Sombrero In Flight

Another image for my "Thrown in the air" series. Random objects taking up space in my basement tend to get thrown in the air and then thrown in the garbage. Not the most efficient way of tidying things up, but it's a lot of fun.

Morning Frost

Taken with my iPhone on the way to my daughters bus stop. The frost
mixed with morning sunrise made for a beautiful photo that I couldn't
pass up.

Dirt Devil Thrown in the air

Every now and then I get the urge to take pictures of things thrown in the air. It's good father son bonding time. He tries to figure out how to throw odd objects into the air so that they will face the right direction for the camera. Meanwhile I try to aim, follow, and focus on the item and capture the shot at just the right time. It's great practice and I highly recommend it to any photographer. Just be careful of what you throw in the air. Pic items that will go in the trash anyway.

Portrait Version of LaFontain Sunset

Don't Panic, it's Organic

My kids think that organic means that it will taste bad. Now we just don't tell them if the food is organic or not.

LaFontaine Sunset

Taken at LaFontaine manner at sunset.

This is important

Drive By Shooting with the iPhone

The Ring

From last weekend's engagement session.  This ring has a sweetheart diamond on the band as well that has a special inscription in it.

Broken iPhone

My current photo challenge was to depict the word "broken." Here's my perspective on the term broken with this photo of a broken iPod. This was quite a challenge to get the reflection just right on the screen. I used natural northern facing light with a diffuser over top to keep the reflection consistent.  Don't worry Joe, this is not my iPod, I borrowed it from someone that just had one replaced.

Bleu and Wyatt

A quick one for today's engagement session in Ann Arbor Michigan.

Last Shot From Vegas

While waiting for my shuttle to the airport I captured this angle of the MGM Grand. It was the last photo taken in sin city and I was glad to be going home. 6 days in Vegas is quite a long time.

I'm in need of a photographic challenge, so tomorrow I will be giving myself a photo challenge. Something to spark creativity and to make me thing outside the box a bit.  Leave a comment with your photo challenge suggestions, and maybe we can all join in on the fun.

Look for light first

One of the dominant themes I heard from photographers during WPPI in Vegas was to look for light first, then everything else will follow. Here I was looking for light and all I could see was the bright sun. I wanted to highlight the statue of liberty at New York New York casino in a way, but the sun was ruining every shot. So I made the sun highlight the statue and give it a natural halo. Now I watch light constantly and it has changed my entire perspective.

Paris At Night

This was taken on the Las Vegas Strip last week. I bounced the flash off the ground in order to let the leaves shine a bit. A direct flash on the leaves would have been too harsh. I liked how the trees were framing the tower.

Grand Lion

The MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas was very good to me. Not because they took $25 from me in the slot machines, I'm talking about the amount of great photographers I met while staying there. Photographically it was great as well because I captured some really great images while staying there. Here's one that captured my eye. I liked the negative space in this shot and the lion looking out into the future. I think this is a precursor to another photograph that I'll be taking of a bride and groom. Stay tuned for that one.

Gambling at the Grand

Last week I stayed at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and I lost $20 in the slot machine.  Three minutes of entertainment for $20 was not my kind of fun.  The machines just lost their appeal after that, and I never played again all week.  Here's a shot of the inside of the casino while I was on my photo walk.

New York New York

I had one evening while at WPPI to go out on the town for a photo walk.  The Las Vegas strip is quite an interesting place, and taking a night time photo walk down it requires a tripod.  All I had was a mini tripod on me, so that's why this shot is close to the ground.  Sometimes the limitations that I have with the camera (either forced or otherwise) make for some creative shots.  It forces you to see things from different angles and to really pay attention to the art of photography.  Here's a shot of NY NY hotel entrance that I was able to capture between people walking by.  Taken at F10 about 1/8th of a second ISO 100.

PRADA Logo

I know this is the same image, but it was taken with my Nikon DSLR instead of the iPhone.  This shot was taken on my night time photo walk to the Bellagio.  I was really taken by the simplicity of the Prada logo and thought a lot about the brand it represents.  More to come from this photo walk soon.

Timeless Design

I've been looking at logos and thinking about timeless designs. This
one stood out to me today.

Finao Beads

WPPI Changing my life

I'm here investing in me, investing in my business, and investing in
my brides and grooms. This morning I was questioning the value that I
was receiving. Questioning the sacrifice of time away from family.

This morning those questions were gone after listening to Marcus Bell
speak about his approach to a wedding. I was relieved to see someone
with a similar style and approach to documenting these very special
days.

I know that it's my responsability to record the moments that I see.
I definately need to do this.

I am a wedding photographer.

MGM Today

Flight to Vegas

I'm ready for WPPI in Vegas!

7 MPH Bridge at Night

This covered bridge has a speed limit of 7 miles per hour. Do you know how tough it is to set your vehicle speed to 7mph?

Bavarian Inn at Night

Here's another shot from last week's engagement session after we were all done. I just had to capture this as we were walking to the car.

Photo I've waited 10 years to capture

I saw this picture about 10 years ago while in Frankenmuth and I was ecstatic when Christine and Adam were willing to go there for their engagement session. We had a great time and captured some amazing photographs. There were about a million more photos that I wanted to take, but 2 hours is more than enough time to ask a couple to smile or look sexy. I could photograph about 100 engagement sessions in this city and have 100 unique perspectives here. It was beautiful and I can't wait for the next session there.

Bavarian Inn - Frankenmuth Michigan

In the winter time there are a few less people here, and it's makes for a much easier time photographing this building. Taken on last weekend's engagement session.

Floor

Window light and my dog

Every morning she begs me to play, and yet every morning she seems to move a bit slower. She's getting older now.  It's starting to show, and it makes me sad.   The window light was shining on her just right this morning so I thought it was a great opportunity to remember how she was at this moment in time. Meet Sparkie, my dog. She's awesome.