Posts

Best Time of the Day for a Photoshoot

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I’m asked this question all the time.  Thing is it’s kind of like: is the food at lunch better than the food at dinner? Or maybe even more specifically what’s the best food? Fact is, it’s preference.      Blue seas, turquoise waters … mornings and afternoons.   Shimmering seas dancing with warm light. Sunset.   Bright photos .. mornings  Airy and diffused… Sunset See hundred of photo examples on my image website Sunsets At The Beach

Sunset photography Kauai

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As the day comes to a close, as the sun begins to hide its face and the moon begins to show its, as a warm ruddy glow shimmies atop the ocean's weary surface, it's the perfect time to take photos,  forsaking brightly illuminated, definable faces in favor of silhouettes freckled with spangles of golden light.  — David Marsh, Kauai photographer  

Give me a cutaway!

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"Give me a cutaway, a reversal, and don’t cross the line.”  Language that makes complete sense to you, right?  How about “Roll sound?” Maybe you’re familiar with that one, where a movie production’s sound guy is told to start the recorder, and then the slate person places the slate in front of the camera and the AD says “Mark it! “ But I bet you’ve never witnessed it at a wedding.  If you think I’m going to tell you that I do all of this at weddings and events (I'm a wedding cinematographer)  well, no. But I do follow the most intrinsic protocols, the stuff  taught to me many years ago when I was a supernumerary/ apprentice at Pinewood Film Studios in England. I was seventeen and I’d quit school early because I hated school. My initial training started with knowing the difference between emulsion and celluloid, key numbers and reel numbers, how to recognize fogged film, to know what butterflies, HMI's and scrims are and how and when to use them—a training that  lasted ten

Wild n wacky wedding traditions

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ALL HAIL…HERE COMES ROYALTY.  When you get married in Hawaii, ukulele music might fill your ears, or maybe your musician will play the ukeke or maybe even the pahu. You’ll probably have a lei placed around your neck.  Leis are tokens of love and aloha. Grooms often wear a garland of green leaves (manly) rather than Kika or jasmine blossoms.  At the beginning of your ceremony, the conch might be blown, especially if it’s a beach elopement—a Hawaiian tradition that dates back to the time when the conch was blown to announce the arrival of Alii or Royalty.  Your officiant might smash open a coconut and spill the milk on the sand, and then ask you to rest your forehead on your partner’s forehead.  But you’re unlikely to experience a wedding tradition in Hawaii that will shock you. If your breath is taken away, it’s probably because you’re standing on the most dramatic beach you’ve ever seen, not because you’ve been punched in the gut for good luck or because your guests have suddenly

Almost white sky and dark brooding clouds

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What your eyes see is not what a camera sees. What we see is what we see whereas a camera approximates based on the photographer’s light and back focus settings. We call this the exposure—a term that is basically meaningless to our eyes. To our eyes, if it’s bright outside it’s bright; when it’s almost night, it’s dark. If we’re inside a candlelit room it probably looks moody, and when we’re sitting on the beach staring at the ocean as the sun sets it’s glorious and if we’re wise we won’t stare directly into the sun.  In photography, it’s not that straightforward.  Imagine it’s noontime and you’re in the middle of a sweeping grassy field fringed by lofty trees to your left and several dramatic gray clouds above.  I’m taking photos of you strolling along, the lofty trees sitting in shade are in the background. My camera's exposure settings would show you in the best light so that you don’t appear excessively underexposed or greatly overexposed. I could give you the photos right out

Shipwrecked

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She walked slowly, her thin shoes not completely shielding her feet from the hot sand. She was nervous… and excited in the same breath. Shore waves, about three feet tall, were crashing along the shoreline. Misty sea-spray was in the air. She took a deep breath,   tasting the briny elixir that was on her lips.  There wasn’t a shipwreck in sight.  But she could see her man, faced away from, as he was meant to at this moment.  He was waiting for her. Her heart began to beat even faster. Not that I really knew what was going on in the bride’s mind at that moment; I just guessed it.  I had been hired to capture these moments on video.  It’s a typical scene that is experienced by thousands of wedding couples at this particular beach: Shipwrecks Beach. My mind drifted off for a moment, and I wondered, how many ‘shipwreck beaches’ are there? I know that in Greece there’s a Shipwreck Beach that some call Smuggler’s Cove. And I’ve heard that Oregon has a Shipwrecks beach, as does Washington