After attending the Jerry Ghionis seminar last week, I have been really motivated to learn more about off-camera lighting.  For the most part, Cheridy and myself are natural light shooters which means that we shoot with whatever light is naturally present in the situation.  However, after attending this workshop and learning the value of knowing how to control off-camera light, I have been motivated to learn and practice some new techniques with off-camera flash and video light.  It may or may not be something that we use a lot, but it’s nice to have one more thing in the bag of tricks.

The picture below is an example of what I’m talking about.  This was shot on a typical Michigan winter day with a washed out overcast sky and evenly diffused light.  In most cases we like the predictability of that light and we know how we would shoot with it.  But if we wanted to create a really dramatic image, that type of light is difficult.  So for this shot, I used a technique where we underexpose the ambient light to make it go from washed out grey to a really moody and stormy look and then introduce an off-camera light to add some dramatic side lighting.   This is the type of dramatically lit photo that would be nearly impossible to achieve without some type of artificial light source.

I’m really looking forward to  playing with this technique more over the next few weeks.  It’s almost like rediscovering photography all over again. I’m so excited about playing with a lot of new concepts and new ideas and creating images in ways that our new and exciting for us.

Our church (Kensington Community Church in Troy, MI) is currently involved in massive fundraiser project that will not only help around local communities in Detroit and Pontiac, but also extend a loving hand to those that can’t help themselves. Part of the project is to help build small but fully functioning hospitals in one of the poorest areas and India and another one in Kenya. Places where people have no access to any type of medical care.
If you would like to learn more about that, you can watch the video by going to the site below and clicking on the “India and Kenya Hospitals” button at the bottom of the orange video list on the right side. Click here

Some people ask why we are so involved with overseas mission work when there is so much to be done right here. The answer to that is that there is work to be done everywhere and you have to help where your heart is calling you to help.
Cheridy and I just feel so blessed that we are here and that we have the opportunity to receive medical care and attention when we need it. Last week I had a cold and Cheridy was able to get me cough medicine and cough drops to help me to sleep better. It made me think of the people that can’t even have that. This morning actually I went in for some minor surgery and my biggest gripe was that my insurance company wouldn’t pay for my initial visit because it was billed as an office “consultation” instead of an office “visit”. Apparently they pay for “visits” but not for “consults” which is stupid BUT…when I think of these people overseas… we are just ridiculously blessed. In the video I mentioned above, they talk about a woman who died recently during childbirth because the baby’s hand was coming out first and both the mother and baby didn’t make it through the delivery. The nearest hospital was 50-100 miles away walking. That obviously reminded me of Mayz’ birth where Cheridy and I got to be in a nice comfy room in a hospital that we drove for 3 miles to get to. She had an epidural to keep her comfortable and when there was even remote risk of problems, she went in for a c-section and 20 minutes later we were all together as a happy healthy family. We are truly blessed!!

Here’s a photo of some kids that we met while working in a remote part of Nicaragua a few years ago. These are the lucky ones that made it and I would bet money that none of them were born in a hospital.

My dad let me borrow some of his old photo albums, so we decided to scan a few pics in and post them.

I think I was destined to be a photographer.  Here’s a couple of photos of me with a little green toy camera.  The yellow bunny must be my trusty sidekick Cheridy:

This one is of my dad (top), me (middle) and then Mayz (bottom)

An ambassador is a representative for our company that helps to recruit new high school senior clients for us. In turn, they will receive a photo shoot and other products for free that are worth over $1000 in value.

If you know any students that might be interested in partnering with us, please send them over. We are looking specifically for influential students that are well respected and connected in the schools with large social circles such as sports, drama, band, or other activities.

Sample high school senior photos can be viewed at our new High School Senior Website at:
www.ArisingSeniors.com

Interested teens that are currently high school juniors going into their senior year can apply here:
http://arisingseniors.com/ambassador.html

Yesterday, the DPPA - Detroit Professional Photographers Association hosted Jerry Ghionis who is a world renowned wedding photographer from Melbourne Australia.
Not only is he an amazing photographer, but he is also an incredible teacher and we were lucky enough to have him come to Michigan and teach a 13 hour workshop for 200 photographers from all around the Detroit area on everything from lighting to business and marketing.

No matter how good you might think you are at something, there is always someone better and seeing that person can be very humbling. Being humbled is a good thing when it comes with educational opportunities and I think seeing Jerry and what he does was VERY humbling for me along with everyone else there. I’ve never seen anyone control posing and light in such a dynamic way and I’m really looking forward to practicing some of the things we witnessed him do.

Thanks for coming to Detroit Jerry!

Jerry is working on a new website and new brand that’s still a work in progress so the the site is not complete yet: www.jerryghionis.com
Or you can look at his old site at: www.xsight.com.au

For those of you that check our blog regularly, a quick and easy way to view our updates is to subscribe to our blog using a blog feeder site like Bloglines.com

We put a button on the right panel of our site to help you subscribe with just a couple clicks.  Altnernatively you can use this link:

http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://www.arisingimages.com/blog 

As Part of the basic photography class that I teach, the 4th day is a field trip to the Detroit Zoo which provides an opportunity for my students to get out there and practice with their cameras. The goal is to try new things, and experiment with new compositions and different camera settings. The last class is this coming Thursday and it will be a critique of the students photos.

The Detroit Zoo provides a perfect venue for shooting because it is open year round and they don’t have problems with large groups of people taking photos. There are places indoors and outdoors that provide a mixture of challenging lighting conditions with a variety of subject matter. With a class of 26 people, we split into two groups to make things more manageable and with both groups, we never made it to any of the big animals which is just fine since that’s not what it was all about.

I posted a link showing a couple of my photos below in their original form and edited form. These were done pretty quick and if I was careful, there are a few other things that I probably would have done to make them even better. Here’s the link: http://www.arisingimages.com/temp_folders/temp/before_after_zoo/

Here are a few photos that I took while there, to help illustrate some of the things worth looking for.

So Mayz just has the craziest baby hair ever!!
Cheridy thinks it’s time to get it cut, but I’m voting against that because it’s just too darn cute. Please post your thoughts in the comments.
We feel like we haven’t gotten too crazy with taking photos of Mayz, but every week or two we get the camera out and take a couple of fun photos. Here are a couple from this morning.

Today, Steve and Alicia got married at the Detroit Golf Club. They had one of the craziest receptions we’ve ever been to. The band rocked it out and had the dance floor packed the whole night!