Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Outdoor Family Photo session


The value of meeting a client before there image session is immense. When you schedule your session I always tell my clients that we need to meet face to face to get an idea of what they are thinking of for images and to get an idea of what style of images they are looking for. This not gives us a chance to meet and let the customer deciede if we are a good fit and gives me some locatin ideas and help you on chloting for there session.




In this session the client had a good idea of what type of image they wanted and wanted it to compliment the new design of there home. This also took some time to find just the right location which to give the client what they had imagined. When we were done with the original images I finished up the images in post processing to give the feel and the style they were looking for.






The client put there favorite image on a canvas which matched the style I think perfectly. It was amazing.
In these days of Craig s list and other online discount offers make sure before you commit to any photographer first see if they volunteer to meet with you first if not let that be a warning signal. Most reputable individuals will offer or insist on a meeting before agreeing to do the session. Almost all of the time this initial consultation is free and is really in your best interest. This allows you to first meet in person who you are wanting to hire to see if this is someone you can get along with, get an idea of what type of things you may want to do in your session, get an idea of what products are available and what you may be interested in and you can visit with the photographer to get an idea of what the final expenses will be so there are no surprises when you order your images.
I meet with so many people that at first say they do not have an idea of what they want to do during there session but I have found that after visiting with them for a while I can get an idea of what they like or dislike and it really helps to prepare for there session so they get the style they want. 






Thursday, July 5, 2012

Alumni Football game Stanwood Iowa 2012

What better to do on a hot and I mean really hot late June day than to play football. While most would call it insane that's just what several alumni from the North Cedar and Tipton Iowa school districts did.

The game started off by the game ball being presented by the St Luke's Hospital Life Flight Team flying in the game ball and landing in the middle of the field. Not to many football games open that way and I was glad that they did not have to make a return trip for some of the players.



While it was hot it was great to be shooting football. I love shooting sports action anyway and what a great way to hone up on your skills than to be able to shoot a game this time of year. This game was also extra special as my son Nick was right beside me shooting his first football game.


While a lot of folks struggle to get there camera settings right to get some great shots most of the battle is in the timing of the action and being able to read what is going to happen before it does. For this game I set up my camera as follows. Shutter priority mode with a shutter speed of 1000. That way you are sure to freeze the action. Most of the night the camera stayed in an apature setting of around F 4.5 If it wanted to go smaller I went to manual mode and set the camera to F 2.8 and a shutter speed of 1000 if I had to adjust I upped or lowered my iso speed.


As you can see these guys weren't taking it easy on each other. If they were they forgot to tell no 8.