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Michael [mahy-kuhl] – noun
1. A male given name. 2. A witty, charming professional wedding photographer who enjoys movies, exercise, romantic walks on the beach and large pepperoni pizzas.
Maven [may-ven] – noun
1. A connoisseur or trusted expert in a particular field who seeks to pass his knowledge onto others. 2. An intense gatherer of useful information. 3. An individual who demonstrates passion for learning and teaching a specific topic, particularly through a well connected social network.
Thank you for coming to my blog! I update it regularly, so if you ever want to know what I am up to, please come by and take a peek. Feel free to leave your comments below.
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Depth of Field and Apertures |
I finished a very good lesson yesterday on apertures, it took pretty much the whole day, but I think I was able to successfully take a difficult concept and present it in a quick efficient way.
Aperture refers to the opening of the lens iris. It is important for many reasons, one of the most important is it's Depth of Field, or the plane which is in focus. Wide apertures have thin DOFs, smaller ones have larger DOFs. You can actually meausre them by taking pictures of rulers which I did for the video.
Do you notice how it get's blurry with wider apertures? This usually looks very nice for portraits.
The apertures used are f2.8, f5.0. and f22.
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Movie Review: Enchanted |
| Interesting idea- good story line, good character development...I think women, children and families will enjoy it. Predictable and safe. Sadly, it was probably the best movie I saw over Thanksgiving break. Strange ending, Im not exactly sure how the villian was sent to her doom. Sometimes I wonder........"why am I here?" at movies and it makes me want to go out the the ticket office, pull out a $20 and say "Send it to Michael Bay for Transformers" |
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Amy and Family! |
I had my very first snow shoot yesterday right after Maria and Braxton's shoot. It was different for me as a photographer because of all the light bouncing up from the ground. It was such a fun shoot though because Amy, Jeff, BJ, Oryan, Mekele, and Kilynne were all ready to play. (Sorry if I misspelled your names!)
I have been experimenting with jumping and running pictures- I love how even Kilynne, the youngest was jumping- Cool! |
| I loved this dog- Ally- She was SO adorable, |
| This is next one is one of my favorites of the shoot. We decided to have a race and I gave the little man a head start. You can see the excitment in his smile because he knows he is going to win. :) |
| Let's not forget Tipper! (Yes....two dogs, Ally and Tipper) |
| One of my favorite jumping shots of the day. |
Thank you Amy and Family for such a fun shoot! I love it when everyone comes ready to play!
I will be in Utah for a few more days. Two more shoots scheduled, if anyone else would like them, now would be the time to book. :) |
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Maria and Braxton |
| Had such an amazing shoot today with one of our favorite blog regulars Maria, and her son Braxton. I have known Maria for about 8 years now. She had a great idea to try the Brigham City train station, and even though the shoot took less than a half hour, we had some great shots. Braxton was a fabulous model- so handsome, calm and patient!! Thank you Maria for the gift basket! I loved the gift card for Papa Johns! Yummy! :) |
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Zion's National Park |
I had a truly bizarre experience Sunday and Monday. I tenatively had three shoots scheduled in St. George, Utah. One rescheduled for today in Brigham City, the other cancelled and the last was still on for a shoot on monday. I confirmed the appointment as I usually do with this particular individual Sunday, who by the way, offered to cover my hotel expenses in return for my driving down, everything was set and ready to go. I would drive down Sunday, do the shoot monday afternoon, and come back Tuesday- not a big deal or unusual thing in the life of Michael Andrew.
So I drive down from Brigham City after Tammy's shoot, about a 6 hour drive. I arrive in St George and discover the directions I was given were not accurate at all. I eventually find the hotel where my "reservations" had been made, and was told they were "cancelled" . Hmmmm. In any case I had been driving all day and needed a place to crash.
Monday morning, no call from the "client", nor were any of my calls returned. I get the vibe that this was a wasted trip, and two hours into my drive home I get a voice mail from this "client" that they couldnt make it, to go to Zions and enjoy my time there.
Im about to head out for two shoots- so i will write more on this later. I think I may be a little or a lot naive- if I tell someone I am going to do something, I do it. It doesnt always go the other way. This is something I really dont want to change, I like giving clients and even complete strangers the benefit of the doubt. I still believe I would rather be trusting and naive than cunning and deceitful, unfortunately it means getting burned occasionally. I felt good because I knew it wasnt going to effect me in a negative way, so I went to Zion's (not the Arches Park) and spent a few hours looking around. It was great! |
| I love to see textures in nature! :) |
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Tammy and Family |
| Yesterday I met with Teri and Tammy, a friend of hers, along with her two children- for a fun shoot out near Brigham City. We drove a few miles west to this interesting place called Marble Park, were someone had built all these children's playground toys from ranching materials. It was pretty interesting place.... a little cold- but a lot fun! |
| This one required quite the climb and balancing act.... |
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Movie Review: Hitman |
| So, I have this tendency to see a LOT of movies over Thanksgiving. Hopefully I can save you some money...starting with: Hitman |
| LAME- Not even worth a DVD rental. No plot or character development. I would have walked out 10 minutes through the movie had I not fallen asleep. This is truly movie making at it's worst. |
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The Holy War |
If you are looking for a good game to watch at 2pm Eastern...this is it. While other schools claim huge rivalries, this is one you do not want to miss for excitement. 10 of the last 11 games were decided by 7 points or less, with as many as half going down to the wire. Usually the visiting team wins, this one is at BYU. I am tempted to swing up and attend- all former players are given sideline permission during warmups. I am happy to say I was 3-2 vs Utah.
My final game against them was in 1998, I cracked my ribs on the opening kickoff and played the rest of the game on just 2 advil. We were winning most of the game, and were up 26-17 when we kicked off and their return man ran it down the left side for a TD (I was on the far right side of the field and still almost caught him when I was chop blocked (illegally))- later in films we found 2 other illegal blocks. Brett Kiesel, who now starts for the Steelers at defensive end, was tackled by one of their players- and this is where they ran it back. Yes...I am suggesting it was planned. No flags on the play. Utah was by far the dirtiest, nastiest team (as in cheap) we played in my whole career at BYU.) In the 1995 game when they beat us at Provo, I remember congratulating a Ute to which he respoded "Go ---- yourself". Remember this is AFTER they had won...real classy group of guys up there.
The score was 26-24- Utah held the next possession, we punted, and they drove to our 17 with less than 20 seconds left, they line up for a field goal, and everyone on our sideline was sick to our stomachs, it was that really, really, sick feeling like....I cant believe this is happening and there is nothing we can do to stop it. Here comes the snap, the kick and as it's flying towards the uprights Doug Jolly (who is still playing in the NFL as a tightend) starts yelling "HE MISSED IT! HE MISSED IT!" and Im watching the ball fly up towards the uprights and I am thinking...how the heck does he know....it seemed like an hour and the instant it connected with the top right upright....our sidelines errupted in pure bliss. I remember yelling and jumping so hard that I almost fainted. It was awesome!
It is now referred to in Holy War Lore as "The Boink".
Last Year's game was one of the most exciting collge games I have ever seen, right up there with The Boise- Oklahoma game, and the 1980 Miracle Bowl. It may not recognized as the number one rivalry in the nation, but it is definately the most crazy drama wise rivalry game you could ever imagine. The Utes could lose every game of the year and come this game they would be playing like the Patriots- I never understood it. |
| Yep...thats me in the 1998 game- about to finish off Mr. Dyson. :) In terms of my individual assignments, it was one of the best games I ever played. Gosh...I havent changed at all! |
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Tori and Co.! |
| Yesterday before Thanksgiving Dinner I made a quick trip up to Brigham City, Utah to shoot Tori and her family. Tori is Teri's sister, and she invited her daughter's family and their son to the shoot. We did some nice family shots and then dove into the fun stuff. Telice, (sorry if I misspelled your name!) has two beautiful pitt bulls. |
| I thought these last two were particularly cool. The shot was taken through a playground tunnel, but the way the sun was hitting the side of it, there were these great shadows...a very cool and weird looking shot- It helped the Paul and Tori were so accomidating for a little bit of silliness. |
| Thank you so much Tori, Paul, Telice, Jesse, James, Cinnamon and Spice for such a fun shoot! |
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Happy Thanksgiving Day |
I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving Day and list everything I feel really thankful for. There are way too many things I could even think about, but these are the ones that have been on my mind:
- I am thankful for Heavenly Father and his Son, Jesus Christ.
- I am thankful for my family and friends- I am really lucky to have the support group I do, it means everything to me.
- I am thankful for my health, I am really, really blessed especially health wise. I am thankful for my mind and the thoughts I have. I am thankful for the gifts I have been given, especially the gifts of learning and teaching.
- I am thankful I am out of the lab and out of school.
- I am SO thankful for the opportunity to be a photographer and to be a part of weddings. I am thankful for the opportunity to help others remember their happiness. I have a great job.
- I am thankful for the opportunities to serve others, I think this makes me as happy as photography does.
- I am thankful to live in this great country.
- I am thankful for my freedom and for those who have sacrificed for it.
- I am thankful for all my experiences, even the tough ones...they have made me who I am.
- I am thankful for kind words, to give and to receive.
-Even knowing I have strangers visit my blog makes me thankful- it means people appreciate my work and I am doing something worth while.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday! |
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