More on the Facebook Fan Page

I've been updating the Fan page shown above, most recently having put highlights from a family reunion session a few weeks ago.

If you like what you see, please feel free to become a fan of the page!

Facebook Page

For those of you on Facebook, I now have a page for Richard Berry Photography (by that name). It gets updated with short notices, updates and photo highlights, much like this blog, but with smaller and more frequent updates.

If you're on Facebook, feel free to become a fan!

Bruce and Claire's Wedding

Shot a terrific wedding today: Bruce and Claire. Bruce's family, as well as Claire, are long-time friends. These are two people who were clearly meant for each other.

A beautiful wedding was followed by a nice reception at the Holiday Inn Exec center. In a few weeks, I'll have photos up, but in the meantime, here are some bridal portraits of Claire. These were shot about two weeks ago; I didn't want to show them prior to the wedding.



More images can be found on my Richard Berry Photography Facebook Page.

The full shoot can be found here.

Facebook

For those interested in Facebook, I'm creating a Facebook fan page for Richard Berry Photography. I'll be posting photos and other insights gained on the page. Please feel free to become a fan!

Richard Berry Photography on Facebook

Bridal Portrait session

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to do a bridal shoot with a wonderful young lady named Claire. We had a ball; we shot at the Rocheport train tunnel, Shelter Gardens, and at a private residence. I had some new equipment that really enabled me to go farther than I had before: I finally have a portable power pack for my studio strobes, so now I can go on location; I also have a second hot-shoe flash, giving me more flexibility in my location shoots.

I can't show the photos just yet (not until after the wedding), but I look forward to sharing them!

Fields

The Fields family reunion occurred a few days ago; a couple of days before that, I was asked if I'd do some family shots. Of course! Family reunions are a time when people are enjoying themselves, and a photo shoot can be a lot of fun. They are a very nice, close-knit family, and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot:












And of course, the dream-shot of kids world-wide:



The complete shoot can be seen here.

Jackie

Recently, I had the pleasure of making senior photos and images with Jackie. Jackie is a senior at Rock Bridge High School.

Jackie is an artist; as a result, she was in sync with me through the whole shoot. She knew where I was going before I could fully frame the words ("Jackie, would you tilt...perfect." "Jackie, I need you to...good"). That kind of synergy makes a shoot a real pleasure. We did several outdoor shots at multiple locations throughout Columbia:

In each shoot, I like to reach for something "outside the box," something that makes the series unique to that person, with a good match for their personality. I think we found it (I love this shot):

After we were done, we did some studio work to reflect her love of Tae Kwon-Do:

The full shoot can be found here.

Happy 4th of July!

This weekend, we're going to celebrate the birth of the US. One of the Founding Fathers, John Adams, visualized the holiday:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.

One of the fun things about the fourth is fireworks! Many folks like to try to take pictures of them, but too often end up with something like a white flash against a dark background. How do you take good pictures? Here are a few tips that should work, regardless of whether you're shooting with a pocket camera or professional dSLR:

• Get a good clear location. Closer (but safe) is obviously nice.
• Brace your camera. Use a tripod if you have one; if not, set it on something steady (a wall, a table, etc).
• Use "Fireworks" mode if you have it; otherwise try "Sports" mode (no guarantees, but it's a similar setting)
• Fresh batteries, empty memory cards. Shooting fireworks inherently takes a lot of shots, most of which you'll throw away. In order to get the few good ones, you'll need space for all the bad ones.
• Turn off the flash! It won't help: it will drain your batteries much faster, and if you're in a crowd, it will only light up the back of the heads in front of you. Not pretty.
• Zoom out. If your camera has zoom, you'll instinctively want to zoom in. You'll miss it. Zoom back and pick a likely patch of sky.
• Manual focus. Your camera won't generally have time to lock onto the fireworks. Simply focus out to infinity.

Here are a few additional tips for the more advanced photographer:

• Low ISO: Set your camera to its lowest sensitivity: ISO 100 (lower if you've got it). Remember you're shooting at night, but what you want to capture is as bright as day.
  
• Smaller aperture: This helps your depth of field. You might have to play with this to nail the exposure.
• Longer shutter times. Usually I use around 3 seconds, then play with it, depending on the pacing of the fireworks. I'll shorten it up if there's a grand finale. The longer time gives those beautiful trails from the burst that you're looking for.
  
• Use a remote: if you trip your shutter normally, you'll often get squiggly trails in the fireworks from the slight wobble you introduce. If you don't have a remote, use a timer release.
  
• Once I find a good shutter time, I usually play with the aperture.

Here are a final few tips for the way I'd shoot a fireworks show (note: this is my shooting style; it may not work for everyone, but I know what works for me):

• After I know that I've nailed some nice shots, I usually start taking pictures of people (after all, I'm primarily a people photographer, so it's natural for me). Especially good are kids with that look of wonder in their faces. If I can get it under a strongly-colored light from a fireworks shot (blue or red, for example), that's a winner!
• The starbursts are fine, but they become very similar after a time. I like to introduce some interest by putting them "in context:" for example, using a zoom lens, if I'm far enough from the show, I like to put the silhouette of a family in the foreground, or show them lit by the fireworks. By using a zoom, I can manage the composition.
• There are often sideshows at fireworks shows (fire-eaters, etc).

Have fun!

Update: Senior Photos

Hey, wanted to let y'all know: I've modified my Senior Photo pricing. Previously, the $250 package included 1 hour of shooting. I've come to realize that it never happened. I don't quit shooting until I'm satisfied, and that usually is over an hour. I'm more interested in the quality than the time, so why not admit it and put it into the pricing?

The base Senior Photo package is still $250, but it now includes 2 hours of shooting, plus the original $100 photo credit. So it's a better stated deal, and it now more closely reflects reality.

In addition, I've improved the deal for our full package, adding additional photo credits to the package.

-Richard

Off-topic: Terrific Guitarist

Those who know me know that besides photography, I also love music. For Father's Day, my daughter, who had been watching what I was listening to, got me Andy McKee's CD, Art of Motion.

Andy is a musician from Topeka, KS. He put out a bunch of his music on YouTube, where I stumbled across him. I was instantly a fan. Incredible technique, nice compositions (he plays his own music), and an independent label (meaning he gets more of the proceeds than through the big labels).

Since I first saw him on Youtube almost two years ago, his career has been growing as more people hear of him. I'd like to help that along: here are a couple of videos that I hope you enjoy.








I hope you enjoy!

Amy's Senior Photos - second shoot

After reviewing the photos from Amy's shoot, we decided to do a small second shoot to add a change of clothes. We found some terrific light and were very excited about what we got:

Amy's Senior Photos

Last week, we went out to do my daughter Amy's senior photos. After the shoot, I think we were both pretty pleased with the results. I found out, to my surprise, that it's a little harder to shoot someone that close to me than most others. I'm not sure why, but I think I'm more used to Amy being my assistant rather than my subject. Still, we had a great time and got some fun stuff. The full shoot is on the website.

Airshow photos are up!

Well, after fighting some illness, I finally got the photos from the Salute to Veterans Memorial day celebration posted. They are on both the Salute to Veterans site, www.salute.org (a terrific organization, by the way - they do good work) and on my own site.

Since that gallery has over 1400 images, here are a few highlights (all images Copyright 2009 Richard Berry):

The Aeroshell Team






The Canadian Skyhawks






Navy Captain and Astronaut Robert "Hoot" Gibson




Beech CH-45 Canadian Queen




PT-13 Stearman





Air Force Honor Guard

Airshow Images on the way!

Well, just a short note: I'm working through the images from the Memorial Day weekend celebration. About 2,500 images, and I've worked through about 300 of them so far. Much more soon.

Pilar's Graduation

Two weeks ago, my wife and I were in College Station, TX for the graduation of an "adopted" daughter of ours. Pilar is from Equatorial Guinea, and has just graduated with a degree in Geoscience. We are so proud of her: she came to this country knowing no one, and not knowing a word of English.

In the time since she's arrived, she's created a strong network of supportive friends, learned the language AND the culture, and excelled in her studies. A very impressive young woman. We met her when our daughter became friends with Pilar. She spent some holidays with us, becoming part of the family in the bargain (we got the good end of that bargain!).

Naturally, I had to pull out the camera and get a few fun shots:





Congratulations, Pilar! We're proud of you.

Abandoned 2

Today I went out for a short photo shoot over lunch. It's a great decompress. I'm still a people photographer, but my lunchtime shoots need to be non-people, so they can be short. My favorite non-people subject is abandoned properties. I found a new one the other day, so I went by today to get these shots:

Scheduling Senior Photos

Just a quick comment: I noticed that the local high schools have told their juniors to start getting their senior pictures put together. I'm starting to book times for senior photos; if you'd like to schedule a time, please give me a call or drop me an email so we can schedule the best time for you.

Textures

Recently, I was in Lawrence, KS and had some time to shoot for fun (is it a passion or an addiction???). While there, I stopped by a park that has an old steam engine on display:

The train itself was pretty interesting, but as I shot, I became more and more enamored of the textures on the train.

Awana Grand Prix

Our church has a form of pinewood derby, called the Awana Grand Prix, which happened two weeks ago. It's a terrific outreach ministry to kids, and it really is a high point of the year. It's so neat to see families having fun together, working together, and just spending time in a neat activity.

The ages ran from the little ones:



To the young ones:



To the older ones:



People were all encouragement to the racers on each race:



It was a terrific Saturday morning.