The "Quick Portrait"

My father is currently conducting interviews for a book he is writing.
I have been tagging along to take what I have been referring to as "quick portraits".

During a break in the interview I quickly set up my umbrella flash, snap a couple photos, and then let the interview reconvene.

Here are a just a couple I have taken.







There's no careful planning involved. No staging of furniture or elaborate lighting or posing. Just the people as you see them in their homes.

It's been a fun project to be a part of so far.
Hope everybody has a great week!

-Gary

January Wedding - 2010 Edition

A great thing about living in Houston is that weddings are viable events all year round. Let's forget the crazies that have their Colorado weddings in the mountains in the middle of December.

So I shot a wedding for a former coworker a 3 weeks ago. Start to finish the whole event was beautiful and I was honored that I was chosen as the photographer.

Here are some photos from the wedding:


Shot with my 50mm lens at a 1.8 aperture. One of the rare occasions where I put my subject in the middle of the photo. Her father is getting ready on the right and the bridesmaids are getting their hair done in the back room on the left.


My first wedding with a softbox for my flash. It really does make all the difference in the world. I metered the background manually and then set my flash accordingly to results that I absolutely love. I hope to improve as a strobist. It is by far the most challenging aspect for me as a photographer.


The cutest dance I have ever seen! At the reception I relied on my camera's great noise control and metered the background at a 1/100 shutter speed or so and bumped up the ISO accordingly. There were low ceilings so I opted for a bounce flash as opposed to using my on-flash diffuser.


The toss!


Receptions are so much fun to shoot. There's so much emotion and after dinner events transpire at a pretty decent clip. It's just great to see so many people enjoying themselves. That kind of emotion really does a lot of my job for me.


Hope everyone has a great Valentines weekend!
-Gary

Revisiting my trip to Utah - Part 1

This last November my father and I took a trip to Utah. Leading up to the trip I went on a self-imposed media blackout of a lot of the places we were going to visit. While photos never do stunning views any justice, I figured going in fresh was still the best policy.

Southwest Utah absolutely blew me away. If you've been then you know. If you haven't been, please put it in your plans for the future.

I just wanted to share my trip through some photos:


A bird friend floating overhead at Bryce Canyon National Park


Stunning evening view at Bryce Canyon


The corresponding morning view at Bryce Canyon


Grand overlook at Zion National Park. The hike up was very interesting thanks to some unique rock texture.


The road up to that overlook. You can see it in the previous photo.

I'll be adding some more detailed thoughts in Part 2 along with some more photos of the trip.

Hope everyone had a good week!

-Gary

My Sister is Married!

My sister left Houston in when I was in the 4th grade and has not returned. Distance can kill a lot of relationships even where there are good intentions, but she made sure that we stayed close all of these years.

I was honored that she let me photograph her wedding. Seeing her happy is all I could have hoped for.

Here are some of the photos from a snowy December wedding in El Dorado Canyon, Colorado.









Here's to everyone's pursuit of happiness!
-Gary

Help Haiti!

Text “GIVE” to “2HELP” (24357) to donate $5 to the Red Cross effort in Haiti.
Use twitter and facebook to spread the word to all of your friends.

Ladies Retreat 2010

I just had my first repeat gig; An annual Ladies Retreat for a local church!

It was awesome to see all of the familiar faces and to use these photos as a test to see how far my photography has come in the last year.







No word yet on if I'll be showing up for the 2011 version, but you better believe I would take the offer.

-Gary

First Engagement Shoot of 2010!

Yesterday my longtime friend and his fiance hopped in my car and we drove to the little park by the railroad tracks in League City. The occasion? My first engagement shoot of 2010 and it couldn't have gone any better than it did.







They were obviously in love and they were both completely relaxed and uninhibited. Any photographer will tell you that these things matter more than location and equipment.

My advice to couples getting their photos taken is to just have fun! Be spontaneous! Don't focus on posing the right way as much as you focus on each other!

Happy New Year, everybody! I hope this year is everything you want it to be.
-Gary