photo contest « Wedding Photography Project

February 7, 2008

Grand Prize Winner - Amanda Pryde!

Filed under: Photoshop, Photoshop techniques, photo contest, photo techniques, photography contest, wedding photography — admin @ 3:06 pm

Amanda Pryde has won the amazing RedCart system! It is a beautiful, flash-based cart system created by wedding photographer Tommy Tompkins.

Amanda Pryde

My first image (AP-1.jpg) is a bridal portrait taken on the Blue Ridge Parkway right outside of Asheville, NC on November 3, 2007. The bride stood on a railing at a scenic overlook, and I shot from across the road where I’d climbed a large rock to be on the same plane as her, able to get a good deal of mountain scape and blue sky in the background. To make the finished image a panoramic, I duplicated and flipped the image in photoshop, and then merged the two images on a panoramic canvas, cloning out the bride in the second half and rearranging the mountain scape slightly to give the image a realistic panoramic appeal.

Thanks you to everyone that entered as well as RedCart and BigFolio for providing the prizes!

Comments (6)

2nd & 2nd Place!

Filed under: photo contest, photo techniques, photography contest, photography equipment — admin @ 2:50 pm

We had a tie in the voting for 2nd place. Luckily for me, they both get the same prize - Rank Higher: Flash Website Otpimization for Professional Photographers DVD published by BigFolio!

Dustin Izatt of Digital Izatt

DI 01 was that same brides wedding. It once again started to sprinkle and then another torrential downpour. While everyone began to seek shelter, she ran out ot the middle of the lawn and cried out “This is what we do Dustin” I left shelter and once again began shooting in the pouring rain. A few other brave guests joined her in the rain and that’s when I grabbed this shot. Shot on my 5d with 70-200 L IS attached. Available light shot at 1600, 1/100th, at f/2.8

Brad Wolf of SOTA in Washington DC

Brad Wolf of SOTA in Washington DC and StudioThisIs in Chicago

This image was shot on August 28 of 2007 on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada. This was actually the wedding of my best friend/co-owner of SOTA/StudioThisIs, Jeremy Bustos and his beautiful wife, Hailey. We took the entire day after the ceremony to shoot several different locations and scenarios. After rowing into shore from a lobster boat, the crew of about 7 of us got set up and shot away! The result was the image above. It was one of the moments when everything just clicks! The image was also shot with Nikon D200, 100 ISO, 1/1250 SS, F6.3 with a pocket wizard-slaved Quantum Qflash T5D w/ Turbo Pack.

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Photo Contest - Places 4-10!

Filed under: Photoshop techniques, photo contest, photo techniques, photography contest, photography equipment, wedding photography — admin @ 2:16 pm

These are the images that made up places 4-10.

Brad Wolf

Brad Wolf of SOTA Weddings in Washington DC and StudioThisIs in Chicago

This image was just shot on Dec. 30 of 2007 on Oahu, Hawaii. The couple had contacted us almost year and half ago to shoot their wedding “Non-Hawaii” Hawaii wedding. We brainstormed several ideas and I began seeing this image in my mind. We found an old parking lot on the ocean, the clouds rolled in and we had no more than 5 mins before the down pour! I guess sometimes that’s all it takes to get the image you’re looking for! The image was shot with a Nikon D200, 100 ISO, 1/125 SS, F7.1 with a pocket wizard-slaved Quantum Qflash T5D w/ Turbo Pack.

Josh Lynn

Josh Lynn of New Jersey

Another bad weather image (I seem to excel when its nasty out!) This was
taken this past November and the couple had wanted sparklers. With the
rain we had to do everything quickly. The burst of light you see is a
Sunpak 120J on a monopod being held by my assistant mixed in with the
crown. He was simply instructed to pan with the couple as they went
past. Minimal post processing was done.

Michelle Moore

Michelle Moore of Washington State

This image was created as a bridal fashion piece I put together in
late winter. I worked with a fabulous team of hair & makeup artists,
a model (from Canada!), and a stunning hand-made gown. Having all
these pieces helped my final image look polished. I worked with the
model in a very fluid & natural way. I found my composition &
lighting, and had let the model do her thing. I gave her a sense of
the “mood”, and I found this pose to be the most successful. In post
I made the image very “warm” and added a light texture to mimic the
texture of the dress.

Nick Kuchare of BlueNaluPhotography

Nick Kuchar of BlueNaluPhotography

This image was taken at a wedding last October at Sea Brook Island. It was taken at ISO 320, f/5.0, 1/500 sec. We were at the beach and I noticed a large, shallow tide pool. It was perfect for the shot. I found the repetition of the groomsmen interesting, but my favorite part is how they are doing different things with their hands. In Photoshop I used a couple curves layers for contrast and color balance.

Ben Rogers of Studio Infinity

Ben Rogers of Infinity Studios in Australia

This image is actually a crop of the group photo. I love the expressions
on the parents of the bride and groom which the crop helps accentuate.

Adam Hudson Photography

Adam Hudson

This image is actually a crop of the group photo. I love the expressions
on the parents of the bride and groom which the crop helps accentuate.

Jayme Morrison

Sharpen

Hue/Saturation

Painted Shy and Clouds

Contrast

Burn (dress)

Soft Edge Vignette

Amy Sayers of Red Leaf Studios

Amy Sayers of Red Leaf Studios in Canada

Capture: Canon 5D, 70-200mm f/2.8 IS ISO: 400, Shutter: 1/800 sec, F-Stop: f/2.8.

This image was captured in a meadow with tall grass, about 1 hour prior to sunset. I was crouched low to the ground, and had the sun positioned to the right of the couple. The photo was taken in Aperture Priority, and exposed to allow the light to wrap around the couple. The grass in the foreground created both visual interest and depth to the image.

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January 28, 2008

Judge - Tommy Tompkins

Filed under: photo contest, photo techniques, wedding photography — admin @ 5:07 pm

Here is a series that Tommy shot last summer.

This is difficult to choose a single image. Out of all of the images that I shot last year, there is a “sequence” of images that I feel truly captivates the very essence of what we do as wedding photographers. Although important, wedding photography isn’t always about perfect lighting and artistic processing. To me, capturing a true moment is the most rewarding thing a wedding photographer can ever accomplish.

The following sequence was one of the most touching moments that I’ve ever captured. The brides mom was putting a bracelet on her that used to belong to grandma, grandma passed away, and mom was telling her how proud grandma was of her. I had to wipe away my own tears after taking the shots. To me, this is exactly what wedding photography is all about.

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A couple notices!

Filed under: photo contest, photography contest, wedding photography — admin @ 5:02 pm

Friday, February 1 is the deadline for the contest! Get your entries in now!

Also, thank you to Big Folio for sending copies of “Rank Higher: Flash website optimization for professional photographers” DVD’s for our second and third place photographers! These DVD’s walk you through getting your website ranked higher on all the major search engines.

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January 7, 2008

Maurice!

Filed under: composition, photo contest, wedding photography — admin @ 12:58 pm

Maurice is a fantastic photographer in Seattle. He photographs weddings and fashion in addition to being a Seahawk team photographer. He has also agreed to help judge our contest! Here is an image that he liked from this last year and his reasons for it. We will be doing a series of these with an image from each of the judges.

“This is one of my favorite pictures from this past year. I love it because of the great foreground, subject, and background. Whenever I shoot something or someone, I always look for great elements to put in front of, as well as behind the subject to help tell the story and add interest. Standing in front of the car, would have been a great shot of the bride and groom, but would have missed the 19 people in the background that all have such great expressions on their faces. In order to get this angle, I had to go out in the middle of the street (carefully) and shoot back at everyone else. I was also sure to include at least the door handle of the car, which many people will recognize is a Mini-Cooper, adding an extra little bit of pizazz to the scene.”

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January 4, 2008

Two More Judges!

Filed under: photo contest, photography, photography contest, wedding photography — admin @ 10:11 am

Here are two more to add to our list of Judges. Jim Garner and Tommy Tompkins.

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January 3, 2008

New Contest!

Filed under: RedCart, photo contest, photo techniques, photography, photography contest, wedding business, wedding marketing, wedding photography, wedding photography marketing — admin @ 1:15 pm

I have lined up a really cool prize for this contest. We will be giving away a RedCart system. This is a brand new flash-based, full-featured cart system valued at around $1000! The even cooler thing is that it is not even out yet! It will be on display at the Digital Wedding Forum convention this coming week and will be released in February.

Now on to the contest. It will be simple to enter. Email me up to two images from weddings or engagement sessions before January 31, 2008. Each image must be 1000 pixels on the long side and without watermarking. There are no limits on how the image was taken or processed. Please name your images with your initials and the number 1 or 2 (CP-1.jpg, and CP-2.jpg would be my entries). Each entry must also have a short paragraph about how you created it. Each of the top 10 images will be posted with links to your site, your explanation of how it was created and a great deal of applause in your general direction.

The illustrious judges: me (Cory Parris), Maurice Lebreque, Sean Flanigan, and Joe Hein.

I’ve edited this to add that the RedCart is only available in the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Spain and Dominican Republic. Therefore, you can only win the cart if you live in one of those countries.

Comments (11)

October 25, 2007

Contest Winner - Ed Pingol

Filed under: Uncategorized, flash, photo contest, photo techniques, wedding photography — admin @ 10:12 am

We finished our first contest a couple months ago before I (Cory Parris for those of you that don’t know who runs this little side project) got crazy busy running my own photography business. So now, finally, here is the Q&A with the fabulous Ed Pingol.

How did you become a wedding photographer?

I feel like I’m still “becoming” a wedding photographer. I started my trek into photography as a graphic design student in college. As a packaging designer right out of college, product photography became an important skill for me to learn. I got really into creative lighting and my wife and dog got sick of me shooting them at home so I decided to spread the burden to my friends at get-togethers and family functions. Eventually, I ended up meeting a wedding photographer, Carl Spears, who is awesome at lighting and he allowed me to second shoot with him. (My main priority was being able to raise the funds for the new camera gear I was drooling over.) From there, the wedding photography just took off.

What do you love about weddings?

I love how each individual wedding is different, everytime. I’m in awe of the fact that people allow us to share one of the most important days of their lives in a very intimate way. It’s pretty incredible. I do enjoy the adventure of working under a deadline and having to capture all that’s necessary to document a wedding day. I also love trying new cake every weekend. =)

How would you describe your style?

I think we’re still developing a style. If I ever do get a definite style, I want to be able to be adaptable & creative enough to keep things fresh. At this point, I would say our work is inspired. (See question below.)

What is your shooting philosophy?

It’s all about the light! I look for patterns and color. At each shoot, I want to try at least one new thing out. Anything goes!

My wife, Monica, and I work as a team. She is the lighting assistant, as well as the “new shot searcher.” She is constantly looking for the next shot so that once I’m done with a shot, we’re ready to set up the next location/pose. It’s pretty efficient and she has the eye of a female, which helps tremendously.

What is your personality and how does that effect the way you work with the bridal couple working up to and on the day of the wedding?

I’m a goofball so I don’t mind making a fool of myself. Couples will often see me demonstrating poses (flamboyantly) during shoots and realize they would definitely look better than me in those poses. It’s like an ice breaker that eases the nervousness that some couples face when in front of the camera. My wife, Monica, is the organized one, who effectively works with couples and makes sure things run smoothly and all the bases are covered, from the first inquiry to the actual event and the final product delivery.

Tell me about the equipment you use?

* 2- canon 40d .
* 2- canon 30d .
* 2- canon 20d .
* canon 10-22 F/3.5-4.5 USM
* canon 17-55 F/2.8 IS USM
* canon 70-200 F/2.8 IS USM
* sigma 30mm F/1.4 HSM
* canon 50mm F/1.4 USM
* canon 100mm F/2 USM
* canon 135mm F/2 USM
* st-e2 infrared transmitter

* canon 580ex speedlite .
* canon 580ex speedlite .
* nikon SB-28 speedlight .
* nikon SB-28 speedlight .

* 32 rayovac 15 minute AA batteries for flashes, remotes and well… that’s it.
* a lot of CF cards

* AlienBee B800 Flash Unit.
* AlienBee B800 Flash Unit.

* 5 Pocket Wizards.

* Monopod.

What is your favorite piece of equipment and how does it affect they way you shoot?

My pocketwizards & off-camera flashes. I have a set-up that includes 2 speedlights mounted on a flat bracket, triggered by a pocketwizard, on a monopod. This is a super portable light set-up that is very versatile. I can actually “delete” distracting backgrounds and emphasize the subject(s) when I shoot.

I have to say the Boda Bag I won from this contest really changed the way I shoot in being able to be much more efficient carrying 3 cameras, instead of two, plus the rest of my gear.

Do you have any accomplishments or association memberships I should know about? Resources where you/your work have been featured?

I won this contest, which is SWEET!!! =) Also, I’ve been featured on dontboxusin.com and trashthedress.com. I’m a member of WPPI, PPA, DWF, OSP, and FM.

What makes you different (and better) than your competitors?

Ha! I’m not better! I don’t think about having competition, which I believe might set me apart from my competitors. (Is that oxymoronical or what!?!?) But seriously, one thing I wanted to do right from the start in this business is be an open book, network with those I respect, and share/learn new information with others. Mike Fulton of Tri-Coast Photography is the epitome of this as he has a “no secrets” philosophy, which I truly admire. He’s not worried about protecting any “secret technique” and instead focuses on getting better and better. That’s what I want to do. It’s hard to be a good learner if you aren’t willing to share what you’ve already learned.

Things/people that inspire you?

I’m inspired by photographers I respect and those whom I “blogstalk;” by the world of graphic design; by the media (strangely, comic books); by the surrounding environment/architecture; and most importantly, by the individuals I am shooting. Our goal is to represent the couple as who they are and what they are about.
Here are the resources that inspired me to “see the light” in photography and what I recommend to all those who ask how to get their learn on:

Strobist - lighting 101 (a must read, but don’t take it all in one day cause it’s a lot)
Ken Rockwell - how to get great colors
Neil Cowley - making light real
Michael Quack - DIY master
PlanetNeil - techniques for on camera flash
Dave Black - awesome awesome lighting techniques explained
DG28 - learn plenty of techniques

What do you like to do in your spare time?

What spare time!?!

But seriously, I love to shoot random things and family and friends. I love good food & drinks (especially sushi & hefeweizen). I love anything that has motors and green technology. And I like watching musicals. Yeah, I said it!

Where can people find more info about you? Online or Magazine?

http://edpingol.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/thethinkingcouch

Model: Canon EOS 20D
Lens (mm): 10-22mm ISO: 800 Aperture: 8 Shutter: 1/4
sb-28 triggered by a pocket wizard set at 24mm @ 1/16th on a monopod held camera right (flash twice)

Model: Canon EOS 30D
Lens (mm): 30mm ISO: 1000 Aperture: 1.4 Shutter: 1/180
on-camera flash bounced

Model: Canon EOS 20D
Lens (mm): 10-22mm ISO: 800 Aperture: 19 Shutter: 1/180
sb-28 triggered by a pocket wizard set at 24mm @ 1/8th on a monopod held camera right

Model: Canon EOS 30D
Lens (mm): 17-55mm ISO: 100 Aperture: 13 Shutter: 1/180
sb-28 triggered by a pocket wizard set at 24mm @ 1/1th on a monopod held 5ft behind clients

Model: Canon EOS 30D
Lens (mm): 17-55mm ISO: 1000 Aperture: 9 Shutter: 1/10
st-e2 triggering 580ex held camera right

Model: Canon EOS 20D
Lens (mm): 10-22mm ISO: 800 Aperture: 13 Shutter: 1/180
sb-28 triggered by a pocket wizard set at 24mm @ 1/1th on a monopod held 5ft behind client

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July 10, 2007

We have a winner!

Filed under: Boda, composition, flash, photo contest, photo techniques, photography, photography - exposure, photography contest, wedding photography — admin @ 9:09 am

In the first ever Wedding Photography Project contest, we have a winner! And the winner is (drumroll please)…Ed Pingol!

Here is the winning entry:

camera setting was 100iso 30th @ f19. this smooths out the water falling and also gives us enough ambient light to light the whole scenery. monica, my wife is hiding behind the falling water on the left side (notice i didn’t clone her out so you can see her head) holding a SB-24 triggered by a pocket wizard mounted on a monopod.

The reasons behind my choice are first that I thought it was a cool composition with the lines traveling around the frame, the way line of the groom’s head and neck echo the line of the rock above him, the slow shutter speed to let the water blend, the cool use of flash during the day, the educational value it has for the people that read here, and just because I liked it!

I know that contest judging is always controversial because everyone has different favorites, but I hope everyone will congratulate Ed!

A big “thank you” to Ed Pingol, all the other entrants (I learned a bit, so hopefully others did, too), and Jim Garner the owner of the Boda bag company for putting up the prize!

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