Meritus 2011 Sugar Plum Dance

This is an event. Three hundred girls with dad all dressed up for a formal dance. We had two photography stations with one set of constant lights and another set with strobes. Both the portrait photographers, Jamie and Troy, had camera’s tethered to a laptop and then connected directly to a dye sublimination printer. Lisa and I kept everone sane and photographed the action on the dance floor. The result was two hundred portraits photographed, edited, printed, framed, and distributed to a whole bunch of young ladies in the same night. I just wanted to say thank you to Jamie, Troy, and Lisa for all the hard work and excellent photography.

The best way to drink hot chocolate

 

Dad Surrounded

 

Love the tiara

 

Mid Atlantic Event Photography

Mid Atlantic-

         Last year around super bowl time I went to a youth football playoff game to photograph the team. Walking up to the game I see this guy with a nice nikon rig and a 400mm 2.8 lens. Across the field his friend had a similar rig with a 200-400 mm 2.8 setup as well. I naturally stopped and started talking to Jamie and Troy. Since that day we really have not stopped talking and five or six events later have officially partnered up to form, Mid Atlantic Event Photography. I have to say I am really excited about how the new business venture is going and where I think it is going to end up.

New Venture

Harper’s Ferry, Engagement Images

Ann & Mike-

          So I went to Harper’s Ferry last weekend and had the privilege to photograph two families and an engagement couple all in the same day. Usually I don’t have this much stuff stacked up but the weather over the last couple of weekends was definitely anti photography. I have edited all the pictures and decided to start with the couple this time or basically the last group first. Ann and Mike were super fun and followed my all over the park that day. It was a long day for me but really a great day with great weather at the tail end of the autumn leaves.  Whenever I am anywhere these days I am always scoping out locations and possibilities for photographs. It seems that Harper’s Ferry has made a lot of improvements. It looks great and has a great balance between nature, civil war era, and modern day Harper’s Ferry. You can walk the river move through a store straight out of the civil war and then go get an ice cream cone.

          Anyhow I took Ann and Mike through the route as I call it. We covered the river, the railroad tracks, and the town proper. The first image is at a civil war tavern. I have to say that sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you know what to do, and sometimes both happen. The bonus in this case is the civil war tavern owner who saw me move to the middle of the street and “stood in” for the storefront images. I had already planned on posing the couple in the doorway towards the end of the day but the owner adds a great accent to the image. It is always better to end strong and leave the questionable pictures for the middle of the day. The silhouette picture I scoped out really early in the day and definitely wanted it later in day when the sun was low in the sky. I have to thank Ann and Mike they really made the day. Please do not hesitate to comment or ask questions.

Harper's Ferry Picture

 

Harper's Ferry Shadow

 

Meritus Healthcare Graphic Design Work

Jamie, Lisa, and I photographed a golf tournament for Meritus Healthcare last Thursday. The course, Penn National, has two eighteen hole courses that are really picturesque. Essentially we photographed each team and printed pictures on site as the free giveaway.  The giveaway was a horizontal folder with some original AJ Photography artwork on one side and team pictures on the other side. I have been working quite a bit with Adobe InDesign lately and wanted to show off some of the work. The insert is just one of the things I have built with the graphic design suite. Let me know what you think?

Folder insert

Petroglyphs, 3000 years old

          I was at the Valley of Fire in Nevada for sunrise to check out the morning light. While driving around I decided to check some of the trails and take some pictures from the valley trails. While I was walking down the trail I looked up on the cliff face and sitting there are petroglyph’s carved into the rock face. I literally was standing there in awe. I took a bunch of pictures and thought that people would want to see them, for me they are really fascinating. The ranger station estimates that they are three thousand years old.

Petroglyphs, 3000 years old

Valley Of Fire

I had the opportunity to travel out to Nevada recently and
visit the Valley of Fire a few times. Generally I like to visit a place like
the Valley of Fire multiple times to get a feel for the light and to figure out
the angles. The history of a place also is also very interesting as well
especially in a place like this. This picture is one of the many single red
rock formations within the park. If you get a chance to visit you should definitely
go it is really very cool.

Blackwater Osprey

I took a day trip down to Blackwater Regional Wildlife Park in Cambridge, MD with some friends. The sanctuary is in the migratory path for a large number of birds. They are especially known for their nesting Eagles and Osprey. I have seen eagles before including a golden eagle in Arizona at one point but I had not seen Osprey. The pair we set up on had four chicks in the nest. We believe the female was sitting on the nest while the male was out hunting. Once we setup the male osprey circled in five times before settling in to land on the nest for a grand total of two and half hours of flight time. I setup on my tripod with the 70-200 2.8 and the 1.7 extender.

Fire Breather, 4th of July

I went out on July 4^th fully expecting to try and master the world of fireworks photography even though my previous attempts have not been very masterful. We setup the canopy right on the line and waited all day for the show. Prior to the show a fire performance group called Pyrophoric came out and did a really cool fire show prior to the fireworks. They had all kinds of dancing with fire on sticks, whips, and all kinds of other devices. Naturally I shifted to photographing pyrophoric and noticed a couple of things. To maximize the show the group performed at dusk which really makes it especially hard to photograph. As the show commenced I found myself increasing my ISO and pulling back wider to try and get some image clarity. Moving on I noticed that the fire was doing the work for me and instead of imaging the people I started to image the fire on the performers as they were lit. My favorite photograph is the fire breather below. Everything in the image works, the fire has detail, his shirt fits the 4^thof July, and it is just cool. By the way right after they were finished it started pouring and needless to say mastering fireworks photography will have to wait.

Fire Breather, 4th of July

Amber’s Ring

I really like this picture. When the bride and groom dance their first dance I back up and use my zoom to get tight and record the details of the first dance. The more I do this the more I tend to think that the best details are not always in an expression. The image is simple but also has a lot of content. It has unity between Amber and Anthony, the bride and groom, as well as a great focal point at the ring. To me the best part is that the bride and groom are one in the image represented by the ring. It’s a symbol of their union and tells the story.

Bride and Groom's First Dance

Portrait Light Setup, on the Road

       The picture is my basic setup for event photography. This time we were on the Dandy dinner cruise down in Alexandria for a birthday party. Essentially we pose and photograph couples, families, and friends then print onsite with dye sublimation printers at lab quality (300 DPI). The lights are constant fluorescent with twelve (six each) independent bulbs. There are occasionally problems with ambient light but I can turn on or off lights independently to switch in the correct exposure and find that people respect the light when its constant. People love to take home the images and often pose for multiples. AJ Photography offers multiple event services and loves to take the show on the road.

Portrait Light Setup