D155 - Looking up

This is one of the most interesting ceilings I have seen in a while, at a hotel outside of Vegas. The William Penn in Pittsburgh, PA is photographers playground with all the details in the lobby alone. Not to mention all the nooks and corridors that are perfect for shooting a subject or just as art.

Enjoy.

Ja mata, Brian

The Fog

I am like a kid on Christmas morning when I wake up to a foggy morning. You really cannot beat them when it comes to photography, well unless you are photographing people. Normally, the fog here only last til about 8-9 am, but on this day it lingered around until about 11am! Next time I'm going to shoot some film too.
Below are a few images from the recent fog outing, finding the heron on the last shot was all about being there and being ready.

Enjoy,
Ja mata.
Brian

Fav shot below...

Engaged | Elizabeth & Scott

Meet Elizabeth & Scott, they are a very fun couple who have some of the best dog stories. They actually met at a St. Patrick's day party years back, and as they say 'the rest is history'.

As I mentioned in the teaser, Elizabeth, Scott, and I went to the Silver Creek Metro Park in Norton. We had rescheduled the engagement session from a previous date due the frigid Ohio weather. We started off on the park docks with a little fishing, then made our way to an open field talking and laughing the whole way. The weather held off long enough for us to finish the engagement session and also provided some well timed wind gust.

Thanks Elizabeth & Scott,  I had a great time with you two and cannot wait to capture the memories from your wedding day.

Enjoy

Brian.

Giving Back: MS Walk Cleveland 2011

Nn Saturday we spent the morning in Cleveland, at the Cleveland Browns Stadium, volunteering our services for the MS Walk. Perla and I just realized this is our 4th year participating (3 times in Cleveland and 4, by the end of the month, in Akron). One of the best parts of being involved is knowing we are helping make a difference and getting to know everyone over meeting at the events year after year. For us it is providing team and event photographs for the attendee as well as putting a smile on everyone's we meets face. Just a little thing to help make their day a little brighter.

The next walk is in Akron, April 30th at the Stile Athletics Field House on the University Of Akron campus. There is still time to get involved, here a link to the Akron 2011 Walk. I could always use an extra hand helping shoot or getting teams in and out of the photo area. You can shoot me an email at brian @ brian-palmer.net .

Enjoy your week!
Brian

Finding Your Style: Part 1 - Selection

Finding your Style:

Finding your shooting style is like figuring out what type movies you enjoy, just takes more work. The best way to discover the types of movies you like is to watch a generous amount, of a wide variety, of films which genre interest you most. Of course, that in only going to give you a high level indication of the films you gravitate towards. For a deeper understanding, you would need to find which actors were your favorite, which plots pull you in the most, director style you like most, cinematography that appeals to you, and more. I'm sure a few months and a subscription to Netflix would put you on course to only selecting movies that you would thoroughly enjoy.

But what does that have to do with your shooting style?

Everything. When I started shooting, in nature photography, I heard many of the seasoned pro's talk about other photographer 'Style' of shooting. The most I got from the question 'How do you find your style?' was 'Keep shooting and you will find it.' Well they were right, and finding your style is no different than the movie example mentioned above, just on a different scale. Be for warned; it is a long, tedious road that you will travel, but the rewards are well worth it.

First, you need to amass a collection of work to begin culling through. Whether the work is from assignments, personal work, or a mixture is up to you, but the end result will give you an indication based off of the sample. There should be a variety within each grouping. For instance, with nature photography can have wildlife resting, in motion, feeding, hunting, exploring, sleeping, defending, migrating, and any other situations you can find them in.

*One tip when shooting is to ask yourself 'What is it about this subject that interest me?' , 'What am I trying to convey', and 'How do I capture this subject in a way that the viewer feel/see it too?' Now there are many other questions you can ask and these do not have to be verbatim. This is just a small practice I learned to help identify what I wanted to shoot, why, and how, so that I wasn't stopping at every blade of grass and shooting it.*

Now from this group of images you will make your initial Selection of images.

But which moments do you select?

In my opinion you should select the images that speak to you, whether technically good images or not,  ones that draw you in. Try looking at your images first in a thumbnail view via what every editing software you use. On the first pass you should select the ones that catch your attention the most, as they are the 'stand out' ones. Then take a second pass through the images to find the remaining ones that you 'feel'. For the sake of having a decent size selection pool, let's say out of 150 images you select your top 50 (Again 'top' referring to the ones that you feel impact from the most) This will give you your 'Genre', from here we move on to specifics about that selection, which I will talk more about in a future post.


Until then, enjoy the journey, as you never know where you will find your style.

As always, if you would like to share some step you took to finding you style of shooting, leave a comment.

The Journey....Onward

Finally back on the move again, but still working out a few things though.

First, setting up a new location for all the 365 files, so it will be easier to browse for those who missed some days or just want to look through them.

Second, Next week I will kick off the 52-Pick-up with Sara. Where she will taking a photo every week, and I will just "give her the camera and shut up!" Scott Bourne suggested the idea of giving a child a camera and letting them shoot at Summer School 2010. Interesting enough, while Perla and I were at Summer School, my mom got Sara her own camera, so it seems like perfect timing. Can't wait to see what she comes up with.

More to come.

Ja mata,
Brian

Iisha & Corwyn: Married!

Our good friends Iisha & Corwyn [CJ] are Married! They had a beautiful ceremony at the Grace Bible Church in Manchester, with not one dry eye as the vows were being exchanged. Everyone was touched by the emotional words of Iisha, as she spoke on how she felt when she almost lost CJ. CJ was seriously wounded in the war and had to spend months recovering in the hospital in DC. When he came back to Ohio, it was still a long road ahead. But you will see from the images, they are making amazing progress together.

After the ceremony, we went to the Akron Zoo Garden for pictures of the wedding party. Next, the party went to Guy's Party Center for the reception. Here are a few highlights from their wedding...



Perla and I thank you for giving us the opportunity to be a part of your amazing day.

Brian.

365 Project - Day 310 - Night Lights

Day 310

Tonight was the second night of the Matthew Jordan Smith Your Creative Experience Seminar, and it was hands down one of the best workshops I have been to. We all walked away with an arsenal of tips, ideas, & techniques for going forward in growing my style of shooting.

If Matthew is coming to your area soon, you really owe it to yourself to grab a seat, Yes I'm talking to all my peeps in Dallas, Tx! Not only for what you will learn and experience, but also the relationships you will have and foster with the other attendees. Does not get any better!

Thank you Matthew & Nozomi ~ Yokudekimashita yo.

Enjoy.

Ja mata,
Brian