Restoration Living post

I was honored to be asked to post over at “Restoration Living” about my travels and photography. Here’s my post.

 

We live in a world full of huge need. The need for clean water, the need for food, for medicine, and for some children, the need to be loved, and taken care of.

God has wired me with two very different passions: missions and media. I have had the opportunity to travel the world and witness this need first-hand. I have felt the sting of guilt as I watch an orphan in Haiti look at me with desperate eyes, asking for my water bottle full of clean, fresh water. I’ve seen children in Bangladesh cry faces full of tears saying “don’t go” with arms outstretched, as I leave on our last day. I’ve had to say ‘no’ to mothers in Brazil who are handing me their babies asking me to take them home so they will have a better life. I’ve watched, in Nicaragua, a child’s eyes follow me as I walk by a huge pile of rotting trash that is his playground and try desperately not to make a face at the stench.

But there is beauty amongst the filth. There is hope among the needy…And there is MUCH work to be done. For some reason, God decided to place us in the most affluent country in the world. SO the question is not, WHY did God place us here. The question is HOW do we use the resources, time and talents that God has given us, to help the needy, the poor and the orphaned? When I look at these photos, I think, how can I make a difference in this huge world? And then God quietly whispers to me, that it’s not about me making a difference. It’s about me loving the people I come in contact with. It’s about being a light in the darkness. It’s about dying to myself, so that God can be glorified. It’s about putting a smile on a child’s face who may not have smiled all week. And it’s about asking God how He can use me to further His kingdom. THAT’s what it’s about.

 

FAMILY FASHION Fall 2011

I have had MANY people ask me what to wear when it comes time for their family shoots. It’s a hard question for me to answer. Because while I am passionate about fashion and trends, not everyone is. I’ve never been a huge fan of the “everyone wear the same color on top and jeans on the bottom”. I think that was a huge trend in the 80′s and 90′s, but just not so much any more. Here are some ideas I’ve found are really cute. Some I’ve found online, some from families I’ve shot. Hopefully this gives you some help when picking out clothes for your shoot, but the one thing to remember is this: BE COMFORTABLE AND CONFIDENT!!! Whatever you wear you should feel good in because if you’re not, it will show in your photos!!

GREAT FALL ACCESSORIES:

Scarves, Boots, Hats, Quilted Blankets, Carved Pumpkins with Initials, Apples of all different colors.

Also, here is a link: Dressing for your body type

The mom could add a chunky brown sweater for a fall shoot and boots of course.

Love this palette

This could be used for twin boys or just 2 boys in the family.

Orange and Brown are classic fall colors and go GREAT with outdoor shoots. Obviously not use the flip flops, and the boys could wear cords instead of shorts.

These long brown sweaters are so cute on mamas to be!

Purple is so underused, but such a great, strong, fall color.

I LOVE these hats on little boys!

i LOVE scarves. SUCH a great accessory for fall.

I love love green. Plus in the fall, it looks great with the browns and yellows of the leaves.

This is a great palette too. Bright and fun.

Ludwig Wedding in the Dells

I shot a GORGEOUS couple, Jolene and Ryan Ludwig at the Chula Vista resort in the Wisconsin Dells. What a FUN weekend! The story of the day, was that as I was running from the Bride’s Room where she was getting ready, to the ceremony site, my left boot caught a funny angle, and down I went. I heard the sound of cracking knuckles, but it wasnt my knuckles-it was my ankle.

I stayed paralyzed on the ground wondering if this couple was still going to get wedding photos, since at that point I couldn’t feel my ankle. Well, adrenaline kicked in, and I shot the rest of the wedding on a janky, cracked, massively sprained ankle-that’s 8 more hours of shooting! Am I a trooper or WHAT!?

 

Check out this GORGEOUS couple. What a FUN day!

Here Comes the Bride-and the pain from my ankle at this point...

 

 

In this photo, my assistant walked through the shot with a video light while I had my camera set to a 30-second exposure.

 

 

 

 

Shooting In A Foreign Country

I had the opportunity to be a part of a trip with Healing Haiti. I was asked to go to document the trip as the photographer/videographer.

I have been on quite a few of these overseas trips as the photog/videog (Bangladesh, Brazil, Nicaragua and Columbia in the past.) Each trip is unique and each trip I learn something new about documenting in a foreign country.

This trip captivated me in many ways. The children, the environment, the locals. It was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had. I felt drawn to the country and the people. So much so, that I want to spend as much time there as possible.

There are a few things/tips I’d give about shooting overseas.
First of all…

ON EQUIPMENT: make sure your equipment is super portable and super easy to access. I know, I know that seems obvious. Let me explain further: When I went to Nicaragua, I had a great backpack (or so I thought):

Looks nice and portable, huh? Not so much. The bag alone weighed 17 lbs. Adding all my equipment, An HVX, monopod, cables,microphones, lights, etc. And this bag weight almost 35 lbs. I could have just considered this a great workout carrying it around. But what you dont think about is the HEAT in these country’s. It was easy 100 degrees and carrying around an extra 30 pounds could be the difference between heat stroke or not. I fell victim to heat stroke on my Nicaragua trip and I vowed to be more prepared for my next trip.

So when I was asked to go to Haiti, my first thought was, I need to be prepared. I sold my last bag, and bought a new one. Yes, it was wicked expensive ($185) but man is it a sweeeeet bag! It fit everything I needed, was almost 30 percent smaller and more compact than the one above, weighed about 15 pounds less and because of the way the bag was made, the weight was distributed evenly, so I never had any uncomfortable cramping in my neck and shoulders from carrying around the bag all day. Here’s my beauty:

This bag is pure genius. Highly recommended. I also had a killer monopod with me, and had room in my luggage for a mini glidecam (which, of course, gave me some sweet video shots.)
And guess what? No heat stroke! Your bag needs to be easy to access from weird angles. You may be scrunched in a taptap….or a rickshaw and need to access your equipment, or you may be out in the villages, and not able to put your bag down to access your stuff. You need something you can swing around easily from back to front.

SHOOT, SHOOT AND SHOOT SOME MORE: You are on a once in a lifetime trip. If you come back with 10,000 photos and 45Gigs of Video, 3,000 of the photos may be duplicates, or be blurry, or overexposed from the sun, but that means 7000 of them are awesome keepers. Maybe 10 Gigs of video is to shaky or overexposed, but that means 35G of it is usable, quality footage. Which leads me to another topic:

KNOW YOUR SETTINGS: When you are shooting in a foreign country, that means you are shooting in foreign territory. The sun seems brighter, the buildings seem to be bouncing light, there is dust flying everywhere, and you see stuff around every corner that you want to capture. KNOW YOUR SETTINGS. Just like in wedding photography where you’re shooting on the fly, you need to be ready to catch the sun or the shade and everyone’s face still needs to be lit correctly. Know your stuff and be ready to change your settings in an instant.

ON SHOOTING THE LOCALS: Dont treat them like you’re at the zoo. They are people just like you. Always ask before assuming you can take a photo of someone in their hut/home. If you dont speak the language, figure out motions that translate into: can I photograph you? It helps the locals to feel at ease. When you just assume you can shoot, and start blasting away at people in their ‘homes’, or outside of their ‘homes’, it automatically puts a wall up between you and them. You dont want this. You are in their country on their turf. You are a guest in their home. Act like one, and they will appreciate it. But more importantly, you just might have a chance to make people feel special by photographing them, if only for a moment.