition of a hue set to #30 to make it a little warmer.

Photoshop black and white conversion

2008-02-26T01:42:00.000-08:00

I've taken a picture from yesterdays shoot with 2 month old Colby to demonstrate a black and white conversion.

I love black and white pictures, you probably know this if you've seen much of my work. A lot of times if I don't like the lighting, or the color cast, or I didn't get the exposure right I'll zap it into black and white with the hopes of saving a picture. I'm not saying that's the only reason I use b&w, no way, I love to take a good picture and make it even better with a nice black and white conversion. I've made it a point of learning the best ways to convert color pictures to bold beautiful black and whites. There are plenty of good ways, but I would highly recommend staying away from the "desaturate" button. Even in the most advanced photoshop (CS3) the black and white conversion is flat. You need a couple of extra steps to make it really work.

For this example, I've started out with a nicely colored picture, decent expose, decent contrast. In the second frame I added the black and white adjustment layer - sure it's still a cute picture but the black and white is very dull. To make it pop in the final frame, I added contrast using a curves adjustment layer. I also adjusted the levels in another layer, boosting the blacks and brightening the whites. Now this sounds like a lot for 1 picture but with a few extra strokes you can save an action and have it to use every time you need it. I'll go into making actions another day :)

Any questions or comments?

Ring Dance

2008-02-24T23:53:00.000-08:00

What a difference a year makes. I would say that it was about a year ago when I really started trying to get better at photography. I'd always taken pictures, and I thought I was pretty good at it -- looking back now I can admit I was not. What had happened was I went to photograph my eldest daughter and her friends for ring dance, I'd sent my pictures to my mentor and she pretty much hated them. How did I know that you might wonder? Well she told me clearly everything that was wrong with them, and on some she would say something like, pretty girl..that was code for that's all that is good about this picture. Wow did I have a lot to learn. One of my biggest oversights while photographing was that I didn't pay attention to the background. I tried to work with the light, and I tried some basic posing but I was oblivious to the backgrounds. That's why, while my daughter and her friends looked gorgeous the pictures were super amateur primarily because of the lack of thought that I put into what was behind them. Not to mention this was also pre photoshop for me.

This year I didn't want my daughter's ring dance pictures to look like snapshots so we drove to a nearby park -- this almost instantly removed my need to find a nice place to pose, that was everywhere. I didn't even have to worry too much about the direction of light because it was gray outside, what I did focus on was group/couple posing. We ended up with some really fun shots that I shouldn't hate in a year - check back with me in 2009 about this.

Zoe's got curly hair, but for this day a friend of the family volunteered to straighten it, then put some ringlets in, she had no idea what she was getting into - this took about 2 hours. What I love about this pic and why I wanted to share it is because I feel like I captured a true moment - that simple.

These next two were the idea of one of my girls - I loved it. I cropped them square just because I thought it worked better and I put a cross processed filter on this first one, and did an antique action on the next, just to mix it up some.

All these pics are with my f/2.8L lens that I like to refer to as my baby. It took me about 10 pictures to get my exposure spot on, with it being so overcast, shooting without a flash wasn't working well so I used a fill flash the whole time. I kept my settings for the day at f/4.0 - 1/60 - ISO 200 in this case the flash didn't fire but I saved it by making it black and white. It's got the strong shadows, but I think it works.

This next one is possibly my favorite for the day. My daughters like to make up soap opera-ish scenarios to tell the story of this threesome. All your creative stories are welcome, but make it outrageous.

I converted this picture to sepia with one click in Lightroom. I also had to clone out the towel we had under Zoe to protect her dress from the wet bench.

This pose worked out really well -

Here again the flash did not fire, so what could have been a beautifully exposed picture like the one just above this turned out terrible with these strong shadows and blurry to boot. I would normally just delete it, especially when I have 5 other perfect ones on the bridge, but I felt it was such a fun picture that couldn't let it go, I saved it by making it this bold black and white. Does it work?

Rock & Ryan

2008-02-16T04:40:00.000-08:00

I may not know Rock very well, but after a couple of hours with Rock and Ryan I knew one thing for sure, he loves her! It's sweet, romantic and clear that these two belong together

I went with a romantic black and white for this one, giving it little blur and a softer black and white conversion than my normal high contrast black and whites prints

This picture was taken an the road to Back Bay, I love this spot, it's like God placed this tree here just to set up great Kodak moments for me.

Mike and Janee

2008-02-11T23:22:00.000-08:00

I'm so lucky that Janee had to change the date of her wedding and that she found me. They got married in a an old church in Norfolk, I love those old buildings. I was able to process 900 pictures for her in record time. I had them 1 week later. I posted 300+ pictures of the day in a gallery on my website if these shots leave you wanting more.

I think this is a great example of window light, sure it would have been nice to have reflector on her left side, but I like the strong shadows the window light created.

I grabbed this one as her cousin was taking their picture, I couldn't let someone else get the shot right? I love how her son is looking at me.

I've never been one to take pictures of stuff, I've always been all about people, but it's a standard shot to get the rings, and usually in some creative fashion....we'll mine isn't very creative, but I like how the rings look so I posted it. I had to do a bit of color correction with the white balance tool in Lightroom and I sharpened the rings to give them a little extra bling.

This is my favorite grab of the day, it has that paparazzi feel to it, and i can feel her excitement in the picture.

Chase and Drake

2008-02-09T23:52:00.000-08:00

Giving this little man the freedom to run around the park made for a challenging shoot, but when I was able to get his attention and his older brother's at the same time it was all worth it.

Steve & Genna

2008-02-07T00:40:00.000-08:00

I think engagement portraits are my favorite of all shoots. It might be because you get to have fun with the couple. I have the bad habit of taking too many pictures any given trip out. On this day I took 270 pictures. Way too many. The first thing I do is upload them from my camera into Adobe's Lightroom. Then I back these files up onto my external hard drive. Next up is going through and deleting anything that's just not good - in this case I think that blinkage had me delete about 20 pictures, then I had to look at a picture and figure out the tiny differences that would make a picture better. Then I make sure the color is what I want it to be in LR. Now comes any Photoshop playing. I like to offer a wide variety of pictures so that's my excuse for taking so many pictures....even so I am trying to cut back on the number of pictures I take because I end up with more work after the fact. I ended up loving 67 pictures and you can see all of them at their gallery

Every shoot I end up totally in love with 1 or 2 pictures, this is the 1. On our way to Norfolk Brandon (my assistant in training) and I were thinking up ideas, it's good to have a vision in your head of some of the pictures you want to capture, and in my case, brainstorm. The cool thing about this picture is that it wasn't directed. Most of the other poses were directed if only a little but in this case he came out of nowhere and kissed/dipped her, just like in the movies. I only had time to get off this one shot and It was perfect.

There isn't much to this picture except the smile on her face and his "I'm so charming" expression....you just can't stage that, priceless!

Every engagement session has the shadow shot doesn't it? I cranked the color and contrast to make it a little more fun than the original.

Here is another classic pose, I'd say the sheer happiness dripping from their pores makes it a winner.

please feel free to leave your questions and comments about this shoot or any other.

Thanks for stopping by --- Andi

Austin

2008-02-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from a senior shoot today at the oceanfront. I don't get to work with guys very often, it's a whole new world. Things that work with girls, are totally out the door, I am constantly focusing on the "manly-ness" of the pose. He was a good sport and since we he wasn't a big "poser" I opted for more variety in the backgrounds. Color! I went on a search in Virginia Beach for bright walls, and we also went to Fort Story to take some pictures there. I think him sitting on the rocks is against base rules, but we moved quickly and got out of there. As for the editing, aside from making high contrast black and whites, I boosted color and contrast. That was it for today's shoot.

love is in the air

2008-01-30T14:05:00.000-08:00

I did an engagement session for Lizzie's deaf friends yesterday. The purpose behind mentioning they are deaf is because I had this very cool experience of doing the entire photo shoot without talking, very unnatural. I did talk a little bit, and since Lizzie is an interpreter for the sign language impaired she was able to get us through just fine. It was a lot fun, I had to sit back and let things happen, I like to do that anyway, but in this case it wasn't an option to direct the scene, not much anyway. At one point during the shoot, I told Lizzie to tell them to talk to each other, you know, to get them to look at each other, get them interacting and she reminded me that they'd have to sign, sure enough we sat there for about 10 minutes with them signing, I learned Marne's favorite food and the names they have picked out for their children -- all with Lizzie's voice. Let me say that these two were so stinking cute with each other, I feel like I captured their love pretty well. To see the entire gallery go to my website, and all 87 pictures are there. Ok, on to a few pictures. Let's start with my set up: I shoot with a Canon 40D, today I had on my 70-200 f/2.8 lens, and a 430ex flash. In this first one the bland sky ended up giving this picture that high key feel, and I loved the way it worked out. aperture, 2.8, iso 400, no flash, metering mode on partial. The only adjustment I made in CS3 was to adjust the levels a tiny bit to bring in some contrast. They are actually looking away to see what Lizzie is saying here, their looking away gives it a little more of that photojournalistic feel that we love (or I love) so much.

For this picture to work, I focused on the horizon, which left them fuzzy - intentionally. I added an antique filter, I suppose to create a little mood

This is my favorite for the day, why are sunsets so romantic? To get the silhouette to look perfect I exposed for the sky. The lens flare to some might be distracting, I love it right where it is. I felt plain lucky to have been at Back Bay at this moment.

studio work

2008-01-30T13:34:00.000-08:00

Today I went to my mentor's garage to work in her studio for the first time. I'd been wanting to give playing with studio lights a go. I don't think I'll be doing much studio work since it feels very restrictive, and by restrictive I mean boring, even so I know it will be wonderful to set up a studio at some point to do newborns and maternity. Dee's been wonderful at offering to train me and her other trainees any time she was available. So I asked my friend if she would be good with driving out there with me so I could use Tiana to train with, I had to have a cute model to practice with right? What I learned is that I need to spend time with my camera's manual because there are a butt load of settings I have no idea how to adjust. I need to read a book on metering light and then knowing how to adjust my camera to that reading....oh yea, I need to buy a bunch of stuff. Another book, a meter, 2 stobe lights, umbrellas, softbox, a gigantic roll of white paper, couple of pocket wizards, I think you are starting to smell what I'm stepping in. I know that as a high key pic there shouldn't be any color to the white - so in post process I will try to play with that...maybe I'll post an after.

Megarooni

2008-01-29T03:53:00.000-08:00

It's not hard to take pictures of a cutie like this, she didn't take a bad picture. I think the black and white one is the most glamorous of the day. We are at the same location as Christina, and while I had that pretty picture in my head, I believe it's all new. A little on posing: how she sat down up against the walkway was totally up to her. I try not to dictate a very specific pose, rather stand here or sit here, and then i try to move around for the different appealing angles. I did the black and white conversion in PS Lightroom. In the picture of her sitting down, I had to brighten it up a little with levels because she was sitting in the shade and my camera did not read the scene as such, (and i depend on the camera being smart) I boosted the color saturation and contrast, and added a little vignette ----viola -that picture. OK, that sounded like way more work than what if felt like. I suppose because I run through it all very quickly it doesn't take long at all. Now this last one is straight out of the camera beautiful - did I mention I love my new lens? I did choose to crop it a bit, I had too much space above her head. I would have liked for the horizon to not be cutting her face in half, but I can live with that. I think the blues are what make this picture beautiful, (and maybe it was Megan) The camera was set at 400 ISO, really it should have been on 100 or 200 but i got away with it, I used my f/2.8 70-200 lens, set to aperture priority.

Time for some pictures

2008-01-29T02:53:00.000-08:00

I haven't really gotten used to having clients contact me after finding me online. It's exciting don't get me wrong but there is this sense of diving into the unknown whenever that shoot approaches. With Christina I was very lucky, she was so much fun to work with, very graceful and stylish, not to mention she has some of the most gorgeous eyes around. She's in the Navy and contacted me to do her portraits to send home, these are a few pictures from that day.

I suppose the first picture is my favorite for the day, she looks sultry dont ya think? I was struggling with the sunlight coming through the banister on the walkway, but I think with the conversion it was left unnoticeable, either that or I had her sink below the light cutting her forhead.

For the second picture I added some blur to everywhere but her gorgeous eyes, I did this hoping it would make them stand out even more. If I remember correctly I sharpened her eyes a little in photoshop. I finished the picture off with a soft frame.

In this next one, I used Photoshop's Lightroom to give it an antique type of color saturation. I also added a little vignette and that about it.

I did these pictures locally at Dam Neck Base. The walkway to the beach is a great spot that's easy to access, easy as long as you can get on the base. The day was chilly but the sun was shining. As will most of my sessions, I started this one a little after 4 in the afternoon.

Let's get this started

2008-01-29T01:59:00.000-08:00

I've been faithfully reading the blogs of other photographers from all over the country for about 6 months now. Only recently did I realize I had something to blog about. My mind has changed as my business has taken off and others want to know how I'm doing it. It's flattering when people who love photography want to talk to me about my work. Seems crazy, nevertheless I've been approached by several new photographers who ask a lot of questions. I'm the same way with the photographers I follow (in the blogworld) I want to ask them questions. This is where the idea for my blog came from.

I WANT to share what I've learned in the last year. I've spent many many hours out on photo shoots taking endless pictures. I've spent even more hours learning Photoshop CS3 and my new MAC. It's ridiculous the amount of hours I've spent reading every photography book I could buy (Usually 2 a month) I read them each cover to cover. I love looking back at the pictures I took only 6 months ago and seeing where my skill level is this month.

So this is where it gets fun. I know I'm no where close to where I want to be but I am confident that with my passion for photography and my hard work and determination I'll get there. As I'm learning I want to share. I'll be sharing my work, the sites I've visited, some photoshop stuff, the books I've read, the tutorials I've watched and no doubt I'll be sprinkling my posts with the rest of my life as well. Welcome to my little blog