Cakes by Nisa

A local wedding vendor contacted me whose work I am very impressed with.  Cakes by Nisa provides specialty made cakes for weddings as well as other events in the San Antonio area.  Having only been doing this for a little more than a year you can see from the cakes on her website that she is very talented.  I urge you to contact her if you are looking for a cake for your wedding or other special event.

Blackburne Family Photos

After a week of dreary weather, Sunday rolled around to provide sun and warm temperatures just in time for family photos.  The Blackburne family was on the list for Walker Ranch Park with kids and two of their dogs in tow.  The dogs provided a new challenge for me, but a tip from a guest at a recent wedding provided the insight needed to pull off a great shot.  The solution?  A squeaky toy, to ensure that everyone’s attention, dogs included, would be on me.

Toss the Camera

Not toss the camera out, just up in the air.  Came across an interesting post from Kevin Swan on tossing your camera in order to get some great wedding shots.  He picked the idea up from Mike Larson, but there is a jump to his blog in Kevin’s post.  The idea is very interesting and produces some cool shots, but the photographer better have nerves of steel and some “Jerry Rice like” hands.  Here is the link to the post and a video tutorial of the process.  Hopefully I will be posting some great samples in the next couple of weeks of my attempt.  Either that, or I will be looking for a new camera.

Nikon Lens Simulator

I have to thank Darren from the Our Life blog for today’s post.  He turned me on to the Lens Simulator on the Nikon website.  The simulator does a good job of displaying the difference in lens focal length along with the crop factor associated with using FX lenses on a DX body.  There are a number of different inputs and images to select from, and when you get tired of playing you can then try the Lens Positioning Map (link found on the dame page).  The positioning map gives you a visual representation of focal length with aperture and how the various lenses compare to one another.  It also lets you select your own Nikon lenses for customized comparison.

Waley-Wright Wedding

Sometimes weddings are as close as next door.  That was the case when Linda and Mike, our next door neighbors, announced their wedding to us a couple months ago.  Aiming for a simple intimate wedding, the happy couple looked no further than the Norhtern Hills Country Club, only a couple miles from the house for the ceremony and reception.  It was only fitting they didn’t have to look very long or hard for a photographer.  With family and close friends in attendance the bride and groom had a wonderful time tying the knot.

BigShot Camera

It is such a fun time to be involved with photography.  Technology is advancing the industry at such a rapid pace and there is no shortage of ingenious tools at out fingertips.  This is certainly true for the casual shooter as well, but it can also be overwhelming.  One inventor aims to change all that, starting with youth.  Shree Nayar realizing that today’s cameras are far more advanced, has set out to put the simplicity back into photography.  With his BigShot camera project Shree aims to put a camera in the hands of youth, that they build themselves.  The kids get to assemble, learn, and use the camera, making photography a learning experience.

If you have not heard about this camera I urge you to jump to the BigShot website and have a look at the project.  This is a great opportunity to put digital photography into the hands of kids and see where it leads them.

Colorful Pentax K-x

You may have seen my post on the new Pentax K-x DSLR a couple weeks ago.  At the time I had come across the Japanese site for the camera, but could not locate it at the time of writing the post.  All that has been cleared up now.  By going to the following site, you can see and customize the camera in a vast assortment of color configurations.  Unfortunately the site is in Japanese, but I am sure you can find an online translator service or poke around until you find the right links to customize your own.

Here is my favorite, chocolate Ti.

Favorite Wedding Planning Website

With all the wedding planning websites out there it can be overwhelming selecting the one that is best for you.  For the bride just sorting through the listings and finding the one that has all the features you are looking for can be very time-consuming, even frustrating.  For the photographer it can mean trying to maintain a presence on a large variety of sites or narrowing the selection down to focus on just a few.  Of course there are the market leaders such as theknot.com, and weddingchannel.com, but then they are the lesser known sites that present a much more simple and uncluttered interface, weddingwire.com being one of my favorites.

For those of you planning a wedding or even if you have just gotten married I would love to know what website you used if any and some of the reasons you choose that site.

DCM Photography

I first mentioned Dave in a post on rescuing corrupted image cards, but he is certainly worth mentioning again.  Dave is an Austin photographer who does some fantastic wedding and portrait work.  if you enjoy photos that capture the emotion and atmosphere of the moment, Dave does an excellent job of that.  To get a better idea of his talent hop on over to his website, or to see his latest work you can check out his blog.  Of course I have to give him props for his success as an amateur cyclist.  It is not easy balancing family, work and cycling while remaining competitive in the amateur ranks, but Dave has found recent success in his racing and that is great to see.

McCann family

I met with Cyndi and her kiddos at Cypress Bend Park the week before Thanksgiving for some family photos.  As usual the weather and light was fantastic for an evening shoot.  Cyndi is such a great mom and really loves her girls very much; you can see it shine through in the photos.

One of my favorite shots right by the river.

Two wonderful sisters.