While I feel being a photographer could be one of the best jobs in the world, it doesn’t compare with my day job.  Which is being a stay at home Dad, watching my son grow before my eyes.  I like to keep my camera ready just in case he decides “hey I’m ready for my picture Dad!”

This moment I captured happened to be one of those days.  He was sitting down watching TV, and I noticed he wasn’t paying attention to me so I quietly grabbed the camera and walked across the room.  I lined up and prepared for the shot, three, two, and one “hey buddy” I said. He locked his eyes on me and I quickly snapped the image.  His eyes in this image speak so much to me as a father, this is what I get to see everyday when I wake up.  The eyes of an innocent child with no cares in the world, could be one of the most magnificent things I’ve ever seen. 

Thanks for allowing me to give you a glimpse into my world as a father and photographer,
MB

Thanks again for reading,
MB

Last Saturday I had the wonderful chance to photograph the Wedding of Marcus and Tameka, I can’t tell you how much fun I had!  These two are such a beautiful couple and their love showed in the photos.  We had a wonderful fall backdrop with perfect weather and the wedding went just perfect.  I was truly blessed to be allowed to apart of their day, it is one I will not forget anytime soon!

Thanks for reading,

MB

I had the wonderful chance to assist some friends with their wedding coverage a few weeks ago.  We shot this wedding down in Spring Hill, Tennessee on a beautiful day with no clouds in the sky at a little white church.  Everything about this wedding just lent itself to a vintage feel.  The car pictured is a 1940 Chevy that is all stock which the bride arrived in, how could we let the chance to photograph this wonderful car.  Well we didn’t and made the best of our time with some great images.  Thanks for reading!

MB

As an ongoing project of mine I try to participate in a weekly photography challenge with the Professional Photographers Business Forum.  This week’s challenge is to use two or more light sources to create a portrait.  In the photo above I actually have three lights to illuminate one of my favorite models Jamie.  So here is how I accomplished this photo, the background is actually a large softbox creating a perfect white backdrop, next is a light with umbrella to the left of the camera acting as a main light , finally for fill light I used a ringlight to make the shadows on her face a bit softer.

Thanks so much for reading,

MB

I love going to the county fairs and carnivals because there is so many subjects to photograph.  Add in a tripod and doing some exposure bracketing and boy do you have a cool combo for an image.  This image was actually one frame converted into an psuedo-HDR but using the data already in a Raw file.   I love how the light is spinning in the photo you can really feel what was going on here.  The lady in the left side of the photo seems to be awful bored with her job though!   In the background a ride called the zipper which I know many folks are fond of,  myself I rather watch everyone have the fun on that ride then join in too much spinning for my likes!  Although my camera sure did like it!

Thanks for reading,

MB

Today’s post is a photo I did awhile back in our front yard, this hibiscus was just asking to be photographed and I obliged.  The day I shot this photo it was pretty windy and took quite a few tries to the photo I wanted.  Using a shallow depth of field I was able to get the stamen in focus and the pedals to fall off into soft focus.  I wanted to pull out the color of this flower so there are some color edits, as well as some sharpening to give that razor edge focus.  I really like how the stamen leads your eye into the middle of the flower.

Thanks so much for reading today,

MB

Today’s Post is all about breaking some rules.  I tend to stay within the normal bounds of photography, but as I was working on a product shot today I stumbled across something.  I was trying to find the right angle for the shot to make me happy and BOOM! there it was lens flare in my camera.  This is something quite normal when taking images outdoors dealing with sunlight but I rarely get lens flare in a studio setting.  At first it was on the left side of my frame because of the background light which was pretty cool.  I got a shot that made me content, not as happy as I like but it was cool.  My friend Ben Braden who I often shoot with said to me ” Hey man you’ve got a good shot, but why not try to make it better? What will it hurt?”

After thinking about it a few minutes my decision was made,  it had to be what I had pictured in my head.  So I brought two more lights out, one for the background to recreate the lens flare that I had on the left side.  Another to add some more fill light to the product itself, as I doubled the gelled lights I had to increase the amount of normal light to balance the scene out.

I know what your thinking,  ”What’s the big deal? It’s just lens flare Mike”  In order to get the flare to be in the right place in the lens, the lights have to be at the perfect angle for this to work.  A half inch one way or the other and the effect is gone.  The other neat thing is that on the label of the product itself the same bokeh/flare effect is part of the packaging, which you can see below.

Today was a great day and I had a lot of support from my friends who deserve to be recognized, if you have a minute to view some of their work please take a moment because they are fantastic photographers!

Ben Braden - a great photographer with many talents from fashion, commercial,  and landscape this guy does it all.  Just a  great understanding of light in general!

and

Laci Wilson – a fabulous photographer who has an amazing eye for emotion,  from portraits, fashion, weddings, and babies this girl does it all.  Her images will bring a smile to your face I promise!

Thanks for reading today!

MB

The images posted today were created as a student project.

In late April I was enjoying dinner with my family at Riverview Restaurant in Ashland City, Tennessee.  As we finished eating, I looked out the window and noticed the moon reflecting on the Cumberland River. 

Naturally, I had to run to the car and grab my tripod and camera! It was closing time and the great folks there were nice enough to allow me to go down to their dock to grab the shot.

Unfortunately, a week later this very spot was flooded by the river during the devastating Nashville flood. The restaurant was lost after being open for over 60 years. The owners are in the process of rebuilding and hope to be open by early next year.  I plan to present this photo to them when they reopen. 

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!

MB

My Son Trey Smiling for the Camera

I was reading the blog of one of my favorite new sites called the Pro Photography Business Forum and they had a photo challenge for use of shallow depth of field.  Using shallow depth of field (DOF) is one of my favorite in-camera tools, it brings the focus to the subject and lets everything else behind or around it go soft and out of focus.  This image was taken with my Nikon D90 with my 50mm 1.8 lens using available light.  Which is one of benefits of using such a fast lens wide open.  Of course there are ways to drop the background out of focus but why use that if  you have it built in camera?  Plus it will always look more natural this way because it is a natural effect rather then a processed effect.

I entered into the photo challenge and posted it here if your interested to check out everyone else’s work please do there are some great photos posted already!

Thanks for reading have a wonderful day!

MB