I’ve been looking for a few people to model for me and every once in awhile I see someone I might be interested in and ask them to give me a call if they would like a free headshot photo session worth $350.00. I also let them know that I am currently looking for a few people to model some wedding attire for my portfolio.

I was shopping at a specialty store a few weeks ago and came upon my new friend Michele who reminded me of the actress from Father of the Bride with her big curly brownish hair and big blue eyes. So this morning after a few phone calls back and forth and getting a set date we went out for a half hour and just did some fun, relaxed shots of her to see how well she would do in front of my camera. I would like to hear from those of you out there, what do you think? She’s not a professional but picked up really fast on the posing techniques I gave her.

I had a wonderful time shooting for one of my regular clients on Sunday in San Rafael, California. She had her good friend Marge who was turning 80 years old and wanted my instant photo system there to shoot, print and hand out to guest’s 5×7 color photos of each guest with the Birthday girl and also all the other activities. It was her gift to the Birthday Girl.

Its amazing watching and listening to an 80 year old and her friends, they sound just like teenagers when they get together. The party was held at the Elks Lodge Estate in San Rafael, Ca which is over 100 years old.

The food was from a culinary master chef caterer located in San Rafael and was amazing. The only other person there that was close to my age was her one and only 19 year old grandson. Poor kid, what does a 19 year old do in a room full of 75-90 year olds? He watched a ball game most of the time, I should have had him shoot some photos for me! Ha! Anyhow, you are as young as you feel so live, laugh and love!

I’ve been noticing so many of the actions and other retouching software I use can over retouch an image. Highlights for instance can be blown out, like the one above and at times the image can start to look cartoonish. What I try to do is find a middle ground so my subject still looks like themselves and not over done. On the image above (right) I used Kevin Kubuto’s “Lord of the Rings version 2″, and its a little too hot for me for one action. I used photoshop tools to remove the lines from under her eyes and the clone tool to smooth out the neck lines and the top of her hair line, I also filled in the small space between the teeth. Her eyes and teeth were whitened with another new piece of software from Image Trends. When I realized that the Kubuto tools actions can be altered then I could get the much better and sharper finished image I was looking for. 

So as you can see, there are many tools and many different and expensive software applications needed to create just one finished image. Taking the picture is the easy part, the computer time is where the image starts to come alive.

These are just some of the 1,000 images I just got through editing and retouching from yesterdays wedding at the beautiful Winchester Country Club in Meadow Vista, California.

A couple of images from my Palm Event Center wedding this past January.

I’m really looking forward to my wedding this weekend. Its being held at The Winchester Country Club in Meadow Vista, California. The Club House Mansion and grounds are outstanding. My couple is great looking, the weather is going to be perfect and the venue is beautiful. Oh, and the photographer…he’s not that bad either. Ha!

Be sure to check back here late Sunday afternoon for photos and even a web slide show too!

When I hand out my buisness card to someone, its like a mini billboard for me. Many people think I only shoot weddings, when if fact I shoot anything from a headshot for the internet to a large office complex and interiors for a magazine.

Today digital photography is seen and used in every aspect of our daily lives. The services we offer are wide spread so we can help our clients to impliment a entire advertising project if need be. Everywhere you look around you, you will notice more and more photography being used. Our world is very visual and the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is right on.

Brides get nervous all the time and I have a way of relaxing even the bridezillas out there, not a problem for me, piece of cake. All I have to do is act like a guy and say something stupid, and wah-la!

Lets face it, when you have lots of family and lots of friends its really hard to choose who you want in your wedding party. Thank goodness my couple from last year stopped at 22 people or they all wouldn’t have fit in the church!

The reception had only Five Hundred guests…the wedding party was seated at a two levels on a stage. Thank you Canon for my Fisheye lens to get this shot!

Our first stop was the Nicholson Ranch where I’ll be photographing a wedding this October. The grounds and building are beautiful and the backdrop of the Napa Valley is awesome. Below is a collage of some of the photos I took there today.

All the photographs I shot today were straight out of the camera, no retouching, no color enhancement nothing. The Canon 5D is amazing. Below is just an example of before and after in photoshop.

The photoshopped image comes alive with contrast and color. The original is flat, most images from a digital camera need to be processed using some type of photoshop work to look better.

Then we traveled back onto Hwy. 29 towards Napa and took in a few more sites, one I haven’t been at since I was ten years old was this old brick building full of specialty shops. I found a couture Bridal Designer located in the building but was asked NOT to take any photos of the gowns inside because the owner was not there, so I did the next best thing, shot a few of these spectacular gowns from the display window on the outside. Afterwards we traveled back down the highway and found this little church that was really romantic among all the vineyards then to the Rutherford Grill for one of the best meals we have ever had! My desert was the banana cream pie with a graham cracker and chocolate crust with fresh whipped cream and dark chocolate chunks sprinkled on top….1,000,000,000 calories! Ha!

I think after touring Napa that I’m going to add it to my list of destination engagement shoots. Here are some images from our getaway along with a couple of my wife Laura.

I haven’t had the need to advertise in a long time, but with the changing market and so many amateurs getting into photography I now feel the need to keep my company name out there for all to see. Here’s one of my new ad’s coming out in June 2008. I have three others I’ll share later.