Karyn & Chip Wedding - Contest Winners!

This past Saturday, my assistant, Jamie and I traveled to West Virginia to document the wedding of Karyn and Chip! Karyn and Chip were the winners of our Free Wedding Photography Contest. It could not have went any smoother! There was so much love and great relationships going on throughout the day. Karyn and Chip are so in love and were such a pleasure to work with.

Karyn's sister could not attend, because she is on bedrest due to a pending due date for her baby. They had a live webcam set up for her to view the ceremony and afterwards, Karyn and Chip got to talk to them via the webcam. Technology is sweet ;-)

I am so happy that we got to meet them and that they were the winners! It was a wonderful day and I will always cherish this day. Thank you Karyn, Chip and Families for having such a great day!

The [ b ] School

Al-righty folks (especially photographers) if you have not checked out Becker's the [ b ] school, you need to! the becker is a wedding photographer in Southern California that has been shooting amazing weddings for many years. He is hilarious and a fountain of knowledge. He has been published in major magazines and books on wedding photography.

The [ b ] school is going to be an online learning environment that will be unlike anything else out there. See the the [ b ] school blog for many tips and tidbits on photography.

I met him last year at Mike Colon's 4-day intensive, when we had a poker tournament the last night. I am terrible at poker, but it came down to Becker and me. Becker is also an excellent poker player (check becker's blog for his run at the World Series of Poker!), so he ended up smoking me. After the game we hung out a bit and talked shop. I then saw him again in Vegas at WPPI 07 and again this past week.

This year he was doing free headshots outside of Paris, so a few of us went out to get some shots and of course be entertained! He is a joy to watch work and interact with. Here is my headshot:


So a big thanks to [ b ] for the headshot and a note to all of you to check out the [ b ] school. He has posted about 60 mini videos that are filled with golden nuggets of information about business, photography & personality. I guarantee you will be entertained and more than likely become a student.

Good Night :-)

Amy's Maternity Images

This evening I shot an awesome maternity session. Amy & Chris are expecting their first child (It's a Girl!) within two weeks. This is such an exciting time for them!!

I set out to do something a little different this evening and I am very excited with the results. While I was heading out the door I decided to grab my 28" softbox and lightstand, just in case we would not have enough available light. I am so glad that I did and will not leave home without it again ! For the most part, we had plenty of light, but I decided to do something different. We went into a room and got rid of the available light and used the One Light setup. It was so rewarding to come out of my comfort zone!

A few of these were available light and a few were the "One Light" setup. Can ya tell which ones? It truly is amazing what you can do when you have your settings dialed in and move around the subject or move the light. The options are endless. We kept it super simple and created killer images.

No Photoshop required (Except for the Keyline Frame around the images and slight burning on one of the images). Aperture 2.0 was used for the edits.

Ok enough of the technical jargon and onto the pics.

Thanks Amy & Chris for having me over! You are going to LOVE the images. Here is a little sneak peak.

Photobooth Fun.

Vegas is fun!!! Most of the parties we attended had these Photobooths for all to enjoy (www.fotocabina.com). Outside of the booth there is a basket filled with props to use, which makes it extra fun ;-) I definitely had my fair share of fun in these booths! Sometimes we try to fit as many people as possible in the booth for the 4 pics. Before each shot, someone yells out "Be Happy" or "Be Cool", "Be Sad", etc... The outcomes are hilarious.

Here is a quickie of my buddy Mike Steelman and me.


If you would like to see more of these crazy pics, check out my facebook page.

Happy Easter!!!

An iPhone shot of worship this morning. Awesome!

Home from Vegas and April Children's Special!

Hi Everyone,
I am home from my Las Vegas trip and re-energized. It is so Awesome to be home with my family. I missed them so much. I did have a great time, reconnected with friends and met a lot of new friends. WPPI is such a fabulous community! If you are a photographer and never attended WPPI - Vegas, I suggest you do so. Next year it is Feb 14 - 19 at MGM. It will be fantastic.

I got to see KA - Cirque du Soleil. Amazing!!! One of my album companies took us there for a treat. They are incredible! Thank you KISS ;-)

We also have a lot of things brewing here at David Burke Photographers and have decided to run a Super Special for our Children's Sessions during the month of April. Here are the details:

Here is the skinny:

• No Session Fee! - That's right, we are waiving our normal session fee of $200.00 on our WEEKDAY sessions. This means that your session has to take place between Monday through Friday.


• Subject to our Availability (so if you are considering booking a session, Book Now :-)!!


• Session Location: Your choice. We do all on-location photography. Your home, A park, Church, School, etc... Your Pick!


• View our this blog and Our Portfolio for some samples of our children's work.


• When you call to schedule we will talk to you about the shoot, schedule the shoot & schedule a viewing session to view the proofs. We may even get crazy and have the viewing session on location if time allows.


• Please call us 412.979.7525 or email us info@davidburkephoto.com for more information or to book a session!

If we can help you, please let us know. PS - Tell your friends!!! :)

Here is one of my recent fav's... She is so adorable!

New Site and Vegas!

Out of the office from March 15 - 21




We are in the process of implementing a new website! We have decided to make our blog the first thing our viewers see because it is updated the most and gets the most traffic :-) The Portfolios will be consolidated to one 'Flash' page with multiple galleries for kids/weddings, etc.. We hope you enjoy! Please bear with us while we work out the bugs.

One of the bugs is with our email.. I am unable to set up an auto-responder at the moment, so you know that I am not ignoring you :-)

I will be out of the office from March 15 - 21, because I am attending WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) in Las Vegas. This is the years biggest convention for my industry and I make it a point to attend every year. I always come away with more knowlege, inspiration and more friends. I love connecting with old friends and making new ones.

During this time I will have limited access to email/phone and blogging. If you need to contact me, please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Thank you,

David.

Bryleigh is much cuter than me :-) (and some Photo taking tips)

So Cute, originally uploaded by burkedt.

I just love having a daughter. She is so stinkin cute. Her face is perfectly round. I think she looks just like mommy. I can only hope! Mommy is so beautiful!

*Tech note* (and a few tips!)
Window Light Right
Nikkor 50 1.4

ISO 400
f-stop 2.0
shutter 1/100
WB - 5300K

When I am shooting available light, To nail my exposure I typically pick an ISO that I want to use. After that, Aperture is most important to ME so I then select that (I like large apertures 1.4 - 2.8). Then, I dial in the correct shutter speed for a good exposure (using my viewfinder meter) and finally set the correct white balance (I use my RGB histogram on my LCD for review). After a test shot or two, I am off shooting. At this point I am thinking about composition and focus-points, etc...

When recomposing your image ALWAYS be aware of what is in your viewfinder, because it can affect the overall exposure. You may need to adjust your shutter speed to compensate.

I will post some examples later.

David being David.

My Good Friend Heather Grabbed this Beautiful shot of me this past Saturday!

Carnegie Music Hall - Wedding

Hello everyone!

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of shooting a wedding at the Carnegie Music Hall with two of my great friends, Joanne Bartone and Heather Lahtinen. If you haven't checked them out, be sure to do so. They are such wonderful people and fantastic photographers.

Joanne called upon us to assist her on this fabulous wedding.

I put together a little slideshow of some of my favorite captures of the day. I LOVE being a second/third shooter. I get to play a bit. This wedding allowed me to be completely Organic and capture everything realtime, just the way I love it.

This wedding was filled with great people, fabulous details, excellent location and was topped off with an after party, complete with a Martini Bar and hand rolled cigar table. So cool!!!

Please check out the show and let me know what you think! To see it BIG Click Here

The power of Faith and Love

I recently came across this site Confessions of a CF* Husband, which is the blog of Nathan Lawrenson who is married to Patricia Kirschner that suffers from Cystic Fibrosis. The link takes you to the "Fast Track" section of the site to get you quickly up to speed on their story.

Reading this story and the blog entries totally grips my heart and makes me realize how much I love my wife and children. Nathan's Faith in God and Love for Patricia and Gwenyth (born at 24 weeks gestation) keeps him moving forward. He has really gotten to know God through this ordeal. That is key with faith. It is hard to "just get more faith", but when you take the time to know God better your faith will grow.

Their story is very touching, but is such a story of strength and perseverance that it will make us all stronger.

God Bless Nathan, Patricia, Gwenyth and their families!