I’m out of words today. I’m finding more and more that I speak better through photography.

Before I go though you should check out Courtney Jade’s photography. She’s the one on the right in the photo below.

Back on December 12th I second shot a wedding with Kate Leigh in New Jersey. 

Back on November 15th I worked as an associate photographer for a wedding shot by Shira Weinberger. Shira hired me as a second shooter because she ran across my blog while searching on google for NYC second shooters. That’s proof for you that it pays off to have a blog. Here are the highlight photos from the day. I was with the groom for the beginning part of the day and then met up with Shira and the bride for some portraits. We were losing light fast and the weather wasn’t cooperating with us so we ended up having to finish the shoot in Grand Central Station. From there we headed to the ceremony and reception.

Last Saturday I was the associate photographer, with John Woodbury as the primary, at a wedding at Tribeca Rooftops. Like I said in a previous post, this was the first wedding that I tried using an off camera flash. Over the last couple of weeks I picked up the necessary equipment at B&H to make it happen. It made my job so much easier. In the past I would have the flash on my camera and just bounce the light off the ceiling. That works well when there’s a white ceiling but if there wasn’t I’d be in trouble. And this is a wedding that I’d be in trouble trying to bounce the flash off the ceiling because the ceiling in the reception and ceremony area was skylights, all skylights. I set up my light in the corner of the room with a shoot through umbrella. This provided a nice light for most of the dance floor. 

The below photos were lit with the Canon 580EX speedlight with a 60″ shoot through white umbrella.

For the above shot I used a 1/8 speed grid from Honlphoto. The grid cuts the degree of light coming out of the strobe so instead of having the strobe light the entire scene it lights a much smaller portion of the frame, in this case from the groom and best man’s torso up. It creates a nice mood lighting.

I got the above photo while testing my exposure before the ceremony. He was putting on a tap dancing show for me.

Having to think quickly for these shots I turned my speedlight (while on camera) sideways and had it bounce of the white wall to camera left (or for the below photo, behind me)

Two Sundays ago I did head shots for a friend of mine, Anthony. We shot in the industrial area of SE portland by the river. The weather that weekend felt like it was summer. We shot around mid day which was a little tricking with lighting because it was rather harsh so for the most part we stuck to shooting in the shade. I had rented the Canon 50mm f/1.2 L lens for the weekend. It’s a pretty awesome lens. The first shot is with with my 85mm f/1.2 L and the others are with the 50mm. I think I’m going to be purchasing the 50mm in the next couple weeks.

After shooting with Anthony I met with the Aimee Gonzales and her family up at forest park, specifically at Lower Macleay Park, for some family portraits. This was really my first time shooting family portraits (I shot my own families back in December but that was more just pushing a button and running to get into the photo). We hiked about a half mile in to this old abandoned “house” occasionally stopping along the way for some photos.

After finishing the family portraits I headed over to Clyde Common where my friend Charlie hired me to shoot their Absinth dinner event. The 50 1.2 performed rather well in an event setting and I found I used it much more than my 24-70mm 2.8 L.

(For larger panoramic photo click here)

(Charlie: Bar Manager; Tim: bar back and ran event; Nate: Owner of Clyde Common and cook for the event)

Three shoots in one day makes for a very long but fun and exciting day .

In other news, I just sold my Panasonic DVX100a and some other various video equipment so I can now get some new canon lenses . The question is which ones to get. Right now I think I’m definitely getting the 35mm 1.4 L but then I’m not sure for the other one if I should get the 24mm 1.4 L or the 50mm 1.2 L. Decisions..decisions…decisions. I also thought about getting the 5D but they’re rumored to be releasing the MKII version of it pretty soon so I’d rather wait on that.