I've had the pleasure of knowing Lauren for the past 6 years, having worked for her husband, John for 3 of those years. I was extremely excited when she called me and asked if I would photograph her Pre-Convention Master Class in Orlando. How could I refuse! Before we get to those pictures, I'd like to start by taking credit for Lauren's meteoric rise to success. On the last day of 2011, her and John came over for a New Year's Eve Party. It was here, in our living room, through the magic of the Nintendo Wii, that Lauren developed her dream of dancing.

Ok...maybe not really...but it sounded awesome!

Enjoy the pictures and be sure to check out their Youtube page and Website!!  

For more pictures of this amazing event, you can click here or here and feel free to leave a comment down below!

   After leaving Japan and relocating to Tampa, I decided to open up my photography business again. The hardest part about being the new guy in town is finding people willing to work with you. Rather than waiting for an opportunity, I decided to take a chance and approach the guys at Edson's Barbershop with the idea of doing some portraits for their business. What drew me to the shop was not only the atmosphere and the lighting, but the old fashioned way they ran their business. I came here on a whim for a haircut one day and was also treated to an old fashioned shave with a straight razor. They were excited about the idea of the shoot so we set up a time and place to make it happen. 

    Edson is the owner of the shop and recently moved his business to a new building in South Tampa. One of the nicest guys in the world (and a huge soccer fan), he gave me a tour of his place. He pointed out that the seats for waiting customers were 94 years old. Some of the pictures on the walls dated back to the 1940's and 50's. 

As I was we were talking a couple of his customers came in. These were gentlemen that followed Edson from the old shop to his new location, a testament to the great service the guys delivered to every customer. I managed to get a few pictures of Edson at work and also talked a little soccer with a customer from Ghana.

I stayed out of the way while Edson worked his magic. A little bit later, Glenn, his other barber walked in for work. Glenn was my barber when I first visited the shop for a haircut. He was easy to remember because had some great stories about his time in the Navy during Vietnam as well as working in Alaska as a diver. Best story: he was shot in the hand by a sniper, saved from being shot in the head by swatting at a mosquito. You don't get stories like that everywhere!

I had a great time with the shoot and want to thank the guys for inviting me into their shop. If you're in the Tampa area and in need of a Man Salon, be sure to visit Edson's Barbershop at 4007 South MacDill Avenue. You can find out more about their shop here: http://www.edsonsbarbershop.com/ Don't miss out on the best cut in town!

I’ve always enjoyed looking at photos before and after a photographer processes them. 20 people can take a picture of the same thing and there would be 20 different photographs. Welp, here goes my interpretation of this small piece of life.

Here is where I started after I imported the pictures into Lightroom 4. For those wanting EXIF info – Canon 7D w/Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, ISO 100, f/4.5 @1/640th sec

These edits are in Lightroom but can also be applied in your editing program of choice

I always shoot in RAW. I even shoot birthday parties and barbeques in RAW. Sure it takes up more space but you never know when you’re going to catch something worth printing. When you import a RAW file into your editor of choice, it strips away all of the data you see on the your cameras LCD screen. I apologize in advance if you already know all this information coming up!
Here’s the same picture with Canon’s Standard JPEG setting applied.

The picture is brighter, colorful, and more vibrant. So why not shoot in JPEG all the time? When you shoot in RAW, your editing program automatically assumes you’re going to do something wonderful with your picture. It strips away everything leaving you with all the vital information needed to beautify your picture. With JPEG, you lose that information and thus, a less “editable” picture (to some extent).
Back to the show.

I shoot with the grid lines on in my viewfinder. Just my preference but I also like either my vertical lines or horizontal lines to be straight across, no slanting. If you look at most snapshot beach photos, the water line is slanting down because the camera was slightly tilted when the picture was taken. The grid lines in my camera’s viewfinder help negate that a little. The vertical lines are slightly leaning so I tilted the picture in Lightroom (LR). To convert it to Black and White, I took the saturation out of the picture.

Personally this is always my first step. If I see that a picture doesn’t look good in basic Black & White, there’s really no need to continue on with that process. With that being said, if you want a good B&W picture, dropping the saturation should never, ever, ever be your last step! Personal opinion of course

From here I adjust the exposure and then the contrast. There isn’t a set number. I just do it until it looks good to me. I like rich blacks and bright whites. I adjust the slider until I see a good separation between the blacks and grays.

You can see how the picture is noticeably brighter with more pop. I next adjust the shadows, blacks, and then the clarity sliders. This adds even more contrast and separation between the blacks, grays, and whites.

To finish it off, I added some sharpening and cropped it a little bit tighter ending with this.

I’ll also take a photo into Photoshop and do some further adjustments. For now I hope this helps. This isn’t the greatest black and white photo in the world but I hope it helps a little bit with your own personal post processing. If you do happen to use this as a guide, please be kind, leave a comment in the guestbook, and click the like button up top. Take what you like and apply but try not to imitate anyone's style! (Be unique, next blog post!)

-Michael

Photo of Marvell Smith

I wanted my first blog in Tampa to be about our vacation and relocation but I felt I needed to do this first.

As a photographer, I look for inspiration everywhere. In the winter of 2011, I was introduced to the work of Marvell Smith by my friend Jennifer. Jennifer was looking to get family portraits done in the Spring and mentioned that her good friend in Utah was also a photographer. Most photographers have a second job and Vell was no different. He worked as a parole officer when he wasn't taking pictures. Now, I collect photography links like a kid might collect Pokeman. As I visited his page and flipped through his pictures, I noticed something different. A good picture isn't just about the composition, colors, or sharpness. Vell had that in spades. What set Vell apart was emotion. You could feel it coming out of his pictures. Vell had that and so much more. 

In 2012, Marvell Smith was named Utah's Wedding Photographer of the Year. An honor he truly deserved. I talked to him a bit through social media and he was always friendly, helpful, humble, and appreciative, even when he didn't know me personally. When I told him that his posing class was posted on the website fstoppers, he couldn't contain his excitement. Through the video of him giving a class on posing, you could tell how much he loved his job and this industry. Vell was willing to share his secrets with complete strangers, something that inspired me to do the same. Vell's love of people made his clients want hire him. People hired him as a photographer not knowing that he would also become their lifelong friend.

On the morning of 18 September 2013, Marvell Smith tragically lost his life in a motorcycle accident. I didn't know if I really wanted to do pursue this photography "thing" anymore. After hearing this news, I knew I should never stop. Vell never stopped.

The photography community has joined together and volunteered to edit and shoot all of Marvell's remaining weddings and photo shoots at no cost. That alone says everything you need to know about Vell.

Marvell leaves behind 2 sons, a 7th and 10th grader. My thoughts are with them in this difficult moment. As the days pass by, I hope they remember how great of a person their father was and how he inspired thousands of photographers and thousands of people. I hope they remember how hundreds of couples have his pictures hanging on their walls and how those pictures will get passed down from their children to their children's children. He may not be here physically, but he'll never be gone. That's the beauty of a photograph. Memories may fade but a moment captured is forever. Marvell Smith will inspire forever.

If you would like to see more of Marvell's work, please visit the links below.

http://www.facebook.com/vellvetimages

http://www.vellvetimages.com/#/home--utah-wedding-photographer/

http://blog.vellvetimages.com/

Thank you for taking a moment to read this. Much love to you all.

- Michael

If there's one thing I don't enjoy about Spring in Northern Japan, it's the wind. For this shoot with Bailey, we were dealing with wind gusts in the 20mph plus range. If I was a natural light photographer, this wouldn't have been as big a deal. I'm an off-camera lighting kinda guy. My equipment consists of a portable strobe, a battery to power it, a light stand to hold it, and an umbrella to reflect and diffuse the light. As you can probably imagine, in strong winds, my umbrella becomes a kite. Luckily Bailey's mother Tracey was more than willing to be my lighting assistant and did a wonderful job of getting the best lighting possible for this shoot.

We decided to do this shoot in town and it worked to our advantage. The area we were in was a place were the military folks go to on Friday and Saturday nights to unwind after a long week at work. Known for it's night life but completely empty during the day, it's a perfect place to hide from the wind and get some urban shots. Bailey was extremely easy going and willing to try anything which made for one of my more enjoyable shoots. 

Senior's have definitely become one of my favorite people to photograph. I missed out as a kid and didn't have any done. I honestly don't remember it being as big of a thing as it is now. I can see why it's a big deal nowadays. It's actually a nerve wracking experience as a photographer. I have to ensure that these kids look awesome so that in 20-30 years from now, they can show there kids or spouses how cool they were and still are. Challenge accepted.  

-Michael

Every photographer has images they wish they took or a photographer that they admire. Here are two of mine I want to share, starting after the break...

Cover image, SHIV JI TIWARI by Joey L (http://www.joeyl.com/).

I've been a huge fan of Joey's for awhile now. My own personal journey into off camera lighting begun when I saw his images. His subjects and his tone sets him apart from other photographers out there. For being so young (early 20's), he's already accomplished more than most photographers ever will. Unbelievable talent.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE by Joey L.

GO WHERE THE LOCALS GO by Joel L.

The next photographer probably isn't as well known as Joey but he is amazing. He's from Australia and his name is Bill Gekas. He's becoming well known for his beautiful photos of his daughter. They have a Renaissance feel to them and he gets amazing lighting from just using a simple shoot through umbrella and a off-camera third party flash.

AUTUMNUS by Bill Gekas

RED SCARF by Bill Gekas

FIELD DAY by Bill Gekas

So who or what inspires you? Feel free to leave a comment and share some of your favorite photographers.

If you want to check out more of Joey and Bill's work, visit them at the following links:

JOEY L.  (some NSFW images)

JOEY'S FACEBOOK

BILL GEKAS

BILL'S FACEBOOK

BILL's FLICKR

and some shameless self-promotion for My Facebook Page!

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate every single visit, even if you didn't stay very long :)

-Michael

You would think I would find more time to write with 159 inches of snowfall this winter keeping us locked up in the house. To my 10's of readers, I apologize. Here I go.

My favorite sub-category of photography is black and white. Broken down even further, it's black and white portraits. Even further, black and white street portraits. There's nothing like a candid picture. Think about your favorite family photos. Is it the one's you took at a photo studio somewhere? Or is it a time or place that was captured spontaneously. One of my favorite family pictures is of my kids, no more than 1, sitting on mini rocking chairs in front of a Christmas tree in our little apartment. They were dressed in mini Santa and Mrs. Claus outfits. It was supposed to be a posed moment but when you're dealing with 1 year olds, that's mission impossible. Something off camera caught their attention and gave my son this huge smile with my daughter, amused but not smiling as big, glancing over as well. Perfectly candid and as they've gotten older, perfectly matching their personalities. 

It took the photo above to change my feelings on how I went about capturing street photography and portraits in general. I would happily snap pictures of people as they walked by, not thinking about if I was capturing a moment or just taking a picture of someone just passing by. I was taking a picture of my kids outside of a Starbucks at the famous Shibuya intersection in Tokyo  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibuya,_Tokyo#Shibuya_Crossing).

A young man stopped a few feet behind them and started hanging his head. He didn't seem down just exhausted after a long day.

This whole moment made me rethink my philosophy on photography as I checked my LCD. Hundreds of people and cars surrounded us but in this one moment, I saw this young man. It's about that one moment that gets recorded to the little card in your camera. Every second that passes is a once in a lifetime moment. Other than your family and pets, what would you grab if your house was on fire? Photographs and hard drives containing photographs? That's why photography is so important. That's why looking at pictures of my kids 7 years later still tugs at the heart strings. That should be my goal every time I pick a camera up. Whenever I look at the intro picture, I can't help but wonder if he's doing ok. 7 years from now I'll still be wondering and thanking him for that moment.

Summer photo shoots are few and far between here in Misawa, Japan. The weather is miserable and the lack of A/C here makes people less inclined to dress up and get portraits done. I spend most of my summer taking pictures of the kids.

Needing to diversify my 2012 portfolio, I asked one of my friends if I could borrow her daughter, Sarai, for a photo shoot. She's the pretty girl in the picture above. She graciously said yes and we went to one of the most popular places in town for shoots. I haul quite a bit of equipment with me sometimes and wanted to use some additional gear (mostly a reflector). My 2, soon to be 8 year old, twins volunteered to help. I say volunteered but in all actuality, I had to bribe them again. They definitely earned their pay by keeping the lights steady and shining the reflector where I needed it.

I used a 600w/s Monolight turned up to a little less than 1/2 power with a Softlighter II attached. To keep the best picture quality, my ISO was set at 100. Without the monolight, the picture would be really dark at that ISO. My aperture was set at f2.8 and my shutter speed was 1/80th. We had just moved from a sunny area to this shady spot. Normally my shutter speed would be around 1/180 and up but I had a ND4 filter on. I pressed on without taking it off due to time constraints and mosquitoes!!

The shot below is SOOC (straight out of camera). It’s not bad at all but as you can see, I got part of my lightstand on the left. The overall tone is a little flat so I wanted to bump of the warmth. I also added some more contrast to make the background a little less distracting. Next I added a bit of skin smoothing and then sharpened. I did all my editing in Photoshop CS5 minus the crop which I did in Lightroom 4.

Here’s the edited version below. Better?

I’ll break down editing in Photoshop one of these days. Probably when I’m stuck in the house during the long winter that’ll be here in a few weeks and I have more time. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

Thanks for stopping by. If you're in the mood, swing by my Facebook page and click "like"!

http://www.facebook.com/MichaelPaulPhotography

Best wishes,

-Michael

I truly believe it’s important to develop your own style. My goal as a photographer is to have someone look at my portfolio, and immediately recognize my style. Early on my editing would be all over the place. Black and whites, sepia, high contrast, vintage, spot color (eek!) all in one shoot.  I wasn’t unique. I was trying to be everyone! I consider it a stepping stone to my current taste in post processing. Most of my fellow photography buddies can recognize my style in black and whites. I truly take that as a compliment.

They say “Imitation is the highest form of flattery”. Imitating was important to my development but to truly stand out, I have to develop my own style. Take a look and compare any 2 famous photographers. Ansel Adams had a distinct look which is totally different from someone like David Muench. Same goes with Joey L and Jeremy Cowart. No one will ever confuse me with those guys but that should be my goal. Take what I learn from them and turn it into something my own.

In terms of service, the best thing for me to do right now is to be different than everyone else in my area. What can I offer that no one else is doing for the families and clients here? I’m hoping those are the same questions people ask when looking for a photographer. The look of my photos may not be for everyone but at the very least, I’m offering an alternative as I work my was out of the box.

I think the key to me not being burnt out as a photographer is to shoot for myself. As a portrait photographer, I'm always trying to keep in mind what a client might want. Most people who hire me already have an idea of what  "my style" is and I try to stay true to that on a paid shoot. I'm always open to editing a photo a different way if requested, but for the most part, people know what they're getting from me. I am completely shooting for them which is what I'm there for and of course, I love doing it. I'm still trying to tweak it but in the end, I'm glad people like what I've done so far.

When I say I need to shoot for myself, I mean that I have to go back to what brought me to photography in the first place. In the beginning it was landscapes and now it's street photography. The greats may get paid for it but in reality, there is zero money in street photography. Photography started out as a hobby so there was zero money from the beginning. Money was never my motive. It just so happens that occasionally, I get paid to do something I love. I love taking the photos I capture from walking around and turn them into...something. 

With street photography, there is no directing poses, taking time to adjust camera settings, or moving my light around. If you don't catch that moment right at the second, it's gone forever. With landscapes, you have time to think about your shot, adjust your settings, wait for the right light, etc... About 3 seconds after I took the picture above, the band started moving again. 4 steps after I took the picture below, the man turned right.

Could I have gotten a good picture after he turned? Maybe. Although I think his face would be more compelling than the back of his head. It's part of the game of street photography and it's why I enjoy it. You have to be on your toes, camera ready. I take those images, try to find something that draws me in, and create. This is why it's important to take time to shoot for yourself. Take pictures for your personal portfolio. Pictures that you create, that you love looking at will only make you want to create more. Take the time to experiment with your editing. Eventually you'll develop a "style" and figure out who you are as a photographer. Maybe it may not be what everyone likes. In the end, when you're shooting for yourself, the only person you really have to please is you!

Considering my lack of self-promotion, two shoots in one week, let alone one month, is a lot for me. When Lauren (the lovely lady in blue) asked me to take family photos  a few days before her and Hannah (the other lovely lady) head back to the states, I happily obliged. It's been something we've talked about but never really nailed down a date until this past Sunday. Lauren has done alot for the people of Misawa and she'll definitely be missed. I hope these pictures help them remember their time in Japan.

Dr. Wheeler has been my boss for the past 3 years. When I say there's no one quite like him, I truly mean it. There's hardly a day that goes by where are halls aren't filled with people laughing. I truly enjoy going to my "other" job everyday and it's because of the people I work with.

Jennifer has wanted me to shoot photos of her and her kids for a couple of months now. The timing of the session could never be worked out due to work schedules or mostly, the long winter. So when she asked me on a Wednesday to take pictures on Thursday because her family was leaving on Friday, I panicked a little! Misawa's weather is notorious for being bipolar most of the time. We worked out a time and place to make it happen. 

The weather was overcast but, as with all my shoots lately, I brought a softbox and strobe. It definitely helped warm the pictures up a bit. It rained a little and I didn't get to shoot as long as I wanted because my phone was ringing non-stop. My bosses needed me to come back to work immediately (I got promoted!!). Luckily I was able to get some pics of her and the kids!

I think I'm confident enough in my technique that I may do a tutorial in the future. If it's something you'd be interested in, drop a line. Countless photographers have helped me and it's only fair that I pay it forward.

True story, Andi (of the 3 beautiful ladies, the one in white) once rescued me from falling into a tree well during a snowboarding adventure. This immediately made her one of my 10 favorite people in Misawa! So when she asked me if I could take pictures of her families visit to Japan, I was more than happy to help. This was their first, and probably last, trip to Japan so I was glad to be a part of it.

The weather didn't cooperate on the day we originally planned which is typical of Misawa in the Spring. We changed days and it paid off. Perfect weather, great lighting, and great conversation!

It's been a loooong winter. Usually during the winter, requests for family portraits vanish. Understandable because in Misawa, you're more or less dealing with this everyday.

So when Lanie asked me to do pics for her family, I was excited. It was my first shoot this year. I did pics for her son Mekhi last year about this time.  It was awesome to see how much he's grown and it was fun getting to interact with him more. The camera loves him and he's definitely going to be a heartbreaker in a few years.

I've been using off-camera lighting more and more for most of my photos. I find it's easier to add a little more warmth to the photo, especially on overcast days like today. I think most of the photographers here have a particular "style", typically it's "Natural Light". I personally love the look of outdoor flash. I realize it's not for everyone but lighting is the part of photography I enjoy most besides interacting with some great people.

When I first got my fancy new camera, I was kinda disappointed about the pictures I was taking. I wasn’t disappointed about my subjects or my composition. It was mostly from the way the pictures looked going from my camera to my computer. I learned about all the settings and how to make everything more colorful but more times than not, I ended up with pictures like this…(image not showing for some strange reason)

My pictures would be either too bright or too dark. The colors would be flat. I wanted bright and colorful sunsets and sharp photos, too! So I had to learn how to edit my pictures. I learned about the different formats to save an image and which one worked best for editing (RAW). Almost every good photo has had something done to it (think magazines). Maybe it was cropped, had the contrast adjusted, the brightness turned up or down, a pimple removed, etc. Most photos coming straight out of the camera leave alot to be desired.

Editing is often a time-consuming job and now I see why most photographers charge what they do. The customer is not only paying for the actual photo shoot, but also for the hours the photographer spends in front of the computer adjusting each and every photo and picking the best ones from the 50-100 they took at the session.

I’m better at it now. I took the photo above and turned it into that in under 10 minutes.

I don’t think it’s perfect by any means but I’ve just used it to illustrate a point. I may be weird but I like editing pictures. I love using Lightroom and I’m still learning how to use Photoshop effectively. I like taking something and turning it into something unexpected.

In the long run, maybe your camera doesn’t matter as much as you think it does when it comes to great pictures. I want at $1500 Canon 7D but will it make my pictures better? Probably not. I’ve seen some amazing things done with an IPhone. Maybe it’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and just going ‘Click’. In the end, until I reach the point where all I have to do is point and click, I’ll keep enjoying editing my photos so I think I’ll keep my fancy camera…until I upgrade!