Corey & Crystal Lada Wedding

Corey & Crystal Lada were married today at Most Pure Heart with a reception at the Sunrise Optimist Hall (next to Seaman HS).

Crystal had a fun idea to get some images of them with the bridal party in the playground behind the Hall. So around sunset we went out the backdoor of the hall for about 10 minutes of fun!

Corey and Crystal are both employed by The Kansas Children's Service League.

Thanks Corey and Crystal for a fun and creative day!

Tom

NYFD Ladder 18

I was working on some images from our recent trip to New York today, getting some ready to be printed. Diane gives me a hard time because I am always taking images of fire engines. I have a lot of respect for the job that the fire fighters do and what a hard job it is. I also am very impressed with all of the mechanics that a fire engine has on it.

Anyway this ladder truck was parked right in front of our hotel one day! The doorman said that it was just a once a year tour of the hotel by the fire department (pretty good idea in my opinion; especially if it is me that needs help to get out of the building!) As I was working on the image I started wondering what "Fort Pitt" on the front meant so I typed it into Google and came up with this page (link to ladder 18 web page) . This company serves the lower east side in New York and was one of the closer fire companies to the trade center on 9/11.

This is a new ladder truck for the company. I found the following photo on their website of what happened to their last ladder truck during 9/11. Miraculously no one from their company died! It is amazing the amount of history that can be right in front of a person and they don't even realize it! Ok back to getting proofs ready to mail out! Tom

Brenda Blackman Seaman HS

This morning I have been working on getting Brenda Blackman's images ready for her slide show and have been "playing" with a new technique I think I will call "Blue Ambiance" I think it is pretty fun but let's see what our customers think!

Sometime, I think, people wonder why can't I get my proofs tomorrow? Well the answer is I really sit down and think about each person that we have photographed and what they have told me they like as well as just getting to know each person's personality. So then; with Rhapsody cranked up on the computer, I start "playing". I like to enhance images and make "creations" for each senior to go along with the rest of their images.

In the second image Brenda specifically requested the Dr. Pepper sign. I thought and thought now what can I do to make this image really stand out the way I would like it to look. I am posting the "sepia" version of the image. Brenda hasn't seen it yet! I hope she likes it. OK back to work! Tom

Gracie Goes To Potter's Lake

No sessions this evening due to a schedule re-arrangement so Gracie and I headed to Lawrence to pick up some altered clothes at Weaver's (open till 8pm on Thursdays). Of course whenever I am in Lawrence with Gracie I love to take her to Potter's Lake on the KU campus and also thought it would be a fun time since this was the first day of classes there today.

By the way one of the questions we get asked frequently is "can we bring our dog to our session" or "will you take a photo with us and our pet"? The answer of course is always yes! We love animals and having their images taken during a family, senior or engagement session is perfectly understandable!

The first image is of Gracie (my sidekick) at water's edge. I had this idea that I would get some other "portraits" of her (I just can't stop) until she saw some "friends" across the pond.

People everywhere are so fun! I met up with this group under the Campanile apparently this group meets here most evenings when the weather is nice and their dogs like to play together. The girl in this image on the far left (you can't see her face) is Hatsumi she is a student from Japan. The girl in the back is an education major. The couple in front he works at the university and she just had an interview (two more scheduled) to work for the university. Very fun nice people. They even bring ice water for the dogs. Gracie lapped up the ice water!! One last thing; I took the group image a little later than prime time, light wise so yes even I sometimes take "snapshots"!! Tom

Environmental Family Portrait Days Sept. 10th and 17th

We have set aside two Saturdays in September for Family Portrait Days. The dates are Sept. 10th and 17th. The locations are to be determined but we are thinking Lake Shawnee, Potters Lake on the KU campus, the KState campus or a private spot that someone volunteers for us to use! The location is negotiable but we would like at least a couple of families request it.

The special that we are offering if you sign up soon is; We will wave the normal session fee if you purchase a framed 16x20 or larger print for your home.

We get a lot of comments when we see everyone out in the community that they have been "meaning" to call us for a family portrait so we wanted to make it a little easier on you! Let's work together to make some images that you and your family will treasure for generations to come!

Diane has new clothing suggestion brochures at the studio she can send you, we will have cold soft drinks and water available for you where ever we are. Give us a call and lets have some fun making memories!

Don't put calling off! Give us a call right now! Our phone or at least the message machine is on 24/7.

Thanks!!

Tom

Trip To Lawrence

Since we had a free Sat. (no wedding scheduled) we decided to take a "mini vacation" to Lawrence yesterday. We kind of have a "routine" of things we always "have" to do when we go to Lawrence but the activities can always be amended. We started the day at Wheatfield's Bakery for salads. If you have never been there you need to! There was a fun combo playing outside the bakery. The musicians are KU students and say that they play there every Sat. The mandolin player said that he used to be an employee at Wheatfield's.

Having been sufficiently nourished we proceeded to the barber shop for a much needed trim. After many other stops we decided that it was time to head for home since it looked like it was going to rain. Apparently we didn't decide to start out soon enough and just let's say if you live in either Topeka or Lawrence I don't have to tell you that it was more than just rain we are kinda talking about flood here. We ended up stranded for a time waiting out the rain and getting soaked but all and all it was fun. The last image for today is of North Lawrence under the railroad overpass that was flooded. The fire department had to rescue one person that had not paid attention to the "closed" sign. A word to the wise: Do not drive into standing water!!!

Nikki Meador Emporia High School

It has been a couple of busy weeks here! With school getting ready to start for most people next week there has been quite a rush to get sessions done before the first day of school. Today my morning session was rained out so it has given me time to work most of the day on images AND to spend some quality Blogging time!

OK so how about some photography 101 stuff today?

We photographed Nikki about two weeks ago and wanted to post a couple of her images. I have been having a lot of fun this year "playing" with light ever since Diane and I had the opportunity to study and to become friends with one of the best senior photographers in the country earlier this spring. Kirk Voclain from the New Orleans area specializes in seeing and capturing the "light" and applying studio lighting techniques in the outdoor setting. The image on the left here is a classic example of "short lighting" as you can see the light is striking Nikki's face so that the shadow side of her face is towards the camera. This is a classic studio feminine lighting style. It is fun playing with the sun as I we would do in the studio with our strobes.

In this image of Nikki I decided to take full advantage of the bright backlighting that is so popular in the fashion magazines and to play with the sun and wind a bit. As you can probably tell Nikki is a Coca-Cola collector!

Thanks as always for reading! Better get back to putting the finishing touches on images. I have tons of things to share with you over the next week or so. Stay tuned! Thanks for your business and for supporting our photography passion!

Tom