Recently, I had the opportunity to provide headshots at an event for MotorCityConnect at Automation Alley (of Troy, Michigan) July 28th, 2008. I enjoyed the pleasure of meeting various different people with different areas of business that vary from finance to catering to marketing.

Here are some results of the pictures that i’d like to share with you.

I’m in the process of building a commercial portfolio as well. I’m going to name my commercial work as Bureau Photography Group. This body of work will focus on commercial clients only: work that ranges from event, annual reports and headshot photography. Please give me a call if you’re interested in working on a project with me. I can provide you a free custom quote with a phone call: 734.330.2378.

1. Photo Attorney - I’ve heard Carolyn write talk about copyright issues in Las Vegas a couple years ago during a photography conference. You should be lucky if you have the opportunity to listen to her talk. She gives a fresh perspective too since she is a photographer as well. She likes to photograph nature photograph primarily. If you’re in a bind yourself with a copyright issue be sure to call her. Her blog is additionally an awesome resource to keeping up to date with copyright issues in America currently.
2. Copyright.gov - If you’re a photographer this should be your best friend. The federal government website is surprisingly very helpful in outlining in laymens terms what is protected by the copyright.
3. Kodak’s Copyright guide - This one I took from Detroit Photographer, Blake Discher’s website. He provides this useful resource from Kodak which outlines in simple questions about typical concerns about copyright related issues.
4. EditorialPhoto.com - Editorialphoto.com outlines a plethora of links and resources to websites and information related to copyright issues as well for photographers. If you’re looking to do more research yourself this would be the best place to stop after visiting the copyright websites above.
5. FormVA - This should be your favorite pdf. This pdf outlines how to register your works with the Federal copyright office.

Remember all the following are not suggested to be used as legal advice. If you have a serious problem or question about intellectual property rights please contact a lawyer specializing in intellectual property rights law.

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is holding a photography contest in conjuction with its upcoming exhibition: Kenro Izu: Light over Sacred Places of Asia

The Detroit Institute of Arts are starting a contest through the Flickr Pool. Anyone can participate. If you’re not a member of Flickr, of the largest  photosharing communties owned by Yahoo!, you can signup so you can participate in the contest. They are looking for people to submit their photography that is related to Detroit. The subject can be anything related to Detroit.

Here are some rules from the official DIA Contest Blog:

• Photographers are allowed to submit one photograph that captures “Detroit’s Sacred Places.” An artist statement is required as part of the submission. The statement (maximum 100 words) should describe how the submitted image pertains to the contest’s theme, “Detroit’s Sacred Places.” Please include any photography technique(s) you would like to highlight. The artist statement should be included in the description portion of your upload.

• Submitted images must be in .jpg format and no larger than 20MB (3000 x 3000 pixels and 300 dpi) opened. Please make sure your image has a file extension of .jpg prior to uploading.

• Images should be unmodified. Please do not submit photomontages, double exposures, or photos with alterations, such as borders, watermarks, or added text.

• Please submit images that are true photography. Photos of paintings, screenshots, and illustrations will not be accepted.

• Photographs must be submitted electronically via Flickr and tagged with “Detroit’s Sacred Places”.

• Submissions are due September 3, 2008

• By submitting an image to “Detroit’s Sacred Places” contest, you affirm you are the creator and rightful owner of this image. In addition, you agree to allow the DIA to use the image in museum and/or promotional materials.

What do you win?

The prize is a signed copy of Izu’s work, Kenro Izu: Light over Sacred Places of Asia, and 2 front row seats to his lecture September 14th, 2008.

Fiance2wife.com recently posted, on June 29th, 2008, some typical questions that you should ask a photographer. I’ve probably have answered some of these already in my own posts. I’d like to build a dialog; thus i’d like to answer some questions that the blog addressed. Keep in mind their blog is local to the UK so things might be a bit different; Regardless, these are some typical questions a bride would ask.

Questions provided by fiance2wife.com. Many of these are specific to our practices. I just wanted to respond to these questions because they’re commonly asked throughout the internet and you never know who is searching for these answers on the internet.

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Bridget and John Neam got married on June 22nd, 2008. I’m just catching up to their photos right now. I have been busy working on something big. You all will see!

Here Bridget is dancing with John.

I absolutely love this photo. Bridget’s ladies were amazing on the dancefloor. They’re so full of energy  and fun! They were ubiquitous on the dancefloor.

This photo is definately a Kodak moment. There’s so much emotion going around toasts. Here maiden of honor gives a speech right after bridget.

This is Bridget and john walking down eastern market. We were lucky that the rain had stopped that day and we’re lucky to find our way to eastern market with enough time at the end. It was not the most sunniest day but it made for beautiful dramatic wedding photography. As a photographer you have to make good use of unplanned tangents that life throws at you. Another reason why i love my job!

Here they  caught a moment of playing a game that i’ve instructed them to do. They’re pretty good at it. No posing at all! This is actually all natural light shot in front of a metal panel in eastern market. Eastern market is such a great stop for photography. It’s like a playground.

Here Bridget is laughing at some instruction i’ve gave her. I can’t remember what it was. She knows i’m funny. Shes such a fun bride. Here we were shooting under the awning of the Fox Theater to take cover over the rain that day.

Brides and grooms for some reason love photographing jump shots. I don’t blame them they’re fun watching them jump up and down. it’s their wedding day they have lots of reasons to jump up and down. Here John and his crew is doing the same as I instructed Bridget: To jump up as high as they can. This is a great thing to do to build rapport with your client actually. It is all about subject management: which i thank Craig Tanner for teaching me.

Here we see Bridget the bride in Angelo’s (i think her step father’s) Corvette. It’s a beautiful ivory colored corvette. I’m not a car buff so I wouldn’t know what year it is. We decided to have her hop in and take a photo right before she was leaving her mother’s house in Fraser, Michigan.

Here we see Bridget posed right in front of her favorite tree at her mother’s house.

I really love what hour magazine has done on youtube. Check out why these individuals love Detroit.

I love Detroit as well. It is an underrated city in this world. I love the D. We have the best sports team of the world. I’ve lived here all my life. I couldn’t be more proud of anywhere I could call home.

This is from a Taylor Wedding I did a while ago. I’ll have to catch up. I’m really behind in the blogging process. Recently, I’ve moved to Ferndale to be closer to things. It’s made life more convenient and I’m very happy about my new place.

But check out this one photo I took in Taylor while shooting with Mary Potts Photography:

Forget Posing:

Being a portrait/wedding photographer gives you too many variables to remember to control. Lighting, your camera settings, how your subject is working with you.

Recently, it’s been a very favorite photo of mine. Very simply executed as well. I’ve noticed brides usually love to hear stories about how you create the photo to give an idea of how you work with people. In this photo it was very simple. This is something inspired by another photographer: Jerry Ghionis (an internationally renowned and very distinguished award winning photographer that i’ve had the pleasure of listening to in Las Vegas). Jerry emphasizes directing your subject and not posing them: giving them an activity. Fluidity of the action relinquishes your subject from thinking about the act of photography. Thus, eventually giving you more possibilities for what artists call, “happy accidents.”

Giving them an activity while also communicating with them is essential for subject management ( a term coined by RadiantVista’s  Craig Tanner ).

Last night I volunteered to shoot Geftaki’s Bikini Fashion Show. Tough job.

Well if you’re looking for the photos the photos will be posted by Sunday Night if not even earlier.

The photos will be posted at this gallery: http://holymoleephoto.smugmug.com/gallery/4956515_YTaWG

With my experience and contact with a handful of Brides I’ve have collected some online websites over the past year or so to help brides with planning.

The advent of ease of information it has become increasingly efficient for brides nowadays to plan their own wedding: Finding places of information for brides. Here is my list of top 10 free online websites and communities that help brides in finding and working on their perfect wedding.

1. Museweddings.com - Currently in beta, this online web application provides brides with a productivity tool and ideas for brides to set a to do list.
2. Weddingparty.com - If you want a website with less annoying banner ads, easier to find content and a less cluttered website. This is probably ideal for you. This directory is for those who are sick of “The Knot.” The directory also contains one of the best wedding photographers that you could find. The project is originally created by Marcus Sark a photographer from the Ann Arbor area.
3. Wedfog.com - This free resource provides clear answers about Wedding photography from photographers. The wealth of information is aplenty and helpful for brides answering their many common questions that brides have so your consultation with your photographer will go much less hectic and smoother as planned!
4. Yelp.com - Not commonly seen as a tool for weddings, it can be useful because it is one very popular website for rating services from restaurants to hotels to shopping in areas where you have not been. This is especially useful if you are planning a wedding from a different state or even a destination wedding in a different area of the US.
5. Weddingbee.com - This website/blog/community contains many blog posts and a wealth of information that vary from dresses. The website even features its own wikipedia that has been written and created by the community of weddingbee.com readers.
6. Flickr.com - This website is primarily a photosharing website. Recently, I have seen a trend among web-savvy brides to tell their guests to post and tag their wedding so that everyone at their wedding can see share and post other people’s images. The service is free and provided by yahoo! Users of this service have several privacy options as well
7. Myspace.com/facebook.com - For most Millenial brides this is already a given. Many brides already have profiles as well as myspace pages. But for those who are unaware of this service. It is very helpful for passing invites and informing your closest friends and network of friends about your relationship status as well as reminding others when your wedding is. This might not be helpful if you haven’t been meeting and adding friends to MySpace or Facebook. But nowadays both social networking websites are so ubiquitous the chances of your friends being online are very good. Even my friends ant farm, and pets are on MySpace. All in all Facebook / Myspace are the modern way of managing your contacts with friends / relatives / and everyone that you may come into contact with. It can also be useful for you to create guest lists and to figure out whom you might want to invite.
8. Blogger.com - Set up a blog for you and your fiance! This way you can write about your progress up to your wedding date as well as keep your friends, relatives and guests updated as well. It only takes a couple minutes to set up this blog. The blog allows you many different themes. I’m not positive but I’m pretty sure someone has probably already created a wedding related theme by now.
9. Google Calendar - If you don’t already have a google calendar this is probably the best calendar i’ve ever used. Google calendar has lots of features that lets you put important dates online and then will remind via mobile if necessary. Google calendars also allows you to share important events with others. You can even create seperate calendars for you and your fiance so that he/she can be updated with dates as well.
10. Me. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or just want to send some love to my email box. That is always great!