john & lizzie’s wedding bush blooms only once a year

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The fog was thick and soupy, the makings of a magical atmosphere for photographing. However, not so easy for human subjects, because even though there was no bright sun to make you squint
(yeah!) the ground was super soaking wet from 4 days of rain and for the shot I needed them to sit on it! To make things even a little trickier this blooming bush that John planted when he and Lizzie got married only blooms for approximately two weeks each spring. After coordinating with john to get us together for a photo,  the challenge was heightened as we had deal with mother nature’s mood swings and wait out the 5 days of torrential rain. On a monday night,  a super foggy sunset minus the sun, we did it, we literally went inbetween raindrops and made these photographs.

And the four legged memebers of the family- well, they didn’t mind the wet ground at all!

 

 

 

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seeing with new eyes

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MARS- Mid Atlantic Region School of Professional Photography

I have been attending school in Cape May, May 1st to May 6th, for the past five years.
http://www.marsschool.com/

This year I decided to be a class assistant and I really wanted to take Tony Sweets class
www.tonysweet.com

He had not been there since the first year (2006) I attended MARS and I had been waiting. well it was worth the wait- what an amazing week.

Tony set the mood with his authenticity and incredible skills and so the class was stupendous. The work produced by this group was extraordinary everyone was great.

We had someone come in from Geramny to be there!

Our daily schedule was dawn and dusk sessions everyday except for wednesday for the shoot out competiton and then we went to dinner as a group.

Mostly we shot in Cape May:ie the cove, the shipyard and sunset beach but we also went to Ocean City, to the 59th street pier and met up with a friend of Tony’s named Jim Indelicarto, a pro photog in that area, check his website it’s awesome

www.zacherygallery.com

all this to say after the sunrise shots we went to a quaint breakfast spot where I thought we were gona get kicked out cause we were so very loud. We did a lot of laughing.

The technical side of things to name a few were studies in  long exposures , digital sandwhiches, HDR ( High Dynamic Range) and stich pans. I have only begun to scratch the surface of whats possible.

For those of you who will be doing sessions with me this summer I will be trying out some of these techniques and software manipulations. Lots of cool stuff to help make pictures even more magical.

Posted in beach photography, outdoor photography

The Many Moods Of JP

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I always encourage play in front of my lens! After all the goofing around Mom’s are amazed at how many images they love. I love to record the genuine moments and kids at play always shine.

In this case JP was on the move and there was no slowing him down, and why would we? This behavior is who he is right now and it’s not forever that he will be able to put his foot over his head, but you never know. Either we captured it to be enjoyed and bring smiles to whoever looks at JP’s yoga moves on the BIG red chair.

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the Librarian at the Walls of Long Branch

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Tara has always been nice enough to come down on the spur of the moment and model for me while I try to compose a few shots worthy of some merit. On March 19th I had been outside with Felicia the gospel singer for 2 hours photographing her infront of the jazz wall in town (see blog post “felicia sings her art” and on this blustery day a blast from a 30 mile an hour wind gusts took my off camera flash down and smashed my wifi TT5 to smithereens.

Not the first time this has happened- so  from now on it’s we will use a a heavier stand and a sand bag to keep lights from blowing away. A lesson slowly learned BUT i think I got it now.

Back to our scenario:

Lance and I were frozen cold but my dear husband kept pace gently using the bounce board to edge light felicia and than Tara and continue schleeping the equiptment long enough for me to grab some images of Tara by the amazingly wonderful Long Branch murals.

Thanks Tara for your patience and flexability and soon we will be back to the “secret garden” for another session to see what we can come up with.

Since I startrted bloggin about this mural spot I met the man who is mostly responsible for this amazing art work in downtown Long branch, it’s so funny because he and I don’t really know each other but as it turns out we travel in similar circles. Todd Katz, the visonary who has developed the new Sipersteins on Joline in LB along with the city Arts council made this downtown area available for muralists to work.
It really is a phenonmenal geopgraphic area. I have seen limos pull up and brides and grooms whose photographer’s use it for wedding portraits. I for one would love to see more murals in our City By The Sea and give many more artists an opportunity to show their work.  Through the delayed development of this area there are those who are keeping the Arts alive. This is a worthy pursuit.  Thanks Todd for your love of LB and thanks Arts Council for seeing an available canvas where some might see blight and finding a most wonderful way to use it. Painting is not dead.

Thanks Tara, for allowing me to use your likeness. Thanks Lanc, for your endless support of my craft.

Feel free to add your thoughts people are listening and watching…. be heard.

Thanks readers for taking the time…..

 

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