Start of a new chapter

I recently had the great pleasure of photographing a young man named Brandon McCoy. He is a freshman in high school, which for him I'm sure is a fun and exciting new chapter in his life. I remember still to this day how scared I was to start high school. But Brandon seems to have a great head on his shoulders at such a young age. As we went around taking some photos one thing that impressed me the most about him was how he had a great eye for a nice idea for a photo. I am always so impressed with the youth who have so much talent at such a young age. Here are some of my favorite photos from the shoot that day.

Guest blog from John-Logan Coots

Whether your just wanting to get healthy or your trying to lose weight for your upcoming wedding the guest blog for this week is for you. John-Logan Coots owner of Powerfit Personal Training talks about how to work towards your fitness goals. Check out powerfits website (http://www.powerfitusa.com) to learn more about what they do. Enjoy this months blog!

Break Through

 

We all want to be fit, healthy, and look good. It makes us feel good and most of us think we have a general idea of how to get there. (Don’t eat junk food and get some regularexercise). But for some it can be an on going challenge, to learn how to put health and fitness goals in to perspectiveas a priority. Before you know it, it can look like a pretty long road to get back on track.

 

So what separates fit people from the people that would like to be fit?  Life style, like any aspect of our lives we must have structure, constancy, and persevere though the journey of our affairs and end up with something more then we started with. Health and fitness must play an interracial part of our daily life. Some of us know this but continue to put our health on the back burner.  “I will get around to it just as soon as ““this that or the other”” changes in my schedule”. I hear it far too often, people convince them self that they don’t have time. The reality is that if you want to be successful with your health and fitness we have to be ready to put fitness high on your priorities. Putting your health off won’t cut it if you truly want to take care of your self. You can’t treat health and fitness as something to get done with your laundry list. You most take action, educate yourself and get on track to see and feel results.

 

It doesn’t have to happen all at once. In fact I don’t recommend it. You have to crawl befor you walk. Small changes each week add up to big changes in a year. And to stay on track you have to really enjoy what you are doing. Far too many people think of fitness as something you do in the gym (cardio and weight machines). Fitness is movement, playing with your grad kids, swimming; bike riding, martial arts, walking, horseback riding, rockcalming, ice skating, hiking, tire flipping and everything in-between. If you really enjoy what you are doing you are much more likely to stick with it. There is a whole lot out there so keep trying new things till you truly have a great time.

 

Getting stated can be as simple as finding something or someone that motivate you, the spark that starts the fire.  Down here at Powerfit we call this moment of momentum “Empowerment”. What empowerment means to me is to step up to the plat and swing the bat even if you’ve never played baseball. To step out side of your comfort zone to enrich your life by over coming the obstacles you think are holding you back. (“I’m too busy”, “no time”) It’s time to stop putting your fitness anywhere, but striate to the top of your priorities and swing for the fences. Learn how to put your self first and let the things that will always be there take the second spot on your to-do list. And start trying new things, frequently, I recently started Olympic Wight lifting and I am enjoying it immensely.

 

Getting started is not always easy, but it is essential. It can all start with an audited which holds a belief and cultivate afeeling that will make you un-stoppable. “Wow” then in my mind you are empowered to take control and persevere. This momentum can apply to fitness and health and every aspect of life. Once you are empowered you are ready to make some serious progress. If you need a place to get started find a professional fitness trainer in your area to help you set some goals and create accountability. Create relationships with other health conscious individuals that you can share your progress with and who will help you stay on track.      

 

John-Logan Coots

Powerfit Personal Training

Guest Blog From Simply Bridial

For this months blog I am going to feature a guest blog from "Simply Bridal" they are a online based company that have tons of options for your wedding needs. Check them out here.  Here is the guest blog from "Simply Bridal". All images used are from weddings I photographed.

There are a lot of married couples, wedding planners and even relationship therapists who will tell you that if you want to understand how you and your partner will deal with stressful situations in the future, pay attention to how you handle the wedding planning process.

And while it’s pretty safe to say that even the best communicators will have some tense times as they’re getting all of their details together, the reality is that you don’t have to have a scene of War of the Roses in order to get everything taken care of.

So, in the effort to make sure that you and your beloved are able to get through the wedding planning process virtually unscathed, we’ve provided you with five tips for how to avoid wedding planning stress below:

Invest in a wedding planner. One of the biggest mistakes that a lot of couples make is assuming that they can handle all of the wedding details themselves. Then, when they see all of the details that are involved, they find themselves getting overwhelmed. Although you might think that a wedding planner is not something that you can afford, it’s actually one of the best investments that you can make because they have the skills and abilities to organize your wedding, get you discounts with vendors and make sure that your wedding (and reception) happens smoothly. So please, do yourself a big favor and hire a wedding planner.

Don’t procrastinate. A lot of times, you end up spending more money than you would like (or not getting the things that you want) simply because you waited too long. When it comes to things like booking a wedding and reception venue, contacting your bridal party about their attire and ordering flowers and a cake, the sooner you do it, the better. So definitely make sure not to procrastinate.

Communicate clearly. Whether it’s with your fiancé, your wedding planner, your family members or the vendors that you are working with, one thing that you don’t want to do is assume that you both are on the same page. That’s why it’s so important that you make sure everyone is communicating clearly. When it comes to your fiancé, it’s essential that you both talk out your expectations and feelings and repeat back what has been said to one another, when necessary. When it comes to everyone else, it doesn’t hurt to follow up phone calls with a short email; just so that what has been conveyed is documented.

Keep your fiancé in the loop. Speaking of your fiancé, nothing will get under his skin more than to be told that you purchased something that is going to cost a few hundred more dollars or that you decided to change the menu for the reception or the flavor of the cake without discussing it with him first. Remember, contrary to popular belief, it’s not just “your day”; it’s his day too. Therefore, respect his feelings enough to keep him in the loop.

Use cash as much as possible (seriously). Although your wedding day should be all that you ever dreamed of, we’re pretty sure that you want to be able to pay your mortgage and other bills following your wedding day. That’s why you should put forth a concerted amount of effort to avoid impulsive spending. Also, try and use cash as much as possible. Credit cards are loans that come with interest. You don’t want to spend years paying off bills that you accumulated for one day.

If you stick to all of these tips, we are confident that while your wedding planning may have moments of pressure, everything should be able to go off without a hitch overall!

5 ways becoming a dad made me into a better photographer

Becoming a dad not only changed my life as a person but as a photographer as well. In fact, I feel like being a dad made me a better person and photographer.  Here are 5 specific ways in which fatherhood has helped hone my photography skills. 

  1) Being ready for those quick moments that will happen in a flash. With a 7 month old things happen very quickly and this helps me when photographing a event because the important moments happen very quickly as well. My child helps me focus on this skill more. 

  2) Making a scene work for you. When taking pictures of my son I have to photograph him in the scene he is in when he's playing with his toys or trying to crawl.  Sometimes the background can be very distracting so I have to work the scene to make the photo more appealing.  This can be helpful when photographing a client in a less ideal situation as well.  

 3) Testing my ability to work the light I have. The house I live in doesn't get the best light so I have to work with what's there, so that can be either increasing my IOS or bringing my son closer to the window to get the nice window light. During a wedding this is something that comes up frequently, so these situations with my son is helping me working with bad lighting more often. 

4) Being more selective of the "keepers". If I kept every image I have ever taken I would have thousands of images just of my son.  I am learning that the images that are not useable will never be missed, so I might as well delete them.  

5) Getting me to photograph more often. It is fairly common knowledge among photographers that the more you're out taking photos the better photographer you'll become.  I love my son and like any parent I want to take pictures of every moment in his life.  So this has gotten me to always have my camera near by and photographing more often and that is never a bad thing for a photographer.

Saving Eliza O'Neill

It is with great pleasure to be dedicating this months blog post to talk about a very special project that photographers around the world including myself am part of .  The name of this project is Called SavingEliza, and you can read about her story seen here .

Eliza was diagnosed with Sanfilippo Syndrome. The disorder, makes the body unable to properly break down long chains of sugar molecules called glycosaminoglycans. It will cause Eliza to lose many of her functions. First, she'll lose her speech, then her ability to walk, and she will suffer from seizures. And then, she will lose her life.

So photographers like myself  are donating their work to be sold for this cause. 100% of the processed goes to helping this Eliza. If you are interested in purchasing the print I donated click on this link http://savingeliza.smugmug.com/Featured/i-dVJmSRH/A.  Feel free to share this blog post on any social media platform you have.  Below is a sample of the image, and I want to thank everyone in advance for supporting me in this project!
Click HERE to be forwarded over to where you can purchase this print.

The Beauty That Never Gets Old

I have lived in Sonoma County for many years--25 to be exact.  There are many great things about living in California, such as the weather,the close proximity to the ocean, and for a photographer like me the landscape.  Another great thing about where I live is that I am only an hour away from one of the most amazing sites in the world.  Every year millions of people come to San Francisco just to see the GoldenGate Bridge, which I'm sure manywould agree is by far one of the most beautiful sites in the world.  I don't remember the exact time that I first saw this bridge, but to this day anytime I go to the city anddrive out of the "Rainbow Tunnel" (as I call it) it feels like the very first time seeing this magnificent bridge. So it goes without saying that it is probably one my favorite subjects to shoot.  In my album "San Francisco 'In My Eyes' " (seen here) I photograph the city in ways that I feel are different then how it is normally photographed.  I think the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most photographed subjects in San Francisco, so when I am photographing it I try to do so in ways I think other people haven't thought of.  I want to show off the beauty, size and character that really make it unique.I am also always looking for thepicture that gives me the feeling of seeing it for the first time.  Below are a few photographs that I took coming home from a family portrait shot I did in San Francisco.  If you'd like to see more views of the Golden Gate, be sure to check out this link.  

Are Film Photographers a Dying Breed?

Recently I had a conversation with a photographer who does it as a hobby.  She mentioned that she still shoots film photography to this day.  This brought up a question for me: are film photographers a dying breed?  When I started thinking about this I couldn't help but wonder why I stopped shooting film.  I started in film photography and absolutely loved it (You can view and purchase some of my film prints here).  To this day I have great memories of being in the darkroom, listening to some music and watching something I created in the camera come to life on paper.  For a person who has never experienced this and has shot digital from the start I feel that this is a huge loss.  Not only do you get to see what you shoot come to life on paper but there are other advantages of shooting film.  The obvious advantage with digital is that you can make a mistake and it doesn't cost you a roll of film so you can shoot thousands of pictures without a care in the world.  But for me, working with film taught me how to be patient and wait for that right moment to click the shutter.  I also feel that film taught me how to expose a photo correctly and how to bracket (bracketing is where you take three photos: one where it should be and one overexposed and one underexposed) to get the perfectly exposed photo. Don't get me wrong here: I love digital photography and, trust me, I do tend to let the things I learned with film slip. Though why is it that with the love I had for film I never shoot film anymore?  Is it time, money, both or something completely different?  Trust me when I say that I do not have the answer to this question. I do, however, have a few ideas about why I think film photographers are a 'dying breed'.  

   First off, I think the main reason is that for photographers who are doing this as a business (like myself) film photography is just not cost effective.  If I were to shoot a wedding with film I would spend hundreds of dollars on film, then I would have to get those rolls of film developed and then printed. It is easy to see how after hundreds if not thousands of photos this could be very expense with film.  With digital photography this is not the case--you can take about a thousand photos on one thirty-two giga byte card for the cost of that card.  Another reason I think a lot of photographers don't shoot film anymore is technology.  I believe that with the advances of technology digital photography keeps getting better and better.  For a lot of film photographers their biggest complaint was that you just can't get the same quality photo that you can get with a digital camera.  Even one of the top film cameras--the Hasselbad--has gone digital with the H5D-50 (here).  I mean sure, that camera is a whopping $44,000- way out of the price range of a lot of photographers, but it is a beast of a camera and in my opinion, just as good if not better then a lot of film cameras. So all this brings me back to my original question: are film photographers a dying breed? 

   I believe to find photographers that used to shoot film or still do to this day is very rare.  But I also feel that the ones who do still shoot film do it because of their love for film and nothing else.  For these photographers not shooting film would be like taking away their one true love.  So with that in mind I don't feel that film will ever completely go away.  What do you think?  Do you think that film photography will one day be a thing of the past? Let me know in the comment section below.