Here are my images from the 2010 Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk held in St Kilda last week. I joined over 30,000 photographers in over 1100 cities across the world taking photos of my local city to take part in this mammoth day. This was my third and also my favourite photo walk to date as I pushed myself creatively and came home with a great range of images representing life in St Kilda. My all time favourite image will soon be released as an extremely limited edition print (details coming soon). Just click on the thumbnails to enlarge the photo.
Posts Tagged ‘mv photography’
2010 Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk Gallery
August 2, 2010
MV Photography July Catch Up
July 10, 2010Hi everyone, it has been a while since my last post, so I thought I tell you all what’s been going on.
- The new pricing guide has received much praise from new clients and friends. It details everything you need to know about MV Photography and the range of beautiful printed products available.
- February and March next year is starting to look like a busy period for me, so if there are any couples looking to get married around this period it is best to give me a call soon to book your spot.
- Being the wintery non wedding season it has been time to sort out all the paperwork and business materials, so coming over the next few months will be a Photo Book sample, a beautiful new brochure and new business cards.
- I am still taking registrations of interest for basic Digital SLR training, so if anyone is interested please shoot me an email as the more people I can get the faster the training will come and the cheaper it will be for everyone.
- I’m in discussions with some wedding photographer contacts to present some training at a business level (namely Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom) skills) to be held at a studio in Malvern, so that should be interesting.
- I myself will be taking in a few seminars and workshops when I can as they come thick and fast in winter.
- I have registered for the 2010 Annual Photo Walk being held in St Kilda on Saturday 24th of July. It’s always fun to catch up with other photography enthusiasts and just take pictures of stuff we would normally pass by. Head over to Scott Kelby’s blog for information if you want to join me.
- My Lowepro CompuTrekka Plus AW photo backpack is for sale as I don’t really use it that much (it looks as good as new) and I’m going to invest in a big road case to carry all my gear to wedding photography jobs. Please email me or call me for details and a price (full review and pictures coming soon).
- Below is an image I retouched to show a potential client if I could do a particular style that she saw on the internet, so I was happy to demonstrate this to her. Soon there will be a full blog post on the step by step on what I did to achieve this look in the photo.
Photo Critique 3 – Bridal Portrait
June 13, 2010
Sarah waiting for her Groom
This photo critique takes me back to my first ever wedding I did for a sister of a friend of a friend, which is how most wedding photographers start out really. Back then I didn’t know the pressures of a wedding shoot, but I had with me the bride’s brother who was a keen photographer as well for support. We had pretty basic equipment back then with the addition of a hired SpeedLight from Michael’s Cameras in the city. When I look back this image it goes to show you don’t need the world’s best equipment to take a good photo. You just need to now how to use it and understand where the light is and how to use it. Some, if not all pro wedding photographers will agree that good equipment will make a difference to your images, but I mean it in the general photography sense.
This photo was pretty straight forward to achieve, I just used the light of the window which was softened by the sheer curtain which gives a nice soft light that is perfect for a bride on her wedding day. The room she had gotten ready in was perfect, it was well lit with natural light, had a massive ornate mirror on a stand covered in roses, white ceiling and angled walls to bounce flash off and a light coloured timber floor. Because the room was very open and filled with light, the shadow side of her face had opened up a bit so I didn’t loose too much detail. I tried similar shots with the flash bounced of the walls and ceiling to fill the shadows, but the lack of contrast made it look fairly average.
The expression if I remember correctly is her giggling at the fact I made her look out the window to see if her groom had arrived, but she knew very well he wasn’t there yet. The open space to the right is deliberate as it gives room for he subject to look into by placing the focal point of this image (her eyes and face) in the upper left third of the frame. If I had the opportunity to do this shot over again I would probably rotate her body away from the camera a little more as her shoulders are a little to square to the camera, making them appear too broad and it takes away from the other compositional elements as well and probably crop a little more aggressively and dynamically. I’d also use a lens with a wider aperture to reduce the depth of field to remove distracting elements that didn’t need to be there, like the pattern on the curtain behind her. The blotchy appearance on Sarah’s shoulders and chest come from shadows cast by the lead beading on the glass of this beautiful house.
Post processing of this image the way you see it now took place 3 years after it was actually taken just so I could practice a little in Photoshop. There is nothing drastic here, but I just softened the skin ever so slightly, brightened the eyes with a ‘Screen’ blending mode on an adjustment layer, some slight contrast was introduced and selective sharpening was applied to here eyes, mouth, jewellery and hair. The colour was removed by desaturating and then I introduced a yellow tint using the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. The image is actually reversed from the original as I wanted that orientation for my new price list. I encourage any feedback and comments and don’t forget you can follow me on Facebook by clicking on the link at the top of the page.
New Tool In My Tool Box – Adobe Lightroom 3
June 12, 2010
The long awaited release of Lightroom 3 has finally arrived much sooner than anticipated and with even more features loaded into it than the Beta version that was available up until about 8 months ago. The new features will make any photographer’s job easier as well as give their clients a more professional result in less time. These include industry leading Noise Reduction for high ISO images, Camera Tethering to a computer, a new Slideshow Export to Flash with music imbedding, newer and easier to use Printing Module, Photo Collections right in the Develop Module and the biggest kicker here is the Lens Correction feature. The Lens Correction and the Noise Reduction is worth the price alone for me, allowing me not to worry about lens distortions in camera and boosting the ISO beyond ISO1600 when I need to capture that important moment in low light.
Previous wedding clients will now see a new lease on their images when purchasing prints and photo books as some of the images allow greater cropping and enlargement options. I’ll even be able to dig up some more images from the archives that I thought weren’t suitable for showing, as now I can change them to better suit my vision from when I took the photograph.
For a full run down on the product and to purchase head to Adobe’s website here.
- The last minute of light taken on the Grand Canyon from the South Rim
This particular photo is very precious to my fiance and myself because it is the exact spot where I proposed to her just two minutes later. Only a few minutes before that, we had a crowd of people behind as we sat behind my camera on the tripod waiting for the sun to go down, but luckily not knowing the best light comes when the sun actually goes beyond the horizon, most of them left us alone for me to pop the question.
Enough of that, how was the picture taken!? This is a series of 5 images taken on a panoramic head on my carbon fibre travel tripod stitched together in Photoshop CS4. 3 images where used in the final image as overlaps where too great, so I didn’t need them all. I first attempted this pano stitch over a year ago on my old PC with Photoshop CS3 and after numerous crashes, the blend was terribly obvious and I chose to abandon the project. After all the post processing I enlarged the file so I could print it at a massive 60×30 inches, not a normal size but I split the file into three TIFs to have printed on Metallic Kodak Endura Paper and mounted on 3 pieces of black edged craftwood. Even with my new iMac with 4GB ram it struggled to handle the 2GB PSD file. The three saved TIFs totalled about 450MB and then they were uploaded to my lab.
June Catch Up
- We attended the PMA Digital Life Expo on the weekend at the MECC in Melbourne and boy, did I have a great time. I took numerous free training seminars on the Friday night and all day Saturday. I saw the huge range of photo-book and print suppliers and numerous retailers and wholesalers from the photographic industry. I also got to meet and listen to talks by some of my Australian Photographer idols, including having a posing demonstration applied to Belinda and I by world famous wedding photographer Jerry Ghionis. He borrowed Belinda as a model bride not once, not twice, but three times. It was quite a laugh and I learnt heaps.
- Due to PMA I will be changing my Photo-book supplier again, I got to see every supplier’s samples in person and got to talk to some representatives. Some suppliers were top of the tree in terms of quality, but with that comes price. I found one supplier that is only 5 minutes drive from home that has a great range of products and their quality is great. I signed up as a wholesale supplier on the spot as their prices were very competitive even compared to my previous supplier which offered mediochre quality. I will have a special launch price for previous wedding clients when the books are ranged.
- I also found a new printing technology that bonds photographic ink directly to metal. This means prints will pretty much last forever, are water proof, scratch proof and mould resistant. This enable the buyer to hang up prints in high impact areas like bathrooms, kitchens, garages, pool or spa areas and outdoors if you would want. The quality level is outstanding, the company is based in Victoria and the staff are fantastic. I’m excited to give them a go to add a new product to my range of printed products. I will drop my canvas and foam mounted products to make room for them.
- Of course there is a new price list revision coming this week to accommodate the range changes.
- The Annual Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk has been announced, full details here.
- I am still taking registrations of interest for Digital SLR Camera training, so far I have at least 3 interested, I just need at least another 5 to make it worth while for me to go ahead with. Email me from the contact page to submit your details. I am investigating venues to hold the event and planning for a survey of participants is in the works.
From the Archives, Grand Central Terminal, New York
May 29, 2010
Grand Central Terminal, New York, New York
This one is from an image folder I haven’t opened in a while, but I wanted to post this picture as this stood out as an amazing place in New York city. Grand Central Terminal was opened in October 1871 at a cost of $6.4million dollars by ‘Commodore’ Cornelius Vanderbilt. The terminal was restored over the years from 1996 to 1998 to what you see there today including the majestic sky ceiling. I particularly wanted to show this grand interior by tilting my camera up and using an ultra-wide lens to capture as much as possible. I processed the image with Topaz Labs Adjust to get the HDR (High Dynamic Range) look and to bring out the details of the stone work.
May Catch Up with MV Photography
May 12, 2010- Thanks to all that contributed registrations of interest with MV Photography for Digital SLR training. I am still taking ideas and feedback, so read the post below for further details.
- I am still choosing a quality photobook supplier for my range of wedding photography albums. There of course is an extensive range, but I’m choosing carefully to ensure quality and great value.
- New business cards and brochures are in development at the moment, so stay tuned.
- More of favourite images from the archives will be posted in the coming weeks including some that have never seen the light of day from my trip to the United States in 2008 and some more wedding photos.
- To give you all a taste of some photography training I am posting some of my own images with critiques attached. This is to show some of the thought processes when I’m behind the camera, the metering and focusing modes I used, the use of aperture and shutter speed as well as elaborate on my vision for the photograph from capture to print.
- In the coming months I will be running a quick and easy competition to any followers out there. Stay tuned for the details, but you can win a mounted, limited first edition landscape print from MV Photography.
Being a qualified trainer and assessor, I thought I might put my qualification to good use and come up with a cheap and easy way to provide photography tuition to local photography enthusiasts. Many of the workshops already out there are too expensive, too intimidating for some and are never convenient to go to. They are never tailored to your experience or for what subjects you would like to shoot. Today Digital SLR photography is becoming more and more common with families and individuals splashing out on a new high tech camera as fast as people buy big screen televisions. Using one of these cameras is like getting into a race car, it has so much potential to go fast, but you need to know how to drive it. You get your new camera, put in Auto and shoot some pictures. Sure they come out great, but what if you can make them exceptional. I have travel photos hanging up at home that I’m very proud of because I spent the time on reading up on exposure, composition and all the tech things that come together to make a photograph.
What I’m looking for is some feedback from my readership on what type of tuition would suit them. All adults learn in a different way and with all of us living very busy lives need a fast and convenient way. I am not looking to provide any qualifications so you can go out and take over the world, but to show you how to think like a photographer and get the most out of a camera. Would a video on a DVD suit, a PDF that you can print out and read in your own time and at your own pace, face to face and one on one training or in a group?
For those who are interested (Melbourne based people to start with) please send me an email to marcel@mvphotography.com.au with ‘Photography Tuition’ in the subject line and tell me how you would want to learn, what subjects you like to shoot, what specifically you want to know about in photography, computer workflow or image retouching and a rough indication what you think is a fair price to pay relative to the product you are receiving. I’m only gathering information at this point so I can tailor a great universal training platform. Thanks in advance to anyone that takes the time to respond.
Regards, Marcel.
What Websites I Visit
May 2, 2010Hi all, on my old blog I had a list of websites I always visited on a regular basis, which I never really updated. So every now and then I will post links to interesting websites, whether they are wedding related, photography in general, Photoshop related or of any inspirational photographers I follow. I’ll start with the ones below.
http://www.wpja.com/ A site i visit every now and then to juice up on images before I go shoot a wedding. It has great examples of award winning photojournalistic images all shot at weddings.
http://www.dpreview.com/ Where the nerd in me goes to get some user feedback on products, find out the latest gossip on gear not yet released and for some general time wasting.
http://www.canonrumors.com/ All the latest up to the minute Canon rumours are found here.
http://www.scottkelby.com/ The man that is the authority on all things Photoshop.
That will will do for now, but more will come in the near future.
The most amazing Wedding Video
May 2, 2010I have always been fascinated with video shot on Canon’s latest video/still camera hybrids the 5D MkII and the new 7D, because they have a true cinematic look and a smoothness not present in HD DV cameras due to their limited sensor sizes. I always keep up to date with what is happening in this world of video and I stumbled across this video by Pacific Pictures. It goes for 29minutes and was shot in India, centred around a wedding that actually occurred. The video was shot in a true cinematic style with obviously a fairly large budget and professional movie rigging. The video is truly amazing and is worth the long download time as it was shot in true HD. Watch it here.
