For me... It is ALWAYS about the Light.. not just for photography, but for
life. Even though this statement holds so true in photography, it also carries
an even more special meaning when relating to my faith. Jesus said... "I am the
Light of the World"... "Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness
but have the Light of Life". Light is everything that represents God.. The light
is God! The Light is Salvation! Jesus is the perfect standard that we
should model our lives after, and if we follow Him, He will lead us along a path
that leads to God.
God is incredibly near in the dark seasons of our lives, He's not a God that looks in judgment upon us from afar. He is a God of unconditional love, and a Father that longs for his children. The only thing sin does is that it blocks receiving His unchanging love, in isolation and shame. But He breaks through. Our main calling is to be His children
Recently, our pastor, Tim Dance, preached a message that really hit home for
me. It reminded me of what the Light is all about! If you get a chance, spend
about a half and hour and listen.
A little bit about myself and our family... My wife, Amanda, is EVERYTHING to me, my best friend, my support, a wonderful mother... I could go on for hours. With Christ being number one in my life.. she takes the number two spot! We have been blessed with three great kids. Corinne who is age 8, Nikolay who is age 7, and Evan who is age 5... going on 15. I absolutely LOVE being a dad! We recently acquired Gizmo... our dog, which you can read all about him in my blog.
In order to try to save some time replying to the a set of frequently asked
questions that I get on a daily basis, I have decided to post them with thier
associated answers. If you still have questions or require a more detailed
explanation, my all means, contact me.
1. What do equipment do I shoot with? What's in your "bag-o-tricks"?
I shoot with the following equipment.
Nikon D3 and D200,
12-24mm F4
17-35mm F2.8
28-70mm F2.8
70-200mm F2.8
60mm micro F2.8
10.5mm fisheye F2.8
50mm F1.4
SB900, SB800 and SB-80DX Flash units (camera mounted)
Quantum T4D and T5D with Turbo 2x2 battery packs (remote)
Bogen/Manfrotto Tripod
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS2
I use both… For weddings, most of my work is shot with on camera flash, unless I
find natural light that is both diffused and directional. Receptions are always
shot with stand mounted remote flash units strategically placed around the
venue. Again, if natural light is as described above, I will opt to shoot with
the natural light.
4. My friend has asked me to shoot their wedding. This will be my first wedding.
What advice can you give me and what equipment should I get?
First I have a question for you… have you accepted? If the answer is no, then my
advice to you is to suggest that your friend hire a professional and allow you
to shoot "behind the scenes". This way the responsibility for the pictures will
not rest on your shoulders and compromise your friendship. I will rarely accept
a request to shoot a friends wedding even though I have been shooting weddings
for many years. Anything can happen, and I would feel absolutely terrible if I
were responsible in any way. If you have accepted, please ask more specific
questions and offer me more information about the venues in which you are
shooting.
5. Will you photograph my wedding?
If you are within our range of travel, the answer is yes… Contact us for pricing
and to see if your date is available.
6. Can you give me any advice/pointers?
The answer will always be YES. I am more than glad to offer pointers, tips, ect…
but please be more specific with your question.
7. What are your camera settings?
It really depends on what I am trying to do, where I am shooting, and what I am
shooting. If you ask me how do I set my camera to do _________, well I can
usually answer this question. And if I can't I can always point you in the right
direction. You can always click on a image in question. This will take you to my
flickr page. There you can scroll down and click on "more properties" to view
the meta data.
8. What are your secrets? and hopefully you don't keep these secrets to
yourself?
I am completely willing to share what I know… however…please don't be offended
at anyone not willing share their secrets, I completely understand why they
wouldn't. For many people, photography is their bread and butter, and if someone
is lucky enough to have developed a niche in their work, a niche that took them
years to achieve, I would not expect them to just give that away.
Anyway, a lot of what I do comes from countless hours of experience and
practice. Buying the same equipment as me or any other of equipment, software,
or whatever… will never help anyone unless they develop their skills and master
their craft. In addition, buying the same type of equipment as me will not
obtain you "my type" of photography. A lot more goes into it than you can go to
a store and purchase.
9. How do you get your images to look so detailed? And vibrant? So clean?
The best way to end up with great images is to start with great images right out
of the camera. Get to know your camera and it's capabilities. Read the
manual!!!! Use those capabilities along with good composition, correct exposure,
correct white balance, and a solid focus. I am a real stickler about this as I
really put a lot of effort into getting the best image I can in camera.
10. Do you use filters on your camera? In Photoshop?
Seldom will I use filters on camera. All of my images are shot with a standard
UV filter on the lens, but the UV filter's main purpose is to protect the lens,
not to enhance the image. Occasionally I will use a polarizer if I am shooting a
sky or water or if I want to reduce reflection and glare. Most of my post work
really depends on the image. I will experiment using standard Photoshop
techniques and actions until I create something that I like. Lately, I have been
using Lightroom almost exclusively for most of my editing.
11. Will you give me feedback on my work.
Generally the answer to this will yes or no. =] It all depends if I have enough
time. If you truly want my feedback, send me a link to ONE image and I will do
my best to review and critique it.
12. Do you do High Dynamic Range Photography (HDR).
From time to time, I
will play around with HDR. Recently, though, I have not. It all depends
on the subject, lighting, ect. Just FYI... my profile pic is an HDR image from 5 different exposures.
I was hoping to get the support of a fellow photographer for a vote for my photo book. Please vote! Thanks so much. You can go to my page to find the place to vote.
Hey! Thank you so much for being our friend, it means a lot to us :) We just finished up in the studio last month recording our first EP that will be released in December! We have some demos on the page right now, let us know what you think of them and our studio video updates if you'd like. Thanks again, hope your doing great! :) <3 Motion Where You Go
Time goes by so fast. People come in and out of or lives. You must never miss the opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you. Thanks for being my Friend!!!
Thanks Brian, I hope you are having a great day!!! When you get a chance take a peek at some of my recent work. I also made a video called Prom Night 2009 it's on my main page enjoy :) I’m looking forward to checking out your images!!!
I made my first video slideshow and wanted to share it with you. The musician (Elizabeth Ann Middleton) is one I found through MySpace, and she generously let me use her music to set to my images. Visit her MySpace page here - http://www.myspace.com/pianorama - she's fantastic! :-)
Wild Butterflies of Florida from Rich Leighton on Vimeo.
