The Becker Family

I actually took these a little while back but with weddings and all life, I haven't been able to post. I got to shoot for my friend Erin and her very cute family of Uber-energetic boys. The weather is starting to get a bit chilly but we ended up having a great time.
And these brothers are just TOO cute!

Cortez Wedding

Last weekend I had the opportunity to photograph another wedding. It was beautiful. The church was beautiful. The day was beautiful. I love weddings- They are a photographer's dream!

Here's a few of the details from the wedding:

The dress, of course!
OH! And Shoes, Vital!
Here's the happy couple. Not yet married.
And the grand exit.
The wedding party.
The flower girl was so cute.
The bride, gorgeous.
Like I said, the day was beautiful. Perfect for a wedding.
This was just a fun pic I snapped as the bride headed off hunting for a missing family member for pictures. The bridesmaids and I had a little giggle 'cause it looked so "bridezilla" though she was definately NOT a bridesilla.
More to come... wedding party, limo rides, and dancing!

The Gray Family

I recently got the opportunity to take family pictures for a really fun family. Their little boy just loved the camera and he made it easy to get some really great shots. We found this fantastic location with an old building next to a corn field. It was photographer heaven!





More pictures from this shoot can be seen HERE.

More R&J Wedding

Sorry, these ones mistakenly got left out of the last post but they were some of my favorites so I had to add another post. Thanks for humoring me!

R&J Wedding

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to photograph another beautiful wedding. It was fun to have my new equipment and all the flexibility it allowed me. The wedding was at the groom's childhood church and so there was a lot of sentimentality. Everyone was very welcoming and great to work with. Here's a few choice shots from my first batch. Oh goodness... only 627 more to sift through. Wheeew!

I also have more posted on photobucket if you would like to see more, just go HERE

Rashamona and Jason

I had the opportunity to shoot engagement pictures for Rashamona and Jason a little while back. We went to the Veteran's Memorial park in downtown Milwaukee and they were great to work with. Their wedding will be October 17th so More to Come!

Challenge "Green"

I'm jumping back into the Mission 24 Challenges since I've kinda slacked off lately. This week was green and I decided to use George the Ginormous spider in my front yard to model the green of my lovely grass.

It was also an opportunity to practice with our new telephoto lense- since there was NO WAY I wanted to get close enough to this guy to use my 50mm.

We tried to spray the web a bit to make it more visible in this one but George got pretty irritated and the photoshoot was quickly at an end.
Thanks George!

Break a Leg!

I got to be the band photographer for my little brother's final concert before moving away. The band was A-MA-ZING. I know I might be a little biased but my little bro is DANG cool! I can't believe we're related. Lead Guitar

Lead Vocal

The band with thier groupies.

And my brother- the STAR of the show. He was Awesome!

Photographically, this was a bit of a challenge. I really wish I had my 50mm lense with me but I was making do with what I had and I was actually pretty excited with what I got. The first shot is straight out of the camera and the following two only needed a few small adjustments because of the low lighting situation. It was pretty dark and I was trying not to use my flash so that I wouldn't disturb the band too much, plus it maintained the atmosphere of the colored lights.

OK- just one more

Just one more from the archives

Blast From the Past

Such a cute couple! This is another wedding done about 4 years ago before I really decided that photography was my passion. They are not super flashy but they are part of my history. NO photoshop, NO extra enhancements, I haven't even done any cropping. These are just raw, straight from the camera. Ah memories!

More from the Archives

Wow, these take me back...

NO PHOTOSHOP

NO ZOOM LENSE

NO FANCY FLASH

NO FANCY CAMERA

NO PHOTOGRAPHY TRAINING EVEN!

Just plain 'ol fashion photography.

These were at my cousin's wedding

And my Hubby's Best friend's sister's wedding- wow, that's a mouthful.


Now that I've been studying photography more in depth there are some things I would definately change about these pictures but they have some great aspects as well so I still like to include them in my portfolio.

Black and White And Color

Here's some examples of Black and White that I've done.

And a little bit of selective coloring.

Last Ones! I promise

I know- you've seen enough of these but I was just putting together a few examples to show a potential client and I realized these ones never made it to the blog and I just couldn't leave them out.

Oh! So in Love!
I liked this variation of the daddy- daughter shot better than the one I shared earlier.
Love the colors! And This girl's eyes could really sparkle couldn't they. If you can, try to look at this one blown up larger to see the detail.

From the Archives

Since I've made myself official as a photographer I've had some inquires about my past work. So, I started digging through my old files looking for more examples of what I can do.

These are from my little sister's wedding. I wasn't able to get nearly as involved with the photography as I would have liked to since I was technically a part of the wedding itself AND I had a baby on my arm (it's hard to go after the good shots with only one arm available) Still- she was beautiful, the day was beautiful and I did come away with some great shots.

Really? We're related? No way!

Anywho- More to come!

Fireworks

Since I've been learning some new photography techniques I thought I'd use the fireworks as an opportunity to practice different shutter speeds. Is there one that is by far better than the others? Not really... I guess I learned that it depends on what you're going for.
This one was open for 2 seconds. The cool part was that the big orange one in the middle was what I had originally started taking the picture of- thus the streaks. But the sparkley white on off to the side jumped in just before the shutter closed, making it more defined and ... well... sparkley!

This was open for a ful 6 seconds. Cooooooool! (That was 6 sec. worth of cool if you couldn't tell)

These were only 1/125th of a second, much smore defined. I guess this is the more traditional version of fireworks.

2 seconds- I love the bright colors

2 seconds again- you should know that purple is my favorite color

2 seconds

2 seconds

So, I guess in conclusion... when in doubt, 2 seconds seemed to work very well and got me more good results but the shorter and longer speeds created totally unique but equally good pictures.

P.S. I LOVE FIREWORKS!

More Wedding

I've been fine tuning my photoshop skills over the last little while to get some new effects without looking overdone. Here's some more of my favorite shots.

Added a soft glow
Added glow with emphasized eyes.
This one I tried to go a little more artistic and bring out the "Unity Candle" that is peeking beetween the happy couple.
Added an antique look to go along with the vintage stairway.
A little burn around the edges to dress it up and make them glow- not like they needed help.
Added a little sharpening and brightened the background so you could see the bell ringer. I love this picture and it was tough to get because of the lighting. One day soon I hope to get a new slave flash so that I can brighten things up more for shots like this one.

I'm almost finished working my way through these pictures and widdling down my 1500 to a more manageable amount for the bride. I hope she likes them!

Partner in Crime

OH! By the way... Melinda was a great partner in crime for this wedding. It was sure fun to have a friend there and she was able to get some shots I didn't so I think we made a great team. Check her out at www.melindastrialphotos.blogspot.com.

More Wedding

OK, just one more shot of the bride getting ready. I love the expression in her eyes here. I think this one is actually one of my favorites.

The bridesmaids hid out at the bar (where there was cool drinks and air conditioning)

I LOVE the Daddy/Daughter shots!

And the big Moment!

MY FIRST OFFICIAL WEDDING!

Since the only weddings I've photographed so far have been one's that I was actually a PART of this was really an exciting adventure for me. I teamed up with my friend Melinda so that we could be sure to find some good shots for the happy couple.
The bell at the top of this stairway was rung to announce the arrival of the newlyweds before the dinner. I love the intricate designs carved on the wood banister.

Anxiously awaiting her big moment.

Watercolor filter creates a "painting".

Preparations:

I put the before pictures in Black and white so that the colors of the wedding itself would be more dramatic in comparison.

Water in Motion

This is a shot taken at our local Zoo. I wanted to experiment with different shutterspeeds to find just the right effect for the water.

WELCOME

Welcome to my newest blog. A place to showcase some of my favorite photographic creations. I hope to eventually be able to use this site to market my skills as a photographer. If you happen accross this blog please feel free to comment on what to see. I'm always looking to improve!