Lara and Russ

We headed to downtown Bessemer for a main street wedding with Lara and Russ on Saturday. They were such a fun couple and it really showed throughout their wedding day! Thanks for letting us be part of it!

An Attempt at film

Stacey went outside the norm and stepped back in time to take a roll of film at our most recent wedding. Here is a board of some of the images she got.

Amy and Josh's Wedding

What a gorgeous day Saturday was!!! Amy and Josh kicked of the day with some time at the salon for the girls and a game of frisbee for boys...in tuxedos....approved by Amy. We knew from the beginning this was going to be a fun wedding!

A beautiful ceremony and a ride in Stacey's dream car later....we were watching the couple re-enact a number from the movie Grease for their first dance. Thanks Amy and Josh for a blast of a wedding!

Gresham Photography 101: Our Style

The first thing I tell a bride and groom who are considering having us shoot there wedding is this:

"If you don't like our pictures, than we're probably not the right photographers for you."

A little harsh? I don't think so.

The worst thing we can have happen in the photography business is a client who is unhappy with our images after the fact. It's hard for them and for us as artists who love nothing more than a client who is pleased with our work. That said, we encourage everyone interested in our photography to look at past pictures we've taken, and picture themselves in that situation. Do you like the focus, angles, color, background?.....you get the idea.

Every wedding is different, of course, which means the same picture will NEVER happen twice. But as photographers that shoot 30+ weddings a year, we start to approach certain situations, say, the bouquet toss, in a similar fashion. Stacey is always going to get the shot of the bride throwing her flowers, while I am always going to get the shot of the rabid girls behind her as they start throwing punches. (I've seen it happen. No lie.)

If you're thinking about hiring us...look at our pictures. Look at a full wedding in our proofs section.

If you like what you see than we might be the right fit for you. But if your seeing a good number of shots that you feel like you wouldn't want for your wedding, than we might not be the best fit for your big day.

We want you to be happy with your pictures, and in turn, we want to be able to take the pictures the way we best know how.

On that note, here's what we know how to do...

Trying to define our style into one particular category, such as "photojournalistic" or "traditional" is about as easy as getting our beagle Bailey to stop chewing on things. (If you saw our apartment you would understand)

We've definitely developed what I would call a "look" over the past few years, but we prefer to not limit ourselves to shooting one "kind" of photography. Every wedding, every bride and groom, and every day for that matter, provide different challenges to both us and our subjects. While some people are more comfortable and feel relaxed when they're getting 1200 pictures taken of them in an eight-hour period, it's not as easy for others. That said, we're going to get great images of our couples regardless of if they're nervous or not -- with the only difference being how "posed" (ahhh! We hate that word) the images will look.

So we've clarified that we do not do well as photographers with words such as "style", "posed" and "chewing". However, some of the things that we've noticed in our images, in our honest opinion, set us apart from other photographers. It doesn't make us better or worse....just different. Here's some of the characteristics we've come up with to describe our images:

Genuine

Every wedding is going to have that image of the bride and groom standing at the alter looking at the camera. And while we always try to get this photo when we're shooting, it's not always the image that our couples ooh and ahh over after the wedding. We love catching our two subject in the moment...when they've forgotten about the camera and are so busy looking at the person they love that they will oftentimes not even remember we were taking their picture. Here's an example:


This is the type of shots that we look for during the wedding day. Lauren and Kevin knew we were taking pictures of them dancing, but I shot this from across the dance floor while they were enjoying a moment between just the two of them.

"Photographer? What photographer?"

Colorful

We shoot all of our images in full 14-bit color. The nice thing about digital is, we can go back and switch some over to some classy B&W when need be. Our favorites, hence the motto "simple.color.", are those shots when there's a gorgeous mix of color.

We work diligently in our post-processing to make sure and bring out EVERY color as much as possible. While there's always a place and time for a classic black and white shot, we're always looking for ways to use alot of different bright colors in our images. Take this one for example:


From the sky to the buildings, to Lori's gorgeous blond hair, this is one of our favorites from recent weddings. (This was taken seconds after the ceremony, by the way, and I can promise you that Lori and Chris were oblivious to us at this point. The veil was blown over Chris' head by the wind, so we avoided the "posed" word!)

Active

We thought long and hard about the best word to describe, what we feel, is one of our most unique characteristics. You'll notice in alot of our images that we take a good number at a variety of angles and vantage points. Not every shot is a straight on, portrait-style picture. I feel like this is a great way to give our pictures life.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, when you seeing something happening in front of you, it's not evenly framed or straight up and down. There's angles involved -- angles that cast shadows and force a different perspective on the viewer. I believe Stacey and I have become very good at this type of shot over the past few years. As in these examples:



These are oftentimes very subtle angles, but they do the trick!

Every week Stacey and I find ourselves trying new things. Which mean, in one way or another, our "style" is constantly evolving. We encourage every one of our couples to constantly check our blog, as we update it at least once a week. Even if their wedding is 10 months away, we hear from some of our brides all the time, telling us how much they liked a shot that we took at a previous event. By tracking our blog, you'll be able to track our "style" and see where we're taking our images.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gresham Photography 101: Our Gear

Stacey and I have worked hard over the past few years to slowly and surely build up our gear to where we want it. A few months ago we made our biggest step yet when we purchased Nikon's top camera, the D3 Digital SLR. In addition to the D3, we also purchased its little brother, the D300.

This tandem of cameras has notably taken our images to the next level, and we're excited that with every new shoot we do, we learn more and more about using both of them effectively.

OK, as far as total gear goes, Stacey and I are polar opposites. While I enjoy having a variety of lenses, wireless flash and a couple of camera bodies, Stacey is much more simplistic in her equipment. We both have very different approaches to our pictures, which call for a variety of equipment. We've found that we really compliment each other with our choices in cameras, lenses and flash units.

So let's start with my (Brandon's) gear:



-Nikon D3 Digital Camera Body - My main tool for photography, the D3 is the most versatile camera on the market right now. Picture this: remember when you used to shoot with 400 speed film in the camera to capture high speed shots? The D3 has the equivalent film speed of 25,600. I haven't encountered a bride who walks down the aisle too fast for the D3, I can promise you that.

-Nikon D80 Digital Camera Body - We utilize the D80 as both a backup body in case one of our other cameras fails during a shoot, and also as a wireless camera during ceremonies. Stacey and I have always made a point of not getting to close to the bride and groom during the ceremony. While we do this to not disrupt the intimacy of the wedding, it does keep us from getting and really close up shots of the bride and groom during the vows, first kiss, ect. We combat this by using the D80 remote camera, which I can trigger from the back of the sanctuary (or even from outside if need be).

-Nikon 17-35mm Wide Angle Zoom Lens
-Nikon 80-200mm Telephoto Zoom Lens
-Nikon 20mm Wide Angle Lens
-20 gigabytes of professional grade memory cards (enough memory for 2000 images)
-Nikon SB-800 Flash Unit and diffuser dome
-Pocket Wizard Remote Triggers for Cameras and Strobes (See Below)
-Bogen Monopod
-Bogen Tripod

Like we talked about early, Stacey's gear is alot different from my own. She likes to pack light but is just as, and oftentimes more, effective than I am with her shots.

Stacey's gear includes:



-Nikon D300 Digital Camera Body
-Nikon 28-70mm Wide Angle Zoom Lens
-Nikon 50mm Wide Angle Lens
-16 gigabytes of professional grade memory cards (enough memory for 1600 images)
-Nikon SB-800 Flash Unit and diffuser dome

In addition to the gear that we carry throughout the day, we also utilize a pair of Alien Bee strobe lights with stands and umbrellas for all our formal shots and during the reception. We don't just throw these babies up at the reception and start blinding all of your guests, of course. I spend a good bit of time before the reception picking corners or side walls to place the lights, which are then fired into the ceiling of the venue. This "bounce flash" give us great light throughout the room without shooting flash straight into people's eyes. I can trigger the flashes from as far as 1600 feet away with our wireless radio transmitters.



We've selected our camera equipment very carefully to fit both our needs and those of our clients. With the best camera technology we're constantly able to try new things each and every time we look through the viewfinder.

Check back tomorrow when we'll talk a little bit about the Gresham Photography style.

Goodnight!

Gresham Photography 101

For all of you that Stacey and I haven't had the privilege of meeting yet, we wanted to take some time this week and introduce you to us via our oh-so-awesome blog!

Each night over the next five days I'll be posting a little bit about us and our business, Gresham Photography. I'll be walking you through everything from our shooting style to the equipment that we use on wedding days and portrait shoots.

We've never tried something like this before, but we're hoping all of our blog followers will enjoy getting to know a little bit more about the work that we do and what we love about doing it. We want everyone to feel free and post a comment or ask a question on any of the topics we talk about -- or about anything at all for that matter!

When you get to the bottom of each blog post, make sure and look for the comment button. We've been getting spammed alot lately, so the comments will not automatically appear on the site. Once I've had a chance to look and make sure you're not trying to sell me some...uhm..."medication", I'll post the comment.

I hope you all enjoy a little peek into our world! And for those of you who are considering, or have already invited us to be part of your day, I hope you'll feel free to ask questions and post your comments!

Have a great day all!

Lori and Chris

We spent the day dodging the weather again this past weekend as we celebrated Lori and Chris' wedding. Rain and some really, really strong winds didn't keep Lori and Chris from having a great time before the wedding, and also made for a gorgeous sunsest on the way to the reception! Enjoy the shots!