We rely on both: a good crew, and good tools. We’re notoriously fussy about both.

Gear requirements:

reliable
weather-proof
capable
flagship / premium level
fashionable

Crew requirements:

(see above)

We pulled these two photos this morning to show how it all works together, and to show off Kora and Anabelle hard at work on a double shoot. While its rare to have two little ones on a pro shoot, its not unusual, and they’re not just playing around – they test lights, haul gear, charge batteries, make clients laugh & smile, clean backgrounds, sweep floors, and are a riot to have around. Oh – a couple organic cookies from the Co-op usually suffices as payment too….

The gear they’re holding isn’t just for looks either. The softbox is a double-diffused (for this shoot) Photoflex Octodome NXT mounted to a Photoflex LiteReach. This combo is complex, but so so so versatile and able to be collapsed, folded up, and fit neatly inside the main Crumpler bag & stuffed under the seat of any regional jet. The strobe is a Nikon SB900 or SB800 (this looks like the more compact 800…) which is mounted to one of PocketWizard’s brand new FlexTT5 transceivers, and is being triggered by a combination of MiniTT1 transmitter / AC3 zone controller. Phew…! The setup allows us to sync the strobes above 1/250 (1/1250 in this shot!) and gives some beautiful, diffused light in any location. As long as we’ve got someone to haul it & hold it that is…

The beautiful Drake girls were lucky enough recently to score a raffled prize of a photo session with us, and WE were lucky enough to have their name drawn! It was also a good chance to show off what we excel at: natural photos of beautiful people in locations that are special to them. When the weather is nice, we like to work outdoors (though we have a reputation for enjoying torturing models in the most uncomfortable types of weather) so we happily headed out to the Drake farm to shoot in trees, fields, on rock piles, etc.

There is not one of these girls that isn’t stunning, their mother included… We did some grouped shots and then used each scene for some portraits. While each set of shots have about the same level of final exposure, they’ve got remarkably different settings. The trees were thick and green in the woods which made a dark canopy, and the fields had full sun. It’s a misconception that photogs like bright sunlight actually… Sun = shadows = tricky… So the shots in the woods were at about 1/60th of a second at a moderate ISO (1600) while the field shots were stopped down a bit to f/4 (yes, we consider this ‘very’ stopped down for our preferences) and at 1/1000 and a lower ISO. Shots were batch-processed for color and exported.

We’ve been gritting our teeth as we look at heavily Photoshopped images lately. We’re not purists (we’re shooting digital afterall!) but we take a very hands-off approach to processed images. This is fodder for a longer post, and a topic in our classes (one is coming up in Dec) but we kinda pride ourselves on shooting the final shot when we hit the shutter release. Are you paying us to shoot or are you paying us to edit!? The Drake girls are no exception. Beauty needs no manipulation.

And again… W O W. So much beauty, and so much fun. We were thrilled to work with Megan and Jon – laid back, charming, and totally in love. In the winter, we shot this gorgeous couple in our studio and a bit outdoors for their engagement shots, then we drove up to Lake Linden in the early summer to work with Megan on a bridal shoot in the historic Laurium Manor Inn. A very special thank you to the owners of this amazing place for always letting us come up and shoot on their property. Have you been there?! It is truly spectacular. Massive, ornate, and completely intact. It operates as a B&B now, and has everything from the original icebox (love!) to the elephant skin wallpaper in the dining room. Crazy and amazing. Megan was a natural and needed little coaching from us on being comfortable in front of the camera.

For their wedding, the Brockit crew took an early morning, caffeine-assisted drive south to an undisclosed location which was the site of a vintage resort now turned private, family estate – complete with lake, beautiful dock, and trails over the river and through the woods. BUT we did not know this. We did makeup and prep at an off-site house about 12 miles away, and although we are not backyard photographers, we were anticipating perhaps a large backyard wedding. When we pulled up to sprawling property, massive tents, and parking for tour buses (kinda) we were happy to have the 2-way radios that are a mandatory part of the gear. Plus, its really fun to say things like: “photog 1 to asst. um… what’s your 20, over” “photog 1, I’m charging batteries in the garage, over.” “copy that, we’re needing the groom to get his butt to the dock please” “roger roger, one groom on the way, over and out.”

Megan and Jon had a gorgeous ceremony, backlit by sunlight off the lake, and between the sunflowers, the purple dresses, and a striking couple, we pretty much just pointed the cameras in random directions and opened the shutter curtains. The time between ceremony and reception is always our favorite, and we pulled the stops out on this one. Lens flare through the trees, ankle deep in a slippery waterfall, and lots of kissing and laughing. We can’t believe nobody slipped and headed downstream though… and as if to test our luck, we convinced (this wasn’t hard) the bride and groom to hop in a rowboat while we chased them in a canoe. Kudos to photog asst. and shooter Louisa who helped steer the canoe and document this beautiful ridiculousness.

Their reception was highlighted by an array of sweet-smelling cakes (holy awesome work by Gopher’s Cafe in Marquette) an engaging DJ, and food catered by our friends at the Library up in Houghton. Oh – least we forget the tour-bus. Yes – this was to run people from a couple locations during the night but this plan was slightly delayed when the driver high-centered the 45 foot bus in the sandy driveway. This was totally photogenic and even more amusing when a tractor was used to pull it out! We’ll share the photos once we’re sure the statue of limitations has passed.

We finished off the night with some star-sky night shots of Megan and Jon on the dock, which is the topic for an earlier blog post and covers some fun technical and artistic details of how we worked to get this shot.

So, yes. W O W. And if all this wasn’t enough, Louisa was further inspired and documented her own thoughts when she got home. Its truly inspiring, and you’ll have to wait for it…

Megan and Jon – best to you both.

We’ve got another great covershot and with another absolutely amazing background story.

Norm Augustine is a former Apollo engineer, Lockheed Martin CEO, US Army undersecretary, Distinguished Service Medal (5 times!) chair of the National Academy of Engineering, OH… and a fellow Nikon photog. He has some amazing safari stories and we handed him our backup D700 which he pointed directly at our  attractive assistant BettyJean and fired off a handful of perfectly exposed shots.

We had literally 5 minutes to get a handful of solid shots of Norm as he is undoubtedly a busy guy. To maximize the time, we offered to pick him up at his hotel so we got there a few minutes early and test-shot Betty in a couple spots in the lobby. We settled on a chair with some decent natural light and a bit of backlight from a lamp. An f-stop with a very open aperture was chosen to minimize the background but wasn’t stopped down too much, so we’d have a security blanket of focus on Augustine’s face. Norm is pretty used to being photographed, so we chatted casually and got in close for literally 10 shots. He was happy to take a look at the preview and was very pleased. (phew!!) It was at this point where he showed adeptness with the camera which uncovered his passion for photography. He travels the world and shoots with a D700 which we happily pulled from the bag and threw a fixed lens on it for him to show his stuff. He aimed at Betty who is a natural anyway (um… have you SEEN the makeup shots with RHY?) who posed happily for a quick burst of perfectly exposed shots. Nice job. Norm hopped in the Honda with us, and we chatted about his travels as we escorted him to his dinner event. Fun fun…

Read the article and check out Norm’s wikipedia entry too.

Brooke had contacted our studio a while ago – wanting to be on our list for commercial and project shoots as a model, so we were naturally pretty happy to start her off with a nice set of shots – aka: “senior photos.” Keeping with our loathing of green screens, Photoshop effects, and props – we utilized a location owned by our friends down the hill from us at Dejavu Antiques and Daily Brew. We’ve worked in their elaborate Victorian property in the past – shooting for commercial projects – and they welcomed us with open arms and hot coffee. We have an awesome studio, but when the weather is good, we’ll happily take the sunshine! And sunny it was. Broken clouds (challenging, but beautiful) and a nice early autumn breeze with a great model all make for a great shoot. Brooke kept her clothing simple to avoid competition with what has got to be the most definitive collection of antiques north of the bridge, and Sarah worked with her on a number of poses – all of which Sarah *insisted* required her own demonstration of beforehand. Simple clothing also helped with the myriad of direct and reflected light sources in the house – all of which threw even manual white balance settings in-camera. It all worked though, and in-between the glam, we caught Brooke’s natural smile (though she’s too shy to let us post it) and graceful long limbs. AND in keeping with our pattern, we ‘convinced’ Brooke to wade at least knee keep in the lake. This will undoubtedly become more challenging for our December clients… Nice job, Brooke, and special thanks again to Dejavu!

Inspiration? Blame NPR. Blame the Bible. Blame both… Recently there was a great story on NPR’s Morning Edition, and this combined with an unexpectedly free 90 minutes on a random evening prompted a quick posting to our group of always willing, knows-no-modesty, group of beautiful models to create a cathartic set of images. We lucked out on two perfect volunteers – complete with Biblically-appropriate features like long flowing hair for Eve and dark facial hair for Adam – not to mention long limbs and fair skin for this classic story. Both have had experience with not only our projects, but modeling for Finlandia University’s life drawing classes as well. Plenty of experience, plenty of confidence, and with two signed model releases, we were in business. We used Thimbleberry leaves in lieu of fig, and did a couple 21st century variations on the iconic image in Garden of Eden. We shot in a secret spot near our studio that we use in all seasons, and worked a couple scenes with some great natural light. The water shots worked the best with the light and the framing, and gave us more contrast to the shot. Thanks to assistant Tania for the apple And hopefully nobody is too offended or takes themselves (or us) too seriously -  photog status as Catholic AND named “Adam” give proper credentials for creative liberty….

classic version

modern version

Adam misses out

psh! who needs Adam anyway?