Got "Fesh"? - Albuquerque Events Photography

Under the direction of Michelle Morrison, Farfesha Belly Dance is a professional belly dancing company and instructional studio located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If you're lucky you might catch them twirling, shimmying, and gyrating on a Friday night at Taaj Palace, a local Indian restaurant.

As the story goes, the Egyptian music historian, George Sawa,  spent the evening with the dance company and declared they were full of "joyous laughter." Hence the name Farfesha.  Since then, the adjective "Fesh" has made it's way into their vocabulary describing a dancer who is full of  that "on-stage high energy delight."

The Jameson Wedding Ceremony - Wedding Photography

It is said that rain on your wedding day is good luck.  But why?  The "logic" behind the superstition says that a wet knot is more difficult to untie.  And so it was for James and Leah, although thankfully it only sprinkled a little bit the morning of the ceremony. 

 James and Leah tied their wet knot in Half Moon Bay, CA.  The coastal fog actually provided some beautiful diffused light for the ceremony.

Leah brings so much energy into any occasion and was extremely animated, even through the ceremony.  

"I Now Pronounce You Man and Wife!"

Double the Blessings Double the Joy! - Albuquerque Newborn Photography

One of my new friend's sisters just had the most beautiful baby twins! Here's a sneak peek of the two cutest individual ones of the munchkins.

February Specials!

Brighten Up Your Real Estate Listings - Albuquerque Real Estate Photography

This last week I got a call from a friend who is a professor up at a university in Oregon.  She was teaching a class on product photography for Graphic Design majors.  I had helped her with some basic lecture outlines earlier in the term, but this time she wanted to add some spice to the curriculum.  She wanted to do a lecture on HDR - High Dynamic Range so they had something fun to learn about right before their finals.

The human eye is truly amazing.  In one scene, the eye can see detail in the brightest highlights and the darkest shadows all at once.  A camera, on the other hand is not as gifted and has about half of the dynamic range of a human eye.  Even shooting in RAW falls short.  There are several HDR programs out there, including a plug-in in photoshop, that can help bring back detail in both the highlights and the shadows by merging several images together taken at different exposures.  Many times photographers also bump up the saturation to get an over the top HDR image.  While I'm not going to get into details, I will share some of the pictures I made yesterday.  I needed a subject while I was writing the tutorial for my professor friend to use, so I looked around and decided my dining room would do just fine.  The first photo is best averaged exposure from the camera, the second is a 5 image HDR composite. The HDR version makes the room just glow. It is warm and inviting. In this case the HDR isn't over the top, it's just enough to add some spice to any real estate listing.

Research done by Tim Ellis at Redfin concluded that listings with professional photography:

• Receive an average of 61% more views than their peers across all price tiers.
• Have a 47% higher asking price per square foot.
• Have an increased likelihood of selling for homes priced above $300,000.

BEFORE:

 AFTER:

When Should You Use HDR?

If you are interested in photography and have access to Photoshop, you can manipulate images using HDR too.  Here were some pics I took in Zion National Park at the Weeping Wall a few years ago. The left picture shows a photo with an exposure metered for the cliff, but then the sky is blown out and loses detail in the highlight. The second image is metered for the far away mountain, but then the cliff loses detail and is too dark. This is a perfect situation to use HDR. With the camera on a tripod, take 3-7 images with different exposures. Keep the aperture the same and move the shutter speed up and down from the best average exposure.

When the images are merged in the HDR Photoshop plugin you can get an image like this:

There are far better programs for HDR such as Photomatix with better tone mapping algorithms. However, if you already have Photoshop, it's an easy way to spruce up your vacation photos.  (This photo is a little too saturated and "HDR over-the-top" but you get the idea of the range of things you can do.)

Baby Yakup! - Albuquerque Baby Photography

In January, Christine came back to Los Alamos to visit her family for a few weeks with her two and a half year old and her 3 month old boys. They were a blissfully boisterous handful, to say the least.  We decided to do two photoshoots at Grandma's house where they were at ease. 

We shot Baby Yakup on his 3 mo birthday. You'd think he was a lot older because he's just about ready to sit up on his own! Their grandma had a beautiful white bedspread, so we set up the portable studio in the guestroom and put Yakup in a basket full of towels with a blanket thrown over the top. I saw these cute little hats on Etsy and decided to knit one myself. Yakup was my first baby model to wear it. I'd say he rocked his first gig!

He absolutely LOVES his Aunt Tricia. She just had to tickle his toes and he'd start cooing and giggling.  He was being so cute and adorable that the rest of the family heard him laughing and came running in to see the action.  If you zoom in on the reflection in his eye (in the high-res image), you can see mommy, auntie, uncle, and me standing over him smiling.

A Boisterous Handful - Los Alamos Children's Photography

It's such a shame that the amount of energy that you have in life is inversely proportional to age.  Two year olds have all the energy in the world, and parents wish they had as much to chase them around!  I learned long ago not to bring a 2-yr old into a portrait studio.  The best children's photography is on-the-go, just like they are. 

Emin is no different.  He LOVES chickens and eggs, so we decided to take a field trip to a farm to meet some animals while we looked for eggs.  Now We're using the photos from the trip to make a story book for him and his family.

Falling for Your Sweetheart Over and Over Again - Albuquerque Photography

This young couple has been married for 3 years, but together for many more.  When I first met them, I thought I'd be shooting an engagement session for their announcements, and was surprised to learn they were already hitched.  The trees behind the waterfall and the pond were just starting to turn and made a romantic background for this gorgeous couple.  They made the photoshoot fun and easy, but narrowing down the photos was very hard!

My Best Friend's Wedding - Wedding Photography

Labor day is a VERY popular weekend for weddings!  My two best friends got married on the same weekend, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  Two days, two states, and two best friends taking the next step into the rest of their lives.  I impromptu photographed both of them, here are some of my favorites of Jaynie's wedding (James' still to come).

Chief, Jaynie's pup was their ring bearer at the Corvallis Rose Garden.  They had their reception at Strega.  It's unfortunate that the restaurant closed down, but still awesome that you can rent it out!!!  They had their first dance just as the sun set over the mountains.

Dancing in the Land of Enchantment - Albuquerque Dance Photography

As much as I miss dancing in San Diego, Albuquerque is bursting at the seams with latin flavor and plenty of ballrooms.  Ynette invited me to photograph her and her husband/dance partner down at Enchantment Dance Studio.  Their instructor Nick was with us every step of the way to help them stike a pose.  It was  quite a challenging photoshoot as the main ballroom was being remodeled, so we used the smaller ballroom that was surrounded in mirrors.  There were only a few angles to avoid reflections of the lights (or worse me!) in the photos.  We started with some traditional poses, then some lifts. At the end, they just danced and I chased them around.    Here are some of my favorites.

Step Parents in ABQ have really Stepped Up! - Albuquerque Family Photography

I have been blown away by the step parents in this town.  I have photographed several family portraits in Albuquerque with step parents and step children recently. Each of these families just blows me away.  We've all seen Cinderella and other fairy tales where step children don't get along and step parents favor their own children.  But let me tell you, both of these families are more like the Brady Bunch, integrated with love and camaraderie.  To be honest, I couldn't tell who was the biological and who was the step parent.

I met Katy through Groupon, and as soon as she suggested the Copper Street Trails for her family photo session location, I knew we'd get along well.  Dayne, her husband, blazed the trail for us and we ended up at the kids favorite picnic spot, the dried up waterfall at the top of the Copper Street Trail.  Fresh air, sunshine, and three children that didn't complain once hiking up to the top.  It was my first little hike up at a mile high, and it was perfect.  The only thing missing was the family pup (whom I met after the shoot).

Here are some of my favorites.

I met up with the Daltons at the Uptown Shopping Mall in Central Albuquerque.  We dodged the early Christmas Shoppers and found some cool little places to snap some shots.  There was even a HUGE Christmas tree in the middle of the plaza to get some holiday themed portraits.  Their little boy was adorable.  He was only in town for a few days over Thanksgiving, so we had a tight schedule.  It was quite the blustery day, so I couldn't bring my normal lighting setup or I would have gone the way of Marry Poppins. After some creative setups, we got some awesome shots.