This week Kerry and I discuss the new Nikon D700, the new Nikon Tilt-Shift Lenses, and the new Nikon SB-900 Flash along with whether or not you are you too “Pro” to use a tripod? We believe you should think again as we discuss different tripods types and why you need to have a good tripod.

We also covered Building a Portrait Cheat Sheet.  Where you should take images of someone rotating through 180 degrees to see how the light changes on the person’s face.  An excellent learning experience for anyone that wants to understand light & form!

And, our Picks of the Week too!  Kerry chose the R-Strap from Black Rapid and I chose the new & improved Drobo by Data Robotics, Inc.

This podcast is part of our series that is available on iTunes.

Check it out & have a super week – cheers!

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Good day ladies! Here’s a little something that we would like to share with you that we believe may help you in preparing for your big day. Check it out! :D

Your Attitude
The most important thing you can do is to relax, let go, and have fun on your wedding day. This will translate into beautiful photos. The most frequent culprits of less than perfect photos are stress, poor planning, and unrealistic expectations of the day. The more you can plan ahead to avoid these things (i.e. hiring exceptional vendors, planning a relaxing morning, planning for worst case scenarios, and padding your schedule), the better your photos will turn out.  Like we always say – let’s all do our homework & have a blast on the big day!

In our experiences, no matter how much you plan for your wedding day, something will invariably not go as planned. It’s very hard to maintain perspective when you have been planning so long for one day, but keep reminding yourself that this day is about marrying the love of your life, and don’t let the little things get to you. No one will notice if the favors don’t arrive, the dress gets dirty, or the flowers aren’t the right color. But they will notice if you are upset and that will show in your photos.

Style
Make sure the photographer you hire is someone whose work, style, and personality you connect with. Not many realize that they will spend more time with the photographer on their wedding than almost any other single person. It’s essential that you get along with your photographer, since that will definitely affect the photos.  We believe that by the time your big day rolls around, we’ll all have such a great connection where we’re all relaxed and having fun.  This will also show to your family & guests – which will in-turn lead them to relax too.

If you have any specific photos you want, communicate your wishes with your photographer before the wedding. This will help you both be on the same page and ensure that the photos that you expect are the photos that you will get. Keep in mind the reason why you hired the photographer (for example, if you hired a photographer that is known for a very candid look, don’t expect the photographer to spend hours taking posed pictures).  In a sense, we like to “get inside your head” so we can shoot your wedding through your eyes as much as possible, capturing our signature Artistic and Romantic portraits and Amazing details of your wedding day.

Timing
The time of day, season, and location will have an enormous impact on your photos. Be sure to consult with your photographer and make sure you create a wedding day schedule that will allow you to take advantage of the best light of the day. The best light for photos is usually around sunrise and sunset, which photographers like to call “magic light.” Also keep in mind the climate – posing indoors could make for better pictures than outside, if it’s 100 degrees outside.

Unless you want your wedding day to be remembered as one long photo shoot, try to limit the number of posed group shots. The more groups you want photographed, the less time your photographer(s) will have capturing moments, candid shots of you and your guests, and you as a couple.

To ensure that the formal photo session runs as smoothly as possible, communicate before the wedding to everyone involved about where and when you’ll have the posed photographs.

This is EXTREMEMLY important.  We have had a few unfortunate circumstances where this crucial information wasn’t communicated to the wedding party, family & all that were involved and the outcome was a 90 minute formal photo shoot because we were constantly waiting on people to be wrangled up or return from the cocktail hour.

Makeup and Hair
Do a trial run with your hair and makeup and have photos taken to make sure you’re happy with your appearance. Check out your makeup both in natural light and indoors to be sure it’s not too heavy. We cannot stress enough how important it is to make sure your makeup looks light, clean and natural. Even though your wedding is a very special day, keep in mind that you still want to look like you.

One Last Thing
Remember that the goal of your wedding photos is to capture beautiful pictures of you and your day! Even though you’ll want everything to be perfect, your photographer will be looking for great expressions—and those usually come when everyone involved is relaxed and having a great time.

That’s about it ladies!  The bottom line is, after the invitations, after the cake is eaten and after the last dance – you’ll have your wedding photography to look back on along with your memories.  Let’s make them the most incredible ones you could ever have dreamt of.

Have a great Baby Friday – cheers!

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Here are some words of inspiration that we thought we would share with you for this year’s July 4th Holiday – cheers!

In celebration of the United States’ Independence, we bring you this true story of five men who broke through their terror barrier and made a commitment to something huge.

The thirteen colonies (what would become the United States) were being taxed unfairly under Great Britain’s rule. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Roger Sherman were the five men that stood up for the Colonist’s rights. They argued that Great Britain had no jurisdiction to tax the Colonies.

While all of the other Colonists felt that they were being treated unfairly, none of them were willing to say so, as their allegiance was still with the King of Great Britain. It was up to these five men to push for the rights of the Colonists. They met at the Virginia Convention and then again in Williamsburg to declare the Colonies independent. John Adams stood up for the resolution that: “these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

When these five men met to draft the Declaration of Independence, there was no working process. They did not have someone to lead the meeting, take minutes or even guide them as to how the ideas should be presented. They were on their own to take control and put all of their thoughts into an organized form that could be presented to Congress. The committee decided on a general outline that the document needed to follow, and then appointed Thomas Jefferson to write the first draft. The weight of the 13 Colonies’ independence now rested on Jefferson’s shoulders. Jefferson only had 17 days to finish the first draft. He then got comments and revisions from the other committee members and wrote a second draft. The document titled “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled” was presented to Congress on June 28, 1776.

These men knew that what was put on this paper could have cost them their lives, did they not receive backup from Congress and the other Colonists. If the King of Great Britain wanted to, he could have had these men executed for encouraging the Colonists to go against his rule. They put themselves on the line in order to gain freedom for the rest of the Colonies.

On July 2, 1776 Congress and 12 of the 13 colonies approved General Lee’s Resolution for Independence, severing ties between the Colonies and Great Britain for good. The next day, John Adams wrote a letter to his wife predicting that July 2nd would soon become a great American holiday. Congress then began to look at the Declaration of Independence. After several days of debating, word changing, and some content adjustment, Congress approved the document on July 4, 1776.

Today America celebrates 232 years of independence and freedom. Because these men did not let fear stand in their way, because they did not hesitate to make the right choice, American Citizens now have the right to vote, the right to free speech, the right to practice any religion, the right to a fair trial, just to name a few.

Imagine what impact you could make, if you broke through your terror barrier. The endless amounts of people you could impact and differences you could make in the world are incredible!

Paul Martinelli

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Good Evening Everyone!  I’ve been burried behind the monitor today in post production & received a WONDERFUL email from Erin & Philip in Ireland about their WEDDING we did back on May 17th.

Check it out & have a super July 4th Holiday weekend – cheers!

“Aloha David and Katherine,

Happy 3rd of July from Ireland!  It’s been madness since Phil and I got back from our heavenly Hawaiian honeymoon and finally home to Erie, but I’m finally sitting down and getting the chance to write back to you… nearly two months later!  We came home to a dead laptop, so the lovely people at Dell set to work a few weeks ago and just delivered us a new little bundle of computer joy!  So now I can email again, and have a nice wide screen that does your photographs justice!

I am so glad that you enjoyed our wedding day as much as we enjoyed having you both there with us.  David, I don’t know if there is any photographer on the planet who could have covered every angle of our big day for 10 long hours with such enthusiasm and skill.  We were so impressed to have you for the whole day, we didn’t dare think that the company and assistance of your wonderful wife was part of the deal as well!  Katherine, you were so kind, concerned, and helpful — I only recently found out that there might not have been flowers at the ceremony if it wasn’t for you having the florist’s phone number on hand — THANK YOU.

Everyone has been saying how great our photographer and his lovely wife were, and have been raving about the wedding and loving the sample pictures (myself included!).  The sample photos look absolutely fab-u-lous.  It’s so great to have a little taste of the day to keep us going until the final product is ready.

Hope you guys are doing well, and have a rockin 4th of July!”

Cheers,

Erin and Phil”

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