We Showed Them Prints

It was the wonder in their eyes and the semi-astonished looks in their faces. We laid out the prints on a large desk and couldn't fit them all despite it being a large desk. There were many 4x6 prints and Stephen and Danielle (as well as my wife and I) were looking over them. Presenting the images in this way really created a new and old experience for us all. It was real. It was tangible. It was the true life of a photograph: Print.

I will be blogging the Whytecliff Park photos eventually but just thought I'd share our experience of receiving and presenting photographs in print form.

Oh, and my cat Hikari makes an appearance at the end ;)

Musea Test Prints

If you love your images, get them printed. Period.

I recently received some test prints back from the folks at Musea and was completely blown away by the quality. We were given 4 different papers to try out (so each picture you see represents a different paper) and while I liked some over others, they all brought out amazing qualities in the photos that were just not there when looking at the images from a screen. 

High quality prints bring out a certain "feeling" from an image that you just don't get when looking at the image on an iPad. Yes, iPads are cool and I use mine a ton but a print just kicks in this sense of "it's really there" and "it's really something". It's not just a file, it's a real thing.

The images came individually wrapped in sleeves with indication of the type of paper. I believe the paper was Hahnemule, which is a very high quality paper.
Images are as follows starting top right and going clock-wise: (1) Holman and Monica's wedding (2) Arashiyama Bamboo Forest (3) Phil and Carol's wedding (4) Baby Abigail's 1 year birthday party.

Out of sleeve. It's hard to see from this image on a screen but there is texture on the papers (some rougher than others).

I've seen this image of Arashiyama Bamboo Forest a million times on my screen. Then I saw it as this print and was like ... "Wow."

Marco and Bianca - Seconding Wedding Assignment

I have a lot of fun when I get a chance to be a second shooter at a wedding. For this wedding, I was privileged to work with Kirill Bordon Photography to create amazing memories for this amazing couple. Kirill and I are both film shooters and both have a great enjoyment for the medium we use. Film is fun and we love the results that we get to give to our clients.

As a documentary photographer who loves using film, I brought along my Leica M6 with a 35mm F1.2 lens to photograph all the activities and even the quiet moments. No sooner than a few minutes into the shoot did I find myself in a very, very dark basement area where the groomsmen proceeded to change into their suits. I thought to myself: "Wow, it's... really dark in here." At this point, I was very tempted to use flash but it's very important in my work that I don't disturb the situation or environment around me and so I just worked with the light that was there. Looking at the images now, I see how that was a good decision as it really captures the true feeling and lighting of the day for Marco and, later on, for Bianca. The flash came out a little bit for the reception but otherwise I left it in the bag. While I don't really credit my equipment often for the images, I would say that the Leica rangefinder camera system (with my Japanese-made Cosina Voigtlander F1.2 lens) and Ilford HP5 400 black and white film was a definite advantage and the combination was able to really grab the photographs I envisioned from the darkness (and the lightness later on) as I clicked the shutter. Thank you Map Camera in Shinjuku, Tokyo for hooking me up with this awesome camera back in 2014!

My day started with Marco at his family home, where I met the little ring bearer who loved to mug for the camera and the fellow groomsmen. Being around the groom and the groomsmen took me back to my own wedding where, a few hours prior to the ceremony and amidst all the chaos and nervousness, I felt this camaraderie with the guys who were with me. There's something to be said about having your fellow "bros" with you as you take a big step in your life to marry the one you love.

Also, Marco's best man was his father. :)

The images below are set to a "slide show" mode so click on the images to advance to the next. There might be a slight delay in loading due to the the amount of images. Please wait :)

Oh yeah, I should mention that I also brought along a Polaroid Land camera for some fun. The couple and the bridal party LOVED the results! You GOTTA LOVE PRINTS!! 

 

Documentary Family Photography - 3 Years Later, Another First Birthday

3 years ago, I received a request to photograph a little girl's first birthday. I photographed the events of then-baby Hannah's birthday, delivered the photos (they loved them!) and came away glad that I was able to provide a document of that special occasion for them.

Here's a (Link) for the old blog post... back in 2012.

3 years later, I get an email from the same mother. It's a request for another birthday party. This time, it's (not-so-baby-anymore) Hannah's sister: Abigail! Being able to provide documentary photography to capture all the going-ons and the fun the kids had is quite amazing when doing it once... but twice? Awesomeness!

Baby Hannah (whom I originally photographed in 2012) is no longer a baby anymore. She's a toddler and it's amazing to see how she's grown. It's now her sister Abigail's turn to have photographs of her first-year birthday party. 

And yes, I stayed out of the bouncy castle... AGAIN. I guess I will just have to find my own. *sigh*

Here you can see Hannah (a little more grown up) and baby Abigail on the right waving around a balloon.

1-year-olds love balloons. Love them.

Balloons. Yes.

Does this lead to Narnia?

:D

This little one pulled out handset and started talking (?) into it while he was driving the little cart around.

Unintentional cake smash.

---

This is the final product that I delivered to the parents. She now has a set of First Birthday photographs for each daughter :)

Why has the blog been quiet?

I have to apologize. My blog has been quiet for a little while. I like to update and tell visual stories and keep you folks all in the loop of where I've been and how I've been growing as a photographer. At the moment though I'm trying to re-organize all my files. My computer died. Again. And my life is thankfully not in shambles.

Technology these days is fickle (fickly?). Hard drives die at the drop of a hat. CD/DVDs suddenly become unreadable. My once-trusted PCs have kicked the bucket much earlier that I really wanted them to. I have a reliance on computers that I don't really want but kind of need to have. I guess that's the world today.

What have I learned from this? PRINT your photographs! Get prints! Make them! Create a book or something. Shoot film and create negatives :) Sure, negatives are not entirely foolproof either but once they're created properly and handled with care, I think you'll find them less of a nightmare to store through all the technology changes than my outdated CD/DVD drive... yes, computers seem not to use them anymore!

And if you store stuff on your computer, MAKE BACKUPS. Store to the Cloud. Store to a separate hard drive. Don't trust that machine to hold your data for decades. It's got years on it most likely.

#printsmatter

Anyways, I shall be blogging soon and hope to talk to you all soon! There's many a story that I want to tell... now if only I could find that folder in my backup hard drive...