Keeping your options and eyes open...

The more weddings we do, we're finding the added experience we gain can be kind of a double-edged sword...you are more comfortable and confident with the things that can and will come up but you also could very easily slide into a routine of Morristowne "Standard" photos.

You know what I mean, angles and ideas and lighting that worked last time so let's just use them again so we don't have to think too awfully hard this time! Death too creativity!

Honestly, though I'm sure we will borrow from themes we've used before, I really can't see us getting into that kind of rut too deeply...it is just too much fun when the creative juices are flowing and you and your models/couples are firing on all cylinders, pulling off images that you really couldn't have completely planned out even if you had set down and had drawn them all up. Way cool fun!

Take the photo above with Katrina and James. An image like this just can't be over thought! Yes, we knew a jail was nearby the church...yes, I went and asked the sheriff if he cared if we brought in a bridal party the next day if we found the time...but we had no idea if Kat and Jim would like the idea, no idea if we would even have enough time to stop in, no idea what it would look like and what we would do once we had them in there.

The day of the wedding, we suggested the jail and they both said, "Cool", and Heather and I said, "Way Cool", and we ended up with some of the funnest, unique images we've ever taken. Once in the jailhouse, they were throwing out poses, we were shouting out ideas, and in less than a 1/2 hour we were walking out with silly grins on our faces knowing we had just made some wonderful memories that will be passed down from generation to generation in the Brightly/Self families if we're all lucky. All because Heather saw the jail, I went and talked to the sheriff, and we brought up a weird, screwball idea to a jittery bride and nervous groom who immediately embraced the idea and became wonderful, amazing actors.

Way Cool!

Jeffrey

Another learning experience...

Our latest shoot was a wedding for Leslie and Daniel on the Valley Gem sternwheeler out of Marietta, OH. When Leslie had first asked if we could take photos of her upcoming wedding for her, we were pumped. I mean really pumped! How often do you get to cruise the Ohio river on anything, let alone a sternwheeler? The opportunities for awesome shots was going to be practically limitless...just carry the camera around and it could almost capture amazingness all on it's own without any human intervention!

Yeah, right!

First off, Leslie, Daniel and their entire families were just wonderful to work with. So upbeat and more than willing to do anything we wanted to do to get memorable photos. Just a great group of people. So as far as models go it was a home run!

Next up was it was just about a perfect day...high 70's and sunny. Beautiful blue skies and the river was just gorgeous...another home run!

We arrived a little early and went aboard the Valley Gem and started scouting it out a little, and though we did decide there were only 2 - 3 nice spots to take the formal portraits, we still didn't anticipate any problems...until all the people started to arrive! Oh dear...

Imagine two mobile homes stacked on top of each other. Two mobile homes about 24 feet by 60 feet. Now imagine 150 people ALL on either the top deck or ALL on the bottom deck...never divided between the two. Can you say crowded? Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't like people were sardines. Everyone had a seat and everyone was comfy, but as photographers Heather and I are used to moving around a bit, finding the right angle...different perspectives...mixing it up. Not here. One spot for each of us and that's where you stayed. We were able to get all the important stuff you're suppose to...but we had to work for it!

Moral of the story : Never think the lenses and angles you usually use will work for your next wedding. This was the first time our 70-200mm was actually a liability to have...just not enough room. At least we have an excuse for buying another new lens(that 50mm f/1.4 may be calling our name)!

Thanks for the Capt. of the Valley Gem for letting us in his lair for the above shot. What an absolutely great group of people to work with!

Jeffrey

Yep, I photograph weddings!

There are a lot of photographers out there who LOVE to bad mouth wedding shooters. They go to school for 2 or 3 or 10 years learning all about how to be an "Artist" or a "Photojournalist" and any thought of shooting anything other than a Geographic or Wired or Rolling Stone cover is WAY, WAY beneath them...leave that to the photographic wannabees! The uneducated. The uninspired posers.

I just can't seem to get my mind around that concept. I can't relate.

I think a lot of "What" anyone does in life and "How" they do it is 100% related to the reasons "Why" they do it. Simplistic, I know, but really, think about it. If my goal as a photographer is to be known as an "Artist", how will that effect the "How" I work. If I want to be known as a "Sports" photographer, how will that effect the "How" I work.

For example, if my "Why" is because I want money, that shapes my feelings completely about the task at hand. The goal is $$, so once I have the old money in hand I'm a happy camper. Now that's not saying that I don't want money or making money shouldn't be a part of it, but if money IS the goal...well, a lot of things can be left along the wayside to get to that goal.

If my "Why" is to be known as an "Artist", I'm again getting more into the selfish territory of things IMHO. I'm wanting recognition, wanting the glory. Again, not saying that being an Artist isn't part of the equation, but if glory or a title is the goal...once again, a lot of things can be overlooked along the way.

So what in the wide world of sports does this have to do with wedding photography and labels and elitism and, and, and.

Well I guess it's about what I'm discovering is my "Why". The what it is that makes me such an obsessive, annoying photographic nut right now.

My "Why" is because I have to. I have to shoot something or I start getting a major case of the heebie jeebies! I just don't see myself ever saying, "Sorry, I don't shoot that type of photography!", because if I don't have something else I have to shoot I'll be there, giving it my very best. I have to. And if along the way someone wants to call me an artist or a wedding shooter or a photojournalist or a pornographer (lol) or whatever titles are floating around out there, hey, I'm fine with that. But I'll always know my real title is just "photographer".

Because I have to...

Jeffrey

Lights, Cameras and Ignoramus'...

A friend, who also is a photographer, recently wrote on her Facebook page, "No strobes or umbrellas, just natural lighting is the secret to GREAT photos and of course the right lens and (a) smart photographer ;)".

To be honest, I went through a ton of emotions and thoughts after reading that, mostly because of recently becoming an "Alien Bee" owner and huge convert to the "Strobe Lovers of the Universe" religion. First and foremost, I was angry that another photographer could make such a statement. It was like a cook saying "No beef or chicken, only seafood is the secret to Great food and of course the right pan and a smart cook!"

I just couldn't figure out what would make another photographer say such a ridicules thing! I mean, we all have our preferences...likes and dislikes...and that's all well and good, but to say that what I am doing is the ONLY way...the BEST way...what the heck?!?

The more I thought about it, though, I think I figured out what was going on and we've all been there in some form or the other I believe.

When I first picked up a camera, snapped that first photo and looked at the result, I REALLY thought I had just done something special. I was a photographer of huge proportions and this photo of my girls was one of the best images that was ever made! I honestly deep down in some part of my psyche felt that way...and in some respects I was correct! I had just captured a piece of time and stored it for generations to come...something that no one else on the planet could replicate...something completely unique to me, my subject and that instant in time. That IS a pretty amazing thing.

When I look back on those photos now I can not believe how bad they are! Why?...well, the eyes are dark and in shadow, the colors are over saturated, the composition sucks, no depth of field... on and on and on!!! But at the time...they were GREAT! I was so ignorant...I was an untaught baby to photography and art.

Hopefully we are always growing and learning...opening ourselves up for criticism and discipline from those who not only may have more experience but those who have never held a camera before but understand art and light and whatever else there is that can make us a fuller, more understanding person/photographer. But to do that you have to be willing to say I Don't Know...I Need Help...I'm Not The Best...I Actually Suck Sometimes.

Sometimes it's just too scary to say that...way to vulnerable of a position to put ourselves in.

Sometimes we just don't know enough to understand how little we know!!!

So why did she say that? Of course I'll never know for sure, but my guess...is fear of the unknown. It's just so much easier to think that where you are is the best place to be than it is to think that I still haven't even scratched the surface of things to know and I'm a raving ignoramus!

I hope I can always stay an ignoramus...they learn sooooo much more...

Jeffrey Morris

p.s. above photo of Kirstian with absolutely no natural light...

Growing and Learning Pains

Wow, what a busy few months it's been...trying to get our home studio in working order, kids getting out of school, practicing and working with new lighting techniques and ideas. Lots to catch up on and share!

One of the best highlights to start back into the blog with was a great wedding we had the privilege to shoot for Laura and Jonathan down at Ravenwood Castle. What a wonderful family to get to hang around with, let alone to get paid to shoot a wedding for. They made us feel just like one of the family and made our whole experience with them truly wonderful!!!

Photographically speaking there were a few challenges that we had to work out. The entire wedding was outdoors, in and out of the woods, which threw in all kinds of dappled, splotchy light. Couple that with it being a partly cloudy day that literally changed the lighting every 2 minutes and it had the makings of being a pretty rough shoot. These are situations where I just thank goodness Nikon has the Auto ISO ability. When you have light levels changing by the minute, you just don't have the time to manually set everything for every shot. Heather and I decided pretty quickly that Auto ISO and Aperture Priority was the way we were going to go...when dad is walking the bride down the isle through clouds and sun and leaves and trees you just don't have the time to adjust your camera every 5 feet they walk. All and all it turned out perfectly, though my D200 handled the metering sooooo much more accurately than Heather's D80. Before the next wedding we may upgrade her D80 to a D90 to gain that and a little better High ISO ability.

The photo at the top was all Heather's. We walked by that spot earlier in the day and she right away ran to that location and said, "We're bringing them right here!" - LOL Good call honey...

Jeffrey

The Importance of Photography

I sometimes lose focus of what photography is truly about and what 99% of the people on the planet think about when they are pushing that button on their camera...documenting a moment in time! Most are not thinking about lighting, shadows, the rule of thirds, aperture, iso, bokeh...they're just looking at something that is pleasing to them at that particular moment, and capturing it! Something that makes them feel happy, maybe feel sad, but for sure something that they want to look back on at a later time and bring back all those emotions that they were feeling on that particular second of that particular day.

In my quest to become a better photographer, I'm finding that I sometimes let the the story take the backseat to the technique...instead of just enjoying the act of documenting, I don't take the photo because of all the flaws I see...a messy background, harsh lighting, having to go above iso 800. Then later when I DO look at the photos I DID allow myself to take, I criticize them to the point of missing WHY I took them...the emotion of the moment being stomped out by my critical eye. What a stupid thing to do!!!

Now I'm not saying that I believe if you are trying to progress you shouldn't be trying your best to make every photo as good as can be. You absolutely should! I'm just saying that you still should take a picture even if conditions stink...every single day, every single time!!! We all are historians...don't miss the moment.

The above photo of my Grandma is a result of this new plan of mine. There was a million reasons not to take her picture that day...she wasn't feeling well, I want some of her in dramatic light, I was feeling lazy...but I finally just asked her if she felt like stepping outside for a few pictures, and with some helpful nudging from my mom and aunt, she finally came slowly walking out on to the back porch and let me snap away. I just had to ask and I was able to capture a little history that day...and didn't miss the moment.

Jeffrey

A Family that Snaps together...

The absolute best thing about photography for me is that my wife and I both feel so passionate about it. There isn't nights where I say,"Honey, I think I'm heading out to the bar with the guys...kiss the girlies goodnight for me" , and I've never heard from her, "Babe, my girlfriends and I are going out shopping for the day...there's frozen dinners in the freezer." We are either spending time with our crazy kids doing something, with our cameras in tow, or the once or twice a month that grandma watches our little ones we figure something out that involves photography...whether that means just driving around looking for something new and cool to shoot, or just staying at home and playing and working on lighting.

The other great thing is how different our styles are and how much fun it is to see each others take on the exact same subject. Last night (which the photo above is from) we packed the monkeys up and headed over to Hocking Tech to hang out with the horses. I could shoot those beauties everyday...what amazing animals! Heather stole the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 right off of my camera before we left, she's pretty sneaky like that, so I had the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 on mine...so just right there you know you are going to get some different, unique perspectives. We shot around 150 photos a piece, was only there for 1/2 hour or so, and then couldn't get home fast enough to put them on the computer and compare!

She's an awesome photographer. She's is so good at zooming in tight, getting personal with her subject, getting you right into the action. I tend to frame a little wider, seeing more of the whole story. Sometimes one works better than the other.

But she won tonight...

Jeffrey

What is Art and will I ever become an Artist?

Art is a very tricky, frustrating subject for me, as it can be for a lot of people I'm sure. Sites like Onexposure and others like it have gone a long, long way in helping me "see" photography as much more than just having the photo in focus and well lit with little or no graininess. Composition, flow, and mood have become a lot more important to me...shadows are slowly becoming more and more my friend rather than something I'm trying to chase and beat away so that every single part is visible. I find myself looking at my photos extra small, almost at thumbnail size, so that I can't see the details...only shapes and tones and composition.

I have sooo much to learn. Figuring out how to "see" is probably going to drive me crazy, cause major depression, keep me up at night smothering me. Focus can be figured out. The correct exposure can be arrived at. But can I "see" like an artist?

Yeah, maybe a little over-dramatic, but it is something I find myself obsessing about on a regular basis...why can't I look at that scene and find the perfect photo hiding there? Why can't I instantly find the flow...the story?

I won't give up. I will keep trying to learn...

Jeffrey

Review : Spyder 3 Pro

We recently upgraded our computer. I am absolutely NOT a computer guy as far as processor speeds, video cards, megahertz, etc. goes, but I can tell you when what I have isn't doing the job anymore, so our 4 year old PC was passed down to our 8 year old and we got with a friend who loves playing computer nerd on the side and told him what we needed. Basically, first we wanted something that could have Lightroom 2, Photoshop CS4, and Capture NX2 all up and running and be able to move at will between them all with out stalling the engine! Second, we wanted more than the 500GB hardrive of our old PC, plus a little extra storage to internally back-up to. Third, we wanted a good monitor that would give us a high definition view of our photos so we could work on them a little easier. Other than that, we just left it in his hands and let him go as crazy as our budget would let us...and he gave us exactly what we wanted. Everything works smoothly and quickly! We have the operating systen on a 70 GB hardrive, store all the main stuff on a 1 TB hardrive, and back it all up on another 1 TB hardrive. He also gave us an Asus 22" HDMI monitor which is just beautiful to work on and look at...but also is why I'm doing this review!

Right from the very first look at our photos, I knew we were having color issues with the new monitor. Everything looked beautifully alive and clear but all of the colors were just not quite right, in particular the reds and oranges...just way, way over-saturated. I've known for quite awhile that to save ink and assure you were being accurate with the photos you were sending out you really need to calibrate your monitor with something other than just your eye, so after reading a few online reviews I decided to give the Spyder 3 Pro display calbrator made by Datacolor a try, so brought up our favorite vender, B&H Photo's site, and placed our order. Three days of just working on Black and White photos later, our new toy arrived.

When I first opened it up, I must admit I was a little worried. The instructions didn't say much more than "stick the CD in" and there was a CD and the little triangley spyder thingy...I don't know for sure what I was expecting but this wasn't it. So since there wasn't anything else exciting to read or to do, I just put it in. A little screen comes up, asks you a few questions, gets you registered, shows you where to stick the little plastic Spyder thingy and then takes off. That's it!!! I went down, got an iced tea, came back up and it was done. It had a screen up where you could click and see the before view of an image and the after view...and it nailed it!

So all in all, this was one of the most anticlimactic experiences that produced EXACTLY what I wanted I've ever had.

Morristowne Review of Spyder 3 Pro : 9 out of 10 ... minus 1 just because of no WOW factor in the instructions. Definitely recommend!!!

Jeffrey

JAM's Grunge Setting

We had time to take a quick stop at the Great Circle Earthworks in Newark, OH on the way to see some friends this weekend. The main mound, a 1200 foot diameter circle that is probably 15 - 20 feet tall, is estimated to have been built 2000 years ago by the Hopewells (culture or tradition or whatever is most PC). It is truly an amazing piece of American history and if you're in the area you should really stop by and take a look.

This photo was taken on one of the little mounds out in the center of The Great Circle. I love the crests of hills for photos because you can have the whole sky as your backdrop, so when I saw this one with it's short trimmed grass I started yelling for models!!! My kids are just the greatest and have finally excepted that it is much, much easier just to get it over with than to try and hide or kill me, so they came and plopped right down and let me snap away. What sweeties!

This is a processing I came up with a few days ago I call my grunge look. You can do these settings in either Lightroom 2 or Photoshop CS4's Camera Raw and get this exact look. Here's all the settings :

JAM'S GRUNGE SETTING

Exposure : +35
Recovery : 0
Fill Light : +90
Blacks : +70
Brightness : +50
Contrast : +69
Clarity : +50
Vibrance : 0
Saturation : -95

That should get you really, really close. You'll probably have to mess around with the exposure a little bit but this will give you the basics. After I worked this particular photo to this point, I opened it in CS4 and dodged the eye sockets a little so they weren't just big black holes, and then added just a slight light in each eye to give them a little more life. There you go...very simple and a pretty unique look, if I do say so myself! Then just save the settings as a Preset and you can at least take a look at any photo with this look in all of 1 second.

Nikon D200
Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8
Aperture Priority Exposure Mode (my Fav)
F/6.7
1/100 sec.
Auto Iso (my Fav) chose Iso100
Shot at 55mm

Jeffrey

Fire Woman

Yeah, we Flickr! We really enjoy how you can throw a pic on there in just a few seconds and start getting feedback almost instantly. What's funny, though, is you just never can predict what someone else will like. I know, big discovery, but it is just crazy how something that is just so-so to you can be the best thing in the universe that the next person has ever seen in their entire lives! Ok, no one has said "best thing in universe I've ever seen" but you get my drift!

This image I took of Talon is a prime example. One night she says, "Dad, I feel like doing a photo shoot", so we grab the SB800s, the umbrellas, the stands, and run downstairs and have a bunch of fun just letting her play "Fashion Model" for around 1/2 an hour. Two or three weeks later I'm feeling bad because I haven't taken any new photos, so I pull this one up, work on it for about 30 minutes in Photoshop, and post it on Flickr just for the heck of it. Well, suddenly it's the pic of the day out of something like 750,000 photos posted for that day, and as of right this second it's had 3688 views and been favorited 237 times! Totally nuts! And the worse part about it is I have no idea how I got it to this point!!! What I mean is, I looked at the photo and thought, "Hey, that looks like Talon's head is on fire", so I opened CS3 and just started making layers and flattening and making layers and flattening until it kinda looked like fire, saved it in a high rez TIFF and that was it. It would be IMPOSSIBLE for me to ever reproduce it, just like it is, ever again.

Oh well, that's the way it goes. The ones you truly love will never be noticed and the ones you put no effort into, EVERYONE will like - LOL

For those who care, the basic set-up was Talon standing about 2-3 feet away from an off-white wall. I had one SB800 shooting at the wall, to the right and behind Tal, at 1/1 power to over expose it to white, and had a second SB800 at 1/2 power just to the left of me shooting through an umbrella right at Talon. My D200 was set on manual, ISO 200, f/8 and the speed was 1/125 sec. and I was using the 17-55 f/2.8 at 23mm. I was probably standing 3 feet away from Talon. Sorry, can't help you on what I did in Post Processing!

It's amazing what you can do in a small area with just a couple of flashes!

Now if people would just like the ones I do...

Jeffrey Morris

The Athenian Players Theatre

What fun we had last night!!! We were asked by The Athenian Players Theatre and the Berean Community Players to come to their dress rehearsal of Li'l Abner, which they are performing at the absolutely beautiful Stuart's Opera House, and grab a few photos that they could use for promotion in the local media and on their website. They put on these shows with very little money and a whole lot of hard work and love, and it truly was an honor for Heather and I to be able to take photos for these wonderful, community oriented people. They even said we could bring our kids along to watch the show while we did the shoot and all 3 girls ended up just loving it...which if they can keep 12 yr. old twin girls and an 8 yr. old girl interested for 2 hours, that goes a long way in showing what kind of product these people are putting out there!

We had never taken photos in Stuart's before or for a musical/play for that matter, so we were pretty excited going into this new territory. We figured we would be dealing with rough lighting conditions...very dim and changing...so our plan was basically the same one we use for weddings, Heather would use the Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 and work up a little closer and get wide-angles, and I would use the Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 and work farther away and also grab some head shots. We also figured we would probably never go smaller than f/4 so that we could keep our ISO's lower. Heather was using the Nikon D80 and I was using the D200, both set at Auto ISO with the max ISO at 800 and minimum shutter at 1/80. We also were using Aperture Priority and shooting Raw + basic jpeg.

Turns out, the lighting was much better than we thought! There were a few scenes where the lights would dim for a moody sequence and it would get a little tricky...the ISO's hitting 800...but most of the time we could stay in the 200 - 400 range very easily. The thing we DIDN'T anticipate was the speed and movement of the actors! Wow, it was like shooting a football game or a motocross!!! We ended up taking probably 600 shots in the 2 hour period we were there and I would say 50 of them have considerable motion blur and another 50 have "manageable in Photoshop" blur.

So what did we learn and what will we do different! First is we WILL stay in Auto ISO. Though the lighting was always relatively good, it did change as the actors walked around the stage, from side to side, and if you were running in complete manual mode you would be missing a lot of action trying to adjust exposure on the fly. Second we would probably stay in Aperture Priority, but up the minimum speed to 1/100 or maybe even 1/125. One hundred blurry shots out of 600 is just unacceptable! But other than that, we felt pretty good about the way the shoot went. We ended up with some really, really fun stuff that we can be proud of...and no one has to see the blurry stuff we're un-proud of - LOL

So thanks again to all of the folks involved with the production of Li'l Abner...Stuart's, all of the actors, directors, producers, lighting and sound people and especially Jim Parsons for the initial email inviting us to participate. We had just a wonderful, wonderful time and just hope you keep us in mind for all your upcoming projects. We would love to be a small part of it...

Jeffrey Morris

Eye am very glad to meet you!!!

Let's start with some introductions. I'm Jeffrey Morris and together with my beautiful and forgiving wife Heather, we own Morristowne Photography,
a brand new photography business in the gorgeous, rolling hills of Southeastern Ohio...or to be more precise, just outside of Nelsonville, OH. We have 3 daughters, 1 dog, 3 fish and a considerable love for photography which grabbed us somewhere around 2005 and hasn't yet let go of our throats! Though we are just about as terrified as possible of taking a passionate hobby that we have loved and turning it into a business that we truly hate, we both just can't turn away from, at the very least, giving it a shot...which has caused us to drink a few shots already, but that's another Maker's Mark story for a different day!

I guess what I hope to accomplish with this blog is two fold. First, I hope as the days and months and years go by I can look back and see not only in photos how Heather and I have progressed, but also how our vision and ideas and plans have evolved. Second, I hope that other newbie photographers can find a little of themselves in us...learning from both our mistakes and our triumphs, our failures and our victories.

So, welcome if you are here from day one or if you're reading this a year from today's date. Say Hi, and we hope you'll be here giving advice, learning and discovering along with us on this exciting photographic journey.