Barber Photography

First of all, I need to apologize for being late on this post. I had said I'd have it Monday and it is obviously past that!

We have been traveling -- "On Assignment", as we like to call it -- to Washington State and were actually preparing our postings from the road. We have some great photo creations that we'll be sharing with you soon from there.

For this post, we wanted to share with you two of the more creative (or experimental) photographs we created for Doug and Molly. This first photograph was created using our new wide-angle that Kindra was excited to invest in. I'll admit that I was not all that excited about a wide angle lens because I didn't see the need to (as I saw it at the time) wildly distort our photographs. As it turned out, I was able to find all kinds of great ideas using the "fisheye" lens and Kindra had to fight me to get it back!

This portrait of Doug and Molly under the campanile at Iowa State was one of the first portraits I created with the wide angle lens. I wanted to be able to capture all of the campanile as well as Doug and Molly inside because that is where Doug proposed to Molly. There were two challenges to overcome with this, though. The first challenge was fitting the entire structure into one frame and the second was the dynamic range of the lighting (the bright sky and sunlit campanile in contrast with the shadow area inside the campanile where Doug and Molly are).

Obviously, I was able to solve the first problem with the wide angle lens. The second challenge was solved by using High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. This was actually the first portrait I have created using HDR - the challenge there is that several photographs must be captured to contain enough information - so that means that the subject(s) need to be in the exact same position so that everything lines up perfectly - or else "ghost" images will appear.


This second photograph is a technique that I have been working on which creates a "glow" around the subject(s). [I don't have a name for it yet so if there are any suggestions, please leave a comment.] This is created by placing a flash unit behind the subject and directing the light directly toward the camera. The challenge here is that when the subject is a couple dancing, they are moving quite a bit and if the angle is not just right, there will only be a big bright spot filling the frame.

It was a pleasure to be able to try out a few new techniques for Molly and Doug. And yes, we are holding back on even more photographs that Molly and Doug are going to LOVE! Fortunately, they'll be able to enjoy them at their viewing session and will be able to view and share them permanently in their home for years to come.

Labels: HDR, Iowa State University, portrait, Wedding

• Printer Friendly
• Comments (0 Comments)

We photographed Doug and Molly's wedding this June. Doug and Molly met in junior high and started dating while attending Iowa State University together. Their wedding was held at the church in Ames that they had attended while in college.

We had been looking forward to photographing Doug and Molly's wedding for a while because we've had so much fun getting to know them this year through their engagement portrait sessions (You can see their other photographs here and here). They are easy-going, fun, and affectionate - every time we're around them, we can tell how much they love each other and that these two were destined to united.


This was a unique wedding because I had more time to create portraits of the bride by herself than I usually do before the ceremony. This is one of the portraits I was able to create during that time. Despite the stress of the day, Molly looked elegant, poised and comfortable - like she belonged in a bridal magazine.

This location was meaningful to Molly because her sister had a similar portrait created in the same place in the church - just at the top of one of the front staircases.

Kevin and I both enjoyed photographing this church for all the beautiful architectural details such as the trim work you can see on the walls behind her in this portrait. More importantly was the large, beautiful windows letting in the Heavenly light around Molly.

Kevin created this image of Doug outside the church before the ceremony and, again, you see the same relaxed expression that Molly had in her portraits. This portrait describes Doug well- easy going, funny, nice guy - you can see all that reflected in his expression. (Considering all the groomsmen were gathered around harassing him while he was posing and with a busy college-town street with waving, honking traffic in front of him, Doug was able to keep focused on the portraits.

We will be posting a couple portraits from Doug and Molly's wedding each day this week so keep checking back to see more. We hope you had a great time on your honeymoon, Doug and Molly!

Labels: Ames, brides, groom, Iowa State University, Portraits, Wedding

• Printer Friendly
• Comments (1 Comments)

We captured Doug and Molly's engagement session at 2 locations, The Rose Garden in Des Moines and Iowa State University. They ended up receiving a nice mix of summer and fall portraits. Doug and Molly had met while in college at ISU so we were glad to go to a location that is important to them. We even went to the location on campus that Doug had proposed to Molly. Molly and Doug are a really fun couple and have been such a joy to work with. They are very tender with each other but also very playful. What we love about these portraits is you can tell how deeply they love and appreciate each other. Some of our favorites at ISU were taken near sunset showing all the beautiful fall colors and the sun reflecting off the water. We are really looking forward to your wedding, Doug and Molly!

Labels: Couples, Engagement, Iowa State University, Outdoor, Portraits

• Printer Friendly
• Comments (0 Comments)