Shoot N Learn - February

Hey Everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the Steeler's 6th Superbowl win!!! I know that I have :-)

This is the time of year where (if you live in Pittsburgh) it is easy to fall into "Seasonal Depression", because it is so darn gloomy out there. It takes a little extra effort to be motivated and to stay focused. I think it helps to surround yourself with positive people and great relationships to keep going.

I would love for this month's Shoot N Learn to be just that. Let's have a round table discussion about everything and anything - (photography related of course ;-) ). Would you please join us:

• When: Tuesday February 24, 2009 @ 7:00 PM


• Where: Bado's Pizza Grill and Ale House (Click Here for the Map)


• Limit is 20 people, so please let me know ASAP david@davidburkephoto.com

I really look forward to these gatherings! We will all take new things away from this meeting.

Also, please stay tuned for my first Full Day Workshop I will be announcing soon!

Of course I cannot complete a post without an image. I had the pleasure of Second Shooting for Beth McHenry this past weekend. We documented an intimate ceremony and of course enjoyed ourselves. Keep your eyes out for Beth, as you will be hearing a lot more about her...

I love the anticipation of the Bride, peaking over her Matron of Honor's shoulder.


Hope to see you there!

Visual Impact vs. Perfection

I read and interesting article this morning over at Chase Jarvis' Blog, focusing on Stock Photography. It got me thinking about pictures, in general.

What do you like about a picture? Is it the content, composition, shadows, highlights, emotion, perfection, noise (or lack of), the "effect", etc... ??

Think about it.

For me, sometimes it is the Imperfections that make it more pleasing and create a better visual impact.

Here is an example of one of my favorite photographs, I have made. I have a 20x30 canvas in my studio of this photograph. There are imperfections about this image (ie, the baby's head is cut off, LOL!), but I wouldn't change it for the world.

(Image captured in black and white, contrast and noise added in Post Production)

Any Google Apps/Apple Mail Experts out there?

I love Google Apps and use quite a few features of it. The biggest feature I use is the Email. All of our domain emails go through Google Apps so we can get all of the benefits of Gmail. We also use Apple's Mail client via IMAP to send and receive our emails. This has been working flawlessly for about 1 year.

Two days ago, I noticed that we had some new messages and an hour later they were gone, when using Apple Mail. I assumed that our accounts were hacked. I went into the Google Apps control and found the emails. They were moved from the "Inbox" to God knows where. I did an advanced search and set to "within 1 week from today". There were the missing emails. So I moved them back to the inbox. Fired up Apple Mail again, and they were not there! Go back to Google Apps mail and find them again. Move to inbox. Repeat. Same thing. Apple mail seems to move them somewhere when it connects via IMAP.

I have deleted the accounts on Apple Mail and recreated only to see the same issue happening. Works fine from the iPhone.

If anyone has any ideas please email me at davidburkephoto@gmail.com to make sure that I get it :-)

Thanks in advance!

Champions for the SIXTH Time!

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers! We are all excited here in Pittsburgh. Winning aside, that was a fantastic Superbowl! Santonio Holmes' catch in the endzone was amazing! Big Ben is a winner and plays his best football when he is under the gun. Way to go Ben!

Here are links to download pdf versions of today's front pages (click on the pics):
Tribune-Review:


Post-Gazette:



Also a special shoutout to LaMarr Woodley for forcing Kurt Warner to fumble at the end of the game! That was the icing on the cake.

Bray in the snow.

Bridget and Bryleigh left for Florida this morning to visit Bridget's father. After we dropped them off at the airport, Brayden and I played in the snow for a bit and snapped a few shots. It was snowing so hard, that we had to go into the woods a bit, to get a good portrait of him. He is such a ham.

I shot all of these except the last image with off camera flash. I handheld my SB-800 (with diffuser attached) to high camera left.



My fav = This is Bray




I used High Speed FP Flash Sync (iso 200, f2.8, 1/640) on this one, to get a shallow depth of field. I also desaturated this in post production and added a slight blur around the edge.




Off to an exciting weekend with the boys. We are going to have some fun! Have a great weekend!

btw - Happy Birthday JLB (1/29/98)... We love and miss you!

Use your iPhone as a softbox.

A fun article on Strobist.com here: Is that a softbox in your pocket...?

Photojojo blogged about it too.

I am going to think of something fun to try. I will post results ;-)

Snow.

I am not one for the cold weather, however I live in Pittsburgh, so I do not have a choice. When it snows, I make the choice to love it. There is something so beautiful, peaceful and perfect about snow. We have had some wild weather the past few days. This winter has been relatively mild, as have the past few. We are making up for it now. I have been working from my home office this week and am enjoying the view.

I took a lunch break and grabbed this shot from the back window. Not sure if the picture really does it justice. I think when the boys get up from their nap, we will go play in it. Then the pictures will be full of life!