Sunday, December 27, 2009

2010 "Breathe Project" calendars are available!

The 2010 "Breathe Project - First Harvest" calendars are now available! These are beautiful, oversized calendars printed on heavyweight art paper. You can check them out at the Darrin Ballman Red Bubble site. Also be sure to learn more about "The Breathe Project". This "First Harvest" produced quite a variety of images from two dozen different sessions. Out of all of that came these twelve that were chosen for the calendar. Many more images can be viewed at The Breathe Project and more will be added over the coming weeks. Meanwhile...look for a "Second Harvest" of sessions to be scheduled sometime in the spring or summer of 2010. Who knows what direction that will take!




Monday, December 07, 2009

B'ginnings...part 1 - How it all started...

I get asked plenty of times how in the world I ever started in photography, and especially photographing weddings, so I figure I’ll give a little background over the coming weeks as we venture into winter. Of course, I started long before these digital days we have now, so things were definitely different for me, easier in my opinion, given the variety of things photographers are faced with deciding these days. Over time I’ll give my $.02 on getting started and maybe a little perspective as well.

Starting to shoot weddings was really a happy accident for me. By the summer of 1988, I had developed a serious interest in photography, and was looking at possibly going to photography school, something I would really not recommend today. I was living in Southern California, working in Ventura County at a very small one hour photo lab in Moorpark. Thanks to having free processing and printing of my film, I had been shooting quite a bit over the past months and was really comfortable with exposure and knew my camera inside and out. I can’t say I was very knowledgeable about how to go about starting a career in photography…but I did know three things for sure:

1. I loved taking photos of mountains, nature and all that kind of outdoor stuff.

2. I knew it was advertising and commercial product photography that might pay the bills.

3. I had no desire to work with people or do portraits because I was deathly shy.

(this is where you begin to sense some irony, huh?)

One day while at the photo lab…a woman, probably in her 50’s comes in and mentions she’s looking for someone (cheap) to photograph her and her husband renewing their vows and celebrate 25 years of marriage. They were doing a full ceremony and a reception with some family and friends. I told her I could probably do that…so I agreed to do so for $200. After all, my only expense was the film!

So far it sounds nice and simple, right?

Their ceremony was going to be at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Moorpark, and the reception was a simple gathering at what I believe was the City’s community center at the time. I did what reading up I could on the kinds of photos one may want to take at a wedding and felt pretty good about things. I really only had very “basic” info about the plans for the day…something I corrected fairly soon as I shot more weddings, and have since made it a specialty of mine to be well informed. More on that some other time though.

What I walked into was a little different though….first off was a bridal party that had a good 16 attendants or so…next was the fact that it was a “full” Catholic mass. I’m not Catholic…so the hour long ceremony and vows renewal had me wondering what was going on! Then there was the “some friends and family”…all 300 of them. While it was a perfect scenario for some newbie photographer like myself to freak out, everything actually went extremely well.

Just a month later I found myself at the photo lab once again, being asked if I knew someone (cheap) who could photograph her daughter’s wedding. Now that I was experienced and everything…another $200 and away we went on wedding #2!

This was going to be much simpler…smaller bridal party and under 100 guests…ceremony lakeside on a gazebo in a housing community in Chatsworth, and the reception at the clubhouse. It really was a much easier wedding…even though I began to wonder at first when the entire wedding party came walking down the street to meet me for their formals….all of them had cans of beer, and it was evident it wasn’t their first round…at 10am. Once we got past that though it was a breeze and I was kind of hooked.

I can’t say I as much enjoyed myself as much on those first couple weddings, as I just seemed to do well in a very high pressure situation. I came to realize eventually I had a knack for that, as well as working with people. Both of those realizations served me well in both the dozens of weddings I cranked out early on and the world of wine sales that I ended up living in during the week.

So much for never working with people, huh?

A lot has happened and been learned in the years since, now that there’s a few hundred weddings under my belt, and the transition was eventually made to digital and so many new considerations that come with it. Since then I have learned 3 new things….

1. I really don’t like nature photography…it (usually) bores me to take it and to look at it.

2. I suck at commercial and advertising types of product photography.

3. I love working with people and photographing them in a wide variety of styles and situations, and apparently seem to do a pretty decent job of it.

So there you go…literally the very beginning. What has come after that I’ll save for another time…

Monday, November 30, 2009

Wedding: Pam & Brian, Los Angeles, CA.

I had a great time these past couple of weeks, traveling out to Los Angeles to photograph Pam & Brian's wedding at Mountaingate Country Club...as well as staying in town to visit my daughters and enjoy Thanksgiving with family. More on that a little later though...first up here's a little peek at a few shots from the wedding! I went along for the whole day, starting out at the Mary Brambila Salon in Santa Monica, and then followed Pam cross town for make up as well. Their ceremony and reception was at the beautiful Mountaingate Country Club atop the Santa Monica Mountains. Along for the day also were Rob and Zack from ElmanAdam Films - check out their video sneak peek from Pam & Brian's day at the bottom of this blog! Special thanks also to Miguel Mayo for coming along and second shooting!


Pam didn't mind changing earrings thanks to Brian's surprise gift from Tiffany's... :)






We had a beautiful afternoon and evening with just a touch of the fall crispness in the air...









There weren't many times throughout the day when you didn't see the both of them smiling...that's for sure!



Well, ok...here's a couple... ;)













It was definitely a night of family and friends from around the country celebrating and focusing on enjoying the time together...





The Monday after the wedding we did their Street Session in Brentwood Village and out at Santa Monica Pier...all of it after dark!....a few more photos to come a little later on! Congratulations to the two of you!


Pam + Brian Brown Wedding Trailer from ElmanAdam on Vimeo.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

"The Breathe Project" launches......

Just a few short weeks ago, I wondered what might happen if I chose to book a wide variety of photo shoots in a very short period of time...and furthermore, if I went into them with very little in the way of having a preconceived notion of what I wanted the shoot to look like.

I have always had an appreciation for people that have the ability to improvise what they do, and wanted to create a little bit of that same feeling in my shoots. My style is that direction anyway, but I wanted to take it a little further. Now that I am 2 weeks into this experiment, and a little over 1 more week to go, the results are starting to come through.

I'll probably share a bit more of what I learn out of this over time...but if you want to learn a little bit more for now and check out the gallery you can visit the Breathe mini-site. The gallery is being added to as images come on board so there's plenty more to come! You can also Twitter search #breatheproj Here's just a couple quick samples to get you started!




Monday, September 14, 2009

Emily & Ben...a quick sneek peek!

Just a couple of quick sneek peeks from Emily & Ben's beautiful wedding at Ault Park this past weekend....


Emily & Ben had a fun surprise first dance as well!



Emily & Ben also posted the theirs and the bridal party's entrances on YouTube if you would like to check it out!

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Teagan & Tyler's Dayton Street Session....

When it came time to do Teagan & Tyler's Street Session in downtown Dayton, we really couldn't ask for better weather or light! One thing about downtown Dayton is you can get a really nice variety of looks in a very small area....we had fun hitting a couple of old favorites - as well as trying out some new discoveries too!





Of course, if I see fountains I'm going to end up shooting through them!





It was soooo nice of someone to paint that heart on the wall... :)



Anytime I see an opportunity for something edgy or moody I'm there....

We'll see you two in just a few weeks!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Movie time..."Hitting The Nuts"

When the call went out a few weeks ago, looking for people to be extra's in Joe Boyd's new movie "Hitting The Nuts", that was being filmed in the greater Cincinnati area, I quickly checked the calendar and decided to sign on for a few days. Just last week I had my first day of filming on set, so I'll share a few of the pics I snapped....

The movie itself, a mockumentry about an illegal poker tournament in southern Indiana sounded like a lot of fun...but on top of that the script is improvised! I really can't wait to see how it all comes together when finished, having now seen these actors with their improv backgrounds in action. For more information on the movie, be sure to visit the Hitting The Nuts web site, check out Joe's blog, and see the article that recently came out in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

I was only an extra, but ended up having a lot of fun with the scene I was in on my first day...of course, during our downtime, what are the odds of me not snapping a few photos...here's a little sampling from the day....

Here's Joe Boyd...writer, director, producer and actor for "Hitting The Nuts".


Joe with actors Megan Whyte Soule and Mike Betette




"Scooter Girl" Jen Johnson from Big Brother 8




"Scooter Girls" Debbie and Annie working out some frustrations in the ring between takes...

actress Karen Krueger....

Actors Mike Betette and Mathew Donnelly



cameraman Sidney Diongzon

Joe directing Jen Johnson

photographer Russ David Beckner with photographer Daniel Smyth and graphic designer Hunter Frederick reviewing photos and working on the Hitting The Nuts Facebook Fan Page....

fellow extras Tony Carter and Carly Stull....laughing it up while waiting....

fellow extra Jaclyn Winters shows her boxing moves to Mathew Donnelly....



Jacklyn and myself...our roles as "background extras" saw a little more involvement in our scene than I think either of us went into it expecting! We had a lot of fun with it though...so you'll have to wait for the "Hitting The Nuts" release next year to see what happened....come to think of it, so will I, because I think it's kind of a blur right now!

So there's some fun stuff from my first day on the set...tomorrow begins a four day run of filming the big poker tournament - so I'm sure I'll be posting more photos out of the next few days of shooting. Be sure to check out the Facebook Fan Page for updates as filming gets close to wrapping up, and stay tuned for a release date. You can also follow Joe on Twitter, and use the Twitter search #HTN for updates from the cast and crew....