158
the other day, my daughter asked if i would do a little photoshoot for her and her 7 friends. yep, you read correctly, SEVEN teenage girls and me!!
i guess that's what you do when your mom is a professional photographer right?
everyone had to wear white and blue, and they were ALL wearing high heels!! it was kinda funny watching some of them try to walk in such high heeled shoes, but since they were ALL better than me at doing it, then i'd better not say much.
these girls are good friends, and they wanted a photo to commemorate the ending of grade 11 and the beginning of summer.
here is a collage of these gorgeous young ladies and an extra one of my daughter (because i'm the mom and blogger, and i think she's pretty awesome).
aren't these girls all GORGEOUS!!! seriously people, these are some STUNNING YOUNG WOMEN!!!
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry:
good friends
. TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.michelebowmanweddings.com/darkroom/mt/mt-tb.cgi/155
149
things have been quiet around the blog, and for good reason.
i was away.
away away away.
there is a place that pulls my heartstrings, and those of my hubby. this place is secluded and beautiful, raw and poor.
Roatan Honduras is this special place.
our 5th trip to this unique island, now sits on the top of all the previous trips. we were spoiled with the most fabulous weather EVER, and stellar diving conditions. it was awesome, amazing and wickedly cool, all rolled into one OFF THE CHARTS trip!!!
Darryl and i are a super happy married couple. we are both business owners and the busy parents of 3 teens.
life doesn't lend itself to much free time these days, and it's our regular trips to Roatan that keep us sane. it's so important to spend some quality time with your hubby, and we have a unique way of doing just that.
Darryl and i are avid scuba divers. if we actually had a mass of disposable income, we'd be on live-aboards in the Galapagos, diving with hammerheads at Cocos Island, and scouring the South Pacific for the most remote and secluded dive destinations.
the more sharks the better.
just sayin'.
for now, we spend our vacation time and money, on a little off the charts dive resort called Cocoview, located on a private cay that can only be reached by boat. it's our home away from home.
last week, we packed up all our dive gear, and travelled to our little slice of heaven.
when you get off the Cocoview boat, and the dock staff see you, get all excited, and run over to hug you, then you know that you are staying at the the best place EVER!!!
we've been to Cocoview five times now, so the staff know us by name and hug us all week! it's awesome!!!
i know that i am a wedding photographer, but deep down inside, i wish that i could be a full-time underwater photographer for National Geographic or something like that. i have the patience of a saint, and i can out-wait any fish, and my love of all things aquatic just keep me wanting more. my friends and family know this about me, but my leap into wedding photography was spurred by my adoration and addiction to underwater photography and because i bought a DSLR with the hopes of taking the ocean by storm! well, i didn't quite take the ocean by storm, but i quickly fell in love with documenting weddings and other than being a world-renown underwater photographer, i can't imagine doing anything else.
we live in the Windsor area, which is not really known for its oceans and spectacular reefs, but more for its murky lake and the Detroit river. when i get the chance to see all of God's awesomeness and get to visit the turquoise waters of the caribbean, then i'm like a kid in a candy store!!!
i would like to share a few photos with you, so that maybe you can get a sense of the beauty that i got to participate in. i am truly blessed .
(oh, and i got to use my new Canon G11 for the first time, and after a few rough days of figuring out how to use it, i quickly started loving it)
one more thing....
the majority of the photos that i took, are of creatures that are teeny tiny (under 1 inch long). i love to find all the macro life, and my Canon camera rose to the challenge and i was able to capture quite a few blennies (which a adorable little fish). anyone can get a photo of a damsel or parrot fish, since they are ALL over the reef and easy to see. i crave finding the small, the unique, and the rare. i was lucky enough to find lots of rare creatures. i guess i get caught up in the thrill of the hunt or something.
this photo is of some shrimp and a cryptic teardrop crab in a sponge along Cocoview Wall. this crab looks brown underwater, since you lose colour under the sea, and it's only about 1 inch in diameter.
this is a Sailfin Blenny. he's about 1.5 inches long, and this is his fighting stance. he saw his reflection in my camera and thought it was another male blenny. he came out of his hole to fight!
this little guy is a Flamingo Tongue, which is like a slug/snail thing. he's about 1 inch long, and they are almost always found on these types of coral/gorgonias.
this is a decorator crab. they are pretty small, and they are camouflaged like a growth that normally grows on this type of coral.
this is a lionfish. i had always wanted to see one, but not here. these guys are uninvited visitors and they are not welcome in the caribbean. they are native to the south pacific, and here they don't have any predators! they are now being hunted and killed by all dive masters.
we also ate some lionfish one day, and it was YUMMY!
this is a lettuce leaf sea slug (or nudibranch). i had never seen one before, and i was blessed to find two of them this week!! they are about 2 inches long, and move slowly along the reef. i LOVE them!
this is a green moray eel. i found it along Cocoview Wall, and it was about 4 feet long. people think that eels are scary and fierce, but they really aren't. they look fierce because they have to open their mouths to breathe, not because they are attacking or anything. i love finding eels!
here's another eel. he's just a little guy. i love finding this eel, because they are just so sweet looking !! i think they're called Goldentail Eels, but i might be mistaken.
this little brown seahorse was found on the wreck (the Prince Albert) which is located right outside the resort that we stay at. i was pretty happy with my find, since seahorses are actually pretty hard to find.
here's a little juvenile blenny that i found on a sponge. i am always happy to find a blenny!
this is a Christmas Tree worm. they are about 1 inch tall, and they are found all over coral heads, and in every colour imaginable. i just like photographing these little guys, since they are a pretty and they are all unique. lovely little things.
can you believe this cutie? this guy is like a box that floats around with his cute little fins. i am in LOVE with his colouring!!! he's a Cow Fish, just in case you were wondering.
this is my hubby, and the bestest diving buddy ever!!! i love scuba diving with the man i love.
this is a tiny find, called an Arrow Blenny. he's about 1.5 inches long, and it's only a few millimeters thick. they float in the water and have weird, jerky movements. strange fish.
ok, that's enough for the today. i'll post a few more tomorrow, and tell you the miracle of the sea slog find, and our rarest upon rare fish find!! exciting stuff!
amy:
you got some amazing shots!! that flamingo tongue one is my fav i think. glad you had a good time!!
(05.11.10)
Carmen Hess:
Thanks for sharing! My family and I leave for CCV in 10 days and we will be coconuts this time as well. We will be staying for 2 weeks again....It's just too hard to leave after one week. Several of our dive buddies from Timmons Ontario will also be there.
(05.12.10)
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry:
my little adventure ~ we're not in Windsor anymore!
. TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.michelebowmanweddings.com/darkroom/mt/mt-tb.cgi/146
146
it's been a few years since i got married and planned a wedding, and in all honesty, we didn't have a professional wedding photographer.
believe it or not, we asked a cop from our church to take our photos, because we heard he would do a great job.
ummmmmmm....... not so much.
that was a long time ago, but it's a shame that my photos kinda suck.
i still love my hubby though, so it's all good.
these days, with the digital age and the fact that there are so many photographers in most urban areas, i can imagine that it must be tough for couples to know how to choose the right photographer for them.
i feel badly for couples, because there is just so much to choose from, so many photographers that are trying to get clients, and so many websites to go through!!!
if you are recently engaged and have fallen upon my site, i just want to tell you that i can only imagine your pain.
it's like when i go to a restaurant and i'm handed a menu that is 15 pages long. how the heck am i supposed to choose what i want to eat?
too many choices!!!!!
how do you decide what you like, what you want, what's the best route to go?
so, you've Googled "windsor ontario wedding photographer " and you see that there are quite a few photographers in this area. what the heck?
you sift through the endless amount of websites and blogs, trying to narrow it down to maybe 5 or 6 photographers that you plan to meet with over coffee. great.
now, you've seen the photos, but you have about 30-60 minutes with this person, one on one, to see if you click and if they are the photographer for you.
tough decision.
recently, i read a post on another photographer's blog (Grant Perry), where he wrote something very similar to this list and i thought it was a super helpful idea. i decided to so something similar for my clients, since i want to make sure that clients hire the right person for them.
here are a few ideas for making it easier to chose who's the right fit for you (whether it be me or another photographer).
please don't mind the different font. i wrote this in Word and then cut and pasted it here.
1~ Relationship
the absolute, absolute, absolute most important aspect to you getting the results you desire from your wedding photography, is that you fall in love with your wedding photographer! you just need to click as personalities and as people.
also, a wedding photographer worth hiring doesn't just take pictures.
a fabulous wedding photographer should be an artist uses their camera to capture the art of your wedding day, not just any photographer or a good friend with a Rebel XTI. each and every wedding is filled with such emotion and so many passion filled moments, and your photographer is there to capture each moment as art. the art of the story and the art of the moment is what makes your wedding photos truly wonderful and unique. they are about you.
a photographer's images should, with one glance, create an emotion for the viewer . can you envision yourself in the photos that you're looking through?
anyone can take a picture, but you need to chose a photographer that you know will be able to capture your story, in a way that speaks to you
2~ Passion
so, you've booked a meeting at Starbucks with 10 different photographers. now what?
when you're sitting across the table from photographer #5, how do they make you feel on the inside? are you getting excited about your wedding day as they talk about how they might be involved? when they talk about their art and their product, do they get all excited for you, your dreams and your plans, or do you feel that they are they just selling something? what adjective comes to your mind to describe them if you were asked 5 minutes after you left the appointment?
if you leave the meeting and can turn to your fiance and say 'wow, that photographer has passion for their art!", then put them on your short-list and consider that a good meeting.
a great wedding photographer shouldn't be in this line of work , just to make a few bucks, but they need to be truly passionate about telling your story through their images, they need to truly care about you as people, and they need to be passionate about their art. PASSION!!!
3~ Fun?
sure, wedding days are full of timelines and schedules, smiles and hugs, but they are also supposed to be FUN!!!
when you sit down to meet with a potential wedding photographer, do you think that you might be able to have fun with this person all day long?
i guess it comes down to the relationship thing again, and whether or not you can just be yourselves and have fun with the person that will be working closely with you for up to 12 hours or so.
if you don't know what the heck i'm talking about and if you don't plan on having any fun on your big day, then you can just ignore everything i just wrote about the subject.
just kidding.....
you KNOW you want to have FUN! who wouldn't?
that's all i have to say, for now anyways.
oh, and a blog post is never complete without a photo
another one from Rob & Leslie's Willestead Manor wedding, here in WIndsor
Nick Everitt:
Great article, really good advice for couples looking for their wedding photographer and I love the image that you have included, thats an awesome first dance shot!
(04.21.10)
Philip Hawkins:
Good advice. I give similar advice over here in Scotland from time to time as selecting the right wedding photographer can be a daunting process to many couples. Excellent image choice, too...timeless!
(04.26.10)
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry:
the art of choosing a wedding photographer
. TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.michelebowmanweddings.com/darkroom/mt/mt-tb.cgi/143
143
i know i say it often, but i'm going to say it again.....
i LOVE my job and i LOVE being a wedding photographer!!
i'm sorry if you are getting tired of hearing that statement, but it's true, and i am blessed.
yesterday, i met with a wonderful couple about the possibility of documenting their super awesome wedding next year. i sincerely hope that they book me because they were wonderfully sweet and i'd love to work with them, and get to know them even better!
ok, that's not the point here....
what i am trying to get to, is that something came up in our meeting, that was the catalyst to me writing this blog post this morning.
it's about ENGAGEMENT SESSIONS (if you didn't get that from the post title already).
inevitably, the topic of engagement sessions comes up during my initial meetings, because they are included in most of my wedding collections and i frequently get asked "do i need an engagement session and why?"
i do have to say that it's normally the guys that are puzzled about e-sessions, but most brides are pretty pumped about the thought of having one done.
what i want to do here, is explain my take on e-sessions, and give potential clients some insight into how my brain works and why i LOVE doing them.
first and foremost, e-sessions are a great way to get to know your wedding photographer, and for me to get to know my clients on a more personal level.
when a client books me to be their wedding photographer, i want to make sure that i get to know them on a more personal level, so that on their wedding day i am just like an old friend coming to document their wedding. i put all of myself into every job and every client that i book, and i want your wedding day to just be a continuation of the awesome client/photographer relationship that we will have already built.
during an engagement session, i ask my clients to think of a way that i can document them doing something that is uniquely THEM. when i say this, i mean something like, if you aren't a pretty-park person, then posing in front of a bunch of tulips or flower beds and saying 'cheese' for the camera, is NOT a brilliant plan. if as a couple, you LOVE to go bowling with friends, then lets take some photos at the bowling alley! if you love to stay in on weekends, cook cool meals, and watch old movies, then i can come to your home and take some e-session photos of you cooking up a storm!
i think you get my drift with this stuff.
by following you on a 'date' and documenting what makes you 'special' as a couple, then i get a glimpse into your love, and into your lives, which will in turn help me to be able to better understand what i can do on your wedding day to make sure that your images reflect YOU !
the second reason that i feel that engagement sessions are important, is because most couples don't have any professional photos of themselves, and i want to change the world (one couple at a time).
sure, most couples have about 1,000 self-portraits, taken at arm's reach, with their iPhones or compact cameras. the other photos that most couples have, are one's from the last party or holiday dinner they attended. you know the type of photos i'm talking about, all out of focus and full of standard red-eye, maybe with a bit of their heads chopped off.
ok, so maybe you don't NEED an engagement session, but i'm sure that now that you've read my blog post, you WANT an engagement session!!
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry:
what the heck do i need an engagement session for?
. TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.michelebowmanweddings.com/darkroom/mt/mt-tb.cgi/140
141
yesterday, my good friend and fellow wedding photographer, Jayme Morrison and I, took to the streets of Windsor to scout some cool new shooting locations for our upcoming wedding season.
ummmm......
it didn't go very well.
you see, we got off to a rocky start when we got sidetracked by talking too much, and then we realized that we were driving aimlessly around! we quickly got back on track, tried to focus, and then decided that we needed to eat.
we have our priorities ya know.
after a yummy lunch and some good conversation at Chanoso's , right in downtown Windsor, we set off on foot to discover some treasures. actually, we thought we might get lucky and come across some REALLY great shooting locations, but we soon realized that it wasn't going to be our lucky day.
well, what do you do when you can't find any awesome locations?
you photograph OTHER COOL STUFF!
some of our finds of the day include an alley with cool shadows, a fair trade store that smelled like incense and had a Matryoshka doll with the face of Vladmir Putin, a night club called the Boom Boom Room (i like the name), a Windsor Symphony schedule so that Jayme can take her son to the Peanut Butter n' Jam concerts, and some mud.
all in all, it wasn't a total loss.
you see, i had a great time getting to know Jayme better, it was beautiful and sunny outside and we got to walk around AND it was a day away from work at the computer, which doesn't happen very often.
here are a few photos from our adventures in Windsor...
since wedding photographers in WIndsor aren't very busy during the winter months, we resort to shooting murals! LOL!
ITDR:
Testing 123
(03.10.10)
Jayme:
You know, it's so funny how we were both at the same place and different images came about ;) Well, I guess we know this about photography though - there can never be a duplication in how one sees the world ;)
(03.27.10)
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry:
scouting gone awry....
. TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.michelebowmanweddings.com/darkroom/mt/mt-tb.cgi/138
Michele, you are the coolest mom ever! And it says a lot when your daughter isn't just willing to LET you take her friend's photos - she trusts you and your non-dorkiness enough to ASK you to do it! Beautiful shots, and what a great idea! Wish I'd thought to do this with my friends when I was Emily's age. xoxoxox
(07.16.10)