Ashley Before She Pops!

I didn't know my friend Ashley was pregnant until I saw something about it on Facebook. I contacted her and told her she needed pictures done. She was already in her 8th month. By the time we got around to taking these pictures she was 13 days out from her due date. She was a trooper though! I kept saying "Are you comfortable?" as we hiked up to the waterfall. I really didn't want to deal with her water breaking and having to drive her to to hospital. Although maybe I could have done newborn pictures in the same session!

Shannon and Anthony's Wedding

Here's a few of my favorites from Amy's cousin Shannon and her new husband Anthony's wedding. They are such a great, fun loving couple. They are my first couple that opted for the "first look" so we could get a few extra shots before the ceremony. It was the first wedding that I took the time to incorporate off camera flash in most of the staged shots. I was super pleased with the results. It was also one of the few weddings I've ever been to where everything was pretty much on time! It was a real pleasure. Oh, and they rode off into the sunset on a motorcycle! How fun is that?

Weirdness

I was strolling through some pictures the other day and thought "Man, these look different to me than they used to" I'm not talking about editing style or anything. These were straight out of the camera. The tones were much smoother and colors more pleasant. I cant think of anything that I've changed about my approach towards taking pictures. It seems almost like something about my camera changed. Weird.

Natasha and Torrie's wedding

I had the privilege of shooting a co-workers wedding. Natasha is something of a photographer herself and working in a Visual Information shop, there are a handfull of others she could have asked. But she asked me. Thanks Nattie! Here are a couple from her day:

Love/hate relationship

Well, not really a relationship. David Hobby of Strobist featured a series of behind the scenes videos on Dave Hill in a recent blog post. So I watched the videos and was curious as to the result, so I peeked over to Dave Hill's website. I can't stand that over produced, comic book, fake as all getout style! I throw up a little bit when i see stuff like that. I saw him using a Mamiya 7, medium format rangefinder film camera during part of the first video. I was a bit intrigued and wondered if he'd have any film shots in his gallery. As I was dragging the mouse over to close the browser, I noticed a "Personal" section to his site. His personal section is FILLED with some of the most GORGEOUS black and white film work I've seen in a while, including some large format pieces! I've been exploring the black and white medium and large format film niche for a while and this guy has pretty much what I'm striving for. Obviously he's taking these along side his commercial, highly produced and photoshopped work. I think these are much more pleasant though. Different strokes, I guess.

On Carrying a Camera

DC Drive HD
Originally uploaded by Charles Allen

I read this post the other day about carrying a camera all the time. I dont know why I thought I was the only one that thought like that. He took the words out of my mouth. Especially with this: "...when I am driving around, such as when I am coming home from work, I will try to compose photos of what I am seeing out of my window in my mind."

Natasha Ericson

Natasha Ericson
Originally uploaded by Charles Allen

I took the time to experiment a little with the antique 4x5 camera I have. It takes forever to set up and the results are a little unpredictable with such an old camera, but this is also my first print from it. It's like a large format Holga, a nice effect when it works out, but not commercially viable. I'm looking to buy a modern large format camera to solidify this technique.