Jenny's Bridal Session at The Esplanade

Last week our team

had a lot of fun with

Jenny's bridal session at the

Esplanade. I love the bold colors

and the blend of elegance that

the designers created at this

beautiful new facility. For Jenny's

session I wanted to capture a very elegant 

side of Jenny  - it's not every day that you

get to be a bride - so I wanted

to let her create some beautiful

memories to last her lifetime. . . . . . . . . . 

Janice created the hairfashion for Jenny 

that would complement her veil, and 

let her beautiful long blonde hair be

seen. The dress is a very simple, yet

very detailed dress that is absolutely

gorgeous. . . . . . . For the set, I used

several room sized reflectors, as well

as a strobe flash on an extender cord,

which allowed me to position the

flash where I wanted it.  Also, I took 

advantage of the natural light coming

in from the massive windows. In the last shot I

let the sun blow out the photo a bit, just to give

the photo a nice artistic edge. I used a Canon

5d with a 24-105 L lense, wide open at f4 and

controlled by speed to get the exposure just right.

These have not got to post yet, where I'll boost

the contrast, clean up the backgrounds and make

small adjustments to the exposure.

Thanks to the staff at The Esplanade for letting us

use this great facility! Visit www.esplanadememphis.com

I love the great use of colors, elegant interior space,

and modern ambiance. Be sure to visit them for

a tour of this beautiful new facility located just

a few yards from our studio in the town square in

Cordova Station.

Bridal Session at The Pink Palace

Last week I had a great time with Janna and her bridal portrait session. I love it when brides find incredible places for their
weddings. The Pink Palace has been a landmark in Memphis way before Elvis was born, my grandfather used to take me there as a kid, so it's always a flashback for me to enter the building.
For this shoot I used my Canon 5D, some fill flash in a couple of situations, along with a 4ft silver reflector. Janna was so much fun, she brought her mom and Justins mom, and we all had a chance to talk about her wedding plans, and just get comfortable in front of the camera. My advice to every bride, do a bridal session, it gives you a memory of a lifetime! I'll take these into photoshop

and do a little post production before they are printed, and Janna

will select her favorite for her finished framed portrait

Hey Everyone...here is some new techno stuff I'm trying out for the website. Check out
Animoto...some pretty cool stuff!
http://animoto.com/play/cae24b7ea77dd0be24669d24b2098722"target="_blank"

Memphis Wedding Photography Southern Bride Magazine

Last month I got a call from one of the editors to photograph a segment for next years issue of Southern Bride Magazine. I wanted to use as much natural light as possible, so most of what you'll see in the magazine was 100% light from the window the studio. The sun was coming in from the west, and I had sheer white fabric diffusers and some silver diffusers.

I did use one 1/2 k hot spot for some fill, but only when the clouds covered up the sun. This article is yet to be written, so I can't elaborate on the details, however,

the photos will feature wedding veils and head pieces.

I used a Canon 5D with a 24-105 IS f4 lense, and working in available light and low light, the camera performed incredibly well. I wanted a soft look, and lots of detail, I'll go back in and do some touchup and may add some softness around the edges. This photo is right out of the camera. Before it goes to print it will undergo a bit of photoshop retouching.

Keep an eye out for this issue, it's sure to be a favorite for brides in 2008. I shot about 300 photos for this segment, we will use about 6 most likely.

Jeremy Horn & Brenton Brown Concert

Here is a great new recording artist that I photographed last month for his debut concert and CD release, Jeremy Horn. Jeremy opened for very well known recording artist Brenton Brown http://www.brentonbrownmusic.com/ Take time to check out both of their sites, it's well worth the time.

Visit Jeremy at http://www.jeremyhornmusic.com/ and find out why his new CD debut at #10 on http://www.amazon.com/ last week in the new worship music category. Here are just a few of the photographs from the concert held in Memphis last month as part of the Hope Summer Concert Series. Visit http://www.hopemusicacademy.com/ for more info. For this concert I used my Canon 5D with the 70-200 2.8 IS lense. The light conditions in concerts are all over the place, so I stay in manual and make constant changes on about every dial on the camera....quite a workout....but some nice results. I guess living in Memphis has it's perks getting to be a part of some great music moments.

Jill Dyson opens Concert for Mark Schultz

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This is my friend Jill Dyson at www.jilldyson.com. Jill is a talented singer songwriter and recently opened for Mark Schultz www.markschultzmusic.com at the summer concert series at www.hopepres.com. Jill has recently written several new songs for her upcoming CD, and is being mentored by Bruce Carroll at www.brucecarroll.com in the studio at Hope. Jill and her husband Shannon are great friends & neighbors, we hang out with the family when we get a chance, and I've been helping her develop her business. Here are a few photos of Jill taken in the studio, and around the corner from my house in old town Cordova. Keep and eye on her career, she has tremendous talent. www.megapixel.bz

Memphis Wedding Photography Southern Bride Magazine

In between everything else I do, I've had the great opportunity over the years to work as a contributing artist to several magazines, the experience and rewards are great. This past year I've been working for http://www.southernbride.com/ and I wanted to post a few photographs from the recent issue that just hit the magazine stands. Some of the photos are pretty simple and straight forward, for the in-studio shots of the models, used 2 low 50 watt voltage halogens just to see what would happen, I've used much larger 1 k fresnels in the past, but I wanted to see how the new Canon 5D would handle this situation. I added the bubbles in photoshop just for kicks...For the cakes, http://www.thattakesthecake.net/ I used natural light with a reflector, for the candy I used a reflector overhead with a Canon strobe pointed straight up, and the outdoor shot had just a tiny bit of fill flash, just enough to let the colors of the clothes pop a bit. I also had the opportunity to work with a couple friends (also photographers) http://www.ramblinrosephotography.com/ and http://www.bellphotoart.com/ along with my wife Janice at http://www.estonsalon.com/ and Julie the Aveda Color Director for ESTON. Also, thanks goes to the editors at Southern Bride, Alyssa and Lyndsay and the http://www.brooksmuseum.com/ for the location.

My little girl Amelia loves to help me with sessions. Her she helped me with the new
"Ballerina Session" that I offer in the studio. For this session I used a halogen softbox, and a small light on the backdrop for a little dimension. Each photo has a bit of photoshop work just to add a bit of softness. From these sessions I create a mini album, and a framed print or gallery wrap for the clients. This is a favorite with most moms that have little ballerinas at home. I used my Canon 5D with the 24-105 4.0 IS lense.

Last Month I had the opportunity to shoot some concerts at Hope for their summer concert series. Here are a few shots from two of the concerts, I'll try to post
a few more photos later. Most of you are familiar with the song Via De La Rosa, it was written by Billy Sprague who performed with his friends Bruce Carroll and Bob Bennett. Photographing concerts give me a lot of time to try new techniques, shoot
in some impossible lighting situations, and stretch my creativity by catching the artist in just the right moment. I also had the opportunity to photograph another well known christian artist, Nicole Mullen, www.nicolecmullen.com who has written many of todays most popular songs. She is a powerhouse of energy, and catching her was quite a job, I was able to get several dozen action shots using my Canon 5D with a 70-200 2.8 IS lense.

Bridal Portfolio's are the hottest thing in weddings right now, I love to work with new brides in creating a session that brings out their beauty in a romantic way. For Mandy's session, the backdrop set the mood at the historic Nineteenth Century Club in Downtown Memphis. I encourage every bride to include a bridal session at the top of her wedding photography priority list. Every bridal portrait becomes a cherished part of the brides memories. I get many brides calling me wishing that they had done a session for their wedding years ago.

A lot of my bridal sessions take a lot of planning, and some sessions I do several months after the wedding day, and some brides give them a surprise gifts to their husbands, so it's well worth the time and expense.I tend to shoot the bridal session as I would a fashion models session, using special locations, extra studio lighting, and special attention to the hair and makeup. I also want to stretch the bride a bit from her wedding poses, and direct her in the style of the session. I want the bride to walk away from the session having fun, and a lot of choices from her session. More than one portrait, but a complete portfolio with photographs she can use for years. She also let me do her engagement session, and that's posted below as well.Mandy did an incredible job in her session, and she's been very gracious to let me share some of her portfolio on my blog and on my website. Thanks Mandy!

Mandy & Jerry's Engagement Session

I love to take photos of couples in love. Their expressions toward each other are almost like watching a romantic movie. I talked to Mandy and Jerry about shooting their engagment photos, and I asked if they would give me some freedom to shoot their engagement photos.

I love to scout locations and find places that are unusual, different, and not always the expected.This old railcar is about 500 feet from the busiest streets in the city, but no one even knows this old car is sitting abandoned on the tracks. It's mostly overgrown with weeds in the summer months, but the rest of the year it's an amazing spot for some great photos.

Mandy needed little direction, Jerry followed her lead well. I was a little concerned about lighting, the sky was overcast, but it was bright. One of those days you need to wear sunglasses to keep the sky from making your eyes tear up. We spent about an hour and moved to a couple of locations near the tracks. Old town Cordova has been rezoned for industrial, so the old charm of the original small town has diminished, but the building remain intact, and offer some nice backdrops. I used my Canon 5D in manual mode

for most of these shots. I only did a small amount of post in photoshop. I may go back in a do a little bit more at some point, but I like the results so far. No flash was used, as the 5D can work well in almost any light source. See my gallery for the rest of the photos, I'm booked solid for the next 10 months, so I can't get to the blog page as often as I'd like.

WPPI 2007

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We just got back from a week at the WPPI convention in Nevada. We got up each morning at 8:30 to go some incredible classes to learn the hottest new things in photography from the best photographers in the world. (let's say I got up at 8:30 and my wife, Janice, well...she went shopping at about 10.... she'd hang with me some, but she's a hairdresser by profession, so the workshops are not always her thing, unless we are at a hair show, then she's all over it)

The WPPI is the largest professional photographers conference in America, and I got to meet, study with, and learn from over 50 different world famous photographers from around the world. My first class was with Art Wolfe, who is an incredible photographer with National Geographic Magazine, and he dazzled us with his new collection about to be released worldwide this year on the National Geographic channel. One of my loves in photography is outdoor photography, ecology and the environment. I love the beauty of our planet, and the delicate detail of our ecosystems. If you have time, visit www.artwolfe.com and see this guys incredible work!

Most of my studies at the www.wppi.com this week were for portraits and weddings, so I went to as many classes as I could all day long...from 8:30 am to 9:30 pm each day...so I did not get much time to see the sights...but I'll post a couple of photos above...most of the photos in this post were from the trade show floor where all the big companies gave even more classes. Canon and Nikon were the main camera vendors, Adobe Photoshop and Apple took up most of my time as I learned the new CS3e versions and many other cool photo programs. (I went to several classes taught by Julieanne Kost with Adobe, she knows her stuff and is an Adobe guru)

Some of my favorite photographers that I put on my learning list: Mike Colon, I've met him briefly once before, and chatted briefly again with him. Mike is exciting and full of creative genius, you'll probably see a little of his influence in my photography style. Bruce Dorn is another of my favorites, he has a cinemaphotography background, and has a new found love for wedding photography, I love his style utilizing fresnel lights, again, my style. There's one shot of him on this page, again, my cheapo pocket camera did not do him Justice...Not too many photographers utilize his style of photography, so being able to study in his lectures is a huge plus for me.

I also love Bambi Cantrell and her partner, Michael Van Auken. I had a chance to see both of their workshops and chat with Michael for a few minutes about marketing. I spent a lot of time in the Pictage booth, got into the VIP booth and learn again from Dennis Reggie, Bob Davis, Michele Celentano, Liana Lehman, David Jay and many more. The pictage guys are great! I love their service and how they support me in my quest for the best in service for all my customers.
Some of the hottest things at the show: Canon's new Mark II 16 megapixel camera is on my list when it comes out later this year. Adobe Lightroom & CS3, DXO, Wacom, Gary Fong's new lightsphere, Graphi Studio, Epson Professional Printers, Image Therapy, GNP, Capri Albums, Willowbook, Lensebabies...these were just a handfull of the vendors that I visted with and spent some money too......my goal is to only have the best for my clients, so getting the best in the business is important.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Vicki and Jed Taufer from www.VGallerynet. They are on my "list" of who to watch, they are super nice and both have incredible talents. Oh, I forget to talk about the gallery wraps, I'll get some in the studio over the next few months, you'll love these.

Anyway, we had a blast this week, learned a years worth of information, and got a chance to hone my skills even more. Most of my clients know me for my wedding style, and a lot of mom's love my baby portrait style, and my business clients always benefit from my "out of the box" approach to projects. My goal is to always achieve more, even when I'm at the top of my game, I always step back and review, learn, and evaluate my skills. This year is just about booked solid, so I plan to use all I've learned to give my clients the best possible in artistic & technical photography.

Here are a few quick pics from our cheapo pocket camera, we stayed at the Paris Hotel, got to eat at our favorite restaurant, Wolfgang Puck in the Venetian, and wandered around for a day, and got a day in at the pool too. We didn't catch any shows, but we did go to Mandalay Bay to see the aquarium, and we went to one wild but tame dance club, Pure, just to check it out, and we ate lots of croissants at the Paris Hotel. WPPI treated us to lots of great parties, food and food and more food and we got to meet lots of great fellow photographers.

Ronell Ragbir & Ginny Owens

Last week I had the honor of photographing Ronell, a sweet young teenager from Trinidad. Here is a part of Ronell's story, she's here at St Jude fighting terminal cancer. It's claimed a part of her leg, doctors don't give her much hope, but she's letting God use her through this terrible disease. This story is amazing, inspiring and beautiful. Ronell has some simple wishes that are coming true, she has a gift of songwriting, singing and love. A lot of people have come together on giving Ronell her wish. In fact, at the time of this blog, I'm sure this story has grown even more.

While sitting in a luncheon last week for a musicians conference with my friend Bruce and his team, I was asked if I had time to photograph Ronell in the recording studio for a project that will benefit St Jude. Ginny Owens got a call too, she dropped everything in Nashville to drive down to help Ronell. It was a sweet time, emotions were incredibly beautiful. Ginny has overcome so many obstacles in her life, and wanted to help Ronell in her quest to share what God is doing in her life. (visit Ginny's site at www.ginnyowens.com )

I can't wait to see how God uses this special girl. Being with her in the studio for 2 days
reminds me that we are not here on this planet on our own power. It's humbling. It's a reminder to use our gifts that God has given us to help one another. I'll keep you updated
on this project and it's impact on so many familys at St Jude. (For you photographers out there, I used the Canon 5d with existing light, iso 1600 and 3200 using the 24-105 mm IS Canon lense. The studio was very dark and quite a challenge to work in low light, and, the noisy mirror prevented me from shooting while they were recording, so I was limited in opportunity to shoot.)