This evening we did an engagement shoot with Scott and Kelly in downtown Birmingham. They were a bit leary of some of the places that we took pics (alleys, etc.) but they trusted us anyway.

This image was especially funny because Kelly was joking about some of the things that we used for backgrounds and she pointed to a big green dumpster and said “you probably want to take a picture in front of that” So… we did!!

This afternoon we did our second annual shoot with Fallon. Last year when she came, she cried almost the whole time. This time, she was much better and we were able to capture a lot of her different expressions.

This evening we did an engagement session with Kris and Jessica. They booked us a few months ago but this was the first time we met. We knew they would be easy to work with when they came up to the door with big smiles on their faces!!

This afternoon we got to do some baby pics with little Chumani. She’s a funny little one. The best way to make her smile was to let her play with your cell phone!

We just returned from our second trip to the Dominican Republic to finish the commercial shoot that we were hired for. If you want to skip the stories and go straight to the slide show, you can do that here:
http://www.arisingimages.com/product/20070415_dominican/slideshow/slideshow.html

This trip was much more planned out and structured and one of the main goals was to photograph activities and people doing those activities. The video production team that we traveled with had a lot of gear and equipment along with a lot of people to help move everything around and set everything up. Their footage was primary and the photos were secondary. The setups of the video equipment took a lot of time so typically each day we just had a one or two areas to travel to and shoot with the purpose of getting very specific shots. We were also working with four actors/models who could pose for the photos/video.

Day 1
The first day we arrived in Santo Domingo and did a few quick shots in the downtown area, however, that wasn’t too important for Cheridy and I because we had already taken a number of shots when we were there last month. We had to go there to Santo Domingo last time to get our new passports after they had been stolen (which you can read about here).

Day 2
The next setup shot was of mountain biking. Maximo is a local mountain biker who led us up to a beautiful place up in the mountains. We spent most of the morning taking some pictures of him and a few others on the mountain bikes.

While up in the mountains we had a chance to enjoy a bit of the local flavor as well.

After that we did some white water rafting photos. The weather was really bad with hard rain so we had to huddle under umbrellas to get the shots we needed. There was nobody on the river so it had to be arranged to have some of the river guides take a raft down the river and make 4-5 passes in front of the cameras. We were travelling with a guy named Mike Braun who used to own multiple adventure sports companies around the world who is now “retired”. He got us connected with the river guides and made sure that we got the shots that we needed.

Day 3
Today Mike Braun took some of us canyoning to get some photos of waterfalls and repelling. This was an unexpectedly long day. I had my cameras and tripod in a dry bag and then repelled down and swam across to a viewpoint where I could setup to get some waterfall photos. However, I then had to sit on a rock for almost two hours waiting for the others to come down with the video camera which was put in an underwater housing. After getting the shots we needed, I was expecting to have the gear hoisted back out and then hike out, but instead, we had to hike through the river, repell down a second waterfall, hike down further and then hike back up to the top. The trip itself would have been fine if I had expected it but since I didn’t expect it, I was not prepared with food/water, or the right shoes for walking on slippery rocks in the water. We were expecting to be in the canyon from about 12:00-2:30 but we didn’t end up making it out until about 6:30 so it was a tiring and frustrating day. I didn’t have an underwater housing for the camera, so I had to keep everything in a doubled up dry-bag which was a real pain to open/close. By the end of the day, I was so tired that the camera never came out.
We had repelled down with Mike who is a canyon guide along with myself and two of the video team. Everyone else stayed at the top and had a long day of sitting and waiting for us.
As I sat on the rock and waited for the rest of the crew, I waited for some periods of shade and was able to get some really nice waterfall photos.

Later, Florian from the video team had to repel down with the 50 lb video camera…he’s an animal!!

Once he was down, Mike and his friend Sol (who is also experienced at adventure sports) allowed us to take some shots of them as they repelled down through the waterfall and then jumped into the pool below.

Day 4
This was the first day that we had to work with the actors. We had to get up very early to photograph the sunrise and some of the actors were not prepared to be up at that time so we ended up missing some of the best light before the sun rose over the horizon. However, we still were able to get some great photos just after the sun was up.

The next setup was to go to a nearby spa to shoot photos of massages and yoga. We spent the majority of the day there.

In the evening we went back to the condo that we were staying at in Cabarete to photograph some “swimming pool” shots and “hammock” shots.

Day 5
Most of the day today was to shoot at a beautiful lagoon. We got there in the morning and were then picked up by a helicopter where we spent 45 minutes flying around the coast to shoot some aerial photos of the coastline along with Playa Grande Golf Course which is a really nice golf course in the Dominican Republic. We were hoping to actually shoot ON the golf course but were unable to get last minute permission.

After the helicopter landed, we spent the rest of the day at the lagoon photographing the local kids jumping off the cliff into the lagoon.

We were able to use the same area to fake some golfing shots along with doing a bit of hiking shots with the actors.

Day 6
Most of today was spent on the beach to photograph some “lounging on the beach shots” along with kite boarding, wind-surfing, etc. Cabarette is famous for it’s afternoon winds and is recognized as one of the kite boarding capitals of the world.

Laurel Eastman is a champion kite boarder who has moved to Cabarette with her husband and opened up a kiteboarding school. We were lucky enough to have her and and some of her friends/employees perform for us while we photographed them. It was really cool to watch all the stunts and aerial tricks.

We then needed to setup a few shots that would represent some tourists going out and buying jewelry and then heading to a restaurant for a romantic oceanside dinner. The lighting for the dinner was setup by the video team and I was able to snag a few shots in between takes.

Day 7
This was our last day there and we just had to go photograph a local cigar roller in the morning and then pack and go to the airport to fly home.

We flew from Puerto Plata to Newark and then on to Detroit. We were very lucky that our flight out of Newark left that night because it was during the crazy rainstorm that hit the east coast. Lots of flights were canceled that night. We were sitting on the tarmac for over an hour and I just watched the pounding rain and lightening from the window and was just blown away that our flight actually took off, but we were definitely glad to get home!

Again, if you want to see the slide show, click here:
http://www.arisingimages.com/product/20070415_dominican/slideshow/slideshow.html

This afternoon we did Ryan and Melissa’s engagement shoot. The weather was cold, but they did a great job not showing it and we had a really good time with them.

This afternoon we got to photograph Kensington’s Easter service. They always do such an amazing job with their visual imagery especially for their biggest services on Christmas and Easter. The message was fantastic and the photos definitely don’t do justice to what they had there. Here are just a few:

Or you can click here for a slideshow with a lot more:
http://www.arisingimages.com/miscellaneous/kensington_easter_2007/slideshow.html

To see a music slideshow with the pics, click the play button below. Otherwise if you want to read about our trip/workshop, scroll down:
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO START SLIDESHOW

After the Las Vegas photography convention, Cheridy and I led a 4 day travel photography tour through parts of Arizona and Utah. We had five people total and piled our stuff into a van and hit the road. We started the trip heading to Zion National Park. Our hotel for the night was in Springdale (right outside the park) and we got up to watch the sunrise.
We caught the first glimpse of morning light in the park:

We then drove to the end of the park and started our way back as we waited for the morning sun to make it’s way into the canyon. The rock formations and color of the canyon walls was gorgeous.

We then hiked on the Emerald Pools hike. It’s one of the easiest and most popular hikes in the park and it takes you out to a seasonal waterfall that fills up some waterpools at the bottom of a three tiered waterfall. Unfortunately there wasn’t much water coming down from the falls when were there…just a trickle. But the walk was nice and the scenery was beautiful.

After the hike, we headed out of the park to Springdale where we stopped for lunch. We stopped at an old restaurant which had some cool old wagons out front.

After that we went to the Grafton ghost town which was a big let down. All the old buildings that we really would have loved to photograph were on fenced off private property so we really didn’t get to see much other than shooting some of the buildings with a long zoom lens. The mid-day light was very harsh so I had some fun playing with my infrared camera.

We headed back into Zion and hiked out on the overlook trail which provided a breathtaking view of part of the park.

After hiking back down and having dinner, we drove around the park and found some nice locations to catch the evening light.

We went to catch the sunset over the bridge looking back at the Watchman, but there were no clouds in the sky and we weren’t anticipating a very dramatic sunset. Before we left I found some beautiful light reflecting off the river underneath the bridge.

After that we hit the road. The next morning we woke up really early and caught the sunrise at over Bryce Canyon. The morning light is absolutely breathtaking as it lights up the strange rock formations.

After leaving Bryce Canyon, we were heading to Page and took a short cut through Grand Staircase National Park. Grand Staircase had a very unique and barren landscape that seemed to change around every corner. We drove down Cottonwood road which is a dirt road that crosses the park. One of the highlights was the Grosvenor Arch:

We just couldn’t resist taking our first group photo by the “dips” sign:

There is an old town called Paria where there was an old movie set where they filmed a whole bunch of wild west movies with a beautiful mountain backdrop. We were excited to see that but upon arrival we found that it had been burned down by vandals in August 2006. Instead we just shot a few landscape photos and took in the scenery.

We drove from there to Page, Arizona where we enjoyed some time at Lake Powell. I had forgot that all of Arizona is not affected by daylight savings time so when we crossed from Utah into Arizona I didn’t realize that the sunset would be an hour earlier. I planned on getting us to a nice spot for sunset on Lake Powell, but instead of having an hour, we only had a few minutes of sun left, but were still able to capture a few nice pictures from a nearby overlook.

Early the next morning we hiked out to Horseshoe Bend which is one of the most dramatic views in the area. Unfortunately the light was really bad and was causing some terrible shadows so the photographs that we got were not the best. Through combining multiple exposures to capture all the highlight and shadow detail, I was able to get this image:

After horseshoe bend, we went to Upper Antelope Canyon for a tour of the slot canyon. The slot canyons are famous for having beams of light shoot through the slots. They can be illuminated by throwing sand up in the air so that the light reflects off it.

After the slot canyons we rushed over to the Grand Canyon to catch the sunset from Hopi point:

The next morning we woke up ridiculously early (4:45 am) to pack up and head out to watch the sunrise at the Grand Canyon. Although it was difficult to get up, it was totally worth it because it was one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve seen in a long time.

After a really early breakfast, we went back to the South Rim to see a bit more of the morning light.

Viewing the Grand Canyon was a very humbling and overwhelming experience and photographing it almost seemed pointless because there was no way to do it justice.

We left the canyon to begin our long drive back to Las Vegas. We took a detour down Route 66 to view all the old historical towns with old cars and diners that remind people of a different day and age. In a town called Seligman, we found a restaurant with an amazing collection of nostalgic items including old broken down cars and gas pumps.

We then headed to Hackberry, Arizona where there was another odd collection of unique things:

We then went to another old town called Chloride, Arizona:

It was time to start heading back to Vegas to catch our flights. We had a long delay crossing over the Hoover Dam but were unable to park to get any photos so we just headed back to the city and caught the red-eye flight home. I spent all day today editing photos, and now…it’s time for bed!!!

For the third year in a row, Cheridy and I attended the DWF (digitalweddingforum.com) convention. The DWF has been instrumental in getting our business to where it is today because of the hundreds of photographers that readily share their knowledge and experience. I’m proud to be a member and a contributor to that site.

The convention was held at the Westin which is where Cheridy and I stayed and we had a nice view of the Wynn hotel from our window.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to go out into the desert and watch a bridal shoot with two of the most exciting and unique photographers in the industry…David Beckstead and John Michael Cooper. They are definitely on the edge and it was neat to get to watch them work in a very unique setting. Here was a quick shot that I grabbed while they were out of the frame.