Rain Rain Go Away....Raining on A Wedding Day!

Well, It's a Saturday in May, and it's raining!
Today I am photographing Erin and Tom's wedding and by the looks of it outside~It may not clear up. I think every photographer and Bride and Groom want to have that perfect sunny wedding day with perfect conditions. But that does not always happen so we roll with it!

It's one of those days that I am sure Erie Wedding Photographers will cross paths at the Erie Art Gallery on State Street. It's the most popular spot on a rainy day. It has beautiful white columns and a quick few steps from car to cover.

I have some plans of my own on this rainy day. Stay tuned for my next blog to see pictures. Also my car is loaded with about 10 oversized umbrellas ready to hand out for cover!

A few pictures attached are from Kelsey and Mikes wedding on Conneaut Lake. The day was raining, but after the reception, it stopped for just a few minutes to catch a couple more pictures. We are going to roll with today, We have memories to make and we won't let a little rain get in the way!

Kids in the Wedding...

From the Wedding of Cindy and Steve this little man was the highlight of kids I have photographed at weddings. He was just darling.

Sometimes having kids in a wedding can be more stressful than it needs to be. From experience I would recommend that small children have an official "kid manager" LOL~ This is the person who makes the day as flawless as possible. This person is relaxed and without any other wedding tasks. For some children on the wedding day they know there has been a power shift...they have LOTS of power. I have seen my share of pleading and begging from grown ups. I have also seen my share of children that realize that they have the upper hand!!

My check list is simple:

Be sure to have a regular potty stop.

Water is the perfect beverage of choice.

snacks/food/lunch, on a busy day be sure the children are fed regularly. This may seem like a no brainer but on a hectic wedding day food is often overlooked.

Pretzels, goldfish, fruit snacks depending on the age a lollipop can go a long way! Be sure to put snacks into a ziplock bag before the ceremony. Nothing like listening to a pretzel bag opening during the ceremony!!

Also it is great to see coloring books and crayons at the reception. At one wedding they had a lego play table brought in. There were 5 boys and everytime you looked over to the area they were all accounted for.

No matter how challenging it could be to have children in a wedding....I LOVE THEM!!

Children can make for the cutiest of pictures! The More the Merrier!

Wedding of Lauren and Jeff

Well if you were able to view the above video I would like your feedback!! This past weekend I really enjoyed photographing a great couple, Lauren and Jeff.

Their wedding took place in North East and the day was perfect!

Edinboro Art and Music Festival

It was a great weekend for enjoying the Arts... The Downtown Edinboro Arts and Music Festival

was a huge success this year. I think the weather made people a little worried, but it couldn't have been better.

http://www.edinboroartandmusic.com/
Check out the website link and a couple photos I have attached. My Sawyer is 7 playing fiddle and he joined the Guys on street playing some tunes.

It's a great opportunity to come out enjoy music art and a whole lot of culture in our little town.
If you take a peek at the photos I encluded you will see that the subjects are completely back-lite. It was 9:30 in the morning. The sun was just above the buildings. When you have a situation like this you do not want to have your subjects completely in shadows becasue of the background being so bright. What I would recommend in this situation is to either use an external flash to give the faces some light. Or even an on camera pop up flash would do.
My difficulty in this situation is that I had all my camera gear packed for a wedding that was happening also this same day. So my photography tip would be to have a high shutter speed such as 250. (if I had a flash I would put my exposure at f11 and go all manual on my settings) since I did not have a flash, I set my camera up on S- for shutter priority and I used spot metering to meter the exposure on the musicians that were shaded from their own bodies.

This is a good way to keep great detail in the background as well.

I then put my little artist twist on the pictures and I hope you like...

Just Shooting for the fun of shooting...

Do you ever find yourself out wishing you had your camera? Are you the person that always has a camera on them. Or are you the person who documents everything with your iphone?

This past weekend I was very lucky to be able to teach/mentor my photography skills as well as learn from one of my mentors.

The best part about being a photographer is that generally I always have a camera. If not my professional camera, I have my point and shoot camera.

Sometimes I feel as the professional photographer...if I have my professional camera, I feel my regular everyday shooting is a little like work!
This past weekend I had a fantastic weekend just shooting whatever I wanted. ( with a little work stuff in between)

I have added random picture that either made me laugh or I liked because they had meaning to me.

I plan to add many many more to my facebook album. So if you are not a fan or friend please become one so you can see a few favorite pics from around Whistler and Vancouver.

Where are our Pictures?

So tonight I am blogging from My old stomping ground in Whistler British Columbia. I came here to enjoy the amazing setting, shoot pictures with my friends and work on some much needed workflow tweaking.

I am always the photographer that is organized, not just in business but in family as well. When shooting 1500 pictures in a wedding it's easy to organize, catalog and back up. On the everyday ~ Grab my camera and photograph the kids or the dog or the sun setting. It could be many days before I get the images loaded into the computer~

From there the file system is a very carefully thought out process that every picture has a place and every event has a title. I am always eager to be sure that the events that I document in eveyday are not lost in computer limbo and just forgotten about.

I wonder how other people document and keep track of the history in pictures they have taken.

Do regular people take digital pictures and still put them in the photo albums for the next generation to turn the pages of.

Where are our pictures? Are they lost?

What I do for my family pictures and family stuff is a simple on line album. Every month is documented and recorded under that month, at the end of each year I pick my favorite from each month and produce a photobook from "my Publisher".

http://www.mypublisher.com/

The books are perfect for family trips as well if you have a big event. They are great prices and cost about the same as if you were to print out the years favorites and put them into an album. The great thing is....you can work on your photobook all year round, at the end of the year, it's good to go.

I think so many people are losing the best part of document with pictures....we want these memories and if we don't take care of our pictures then we can't pass on the memories to the next generation. I love looking at old family pictures.

Haley and Patrick Wedding

Haley and Patrick Wedding