Sherry & Jay – New Albany Wedding

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet a couple last week who are truly in love.  Jay and Sherry met like any other couple these days, on the internet… I think it’s amazing how many people start their relationships after an online introduction.  I suppose it saves a lot of time spent with blind dates and all the other “old fashioned” ways we used to meet people.  Did  I really just type that? O.K., I must be getting old!  Regardless, fate has brought these two together into a new family.  Sherry with her two children and soon to be son-in-law, and Jay with his beautiful 7 year old daughter.  Together they have formed a wonderful new family.

 

Jay’s daughter brought up the rings to Damian King who officiated the wedding and Sherry’s children walked her up the walkway to meet Jay.  The wedding was held at a small green space in downtown New Albany and the rain was kind enough to break about 2 hours before the ceremony was expected to start.  We can all thank mother nature for that one.

 

The rings were exchanged and Damian announced Mr. & Mrs. O’Connell to the family followed by applause from not only the family but onlookers across the street.  As the photographer, I found myself taking just a few seconds to admire the awesomeness that Jay & Sherry just committed to.  It’s truly amazing.

Just a few days after their wedding and Sherry is busy closing on her home in Cincinnati and making arrangements to move to New Albany to convert Jay’s bachelor pad into their new home.  I wish them the best of luck in all of their journeys and hope to see them around town soon!   Help me to send warm wishes to them by commenting on this post, it’s here for them to read.

 

Matt & Jenny Paris France Destination Wedding

I’m so excited!  I just got off a skype call with Matt and Jenny who are getting married this summer in Paris.  We were just planning out the details of their wedding and all the sudden it hit me that I’ll be photographing a wedding in FRANCE!  Like Paris, France!  Yea, I get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.  I can’t wait!

Jenny’s parents live in a town about 20 minutes outside Paris and the ceremony will be held in their garden with a quaint reception at local restaurant down the street.  We are going to do a (rather late) engagement type of session a few days before the ceremony in the city.

I don’t speak French.  I like French food but I am VERY nervous about going into a country where I can’t speak/read their language.  I’m just going to pop Ratatouille in the DVD player and brush up on as much French as I can.

Revoir jusqu’à la prochaine fois! (Thank God for the google translator!)

Check back for more updates.

 

MJ2Day Workshop Recap

Wow, what a long week so far. Monday and Tuesday this week I attended Melissa Jill’s MJ2Day Photography and Business Workshop.    The days were filled with shooting tips, off camera flash demonstration and just about everything else that is in Melissa’s head relating to photography.  Thank you Melissa for sharing all that you do!  I love it when photographers help photographers.   I also made about 8 new photog friends while I was at it.   Great to meet you Sara, Megan, Meredith, Amber, Tina, Leslie, Myra and Kristi. (yep, i was the only guy there!)

Now I have been to a number or workshops in the past year or so and I have been very clear to be sure that each has a distinct purpose.  I wanted to see how Melissa built her wedding photography business into what it is today.  I love her images and her branding is amazing, all of which I would love to emulate.  I’m being sure to emulate and not replicate.  I don’t want to be a carbon copy but I do love what she has going.

Some things I am going to work on post workshop:

Robb Shirey Photography Branding – I haven’t been completely happy with my whole identity since the new logo came out.  I loved the logo but my designer took a full time job towards the end of the project and we never really finished the whole package.  Good for her to have a job but bad for me.  I’m currently in the works to revisit the identity package.

Shooting Wide  Open – I love the amazing images that Melissa is able to produce and I know that I have the ability to make my images look the way I want but have always been hesitant to shoot wide open (to get that fuzzy background which is also called bokeh).  She showed me how to use the back button for focusing and TADA, it all clicked!  Check out some of the examples below.

Bio Page – My friend Dane Sanders suggested that you have a bio page on your website somewhere easy to access and front and center.  My friend Melissa Jill also echoed Dane’s remarks.  Yes, I know.. I know… I need to sit down and write my bio.  I have started a number of times but then start to think that this is boring and nobody will read it.  I’m important damit and someone will love me

Blogging, Blogging and more Blogging – I have fallen off the horse, many times.  This time I am going to get back on and stay on.  I am committing to at least 1 blog post per week regardless of what is going on.  I have a TON of things going on this summer (France, Leadville 100 MTB Race, Pelotonia &  my first triathlon just to name a few) so I should have plenty to say.

On the first day of the workshop Melissa had recruited a couple who has been married for about a year to hold a mock engagement session.  The point of the exercise was for us to see how Melissa interacted with the couple and how she is able to get them to loosen up in front of the camera.  We were able to shoot over her shoulder as long as we were also able to pay attention to what she was doing.  Here are a few shots that I was able to get.

The first image (above) is without a sharpen action run. The one below is with the sharpen action… Which one do you think looks better?

We ended up at a small farm where the owners let us have run of the barn. I absolutely loved the wash of light coming from the setting sun against this HUGE tree.  The second image is MJ in action.