Ellen & Phil - wedding photography

Some of my favorite photos from Ellen & Phil's wedding. They have been together since high school and despite the many knots Phil had tied in his days sailing, there was one knot still to tie... They had a beautiful ceremony and reception at the Orchard Lake Country Club. Despite a few early drizzles, they were able to have their ceremony outdoors, on the lake. To top it off, a full double rainbow (like this one) appeared during the reception. That has to be good luck! The Killer Flamingos kept the party rocking all night. It was a pleasure to work with Carolyn from the China Closet again (twice this summer!).

182:365 Home 9.21.10

neglected.

For the past 4 years, I've been trying to figure out what to do with this side of my backyard. It's next to the garage and has pretty much grown over with ivy. Matilda enjoys the occasional swing here and I put up the privacy fence last summer, but other than that, It just sits there. Maybe I'll get around to doing something next year.

On a technical note, I use 9 different exposures to composite this photos. Fun with photoshop!

181:365 people 9.20.10

The lonely road.

Ok, not really, I was just trying to be poetic. This old guy was apple picking all by himself and it seemed like we were intruding on his solitude. We, on the other hand, were having a great time picking/eating apples. It was Matilda's actual birthday today, but I decided that 3 Matilda pictures this week might be a little much. Look for more on her blog if you are having withdrawal.

180:365 people 9.19.10

Elmo's Red Monster's World...

The "red monster" (not to be mistaken with Elmo - which we can't call him because of trademark issues), came to Matilda's birthday party. Matilda referred to him as "big Elmo" because, well, he was much larger than her, even when on his knees and only slightly scary looking. He was a big hit at the party and only made a few kids cry. Big thanks to Uncle Ben (not the one of the minute-rice fame) for taking one for the team.

179:365 people 9.18.10

Crazy Cousins.

Alex and Jake. Sometimes I wonder if we are really related, but most days I'm glad we are.

178:365 people 9.17.10

Ready to go.

Matilda insisted that she needed her "laptop" for preschool. Never to early to start the college prep.

177:365 people 9.16.10

Top Chef.

This is Zack. Zack is one of those people you meet and know that they are going to be huge. I wouldn't be suprised to see him on the next Top Chef or open the next big restaurant. He's a creative and talented chef who demands and creates perfection on a plate (or on a paintbrush - as was the case for one of the dishes he created for this event). Check out his company, Cutting Edge Cuisine. I'm working with him to create some new images for his website that will do justice to the digestible art he creates.

176:365 people 9.15.10

The Presidents.

These are the presidents of the United Jewish Foundation of Metropolitan Detroit and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit (JFMD), photographed before their joint annual meeting. JFMD has been one of my biggest clients over the past few years. I photograph all their major events, so getting new, interesting photos can sometimes be a challenge when I see a lot of the same people at each event. This was one of those moments where I was "chimping*" on the back of my camera and thought, hey, I may have something here. I was only using one flash, on-camera, and bounced if off the ceiling and wall next to me. It's amazing how that little flash can look like a big softbox when used correctly.

*chimping, for you non-photographers, is the term referring to one or more people looking at pictures on the back of a digital camera and going "ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh" - like a chimp. I try to avoid doing this, but sometimes it's inevitable.

175:365 people 9.14.10

thirsty??

Shot at a charity event I was photographing. Strangely enough, the same guy was at another event I photographed 2 nights later...

174:365 liquid 9.13.10

bubbles.

Sarah (my wife) got me addicted to drinking seltzer water or club soda, or soda water, or sparking water, or carbonated water, or as Matilda calls it "bubbles." Whatever you want to call it, it's very refreshing and makes regular water seem dull. We used to buy 2L bottles of it from Meijer and schlep them from the store to the house and then back to the store to return the empties. Needless to say, this was annoying and expensive. We would usually polish off a 2L per day, if not more.

Then, I found out about the soda stream. Anyone who enjoys carbonated beverages should have one. It's a little investment up front (we got ours as a holiday gift - thanks mom!), but it's only about 25cents per liter after that. There are also soda mix flavors that turn the bottle into flavored water or pop (yes, I call it pop - you may know it as soda). So put one on your chrisma-hanu-kwanza-ka list and enjoy.

173:365 liquid 9.12.10

clean.

(Almost) every night, I spray down the kitchen counter with Method all-purpose cleaner. Tonight, it sat on the counter a little longer so I could take a few photos before wiping it off.

172:365 liquid 9.11.10

Purple Rain.

This is what I was shooting when I took the above photo:

Awesome senior session - we didn't let a few raindrops stop us. They made the most of it and jumped in the fountain! Will post more soon.

169:365 Liquid 9.8.10

Bath water.

Oops. this one is a little out of order. That's what happens when I get behind on posting. Sorry.

171:365 liquid 9.10.10

An Assortment of drops:





Golden Showers.

170:365 Liquid 9.9.10

2 shots.

Ok, I have to get something off my chest... I hate when people add an "X" to espresso. It's not "expresso"!! That just makes my skin curl. While we are on that note, "across" does not end in a "t" and there's no "x" in "especially" either... thanks. I feel better now.

168:365 Liquid 9.7.10

hot, butternut squash, cocktail.

sounds interesting... look for it in the November Styleline. Photographed at Cafe Cortina.

167:365 Close-up 9.6.10

it's in the eyes.

here's a tip: make sure the eyes are in focus. even in this little toy giraffe, the photo doesn't work unless the eyes are in focus. I took 5 or 6 frames of this little guy and this was the only one that had the eyes in focus because the depth of field is so shallow. This means that only about a 1/4 inch sliver is in focus, then it goes out of focus extremely quick. I love the look, but its a bitch to get something in focus accurately without using a tripod. Click here to see the scale of my little friend so you can understand just how little is in focus.

166:365 Close-up 9.5.10

camp.

165:365 Close-up 9.4.10

no vowels.

I have great respect for people who speak multiple languages. I spent 4 years of my adolescence learning the basics of Hebrew to study for my bar mitzvah. I came away with little more than memorization of many of the prayers from pure repetition. Sure, I can read most of the letters, but understanding what you are reading is a different story. Since I had a subconscious desire to inflict pain upon myself, I took a semester of Hebrew in college. What made me decide to do this during my first semester of college is beyond me, but I managed to survive. I got a 2.7, but it could have been much worse.

Here's what it boils down to: When you study for your bar mitzvah, you learn Hebrew with the vowels (various dots and dashes under the letters). Then, just before your bar mitzvah, the Rabbi pulls a bait-and-switch and says, "oh, by the way, the Torah doesn't have any vowels, you are going to have to re-learn your Torah portion and figure out how to do it without the vowels." Try t rd ths sntnc nd s hw sy t s. (Try to read this sentence and see how easy it is). Yeah, it's a pretty cruel joke to pull on a 12-year-old. So you manage to get through it (since you memorized it) and everything is ok. I thought that would be my last brush with a vowel-less world. Then, to my surprise and horror, I walked into my 2nd week of college Hebrew and the professor throws out the vowels. sht.

164:365 Close-up 9.3.10

the beholder.

163:365 Close-up 9.2.10

beans.

I'm going to need a lot of this ground up with hot water poured through it in a cup or a mug tomorrow. If you were stalker-ish enough to click all the way through to see the file info, you would notice I took it at 2:13AM. Time to go to bed.

Oh, while I was up, I thought you might like to know how to get some nice, natural looking light at 2:13AM (or any other time of day) so here you go:


...that fancy reflector is a sheet of white paper propped up by the coffee bag, the bounce light is a little piece of foam that was in the close-up filter case (which happened to be on the counter. Yes, I triggered it with my wireless pocket wizard remotes and the light came from my canon 580EXII speedlite, but you could probably do something similar with a flashlight or a table lamp. Give it a try.

162:365 Close-up 9.1.10

honey bee.

Don't worry, I was about 2 feet away from this guy. He didn't really care much about me either. He was enjoying one of the many mint flowers that adorn my planter box. On a somewhat related note - the yellow jackets that have taken up residence behind my gutter don't want to leave just yet - despite my many pesticidal attempts. I may just have to wait for winter and hope they don't come back next year...

161:365 Close-up 8.31.10

dent.

So the whole idea for this week's theme is because I just got this cool new close-up lens filter. It's pretty high quality and it allows me to get macro shots without keeping an extra lens in my bag. It works great on my 70-200 as seen in last week's penny photos, but there's just one problem - my lens is a little dented. It is a screw mount filter so it is supposed to screw to the front of the lens, but after 5 years of use, my 70-200 has taken a few bumps and bruises. The dent that can be seen here is preventing me from actually screwing the close-up adapter onto my lens. I'll get it fixed soon, but for this week I'll have to just hold it up there - ghetto style. Enjoy.

160:365 Before & After 8.30.10

Before.


After.

Breakfast for Matilda on her first day of school! This was actually taken at night, but I tried to light it to look like daytime. What do you think?

159:365 Before & After 8.29.10

You guess which is which.

158:365 Before & After 8.28.10

Before.


After.

Classic.

157:365 Before & After 8.27.10

Before.


After.

No, it's not photoshopped. It's two different photos. This is a great example of one of those cheesy photographer tricks that often works. This was for Elana's senior yearbook photo and really all you need is a good smile. Don't worry, I didn't have her say "cheese."

For the first one, I had probably said something like "give me a nice smile" about 5 frames prior to this and by this point, the smile had gone a bit stale. Don't get me wrong, she looks great, but as you can tell, it wasn't her best smile. Then, all I said was "ok, now give me a real smile!" There was actually a frame between the two of these that shows her thinking over my statement and then she gave me the "real" smile. I know, it's cheesy, but it works. I do what I have to do.

156:365 Before & After 8.26.10

Long day.... so I shot myself. Twice...

before.


20 minutes and 2.5 miles after.

"Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands, they just don't."
-Elle Woods

155:365 Before & After 8.25.10

Before.


After.

My two cents: Same lens (Canon 70-200 2.8) on both. The "before" is the minimum focusing distance (about 4 feet). The "after" is the minimum focusing distance once I put on my new close-up adapter (about 4 inches). Quite a difference. I'm happy with my purchase.

154:365 Before & After 8.24.10

Before.


After.

Miniature baseball game. The Tigers won.

153:365 Letters 8.23.10

The SS is not all bad.

This was actually at Shir Shalom so the SS was quite serendipitous...Matilda enjoyed the fireworks thoroughly, and then passed out in the car on the way home.

152:365 Letters 8.22.10

Ay?

151:365 Letters 8.21.10

Nice buns.

150:365 Letters 8.20.10

Oh.

Not at this one, but at similar structure at the corner of 13 mile and Southfield, not far from where I grew up, my friend Paul lied to me. He said that he had skateboarded all the way around the circle. The circle I'm speaking of is about 3 times the size of this one and about 5 feet higher off the ground. I believed him. I mean, what 7 year old wouldn't believe their best friend who had a rat-tail and a cross earring (his mom was a minister). I may have been a little gullible.

149:365 Letters 8.19.10

Master P.

148:365 Letters 8.18.10

W, M, or N... you pick.

147:365 Letters 8.17.10

What up?

146:365 Negative Space 8.16.10

more bars in more places.

No, it's not AT&T, it's the new Quicken offices in Detroit. I was on an assignment there for the Jewish News and I liked all the design elements they have going on. If I wanted an office job, I would think that would be a cool office to work at.

145:365 Negative Space 8.15.10

What does it mean??

I couldn't resist. It may not be the best example of "negative space" but in honor of the recent youtube phenomenon and Ellen and Phil's wedding (where this was taken) I chose the double rainbow. All the way across the sky.

144:365 Negative Space 8.14.10

ready. set. go!


exploring.

We played at the park for a little while this morning. Matilda hasn't been on the blog in a little while, so I decided to share two today.