MudEyes

post by: holly

Christmas is coming up so fast this year and I am so excited! I am really enjoying making ornaments for our tree and to finally have a tree of our own. My mom has a much more elegant and “fancy” style than me so our tree for the past few years has been all gold and crystal. It is a beautiful tree, but there is just something about decorating one that is yours, if that makes any sense. We are going to have a Dr. Suess-ish Christmas. 🙂

This is the first ornament I painted and I love it. 🙂 I have a few more but this is my favorite. I am hanging them all with polka dot ribbon too!

I love having the heat on, and all the lights, and the colors, and the shopping…and I think I am going to decorate Christmas cookies this year!

So…that is all. Just wanted to proclaim my love for the Holiday. I think I like winter up until the New Year and then I am certainly over it. So for now…I am happy and totally in the Christmas mood!

post by: holly

We got the “anniversary edition” of the game of life for one of our wedding gifts and we decided to break it open on Sunday.
Ryan took the road of no college, and I took the road of college (just like real life!) and I totally kicked his butt!

The funny thing is, In real life…I work with him so we are the same, what are the odds? haha so much for school, right. But in the game of life, I win by 1 million dollars!!

I only had one son, and he was bad so we put him in the back of the car.

RYAN…however…had 5 KIDS! He could not even fit them all in the car, he had to put the last one on top of everyone else. Sheeeeesh he better not expect that from me in real life, hah.

I like this game, but I think it would be even more fun with more people. Anyone up for some life?

post by: holly

Last week she arrived! My brother has had Rebel for years and he is getting old now. Rebel is a golden retriever. Eve is his new little sister and she is a golden doodle, half golden retriever and half poodle.

She seems so smart and she just loves to cuddle. I instantly fell madly in love with her and it was so hard to leave. I went back to muskegon just for the day to take some photos of her.

{{She already has a little bear friend she likes to chew on}}

{{Sooo cute, I think they have already bonded}}

{{I KNOW we already bonded. 🙂 She layed on my lap and slept for hours.}}

{{BEHOLD! …a puppy}}

{{My brother Craig, and eve}}}

{{Gotta have an upshot, of course}}

I really hope to be able to visit again soon to love her some more. Hopefully, someday when Ryan and I can get a house and settle down we can get a puppy. I told him we need to get a puppy before we have babies…hah it is kind of like a baby, just fluffier.

This wedding was pretty relaxed for us. We didn’t have to start super early so it was great to sleep in. The reception was at the Battle Creek Country Club and is also where they got ready. It was a pretty fun group of people which really makes our job easier!

{{I am going to start with a reception photo just because it is so great….and I took it! YAY!}}

{{Perfect for an october wedding! I thought this was really cute.}}

{{I loved this cool mirror}}

{{before the ceremony, the girls were having some fun in the nursery where they were waiting…}}

{{Little tiny chair in the nursery..haha she tried to fit into the little kid car, but that didn’t work as well}}

{{I was so excited that I got such a great walking out shot! It happens so fast so sometimes I just don’t have time to focus fast enough, but I was just soooo happy with this.}}

{{All the mens}}

{{and all the ladies… I was trying to get them to all do a fish face with the “fisheye” lens. They couldn’t quite pull it off, haha, but I think actually turned out much funnier}}

{{sunset, this was ryans…and he is really awesome}}

{{…and this is mine…I’m awesome in a different way. 🙂 }}

{{Gotta have a little dip kiss in a place like this}}

{{What a cute baby! His older brothers were dancin’ fools at the reception! So cute}}

{{sooo i’m not sure what this is called, but Ryan told me…and I forgot. Either way…its really funny.}}

{{hahah I don’t even know what to say about this….}}

{{Lights! I highly recommend having twinkly lights at your reception, this is what happens when they are out of focus so they give a really cool vibe in the photos.}}

{{hahhaah I love to take photos of people dancing. They make the craziest dancing faces!}}

Andddd thats all.

A few weeks ago we met with Ashley, her mom and future mother in law. They decided to go with us for their wedding and about 3 days later we did their engagement shoot. They live in georgia so finding time to get up here is difficult so it is great we were able to fit them in.

We did their shoot in downtown battle creek and had a great time, they were a fun couple to work with so I am really excited for their wedding next year!

{{I absolutely love this photo. We started the shoot at his parents house which is an amazing house at the battle creek golf course. I just love her face in this.}}

{{His parents requested they have a photo with the light post and the gay in it, and I think it turned out pretty well! Looks very october to me. 🙂 }}

{{Not much to say about this, but I think it’s lovely.}}

{{Her Ring! Gosh it is huge and magnificent. Sometimes when we take really close up photos we can see flaws and such in the diamond that close, but this thing is just flawless, well done john paul!}}

{{This is also her ring! We just finished up the shoot and were talking about albums and such for the wedding and Ryan noticed her ring sparkling all over his shirt. Amazing!!}}

{{This is the same spot we had some of our wedding photos taken and I think is it the greatest.}}

{{Something I am really excited for next year at their wedding is her hair. She works at a salon so I am sure her hair will be phenomenal! I love all the volume it has in this photo}}

{{A sweet red door and some fancy editing makes for one fabulous photo.}}

{{This is one of my favorite photos of the day! I Sooooo wish we would have had time to walk around the corner of this building on our wedding day to take a photo like this. I just love absolutely everything about it.}}

{{This is so cute, so I think it is a great ending. Keep an eye out next year for their wedding photos!}}

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This article is a comparison of 2 lenses that new people should consider when buying a DSLR whether it be a canon, nikon, or even a Pentax.

When I bought my first D200 I had read that the 50mm 1.8 was a lens every photographer should have. I didn’t know why, but I figured it was the same price as the 18-55 and they say it was a much better lens. I still have that lens but I bought a 1.4 to get a little more blur and a 2/3 stop speed advantage (at weddings you need all you can get!)

It took me a while to figure out why it was so much better. Maybe because I wasn’t used to the slow 18-55. I wondered, could it really be THAT much better in low light? I have done some test shots to show you just how much more you can do with a 50mm. For the particular test I will be using my 50mm f1.4, which has quickly become my favorite lens which I use for 80 or more percent of my shots.

These few shots were taken at dusk where I could demonstrate the low light possibilities

All these shots are streight from camera. That camera being a Nikon D700.
Also I am using the same lens insted of an actuall 18-55mm because I dont own one. but at 50mm or 55mm the maxium aperture is f5.6
So this test is only to show the low light capability where is would be identical.

You can see the only setting changed here is the aperture. The 1.4 has a 4(!!!) stop advantage! 1/60th is aguably the lowest shutter speed you would want to use without getting blur at 50mm. Therefore at this light and the 18-55, this shot would be impossible handheld without cranking up the ISO.

To get the correct exposure with the 18-55mm you would need to compensate with ISO, or a lower shutter speed. this next shot
demonstrates that.

Now you may be looking at these shots like ok, my camera goes up to 3200 iso. But keep in mind, unless you have the luxury of a full frame D700 your shots will bare a lot of grain, and lose a lot of detail and contrast. There is just no substitute for speed.

Also if you bring the shutter speed down to a quarter of a second, I don’t care who you are your image will be blurry unless you use a tripod as I am here.

So now you know how much speed matters. If that wasn’t enough to convince you, we can talk about sharpness! the 50mm lenses are up there with the sharpest lenses nikon makes. To even be close to the sharpness achieved by the 50mm you would need to stop down to f/8 which number one is very slow, and 2 you loose any background blur.

So to recap,

50mm pros

-4 stop speed advantage
-loads of backround blur wide open
-very sharp from f/2.0 and up
-better build quality and looks much cooler =)

50mm cons

-fixed focal length

18-55mm pros

-wide to telephoto range
-ummm good for.. stuff… sorry I got nothin’.

18-55mm cons

-4 stops slower the 50mm
-not sharp until f/8
-not enough background blur
-feels cheap

I guess really it depends on what you do. For me, I am a wedding photographer, that doesn’t like to use flash, and likes a lot of sharpness and blur. If you plan on shooting weddings at all don’t even bother with any cheap zoom lenses unless you plan on getting really good at flash.

If you buy one of these lenses, I can tell you they are at their best when you use them at f/2 and as close to your subject as you can stand. The blur creates a magical effect that will wow anyone if your composition is good.

post by: holly

I have a new birdie painting on the way!
This is the sketch of it, I just colored it in this morning to plan out what things will be. Still some details to finalize and then I will blow it up on my board! It is going to be amazing!

post by: holly

This past saturday we had the privilege to do Kayli’s senior photos. She lives in grand rapids so we went there for something different since we do most everyone in kalamazoo.

First, I must say, this girl has quite the personality and it was awesome. She was just a joy to work with and I just so wish more people were spunky like that. I love people who are just so free spirited, it makes our job so much easier because she wasn’t really being “posed” she was making everything her own when we were downtown and it was just great.

Something to note is that I think when you see her photos below you will be able to see who she is and that is so important. With seniors, I know it is awkward and uncomfortable at first but I just encourage all of you who we have yet to shoot, to dig deep and forget we are there and that you are uncomfortable and just let loose and be yourself because it really will show in the photos, and thats what its all about, right?

First, she loves art and was telling us about this pieces of grafiti she loved so we went to it and found it was covered by a stupid fence. So, I thought it would be cool to put a page together with the quote on the grafiti for her. It has been a while since I have done pages, but gosh, I think this turned out great, i love it!

This was the beginning of the shoot and she was less comfortable here, haha. You have to have stuff for the parents though, so I think this is the most parent-y shot we have.

I put some cool textured in some of the photos I thought were cool and I just adore how this looks. It makes it kind of dark and interesting to me.

This is one of my favorite photos of the day. The cutout just worked so well and she just nailed it with her face. There are certain things about this pose that she did that made it work PERFECTLY. First, it is the eyes that sell it, and she just seemed to know what we were going for and her eyes just are captivating in it. Also, the lips being slightly apart makes that impact as well. It is hard to just “tell” people to do something like that you know, sometimes you just have feel the idea and go with it.

Another sweet sweet texture…and i love it on the this photo. I also have a thing for stripes..obviously. We have many upshots of her I feel like but this one felt different to me from what we do with other people. Where your arms and legs are really make the difference in a photo.

I love this because it shows something about her rather than just standing there smiling.

I have “regular” edits of these photos without the texture on them that I gave to her, but it just feels like this works so it gets in my favorites post. 🙂 It has mood and emotion and was just made for sepia! I love it!

This was part of the graffiti that had the fence obstructing us, but we made it work. 🙂 The fence kind of made a cool texture anyways.

I spotted this and it matched her sweatshirt so well I figured it was just destiny…and I really love how it turned out. Again, her face really sells it.

This is my favorite of my creative edits! It just turned out really cool and texturey… 🙂

Ryan was going to reject this one! When I saw it, I knew it would edit well so I saved it! 🙂

I love this, who says senior pictures have to sooooo serious all the time? I mean really, when your 17 years old, you shouldn’t be all that serious anyways.

Best fisheye face…ever. That is all that needs to be said.

She kept offering all these things she could do and we were like….go for it. So this happened, hah. Her tongue is sticking out too…haha. priceless.

An upshot with some sass!

This reminds me of the movie “house bunny” when she stands over the steam to try be all Marylyn monroe and freaks out cause its so hot.

Two very awesome poses! Who knew such a ridiculously awesome photo could happen on an old dumpster!

So this is the second time that day we tried the bubble picture. The gum we bought just was not the greatest even though it was BUBBLE tape. This is the best we could do. I am going to get a different kind of gum for the next time we try it with someone.

Ok so that is the end of the shoot! This was a big preview but I liked so many of them, haha. I spent like 5 hours editing her photos which is crazy longer than it usually takes, but there were just so many good photos!!

So the moral of this story… it is so much better to just let loose and be who you are rather than trying to fit the mold and just busting out a cheese smile in every photo. The end. 🙂

post by: ryan

So we have been really wanting a new long zoom lens, because the copy we have of an 80-200mm f/2.8 nikkor was heavy and didn’t focus very closely. (we also suspected it wasn’t as sharp as it should be) I have been researching an alternative that didnt cost me $1,700 (nikon 70-200 VR) While that is an amazing lens, we aren’t famous enough yet to afford it!

Anyway! We were close to Norman Camera, and we lost the cap to our fisheye, and wanted to order a new one, so we stopped in there to do it and I asked if they had any of the Tamerons in. They had been announced last winter, and I had my name on the list. Supposedly they got their first copy in the previous day (lucky for us!) So we traded the big beast in for a smaller big beast with an equally big name… ready? The new lens is the

Tameron SP AF 70-200mm F2.8 Di LD (IF) Macro whaaat a mouthful…

We will stick with “big zoomie”

We will be doing a review soon when I get a taste for it at this weekend’s wedding! Stay tuned, lets see if the slow auto focus bugs me. the macro should be good for a less close ring shot as it has a reproduction rate of 1:3 not 1:1 only of the 50mm reversed.

Seeya soon!

post by: holly

We have been working so much lately so I thought it was about time we have a little date to get out of the apartment. So we went to see Eagle Eye last night. I must say, I really liked it!

This Shia LaBeouf fellow is a great actor. I have really liked him in all the movies he has done lately. He was kind of a stubborn jerk in most of this movie, but it worked.

The general idea is that these two characters “jerry” and “rachel” are brought together by a call from this woman neither of them knows. She threatens the life of Rachel’s son and sets Jerry up as a terrorist so he has to obey her so he doesn’t get locked up forever. Pretty clever…

This woman is everywhere…she uses all the technology everywhere to keep track of them and to communicate with them. I can’t help by think if something crazy like this happened to me if I would just comply. I think after the first act showing her power over everything around, I would be pretty willing.

I was pretty captivated through the whole movie, it kept me thinking which I like. I think it was a really smart movie because I think stuff like this really could happen someday….crazy stuff.

So, go watch it, it’s good! 🙂