Wedding Photography Blogs

After searching for a long time, we finally said end to the go fast era and are now officially cruiser-style boaters. This weekend we took delivery of our new boat. As you can tell, Blair is quite comfortable on it and found his spot - driving! Enjoy the movie.

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I have no idea where he got it or why this song with all the music in our house, but The Santa Claus Boogie by The Tractors gets Blair moving and all excited. We all know that he gets the moves from Sherry, but this is all natural Blair since Sherry has not given him lessons yet. Plus, let's not kid ourselves, this is not Sherry's preferred style of music. He gets so fired up that I had to record it. By the time I realized I did not have enough light from my S3, he was wiped out for the day. The quality is a bit low but then again it's already a 40+MB download so it might take some time to fetch the movie. Enjoy.

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We had the privilege of watching the Maryland 4A High School championship game at M&T Bank Stadium from a suite. Our friends' son was playing for Arundel High School and the starting long snapper as a Sophomore. We had a great time even though they lost to Quince Orchard HS. I was certainly impressed with the level of play at the High School level.

The 70+ images are loaded in the events section of the site.

ARRRG! Blair got to enjoy his 2nd Halloween and just loved his costume. He kept his hat on for most of the day. He was able to ham it up and flirt with some of the ladies hoping to get a trick or a treat. Mostly treats today. Mommy and Daddy get to enjoy most of them since his still only has a couple teeth and can't eat the good stuff yet.

But WAIT? Where is Miss Judy and Mr. Joe? Maybe it's time for a trick?!?!?! ARRRGGGG!!!!

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure to document Rachel and Rich's wedding at Ceresville Mansion. From the ceremony to reception, flowers, location, to the Ceresville staff, it was a great event. You can see the full event under the events tab.

I love outdoor weddings. It allows me to get to play with my Infrared camera and get some amazing images.

The portrait gallery finally got a much needed update today. I was able to add some images and organize it a little better. Click to view the Portrait Photography Gallery.

I would like to share an interesting article about the safety of your kids images. Hopefully, most parents know how pedophile and other online creeps are surfing the internet on sites like my space, etc. searching for potential victims. Another precaution you might want to consider is the use of online photo albums like flickr, etc. Posting pictures of your children to these sites with their full names gives them an advantage especially if there is any location information. How? This gives them an advantage of acting like they already know them by calling them by first name (since you gave it to them) and a rough proximity of where the child lives to find them. Some good precautions would be to use sites that require registration and limit access to people YOU assign vs. public domain that is open to everyone. There is a difference between public and private albums. You can also search your child's name or gallery to see who has links to them.

To do advance searches on the internet, you can do "firstname lastname" to search by exact name by using the quotes or use link:albumURL and replacing albumURL with the link of the album.

Click here to read the article.

I am a little behind getting Blair's birthday pictures up and into a show. Here is the show. Enjoy.

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During Photo Plus Expo, I was able to shoot a Hasselblad digital camera. That was one of the most comfortable cameras I have ever held. I am sure the image quality is there since it is used by most Madison Ave shooters. These cameras back in the film days were staples to wedding photographers. At 22, 31, and now 39 mega pixels, these bodies are in the 20k-30k price range without accessories or backups. That makes for quite the investment to support weddings unless your mixed platform.

Mamiya has come out with the ZD 645AFD II Digital System that breaks the 10k barrier. Ok, while that is still not cheap but at 22 mega pixels, Canon or Nikon still do not have an option. The Canon 1Ds M2 is 7-8k without a lens. That puts it right in there since you get an 80mm lens and Photoshop Lightroom. No, I am not switching to medium format but at least these manufactures are coming down from the stratosphere as they recover their R&D expenses in sensor technology development. Here is their press release.

Well, I am typically not impressed when Microsoft has a big announcements. It seems that they are always coming up with proprietary formats that are so anti-open source you have to fight in their OS later. Vista was touted as a new way of computing but ended up being no more than lipstick on the same pig with widgets you can run on XP thanks to Yahoo and some ideas stolen from Apple. Give me apps that support multi-chips with multi-cores for the short term. Anyway, they have been working on a project for 5 years that could have a significant impact to the way we use computers and manage vast image archives. Late last week they announced Surface. The interface looks like a huge change in usability. Right now it is slated for commercial applications but I am sure that it will have consumer application.

The Katie Matheis and Devan Spilker wedding is posted on the Events section of the site. The couple was a lot of fun and I even ran into good friends who were guests there. My favorite moment was when the best man said that Glen Burnie was taking over camelot. That was one of the best lines in a toast I have hear in some time. Maryvale Castle is a beautiful location for an event.

I found an interesting site for those concerned with proprietary RAW formats. For those new to RAW, each manufacture and camera model has its own proprietary RAW format. Adobe has been trying to get manufactures to use the DNG format they have submitted to the open source community. Hasselblad is the only major player to support this. As new cameras come to market, you have to what for the all the RAW processors like Adobe Camera Raw to update with the new format. As our current camera become legacy bodies, it makes you wonder how long their formats and our large libraries of negatives will be supported.

Now there is a group looking taking on the problem from a different angle. OpenRAW.org is trying to get the RAW formats openly documented. Personally, I convert everything to DNG since I use Adobe products and figure I am pretty safe but thought I would pass on the info to others.

On Tuesday, we got to see the Blue Angels air show practice off the Severn River. Here is a little slide show created with my Canon S3.

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I really do not know where to file this one, but a photographer got 18,000 people to pose naked at the Zocalo square in Mexico City for some of the largest nude art images every taken. Seems like a large undertaken to pull this off logistically. The US photographer is Spencer Tunick took these images 2 days ago and they have already made the press wires.
View Slide Show

We were fortunate to sneak away for an extended weekend down in Key West. We just love it there. 83 degrees, sunny, with a nice ocean breeze. Blair traveled great and really enjoyed himself. He found the puppies fun and was a flirt with the ladies. The trip was way to short and very memorable. This picture of Blair about sums up the rest of the week. Of course, I could not resist doing a slide show of the trip.

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Blair's birthday is next Monday and his birthday party invitations have been mailed out. We are starting to receive RSVP's and about 40 friends and family are coming. I have been a bit behind in getting his card posted on the blog. I had this idea in my head for a couple months now and I am so happy he was willing to "posed" for me. I did have to Photoshop the boo boo off his forehead. Not from the shot but from an incident a couple hours before. He actually hammed it up and was standing on one leg and was not camera shy at all. He gets that from his mommy.

Everybody seems to have enjoyed the cards and gotten a little chuckle out of them. Let me know what you think and post a comment. I could use the feedback.

We have a new video of Blair cruising around the house. Enjoy.

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After endless searches for a good technical Canon discussion forum, I created Candemonium. The site is dedicated to all things Canon for Canon enthusiasts.

Sherry and I are now in a world of trouble. Blair has figured out how to pull himself up and stand. He was in his crib sitting down and before you know it, he is holding on to the railing upright. He's not even 11 months, and before you know it, he is growing up so quickly.

I came across an interesting article on USA Today that says that the digital point and shoot market may have peaked and that the digital SLR's sales are rising because the prices are falling. They basically are expecting the Canon XTi to be in the $400 price range by year end. That would be good needs for hobbyists that want more capability but not professional prices.

Click here to view the USA Today Article.