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!

Now… THIS is how you do a wedding. We’ve been working with Mairi and Ben for a while, helping them shape their day with our favorite vendors and locations, but they needed help with little else. A highly organized couple, they are tied for first place for ‘most organized’ this season. Google docs, a website, a wedding email address, etc. Wow. Add to this a kick-off with wish lanterns (SO cool) on their pre-party at a lakeside cabin the night before, a beach wedding, post-wedding tour via trolley, a unique location for a reception, AND a sparkler-lit exit at the end of the night. Phew…. Oh, did we mention that Mairi and Ben are completely gorgeous?

Rhian HY started their morning with her mad makeup skills, then transitioned to gear sherpa and stuck with our crew until the early night. And what a crew – in addition to Rhian, Louisa shot second, relying heavily on a full-frame D700 and a fast lens, and King shot HD video with an arsenal of Canon DSLRs. It was a maze of logistics, so special thanks as always for Meghan who served as home base / coordinator for not only this crew, but our B team that was shooting another all-day wedding too! Only to Meghan can you text her, asking for a shot list, and it appears in 120 seconds…

Mairi was a nicely relaxed morning bride – working through makeup, hair, and dressing like a pro. Her girls were equally compliant, and we shot them in formal and candid shots around the cabin while Louisa chased the guys around the beach as they setup for the ceremony. Oh – completely random: we’d be remiss not to thank Rhian for cleaning up the background in one of the formal setups at the cabin which included touching a spider. She doesn’t do that for just anybody. Due to construction and a trolley that had to travel twice from each side of the Keweenaw we were pretty far behind schedule. But that’s the beauty of a beach wedding. Nobody really cares – or at least their concern vanishes when a trolley full of a dozen beautiful, screaming, dancing girls shows up. Come to think of it… that would fix just about anything.

The beach ceremony was elegant and brief, and we spent probably twice the ceremony time playing in the fog that rolled up on the Lake Superior shoreline. Fog is fun. You can get lots of different effects depending on focal length, distance, and direction to the sun, and both Mairi and Ben were great sports about a variety of scenes – even allowing us to pull their lips apart from each other for a few of them. Bar hopping resulted in tours of the Cliff Bar, the KBC (where beer appears as if by magic for the photogs,) and the Dog. Bubba said he’s never seen a rush on pickled eggs before. Shots, yes. Eggs, never.

The newly restored Brownstone Hall and its stage, its retro-glitter walls, and its full kitchen allowed for great photography, and a fully plated dinner. We stole the bride and groom for some more photos nearby, danced with them, and wished them well as they passed under an arch of sparklers at their dramatic exit. Well done, guys! Beautiful in all respects.

All shots were with Nikkor glass on full-frame bodies, and we used remote strobes inside Brownstone. All other light was natural / reflected, and in some cases – dim enough that ISO 6400 and an f/1.4 was required (and enjoyed!)

launching wish lanterns

a solitary wish lantern over the portage

Rhian HY at work

everyone was waiting for the trolley

saying hello without techinically seeing each other

playing with fog

entertaining the locals

relaying her speech to the emcee

ISO 6400

everyone wants to be carried, right?

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?

We keep looking for a better term than ‘Senior Photos.’ It just reminds us of our own painful, first solo photoshoots at 17 years old: leather jacket slung over shoulder, cheesy smiles, studio lights, and lots of ‘editing.’ We worked with Stacy just how we work with a model or a commercial client: she worked with us on concepts, was open minded, professional, adventurous, and gorgeous. 5th & Elm’s Boone loaded us up with some black coffee (thanks!) and studio manager Meghan got out of the studio for a couple hours and joined us on this one which was a treat. She had scouted locations that fit what Stacy was looking for and we did clothing changes as we changed scenes. The clouds were a little ambiguous which always makes for changing light, and more annoying – changing light temperatures, both of which require continuous, on-the-fly thumb and finger work adjusting exposure and white balance. Congrats to Stacy – who like most of our wedding and portrait subjects lately – had no problem lying in the woods, sprawling across fallen trees, or standing waist deep in a swamp. Ha! Her shots are worth it and we hope she’ll have less traumatic memories (and photos) from her first pro shoot.

Unedited images below were shot with a combination of natural and reflected light with a 200mm 2.8 and 50mm 1.4.

In addition to charismatic opera singers, gorgeous brides, tattoo covered beauties, youthful high-schoolers, sweaty triathletes, and the occasional dog, we photograph kids too. They’re actually a nice cross between puppies and opera singers, so we’re reasonably qualified. And its a good thing we’re not big on the formal looking setups, because just like puppies, kids do NOT do this very well. The beauty is really in the dysfunction though, and we spend as much time laughing as we do trying to get multiple faces not to blink, squint, or drool. The excerpts below are from a family that we photographed in the studio and in their home over the course of a single session. Using the studio gives a nice predictable, light-controllable environment, and moving to a home allows us to shoot candidly, capture the natural surroundings of everyday life, and gives a great contrast to the studio work. These little ones were great. All shots were with a 70-200 2.8 and 50mm 1.4.