adam & alex & a very special portrait session | manhattan, ks portrait photographer
This past summer, I had the pleasure of working a couple of times with Alexandra, a local model, doing some fashion shoots, so I was excited when she contacted me wanting to do a portrait session with her husband, Adam. We discussed outfits and the concept she wanted for their shoot, and got all the plans put together.
We met up in one of the fields near their home to make some portraits of them doing what they love to do together: bird-watching. The sun was golden and glorious as we got started.
Out alone, with each other, doing what they love to do. One thing, of course, led to the other… 
Wait…did you hear that?
What? What’s going on?
Don’t you see it?! Over there!
ZOMBIES!!
The rest is just too horrible, much too soon to talk about. The rest of the story, in pictures, after the jump. (more…)
fall portrait specials, going on now!
Hey everyone out there in Internetland! I just wanted to pop in and let you know that we’re running some portrait session specials over on our Facebook page.
What’s that? You didn’t know we had one? We do. It’s here. Come on over and join the fun! We post more images of more recent work over there, so check out what we’ve been up to!
Also, while you’re there, check out the daily portrait session special. Every day this week (9/12-9/17), we’ll be offering a different discount or incentive to a limited number of sessions that book that day. Check back every morning to see the new deal and get on it! Now is the time to plan your holiday portrait session in order to get images and cards back in time to send them out.
See you over on the Book!
(and, just because posts are prettier with pictures, here’s a couple from last fall)
what i saw – the fireworks of 2011 – wamego, ks photographer
There will not be a lot of words in this post. The words are all here. The pictures are below.
Many more, after the jump. (more…)
what i learned about light painting
A few years ago, I was introduced to the work of Jeff Newsom, a portrait and wedding photographer out of Southern California. One of the aspects of his work that really struck me was how incredible his night portraits are. Typically, night is a tough time for photographers because, you know, light is kind of important to photography (from Greek, meaning “writing with light”). The kinds of things Jeff does with his wedding couples and portrait subjects amazes me. Here’s the post that really got my attention. I’ll hang on a second until you get back. In particular, check out the last shot of the post.
The way he combines the light trails of light painting with traditional (I should have put that in quotes) portraiture astounds me. Light painting is pretty darn cool to begin with, but when you mix that with people, it starts to get downright epic.
So, on Saturday, I thought I’d give it a try. A handful of photographers and I got together in Wamego to check out the 4th of July carnival and see what sort of trouble we could get ourselves into. It seemed like exactly the kind of crowd to try out light painting with.
I knew the basic principles: Put your camera on a tripod. Use a slow shutter speed, a low ISO, and a small aperture. Use a hand-held light-emitting device to either create trails of light or to illuminate the subject.
What I didn’t know was how tricky it was, exactly, to get things to work out the way you want them to.
And so, I present to you, what I learned about how not to paint with light.
First, make sure your light is bright enough.
Here, my iPod Touch, which is pretty darn bright in a dark room, wasn’t nearly bright enough to leave a light trail.
Second, to leave a thick trail, the light must be not only bright, but large.
Here, I was using the super bright LED flash on my friend’s smartphone. It left a great, crisp, bright trail, but wasn’t nearly as big as I was looking for.
That’s about the time we realized that my friend Terry, who had lent me his phone, had also brought what he called a “very cheap ring light,” which consisted of 20 or so super bright LEDs arranged in a ring that attaches to the front of the camera’s lens. It has its own battery pack, so they’re really bright and can stay on easily for a long time.
Perfect.
Which leads to my third lesson learned: Don’t wave your super bright light in front of where your face will be, or else your face won’t be there at the end.
The green lights in this came from the ring light’s battery pack indicator lights. I really love how each light on the ring light leaves its own trail, which crosses and twists around the trails left by the other lights. There’s such depth and texture to it!
So, the next thing we realized was that, no matter how bright the flash on the subject is, if you’re not standing there for the whole exposure, you’re going to appear as a ghost because the background will already have been partially exposed. You have to have the subject stand in place the whole time the shutter is open.
For this one, I opened the shutter, walked out to our straw spot, triggered the flash, and walked out of the frame. Notice how I’m nearly transparent? That’s because when I wasn’t there, the floodlights for the basketball court continued to illuminate the background and expose the sensor.
So, that meant we needed someone other than the photographer to be the subject. For that, we coerced forced gently persuaded Julie, one of the photographers who came out for the fun, to stand in as our subject.
For this frame, I attempted to draw angel wings and a halo around her. Besides the fact that I drew the wings upside down, I also learned that you have to get out of the frame before you trigger the flash on the subject.
Once we figured all that out, good things started happening. The good stuff is right after the jump. (more…)
it’s that time of year again!
You know which one I’m talking about: grilling with friends, watching the parades, hitting the pool, and of course, fireworks!
One of the things I love best about the 4th of July is the chance to get my camera out and photograph fireworks. There’s a lot of tutorials out there on how to take good pictures of fireworks–you can find them if you look. One of them you might find is the tutorial I wrote last year on a different technique for capturing the pyrotechnics using a long exposure and a focus shift.
This technique breaks with the traditional method of capturing fireworks by creating a dynamic change in the point of focus during the exposure. This change in focus creates incredible, abstract images of color and light.
Here’s what I put together last year using this technique.
The technique is quite simple. Here’s how you do it:
All you need is a solid tripod, an SLR camera, and a long lens. For me, I use my 100mm lens on a 40D, which is the equivalent of a 160mm lens.
- Try to set up as close to the fireworks as you can. You want to fill your frame with the fireworks, so get close, and use a long lens.
- Shoot in manual. You can’t let your camera try to meter for these constantly changing bursts of light–either it won’t be able to keep up, or it will try to properly expose the pitch black night sky, completely blowing out the bright light from the fireworks.
- Use your lowest ISO. For me, that was ISO 100. You’ll be doing longer exposures, so you want the least amount of digital noise possible in the final image. You might even consider turning on your camera’s own long exposure noise reduction option for this.
- Start with a shutter speed around 1 second. I used 1 second for all of the images I shot last year. At that shutter speed, I found that an aperture of f11 or f14 worked well to produce well exposed images. You can experiment a bit with this, perhaps trying shutter speeds anywhere between 1 and 6 seconds.
- Use manual focus. Make sure you flip that little switch on your lens from AF to MF. This is where the magic happens. After you press the shutter button, you’ve got about a second or so to change the focus during the exposure. Large changes in focus work best. You can start with the focus set up close and shift it towards infinity during the exposure, or you can start at infinity and move it back up close. Try both. Try going from one end of the focus range to the other and back during the same exposure. With focus at infinity, the light from the fireworks will produce sharp lines on your image. With the focus up close, the light creates soft, colored balls or stripes of light. As you shift from one end of the focus range to the other, you produce incredible, abstract images of color and shape.
- The last step is something to keep in mind the whole time you’re exposing and shifting focus: don’t rock the tripod.
lynette + liam | married! – manhattan, ks wedding photographer
A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a wedding I was not planning on being at. Lynette, one of my wife’s good friends, moved to England a few years ago with her children. While she was there, she met Liam, and they fell in love. They came back to Kansas to get married near Lynette’s family.
When I found out she was coming back, I told her I wanted to do some portraits of her and Liam, and the best time we could find was right after the ceremony. Since the ceremony was scheduled at 5, we arranged for me to arrive at 5:30.
I got there early and checked out the grounds of the courthouse, then went to find Lynette and Liam. When I got inside, I discovered that they hadn’t actually been married yet because the judge had some concerns. You see, Liam is deaf, so the judge wanted to make sure that adequate interpretation was available and get everything set. In the end, it was decided that Lynette would interpret for him, and that’s about the time I arrived. So, I was able to come in and capture the ceremony as well.
It was a very intimate ceremony, with just Lynette and Liam, his best friend and best man who flew in with them for the ceremony, and Lynette’s family.
Lynette’s daughters and sister served as her bridesmaids.
I absolutely adore this image. I didn’t even notice when I was there that as Lynette was hugging her oldest daughter, she was signing “I love you” to her. So sweet.
After the ceremony, we went outside to get a quick portrait of the wedding party before sending everyone else on to the reception. The light was coming through the trees so nicely, we had to stop and get a couple of the happy couple as well.
Once we sent everyone on, Lynette, Liam and I made our way around the courthouse, finding some fun locations to make portraits in. It was a very interesting experience working with Liam–it was so easy to see his love for Lynette, even though I couldn’t understand a word he said. We had a great time from the get go.
We managed to grab the very last few rays of sun streaming through the trees and made very good use of them.
There’s much more inside, after the jump. (more…)
my own – manhattan, ks child photographer
It’s not very often that I go to a wedding as a guest. Being in this business, the odds are just against me. So this past weekend, I found myself in a rather rare position: I was at a wedding, I didn’t have to work it, I had my camera, and my oldest daughter was the flower girl. That last one meant that she was all dressed up and at the wedding venue (the Holiday Inn in Manhattan, KS) early.
While we were waiting for the wedding photographer to finish doing the bride and groom portraits, I asked her if she wouldn’t mind me making a few portraits of her. Amazingly, she agreed! I was so happy that she was willing, because the Holiday Inn has some amazing light and great locations. I’ve shot some wedding receptions there before and have never been disappointed.
We spent all of 13 minutes, and I made less than 70 frames, but am so happy with the results. I don’t normally share personal images on here, but since these were not your run-of-the-mill family snapshots, I figured it was okay. So, if you’ll indulge me, my daughter:
My very favorite ones of her from this mini-session (plus my other two kiddos), after the break.
miss zoey – manhattan ks child photographer
Earlier this month, I had the chance to go hang out with little miss Zoey and her parents at their Manhattan, KS home. I had met them the month before while photographing their adorable home (already sold!), and as we were talking about their upcoming move out of state, Zoey’s mom mentioned that they needed to get Zoey’s portraits made.
Two weeks later, and I got to hang out with Zoey at her home and at nearby Anneberg Park. I spent nearly the whole time laughing and playing with this adorable, energetic, Wiggle-loving little girl.
Everyone, meet Zoey:
Zoey is the typical 2.5-year-old toddler: shy at first, but curious enough about the rabbit on the top of your camera that she will eventually come out of her shell and play.
Besides, she loves her little pink sunglasses.
To see more, check out the full post:
charlie – manhattan, ks child photographer
One of the greatest thing about photography is getting the chance to work with a family on several occasions over the course of time. Last year, I shot the wedding of a great couple at the KSU Botanical Gardens and clicked with the bride’s family. Later that year, I got to work with the whole family again when they wanted to create some family portraits on the campus of their favorite university: Kansas State. Last month, I got to work with the bride’s sister and her family to capture their little boy, Charlie, as he neared his second birthday. Once again, we met on the KSU campus, but in a part of campus I had never used before for portraits. I love that there are endless locations for portraits on campus!
Charlie is as precocious as any adorable two-year-old boy, but just before we met for our session, he had been sick for a couple of days and had had to stay inside. I think this was his first day of really feeling better and getting outside. You know how much energy every two-year old typically has? You know what happens when they have to save 3 days’ worth of it while hanging out inside sick?
The photographer gets to run a lot, too. It’s okay–it’s all a game, right?
Like peek-a-boo.
Or hide-and-seek.
Ok, Charlie, enough games. Come on out and meet everyone!
Everyone, Charlie. Charlie, everyone.
More of the handsome little guy (and his monkey!) after the jump.
fireworks like you’ve never seen them before
With the 4th of July right around the corner, fireworks are on a lot of people’s minds. If you live in a state that allows you to shoot off your own fireworks, like Kansas, then chances are you’ve already heard some going off around your neighborhoods at night. You may have even been the one lighting them.
Those little fireworks are great, but the real fun comes from the massive pyrotechnic displays that are put on all around the country on the 4th. The show that my town puts on is really a marvel, especially considering that Wamego’s population is only around 4200 or so. It is entirely hand fired, typically lasts about 30 minutes, and the seating is wonderfully close (about a baseball field’s length away). You really get to experience the fireworks, not just watch them. And this show is as intense, if not more so, than other popular shows I’ve seen in much larger communities. Every year, people from surrounding cities make the trek out to Wamego because the show is just that cool.
But this is not a post plugging Wamego’s fireworks show.
Ok, it’s not just plugging Wamego’s fireworks show.
As a photographer, I’ve always enjoyed trying to capture the kind of fireworks images I’ve seen in magazines and online and have always struggled to get anything close. So I gave up.
Then, last year, not too long before the 4th, I read an article from a JPG magazine user about a different technique she had discovered that makes amazing images of fireworks not only much easier to produce but also much more enjoyable to create. I remember trying it out last year and just giggling like a giddy school girl as a watched the images pop up on my LCD. It’s easy and fun and the results are unexpectedly delightful and full of mystery.
She called the technique focus shift. All you need is a solid tripod, an SLR camera, and a long lens. She used a Canon 5D with a 180mm lens; I used a Canon 40D with a 75mm lens (equivalent to 120 mm). Here’s how the technique works, along with some images I shot last year:
- Try to set up as close to the fireworks as you can. One “mistake” I made in the past was trying to get the whole sky in the shot. Forget that for this–you want to fill your frame with the fireworks, so get close, and use a long lens. Wamego’s show is great for this since every seat is virtually as close to the fireworks as safety would allow.
- Shoot in manual. You can’t let your camera try to meter for these constantly changing bursts of light–either it won’t be able to keep up, or it will try to properly expose the pitch black night sky, completely blowing out the bright light from the fireworks.
- Use your lowest ISO. For me, that was ISO 100. We’ll be doing longer exposures, so we want the least amount of digital noise possible in the final image. You might even consider turning on your camera’s own long exposure noise reduction option for this.
- Start with a shutter speed around 1 second. In the article, she said that her shutter speeds ranged from 1 to 6 seconds. I used 1 second for all of the images I shot last year. At that shutter speed, I found that an aperture of f11 or f14 worked well to produce well exposed images. You’ll have to experiment a bit with this.
- Use manual focus. Make sure you flip that little switch on your lens from AF to MF. This is where the magic happens. After you press the shutter button, you’ve got about a second to change the focus during the exposure. Large changes in focus work best. You can start with the focus set up close and shift it towards infinity during the exposure, or you can start at infinity and move it back up close. Try both. Try going from one end of the focus range to the other and back during the same exposure. With focus at infinity, the light from the fireworks will produce sharp lines on your image. With the focus up close, the light creates soft, colored balls or stripes of light. As you shift from one end of the focus range to the other, you produce incredible, abstract images of color and shape.
- The last step is something to keep in mind the whole time you’re exposing and shifting focus: don’t rock the tripod.
Here are a few of my favorite shots from last year’s fireworks show. This was my first attempt at focus shifting, and I’m really happy with what I came home with.
For this first one, I shifted from a close focus towards infinity, which is why the green lights start big and get sharper as they move away from the center. The green heptagons came from a particular kind of firework that twinkled instead of burning consistently. ISO 100, f11, 1s, 75mm (120 mm equivalent), shifting from close to infinity.
In this one, I also shifted from close to infinity and just loved how it produced such organic, almost flower-like shapes. ISO 100, f14, 1s, 75 mm (120 equivalent), shifting from close to infinity.
I love that this one exploded out of my field of view, so I only really got the twinkling trails as they fell. ISO 100, f11, 4s, 75 mm (120 mm equivalent), shifting from close to infinity.
This last one is my favorite from the night. I was amazed not just by the fierce red color, but by the asymmetrical chaos of the main bloom. All the other smoke and stray light really added to the image. ISO 100, f14, 1s, 75mm (120mm equivalent), shifting from close towards infinity.
As you play with this, try shifting focus at different speeds: shifting slowly produces a smooth transition from large, out of focus light to sharp trails, or vice-versa. Shifting quickly produces sudden differences.
If you’d like to see more examples of what this technique can do, definitely check out the first article minka did, as well as the follow up story that she posted after the 4th of July last year.
Will you try out focus shifting this year? If you do, definitely leave a comment below with a link to your images. Or, head on over to the rik andes photography page on facebook and just post the images there! I can’t wait to see what you create, especially because I’m facing the distinct likelihood that, because of my travels this weekend, I won’t be able to capture any fireworks images at all, let alone see a big show. I’ll enjoy the fireworks vicariously through you this year.
Did you enjoy this little how-to? Feel free to pass a link around and tell your friends!
kelli and jay – manhattan photographer
I love my job. I get to meet all kinds of incredible people that let me into their lives for a time. There are so many different kinds of beautiful relationships that I get to share, so much love and passion that I get to witness, and so many people in love that I get to work with to create portraits for them to treasure.
Recently, I got to meet Kelli and Jay. They got married a couple of years ago, but at the time, didn’t get any engagement pictures taken. Luckily for me, they came to me to help them create some portraits of the two of them together along with their little girl.
We got together at Anneberg Park in Manhattan, KS, during spring break on a slightly chilly and fairly breezy afternoon. First, we started with Jay in uniform.
Kelli had brought along something that she wanted to use in her portraits, which is such a great idea! Who knows a couple better than themselves?
After getting a few of them together in uniform, they changed and we set off to a few different parts of the park. They also got their little girl out of the car for a couple of pictures. No worries–their little girl was fine waiting in the car.
Everyone, meet Ada.
While Jay took Ada back to the car, Kelli and I took advantage of the time to create a few quick portraits of her.
When Jay returned, we got back to making magic happen. =]
My absolute favorite of the session. Maybe of the year so far.
I’ve always thought the playhouses in the playground would make for a good session location–so much color!
Finally, Kelli and Jay had gotten a matching set of necklaces to wear while Jay is away, and they wanted to incorporate them somehow in the shoot. Ok…done!
Jay, thank you for your service. We wish you all the best over there and a safe return! Godspeed!
jeff, ashlee, and skylar 2.0
One August, about two and a half years ago, some friends from church came and asked me to do a family session for them. Jeff was deploying to Iraq and they wanted to get some family portraits made before he left. We went to Anneberg Park here in Manhattan and had a nice little session by the lake.
Fast forward to Spring Break and Jeff is deploying again. So once again, I had the extreme pleasure of working with this adorable family (and can I just say how fun it is to see families multiple times over their lives together? It is so fun to see all the changes and catch up again). Time was of the essence because of Jeff’s deployment, so we couldn’t really be that choosy about our available session time, so we went with the one day that worked for everyone, which meant that, of course, it was cold, windy, and raining on and off. Instead of heading to the park, we decided we needed somewhere a little more protected from the elements. So, naturally, we met at KSU’s parking garage.
Yep, the parking garage. And it was awesome.
Everyone, Ashlee. Ashlee, everyone.
Skylar did a great job as my assistant. It was her task to make sure her parents kept smiling, and she had the perfect magic word for the job…”stinky feet!”
Skylar loves her daddy. Daddy loves his Skylar.
After fully exploring the garage, we decided to head over to the Beach Art Museum. They were only going to be open for 15 more minutes, so we didn’t mess around.
Okay, okay…we did mess around.
Jeff, thank you for your service. And for the great time I had with you guys. See you when you get back.
jess + mike
It seems like forever ago, but I guess it was only back in November when Jess and Mike came down to Manhattan from where they’re living in Lincoln so we could make their engagement portraits.
I’ll be honest–I was nervous as the date drew closer. Here in Kansas, outdoor photo sessions in early November don’t typically have the benefit of a pleasant climate. However, as Saturday afternoon arrived, so did an incredibly nice warm front. In short, it was a gorgeous day to hang out with two gorgeous people in love.
Jess and Mike had no particular ties to Manhattan–Jess is from Wamego–so they trusted me to choose a location for our shoot. That kind of trust is one of the best things to give a photographer. =]
We went to a building in Southern Manhattan that I had been eying for a while. The grass was green, and yet the leaves were yellow and falling around the lawn. But, I imagine you didn’t come here for a description of the landscaping, right? Ok…here are the images.
Jess (it’s her birthday tomorrow, the 26th–leave her some happy birthday love!):
Mike:
There’s a huge tree in front of this building that had dropped a ton of leaves on the ground. As soon as I saw them, I knew I wanted to get a particular shot. But, to get the shot, I’d need to be up off the ground. High.
It’s a good thing I climbed a lot of trees as a kid.
Here’s the shot.
Oh, and this one too.
They were having a good time down there, so I decided to get down there with them.
Well…not with them. Just on the ground. At the same time.
You know what I mean.
Like this:
Okay…I’ll just be quiet now.
And my personal favorite of the afternoon:
Jess and Mike, I had a blast shooting with you, and I just can’t wait until June for your wedding here in Wamego!
ingrid – wamego high senior
I had an incredible time recently working with Ingrid, a wonderful young woman attending Wamego High School. She’s not from around here, or anywhere near here, actually. You see, she’s here for a year from a small town in Norway whose name I can’t even pronounce. 
Ingrid, her host mom, and I had a great time out in Manhattan at City Park, finding some great spots around the new pavilion they just finished, making use of what little autumn foliage was still left. After playing around there, we drove off to find a patch of tall grass out in the sun and then finished up at under the highway bridge by the river.
We had such an amazing time I had a really hard time narrowing down her selection! Here are just a few of the images from her session:
One of my favorites, out behind the pavilion, by the massive air conditioning and heating units they have out back:
Check her out, straight killing it!
Ingrid might have been a little nervous when we got started, but before long, she was working it like a freaking model!
Wow!
I recently heard that some magazine somewhere did a study and concluded that the most beautiful people in the world lived in Norway. While I can’t vouch for the validity of the study, I can say that Ingrid represents her country well. She’s smart, happy, beautiful, and ready to face the world. Unfortunately, under the Norwegian school system, Ingrid will have one more year of school when she gets back, so Ingrid, enjoy being a senior twice!
All the best to you, Ingrid, and good luck in what schooling you have left!
3 brothers
From a recent teeny-tiny mini-session (i.e., 10 minutes next to the light & power building in Wamego) with some friends.
Age 3
Age 5
Age 7
mayabeth – whs senior portraits
I just love working with high school seniors! They’re at a very special time in their lives, when the world is before them and all options are open. They’re hopeful and confident, yet still in the process of turning into the adults they will soon become. Most of all, they’re a lot of fun to shoot!
I had the pleasure of working with Mayabeth, a senior from Wamego High, and let me tell you, this young woman is busy! She runs cross country, plays basketball, volunteers at the elementary school, and to top it all off, was recently chosen to be the Homecoming Queen!
On a day that started out cold, cloudy, windy, and 48F (before wind chill), we went out to a local lake in the afternoon and found incredible blue skies and gorgeous temperatures.
Is it wrong to start a blog post with one of my very favorites from the session?
We really couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day in mid-October! So yeah, we had some fun.
Here are a few of my favorites from the session:
Man, I just love this next one!
After hanging around the lake for a while, we hopped back in our cars and went over to the campus at KSU to get a few more in a more urban setting.
As the light started to fade, we headed over to the old stadium there on campus to get make some images of Mayabeth in her cross country uniform and spikes.
She has been hitting the weights for a few years now and wanted to make sure we documented the progress. Check out those guns!
Good luck choosing a college, Mayabeth, and in all your future endeavors!
mindy + nathan: engaged!
To those that know Mindy and Nathan, this will not come as much of a surprise, given that they just tied the knot about a week ago in a beautiful hill-top ceremony at her parents’ farm. However, not too long before the wedding, we got together for a little engagement session, knowing that there was little time between the session and the actual wedding (there was only family at the wedding–a total of 18 people).
And, incidentally, for anyone else in a similar situation, where there is not that much time for an engagement session before the wedding, when you might be tempted to just skip it and focus on the nearing nuptials, I’d recommend going ahead with the session anyways. It gives you a chance to get to know your photographer in a much more relaxed environment, to see how he or she works, and develop an amount of trust and confidence that will come back to serve you on your actual wedding day. You’ll be more relaxed with your photographer, and that will only make you look better in your wedding portraits. Trust me on this one.
So, we met on campus at Kansas State University in Manhattan and made good use of the great variety of locations available in such a small area. I’m going to try not to talk too much now because there are a bunch of images to share, so get ready for a long post!
Mindy and Nathan met in grade school. Sounds like the beginning of a great love story, doesn’t it? Really, it is.
It was so cool to see how much fun they have together. They’re unafraid of letting it show around other people, too.
Oh yeah…the dumpster thing? Their idea.
The real Nathan.
The black and white Nathan.
As we were moving from one location to another in the old stadium there on campus, a sweet, elderly couple that was walking the track passed us and commented on how nice the weather was. They then suggested we shoot right there on the track.
Ok!
After the stadium, we moved over to the new parking garage and had some fun there. Don’t worry…we looked both ways before laying down in the street.
The real fun started when we went to the top of the parking garage. It’s not finished yet, so there were a few locations that probably won’t be available in a few months when they do finish it.
And my very absolute favorite of the night, the very last image we made:
Mindy and Nathan, you guys rock! I’m so excited to have been able to create these images of your love before your wedding, and can’t wait to show you the images from your wedding! It’s coming soon…stay tuned!
dusting this thing off
*hack, hack* *ahem*
Pardon my cough. All the dust all over this poor blog really aggravates my lungs!
My goodness it’s been forever since I updated this thing! To get myself gently back into the habit, I thought I’d throw up a quick post.
Not too long ago, a good friend contacted me and let me know that he was being invited to speak at a conference. This was good news for him, but he wasn’t just calling to tell me his good news. Once he got the invite, the conference organizers let him know that he’d need a headshot to put in the program and on the organization’s website.
That’s when the panic set in. And that’s when he called me.
We figured we’d be able to run over to his school after hours (he teaches at the local middle school) and set up a simple headshot there in his room. However, when we actually got together to shoot, our schedules were a bit cramped and hectic, so we decided that we’d just shoot it in my dining room.
That’s right–in my dining room.
I threw up some seamless black paper over a doorway and set up my big light (a Norman head) with a shoot-through umbrella. We found something to hold up a white reflector to fill in the shadows, and put up a little speedlight with a CTO gel on it to color the background.
The result?
And in black and white, just in case.
His wife told me later (with a wink) that she never knew that she had married such a handsome man!
So there you go: a quick headshot in my dining room. Good luck on your presentation, Curtis!
over the river and through the woods
A while back, I did my very first newborn session for a friend of ours whose daughter went to preschool with our son. Not too long ago, we all got together again fairly early in the morning at Pillsbury Crossing (a very cool little river crossing/wading area/waterfall spot) to do some more recent portraits of the kiddos. As you can see, young master D is a bit bigger than last time.
His big sister is just as cute as ever, though.
It was great to see how wonderfully they got along together.
Dad eventually showed up, straight from work, just to hang out with his family. I know one little boy who sure loves his daddy.
And one more. Just ’cause.
Thanks for such a fun time, guys! Can’t wait to see how big everyone is next time!
one month later
If I’ve been a little absent around here, there’s a good reason. It’s a cute little reason with incredibly pinchable cheeks, but this reason still loves to wake up at night and scream/growl/grunt at me.
This past Sunday afternoon, just before the light died away completely, Michelle and I were staring at our little girl in her adorable pink dress when we realized that she had turned one-month old without us doing a little photo session for her. She was already in an adorable dress, so we got right to the session. Michelle even prettied herself up a little (afternoon naps tend to mess up one’s hair, after all) and jumped in the shot.
Here’s a couple early favorites.
Yes, I am a very, very lucky man.
collaboration
When I went to install my show at the local gallery (which I mentioned before and will give more details about soon), I took a moment to check out the other artists’ work. One particular photographer, Ali Mocabee, caught my eye, so I went to her website and browsed around for a bit. I saw a link on her blog that said to add her in facebook, so I did.
A few days later, after we had had the baby, I got an email from her asking if she could come play with our baby. She was wanting to try out some natural lighting techniques she had learned but that couldn’t really be practiced without a model (i.e., a fresh, sleepy baby). We had the baby and love pictures, so we said yes!
She came over yesterday and brought a really fun bag of toys that we got to break out and play with for a couple of hours. Cate was a great model and slept almost the whole time. Except for when she pooped in my hand (don’t worry…I caught it all. Nothing got on the floor). Ali and I both shot a ton and I’m really happy with both what I got in the camera and with the whole experience and practice.
Michelle wouldn’t let me go to sleep tonight until I edited at least a couple of her favorites, so here you go!
Ali brought this AWESOME pink petticoat that we bunched up and used as a cushion for Cate. I love this series.
This last one was so yummy, I had to serve it up in two flavors!
If this just whets your appetite, don’t worry! There are plenty more to come!
an announcement and a contest!
So I’m going to be doing a show in a local gallery, and the gallery owner said I could display 15 images. Since I’m relatively unknown here in the area, it’s a great opportunity to showcase some of my personal work, but also to display the work I’ve done for some of my clients. I’ve tried and tried to select those 15 perfect images, and I’m just not getting there all by myself. I posted the images to my facebook page and petitioned help there and on twitter, and I’ve loved the response! So, I decided to open this up and make it even more fun.
I’m holding a contest! ***UPDATE*** the contest voting is closed!
I’m going to leave the voting open until Wednesday evening, March 4th, at 5 pm (Central time). At that time, I’ll count up the votes and choose my 15 images. The client whose gallery image receives the most votes will get to keep the gallery print when the display comes down! That’s right, baby: a free print! Depending on how big I print them, that could be worth something!
So, what can you do? Drum up the votes! Tell your friends, tell your co-workers, tell your family! Send them a link to the blog post and tell them to come vote! They can vote on up to 15 images to help me whittle them down.
Voting is easy: you can
- leave a comment on facebook on the pictures you want to vote for (if you’re my facebook friend),
- send me a facebook message (even those who aren’t my friend can do that, as long as you have an account) with the image numbers you’re voting for,
- send me an email (rikandesphoto at gmail dot com) with the image numbers you’re voting for,
- dm or @reply me on twitter (twitter.com/rikandes) with the image numbers you’re voting for,
- leave a comment on this post right here with the image numbers you’re voting for,
- click on the images below you want to vote for and leave a comment there,
- find me and tell me the numbers in person–just make sure I write them down!
Here’s the link to my facebook album: http://bit.ly/k9QEd
Or the link to this post: http://bit.ly/9ZWnD
Good luck, and stay tuned for a separate announcement regarding the show dates and location of the gallery!
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The fine print: I withhold the right to make the final judgment over which images get into the gallery showing. The client image *in the gallery* with the most votes will get the print.
testing…testing
I got a new umbrella last month. Of course, when you get new toys, you have to play with them. And who loves to play with toys more than kids, right?
I tried it out a couple of times on myself, but I just can’t get the camera that far away, even with my freakishly long arms, at least not without a decent wide-angle lens.
One of the (many) things my wife and I love about our son and frequently laugh about (between ourselves, of course) is how expressive his face is. He’s seriously the Boy of a Thousand Faces. He brought a few of them to the party that night.
Grandpa called as we were shooting. Did that stop us? Nope. (You can also see Mysterious Eye Injury #1 fairly well in this next one. It just appeared at some point. Neither kid would tell us a straight story about what happened. Very Mysterious, indeed)
And my favorite of his faces. I know; it shouldn’t be, but it is!
union station | kansas city
I am guilty of bribery.
That’s right, folks. You heard it first here! I, Rik Andes, bribed my daughter in an effort to convince her not to do an optional science fair project for her school. She was quite reluctant, even though we pointed out that we only had two more days to do it in and very little time to enjoy it in. Eventually, we had to promise to take her to see the science fair at her school and then take her to the science discovery center at Union Station in Kansas City. When I said that, even her little brother was pushing her to cave.
We went out there at the end of last month and had a great time seeing all the exhibits and trying everything out. That’s really the best part of the center–you can play with everything. And it’s not just for kids, either. I was frequently the last one trying out the different stations when my family wanted to move on, and I saw several couples there on dates, too.
Of course, I brought my camera along and had some fun while we were having some fun.
Where it all began.
The price of admission also gets you a show at the planetarium. We saw a laser show of Peter and the Wolf.
One of the exhibits
Digging for dinosaur bones. With protective gear, of course. (Click for slightly bigger enjoyment)
After doing the rounds at the science center, we started the trek over to the Crown Center for dinner, which took us straight through Union Station.
I have only two words and one picture: Gor. Geous.
We ate at Fritz’s, one of our favorite stops in Kansas City. The food is greasy and bad, but it’s delivered via an automated train system that runs on tracks up near the ceiling. When your food is ready, the train brings it and it’s l0wered by an elevator to your table. Kids, as you can imagine, love this place.
On our way back to our car at the Union Station garage.
Definitely a fun little day trip.
