Monday, August 31, 2009

Kristine and John

Wow, that was fast! Kristine and John emailed right away and said that they loved the photos and picked this one for their signature photo...




For this photograph they were actually lying down in the covered bridge. Tom was using his wonderful prime lens, the 70-200 f2.8 and I was bouncing light back in with a reflector. I really like this photograph of the two of them -- and the way that her hair is just beautifully golden in this photo -- wow!

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Kristine and John -- Southford Falls CT

We photographed Kristine and John (and their adorable little dog) at Southford Falls as a pre-wedding photo session. The weather was perfect! They were both very willing to try anything (even lie down in the covered bridge) and we got some awesome photos. You can click on these to view them larger.

You can view other photos from their photo session on our website: http://tlc.smugmug.com/Portraits/Engagements/Kristine-John-Southford-Falls

There are some many great photo ops at Southford Falls, but the covered bridge still remains one of my favorites. The three photos in the collage on the left was post processed to bring out all of the detail in the wood. And I love the trio on the right in black and white just emphasizing them.



Here are four more of my favorites...which photograph will Kristine and John choose for their signature photo for the reception at the Heritage ?? so many to choose from...

They brought their cute little dog with them. Many couples like to have their dog in their photos, engagement sessions, and even weddings. This poor dog thought that it was going for a nice walk along the stream, but was very disappointed at going to a photo session instead.
There are some great outtakes of the dog in this gallery http://tlc.smugmug.com/Portraits/Engagements/Kristine-John-SFalls-unedited

For these next two photograph, compare the two photos side by side -- Kristine and John look great in both of them but I edited the waterfall to simulate a slow shutter speed, giving the water that silky look.

having a little fun too...

We are looking forward to photographing their wedding this Fall.

Eliza's Bat Mitzvah Party

You can view the slideshow that we created from her Bat Mitzvah here: http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewalbum.html?bm=88278

Eliza's party was at Hula Hanks in New Haven -- it was a happening party!



Eliza's parents picked this photograph for a large wall portrait for their home. We created the final image from this photograph on the left, and edited it for them to remove the people out of the background.




You may recognize the young lady in the middle photograph as Leah, Eliza's longtime childhood friend. We had photographed Leah's Bat Mitzvah a few weeks before Eliza's.



Anyone that has seen our Blog and/or our photographs knows that we just love black and white and color -- here are a few B&W&C from Eliza's party, I love the impact that she has here -- literally making her the Diva of the day...



Noah is Eliza's younger brother, a very fun loving and spirited young man, he made his way right up to the DJ and had fun! He was also very comfortable out on the dance floor.


We had fun and played around with lots of camera settings when the dancing was going on. It is more fun capturing high energy events with some non-traditional photography skills, like panning and slow shutter speeds...

You can view the rest of Eliza's photos in four galleries on our website: http://tlc.smugmug.com/Portraits/Bar-and-Bat-Mitzvahs

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Eliza's Bat Mitzvah

Here are some photographs from Eliza's Bat Mitzvah at the Temple Beth Sholom in Hamden. What a wondeful young lady and what a fantastic family! We do enjoyed photographing them!

You can view the rest of the photos from her Bat Mizvah and party afterwards in four galleries on our website...http://tlc.smugmug.com/Portraits/Bar-and-Bat-Mitzvahs









This next photo is the Rabbi's favorite, he loves the symbolism of the stained window of the Jordan River...



I found this great song, just perfect for this major turning point in Eliza's life, it is called "My Wish" by Rascal Flats. Here are the lyrics:

hope the days come easy and the moments pass slow,
And each road leads you where you wanna go,
And if you're faced with a choice,
and you have to choose,

I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.
And if one door opens to another door closed,
I hope you keep on walkin' till you find the window,
If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile.
But more than anything, more than anything...

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.

I hope you never look back, but you never forget,
All the ones who love you, in the place you left,
I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,
And you help somebody every chance you get,
Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,
And always give more than you take.
But More than anything, yeah, more than anything...

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish. Yeah.

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Malek and Shakira engagement photos

Here are a few more photos from our photo session with Malek and Shakira at Edgerton Park. There were sooooo many photographs from their session that I loved. They were great to work with and we had an awesome afternoon with great weather and some fun photographs.

Malek and Shakira will also pick one photograph to be their signature photograph at their reception. Will they pick color or Black and White? Tough choice --both are great, but to me The Black and white photographs just seem to me to bring out a little more of their soul. You can view the rest of their photos on our website: http://tlc.smugmug.com/Portraits/261554

They also choose a reception signature album, which was wonderful because it allowed them to pick many more photographs and allowed their guests to give them some "newleywed advice".













Sunday, August 9, 2009

Baby Claire

Meet Claire...
Born into this world on Tursday July 9th, 2009 at 3:15 in the afternoon at a dainty 6lbs 5oz. (20 inches long).



We photographed Meg and Matt's wedding a few years ago (it was a wonderful wedding, every detail accounted for and LOTS of time between the ceremony and reception to create awesome photographs).



Tom and I were honored to photograph their little miracle.

We created so many unique memorable photos, but here is a sneak peak of some of the photographs of Claire at four weeks old...











HDR



Tom and I heard Steve Traudt talk about HDR at NECCC and we got inspired. See previous articles about HDR here: http://lifethrulisaslens.blogspot.com/search?q=HDR

Images taken with most cameras today can only capture a limited range of brightness without under-exposing or over-exposing the image. HDR imaging looks to increase this range by combining the dynamic range (brightness values from shadows to highlights) from a series of images of the same scene into one HDR image. Read the rest here: http://www.smashandpeas.com/hdr-photography/

Here are a few of our samples.

From inside Abanakee Studios

Three images were taken, one very underexposed, one very overexposed.



This is the image properly exposed...


and this is the image optimized for the shadows AND for the highlights -- what a difference!


another view from inside.

Again, three images were taken, one very underexposed, one very overexposed and then the detail from the highlights and the details from the shadows are combined with the correct exposure. I also tried two different settings, one giving a more painterly appearance while the other results in a more sterotypic .

The photograph on the left is one was intentionally created to be too dark while the one on the right was intentionally created to be too dark


This was metered off the camera for "the correct exposure"


Here are two versions of HDR, the first the popular grungy and the second one a more painterly approach.


Friday, August 7, 2009

Jaimy iPod Session

We recently had a great iPod session with Jamie.

Jamie was fun to work with -- it was great because this young lady had ideas and quickly assessed the poses regarding what worked best. For example, Tom showed her one image on the LCD that we liked and Jaimy immediately replied that it could be tweaked and that for the next one she would hold the flower further away from her head so that the flower silhouette did not merge with her head. Artistic and quick thinking!

One of these iPod photographs will be chosen by Jaimy for the signature photo for friends and family to sign at her Bat Mitzvah party. We are looking forward to photographing her Bat Mitzvah in a few weeks!



We did a few poses with an electric guitar because she is musically oriented, but then also some with flowers to represent her artistic side. I made some composites showing both dimensions of her. It will be interesting to see which one she picks.















You can also view these images in Jaimy's gallery on our website: http://tlc.smugmug.com/gallery/9159595_VxjSE/1/611047514_VrXAv#611047514_VrXAv