My Experience Shooting Weddings

I don't shooting weddings. There is so much stress and pressure to get the super important moments, and not miss a single thing. Technically it is hard, the lighting is usually awful and sometimes it is even too dark for the camera to focus.

That all being said, this month I have shot two weddings, and I have learned a lot from them.

I love the resulting shots of the wedding. There is nothing quite like being able to capture all of the emotions that go into a wedding day.
I love love being able to document the most beautiful and magical day of a couples life together. I find it as such a privilege that people seek my own creative eye.
I have even started to develop a photojournalistic style of capturing the wedding day. I want the people viewing my photographs to feel like they are there, in the moment with the new family.

While I was shooting this last wedding I realized, even though I do not want to shoot weddings professionally, I love documenting life with my camera. I love that people trust in me to document their special day through my eyes. I had this moment when I held up my camera, and I knew that I was doing something right. I was doing what I love, and what I want to do forever. I have found my passion, and I will do anything it take to turn this passion for capturing the lives of people into a career.

Photo Shoot

I had such a great day today with a wonderful family. We went to the Sayville Beach and Marina and did a two hour family location session. Not only am I completely in love with the images, but I had so much fun with this family. They loved being outside, running and playing. The oldest son climbed every tree there, and the young daughter was so playful!! Let me know what you think of my favorites!!

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Tonight I had a chance to go to my first live photography seminar. I do watch a lot of online webinars but there is nothing like the real thing happening just feet in front of you. 

Even though I do not want to pursue food photography professionally, I learned so much tonight I couldn't wait to write about it!!

One of the biggest things we learned tonight was the impact of lighting. Lighting is everything in photography and understanding light and the effects of light is key to getting good photographs. You have to know your lighting and equipment. You have to know what will happen if you change something. You have to know what changes to make to get the desired effects. Being in control of your lighting is an enormous factor in getting your creative vision out of your head and into the shoot. 

We also heard valuable tips on dealing with clients. Every client has a different vision, and communication is the only way to make sure that what the client wants, a photographer can provide. I can apply this to portrait photography. There are different styles of portrait photography including lifestyle and posed. Everyone prefers something different and every photographer is better at providing a different style. Making all expectations and preferences known before the shoot can ensure that everyone's goals are met. 

After attending this live seminar, I realize how important it is to be involved and be a part of education. The internet is an amazing tool for learning but there is nothing comparable to it happening right in front of your eyes. I am so excited for my Newborn and Child Photography Seminar with my favorite photographer Sany Puc'!!

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Last week in Photography seminar, photographer and guest speaker Katherine Liepe-Levinson came to class. She started off by showing us a little slideshow of her recent work, and it was truly inspiring. She has been working a lot in capturing reflection, going to the same pond at different times of the day, and during different seasons to capture different moods. It was amazing to see how we could determine what season and what circumstance she shot each image in. We could pick out the colors of the leaves in the reflections, or look at the different angles of the sun to determine what time of day it was. 

Katherine also talked about printing your work, and how important printed peices are. To me, a framed, matted and printed photograph is a completed photograph. Having a completed body of work is important to any professional photographer. 

Another thing that Katherine talked about was getting your completed bodies of work into galleries and shows. One piece of advice that really stuck with me was to have multiple, but seperate, galleries online. It is important to have a variety of work to show because everyone has a different taste, and what one gallery owner likes, another may not 

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Saturday, I was able to go to the Photo Expo in the city. Having gone last year, I knew what to expect and had a few shopping goals. But just like last year, I was completely blown away. I had done a lot of research and knew a lot of the vendors and what they offered.

I bought a new camera bag from Vanguard, and I was so excited to replace my old one. My old one came free with my camera, but it barely even fit it. Plus, it would always cut off the circulation in my wrist! (My boyfriend hated when he had to hold it!). The new bag was a messenger/shoulder bag. It has enough room for my camera body, and a few lenses, plus all of the little accessories I've accumulated.

My other fun purchase was a new criss cross style camera strap. Originally I was interested in buying a regular neck strap, but as I walked around, I didn't really see anything that interested me. I came across a Joby strap. It hold the camera approximately at my waistline so that it is ridiculously easy to grab and shoot, whenever I need. This kind of strap would be so great when I travel. I love to explore and find new places, and having my camera easily accessible is a huge plus.

Another great thing was I got to test out some new Nikon Equipment. I am looking into Macro Lenses, and I was able to test out a few different focal lengths, and now I have a better idea of what lens would work best for me. Nikon also had a few amazing (totally out of my price range) cameras and lenses set up. I shot with the $20000 800mm lens, and (sadly) I fell in love with it. It was amazing to be able to see every detail of someones face who was on the other side of the room.

My favorite part was meeting other photographers, in all different stages. I met amazing professionals (and even got a signed poster of a cute little turtle), and met enthusiasts, dreamers, and armatures.

The Photo Plus Expo is my absolute favorite place in the world. Even though I don't have the money (yet) to afford most of what I see there, I leave every single time so inspired to create art, and that is my absolute favorite part

Farm Trip!

My boyfriend and I drove around lost for an hour looking for a pumpkin picking patch today. We went down to exit 68, ended up going past to exit 70, then turning around and finding a cute little farm and pumpkin patch in East Setauket. Though the selection of pumpkins wasn't the greatest, I had so much fun making friends with all of the animals and photographing all the plants! I had such a great fall day!!!

Time Management

This week we had to do a project about time management. It was interesting to see how much free time that I have in the evenings right now. It would be interesting to redo this project next week after I start my job at Target, and compare the two charts. I also learned just how much time I spend working on and learning photoshop. Editing software is a very important part of my future career, and I love that I am doing everything that I can to learn it now.

This is a composite that I made tonight in my Digital Photo One class tonight. I love combining multiple images and being able to manipulate photographs to create something new. Photographing the fish was a bigger challenge than I expected. Even though there was a light above, it was a rather dark tank. I also needed a pretty high shutter speed to freeze the motion of the fish. I used a polarizing filter to reduce the reflections in the glass, but you can still see some! Overall this was a really fun project to shoot and edit in photoshop

Contest Entry?

As I culled and edited the large batch of photos from last week's "themes" photoshoot, I came across one that I really liked. For the last two years I have entered Nikon Sponsored Best of College and High School Photography contest and each year I have been a finalist, published in their giant book of finalists. This year, I want to score higher. As the deadline is approaching quickly, I would love any input on my photographs, in order to improve my own skills

As this week passed, I had another photo project for my Digital I class. This weeks themes was 'close ups." I went to the beach, discovered a marriage proposal, ran around chasing the deer, and found lots of cool rocks and shells. Here are a few of my favorite images from this week

Themes

This week we had to pick one object and photograph it in a variety of different ways. I was on Pinterest and Google for hours trying to come up with an inspirational idea, but nothing was happening. I saw a picture of a baby's foot covered in glitter, and all I could think of was that poor little baby! I clicked to see more related images, and began to see models covered in simmering sparkles. Inspiration hit and I called my friend immediately. Thankfully, she was willing and I had so much fun shooting images that included sparkles.

This week's assignment for my Digital 1 class was to experiment with shutter speeds. I love pictures with high shutter speeds, as the frozen motion has always fascinated me. These are a few of my favorite pictures from this week.

Welcome

Hello everyone, my name is Rachael McKenna, and welcome to my blog! I am a natural light photographer specializing in portraits of fmailies, children and newborns. I absolutely love what I do and I hope that you do too!