Tag Archives: Art

Art | The Difference a Frame Makes

October 29, 2008 – 3:35 pm
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="900" caption="Image #1 | Give your print a place to shine"]Give your print a place to shine

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Although most of my business is to capture weddings and special events, I do enjoy taking portraits when I can. One couple arrived at my studio to have some photos taken of their toddler and of all of them as a family. When they were shown the proofs from their portrait session, they were excited and ordered a number of custom finished enlargements.

I really enjoyed the photo session, and was happy with the images that they selected.  Many times, a great photograph is begging for a nice frame to turn itself into a fine art piece for a customers wall. I needed to make a custom built frame to give these images a place to shine in their home. The frame has multiple photo spaces in the matte to allow a collage of images to be displayed.

The end result was two 25″x25″ custom gallery style frames fitted with a custom archival mattes. They look great even without the photos inside them. Once the photos were placed and the backing was installed, they now had a nice piece of art that they can hang on their walls. Along with these two custom frames, there were four standard 16″x20″ gallery frames used to show some smaller images. These will look great placed inside their home, and now they can have some long-term images of their newborn son especially as he grows over the coming years.

If you have some nice images that look great on your computer screen, take some time and get an appropriate frame for it. I’m sure you will be pleased with how great that image now looks hanging on your wall.

By Michael | Posted in Art, Family, Portrait | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

Hye Jin & Ashish | Three Days of Celebrating in Seattle

August 8, 2008 – 1:14 pm

I have to say, being a professional wedding photographer, I have seen many many many weddings. They are all beautiful in their own special ways. The small private weddings that display the intimacy and close friendships that are so important to the couples, and the larger weddings that allow them to share their wedding day with all who have had an important impact on their lives. With that said, it is unusual to see a fairly large wedding share so many personal moments with so many people. However, that’s exactly what Hye Jin and Ashish did for their absolutely spectacular wedding celebration spread over three days in Seattle.

Hye Jin and Ashish met through some friends through their work. To be honest, more people were worried that Hye Jin (a former UW Cheerleader - yes, she’s very cute and super spunky) would break Ashish’s (this guy has the most cheerful smile) heart, but thankfully, they simply fell in love. They’re made for each other and it’s obvious to anyone who has seen them together. The way that they look at each other, and the fact that they simply “get each other” is clear. This was going to be an incredible wedding celebration. It all started with a rehearsal dinner on Thursday, July 31, followed by an culturally Indian wedding celebration on the 1st, and a Christian wedding on the 2nd.

One thing I noticed was that this was a great group of people to work with. All of the bridal party (you can see individual post of them on the link listed above) were excited to see this day of celebration. They all wore culturally authentic clothes and participated in the morning’s traditional pre-wedding blessings. I knew this was going to be a blast to shoot. Even though the previous night brought some rain (my first experience with rain in Seattle) the next day proved to be a bit windy, but still beautiful. I found some great locations nearby, and we didn’t need to drive very far for our session. The bridal party was also game for a short walk, so it was fairly easy to find a few nice locations for our photographs. On Friday, the Indian wedding day, one of Dawn Shield’s assistants (Becky) worked along side me. She was great as a second shooter and got some great images as well. Although Dawn was out shooting an assignment in Missouri that day, she was a traveling champion and made it back the next day to Seattle for the Christian wedding day.

The Christian wedding day was almost like shooting a whole different group of people. They were either in suits or nice cocktail style dresses, and they all looked great. This was going to be another fun day of shooting. Dawn and I were excited since we actually knew the areas that Hye Jin and Ashish were using for their wedding reception which is where we used for their photographs, so it all came pretty naturally. On top of it all, the two of them were just as excited on day three as ever.

Their wedding day on Saturday was amazing. The venue was the EMP in Seattle, and it was like attending a very exclusive party (which is was.) The interior was gorgeous and lit with gorgeous colored downlamps (photographers love this!) and I was psyched to be able to be there to share in this huge day with them. The stage area had a gigantic led covered screen that was constantly changing depending upon the mood or in sync with the music that was being played. During dinner it was subdued, but when the band was playing, it was like being at a live rock concert. So slick!

The photos you see here are simply some that I liked, but there were so many great images of them, I had a hard time whittling it down to these few. I hope that you all enjoy them. Congratulations again to Hye Jin and Ashish! Best wishes to you.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="900" caption="Image #1 | Hye Jin & Ashish at Pike Place Public Market"]Image #1 | Hye Jin & Ashish at Pike Place Public Market[/caption]

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By Michael | Posted in Art, Bridal, Travel | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (4)

Regina & Brent at Union Square

July 15, 2008 – 6:00 am

Regina and Brent made their way out to California from Missouri for our shoot and they were a joy to work with. This is their first trip to California, and I wish they had a few more days to enjoy all that is here in the Bay Area. I didn’t want them to think that what they see by the hotel in downtown San Francisco is all there is to this wonderful place. Surprisingly, Brent is a huge Oakland A’s fan. When I asked him about this he said that he became a fan many years ago with a friend he met that was originally from the Bay Area. Since then he’s been one of the biggest fans out there in Missouri, and he and Regina went to an A’s home game while he was here. So at least they got across the Bay Bridge and enjoyed a game here.

When we went out for this session, they both looked like models. Regina (and Brent too) got quite a few stares and a few admiring glances from the SF locals and visiting tourists while walking out near the Union Square area. Through it all they were both perky and upbeat, and full of energy for our shoot.  Here are a few photos that I thought I would share with you. Congratulations again to Regina and Brent.

Regina on Maiden Lane

Regina on Union Square

Light as a Feather

Dancing on Post

By Michael | Posted in Art, Bridal | Also tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Artful Windows of Italy

July 11, 2008 – 8:11 pm

Although my career is about photographing people on one of their biggest days of their lives, I also enjoy capturing travel images and interesting architectural designs. I try to use these same compositional skills when photographing people as I want to ensure that my backgrounds and foregrounds are also interesting, as they are essentially the frames for your living subjects.

When my wife and I were in Italy, we found that the window frames there were either elegantly decorated, or so weathered from the elements that they looked almost like beautifully made art props. Many were surrounded by beautiful flowers in many styles of planter boxes (likely because there are few open gardens in these close-quartered, Medieval cities), and there were others that were painted in striking colors as they contrasted with the walls around them.

I wanted to find window frames that allowed me to get a composition that was interesting. Essentially, here I was making the windows the subject of my photographs. There were some windows frames that I liked; however, I couldn’t get into a position to capture it how I envisioned it, so some didn’t get any photos taken of them. But in the images below, I felt the windows gave a sense of the experience of Italy, and I wanted that to bring that feeling back in the photo.

Although we can’t all travel to fantastic photography locations like Florence and Venice, Italy (we went for our honeymoon), we can find some very interesting landscapes and architecture in our hometowns - it just takes a little looking around. Why not give yourself a small assignment and see if you can capture some photographs of static subjects like doors and windows? I think you’d be surprised at what you find just by keeping your eyes open while you’re out and about.

Italian Grey Window

Italian Green Window

Italian Red Window

Italian Barred Window

By Michael | Posted in Art, Travel | Also tagged , , , | Comments (2)