Greg Hahner Studios

From Their Perspective: Sarah Bradshaw Photography

2015-06-05T13:02:00.001-07:00

Today I'm bringing you another interview with a fantastic wedding photographer from D.C. Sarah Bradshaw is a full-time local and destination wedding photographer whose primary goal is to capture timeless moments that will be admired for generations. Her classic approach, coupled with her passion for marriage, comes together to form an elegant style that focuses on capturing and creating memories that will last a lifetime.

Sarah, thanks for doing this interview with me. I learned a lot and was inspired by your passion and the way you approach your business. Thanks so much!

Listen to the interview below or download it here.

Follow the links below to view more of Sarah's work:

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Greg Hahner Studios: How did you get started in photography?

Sarah Bradshaw: It started when I was working for a non-profit in Chicago. Throughout my time of working with them, there was always the question of, "What am I going to do next?" I spent about 3 years working for that organization, and spent all of that time praying about the next step. I picked up an interest in photography during that time, but I didn't actually do any shooting, I was just interested in it as a concept. After praying about it, I determined that photography was something I wanted to pursue.

I eventually decided that I wanted to do missions photojournalism full-time. I spent a bit of time overseas, about a month in Thailand and about 3 weeks in Kenya doing mission work, but I quickly realized that it wasn't a good fit for me and my giftings. Because of my personality, that kind of vagrant lifestyle wasn't suited to my personality, and it wasn't a good way to express my interest in the work.

I ended up moving back home and started second-shooting weddings for another photographer in my area. I ended up falling head-over-heels in love with weddings and wedding photography. It's taken a long time to actually love the business-side of photography, but I've fallen in love with being a business owner as well. I've been full-time for six years now, and it's been a huge joy and blessing.

GHS: Briefly describe for us your business and its core values.

SB: When I first started out in business, my entire goal was missions photojournalism. I wanted to tell true stories of God's work in the world. I believe He is actively at work bringing glory to His name, and I wanted to find a way to showcase that.

I place a lot of value on my business' core values and beliefs. A few of my core-beliefs include:

Believing that every person is made in the image of God and is therefore beautiful, thus I should shoot them in the most beautiful way possible.
Believing that everything I do is meant to be done for the glory of God and to the best of my ability.
Believing that coffee is something that should be consumed every single day.

These beliefs, among many others, help to keep me focused and filter my business decisions; everything from the way I do networking/marketing to the way I use my advertising fund. I think that if I invest in people and if I'm building up people and strengthening relationships, then I'm living my life well.

GHS: What drives you as a photographer?

SB: The primary reason I shoot weddings is because I love marriage, and I love marriage because it pictures the gospel. That is the big reason I get up every morning and spend my life trying to provide quality wedding images for couples. I do think you can have a really strong, gospel-centered marriage without having any good wedding pictures, or even without having a photographer there at all, but there's something about seeing the day you committed yourself to another person well-documented that helps to strengthen and remind you of your vows. Because of this, I want to be able to provide the best quality services possible.

It almost becomes a bit of a game for me. I challenge myself and ask question like, "How fast can I get these images back to my clients? I told them 90 days, can I turn them around in a week and shock their socks off?" Or, "How can I increase their love for each other and increase their love for marriage while still maintaining my role as a professional business owner?"

What I love about business is just the chance to provide for my family, and working for myself gives me a lot of flexibility to grow relationships. I have a friend who's getting ready to move, and they're putting their house on the market, so I get to go photograph their house for them. I love having the opportunity to use my gifts to help other people. It's just a huge blessing that I can halt my day and go bless others in that way.

GHS: What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a business owner?

SB: Everyone has different challenges that they face. Everyone has different personalities, and I think everyone has different emotional capacities for things. My biggest struggle has been the fact that I don't have a boss. I thrive off of structures, and I love being told what to do. I want to know what the expectations and I want to know if I've measured up to them or not. Without a boss, I don't have that, and I don't get feedback on whether I'm doing things well or not. That's been a huge challenge for me. I've had to work really hard and come up with some creative solutions for myself that help provide that structure so that I can actually be successful.

I'm not good at just getting up in the morning and working, I need to know what my goals are for the day. I use a day planner called the Day Designer, and it lays out a daily schedule, a daily to-do list, and the top three goals for the day. I have to really focus on those top three goals for the day and dictate to myself what I'm going to do each day, and this tool has really helped me stay on track.

I think another challenge for business owners is the fact that most of us that are self-employed didn't get degrees in business before getting into business. Learning things like tax law, and accounting methods, and government requirements for small businesses can be really overwhelming and confusing. And trying to find time to focus on business while still creating momentum in business is hard. Questions like, "How do I get clients talking about me?" or, "How do I get people interested in my business?" get mixed in with other priorities such as paying taxes on time and making sure you stay on top of your bills.

It can be daunting at times, but it can also be fun and challenging. There's a certain amount of satisfaction that comes from being able to look at something and say, "I built this, I created this", with the realization that this is something God has called us to do. I would not still be in business if I wasn't convinced that this is what God has called me into. I'm fully convinced of that.

GHS: Where do you go to get your inspiration?

SB: I really love architectural photography. I love structure, lines, and grids; those are a huge inspiration to me. It might sound weird, but I think if you look at my work you'll see that I love vertical shots and I love placing my subjects within strong architectural themes. One advantage of living in D.C. is that there's a lot of beautiful architecture, it's like one big playground all the time. I've got the best backdrops in the world!

I also glean inspiration from 1940's and 50's fashion magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair. Just looking at the work of older, experienced photographers who are really gifted at understanding light and form is fascinating and inspiring. I also find inspiration from looking at editorial photography.

I think the biggest inspiration for me as a wedding photographer comes from the couples' story. I always make sure to spend time and put effort into getting to know my couples because I want my wedding pictures to reflect them. If they're a super-goofy couple, then we're going to do super-goofy pictures, because that is a good reflection of who they are. They wouldn't look natural in a super-stylized, posed photograph. More-dramatic couples, however, are perfect for those sorts of images, and if I were to do goofy images, they would feel awkward and uncomfortable. So really, inspiration for me is about capturing the couple for who they are, and figuring out what that practically looks like.

GHS: How do you go about photographing images that reflect a couples' story?

SB: I think it's a process of analyzing and experimenting. I always try to meet with my couples before shooting their wedding, and I do everything I can to book an engagement shoot with each couple. Engagement shoots really give me an opportunity to see how couples interact with each other in front of the camera, and it really gives them an opportunity to see how I work and how I pose them.

I do have a list of about 10 poses that I can pull out of my back pocket and use for just about any situation, and I add slight variations to make the shots unique and special to the couple being photographed. I'll often ask myself questions while shooting, trying to evaluate what poses feel natural for the couple I'm photographing, and which poses would feel awkward or out of character. Some poses can be challenging to pull off for certain couples, but I think almost any pose can be modified to photograph most anyone.

I love Pinterest, and I've got a board called The Pose Book. I take time every now and then to sit down and go through poses, analyzing the positioning, the lighting, the expressions, the surroundings, and really try to break down what I consider to be good poses in my head so I can re-create them on a wedding day. It's really a process of analyzing and determining what poses best suit the couple I'm photographing and figuring out what I have to do to pull those poses off.

GHS: What would you say is the purpose of photography?

SB: Photography freezes time into a single frame. It enables us to capture moments as they happen and preserve memories so that we can be reminded of those special moments later in life. The purpose of wedding photography is to have a couples' most important day of their lives memorialized and preserved for generations.

My goal when shooting a wedding is to shoot it with the grandchildren in mind. 70 years later, these pictures will still be relevant, and for that reason I want my work to be really classic, to have staying power, to be timeless. Because of this, I try not to follow fads or styles that will go out of fashion.

I think the purpose is to invest in generations. A basic question most people ask is, "Where did I come from?" Ultimately we're created by God for his glory, but we also ask these questions concerning our family genealogy. Having pictures supports and answers questions regarding our origin and our heritage.

GHS: Do you have any advice for beginning photographers who are looking to get into the professional market?

SB: Become obsessed with light. Master it. Everywhere you go, look at the light. When in a room, try to figure out how many colors of light there are. Pay attention to how the sunlight changes color throughout the day, and from season to season. Study how light bounces off of different surfaces, and how the directionality of light can change the entire feeling of a scene. Study light all the time.

A second piece of advice would be that good art begets good art. If we train our eyes to see good art, or if we just place good work before our eyes, eventually we'll begin to see good art in real life. Though some people are gifted with an "eye" for art, much of the ability to see is in the nurturing of the skill. You truly can train your eye to have good taste. That's one reason I like Pinterest and spend time in art galleries so much.

When it comes to business, the most basic things you can do are get a business license, develop a business plan, and set aside 30% of your earnings for taxes. Those are three of the biggest steps you can take.

Ask lots of questions. There's a wealth of information out there. Google is a great resource when it comes to answering questions concerning photography, business, and anything else!

Fear is a bad excuse, it's not a good enough reason to not follow your dream or to not do things well.

GHS: What are some successful methods you've found to promote your business?

SB: My best business promotion is, and always has been, word-of-mouth.

Second to that would be blogging. Blogging is a great way to promote yourself. I blogged 5-6 days a week when I first started, and that was a great way to boost search-engine-optimization and made it easier for my clients to find me. But I think the blog world has changed since then, and people get overwhelmed with the amount of information that gets posted everyday. I have backed off of blogging a bit, but I still try to do it at least 3 days a week. I think consistency is king in this area.

I think genuinely loving people is the ultimate way to promote yourself. Showing genuine interest and support for your fellow photographers in the marketplace is huge. When other photographers know that you support them and care about their business, they'll show the same courtesy to you and possibly recommend you to others. I've actually gotten a lot of work from referrals by other photographers, and it really builds camaraderie amongst your fellow colleagues.

GHS: In looking back over your journey as a photographer, what is the greatest take-away for you?

SB: Living by fear is the worst possible way to live. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind. I've found that so often a fear of failure, or a fear of disappointing others, or a fear of not meeting my own expectations, only serves to keep me from loving people like God has called me to. I've made so many decisions based out of fear that I regret; I've never made a decision based out of fear that I'm thankful for. I always regret the decisions I make out of fear. Often we give fear a different name (stress, discomfort, etc.), but I'm realizing more and more how many ways I've let fear rule my decisions. I think confronting fear is the best thing anyone can do as a person, as a photographer, and as a business-person.

A second thought would be to just do the work. There's a common mindset amongst business-owners that says, "Do what you're good at and outsource the rest." I think outsourcing some of the work is good, but I think we fall into this mentality that we should only have to do stuff that we enjoy and are passionate about. If you examine history for the last 6,000 years, you'll see that most people worked so that they could feed their families, not because they found identity or purpose in it. I think we need to adjust our thinking and come at our tasks with gratitude, realizing that this is what God's given us to do and it is a wonderful way to provide for our families.

A third one would be, don't be afraid to turn off the noise. Unfollow blogs, get off Facebook, stay away from Pinterest for a while. There truly is only so much creativity we can gain from looking at other peoples' good work. At the end of the day, we just need to get out and create. We need to be the ones who are cultivating our own eyes, not always staring at what someone else has created

GHS: Do you have any other words of advice you could share with fellow photographers?

SB: Write your goals down. In a study done at a Princeton MBA class back in 1972, students were surveyed to find out what percentage of the class had physical written goals. It was found that 3% of the class had written goals, while 13% had goals that weren't written down, and the rest of the class didn't have any goals.

A follow-up study was done 10 years later on the same students, and on average, the 13% of students that had goals that weren't written down were making twice as much as the students that had no goals. But the 3% of student that had physical written goals were making on average 5-times more than all of the rest of the students combined.

I think it's worth thinking about writing down where you want to be, what your goals are for you as a photographer, as a business-owner, and as a person. When we write goals down, in a sense we hold ourselves accountable to achieve them, and I think that taking time to dream and taking time to strive for something more is important.

Only In My Dreams Project Week 52

2015-05-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

ISO 200 | 50mm | f 8.0 | 1/250 sec

The world of dreams is a magical place, a realm of wonder, a land of adventure. Limitless in its potentials, the dream world offers a boundless landscape through which the mind can explore. Immune to the constraints of the physical universe, this world provides endless hours of inspiration for the creative soul, transforming the unlikely into a tangible certainty, and causing the impossible to become reality.

But like all good things, this world of dreams must also come to an end. We've tread upon its soil for far too long, covered miles of winding stone pathways, scaled rugged mountainous terrain, traipsed across lush grassy meadows, and wandered through the depths of the darkest woods. Though the thrills of adventure beckon us onward, yet the duties of another life force us down from our position in the clouds. Life - real life, deserves our time and our energies. We were not meant to spend our time waltzing endlessly through an alternate reality.

And so it is with a mixture of sadness and indescribable joy that I must bid adieu to this wondrous world of dreams, this landscape of undiscovered potential, this universe of unbounded possibilities. Pain and grief must naturally accompany any parting, but I know that as I lay my head down for the last time, that the moment of passing must inevitably come. What a glorious thing; for though I close my eyes and let go of my hold on this world, yet I look forward with anticipation to the world beyond what my eyes can see or what my mind can comprehend. This world of dreams is only temporary, a taste of another world far greater and much more wondrous.

So as I depart this world of alternate realities, I'm overcome with anticipation as I gaze ahead into the bright unknown. A whole 'nother world of possibility lies ahead of me, I'm eager to discover what comes next.

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That wraps it up for this 52 week project! I've now reached the end of an exciting journey that has been chock full of learning, experimentation, discovery, and inspiration. Little did I realize when I started this project what I was getting myself into, but I've grown so much through this process and absolutely blown my mind at least half-a-dozen times during this incredible adventure. I look forward to what is ahead, and am thankful for the wonderful experience this last year has been for me.

Just some brief notes on this shot. I took this in the hot, stuffy loft of our barn. The scene was simple, but I loved the character provided by the contours of the aged wood and the somewhat dilapidated feel of the setting itself. I felt like it was the perfect location for what I wanted to accomplish.

I used three strobes to light all the scenes in this composite. I had a strobe and beauty dish acting as key light to camera-left, a strobe and regular dish reflector to camera-right behind the subject to cast some side/rim light, and a strobe with a honeycomb grid on a boom above the subject to create the top light.

I shot myself laying on the floor for the initial image, then brought my stool and took some shots jumping up towards the boom light to get the second shot of myself ascending. Last of all, I took some shots while tossing shovel-fulls of dirt into the air (yes, some of the dust in this shot is real). I managed to get really dirty during this process (and I got some dirt in my eyes and in my teeth), but it was totally worth it.

Here's a wide-angle shot that captures my setup:

In post I combined all the layers together, lowered the opacity of my ascending shot, added some motion blur, painted in some light rays coming from above, added the dust layers and painted in some of my own dust to increase the feeling of atmosphere. Did some dodging and burning, and finished with some color correcting, sharpening, and the addition of some digital noise.

It's hard to visualize the actual editing process, so I've included a short breakdown that you can view below:

Hope you enjoyed this final addition to this project. It's been a true joy to go through this process of adding to this project every week, and I look forward to what lies ahead. Stay tuned as we continue along this incredibly amazing journey...

Only In My Dreams Project Week 51

2015-05-24T03:27:00.000-07:00

ISO 100 | 17mm | f 8.0 | Bracketed

Some people treat life like a big game. They run around from place to place, seeking thrills and excitement, trying to score big and make a name for themselves. Playing by the rules when it's convenient, bending them when it's not, they set their own course, desiring pleasure and concerned only for their own personal gain. For some reason these people never maintain a very serious outlook on life, and at the first sign of obstacles or difficulties, they abandon ship and look for an easier, more comfortable game to play.

The truth is that life is a battle. Everyday presents a new set of challenges, a conglomeration of predicaments, a cornucopia of unexpected twists. Circumstances will attempt to get you down, failures will try to destroy you. The enemy will surround you on every side and nearly convince you that defeat is inevitable. What little courage and determination you have will seem insignificant in light of the adversity you're facing.

But life was meant to be lived courageously. Life was designed to be pursued with vigor and determination. So you may get knocked down. So you may get hurt, dirtied up, or ambushed by the assailants of life. What does it matter? Why should that stop you from picking yourself up, brushing yourself off, and jumping right back into the fray? Should anything keep you from performing to the best of your ability? Remember, life isn't a game, it's a full-on battle.

So how do you rank on the scoreboard of life? Do you find yourself listed among the top 10, or are you lucky to get past the second ambush on Level 1? Does this life mean enough to you to get down and dirty and risk getting annihilated in the first few rounds? The struggle is real, and life is a battle, but just like any gamer who dedicates himself to playing and learning the nuances of a new game, the more you dedicate yourself to studying, learning, and pursuing life, the quicker you'll learn to deal with defeats and counteract the moves of the enemy. Push hard. Give it all you've got. Fight until you've got nothing left.

Let's get some points on that board!

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One week left! Week 52 is just around the corner!

I had so much fun with this shoot. I've wanted to do light painting for a very long time, but never had a good excuse to do it. This was an amazing experience for me, and it's helped me better understand how light works and has given me ideas of how to utilize this technique in the future.

The concept behind light painting is that you start with a black canvas and slowly, frame-by-frame, sculpture and bring to life the various elements in your scene using various lighting tools (strobes, headlamps, flashlights, etc.) and typically a long exposure (5-30 seconds). This obviously requires that the environment be dark, which limits this technique to shooting in rooms with no windows or shooting at night (I opted for the second option in this case).

The great thing about this technique is the amount of control you have over the light in your scene. Because of the lack of ambient light, everything that is lit in the scene must be lit by you, which gives you as the photographer a ton of control. Not only can you affect the brightness of the light, but you can also affect the color, the spread, the direction, and the scope of the light. These are all things you could realistically accomplish with a regular strobe setup, but it wouldn't be very economical (I'd need at least 10-12 strobes to get the same lighting setup I have in my image), and you wouldn't be able to capture the movement of the light (such as the light trails on the ground) because you wouldn't be shooting with a long exposure.

So just to break the shoot down briefly, I scoped out the locate before dark and started getting my camera and lights setup. I also brought my laptop with me so I could shoot tethered (which was a huge asset during this shoot, it made it so much easier to be able to look at the images on a larger screen). I photographed my self-portrait with three strobes, a beauty dish for key light to camera left, a strobe with a honeycomb grid and CTB gel to camera right to act as rim/side light, and a third strobe with a regular reflector dish behind the camera to act as fill.

I then took the beauty dish and placed it outside the frame to scene left and lit the scene with a gentle side light, just enough to catch the edges of the architecture and fill in a few details. Everything else was lit using a hand-held hot-shoe flash and various colored gels. I basically ran around all over the place firing light into different nooks and crannies, trying to find the best places from which to light the various objects in the scene. For the shots of myself in the background, my helpful assistant, Sam, fired the flash manually against the wall behind me, outlining my form against the bright backdrop.

The best part of this shoot was running around with the flashlight on a 20 second exposure. I had a ton of fun creating weird and interesting light paths and illuminating different objects with the motion of the light from the flashlight (some of which I incorporated into the final image).

There's a lot more I could say about this image, but it would take too long to tell, so here's an animation giving you a breakdown of this shot image-by-image that hopefully will give you a better idea of what all went into this project.

Hope you enjoyed this week's image. One more week to go, be on the lookout for the final addition to this project!

Only In My Dreams Project Week 50

2015-05-17T20:47:00.000-07:00

ISO 50 | 39mm | f 8.0 | 1/200 sec

In a four-dimensional universe, there are certain constraints that bind all of humanity. We quickly grow accustomed to three of those dimensions (height, width, and depth) and learn to function within the limitations of physical space. Because 3-Dimensional space is tangible, it's easy for us to understand and observe how it works and live our lives based on this knowledge. However, we don't often give enough consideration to the fourth dimension that governs the world in which we live - time.

Maybe it's because time is an intangible concept, something we can't grab hold of and examine. In a world that caters to the senses, time has little relevance to people who are driven by what they can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. For most of us, time is an unforgiving constant, something to be ignored rather than to be heeded. After all, the problems we already face in a 3-Dimensional world are enough to worry about without adding the concerns that accompany a fourth dimension.

But whether we like it or not, in the end, time is something that all of us have to deal with. It's a property of nature, just like gravity and the laws of thermodynamics. We can view it as a curse to humanity, or we can consider how blessed we are as people to live within the constraint of the time-frame we've been given. But ultimately how we perceive time will determine how we utilize it, it's really our perspective that will affect how this fourth dimension governs our lives.

So take a moment with me and step outside your small world of four dimensions. As we gaze along the closed timelike curve of human existence and stop and examine various event horizons along that curve, what do we encounter? Peering through the looking glass 47 years from now, what changes do we behold? How have our lives improved over the course of that time? How have the lives of others been improved? What things can we look back upon as accomplishments and jobs well done? What kind of heritage have we left for those who will follow us along this timeline of life? Will we stare into the mirror and shake our head at the tired, worn face of a life that was lived only for the tangible and the here-and-now? Or will we behold the beaming face of a life well lived, a life of purpose, a life that sought to make a difference and improve the lives of others along the way?

Though humanity may never find a way to transcend the constraint of time, we as individuals can still take advantage of what we've been given. Live life to the fullest. Seek to follow God and search out His will for your life. Do your best to serve others and make a difference in their lives. You may not be able to stop the clock, but you can sure give it a run for its money!

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Week 50! Two more images to go!

I was thinking a lot about the precious gift of time this week and was pondering the various ways that we as humans tend to spend it. I know I've wasted a lot of time on fruitless pursuits, but when I look ahead, I have to ask myself, "How will this matter decades from now?" I want to start pursuing things that will truly matter 50 years from now, and ultimately, for eternity.

This was a tough project. It took three times longer than I was anticipating (I was actually up until 2:00 this morning putting the finishing touches on it). I have never done anything like this before, and I think it was an awesome experience. Here's a brief breakdown:

Shot this in the cramped, sweltering bathroom. I had two strobes, stands, and my camera and tripod squished into that tiny room. I had some major motivation to get the shot done, and quick! Lit the scene with a strobe and beauty dish just to camera-left, and a secondary fill-light that was firing just behind my right shoulder. It doesn't give the scene a very dynamic look, but unfortunately I was restricted by 3-Dimensional space, and wasn't able to get my lights in more ideal locations. As it was, I was happy to fill the scene with a soft blanket of light without getting any glares or reflections in the mirror!

The hardest part of this image was the aging process. I did watch a tutorial on how to do this (I had a few ideas, but I'm glad I watched it, my original methods would have taken way longer). Basically what I ended up doing was taking several source files (roughly 10-12) of portraits of older individuals, and combining various elements from those portraits (wrinkles, hair, chin stubble, etc.) with my self-portrait. This was made a ton easier by using the patch tool (which performs automatic color-correction during the patch process), and I also utilized the clone and spot patch tools.

One interesting thing of note is that I was able to create a brush for adding the white hair for my eyebrows/beard. I found that starting with a darker layer to act as base/shadow, and then adding two additional layers of a medium-gray and then a white tone really enhances the reality of the hair I added to my portrait. The brush is available for download from the link below:

Download Hair.abr (8 KB)

It would be too difficult to explain the entire process in words, so I've included a short animation that breaks down the process visually so you can get a better idea of what this transformation really looked like.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and I hope it gave you reason to pause and consider what you're doing to make a difference with the time you've been allotted in this life. We're all here to make an impact, what are you doing to affect the lives of those around you today?

Perusing The Archives

2015-05-13T07:35:00.001-07:00

ISO 400 | 55mm | f 14 | 1/400 sec

Got this shot from a shoot I did with a brother and sister several years ago. We shot out in a wheat field, and the sunlight behind created this awesome silhouette/rim-lighting effect. I really liked the dynamic of the light in this shot, so thought I'd share it today.

Only In My Dreams Project Week 49

2015-05-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

ISO 800 | 50mm | f 4.0 | 1/400 sec

It's the end of another gorgeous day. Checked a bunch of things off my to-do list, and now I'm ready to sit back and enjoy the rest of the evening. The sun is just setting beyond the trees, and I can't think of a better place to enjoy the view than from my favorite swing. Perched high up in the limbs of a sturdy Caragana tree, all of nature seems to pass by below my feet as I sit up there and swing. Peacefully the time ticks by, and slowly the shadows creep across the landscape, but not a thing in the world can disturb me while I'm sitting in my thoughtful spot.

Hours fly by like minutes sometimes, and I'll find myself looking out at the starry night sky, wondering when the moon raised its glorious head above the horizon. Sometimes I'll solve all the world's problems before breakfast and then spend the rest of the morning dreaming up new problems to solve. The content of my thoughts changes from day-to-day (sometimes minute-to-minute), but in the end I find that it's not so much the content of my thoughts that matters so much as just the act of thinking itself. Thinking keeps the mind fresh. Thinking makes life exciting. Thinking is what gets people places. Thinking is fun.

So while I may never become as famous as Nikola Tesla or Albert Einstein, I still gain great pleasure and enjoyment from mulling things out in my head. Sitting here, swinging peacefully up in the Caragana, not a thing in this world can interrupt and derail my train of thought. What a wonderful way to spend the end of a gorgeous day. Just the way I like it.

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Really brief and simple composite this week.

Ran around this evening trying to find the perfect limb for my composite. I wanted something with some character (leaves, moss, flowers, anything that added some extra detail), but I also wanted something that had some negative space so that I could fit my swing into the shot and have it feel relatively natural.

Found this branch jutting out, and the light from the sun was just about perfect. Managed to catch some solar flare and the golden light from the sun shining through the leaves, it was just beautiful. Once I had this shot, I set myself up in the swing and quick fired off about 10 shots or so. Compositing was really simple, just enhanced the solar flare and made some basic color adjustments. Nothing fancy or complicated this week.

I like the premise behind this image, because I find that a day that includes time for thinking/day-dreaming is a good day. It's amazing how much stuff I get done after I've thought things through. I just feel way more effective. And if it wasn't for all the crazy thinking I've done, I wouldn't be here at Week 49 posting another photo!

Hope you enjoyed this week's pic. Stay tuned for more.

Perusing The Archives

2015-05-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

ISO 100 | 50mm | f 4.0 | 1/250 sec

This was a shot I took during a stock photo shoot. Chess pieces seem to make for pretty popular stock subjects. I really liked how this image turned out though, the way it really highlighted the primary subject, while still giving the context of his surroundings (without being too obtrusive). This image really stands out to me because of the clearly-defined subject, the supportive story/background, and the amount of negative space (which is great for designers). So yeah, I think it could make for a great stock image. The only question now is, will it sell?

Only In My Dreams Project Week 48

2015-05-03T16:24:00.002-07:00

ISO 100 | 40mm | f 4.0 | 1/250 sec

I like to think of myself as being up for a good adventure. A good, safe adventure, that is. While I agree that risk, peril, danger, and life-threatening circumstances are all words that are often used to describe the adventure of a lifetime, I prefer using other words to describe my escapades. Words like fun, safe, easy, wholesome, comfortable, and family-friendly.

Maybe it's just a simple matter of definition. I mean, what really classifies a true, full-blown adventure anyways? Some folks think walking a tight-rope between two skyscrapers is pretty adventurous. Others think taking a joy-ride through downtown L.A. at 97 mph is a good way to get the adrenaline flowing. Still others find various forms of exciting and dangerous activity (e.g. skydiving, deep-sea scuba diving, bungee jumping, fire breathing, etc.) to quench their thirst for adventure. Personally, I find rolling out of bed in the morning to be a daily adventure.

So what am I saying? Am I dissing adventures and advocating loafing around on the couch all day? Absolutely not! All I'm asking for are a few simple things that will make adventures easier, safer, more comfortable, and fun for everyone. Things like electric blankets for those cold nights spent backpacking on Mount Everest. Or a face mask, hockey pads, and a parachute for downhill skiing. Or seat-belts and air-bags for Motocross bikes. I'm as much for adventure as the next guy, but I like to know that I'll come out on the other side of an adventure unscathed and in one piece. If an adventure can guarantee that much, I'm all for it!

But the next time you want to fly a rocket to the moon, count me out. That's one adventure I can afford to miss out on.

_______

Only a few short weeks left and I'll be done with this project. The end is in sight!

This was a pretty simple image to create. Shot it all with natural light in the late evening, which gave it that sort-of golden, soft-lit look. The smoke and the sun-flare were both captured in-camera (which I thought was pretty cool!), and then I photographed myself in the same lighting, posed as if I was strapped to a rocket.

To act as a place-holder for the composite, I taped an eraser to the side of the rocket to represent my intended end-position. With the tape already in place, I simply composited myself in and utilized the form already created by the eraser to represent my helpless self strapped to the side.

I enhanced the sun flare in post a bit, also did some color enhancements and some desaturation.

Hope you enjoyed this week's post. More on its way.

Perusing The Archives

2015-04-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

ISO 400 | 50mm | f 1.4 | 1/100 sec

Emotion is a big part of a wedding day. There are so many thoughts and feelings swirling around as people hustle and bustle to get ready for the big event. It's so easy in the rush to miss the small details and the seemingly insignificant moments that go on, but often it's in those details that you catch a glimpse of the genuine, raw emotion rising to the surface. Anxiety, anticipation, worry, excitement, all of these feelings come and go in the hearts and minds of all who are involved in such a special occasion. You have to be quick, and you have to be on the lookout. Those emotions are there, you just have to be there to capture them.

Only In My Dreams Project Week 47

2015-04-26T14:34:00.001-07:00

ISO 100 | 40mm | f 8.0 | 1/200 sec

Went for a walk last night to catch a glimpse of the starscape above me. The sky was overcast, and the breeze was cool. Trudging along, I wondered if the shroud that loomed overhead would ever disappear, revealing the glorious splendor of the celestial bodies beyond. It had been a while since I had gazed out at the stars and was hopeful that my late-night excursion wouldn't be in vain.

Cresting a hill, I stopped and lifted my gaze towards the heavens. A break in the clouds gave promise of a clear view. I stood in awe and watched as the veil slowly lifted and the cloud cover dissipated from view. As I beheld the unfolding scene before me, I considered how wonderful it would be to have someone to share this moment with, someone with which to enjoy the magnificence of the planets, stars, and galaxies above.

Leptus loomed over me like a gentle giant. Namaris floated peacefully, passing on without a care for the inhabitant of the planet to which it owed its orbital path. Several other moons, planets, stars, and celestial beings traversed a course across the night sky that night, many of which I could not personally identify. Among them, though, was a small speck of light, way off towards the north-western horizon. Though visually insignificant, that dot in the sky carried significant meaning for me. I'd heard much about that tiny planet, much about the things that had transpired on its surface. But what interested me most was its inhabitants.

They were a diverse people, or so I’d heard. A people who enjoyed a variety of cultures and ethnical backgrounds, and who lived on a planet whose ecosystems varied from high-desert to tropical rainforest. It was a beautiful planet, one that I longed to visit. As I gazed up at that small speck in the vast expanse of sky above, the name of that planet reverberated through my mind. What a glorious name for a glorious place. Earth.

Standing there, alone on that hill, I considered what it must be like to live on a planet inhabited by other individuals. To live in a place where neighbors came over to borrow a cup of sugar. To traverse a world where the sounds of children playing resounded through the trees, across the rivers, and off the mountainsides. To exist in a land where people called you up just to wish you good-day or comment on the weather. To live and not be lonely. To be, and not be alone.

I pondered these things as the celestial bodies slowly circled my solitary planet. I found myself wishing for things I could never hope to experience, craving an existence that would never be. Never had I thought that I would find myself unhappy here, floating out in space, the sole-inhabitant of my own planet. Yet with all the world at my fingertips, I discovered that it was all meaningless to me; empty and devoid of enjoyment. With earth’s small light beaming down at me, I longed for something more, something utterly unattainable, yet something so vital to one’s existence: companionship. Never in my lifetime could I hope to ever experience the true joys of such a privilege, but as the glorious scene above me began to fade as the first rays of light began to illuminate the sky, I hoped in my heart that the inhabitants of that great planet, Earth, never took for granted the immense privilege of friendship and co-existence. What a gift it must be to not be forced to live alone, for that kind of existence is agony itself.

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Sorry for the late post, I was away during the weekend, didn’t get an opportunity to put this post together until today. Here’s a brief synopsis of this shot.

The most interesting aspect of this shot is that it was taken during the late afternoon with the sun still shining. I didn’t want to try shooting after dark because of the logistical challenges (focusing in the dark, long exposure, composing the shot without being able to see through the view-finder, etc.) so I decided to just shoot it during the day and convert it to a night scene in post.

This objective was accomplished by shooting with a tungsten white-balance (gave everything a bluish tone) and under-exposing the image (rich shadows, not too many hot highlight areas). I also added to this effect by de-saturating and adjusting the color-tones in post.

I actually used a couple tutorials for creating the sky and planets. It’s amazing the number of videos you can find on creating nightscapes. Essentially it was a process of adding a lot of digital noise, brush strokes, textures, and lens flares to get the desired effect.

That’s essentially the overview of this shot. Definitely an interesting effect. Hope it inspires you to try something new! See you next week.

Perusing The Archives

2015-04-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

ISO 100 | 25mm | f 8.0 | Bracketed

Found this unfinished image from one of my photo excursions a couple years back. I think what drew me to this subject when I shot it was the texture and the dilapidated look of the worn-out showroom and the old cars that still sit on its floor. I also liked how the reflections of the city outside showed up on the glass, giving more context and telling the story of the passage of time as seen through the eyes of a car which has spent its entire life behind the glass. The conversion to HDR really enhanced the textures in this image, giving it a decidedly grungy feel, which further enhances the story of age and decay. Hope you enjoy it.

Only In My Dreams Project Week 46

2015-04-19T00:52:00.000-07:00

ISO 100 | 115mm | f 4.0 | 1/250 sec

Walking around with a big smile on my face, acting like life's good and I haven't got a care in the world. Enthusiasm exuding and joviality flowing from my being, I'm the perfect picture of genuine happiness, congeniality, and confidence. An alternate reality, one which I'm forced to adopt, becomes an exterior display for all to see and admire. But it's what people don't see - what lies behind the mask, that's most important.

Unfortunately, in today's culture, people show very little interest in the personal lives of others. As part of normal society, you as an individual are expected to put on your best face and go about your daily tasks acting as though you lead a normal, happy, and satisfying life much like the other 318.9 million individuals who constitute part of the general populace. No one wants to know that you have doubts or fears, nobody really cares about the things you're struggling with, and nobody wants to hear about the things that break your heart and make you want to cry yourself to sleep at night. We've grown up thinking that life is about facades, so we wear our masks and move on with our lives, afraid to set down our disguises for fear of the judgment of others.

But eventually it gets old. Life lived to save-face and please others can be exhausting and stressful, and existence that isn't genuine quickly loses its appeal. What choice do we have but to lay down our masks? Why continue on with life trying to be what everyone wants you to be, living up to expectations that are unrealistic and overwhelming? In the end, you must surrender to the fact that you are who God made you to be, imperfect and flawed. No matter how beautiful and fine your mask may be, behind it is real flesh, real emotion, and real life.

So stop trying to live an alternate reality. Lay down your facade and make yourself vulnerable to others. Don't live a lie, be genuine. Show care and concern for the real lives of other individuals you encounter on a daily basis. Look beyond the masks and into the hearts, because just like you, they are real people too, with real stories, real struggles, and real lives. So put your mask away and go live life the way God desires you to.

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Getting close to the end. Only 1 1/2 months to go!

Quick lighting breakdown: I had 4 lights setup for this shot. One strobe with a honeycomb grid positioned right behind me pointing at the backdrop to give the background that glowing circle effect. One strobe with a honeycomb grid on a boom-stand above my head for hair/top light. One strobe with a small softbox to camera left for a soft side fill light. And one strobe with a beauty dish to camera right acting as my key light.

I composited two shots for this image. The first shot was to get the main figure's position. I held up a stick with a paper cutout in front of me to cast the shadow of the would-be mask over my face. I then took a separate shot with my head in the position of the imaginary mask. I then masked this out in post and added some shadowing and highlighting to give the impression of the beveled outline of a mask.

A few other things were done in post like blurring the facial features of the primary character and enhancing the vignette around the subject to add more drama and intrigue to the image. I also made some color balance adjustments and added some grain and blur to the image for a finishing touch.

There ya go, that's this week's image. Hope you enjoyed it. Be on the lookout for more coming your way.

Perusing The Archives

2015-04-14T07:30:00.000-07:00

ISO 200 | 55mm | f 7.1 | 1/800 sec

Shot this up on Steptoe Butte at sunset several years ago. Not exactly the type of image I went up there to get (envision a bird's eye view of thousands of acres of rolling wheatfields below you, basking in the warm rays of the setting sun; yeah I was up there to take landscape shots). But I like the message that this image conveys. It's almost as if we find ourselves on the inside of the fence, kept back or prohibited from exploring and enjoying the beauty on the other side. I especially like the details of the barbed wire and the twisted ends of the chain-link fence. It really makes for a fascinating silhouette shot.

Only In My Dreams Project Week 45

2015-04-11T20:50:00.001-07:00

ISO 100 | 50mm | f 8.0 | 1/200 sec

Surrounded on all sides by walls and thick darkness, I lay huddled in a corner, almost scared to move or breath. The silence was endless, not even the faintest scuffling of feet or muffled cry to be heard. Blackness enveloped me like a cloak, and I felt strangely comforted and secure, although my heart was filled with fear and uncertainty. But it wasn't the impenetrable darkness, or the resounding stillness, or the intensely claustrophobic nature of the walls that encased me on all sides that instilled in me a sense of dread. Rather it was what lay outside my confinement that gave me cause to tremble.

It was not so much who, or what exactly, for of those things I was uncertain. Really it was the simple thought of the unknown that kept me huddled in my small dark corner, paralyzed with fear and trepidation. Truth be told, I'd known for years that escape from my confinement was as simple as lifting the lid above my head and walking out into the sunshine and fresh air. But therein lay the trouble. What if what lay beyond this warm, solid, secure box of mine was nothing but coldness, bitterness, desolation, and death? How could I be certain that I wasn't opening myself up to wretched disappointment on the other side of these walls? Why risk leaving the cramped darkness I knew for a possibly colder hopelessness I could not predict?

For years I'd agonized over this question, struggled with this uncertainty that held me captive in my comfortable confinement. Unable to assure myself of the uncertain joys and pleasures that awaited me outside, I remained steadfast in my place, desperately trying to hold on to what little I had, paralyzed by a fear of the unknown. Until today.

Fed up by my complacency, and driven slightly by a root of discontentment with current circumstances, I finally mustered up the courage to lift the lid of my prison. Hesitantly I opened my eyes and gazed around, ready at any moment to drop the lid and rush back to my hiding spot. But as I peered out at my surroundings, I was overcome with the realization that I'd been missing out on what life was all about. Before me lay an entirely new world full of color, light, sounds, smells, and textures; a world brimming with life, adventure, and opportunities. I could hardly believe my eyes.

As I clambered out of my box and set foot on fresh, soft earth, a sense of joy and remorse washed over me. So many years I spent living in fear of the unknown, so much time wasted in the dark; and yet, considering what lay in front of me, I was glad for the time still in my possession. Bidding adieu to my box, I headed off to seek new sights, new sounds, new adventures; to discover what I had been born to discover all along. Gone were the comforts of a cramped, solitary life, but in their place was the bright promise of a new life spent exploring a bright and glorious new world. What a trade-off. I wish I'd done it sooner.

_______

This was a composite of 3 images. I shot the box and the self-portrait against a black backdrop and then went out and found a separate background to throw into the mix, something that felt bright and matched the lighting scheme I was going for.

I lit the box with a single strobe with a honey-grid and used a small card to provide some fill light from the left side. I used the same lighting setup with my portrait, except I transitioned to a beauty dish for my main light and used a 3-foot reflector for fill.

I shot the box using a macro lens, and set my focus manually so that it wouldn't shift while I was shooting. I then went out and found my background and used the same focus point to shoot it. So the image was already out-of-focus in-camera, no artificial blur here.

Compositing was really easy because of the black backdrop. I just used the magic wand tool and made a few small corrections to the selections. If only compositing was this easy all the time! I did desaturate the background and add some brush/lighting effects to separate the background from the foreground. I also added a golden/warm glowing to the background to give the impression of the "bright unknown" outside my box. That's basically the gist of this image.

I was inspired this week to really examine the areas in my life where I've confined myself and find ways to step out of my comfort zone. I realize that there are many things that I could accomplish in life if I wasn't held back by fear, and so one of the things I'm trying to do is challenge myself to find ways to intentionally do things that make me uncomfortable (be it speaking in public, making cold-calls, or laying down on the sidewalk of a busy street). Fear of people, fear of uncertain outcomes, fear of failure, all these things inhibit us from achieving great things. They constrain us and force us into living average, everyday lives; lives that fall short of our true potential and the true purpose that God has called us to. Anyways, that's what I've been mulling over lately.

Hope this post encourages you to step out and explore your true potential. Are there things that intimidate you or cause your heart-rate to increase? Consider forcing yourself into those situations more often, if only to become better at handling those types of situations. The sooner we learn to overcome the little things that dog us and get in the way, the sooner we'll be able to tackle the bigger more challenging aspects of life. Eventually these small things that bother us will be nothing more than distant memories. Boy wouldn't that be great...

Perusing The Archives

2015-04-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

ISO 200 | 100mm | f 8.0 | 1/125 sec

This shot brings back some fond memories of hauling stuff here and there and riding around in our little red wagon as a kid. The wagon took a serious beating, but none of us kids seem to be the worse for wear. I especially like how this shot captures just the significant details, cropping out all the extraneous elements. Hope you enjoy.

Only In My Dreams Project Week 44

2015-04-04T23:22:00.001-07:00

ISO 400 | 50mm | f 4.0 | 1/500 sec

The weather is changing, and with it, the temperature. The sun is out and beating down upon the earth with a vengeance. Not even the smallest creature is safe from the burning gaze of that dastardly fireball in the sky. Fields are scorched, bees and beetles curl up and die, birds cease their chirping, dogs' tongues nearly touch the ground, and here I sit in the middle of it all, slowly melting away.

Maybe it's because I've stayed couped up inside for too long. The lack of exposure to sunlight has caused an abnormal hypersensitivity to the sun's rays, producing a rather unpleasant effect. Or maybe I drank too much water my first day out, and now I'm over-saturated with liquid, loosening my skin and causing it to pool. Or maybe radiation from the sun has increased so dramatically that all living organisms are destined to die a slow painful death of disintegration. Whatever the case may be, all I know is that I'm sitting here in the shade, wasting away, wondering how long it will be until I'm nothing but a puddle of goo.

Don't get me wrong, life wouldn't be terrible as a puddle, but for some reason I had always hoped for a little more. I haven't got long now, but maybe I can make it to the house before all that remains of me is a giant wet-spot on the sidewalk. Which means I should probably go. Have fun, enjoy the nice weather, and don't stand out in the sun too long.

_______

I was feeling a little desperate during this shoot. I'd sorta run out of ideas and was struggling with finding something to throw together.

I accomplished this shot by first photographing myself in the chair and then taking a separate pair of jeans and matching T-Shirt and placing them in the same position. I then did a lot of masking, dodging, burning, and cloning in Photoshop to do my best to make the transition between the two images seamless.

One tool that I did mess around with a bit in post was the Liquify tool. I used this to create the drips on my arms and hands, and did some extra pinching and re-shaping to give me that hagard/de-hydrated/melting look. Not a common tool that I use often in Photoshop, but it did the job.

Anyways, that's this week's picture. Hope you have a great week and truly enjoy the nice sunny weather!

Perusing The Archives

2015-03-31T07:30:00.000-07:00

ISO 100 | 18mm | f 7.1 | 1/6 sec

Feeling in a Spring-y kind of mood this week, so I was looking through my images of budding leaves and blossoming flowers. This image sticks out to me because it provides the viewer with a perspective not usually considered when photographing flora and fauna. It's amazing how beautiful we consider the clear blue sky and the lush green earth to be at this time of year, yet rarely do we see a shot that combines these two things together. Here's a shot that hopefully gets you searching for those unique and beautiful perspectives.

Only In My Dreams Project Week 43

2015-03-28T23:42:00.001-07:00

ISO 400 | 50mm | f 8.0 | 1/1600 sec

Are you the type of person who lets their curiosity get the best them? Do you have trouble keeping your eyes, hands, or feet out of places where they don't belong? In your mind, does a "Keep Out" sign automatically translate to "Feel free to poke, prod, creep, sneak, and dig around as much as you want"? If any of these statements describes you, then you best keep your shoes off my turf, unless you want the scare of your life.

For as long as I can remember I've been a good 27 feet taller than everyone else. Being bigger definitely had its advantages. People were always asking me to rescue their cats from the tops of trees, and I was always the team favorite when it came to playing football. But being different had its ugly side as well. Kids at school teased me. Nobody ever invited me over for dinner. Many people were afraid of me and would run away screaming whenever I came near.

Eventually I determined that it was best for everyone that I make myself scarce. So I took up residency in an abandoned warehouse and now spend most of my time day-dreaming and watching people go about their normal lives through the peep-hole in the front door. It's not a bad life, I still get out every once-in-a-while after the sun is down to go for a short jaunt across the countryside. And some of my greatest thrills come from the astonished and utterly terrified looks on the faces of no-good trespassers and snoops who make the mistake of prowling around.

It's not easy being different. Life definitely has its lonely moments. But time marches on and here I remain, awaiting the day when others will recognize my true potential. Awaiting the day when people won't flee in terror whenever I walk down the street. Awaiting the day when my gifts and abilities can be put to good and meaningful use. I hope I don't have to wait forever...

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Wanted to try something totally new this week. I've done so many miniature-themed shots that I thought it was time to try a giant-themed shot.

This one wasn't too hard to pull off, I actually got it done a lot faster than I was anticipating. I photographed the door in full sunlight with a perspective that would aid itself well to my story. I then created a miniature version of the doorway (8"x3.5" to be exact) by cutting a rectangular hole out of cardboard. I then set this up on a table and photographed myself peeking through the miniature door. This actually worked quite well because it cast very accurate shadows (which made compositing so much easier), and it gave me something tangible to work with so that I could physically wrap my hand around the door frame and have a sense of where my eyes were supposed to be in relation to everything else.

I lit myself with a single strobe with a beauty dish, and I used an extra sheet of white paper on the table top to bounce some light back up into my face. All-in-all it was a rather simple process, and I was glad to see how seamlessly the composite came together.

Have a great weekend! More coming down the pipeline...

Perusing The Archives

2015-03-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

ISO 800 | 40mm | f 4.0 | 1/4 sec

A shot from one of the aquariums at SeaWorld, San Diego. I think at the time, I shot this with a longer exposure more out of necessity than from an artistic desire to capture something unique. Looking at the image now, what caught my attention was the dynamic of the blurred movement captured in this image. The blur of shapes and colors, yet still clearly distinguishable as fish, almost abstract in nature but containing elements based in reality. Something about this picture just drew me in. This probably wasn't my intention when I originally took this shot, but coming back to it with a fresh set of eyes gives me a new appreciation for this image.

Only In My Dreams Project Week 42

2015-03-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

ISO 800 | 50mm | f 2.8 | 1/160 sec

Life is one big venture. A never-ending investment of blood, sweat, and tears. We throw time, energy, and effort into building up our dreams and aspirations, and we put countless hours of preparation and study into securing our future. We pinch and we save and we lay aside precious resources to create a means for accomplishing our goals. Slowly the years drag by, and slowly we build our tower of dreams.

Then reality hits. We begin to see how absurd our dreams really are. We begin to understand the futility of our pointless pursuits. What seemed forever to be the ultimate life-long objective now seems but a sorry excuse of a crazy idea dreamt up on a cold, sleepless night. Our towers begin to crumble, and our world seems to cave in all around us. Ultimately we end up at the bottom of a pile of dashed hopes, feeling frustrated and disillusioned.

The truth is that nobody said that pursuing your dreams would be simple or easy. In fact, the process of fulfilling your greatest hopes and aspirations can be very daunting and discouraging. It's an ongoing cycle of building and re-building, of finding direction, losing direction, and finding it again. Sometimes giving up seems the only logical decision, yet we can't give up, for what would life be worth living for if it wasn't lived intentionally and with purpose? No, we must press on, building when we can, and picking up the pieces when we have to. And though our house of cards may topple 10,000 times, yet we will remain determined and start re-building with new vigor and enthusiasm. Dreams are meant to be attained, and we won't let failure stand in our way...

_______

Only 10 weeks left to go!

I used natural window light for this shoot, no extra strobes this time. I did have to boost my ISO to handle the lower intensity of the light peering through the window onto the table, but in combination with my large aperture setting, I was able to get a reasonable shutter-speed that was adequate for capturing the motion in this shot.

Building the house of cards was surprisingly easier than I had anticipated based on past experiences. Once I got it built, I was very careful to keep from bumping the table, and I tried to get every possible angle I could shoot from because I knew that I didn't want to be doing this again in case I didn't get the shot I wanted.

I finally settled on an angle that I liked, and once I got all the shots I needed from that, I set my camera on burst mode with a wireless trigger and knocked down the tower, shutter going full-bore the whole time. I managed to get 2-3 shots of the cards falling that I was able to combine into my final shot. It really added a cool dynamic to be able to have that motion in the image.

I then photographed myself holding a white poster-board with the same natural window-lighting setup. After compositing, I created the shadow and added the reflection to the table-top. A little color balancing, some desaturation, and some blur put the finishing touches on this image.

Well, I'm off to cook up some more dreams. More coming next time...

From Their Perspective: Photography By Britton

2015-03-18T16:44:00.001-07:00

Today I'm bringing you an interview with another amazing photographer. Britton Felber, owner and lead-photographer of Photography By Britton, is a Chicago-based destination wedding photographer. Him and his wife, Erika, are both strongly passionate about marriage and desire to capture the natural beauty and love that accompanies a wedding day. As a husband-and-wife team, they not only bring a unique perspective to a wedding shoot, but they also offer living proof to their clients that marriage really works.

Both Britton and Erika have powerful testimonies of God's goodness in their lives and give Him glory for the work that they do. They consider it a privilege and an honor to work with their clients, and they have been blessed to participate in some amazing weddings (notably, acting as lead-photographers at Jessa Duggar and Ben Seewald's wedding!).

Britton and Erika also offer mentoring opportunities for those who are interested in learning one-on-one with professionals in the industry. If you're interested in signing up to spend a couple days of intense focused study with Britton and Erika, send them a message through the contact page on their website.

Thanks again Britton for taking the time to do this interview with me!

Listen to the full interview below or download it here.

Follow the links below to view more of Britton and Erika's work:

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Greg Hahner Studios: How did you get started in photography?

Britton Felber: I first picked up an SLR in Moscow, Russia when I went over there on a short-term missions trip. I quickly fell in love with how beautiful the photos seemed to come out. Looking back, those photos were nothing special, but it fascinated me in the moment, and I remember realizing that if I could ever get into photography, I would want to go into the wedding industry. I was intrigued by the fact that wedding photographers have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - the privilege to tell a couples' story like no one else, the chance to see it better than anyone else, and the responsibility to exemplify the beauty of a couples' day through the images they capture. Those things really caught my interest and attracted me to wedding photography from the beginning. It's such a cool thing to see a day more beautifully and better than anyone else sees it and capture it as such. That's really what drew me into it.

The Lord really guided my steps from there and opened up opportunities for me to work for some of the best people in the industry that I knew at the time. I got to do a lot of hands-on learning from different people in the industry, and I really just dove right in, doing everything I could to get my name out there. I used to blog 6 days a week and found myself staying up past midnight most nights trying to promote my name. It was a lot of hard work, and it took some time, but that's really what got me to where I am today.

GHS: What drives you as a photographer?

BF: I think the thrill comes from the constant challenge to do better and exceed my last performance. My wife teases me about this, but before almost every single wedding shoot or portrait session, I start the day by telling her that we're going to take better images today than we ever have in our lives. I guess I just like approaching everyday like a competition, trying to beat myself every time. That always makes it thrilling.

Before any wedding day, I get ideas in my head of things I'd like to see happen, and as the day goes by, I work hard to make those ideas a reality and look for opportunities to fit it into the flow of the couples' day. It's really thrilling to have a plan in mind, whether it's a type of lighting that I want to setup or just a situation I want to pull the couple through and photograph their reactions. Whatever the plan might be, when I see those things executed with beautiful results that really reflect the personality of the client and show their excitement and show their love for each other, that is a really special thing.

And each couple is so different; that's really what keeps it from getting boring. I have never been to a wedding that was the same as another one. People often say, "you've seen lots of weddings, you know what's going to happen, this stuff's just normal for you right?" Yes, I've seen a lot of weddings, and while nothing will probably surprise me, not a single wedding is like another.

What gets me really excited about the business side of wedding photography is the fact that my wife and I just have a real excitement and passion about marriage. We really love seeing how God has ordained marriage as something so special, and being able to observe how that beauty comes together on a wedding day is such a neat thing. Watching a father give away his daughter and seeing the love that he has for her, and seeing him give her away to another man as he places her hand into his, the pledging of one life to another, the exchanging of vows and rings that takes place; just moments like these that are absolutely life-changingly phenominal that happen almost faster than you can snap photos. There's just so much going on on that day that is just so thrilling to both of us.

GHS: Briefly describe your business and its core values.

BF: We definitely want to show Christ through our work - to show light, to show love, joy, and happiness. As a brand and as a style, that's really what we aim to accomplish. We want to show how beautiful each person is and how each person is a unique individual made in God's image. We also want to show Christ's design for marriage as much as we can through our images. It's really satisfying when our clients contact us and say, "we just love seeing the light and the joy and the happiness in your photos, they're so fresh". That's exactly what we're aiming for each time, and we want our clients to recognize that.

GHS: As a husband-and-wife team, what kind of a dynamic do you bring to a shoot working as a couple?

BF: The huge benefit to coming to a shoot as a couple is the sense that our clients are much more comfortable with us. There's a whole new level of trust that's built because they realize that we've already been through this process ourselves, and they seem to know that we inherently understand the wedding process and all the pressures, the excitement, and the life-changing events that are taking place. It's especially wonderful for the brides to have my wife there who is just a real high-energy, positive, fun person to be around. She never lacks for something to say to encourage the brides we work for, and she just has a way of making them laugh and relax, which is something I definitely didn't see as much of before we started shooting as a couple.

It's really neat to come together and get excited for our clients as a married couple, and it's great for us to be able to be there and encourage them and tell them about how wonderful married life really is. All of our clients know that we're really passionate about marriage and that we want to see the same joys that we experience personally to be their experience too. It's been a real joy and it's been very easy and natural for us to offer these things to our clients as a married couple.

GHS: What are some successful methods you've found to promote your business?

BF: Prayer. Lots and lots of it. The times I've prayed the longest and hardest are honestly the times we've done the best, booked some of our most exciting shoots, and had some of the greatest opportunities open up to us. Every single one of our jobs comes first-and-foremost from the Lord, and we want to recognize that. He's our number-one employer, and we've learned to just trust the Lord fully. Wedding photography is our only source of income at this time, so we've learned through this to seek the Lord and bring our goals and desires to Him and trust Him to show Himself faithful.

As far as a social marketing strategy, I would say that Facebook has been a huge tool for us. We used to really use the business page to post our photos and depend on viral success to get our images out there. We used to post one photo each day because we found that that would get the most viral success, and we would encourage people to comment and congratulate the couple and like their photos. We really try to make our posts about the couple and not about our business, and we've found that when we try to bless others by making it about them and not about us, it inherently comes back to bless us. I think the more you can come up with creative ways to bless those you serve, the more those acts of service will come back to bless you in the long run. Unfortunately, Facebook is changing their policy concerning the ability of images to go viral from business pages, so we're currently looking into alternatives.

Social marketing really is a slow-and-steady process of trying to hone in on what kind of content your viewers are responding to. Fine-tune your message so that you can keep a following excited about you, but don't blow-up peoples' feeds with tons of content all the time. People like a steady trickle of content, it really keeps them coming back for more.

GHS: What is one of the greatest challenges you face as a business owner?

BF: Time management is consistently the greatest challenge I face, and I think that's probably true for any self-employed individual. Just learning to get a list for the day, to set goals to accomplish, and to give yourself a timeline in which to complete those objectives is all part of the daily struggle. This is especially true for those who work in the creative industry, because it can be difficult to set clear objectives, which in turn makes it hard to know when you've accomplished your goals for the day. I know that during the busy season, it can be very easy to work from 7:00 in the morning until after midnight every day if I would let myself, but there's always a balance that needs to be met of doing what's necessary to run a successful business while still making time to give focus and attention to my family as well.

GHS: Do you have any advice for photographers who are getting into the professional marketplace?

BF: As general advice for beginning photographers, I would say to not worry primarily about gear, but to go "half-and-half". Get yourself a decent SLR, a couple of decent lenses that will get you nice results relatively quickly, but before dumping all your money into camera gear, spend half of it on education.

People don't realize it, but often education provides a much higher return on investment than any piece of gear that can be acquired. I became aware of this after working with one of my first mentees. After spending 3-4 days with me over the course of a couple months, I realized that he had learned what had taken me 5 years to figure out! It really made me wish that I could have spent a few hundred bucks to learn from a professional when I was starting out.

So I would tell any beginner that if they can find a professional who would be willing to do some mentoring, even if it costs a little money up front, it will save them years of learning things the hard way. Just being able to walk with and learn hands-on from a professional who's been in the business for a while will spring-board you ahead in the industry by leaps and bounds. There's nothing that has helped me excel more than when I've gone and taken workshops or classes from someone. What you learn from those sessions is worth every cent, and if you can save yourself years of learning by investing a little up front, it is definitely worth considering.

GHS: In looking back over your career, what is the greatest take-away for you?

BF: Looking back, the one thing that I've constantly been learning is that, as an individual, you're never going to stop learning, and the more you strive and work hard at your craft the more you will continue to get better. That's why I'm excited with every next year that the Lord brings to us and is gracious enough to let us continue in this industry, because I know that every year will be better as long as I can keep learning. It's been a neat thing getting here, and I know it's just going to keep going. It's kinda weird to say I'm looking back, because I'm really looking forward so much.

Perusing The Archives

2015-03-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

ISO 400 | 33mm | f 11 | 1/50 sec

Cloudscape from several years back. I remember being so enamored with sunsets for a while that I'd go out and shoot them 2-3 times a week. I captured some beautiful colors and some incredible light during that period of time. This was one of the highlights from my collection of sunset shots.

Only In My Dreams Project Week 41

2015-03-14T23:18:00.000-07:00

ISO 100 | 115mm | f 8.0 | 1/200 sec

Have you ever been in a situation where you felt completely helpless? Where despite every effort to avoid a bad situation, it seemed to hunt you down, snatch you up, and pin you to the wall? And no matter how hard you struggled, you still found yourself stuck in a predicament that you were physically incapable of escaping?

For most of us, I think a true nightmare constitutes a situation wherein we come face-to-face with one of our greatest fears and find ourselves incapable of overcoming. Whether it be circumstances, physical inabilities, or some freakish turn of events, something always happens that causes us to fail and find ourselves in the death-grip of one of our greatest tormentors. In a nightmare, fear always prevails and we are helpless to change the resulting course of events.

Fear doesn't just reside in the imaginary dreamscapes of the average nighttime sleeper though. Fear is a living and very active force that creeps from place to place, wreaking havoc and paralyzing it's victims with terror and uncertainty. Though unseen, fear is a very tangible thing to those who have experienced it, and many can vouch for the years that have been effectively trimmed off their lives because fear had pinned them against the wall and placed them in a position of feeling utterly helpless. Afraid to pursue their life-long dreams, these individuals wasted away, victims of their own uncertainties and feelings of inadequacy.

We, however, don't have to be victims. We don't have to by paralyzed by fear or bullied into a corner by our own sense of failure or incapability. Rather than letting these feelings bind us, we need to face them head-on, realize the truth, and fight for freedom in our own lives. Freedom from lies, from hurts, from despairs, from doubts, from worries, from insecurities. All these things only exist to hold us fast and keep us from accomplishing the things that God has placed in our hearts to do. If we choose to remain victims, then victims we shall stay, destined to live lives full of fear, dread, and unhappiness.

Don't let fear pin you down. Fight back! Pursue your dreams! Try things you've never tried before! Go out and conquer the world! You'll be so much happier that you did...

_______

Simple one-light setup for today's shoot. Shot the main image with a small soft-box from above-left. I did the same for my self-portrait, only I used a slightly bigger light-source (a beauty dish) to try to capture a similar quality of light as that in the main image. I also shot both images with a white-balance of fluorescent, this added a slightly blue tone to the entire image, giving it a colder feel overall.

As for the compositing, I had placed the tape on the letter before photographing it. I just guessed at the approximate locations/proportions and figured I could make adjustments in post. I then posed accordingly and composited my self-portrait over the top of the letter. I ended up having to use the puppet-warp tool to adjust my positioning to fit within the bounds of the tape I had placed on the letter. After getting myself positioned just right, I used a low-opacity brush to mask out my self-portrait layer and start to show the tape layer beneath. By using a low-opacity mask, I was able to create the illusion of the transparent tape overlapping my arms and legs while in reality I'm partially erasing the top layer to show the tape layer below.

After adding the shadows and doing some color adjustments, this image really started to come together. I did some slight dodging and burning, and also did some brightness adjustments on portions of my self-portrait layer to better match the lighting of the overall image.

Well that's my submission for this week. Hope it doesn't keep you awake at night!

2 Weeks In Paradise: A Pictorial Review

2015-03-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

ISO 50 | 17mm | f 11 | 25 sec

In January I had the extreme privilege of spending two gorgeous weeks on the island of Kauai, HI. It was literally a photographer's dream-come-true. The landscape couldn't be prettier, the sunsets couldn't be more vibrant, and I mean, who doesn't enjoy getting lots of photos of huge waves crashing against the sand and rocks on a secluded beach somewhere?

For me the trip was inspirational, and I came away with some fairly decent images to boot! I've selected some of the highlights from the trip and included a brief description below each image. Enjoy!

ISO 400 | 17mm | f 4.0 | Bracketed

One of the first days we went walking along the beach. The rocks, algae, and foam all caught my eye and I just had to get a snapshot of it.

ISO 100 | 200mm | f 4.0 | Bracketed

Some of the sunsets were absolutely stunning. This shot was taken at the beach across from our hotel. I bracketed my exposure and combined the images as an HDR to capture the full dynamic range of light in this shot.

ISO 400 | 17mm | f 4.0 | 1/400 sec

A panoramic shot taken from the top of Waimea Canyon. It was impossible to capture the grandeur of the canyon in a single shot, so I stitched these images together to get a better view.

ISO 400 | 200mm | f 4.0 | 1/800 sec

One of the highlights of going up to Waimea Canyon was seeing Waipo'o falls which lies in the heart of the canyon. This shot was taken from a lookout point on the side of the road.

ISO 100 | 70mm | f 4.0 | 1/500 sec

Spray and sea foam make for an interesting abstract (and a wet photographer). Sat on the rocks while the sun was going down waiting for the right wave to crash against the rocks and shoot up this beautiful array of droplets. It was exciting (and slightly damp).

ISO 200 | 100mm | f 8.0 | Bracketed

Trying to capture things that are rarely seen or often ignored. I found this interesting perspective under the pier at Hanalei Bay. I was drawn to the symmetry, the leading lines, the incredible variety of colors. Yeah, it was pretty cool.

ISO 50 | 17mm | f 11 | Bracketed

Hiked 2 miles through the woods to this beautiful view of Ho'opi'i Falls. Bracketed my exposure to capture the full range of highlights and shadows, and as a result the colors came out amazingly well. As you can tell, the scene was quite incredible.

ISO 200 | 200mm | f 8.0 | 1/1250 sec

Stopped on the side of the highway next to a beach during one of our excursions. The waves were incredibly strong and full of character. I stood up on some rocks and snapped dozens of images trying to capture the curvature of the waves along with the spray, foam, sand, and aquatic colors. This was one of the more successful images I got.

ISO 50 | 17mm | f 22 | 6 sec

Part of one of the most intense adventures we had during our trip. This is a shot of Hanakapi'ai Falls, the end-destination of an 8 mile round-trip hike we took along the Napali Coast. Though you can't tell from this image, the falls is a stunning 300 ft. tall, and it was an amazing sight to see when we rounded the bend in the trail and beheld its full splendor. I made it in and out, tripod-and-all, and came away with some incredible images.

ISO 50 | 17mm | f 22 | 20 sec

One of the things I had fun doing while I was over there was taking long exposures of the rocks and the waves while the sun was going down (or coming up). The reduction in light allowed me to set my camera for a longer shutter speed, causing the water to take on a mist-like appearance. That in combination with the rocks and the amazing sky really made this image for me.

ISO 200 | 175mm | f 4.0 | 1/5000 sec

On our trip back from Hanalei, we stopped at the Hanalei Valley Lookout. While the view of the valley was fascinating, what caught my eye was the Hanalei Mountain Range and its many layers of ridges strewn across the horizon. The dense atmosphere was an added bonus for this shot.

ISO 50 | 17mm | f 22 | 8 sec

Another long exposure I took early in the morning. The color in the rocks really struck me in this image, as well as the dynamic nature of the water as it swirls and churns. This was a cool shot to capture.

ISO 400 | 17mm | f 4.0 | 1/800 sec

This image basically sums it all up. I love the way this image captures everything that I think of when I envision Hawaii. Soft sandy beaches. Endless ocean. Spectacular sunsets. Gorgeous waves and plenty of sea foam. This photo says it all.

Hope you enjoyed this pictorial review of Hawaii. It was truly a gorgeous and inspiring place to visit, and I'm grateful for the opportunities I had to capture some of its incredible beauty. More to come...

Perusing The Archives

2015-03-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

ISO 400 | 200mm | f 2.8 | 1/2500 sec

This was a shot I took while I was down in Colombia, South America. Imagine having to travel across the equator just to photograph a bunch of pigeons!

I was drawn to the simplicity of this shot, the minimalism. There's not much that acts as a distraction in this image, what you see is what you get. I thought it was also cool the way the roof-top slopes upward at an angle. It really gives this image and interesting dynamic.