There are tons of valuable tools a photographer can have in his camera bag. I myself have a nice collections but one thing I have been missing is a good circular polarizer and I have wanted a certain one for a long time now. It’s not that I could not get it but more important things for the photography business had to come first. The filter is not cheap but has some outstanding results with sky, water, and a natural bump in color saturation. I like to do a lot of my family and wedding portraits during the Spring and Summer months at the beach and this should help me with enhancement of the sky and cut down on reflection of the water and it also helps with couples who might have glasses on as well. The filter is a B+W 77mm Kaesemann Circular Polarizer. I hope to post some photos using this filter in the upcoming days to show the rich colors that are produced with the uses of this filter. The site and blog have been up for about four weeks now and I have my first client from someone doing a search for wedding and portrait photography in Virginia Beach and Norfolk Virginia. It funny how fast search engines get stuff listed..
Monthly Archives: December 2007
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Virginia Beach & Norfolk,Virginia Skyline Photos
What a productive 48hrs with Matt Robinson on cityscape photos of Virginia Beach and Norfolk Virginia. It was Monday night when Matt arrived from Raleigh, NC at my house and we wasted no time and made the short trip from my house to the town center of Virginia Beach. The Westin is the tallest building in Virginia and at the top of the building at night has beams of light that shoot out into the sky. Matt and I spent an hour or so taking photos of the town center and went back to the house to get some sleep for a early start in the morning. I woke up at 5:00am and we took off to head to Portsmouth side to take sunrise photos of the skyline of Norfolk, Virginia. We finished up and talked about trying to take some photos from the roof of the Dominion Towers. We both told our self that there was no way they would let us up on the roof to take photos. After talking to the head of security we found our self on the roof where a six inch ledge is the only thing stopping you from falling 340 feet off the top of the building.. We stayed for about 30 minutes and then headed out to the town center in Virginia Beach, Virginia. As we were on 264 east we talked about getting on top of the Armada Hoffler Tower and once more luck was on our side, we made it up on the roof to take photos. The photo below is from the top of the roof and this is six photos tied together to get a detailed panoramic image of the area around The Westin at the town center. The lady that took us to the top of the Armada Hoffler Tower told us that the top floors on The Westin were still being worked on and that construction was very heavy up on the top floors. Well I was not even going over to ask but Matt and I said we have nothing to lose and headed to The Westin. We talked to the head of engineering and he took us to the building manager who was very hesitant and asked a considerable amount of question about who we were with and who sent us. He finally agreed with us going up there as long as we wore hard hats, glasses, and steel toed shoes… WOW what a view from the Penthouse on the top floor. The Westin is 512 feet high and you can see forever on those floors. We stepped out on the roof to take photos and wow you can see forever. It’s not that I have never been on a taller building before but the ideal of seeing your neighborhood from that high and looking at things that are large when your next to them and seeing them look like ant hills is what make it a awesome site for me. I think we spent the most time shooting photos from this location and headed home to take a quick two hour nap before getting up for a skyline shot at night of Norfolk, Virginia. I really like how the skyline of Norfolk at night came out and took two orders for this image already..I had a great time and would like to thanks Matt Robinson for coming out and teaching me some new tricks with software and taking photos of my local skyline…Visit Matts Robinsons sites to check out his increable images of other cities at metroscenes.com and raleighskyline.com .
Surfing Photograhy Virginia Beach
Photographers shoot a wide range of things and sometimes you have to give things a try to see if it spikes your interest in your hobby or profession. This is what happen to me with lightning, wedding and portrait photography. This summer my sister came down to see the ocean and too tell you the truth I try to stay away from the beach during the busy tourist season because it’s hard to enjoy and find spots on the beach and parking. I made my way to some body boarders who were catching some nice waves when I was down there. I started shooting them and loved it. I found myself down there a few more times before summer ended. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a surfing photographer and be able to come up with the sweet shot of a surfer come off a 30 foot wave. I will find myself down there this Summer shooting more of them and hope to get some clients/surfers who would like to have a session to catch them coming off waves and other crazy stuff.
Wedding Photography
I am out of town on business and when I am at the hotel ( and not at home) I have free time to surf the web and see whats new in wedding photography around Virginia Beach and beyond. With the age of digital cameras and film being phased out it seems like everyone is a photographer and willing to do it cheap. Now this is fine and I think most of the big names had to start somewhere and not at full price. I was on Craigslist and saw a large amount of people posting for portrait and wedding photography and calling themselves Pros. So I have to ask myself what classifies as a Professional Photographer??? It is important for the Bride and Groom to research and do your homework before picking a photographer for your wedding. If you get the cheapest prepare yourself for the outcome. When I first started out I was asked by a family member to do a backyard wedding for her friend with a very small group and family members only. This was fine with me as I had never did a wedding before but I had a eye for photography as far as portraits and landscapes and I understood how to shoot well in low light. I gave her a very cheap price which was around $200 as she would only need me for about two hour for the wedding in Virginia Beach. Well she did not want to pay anything around that amount and she hired a person taking photography classes at TCC at $40 for the shoot. To say the least most if not all the photos were unusable but at least she got a great deal on a photographer. So as I said before do your home work look at the work they do as well as the style they have and if you like it then look at the price because this is an event that you can not play back at a later date.
Engagement Session With Nina and Charlie
What a perfect day for an engagement photo session as temps were in the low 70’s and the sun was out which in Dec is just not too common. I met Nina and Charlie at Elizabeth’s wedding as they were planning a wedding for themselves at the end of January in the Lynchburg area of Virginia. What a great looking couple with great smiles and both were full of energy and excited about the upcoming wedding. Here are a couple shots from the session. I wish them the best of luck with a new life together..
