Photo Stories

Inside Sacred Heart Church Tampa Florida Wedding HDR

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The interior of Sacred Heart Church in Tampa Florida during a wedding - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRWith all the news this week coming out of Rome regarding the Catholic Church and a new pope, I dug into my unedited archives for these HDR images of Sacred Heart Church in downtown Tampa, Florida.  These images are from a wedding I photographed in the church back in May 2012.  The exterior of the church is very beautiful and elaborate, and as you can see the inside is even more so.

View from the balcony in Sacred Heart Church in Tampa Florida during a wedding - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRI was up in the balcony for all these photographs gettings a bird's eye view of the wedding ceremony.  When I see such architecture and detail I always think about how much work must go into building and creating something like this.  How much planning ahead of time is needed??

Stained glass windows of Sacred Heart Church in Tampa Florida during a wedding - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRThese windows are high up and in the back of the church.  Only up from up in the balcony with binoculars could one get a good view of them.  

Sunset Beach Engagement Session Treasure Island Florida Candid Portraits

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Engagement portrait session on Sunset Beach Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/125th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightThis past Saturday I photographed one of my family members professionally for the first time!  My cousin whom I have not seen in over a decade due to living in different parts of the country moved down here to the Tampa Bay area.  She got engaged and contaced me about an engagement shoot on Sunset Beach in Treasure Island Florida.  I said sure, sounds great, you bring the romance and I will take care of the rest!

Candid portrait during an engagement shoot with my cousin on Sunset Beach Treasure Island - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/200th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame right front & SB-600 to rear frame rightThey did their homework and had several photo ideas they wanted to try out, which is fine with me as I am always looking for new shot ideas myself.  It was a frigid day, actually the coldest of the year, but they dressed Florida style anyway and were real pros!

Sun melting engagement photo on Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightAs requested, they brought the romance allowing me to make candid portraits like the one above.  I wanted to have the sun melt through the couple in this shot adding to the impact of the overall image.

Dramatic sunset background engagement shoot on Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/125th - Strobist: see setup in photo belowBesides being cold, it was incredibly windy, but at least Mother Nature also provided a classic dramatic Florida sunset to use as a background in the photographs.  I prefer there to be clouds in the sky as well, as I feel it adds more interest than if the sky were cloudless.

My unique two strobe setup for making my signature sunset portraits on Treasure Island FloridaI remembered to make a quick shot of my strobist setup this time.  As you can see, I use two speedlights in my off camera flash technique for sunset portraits.  There are just diffuser caps on the strobes as it was far too windy for an umbrella or anything like that.  

Getting a kiss from their dog during our candid portrait session - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/200th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightMy cousin and her fiance brought their dog, Bear, who was a good boy and watched patiently until it was his time to be in front of the lens where he immediately started dishing out big kisses!

Engagement shoot in Florida, but wedding in Rhode Island! - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/200th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightMy cousin, like me, was born in Rhode Island and will have her wedding actual up in the Ocean State.  It was great to reconnect with her, and her mom (my aunt) made a surprise visit too!  It was a real reunion and a very fun engagement portrait session.

Kiki's 4th Birthday!

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Kiki was born on February 19, 2009.  It is hard to believe that it is already 2013 and Kiki is now 4-years old!  On the day she was adopted, as you can see, she almost fit in just one of my hands.  Now she is full grown and hard for me to pick up even with two arms!  No matter how old she gets, I am sure I will think of her as my beloved puppy and call her a puppy, as I still do to this day.  I never feel prouder about anything I have ever done in my life than when someone complements how well behaved, how friendly or how sweet Kiki is.  

As she has gotten older, though, Kiki has become totally camera shy!

Sunset Vistas Treasure Island Florida Family Portraits February 2013

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Sisters having fun on Treasure Island Sunset Beach Florida in this candid portrait - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 @ 1/4 power to frame left & SB-600 @ 1/4 power to frame rightTwo families were coming to Florida for a warm winter vacation from their homes in Pennsylvania and contacted me about getting family beach portraits.  They were staying at Sunset Vistas on Treasure Island, Florida and wanted to use the beach their as the backdrop for their family portraits.  I had never been on that stretch of beach before, but I pretty much knew what to expect as virtually all beaches on Treasure Island look the same.  The biggest variable was the weather, but we were pretty lucky.  The day before the shoot was all day rain.  The day after the shoot was arctic and super windy.  Our shoot day was perfectly sunny with only a slight chill in the air.  Lucky!

The above shot was my favorite of the session, featuring two sisters doing as I suggested, just be sisters.  It may end up in my top ten images of 2013 as my favorite candid portrait, we shall see.

All hands on dad in this family sunset portrait on Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightSince there were two families in this hour portrait session, I had to work twice as fast.  There were several group shots with everyone, but otherwise I setup a shot with one family and then quickly had to get the next in place for their turn, all of course with the sun providing its own countdown timer!

Two families watching the sunset on Treasure Island Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/100th - Stobist: SB-800 @ 1/1 power frame left & SB-600 @ 1/1 power frame rightThis was my first time to make this type of shot with so many people.  I had to use both speedlights at max power and a relatively large aperture of f/5.6 to light everyone with the sun that low.  

Another great Florida sunset at Treasure Island backlights this family portrait - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/160th - Strobist: SB-800 to front frame left & SB-600 to rear frame rightEven though each family had four members and were photographed in the same spot and time was ticking away, I still tried to add as much variety between shots as possible, in the case above using a different pose and moving one of the speedlights behind the family.  Compare this shot to the second photo from the top to see how the light changes at sunset time in just 3 minutes.

Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park Panorama Tampa Florida

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Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park 3-shot panorama - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/500thAn oasis of grass and community in downtown Tampa, that is how I would describe Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park.  I made this 3-shot panorama image of the park while waiting for a potrait client to arrive.  On a sunny Thursday afternoon two days after Christmas, the park was full of people enjoying a crisp afternoon by the Tampa waterfront.  I thought I would try a handheld panorama shooting into the sun to see how it would come out.  

Daibutsu the Great Buddha of Kamakura Japan

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In Kamakura Japan there sits Daibutsu (Great Buddha) - Olympus 5060 digital cameraNine years ago I visited Kamakura, Japan for the first time the day after New Year's.  It was just a train ride for me from my apartment in Tokyo, but it felt like traveling back in time to a different era.  Kamakura is home to many ancient things, including Daibutsu, The Great Buddha, a statue some 44 feet tall.  You may be surprised, as I was, that the statue is hollow and you can go inside and climb some stairs to look out the eyes yourself!

Daibutsu of Kamakura Japan sits some 44 feet tall - Olympus 5060 digital cameraThese photographs were made long before I entered the DSLR world, and in fact to my knowledge there were no consumer DSLRs even available.  I had a 5 megapixel Olympus 5060 digital camera.  I do recall shooting from a tripod on this day.  The biggest holidays of the year for Japanese are on and around New Year's, so it was not surprising to see many visitors there on January 2, 2004.  

Buddha statues of all sizes are offered fruit on a daily basis - Olympus 5060 digital cameraStatues of Buddha all over Asia almost always have fruit as an offering in front of them.  I thought the scale of the large statue and small fruit was amusing in this composition as I imagined Daibutsu trying to pick up one of those small apples with his large hands.

The eyes of Daibutsu are 1m wide - Olympus 5060 digital cameraKamakura is a must see location for anyone visiting Japan.  Besides the statue of Daibutsu, there are many other ancient temples each with secret places to explore.  

Large Family Group Portraits on Coffee Pot Blvd St. Petersburg Florida

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16-person family portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightJust before Christmas I had an interesting photography challenge in the form of how to make a large family portrait, 16 people in all, outdoors at a home along Coffee Pot Blvd.  I live within two miles of the location myself and drive by it often.  It is a very beautiful place and I liked having the chance to photograph a family somewhere besides the beach.  

Just the ladies in a family portrait St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightI did some research on large group portraits and it helped to have a prop of some kind that some family members could sit on, often the grandparents or grandchildren.  They said they had an outdoor sofa they could use.  I thought the sofa they had was perfect as soon as I saw it and feel it really made the images far better than they could have been without it.

Big family portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightOf course when making a large group portrait you have to really pay attention to making sure no one's head is hidden or blocked by another person, and also to make sure no shadows get cast on a person in one of the back rows or interior placement.  To help this, it is best to have people line up in straight rows and not curve at the edges.  

Family on sofa portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightAfter the big group shot I made some shots of the individual families, which were still fairly large as seen by the six person group shot above.  Again, have the sofa helped prevent making portraits with people just all standing in a straight line next to each other.  I also made a conscious effort to have an up and down composition by having taller people at the edges and a taller subject in the middle.  This also helps add balance when you have an even number of subjects, with no central person to compose around.  

Children and grandchildren portrait on Coffee Pot Blvd St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightA variety in hand placement also helps add creativity to a mostly posed large group portrait.  Each of the boys has a different way of holding his hands together, and the same for the others in the background of the portrait too.  

Three levels large family portrait in St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 320 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot-through umbrella to frame rightThe family wanted one person to lie down on the ground for one of the portraits which was fine by me as that adds yet another element of interest to the portrait.  

Candid generational portraits in St. Petersburg FloridaThe last shots of the portrait session were much more candid with me setting up my lights and just having people walk in between them and have fun.  Giving suggestions to the subjects help get a candid reaction, as I asked the grandparents to think of the first time they met, and the grandmother as you can see moved her hand to her heart in reaction, which I was ready to capture.  The girls shared a laugh about something and the boys wanted their football in the shot.

I used the same basic strobist setup for all the shots in this blog post, two speedlights off camera on light stands, one in a 43" brolly and the other in a 42" shoot through umbrella.  I used a 17-50mm lens for the large group shots and an 80-200mm lens for the smaller group shots.