Carissa & Matt's Wedding

We had a beautiful day for Carissa & Matt's wedding!  It started off a little crazy with a huge  farmer's market right outside the church doors when we arrived to set up. Luckily the farmers market disappeared in time to start taking some portraits.


We headed outside for some beautiful portraits at the park across the street. We were able to capture some awesome portraits with their church in the background.

First Presbyterian Church,Cedar Rapids

 A stunning bridal gown by Macy's Bridal Salon (Chicago)

                   

Some gorgeous rings from  Greenberg Jewelry

a great shot of  the beautiful flowers by: Race Horse Royalty

\





After the wedding Carissa's wedding all the guests released balloons and Carissa and Matt walked across the street and released pigeons.

Loved the flowers next to the detail of the stain glass windows.  flowers by Race Horse Royalty

Once we were finished with the releases Carissa and Matt jumped in the limo with their wedding party and headed off. We were able to capture some great portraits with the whole wedding party using a country road we found.

Some really sweet tuxedos: Men's Wearhouse

a great shot with the all the bridal party! 

When it was time for the reception we headed to the beautiful Cedar Rapids Marriott where Unique Events MC'd the reception.

Cedar Rapids Marriot Hotel: some cool lighting with the monogram and purple uplighting by Unique Events 

 Programs, Menus, Table Numbers, Placecards, Etc.: Zephyr Weddings

                                                                         

 some very elegant table linens: Marla's Linens & Chair Sashes: Celebration Linens

A great creation by Tip Top Cakes: Check out the deatails 

Cake creation by Tip Top Cakes

a great series of shots at the end of the night.  I always like to create something romantic to end their album with

                                          

      We are almost finished designing Carissa's wedding album, as you can see it was an amazing day and a beautifully detailed reception! We have some great portraits to include.  

Muscatine Girls Softball Poster

I've been doing the Muscatine Girls' Softball poster now for a couple of years and each year they have gotten better.  The first year the coach wanted to do a circus theme which was very fun,  the next year the coach was thinking about doing something with Harleys and using the saying "Ready to Rumble."  I tweaked it slightly since I have seen a lot of posters with Harleys and suggested to him that instead of Harleys we use monster trucks.  That poster was very cool and unique! 

This year one of my seniors that I had photographed was in charge of coordinating everything with me.  She had the idea of doing something along the lines of the popular TV series Band of Brothers - except Band of Sisters.  I asked if they were willing to get a little dirty for some close up shots and they were. 

The day that they came in we did a series of images with them silhoetted on a green screen and then I brought in a bucket of dirt I had dug up especially for them from my back yard.  They had a lot of fun smearing eachother with dirt  (and a lot of instagram images were posted)  Then we did a series of headshots for the poster.  I told them not to leave however and after we were done with that I did another quick series of headshots using a ring light and posted them on facebook for them.

Here is the final poster!

a sample of one of the portraits I took for the girls to use for their facebook profile

There are not many people who would say a rainy cold night would make an ideal couple's session but then again you can't really argue with how cool these images look. 

We were staying in St. Louis at the old Grand Central Station and it was a rainy cold night out. We had done a bunch of portraits inside but I really wanted to do something creative.  I suggested to Jason and Stephanie that we try some creative things outside in the rain with the street lights reflecting in the puddles.  They thought it was a great idea and were fine with putting up with a little cold for some truly unique portraits.

As you can see we were definitely successful!

I love how you can just barely see the St. Louis Arch in the background!

Loved this portrait outside at the Union Station Hotel!

You would not believe how difficult it was to get an old school yellow cab!

 Check out their silhouette through the rainy rear window of the cab :)

How cool is this ending!

Track and Golf Posters

Yes, it's the start of a new sport season so I have been blogging about my newest posters.  Just finished up with the guys track and the golf posters.  To be honest I had no ideas of what I was going to do with the posters.  Yes, even I go blank occasionally.  But I know how to light and I know how to composite so I figured I would take their pictures first and then come up with a cool background.  The only thing is when I do it this way I can't get too crazy with the posing and have to remain somewhat generic.  But each team wanted at least 14 people on the poster and on the final product I also have to include a schedule and a list of sponsors, which makes it very difficult to come up with a cool background and include a large amount of team members. 

For the golf I came up with the idea of Daily Dose of Iron.  There is a steel mill in town that employs a large amount of people and I thought it would be cool to gain access to the mill and take some sweet pictures inside for the background.  But after a few phonecalls I found out that for some reason they are very relucant to let me in.  Instead I was able to tweak some other images to create what I needed.  But it ended up looking much like I think I would have been able to get inside the mill.

The guys track I was at a complete loss of what to do.  I spent forever looking for something that would inspire me.  I saw a burning tire somewhere and thought it was cool but decided to change the tire to a stopwatch, but I still wasn't sure what to do for a motto.  After a lot of attempts I came up with "It's go time and inserted a bunch of other clocks in the background.  I tried to stick to the blue and gold theme for the posters because those are the school colors.  I think it turned out pretty well for having no idea when I took the individual shots.

Fun New Track Team Composite!

So each time I have to create a new team composite one of the biggest challenges is coming up with cool new ideas.  The day before they came in I had no ideas what so ever.  I was completely blank and to be honest feeling a little of the winter blues.  I spent that evening randomly searching for some kind of inspiration.  Not only did I have the girls track team to create something for but also the guys track team and the golf team. 

About the 10,000 page of google images I came across an image of The Wizard of Oz with the yellow brick road and I knew I had found my inspiration for the girls track poster.  My next big step was coming up with elements to create the background.  I have a vast library of stock images I have shot from all of my travels and began going through them.  I was just recently out in Palm Springs with some other photographers and we had visited Joshua Tree National Park and I had some awesome mountain vistas that I knew I could use for the background. 

 

The foreground was a little tougher. I gathered tons of possible elements and began experimenting with different options, different colors and different lighting situations. I tried everything from Angry tree stumps to huge flowers and ended up not using many of them.  I also did a lot of studying of the newest Oz movie poster that was recently released while working on my poster. I didn't want to copy it but it's great to see how they use different elements to draw the viewers eye to certain areas and create interest.

 

It was a long process but I finally achieved the look I wanted with lots of different little elements and overlays to get the color saturation that I was looking for.

Notice the lane numbers I added into the yellow brick road!

Below are a few of the other elements that I used to create the scene

 

These backlit flowers were shot for a poster I created last year with a Hunger Games Theme

 

 

This flowering tree is in my front yard and was taken last year right before we did my daughter's 2 year pictures under it.

This was also taken last year during a camping trip.  This is the curved rock on the left side of the poster.  I simply erased parts of the rock to create the shape I wanted.

Some Very Big Honors!

Where oh where is that slow season I'm supposed to be experiencing right now??  I'm feeling just as busy as ever!  Since this is the time of year most photographers seem to find a little extra time down time in their schedule, there are many photography conventions and seminars going on and I have had the priviledge of speaking and teaching at quite a few of them lately. 

Last fall I taught a class in Idaho, in and around Yellowstone (yes, that was just a little bit of fun!) and then flew back just in time to teach another class at the Wisconsin Professional Photographers Convention.


One of the scenes that I captured one morning during the class I was teaching in Idaho



An image I shot while teaching at the Wisconsin Professional Photographers Convention 

Then this January I was honored to be a main stage speaker at Imaging USA in Atlanta, Georgia where over 10,000 photographers from all over the world came to learn and see the trade show.  During the convention they also hold an awards ceremony where my image titled "A Wild Ride" took 1st place in the Illustrative category.  At that ceremony I was also priviledged to stand on stage with some amazing photography icons and be named (for the second year in a row) one of 8 PPA International Diamond Photographers of the Year.

- That's me 2nd from the left!

 And to top off the excitement at the convention, I also recieved my Masters of Photography degree!  But unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to that ceremony because I had to catch a flight for a trip to Mexico for another photography job!  Did I mention that it has been a busy year for me?

A view from my room one evening in Mexico!

After Mexico I spent four very long days and nights at the studio preparing some images for regional competition.  I finished them just in time to send them to print before I flew down to Florida to spend four days at SYNC (Senior and Youth National Convention) where I did some speaking on up and coming trends and techniques for seniors.

An instagram image of my computer as I went over my notes before my presentation. - not a bad office!

I flew back Tuesday and was able to spend a few days at home with the family before I had to leave for the Iowa Professional Photographers Convention - which hosted the regional print competition (10 states plus parts of Canada).  Print competition consists of
the best professional photographers in each state submitting 4 prints that are judged by a national panel according to the 12 elements of a merit image.  The thing I love most about regional print competition is that you actually get to sit in on the judging and listen to what the judges have to say about your images (they don't know who created it when they judge it). 

This year because I had received my Masters of Photography degree I was up against even greater competition but I an honored to say that I was named Top Master Photographer for Iowa.  My portraits took first place in the Masters wedding category, second place in the Masters Women Category, and both first and second place in possibly one of the most challenging categories - Illustrative.  My first place illustrative print scored a perfect 100 (which is very rare).  That image also received  the ASP State Elite Award and the Kodak Gallery Award!

Unfortunately I can't share any of my images yet because they now get sent on to international competition
but once the final judging is over I will certainly post them!

Now here's the part where I get all mushy...  Not one of these accomplishments would have been possible without the help of others.  A huge THANK YOU to all of my amazing clients- past & present - who have given me the experience necessary to perfect my techniques.  I also am greatfully appreciative for the great guidance and assistance that I have received through the years from some great photographer friends.  And last but not least - to my super smart (and very hot) perfectionist wife who always seems to know what's best... thank you for driving me to take things to the next level - even if I don't feel like listening to it at the time ;)

You are probably familiar with the quote  - surround yourself with great people and great things will happen.  Well somehow I've been lucky to have quite a few amazing people in my life that have helped me to get to where I am at and I can't even begin to tell you how thankful I am that I am able to call those people friends - or should I say my photography family.  Thank you all!