DaveTree Photography

Baby shoot: Scarlett!

2011-03-19T19:41:00.000-04:00

Today we had the pleasure of meeting a sweet little four month old, Scarlett. She was so happy, until nap time, but isn't that the way it is with babies? :) Her parents are great fun, and I can easily see them becoming good friends. Just a little preview for today!

What a cutie! Am I right!!!? (That's not really a question. hahahah.)

Where have we been?!

2011-03-08T11:31:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!

It's been a few days. I know. We are busy working on some new things! And shooting people! Hopefully the 'new things' we are working on will be ready before our next blog post... but we shall see! So today, I'll leave you with these gems (because what is a blog post without photos???):

My sweet boys. Shhh- don't tell anyone- these were taken in a McDonald's! hahahhahahahahaha!

See you all soon!

Stephen + Hope: We braved the bitter cold.

2011-02-22T12:56:00.000-05:00

The day has arrived folks. This post is all about Stephen and Hope's engagement session. It was a very cold and wet day- as the in an out of our vehicles would melt the snow on our shoes and pants- and then accumulating more at each spot. However, we are alive! And I believe we all have all of our toes still! Stephen is such a fun guy- and if he's happy- you'll see it on his face (as you'll see in the photos below), I think it might be hard for him to hide his joy. And Hope is such a sweet gal- who is crafty (the good kind of crafty! Not the sneaky kind.) and creative- and can beat me at stitching... We cannot wait for their wedding this May! It is going to be a part-ay! But for now, enjoy their engagement session!

We have a few double shots from different angles (because we ALWAYS shoot together.) So up there, is mine, and below is David's... I loved them both... I just couldn't choose.

This scene must have appeared pretty darn unusual from the road...

People were honking at us... I probably would, too... If I saw people dining in the middle of a field, with two photographers in their faces...

David's shot above- mine below.

I still laugh really hard whenever I see these field pictures!!!

Just had to share this.

2011-02-18T11:00:00.001-05:00

On one of our recent engagement shoots, this poster was found. It's fantastic-ness is beyond measure. Here is the groom to be in all his astonishment and the fantastic poster.

I know the full post from this shoot is highly anticipated. And it is next in the good ole blog line up- within the next few days :)

A little personal.

2011-02-10T10:32:00.000-05:00

I love getting to know my clients. And I think a huge indication into a person and who they are can be learned on their wedding day. I feel very privileged to get to do this on a regular basis. Truly. I've always been a people watcher, and although most times I'm afraid to let people in close to me, I actually enjoy these interactions and getting (<-- yes, that's my eye!) to know new people on one of the most happiest days of their lives. It's kind of strange- but you know how people talk about old friends and being able to pick up where they left off over a long break in communication? I feel that way about my clients. I know it's not a conventional 'friendship', but it's almost like we have been through war together, and the camaraderie is there. (Disclaimer: I am in no way suggesting that a wedding is like a war zone, or that war is as easy as a wedding ceremony. Let's be clear.) Okay, so why am I blogging about this.

I feel that my blog- even though I do post some personal stuff- is lacking in that department a bit. I'm so busy working all the time- as a wife, mom, photographer, teacher, bouncer, caretaker, maid, cook, personal trainer, artist, accountant, movie critic, the list can just go on- I don't really get to let my clients know me. Even just a little bit. So here we go. I believe that you can tell a lot about a person from the kind of music they listen to. Even more so though, I believe you can tell a lot about a person from the kind of music they LOVE. What exactly it tells, is different every time, though. Even though it may be the same artist. It's a complicated system, I agree. Personally, I love Bright Eyes. It's my number one go to group for ANYTHING. Not kidding.

I guess you could say my favorite genre would be folk rock. I don't know if that's a genre... maybe I just made it up. Anyhow, I'm rambling now and I just wanted to share a new discovery with you. I stumbled upon this out there in the internet somewhere, and loved it. (This is not Bright Eyes, but a new discovery. Maybe saddle creek should get ahold of this guy and sign him quick!) So here you go:

(Roo Panes) Enjoy :)

Michael + Emily: The Wedding.

2011-02-09T11:05:00.000-05:00

It's been a few weeks, (Not even an entire month, yet... so I'm on top of my game.) since Michael and Emily's wedding. And I'm ready to go full out blog post! So here are the newlyweds, and some of our favorite shots from their wedding day.

Then- they danced. There was a lot of dancing. Which resulted in so many great photos... however, we can only share some of them... granted, it's a few more than I would normally post- but you can just see the joy radiating... so get your dancing shoes on, and let's get down!

Okay... so there are a LOT of dancing photos- but these people just kept dancing, what were we to do? It was a celebration :)

They had these little chalkboards on the tables, so that guests could leave messages for the couple- I'll leave you with a collage of that:

Stephen + Hope: Animated.

2011-02-03T16:03:00.000-05:00

:D

Stay tuned- we will have a full blog of Michael + Emily: Wedding Day! within the next day or two.

Stephen + Hope: One for good measure.

2011-02-01T15:03:00.000-05:00

Yes, another sneak peek. I couldn't resist.

How cute are they?? :)

Sneak Peek: Stephen + Hope!

2011-01-29T23:20:00.000-05:00

We LOVE Stephen and Hope! We got to hang out with them most of the day, and had an awesome adventure(not kidding, ADVENTURE.) with them! Oh, and we might have been shooting their engagement session, too... after much deliberation, and not being able to decide which shot should be the sneak peek- I think this 'peek' is fitting.

More to come :) Stay tuned.

Animate.

2011-01-24T16:29:00.000-05:00

Michael + Emily: Wedding Sneak Peek #4!

2011-01-22T23:28:00.001-05:00

Someone might be inclined to say we are at about the half way point... but don't quote me. Just maybe. Last one for a few days:

Isn't she a BEAUTIFUL bride!!!!? That's really a rhetorical question...

Michael + Emily: Wedding Sneak Peek #3!

2011-01-22T21:02:00.000-05:00

Who says you're only allowed one sneak peek? Certainly not me. Sometimes editing a wedding can take four weeks or more! So, I just can't see the compassion in only one sneak peek. So this one shall be number three. But before I post it, I must say- I thought I had my pantry stocked with Chunky soup... however, after getting the urge for some soup, I found none in my pantry... so spaghettios are substituting. I know... not even the same. Oh well.

A little up close and personal.

2011-01-21T09:38:00.001-05:00

Okay, I'm not bragging. Just sort of. After almost seven years of marriage- and I'm not gonna lie and say it's ALWAYS been easy, because it hasn't (whose marriage has been a breeze all the time, am I right?), but so worth it and so perfectly designed. Long story short, we decided I needed a new ring. One that was more ME me and not me as a naive girl. And did my husband do good, or what? (Disclaimer: please do not note my alligator rough looking skin... the winters here in the mitten are dry, okay? I don't always have time to moisturize!!!)

I think it's just perfect! I love it!!!! Thank you David Adam! I love you.

Michael + Emily: Wedding Sneak Peek #2!

2011-01-18T17:05:00.000-05:00

Absolutely, by far, my most favorite Mother of the Bride shot EVER. Competition will forever be closed- this one seals the deal:

(She was very interested in what my husband was doing and wanted to try, too. This was the result :)

First wedding of 2011: Michael + Emily!

2011-01-15T22:37:00.000-05:00

Remember when your mom would always say "If you keep making that face, it's gonna stick that way."?

Scientific proof she was right:

:D hahahah! Love this shot. (Their faces didn't really stick that way...)

We had a blast kicking off the new year with our first wedding tonight! The marriage of Michael and Emily, and we got to hang out with all these awesome people! Just wait till you see the dance floor pictures! To many many happy years, Congratulations Michael and Emily!

Defiant Joy... or loathing.

2011-01-12T22:08:00.001-05:00

Not that I loathe joy... I certainly don't. How could anyone 'loathe' joy? I do however loathe Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life & Impact of G.K. Chesterton. I do not loathe Chesterton either. (This is a new thing I'm trying- for all of my photography friends out there. I love a good book- when I have the time to. I've recently begun reviewing books for Booksneeze.com- to keep my sanity between the editing... or in this case... not keep my sanity!)

Let me be clear- upon choosing this book (Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life & Impact of G.K. Chesterton by Kevin Belmonte, I do not loathe Belmonte, either. Crystal?) I thought it would be at the least, witty. Which it was not. And to quote Chesterton himself (speaking on Mark Twain's wit) But wit is a sword; it is meant to make people feel the point as well as see it. However, I just feel a bit robbed. Don't get me wrong- the excerpts from Chesterton's books are absolutely lovely. So well worded, and poignantly laid out. But who asked this Kevin guy to write such a book? No offense. His words pale in comparison- especially with Chesterton's right there on the page next to them (Yes, I understand that mine do, too.)! And seem to go in circles, on and on, about how influential his (Chesterton's) words were, and the way he lived out his life to be winsome. I got it within the prologue. I really don't think that 277 pages were necessary. Maybe he could have just written a little bit on the dust cover of one of Chesterton's books... now I'm just ranting. I think my point is clear.

I wouldn't recommend this book. Unless you like to feel your eyes shriveling into raisins, if you're sadistic like that. One good thing came out of this experience- I now know of a G.K. Chesterton- and I'm going to read his books.

Dustin + Erica: ENGAGED!

2011-01-06T17:53:00.001-05:00

Finally! Well... it really hasn't been THAT long... this engagement session was a few days before Christmas, and with the craziness of the holidays- I am ahead of my targeted finish date! So- I spoke a little about Erica and Dustin previously, but I'll just sum it up and say that they are GREAT fun! These first few collages are because I didn't want this blog post to be too long, so they are grouped together:

Now that the FUN part is out of the way...

I like the men staring in the background...

Uh oh...

Two different points of view, same moment:

And we went all rustic:

All these interior barn shots compete for my favorite shot of the day :)

Enjoy :)

Dustin + Erica: Last one, I promise.

2010-12-30T14:18:00.000-05:00

SO- the 'holiday' season has indeed been hectic, so this is all you get for today:

Such a cute duo :) I'll be back after the first of the year!

Erica + Dustin: Another sneak peek. I couldn't help myself.

2010-12-21T13:15:00.000-05:00

So, in lieu of the information I relayed in my last post, (and because I thought these turned out REALLY cute!) Erica and Dustin get another sneak peek. So while we were at Craig's Cruisers- we utilized the photo booth for a moment, but used our cameras. Cute-ness ensued.

Dustin + Erica: Sneak peek!

2010-12-20T12:31:00.000-05:00

It's been a few days (almost a month, but who's counting, right?) since our last post. We've been taking some much needed relaxation time... and December isn't your typical wedding weather here in the mitten. However, we are back today with a sneak peek from an engagement shoot we did yesterday in the (larger than I thought) city of Grand Rapids. While we were out and about, we stumbled upon a movie set! But sadly, it was not the Bruce Willis movie, because as I googled, that movie had already had a premier about five days before... so I'm pretty sure Bruce wasn't still kicking it in G-rap. Still sort of exciting. Anyway- this is Erica and Dustin. They are so cute together, and so much fun to hang with! Dustin is pretty quiet (at least mostly) but he has a great sense of humor, and Erica is so sincere- I love that Erica's inability to hide what she thinks or feels shows right on her face! You'll see what I'm talking about when I get the whole post up. But for now, just this lonesome little photo:

With all of the Christmas festivities just days away- I may not be able to get the whole post up until after that madness (sheer madness- we have SIX 'Christmases'. I'm not exaggerating.). But I just may bring my work with me to do on a little bit of down time... we shall see. Until then, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Behind the scenes.

2010-11-29T21:03:00.000-05:00

Taking photos of us taking photos (at work) has been a relatively new concept to us... it's not that we haven't THOUGHT of it before, we're just usually busy trying to get the best shots we can of our actual subjects to think about it at that given time. So I have a few to share with you today, pictures below are Aaron and Bethany, and myself:

Incidentally, this next one is also from Aaron and Bethany's wedding- David was assisting me in trying out some lighting effects- and this hilarity happened:

Kind of reminds you of something like this:

The next one was shot during Michael and Emily's engagement session, it's actually a two for one, you can see David's shadow, with the strange mushroom shape coming out of his head (it was a street lamp):

And- same shoot- at the public library- if you look in the bottom right hand corner you can see David two floors down shooting upward toward Michael and Emily in the top left corner:

Amazingly... we haven't had any shots that are that embarrassing yet... we'll keep trying.

The Great Undertaking: an appreciation for editing.

2010-11-28T00:08:00.000-05:00

Wouldn't it be super awesome happy fun time if we could print a photo we shot without ever having to do anything more than point and click? I submit that that would be WAY too easy. And B-O-R-I-N-G. Sometimes within the frenzy of a wedding morning, no matter how hard you try, and how little time you have to adjust for things to get that shot that lasts a millisecond... sometimes, you just can't perfectly expose. Your fingers can't move quick enough, or you NEED to underexpose a little to catch the clarity. Sure, with landscapes you could point, adjust, shoot, print... but I'm talking about PEOPLE here. I dare you to try that! It just doesn't happen... let me rephrase: It just doesn't turn out well.

I have to say, even with all the time we photographers put into editing (hours upon hours upon hours and so on till we think we've become fused to our chairs...), I find it a necessary part of the art of photography. Photoshop and I are BFF's. And there is a friend poacher in our midst, called Lightroom. However, we just haven't warmed up to each other that much... yet. I hope lightroom and I can be good friends someday, but right now, I just don't have the time. Enough of my social life, the point of all this is that some people don't understand the process, and how we arrive to the things you're having printed. On average a photo takes a minimum of 10 minutes to edit. So let's put that in perspective for a wedding- average photo turn out (for me) is about 1000. So 1000 photos x 10 minutes= 10,000 minutes... or over 166 HOURS. That doesn't even begin to include the black and white versions or the complete custom edits- that's just adjusting for lighting anomalies, fixing blemishes, and optimizing... which sometimes takes a lot more than 10 minutes... however, I painstakingly and lovingly take this upon myself to create little masterpieces. It really is an art. And one that must be self learned. Sure, you can take advice, try out things you see online, even try some actions, and action recipes that other photographers put out there, but in the end- you find the zone and look you want to achieve, which is usually farther from where you thought you were going in the first place. I'll stop talking your faces off, and get to some photos.... because that's what we're here for.

Here is an example of a RAW photo (I try hard to not show anyone the RAWs... but this is for educational purposes...*gulp*)- COMPLETELY unedited (keep in mind this was kind of an off the hip shot... I don't usually meter so badly!)

I know, pretty dark. Generally, I would just drop this in the NO folder. But from what I could see, I loved the intimacy of the expressions, and of course the composition, otherwise I wouldn't have shot it, I also liked the lighting, even though it was dark. So I open it, and do some simple adjustments in contrast, black levels, so on and so on, approximately 10 minutes later, I have this:

It's nice, lighting is much better, and the general details that I liked in the first place are much more apparent. However, it's still just a photo. A little more editing, more time, at least another 10 minutes, and some personalization/style, and voila, a custom edit:

I know it's kind of hard to see the difference between these last two, I shall put them side by side for you:

Far left- the RAW file, middle- lighting adjustments, etc., far right- custom edit.

Gives you a better idea.

I have a few more examples, just for fun. So, here is RAW:

In the adjusted one below, you can see some recovery of the bride's back/arm and a little bit of color change, but there really isn't much difference between it and the RAW, so it was actually less than a 10 minute edit:

And this last one really just makes it timeless to me:

And I'll throw them side by side, for a more clear understanding:

And I have ONE more example. RAW:

Some of you know that I LOVE to have the sun present and shining magical sun spots into my photos. And most of the time, you just can't shoot anyway but to underexpose those a bit, so there's a bit of a jump from the RAW above to the minor adjustments below:

And then, my favorite- the custom edit. I love this shot/edit combined. The little sunbow pops even more at their knees with this certain combo, one of my favorite elements in photos like these:

And we'll do a side by side for good measure:

So there you see a little bit of the process that goes into editing. It's very time consuming but very worth the results if you put the time and care into it. Happy editing!

Michael + Emily: Engaged!

2010-11-24T23:17:00.001-05:00

Michael and Emily were such a fun couple to hang out with! The forecast was setting us up for a pretty nice afternoon, however, Michigan had a different plan, and it was quite frigid, but they were such troopers, and down for anything we threw at them! (THANK YOU!) You can tell how much respect and love they have for each other, and we are super excited to shoot their wedding in January! Yes, a January wedding. We have to work a bit harder here in Michigan, due to strange atmospheric phenomenon, so depending on how Michigan feels that day, we may or may not have a snow, a tornado, drizzling rain, sun... or... a snow tornado with drizzling rain and sun peeking through periodically. Seriously. Anyway- here are Michael and Emily, in all of their glorious leaf angel making skills:

(I would have done a shoot in a public library before, if I knew it was legal!)

(All of the following photos in this series were taken at The Strutt, a very cool do-it-yourself kind of coffee shop in downtown Kalamazoo. I will be visiting there again, soon.)

And that's it for this post! I have to finish preparing Thanksgiving food for tomorrow! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Michael + Emily: Sneek Peak!

2010-11-20T12:58:00.000-05:00

I'll elaborate a little bit more on the awesomeness of Michael and Emily when I post the full engagement session- but here is just one little pictures to tide you over :

Consultations & Robert Pattinson.

2010-11-16T10:15:00.002-05:00

We've been meeting with people left and right about weddings for 2011. We've been crazy busy. But that's not what the majority of this post is about. It's about Robert Pattinson... well, a little bit. Mostly it's about this cutey right here:

Most of my readers have probably seen him already- this is Elliot Fox. My darling child. He's quite a character. What most of you may not know, is that he has had this crazy head of hair since he was born. Quite literally, he was born with an orange mohawk. NO JOKE. I have pictures to prove it. Let me dig one up real quick... okay, that wasn't real quick... it took me a good five minutes at least! Here he is a day old:

You can't really see how orange his hair is... because it needs washed! But don't worry- I have a few more examples for you!

Quite some orange hair. It's toned down since then. But now I'm getting to my point- I've been told on a couple occasions that Elliot looks like Edward Cullen (unless you've been hiding under a rock, we all know Edward Cullen is from the book turned movie series Twilight) and sometimes Robert Pattinson, but when my husband stated it yesterday, then I knew it must be true-- I'm sure it's only because of his hair. Or if you need a visual, this guy right here:

You can notice the hair resemblance very easily now, I'm sure. But just for good measure:

I know! So now I'm thinking that Hollywood is missing out on a huge opportunity. That opportunity being, my son playing the role of a young Robert in any movie it's needed. HELLO. Look at my little man, he's a stud. :) I know he doesn't look so brooding yet... but the teen years will come, and I know he'll nail that look then! Just for fun- stumbled across this when I was looking for baby pictures:

We look so little and young! :D That was almost six years ago now! Time flies.

One last shot I wanted to share- from our self family portraits yesterday (from the shoot for our Christmas cards of course!)

My little men. Elliot Fox and Greyson Wolf. You guys are growing up way too fast.

Do you have any kidlets with celebrity resemblance? If so, share with me!