This One's For My Mother-In-Law

My mother in law has this thing for firefighters. Don't really know whats its all about, but my wife mentions her mom's dirty little secret every now and again. Now these guys aren't full time fire fighters, they are part of our refinery's fire brigade. Working in an oil refinery you run the risk of things catching on fire, so you need a response team that can act quickly. They have done a wonderful job eliminating any fires at the facility.
They asked me to take pictures for them and the photos seemed to turn out pretty good. For the group shot I went a bit crazy with the lights. I threw a couple blue gelled lights in the fire engine cab and had some umbrellas and bare lights to expose the group correctly. For the shot below I used 2 strobes on the ground with red and blue gels aimed at the fire truck. Tried to get the red and blue flashing light look. It was a good shoot and we had a good time. Debbie, enjoy the pictures... ~Erik
Other pictures here and here.

4 Simple Steps to Group Photography

This last wedding that I shot, Josh grabbed a few shots of me doing my thing. I figured that I would put together a little tutorial on group shots. I have it nailed down to 4 simple steps.

1. Light setup
2. Compose group
3. Tell lies/Make farting sounds/Tell stupid jokes
4. Take picture

Let's start with step 1, now if you don't use off camera lighting you still need to take this into consideration. There is plenty of information online about shooting exposure and lighting. Just make sure that your exposure is correct. If you need to know anything about lighting visit Strobist.com. You can see in the picture above that I am moving my lights around.

Step 2 Compose group. This can be a bit tricky. I generally try and balance the group to make sure that I can see everyone. Also I take into consideration where the lighting will fall, watch out for shadows and hidden people. You can see in the shot above I have a very determined looked on my face. Getting the group together is serous business. Also you need to convince the group to squeeze together. Usually there isn't enough space for everyone and also nothing throws off a group shot like big gaps in a picture. Get friendly and squish together.

Step 3 Tell lies/Make farting sounds/Tell stupid jokes. If you follow the blog you know that I generally like to engage the people I am taking pictures of. I am not above making farting sounds (works great with kids). You can see in the picture above, I am telling some story, most likely not true, but you can see the group is engaged. Maybe I was telling them one of my terrible jokes. Anyways, make them feel more comfortable.

Before I get to step 4 sometimes it is necessary to go back a step or two. Once I had the group composed I realized I needed a bit of fill light. I grabbed my lovely assistant and asked her to stand in the Statue of Liberty pose for fill flash. You may notice something in your composition that doesn't work that you need to take care of. Just make sure that you do it quickly because the group is waiting.

Step 4 Take picture. This may seem simple but it causes issues some times. First thing, take lots of pictures. You will always have someone closing their eyes, looking away, funny faces. Best way to fight this is lots of shots, statistically speaking a person can't look too weird for too many shots. In one shot they will look normal. The bigger the group the more pictures you need to take. Don't worry, digital is cheap, a few electrons can save heart ache later. You can see the Statue of Liberty in the shot above if you look closely. Good luck with your group shots. ~Erik

Canady Wedding Part 1

A friend from work got married this weekend. I had the opportunity to shoot the wedding with my friend Josh, who I also work with. The images shown here were taken at the chapel. One of the problems with shooting in churches is the fact that they are generally not very well lit. One solution to this is to use flashes. I had flashes set up to bounce off the ceiling and they were optically triggered so both Josh and I could use them. The downside to the strobes is that it can be a bit distracting from the ceremony, as my wife so affectionately pointed out. Enough about the lighting.
The ceremony was very nice and I couldn't be happier for the couple. Randy has had a rough few years and it is wonderful to see him so happy with Trish. The picture of Freddy below is the most solemn I have ever seen him. At work Fred prides himself in terrorizing everyone, he doesn't discriminate, really everyone. It is great to see Randy and Fred's friendship and the support they are for each other. Congratulations to Randy and Trish, we wish the best for you. Tomorrow I will post pictures from the reception. There are quite a few more pictures on my photo stream (Click Here!).

Kali's new hair

Kali was feeling a little left out and wanted her hair cut like Kaitlyn's hair (which is like mom's hair). So, now we all have the same haircut. She asked me to cut it yesterday while Kaitlyn was at school. When Kaitlyn saw her after school she was a little disappointed. She said she wanted to look different than Kali - oops! She'll have to learn to deal with it, right? Kali asked me to curl it today, so it does look different than Kaitlyn's, kind of. I thought it was super cute and Erik decided it was time for a photo shoot. Kali says she feels cute and sassy. She is so cute and especially so sassy. -Angela
More pictures here...

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn!

Kaitlyn turned 6 today and was very excited for her birthday. She was a bit bummed out because we are in Hawaii and she wanted to bring birthday treats to her school class. Fortunately her teacher is accommodating and said she could bring in treats when she gets back. For her birthday her Grandparents took her out for breakfast before they boarded their plane for San Diego. After that she went and got a haircut that matches her mothers hair. You can see this in the picture above. Well, she also got a professional photo shoot done by yours truly. All in all she had a wonderful birthday.

A bit about Kaitlyn, she is a very passionate little woman. We use the term passionate because it sounds better then moody. She loves to have fun but she is also our drama queen. You can see in the pictures below that when she doesn't want her picture taken she has no problems expressing her feelings. Kaitlyn loves life and everything around her. Happy birthday Kaitlyn... ~Erik

Photo Shoot with the kids...

Here is one shot from the photo shoot we did today. I have been bad about spending quality time with the blog the last few days. It seems to be an after thought when I am ready to go to bed. I'll post explanations when I get time. ~Erik

First full day with the IN-LAWS!

Angela's parents made it in yesterday and the kids were excited. They kept talking about the presents they were going to get. Yes, the kids are spoiled and their grandparents don't help out. I told the kids that the present was that they got to spent time with grandma and grandpa. They were a bit disappointed but they did end up getting some stuff from Angela's parents. Spoiled...
We went to a few beaches today. As you can tell in the picture above, Stan and I had some good man bonding time watching the waves and talking about our feelings. You know it is OK for grown men to talk about their feelings now days. After we were done bonding we went out for a photo shoot that ended up working out for everyone. Most of the time the kids cry and are mad, but we went to a spot where there were some tide pools. The kid got to play, I got some pictures and life was good. Grandma and Grandpa even got in on the action. Grandpa took the family shot and Grandma held the flash. They even did a jumping pose at the end. Enjoy. ~Erik
More pictures here. Just click the link...