Photography Lighting Workshop!!!!
I am teaming up with Brekke Felt of Felt Photography for an amazing workshop on lighting! We will focus on using auxiliary lighting indoors and outdoors to make even the worst lighting situations produce great photographs! It will be November 10th from 11-2pm in Pleasant Grove. How you use light is arguably one of the most important aspects of photography, so this workshop is very important!
I will be focusing on lighting indoors using bounce flash & off camera flash so you can be confident you will get great photographs despite the poor lighting situations (such as receptions). These principles can also be used for night time and sunset photographs.
The technics we will teach you can transform your photography and your business. Since learning OCF I have cut my editing time in half because I get it right in the camera and less post is needed. I have also been able to raise my prices as the quality of my work skyrocketed with OCF.
Let me know if you are interested. Cost would only be $75 for 3 hours of AMAZING instruction and practice with live models.
You can reserve your spot at the link below:
http://abbyalgerbrekkefeltnovemberlightingworkshop.eventbrite.com/
Ohio Senior Photographs: Megan
While I was in Ohio I had the amazing opportunity of photographing this gorgeous young woman! She is graduating this spring! We photographed at a beautiful park with a quarry and waterfalls.
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Studio Portraits
I apologize for being so lousy at blogging the past two weeks. I have been blogging later in the day because I am just so darn busy! As many of you know I passed my certified professional photographers (CPP) test last month! Now I am working tirelessly on producing the portfolio portion of the certification that is due this Friday. There are 6 required images with strict lighting requirements. Two of these required images I have been struggling with. I have to create a portrait with a 3:1 ratio of light that is broad light (the side of the face that is light the most is showing) and a 3:1 ratio portrait that is short light (you guessed it! It’s the opposite of broad light which means the side of the face that is in shadow is aimed toward the camera). I have done 5 sessions trying to master this lighting and to get the ratio of lighting correct. Even though I haven’t mastered it correctly for the portfolio review (yet) I wanted to share with you some of my favorites from the sessions I did yesterday.
Andrew is a good friend of mine from the BYU photography program. He graduates this week with his BA in photography and I am walking to get my diploma at the same time! So we took some portraits of him in his cap and gown. This was a broad lighting set up.
James is the cutest kid! It was a little hard to get him to turn the right way to get the shadows right, but he was so funny I didn’t even care! He wanted photographs with the basketball. I loved that I could photograph him because as stressed as I was, he was my comic relief that relaxed me a bit! I couldn’t help but giggle at his face expressions!
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Guest Speaker at Brigham Young University: The Face of Autism
For well over a year I have been working on a photography documentary called the Face of Autism. I am nearing the end of the editing of all these hundreds of photographs for over a dozen families and I have been asked to come speak about this project to a severe disabilities class at BYU tomorrow. I was so excited when I first was asked by the professor. Now, the night before I speak, I am frantically trying to finish up the project and make it presentable for tomorrow. I am nervous, which is strange because I don’t mind public speaking. In any case, wish me luck!!!
Here is a sneak peak of Vladimir, a young man with severe classic autism. I love this photograph because he is so happy. I miss this man.
If you have an event you’d like to have my speak at contact me at abbyalgerphotography@gmail.com.
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Travel Weddings: A year in review
As I was driving home from Salt Lake City one day I was thinking back to the past year and how much I have been blessed to travel. I love to travel and I take every opportunity I can to visit new places and experience new things. Over the past 18 months I have been to Texas, Manhattan, Washington D.C., Virginia, Maryland, Idaho, Missouri, Colorado, Illinois and El Salvador. With the exception of Manhattan, all of these were places I had never been to before. I have to admit, I was worried when I got married so young that I had lost my chances to travel. Luckily for me I married a wonderful man who has never tied me down and supported, even encouraged, my many trips. He even was able to come with me to be a translater for my El Salvador trip (he is fluent in Spanish). Because of his support and the many opportunities photography gives me, I have traveled more since being married than I ever have! So here are the places I have visited:
Becca & Mike: Wedding at the LDS Houston, Texas Temple
Going there in the fall was just breathtaking! It made me want to move there when Joshua graduates school this year. When I expressed my sediments to the couple and their families, they all quickly reminded me that October is mild and that the summers are brutal. I guess I will just need to book a summer wedding in Texas to test out if I really want to live there! I did love all the people (including police officers!) that wear cow boy hats everyone. I thought it was interested and a bit humorous.
Sandra & Nick: LDS Manhattan, New York Temple Wedding
Sandra & Nick were a really amazing couple. They braved the bitter March Manhattan cold to get some amazing shots. As you know, everything in Manhattan, New York is really close together because of the limited space. So to get a photograph of the whole temple we had to go across the street. At first I was frustrated because of all the cars getting in my shots, especially all the taxis. And then a light bulb went on in my head: when you can’t beat um’, join um’!!! I slowed my shutter speed down and told Sandra & Nick to hold really still. Then as the cars passed by they blurred. I love the effect. What better way is there to represent a Manhattan, New York Wedding then to have taxis in the photographs!?
Jillian & Paul: LDS Washington D.C. Temple Wedding
Jillian & Paul met me at a Spring Bridal fair in Provo, Utah. They are students at Brigham Young University and they were planning a Washington, D.C. Wedding at the end of June. I was really excited when they booked me because I had already booked Ji Su and Jordan’s wedding a few weeks prior. Best part of it was they were one week apart. I had never been to Washington D.C. before so I called up one of my very good friends who lives there to see if I could crash at her place for the week in exchange for some family photographs.
Jillian and Paul were the first ones to get married so I got to the temple really early the morning of their wedding so I could take a tour of the grounds. I had been researching photographs of this temple so I had an idea of what the good spots were already, but I wanted to see for myself. I have to say, no matter how many photographs you see of this magnificent temple, nothing compares to when you see it in person. The first time I saw it was when I was carpooling to the temple the morning of the wedding. I am so glad I wasn’t driving because when we came around the bend and the temple came into view, my jaw dropped and I couldn’t do anything but stare at its beauty for a few seconds. I would have gotten in an accident if I had been driving. Then when I got to see it up close I was in awe again. The LDS Washington D.C. temple is now among my favorite temples.
When Jillian and Paul came out of the temple it was overcast and it looked like it might rain. After about 45 minutes of taking their newlywed photographs the cloud parted a bit and blue sky started to appear!! I rush them to the front of the temple to get some amazing shots with the cool sky. I was really happy with the results. I was also really excited to get a photograph with the reflecting pond. This photograph was hard to get because a lot of people coming to the temple don’t know its a photography spot so they park in front of the pond, which ruins the effect of the photographs because then you have cars coming out of the temple reflection. It’s just not the same. Towards the end us photographing we walked over the the pond to see if by chance it was open. AND IT WAS!!! The reflection pond photograph was one of my absolute favorites.
Ji Su & Jordan: LDS Washington D.C. Temple Wedding
Jis Su & Jordan were married the week after Jillian and Paul. Although I had a wonderful time exploring D.C. in the week between (there is SO much to do!!! Plus most of it is FREE!!) I was really excited and anxious for their wedding. They were referred to me by Whitney and Mark who were married in June in the Salt Lake Temple. I have a few mutual friends with Ji Su so it was fun to see some of my friends there.
Ji Su & Jordan’s wedding day was beautiful. Bright blue skies and warm temperatures. We had a lot of fun doing some photographs in the amazing forest that surronds the D.C. temple.
Denise & David: Bridals/Formals at the BYU-Idaho Gardens and Idaho Sand Dunes, Wedding at the LDS Idaho Falls, Idaho Temple
Denise and David had a beautiful summer wedding in Idaho Falls, Idaho. I drove up the day before to do their formals. We went to the BYU-Idaho Horticulture Demonstration Gardens (which, by the way, I am really jealous BYU Provo doesn’t have), then we went to a field in Rexburg, Idaho and then we scrambled over to the Sand Dunes for sunset. I loved the variety we got!
When Denise called to make their appointment to be married in the Idaho Falls, Idaho LDS Temple she was told that the temple would be remodeling a portion of the temple to put in a fountain. Denise passed the information along to me. Neither of us was to worried about it. How much would they really tear up to put in one fountain?
Two-thirds of the temple grounds, apparently.
Opps.
What can you do? Denise and David did the best thing:they laughed about it and didn’t let it ruin their perfect wedding day. So we documented the damage in a silly photograph. 
Kelsey & James: St. Louis, Missouri LDS Temple Wedding
Kelsey & James had a crazy wedding day at the St. Louis, Missouri Temple. They wanted to get married in the St. Louis temple and have their reception 2.5 hours away in Illinois. Kelsey’s hair dresser was in Illinois, so she decided to get up early on the day of the wedding, get her hair done, and then drive the long trip to the temple. They planned a sealing in the afternoon, so it shouldn’t be a problem, right.
Wrong. As with so many weddings, things were running behind. One thing led to another and it ended up that the sealing started over 2 hours later than planned. But, like Denise and David Kelsey & her new husband James tried to not stress out but just roll with it. Once they were married nothing really mattered. They were so happy to be married! They came out of the temple with only half an hour to photograph and it was pouring rain. But they were in love, newlyweds, and so happy nothing could get them down.
Luckily, we did formals in Illinois so they had photographs of the two of them. It took a lot of stress off of the wedding day. We took a few in front of the temple before they were soaking wet and then we scrambled to get to the reception.
Here are some of their formals, followed by some of the wedding photographs.
El Salvador: The Face of Autism Project at the Hogar Del Ninos in San Salvador, El Salvador
While I absolutely love doing travel weddings, my favorite trip this year was going to El Salvador with my husband, Joshua. I was given a grant to photograph a young adult with severe autism in an orphanage called Hogar Del Ninos. We also did some sight seeing. I am finishing up the photographs now and will do a blog post when I get them all ready. Until then, here are a few of my favorites:
I hope this next year will bring me to new destinations and new amazing memories. Already lined up for 2012 are numerous Utah weddings, an Oakland, California Wedding in February, a Las Vegas session in February, and a new (unknown) state to call home when my husband graduates and gets his first “real” job, which will most likely bring us outside of Utah. I am excited to see what 2012 brings. A lot of new adventures are in store!
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San Francisco California Wedding Photographer
I will be in the wonderful city of San Francisco February 25th for a wedding. I am willing to stay around a couple days after for other photography session. Please email me if you are interested. I would love to do a sunset session on the beach or a night session in front of the San Francisco bridge.
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