just about to hit the hay

I just came in to shut down my computer- I'll get an early start tomorrow... and found a great email I thought I should share:

"Joel surpassed every expectation we both had.. He is gifted with an eye for beauty and art in all photos. Our Wedding Day story has been told in such a complete and detailed way. Our children will someday be able to share our photos with their children, and so on through the family, and the beauty of that day will forever be recorded exactely how we PICTURED it.... Joel is the absolute best!!!!!! We have been blessed to have crossed paths....... Paul and Christine Loret "

How cool is that? I should print this on a billboard or something.

I guess I will sleep well tonight!

san diego slideshow

check out my latest slideshow from a wedding earlier this month at the Hotel Del Coronado. leave feedback please.

OLD MAN MOUNTIAN WON!!

YES!!

Channing at Old Man Mountain (I shot the bike last month) won the contest put on by Shimano!! Read about the shoot here. I knew that bike was the cream of the crop- Way to go Channing!!!

robert and kim

I figured I should be posting more of my shoots- weddings- for all y'all to check out. Yesterday was a cool one, at the Hyatt in Huntington beach. I worked Lisa Simpson (coordinator) for the first time (I have met her in the past at meetings, etc. but have never worked with her). Alex and Jeff were also there from Elysium Productions- the BEST videographers in the OC! Michele is the catering manager at the hotel (I shot her wedding in Aug.) and is just the nicest person. All these great people made for quite an enjoyable day!! The weather was perfect and the location is great too, so good shots were pretty easy to come by.....

loved this display of art- had to use it!

this was at the 'convention center' have you ever seen a cooler 'convention center'???

After the reception (it ended it at 4pm) we went down to the water for a few.....

Robert and Kim are genuinely great people and were such fun!!! Thanks guys!!

burn it

this post isn't really about one specific tip, just an overall idea about improving an image.
I took this shot about six weeks ago at the Turnip Rose in Costa Mesa. It was hard shooting in this room because it was 9:30 in the morning and the sun was blazing in the east facing window.

I liked the composition and the Bride's expression in the original shot but the color and exposure were terrible due to the fact that the sun was coming halfway up her dress and blowin it out while her face was underexposed.... What to do??

I started by using the sponge tool (grouped with the dodge and burn tools) to desaturate the blue on her dress. I then used a levels adjustment layer to darken the background (move the middle slider right to taste). I then used the mask to reveal the Bride. Her face was still underexposed so I used a curve layer mask to remedy that problem.

After the overall corrections, I used the burn tool to darken different parts of the background to fine-tune the look.

The last thing I did was use a texture layer (a photo of a huge metal door I took in Italy). I drug this over my image and changed the blending mode 'till I liked the effect. You can change the blending mode by selecting the layer in the layers pallet and changing the blending mode from normal to ??? I usually highlight it and scroll through them with the arrow keys. The other way to change it is to double click on the layer in the layers pallet and change the blending mode in the layer properties dialog box.

Burn, baby burn~

Last Kiss

Yes, me and Zach Braff go way back......

No, really, here is the true story:
Some really good friends of ours took us to the premier of the Last Kiss last night- so cool. We had an amazing dinner at Asia de Cuba at the Mondrian Hotel on Sunset. What a smooth place- the decor in the lobby was the coolest I have seen- very eclectic: old tree stumps for stools, yet very simple and clean, rustic old chairs right next to clean aluminum ones, nice warm tones- very relaxed and comforting.
And yes our table overlooked all of LA! The food was sooo good!!

Excuse the point and shoot images.... it is kinda cool sometimes to be forced to work with the limited features of a P&S...

A shot of Jeni and I on the way to the theater:
Sorry no photos of Zach!!

The movie was very good- felt very real (the lighting made parts of it look like a home movie- it gave a very 'real' feel) and makes you think about what marriage means... The best line said to Zach's character by his fiance's dad after he got busted cheating: Zach says "I'll do anything to make it up to her and show you that I am not going to mess up again". The Dad says "There is one thing you can do...... just do what it takes."

That's totally it in a marriage- just do what it takes- it's so simple! (sounding!)

We were freaked out seeing all the stars. Not only was the cast of The Last Kiss there, but so where all the Scrubs cast members!!! That is the one show we love to watch and they were all right there. Zach almost bumped into me! I talked to Neil Flynn (the Janitor), he is just like his character- so funny and cool! Turk was there too!!! I just wanted to give him a big handshake and a hug!! They were all so cool to each other- I'll bet it would be a great time on the set of Scrubs.

Then us nobodies were arguing about whether a guy there was the bad guy in Ghost. So I asked him: he cut me off and said in a I-get-that-all-the-time voice 'yessss'. Trying to recover I then asked if he worked on The Last Kiss: "Yes, I directed it." What a total jack-ass I felt like. His name is Tony Goldwynn and I felt like someone was going to come up behind me and throw me out!! I tried to recover again by telling him how much I liked the film and how it made me feel a closer connection to my wife of eight years. I think that did it... or maybe he was just very gracious. He was very nice.

Great night!

old man mountain

My brother- Jon, the bike guy in Portland- used to work for a custom frame builder when he lived in Santa Barbara: Channing at Old Man Mountain. I did a shoot for them a year or so ago and they liked what we got so they called a few weeks ago to shoot their newest creation: 'Frequent Flyer' commuter/ citybike. The images will be submitted to Shimano as their contest entry. The winner of the contest will have built a custom bike around a new groupo (a set of bike components) for urban bicycle commuters.

The groupo features disc brakes, an internal hub three speed, and the front hub generates power for a little headlight.... so cool.

Channing's creation totally blew me away- this guy has a passion for building frames like I have for making photographs. I could go on and on but all you non-bike geeks will just be bored.... if you're not already.

We were discussing the goal of the shoot: what feel the images would have, what we were going to show off, etc. When they mentioned the bike had a bit of a vintage airplane flair. I instantly thought of the Fullerton Airport as the location... and that was that. One problem: how in the world would some regular guys like us get access to shoot at the airport since 9/11?

We weren't sure where to go and decided on a little flight school office. The guy there was the coolest in the world. It is rare these days to find someone that will help you out not expecting anything in return. He said he welcomed the interruption as he was studying for some big test...

He took us to their hanger and to our surprise there was a classic Beech Bonanza. I didn't know what I was looking at other than it was a super clean and very cool older plane (notice the 'V' tail wings). Turns out it is a classic- Channing knows all about it- and every other plane. We got schooled about them all- he grew up around planes: His great grandfather was Lindberg's mechanic, yes, Charles. Channing's Great Gramps helped build the Spirit of St. Louis!!!! Hi grandfather had an airstrip right on the sand in SB- where the Biltmore is now..... so crazy!!

The flight school guy was totally trippin' out when he found all this out- as was I.

Here are a few of our faves:check the little pulley where the brake cable goes by the seatpost.....

yes, those are little custom teardrop 'hub caps' with a one-of-a-kind security nut (the circle with two little holes) so no one can steal the wheel.

Channing fashioned these bars from a solid brick of aluminum!!

I love this stuff- Not only am I extremely fortunate to shoot what I love for a living: weddings- Photo has also given me so many amazing experiences like this... someone pinch me!

under exposed jpeg

finally a post about photoshop!! sorry, it has been awhile, hasn't it.

so I first heard about this technique a few years ago at a seminar but never really started using it- just too stuck in my favorite little world of curves--- for everything: over, under, color shift, you name it!!

I have found that to greatly reduce the noise in bringing back an image from the dead. the best way is to copy the image layer (ctrl. J) and change the blending mode of the new layer to 'screen' then do a final curve (see, still get to use my old pal, Curvey) to fine tune it.
If the image is very dark simply keep hitting control J until it looks close (do this after you change the blending mode and before the curve).

If the image is just a little under: lower the opacity of the screened layer copy to lessen the effect.

I recently changed my 'underexposed' action to include this technique instead of the major curve correction and it is pretty amazing some of the shots that get saved.

check it out....

extra credit

Last week one of my couples was gracious enough to participate in my demo DVD. This is going to be the demo to top all demo's!! Alex and Julie Hill over at Elysium Productions are the coolest- they love helping people grow their business and find sucess. They have been so kind as to help produce it- and lucky me, they are the best in the business! Alex actually came over with his HD camera to get some footage of Zipporah and Oliver ( wedding was a couple of weeks ago) looking through their album and saying amazing things about their experience with me. I could've sat there all night listening to all the cool things they said.

After that we all headed to Salt Creek to get some footage of me shooting them- yes they got back in their suit and dress for me!! I took a few real shots while Alex was getting video- here's one:

Thanks guys, so much, for all your help. I am so lucky to be surrounded by such great people. Zippy and Ollie: Good luck in Chicago!! Talk soon!

Jared Bauman Rocks!!

So yesterday I had a wedding at Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego (very cool place). I gave myself three hours to get there thinking that traffic might be bad. Traffic turned out to be worse than bad- it was horrendous!!! I was on and off the freeway trying to 'swoop' but other's had the same idea and all the streets around the 5 were clogged. My assistant, Stefanie, was a good sport- she didn't even puke due to my erratic driving.

I realized when it took us two hours to get to Dana Point I was not going to make it to the wedding on time- the worst feeling in the world!!!

I was totally freaking out and started calling some photographers in SD that I know to see if they could cover me. Only voicemails!!

As I was driving over the pass (Ortega Highway) to escape the interstate 5 parking lot I lost reception on the cell phone! It was like stepping back in time 10 years- I have no idea how we ever made it without mobile phones! I felt totally helpless and we were stuck behind the slowest car/ driver ever to exist!

When reception was restored I had Jeni (my wife) calling photographers (she was home) out of the blue. She got Jared Bauman's cell from another helpful photographer and told him the deal (I called his office line earlier but just got v.mail). He had no idea who we were but was just the coolest- I could've been some Joe Schmoe for all he knew but he totally wanted to help, he was calling other shooters and giving us numbers too. He couldn't do it because he had some appointments in the OC and was getting ready to head north...

When we couldn't find anyone to help he made some changes to his plans and headed to the hotel to cover for us!!!

So, Jared is now our big hero guy- Jeni and I are so amazed by his kindness and generosity!

I got there about an hour late and of course the girls were running late too, but Jared was there covering the getting ready portion of the day (he did a damn fine job by the way- he is a great shooter!)- it all ended up great as the coordinator Emily Smiley and the Bride were very understanding- Emily actually asked for some brochures and cards after seeing the images on my slideshow!!

A great end to a day that started out so horribly.

I am so fortunate to know all the photographers I do. Wedding shooters are the greatest people (maybe we are so happy and helpful because we get to do what we love for work!), they/we are all ready to help when need be- and we are all competitors!! I was on Jared's turf and he was still amazing!

Other helpful photographers who didn't even know us were Kristen Peelle (thanks for all the numbers) and Lauren Dillon- she was in San Francisco at an event but gave us some numbers of other shooters. She then called back with more!! you guys are the best- thanks so much!!!

Thanks Jared, you are the man! I am indebted to you always.