Ok - so I’ve been a bad blogger….2 weeks since I last posted! Wedding season ended for me last week with the marriage of Stacy and Kyle up at Bridal Veil Lakes, and I’ve been busy catching up on processing, commercial work and some pin-ups and have just not updated the blog!! Sorry!

So - here are a few from my last wedding of 2008. If you are getting married in 2009 then get in touch, we have some awesome plans for next year!

Not really a get out of the shot - but this is a fun image from my 2nd photographer from Lysa and Mark’s wedding on Friday! We had a blast wandering around the Pearl District as the sun was going down! Here’s a shot from Cammie (great job Cammie!) and then the shot that I was taking at the time!

This was another wedding that I shot as an associate photographer for Power’s Studios here in Portland.

This was a full, but very satisfying day’s shooting. Lisa and Auston - a lovely romantic couple! We started the day out at Edgefield, and ended it down by the river next to Omsi, in the dead of night!! Great fun!

This was another wedding that I shot as an associate photographer for Power’s Studios here in Portland.

It’s been a long time in the making, but it was worth the wait! The first batch is back from the printer and ready to be sent to lucky new owners!

If you like what you see, don’t wait for 2009…grab one now and enjoy Cherry in all her 50’s glory for the rest of 2008 too!

As regular readers will know - this year I’m shooting 15 weddings for the great Powers Oregon Company here in Portland. Craig and I have often discussed which direction to take Times Two Studios and I’ve finally convinced him that weddings are where we should be going! So - for 2009, something new for Portland. Something exciting. Something AWESOME. More details to come, but we are going to be offering a new take on wedding photography bringing the combined photographic and retouching skills of Craig and myself together in one package. If you are getting married in 2009 and want details get in touch! More info coming soon….

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of shooting Sunshine and Grady’s wedding. Helping on the day was Bo Baumgartner. Great fun to work with, Bo shot some awesome images for the happy couple. He’s available for weddings to, take a look at his site!!

It’s always fun to see images of myself shooting - cringeworthy, but fun - here are a couple of me getting right in the way of Bo’s camera!! (Thanks Bo!)

I like to get close to my subjects!

Yup - that’s me…right in the middle of Bo’s shot!

And here’s me looking all action man!

My first wedding of the year, and an awesome one to kick off the season! Sunshine and Grady are two of the sweetest people I’ve ever been lucky enough to photograph, and their vows brought tears to the whole congregation, and this silly old photographer too!! Good luck to them both as they start their marriage together.
As I’ve previously mentioned, this year I’m an associate photographer for the great Powers Studios here in Portland, run the awesome Ben and Laurel Powers.

Whether you’re shooting a model, bride or child, interaction with your subject is a must if you want stunning images. Some photographers expect their victims, sorry, subjects, to do all the work for them. That’s fine if you have a very animated person to shoot, but it’ll only get you so far. Part of the job of a photographer is to also be a director. This needn’t mean pushing your client around and micromanaging each pose, but it should mean having fun, telling stories and putting your subject at ease. I love messing around with my models and brides, and it always produces a fair amount of outtakes which I think are often the best - as they have the *real* laughing smiles! During the winter when wedding season is slow, I spend a lot of time photographing models for both my and their portfolios. It keeps your shooting mind sharp, allows you to practice new techniques and is a great way to polish up your interaction with your subjects. Here are a few outtakes from recent sessions at my studio - full edited highlights of these sessions coming soon…..

I found this quote on a blog I read often:

“When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied, “Only stand out of my light.” Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.–John W. Gardner”

With photography, it’s often very easy to forget that the number one most important ingredient is the light. You can buy the most fancy pants camera in the World, attend all the seminars money your wallet will allow…but if you don’t *see* the light, you’re dead. Much of my work is created from studio based shoots…and that usually means ‘flat’ lighting - that is non-directional. I then add the mood later depending on how I feel the image can benefit. Wedding photography is hard, since you can’t control the main light source - the sun - that much. You have to learn to work with the sun and use whatever it’s deciding to do on that given day. Cloudy and overcast? Awesome…great for beautiful soft portraits. Full sun and blue sky? Great…get that sky *and* the sun in the shot. Make them focal points. Use the sun, play with it. Cloudy / sunny / cloudy / sunny?? Close your eyes and pray……

Trying to get your website found by Google (well, and the other engines, but Google is the daddy..) is a mystery to most people. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to how or why they rank certain pages above others. There are things you can do, and many people out there who *claim* to be able to help. One person I know who is a genius at search engine optimization is Rob Oresteen. He’s on top of all the cool Web 2.0 and social media marketing and can help push your site up the rankings. Check him out!

At Times Two Studios, we use a variety of tools to get the look and feel that photographers want for their images, and we are excited to announce that we are now using some awesome actions, textures, brushes and shapes from the Design|House set from Andy Armstrong. Born out of a desire to give his own photography a signature style, Andy has put together a stunning suite that rivals any others on the market….check ‘em out…! On a personal note, I’d like to thank Andy for inviting me to be a beta tester for his suite!

Because one is most definetly not enough..!! A few more from the awesome bridal fashion session with the incredible Cherry Dollface…

Another shot of the awesome Cynthia from our recent photographer’s day at the studio…”

More from the shoot with Hollie:

One of the services that I have on offer to compliment my wedding photography this year is an outdoor Bridal Shoot - sometimes known as ‘Trash The Dress’ (we don’t really *trash* the dress…but we take it places you wouldn’t on your wedding day!). This is the first shot of Hollie that I’ve looked at - looks awesome doesn’t she? I’m planning a few of these shoots this year….if you have recently got married and want to have some fun get in touch!

Craig and I were honoured to host a great bunch of photographers from an online forum we frequent: NOBS ! We had 17 photographers running around shooting anything that moved! Teresa, our favorite model, came along for the day to pose for us all, and we had two new models in too, Melissa and Cynthia. Networking with fellow photographers is essential for your business - don’t treat other photographers as competition, we are all in this together. Use your contacts to make your business better. Having a great bunch of photographers you can call on might get you out of a jam too - ever been sick the day of the wedding? It happens. You do NOT want to be thumbing the Yellow Pages on the morning of a wedding looking for cover. Get to know your local photographers, meet up and have fun together.Here are a few of my shots from the day - first, the ever versatile Teresa:

And now Cynthia (We’ll be working with her again!)

Canon’s new EOS 1d MK III is the sub-machine gun of the camera world. It can manage 10fps for 110 images before the buffer stalls. More than enough for ANY photographer I should imagine. Sports shooters will love it. Overkill for babies though, even those that won’t sit still.