Weirton WV Wedding 07.12.08

Saturday I had the pleasure of spending the day with Amanda and John for their wedding at the Weirton Heights Memorial Baptist Church in Weirton, WV. Originally from West Virginia the couple now calls North Carolina home.

We started early at Legal Hair Salon and Day Spa where the girls got some fabulous styles.

Soon it was time to dive into the dress, almost literally! Amanda’s father, Bart, couldn’t hold back the tears when he saw her for the first time.

After a beautiful service by Rev. William C. Stout it was on to make a few special pictures. Since the couple was from a steel town I couldn’t resist suggesting we shoot next to some giant steel coils I spotted while scouting the area. We also did some photos on the railroad tracks near a mill. As you can imagine passersby were quite curious why we were making wedding photos in such an unusual location!

Amanda rode on John’s back for a very special entrance to the reception. After a nice meal prepared by the staff at the Knights of Columbus hall it was time to party!

Thanks so much guys, it was so much fun! I hope you had a good trip home and I'll be talking with you soon.








Very cool shoes!




Rev. Stout had a tissue to the rescue when Amanda started crying during the vows


Bubbles are awesome!








First dance. I love my 85mm 1.2 lens!!

Lisa and David

Saturday I had the pleasure of working with my good friend Eddie Macko at Lisa and David's wedding. It's always great to team up on a big event. Eddie booked the wedding so I was there in a supporting role this time. Here are a few images from the day...


We started coverage at Phipps Conservatory outdoor gardens with a "First Look" session


The competition gets younger and younger all the time!


Last Dance, and Lisa had the same beautiful smile she had from the moment we met her.

Station Square eSession!

Megan and Ernie will be married next month, but Wednesday evening we went out on the town for their engagement session. After seeing some of the recent e-shoots I've done Megan asked if they could do one too because they looked so fun. And they are fun! After exploring the Station Square area for a time we paused for a wonderful dinner at The Melting Pot. Ironically, that's the same restaurant Ernie took Megan the night they became engaged! I love serendipity!!


Great light and great love... an unbeatable combination!


Great light makes great shadows


Lovin in the elevator! Great lights!!

Hartwood Acres 6.28.08

What a sweet wedding! Heather and Dean were married at the beautiful Hartwood Acres Mansion Saturday afternoon. Right now it's late, I'm tired, but I was so excited to see these images I had to peek (and show off a couple of favs!). Thanks so much guys for allowing me to share your day! I'll see you when you get back from your honeymoon! Enjoy!!

Wedding Favors

One of the things I love about my job is I get to help my brides and grooms by referring other vendors I have worked with and respect. I’m also constantly searching the web for sites that make couple's lives just a little easier as they plan their big day.

Finding the right wedding favor is always a challenge. You want it personal, touching and surprising. Thanks to fellow photographer Jessica Claire, today I can whole-heartedly recommend beaucoup. These folks have some of the coolest favors around! They offer hundreds of gift ideas, most of which can be personalized, and free shipping to your door.

If you know other places please share the love and let everyone know by leaving a comment below.

Enjoy the day!

Marcia and Ron slideshow

Hope you enjoy the show!

Heinz Hall Wedding 06.21.08

This was one of those weddings I KNEW was going to be over the top from the moment I first met Marcia and Ron almost a year ago. The more Marcia talked about their plans the more excited I got. When she called back to book I literally did the happy Snoopy dance! On Saturday my anticipation and expectation was realized, it was indeed a wedding to remember!

Marcia and Ron are such a awesome couple – they met at work, dated on the low down (no fraternizing at work), fell in love and on Saturday married at the Heinz Hall garden, surrounded by great friends and family. The blending of their respective cultures and religions was handled with grace and style. Calling this a “beautiful wedding” would be a monstrous understatement.

The reception was incredible! First off, it was held at the uber stylish Privilege Ultralounge in the Strip. A Chinese ribbon dancer, dragon dancers and others performed between introductions of parents and the bridal party. The Boilermaker Jazz Band provided absolute killer music (proven by the packed dance floor all night). And, to top off the evening right, their cater, the divine Greco’s Gourmet Catering, served a mouth watering Chinese feast prepared on site!

Guys, thank you SO much for everything, it was truly an honor, a privilege and a joy to be a part of your day!


It's hard to go wrong with a bride this beautiful...


and a groom this good looking


Long strings of buttons make for cool pictures!


There are so many great places to make pictures in Heinz Hall!
















An emotional father daughter dance






The cake was made from Styrofoam to avoid any chance of face smashing!

Graduation Day!

It's official, my daughter, Cailyn, is now a graduate! Saturday was the big day of pomp and circumstance followed up on Sunday with a delicious celebratory luncheon for friends and family at our favorite restaurant, Sushi Tomo. Grandparents were not 100% into the sushi ("what, no bread?") but they made the best of it. Everyone, however, enjoyed the awesome chocolate cake with almond icing from Potomac Bakery in Dormont (412-531-5067). They create one of the absolute best tasting cakes around. And I KNOW cake!!

Ah, but as this door closes another will soon open as my "little girl" gets ready for the next step... college!

Where does the time go? It feels like only yesterday I was holding her in my arms. When I see a bride's father choking back tears I understand and relate.


Picture proof (note diploma in hand!)


Proud pappa


Something sushi


Dee-licious cake!

Random thoughts on Friday

What a great (and busy) time it's been lately!

The big news for the week (year, decade, millennium), is my daughter, Cailyn, graduates Saturday from the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center! Her emphasis of study has been music composition. Several pieces she's written have already been performed. Cailyn plays the flute, piano, guitar and several other minor instruments. We are all super excited, and yes, there will be photos next week! Next year she's off to college (yet to be determined) to study, what else, music. It's neat the creative apple didn't fall too far from the tree!!

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Several commercial portrait assignments this week allowed me to experiment with multiple light and create some really cool images. Examples coming in a few days, after the client receives the photos.

Using many lights to shape and add drama to a photo is really nothing new (I've been doing it for decades), but with today's "smart" flashes it's both exciting and challenging. Usually the challenge is to get them all to go off at the same time! More on that in another post later on...

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This week I had the pleasure of photographing Sheena and David's eSession in Oakland and on the Southside. They're a super sweet couple and I'm really excited to photograph their wedding this coming October. We had a great time and ended the shoot with a wonderful dinner on the Southside. Here are a couple shots from the session...









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Amanda & Jeremy Slide Show

Without further ado, here is a slide show of Amanda and Jeremy. Hope you enjoy the show!

Amanda & Jeremy 06.07.08

I have to say, I have the BEST BRIDES!! I've been looking forward to this wedding all year, in fact, for a couple of years! Amanda first contacted me about her wedding back in 2006 (it's never too early to plan!). We've been emailing back and forth since then so I knew this was going to be a fun and emotional day.

After a full Mass at Our Lady of Peace we headed out to Robin Hill Park for a few special pictures. With temps in the 90's my experience shooting for national magazines paid off -- we were able to do all the shots in record time so nobody was in the heat too long. After that it was time to party!

Thanks guys, it was so much fun to be part of your day. See you soon!




Amanda's dad did a pretty good job holding it together




I love the sun as it gets low in the sky!


The cake was awesome thanks to Carol's Cakes


Party time!


Some of the young ones couldn't hang...


Others found a different way to hang

Phipps Conservatory shut out and Photoshop overload

OK, I'll admit it. I'm a Photoshop geek. But I have reason to be, I've been using the program (off and on) since version 2.0. Macs, back in those days, were self contained beige boxes with five inch black and white screens. A far cry from the dual 23" cinema displays I use today.

Just because I've used the program so long do I consider myself an "expert" user? NO WAY! This program is SO deep I don't even scratch the surface. I know just enough of the workings to get lost playing around for hours at a time.

Megan and Matthew wanted to be photographed at Phipps Conservatory for their engagement session. Unfortunately the folks at Phipps only allow professionals to make photos if they pay -- $200 for 45 minutes. They also only allow you in one room -- of their choosing. Of course, if you want to take pictures of the flowers and don't look like you know what you're doing (or don't have fancy camera equipment) you can do whatever you want (within reason). Oh, and membership does NOT have any privilege in this matter.

So we did the next best thing and shoot around outside. No fees involved.

The weather was a bit shaky -- dark clouds, steel sky, overall yuck. But, with a little imagination and a bit of Photoshop pixie dust ; ) a pretty cool picture was born. My only regret is I didn't save a screen shot showing all the layers involved -- there were a LOT of them! But in the end, the vision for this image came through.


Color version. Maybe a bit surreal?


Sepia option. More of the mood I had in my minds eye.

PS. I know some in the photo community believe in the "better to ask forgiveness than be denied permission" motto. I'm not one of them. I try very hard to play by the rules. It was how I was raised. But that's a debate (rant) for another day...

Strobist lighting

The weather Tuesday morning was oh so typical crappy Pittsburgh -- dark, gray skies with little definition. Not exactly exciting to shoot under, especially when I planned to include a good portion of the sky in the frame. So when you're handed a lemon the only thing to do is make lemonade!

I started by setting my Canon 5D to a tungsten color balance. This way any daylight would be rendered as blue.

To light the subject I placed my main light, a Canon 580 EX at 45 degrees to subject on my right side. To balance the tungsten setting I place a full CTO filter over the flash, but since I wanted the main slightly warmer than normal I added a 1/2 CTO to boost the color.

The second flash, also a 580 EX, was placed low and pointed up at the Bonsai tree. The tree light was covered with a full CTO to bring it back to normal. The flashes were set to "slave" and triggered by a hot shoe mounted Canon ST-E2. Camera exposure was 1/200 at f14, about two stops below "normal" ambient exposure. The main light needed a 1 stop boost in exposure compensation to achieve the desired exposure. The lens was a Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 MK II L.

The only Photoshop work I did on this image was darken the edges slightly, run an overall sharpen and definition action, boost the blue a bit and tweak the facial color. As is my normal workflow, all PS work is done on 16-bit TIFF files, then converted to 8-bit Adobe 1998 for client delivery or JPEG, sRGB for web.

Lemonade from a lemon of a day. Gotta love it.



For many more super cool tips and tricks check out the Strobist blog.

God is in the details

I saw this sign today while doing a portrait for an upcoming editorial piece. Sometimes it's good to be reminded of the incredible gift we have in this life. God is in the details. Indeed.

And in case you wondered, the "things" hanging from the sign are leaves. Very cool leaves.

Pittsburgh Professional Magazine

Hot off the presses! The latest edition of Pittsburgh Professional Magazine is out and one of my photos is on the cover!

Lisa Roundabush is the General Manager of the Mon Valley Works for US Steel. Pittsburgh, as the world knows, has a great heritage of steel making and Lisa is almost evangelical on the point -- big steel has not left Pittsburgh. I hope you will pick up a copy of the magazine. It's a good read.

FREE STUFF!!!!

I have a problem and I'm bringing it to the blog for help. I have too much stuff. There, I said it. Some things I haven't been able to let go of in spite of my rapid and early embrace of all things digital. Now is the time, I hope. What I'm referring to is darkroom equipment. Yeppers, I have professional grade enlargers, stainless steel processing tanks, dozens of 35mm and 120 film reels, film washers, print washers, trays, timers, etc. Basically, the works! If ANYONE is interested in setting up an off the hook home darkroom to experience the magic of seeing a print develop PLEASE CALL 724.266.2411. Pick up is required, but everything is FREE!

Pittsburgh skyline

It's been said we have the only city in the world with a front door. It's so fun to hear visitor's gasps when they see our city for the first time as they come out of the Ft. Pitt Tunnel.

How ever you see the Pittsburgh skyline, once you do, it never leaves your heart -- which is possibly why Pittsburghers are unique in having so many pictures of their city proudly displayed in homes and offices. I asked a friend who lives in San Francisco how many photos of SF hang in his office. He looked at me oddly and said, "we don't need photos, we have windows!" How boring! As I told him, "we have windows too, of course, but from our window we only see ONE view, with pictures we get to see many views all the time!" He didn't get it.

Thursday evening was so nice I had to take advantage of it by photographing our skyline. It also helped that one of my commercial clients recently asked if I had anything new of the city (we're changing the skyline rather quickly these days!). So a little before sunset up I went to one of my favorite spots. I thought you'd like to see the view, in case you didn't make it out.

PS. In case anyone is wondering, yes, I do sell stock for commercial use as well as prints for home or office decor, custom greeting or post cards.