MudEyes

stupid blog
I have to put text
to push it down!
So it wont hit the thingy!
text
text
so professional!
but I want it to be big!
enjoy!

Super busy after these 3 weddings in 2 weekends, but took some great video from the last wedding so thought I would share! Click right outside the play button to take you there and make it bigger!

As he walked in with a Miner out fit complete with hard hat, goggles and an antique lantern, I knew I was going to have to take some video of this as sometimes stills just dont capture the whole effect! The white balance was set very warm for flash so I didn’t have time to change it so I made the video black and white.

This little girl had some moves! I must have takes 150 shots of her trying to get that perfect one!

gangsta’s paradise….WEST SIYEEEED!!

Meghan and Nick came all the way up from FL to do some engagement photos and for Nick to come to Kalamazoo for the first time…They were really excited and I was excited to give them some great images.

Mission accomplished =)

Ridiculously sweet rusty wall!

The weather got a little crazy so we had to improvise…

Nothing wrong with that!

Holly puttin’ in work son!

One of my favorites yet!

We even used my dad’s garage to have some saucy times =)

I hope you guys are as pleased as we were, thanks for making the trip!!

Thank you for your interest in a portrait session with us! We would really love to do a session with you but we also really try and work with people who share our style and will be happy when we give them images that reflect that style.

Our Style should be taken into account before booking your session with us as we may not work as well under the more traditional standards that some people are used to.

We are strictly on location, and mostly natural light, so by booking a session with us you have to be aware that we are at the mercy of the weather and therefor will have to be flexible to fit in your session. We try and use the beginning of or end of the daylight to more easily control shadows to get more of a flattering light for our subjects.

If you are wanting the majority of your senior pictures done in nature settings, we can do that but we must let you know that we are usually unable to provide more variety in those settings. We thrive and work best in urban settings that are more grungy and rustic to achieve a “beauty and the beast” type of contrast that makes colors pop and gives our images a very unique and edgy look.

Q and A:

What is your payment policy?

We ask that you send us a check for half to book your date, and then we require the remainder before we begin the session. If you decide to order more then your allotted print credit we would need a check for that before we can submit the order.

How long do sessions last?

That can depend on a lot of things but usually from one and a half to two or more hours. In either case we reserve control over when I feel like we have enough images to give you a good variety. I like to start about 3 hours before sunset so the times will vary or we could do shoots a few hours before noon to get similar light.

Do you retouch your images?

Yes we know that you want to look your best for senior pictures and don’t leave any images looking anything but the best they can. Our theory is that if it wont be there in a month we will remove and smooth. Things like moles, scars or anything else as to not offend people you will need to tell us you would like us to remove certain things that bug you. On the same note, retouching does take a great deal of time so anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated, even if you don’t tend to wear makeup, even a small amount will help us to make you images look much better.

Can I bring a friend?

Yes! I wish more people would bring friends because it makes it less awkward to be honest! Anyone who helps you to be yourself I really encourage that you bring. After all the whole goal is to get images of you being yourself in a natural and relaxed way!

Is facial hair good in pictures?

My personal opinion is that unless it’s a big part of who you are it’s best to be mostly clean shaven unless you have a descent five O’ clock shadow going on. I had a “goatee” in my senior pictures, and I think back and think it looks ridiculous but that’s just me. I still find the images have a more clean look when you shave.

Yes this is me demonstrating how bad it can look =)

Do you travel to locations we want?

We do travel for 50 cents a mile to and from a location outside downtown kalamazoo. We feel we need to charge this rate because of the time traveling, and the gas and milage put on our vehicles.

Can I suggest locations?

This subject is kind of hard because we love to give people lots of variety in there set. 90% of the time when people ask us to go to certain locations they don’t cater well to our style and a lot of times we travel a good distance to a location where we can only get a couple good shots. We spend a lot of time scouting areas to find locations that yield the best variety shots you can get in a single location. We really ask that you trust that we know the best location which is why booking us because you like our style is so important. Like I said before nature locations are not very good for what we do. Trees and flowers can be nice for a few shots, but they start to all look the same very soon.

Why do you Charge up front?

We have had to learn the hard way unfortunately that money is kind of a pain to deal with after the actual session. We used to do half down on the day of the session and then the rest when you get your proofs, but our turn around time is fast enough to where we would rather just get it out of the way so that we can focus more on getting you results. Then we don’t have to wait for a check from you to release the proofs, or worry about people getting the proofs before we are compensated for all the work we have already done. Hope this isn’t an inconvenience to you, but we have to do what’s safe and best for our business.

Why do pictures cost so much?

Most people kind of have the idea that all you need is a descent camera to give people senior pictures. And in one sense that is true. We try and give you images that are set apart from the norm. We really pride ourselves in giving people the highest quality pictures they can get from anyone. This means keeping up and researching the best Camera, lenses, computers, software, and proofing sites we can. Then we have to buy all those things. We have spent thousands on equipment and computers to give you what you paid for. Not to mention we really put our hearts and souls and hours of our time to give you great pictures. We hope you see the value in what we do!

Do you give people full resolution disks with printing rights?

I’m sorry but no we don’t and you may think its more about the money but to be honest its about the artistic integrity. When people go to print pictures it makes me cringe to think they are bringing my images to walmart to print them on low quality paper and ink. You must understand that my reputation and name is on my images, and word of mouth and my images are all I have. When people design there own graduation announcement cards with a bad design and sub par printing it makes me look really bad. I hope you understand that I have to reserve all printing rights because I feel like it’s what is best for our business. We also backup your images in 3 different places so you will always be able to order prints down the road if you so choose.

Holly is a graphic designer so we do offer custom designed grad announcements!

What is the turn around time on proofs and prints?
We always try and give you a good preview to tide you over until you get the full set but depending on the week we try and complete your set within a couple weeks. As soon as you submit your print order it only takes a couple weeks to get them.

We are just getting back from our super cool weekend in Denver, where i shot a wedding a little east of Vail at the four star Westin Hotel we did lots of stuff in Denver which Holly wanted to write the post about but I wanted to show you some shots from the wedding.

I borrowed my dad’s Car to get me to the wedding which was a couple hours away and about 15 miles into the mountains i hear some loud grinding or tapping and lots of smoke! Of course! So I am stranded and my dad had to come swap me cars. I HATE being late but luckly I was only second shooting and it wasn’t a huge deal if I was 45 minutes late!!

Luckily my dad traded me this car for this mountain carving turbo rocket. =)

Anyway big thanks again to Jared Wilson who gave me the opportunity to second shoot with him at this awesome wedding. Here he is at work.

Here’s one of my first shots using the Canon 135mm f/2L I rented from borrowlenses.com I used it wide open pretty much all day and loved it.

These kids were suuuper cute so I had to take advantage of the glorious bokah that I used in the shot above.

My first assignment as a second shooter was to hang out in the lobby and take some candids of the family while they wait for the shuttles to take them to the ceremony location. Luckily there was a massive window with lots of light. The 135mm was perfect!

The whole guest list was either from Mexico or from Texas so I’m sure he had a lot of calls from people that couldn’t make it. Never thought of Colorado as a destination location but that’s exactly what it was!

This was a catholic wedding. Which was an HOUR long. but plenty of things going on the whole time.

I also rented a Canon 28mm f/1.8 which I was VERY impressed with, and I really enjoy the focal length! Here it is wide open.

Check out this church!

The Reception was back at the Westin and did not disappoint!

There was even a lounge, talk about setting the mood!! So chill.

In comes the new couple!

We Start things off with the first dance; thank you 135L!

Sweet band as well!

This is my first wedding with a real wedding planner and I have to say I wish I had a lot more, with all the sweet presentation and details they can bring to the table. I mean the bride and groom’s glasses had Diamonds in them! Diamonds!
Taken with the Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro

After not eating for 9 hours this was really tough to look at =) Don’t worry they did feed all the vendors later on, and while it was a good meal it wasn’t this unfortunately!

I will leave you with this shot of the bride and groom. It was weird being a second shooter but I enjoyed it. Who wouldn’t enjoy it with a great looking couple, interesting venus, and a crazy family? I do miss the bride and groom money shots but I would love to shoot with Jared again!

Double R out 😉

Hey everyone! This is Ryan, and I was just thinking about all the blogs I stalk and how impatient I am when they don’t put new posts on every few days! So I guess I can’t really talk since I am pretty bad at keeping this thing going strong. I have a lot of exposure avenues I use and its just hard to stop and take the time to make this thing look nice.

BUT! I have great news!
So Holly has been working for me full time since, well we got married last June. I, on the other hand, had a second job which I did scale back my hours to 3 days a week. I had planned on breaking ties with Mulder Glass this spring around the end of May when wedding season starts kicking in. But they have been slow and not using me all that much so I thought about it and decided to go full time a little early! So now I will be able to spend more time in Photography mode, and I hope to write in this blog much more frequently.

I have to thank God that he has really blessed our business after one profitable year to be able to have enough work sustain both of us for a whole year! I never thought I would have my own business, let alone one I love so much and can be so excited about! We are looking into all kinds of different avenues, such as hosting workshops, lots of networking and we are hoping to go overseas this fall to start working on the photo-books which have been our ultimate goal from the beginning.

We are also doing a 52 weeks self portrait challenge! All you people on flickr Know what I am talking about, but you basically take an interesting picture of yourself that depicts a common theme, or what you have been doing or feeling that week. Some people do a 365 but that would just be hard for how busy we will be. You can really think about your shots on a weekly basis instead of churn out a new one everyday.

So we are on week 6 of this so I will catch you up. I am hoping to post them every weekend on here, to get me more in the groove of blogging and being more constant.

Before I show you those I thought I would let you know what posts I plan on writing soon!

.New 35mm f/1.8 AF-s release by nikon that focuses with the D40/D60
.Lots of lens reviews! Canon: 28mm f/1.8, 135mm f/2, 70-200mm f/2.8IS, 100mm f/2.8 macro and the Sigma 50mm f/1.4HSM
.Facebook Marketing
.Spring workshop details!
.More technical lessons

Anyway, heres the first few 52’s!

Week [1/52] Off camera flash
We had a little fun getting used to the pair of Canon’s 580EX IIs using off camera flash. There’s a whole set of fun shots on my Facebook

Week [2/52] Big Fattys!
Obviously for my 5D vs D700 review!

Week [3/52] Saucy-Snow lumber-lady
Shot in a fancy hotel I got for like 90 bucks in Cleveland the night before an Engagement shoot
This shot was available light (lightbulb from a lamp shot with a Sigma 50mm @ f/1.4)
She bought the hat because we were shooting outside the next day and it was like 3ºF)

Week [4/52] Pretty Pack-Rat
This is Holly’s Massive jewelry collection all balled up =) Shot on our bed with another lamp

Week [5/52] Facebook Marketing!
Post about this to come… but to sum it up My business wouldn’t be the same without my iPhone and without Facebook!

And finally this week [6/52] We headed to Denver which you can prolly see from the above post and had some fun with an aspiring photographer Erika Jessop She is already and excellent Graphic Designer and an AWEsome artist! But she wanted to buy a big girl camera to upgrade from her kodak super zoom. Sooo I gave her a Canon 5D Mark II with a bunch of prime lenses to play with. We did a little walk around the block and had some fun! She’s actually really good!!

Thanks for reading guys! Please leave a comment so I can know you are there! =)

post by: Ryan

Its been a crazy couple years on flickr! I started my flickr account coming back from hawaii and Cambodia discovering the world of DSLRs. I spend the winter reading and researching because I thought i did pretty good with my first camera, a Canon a520 point and shoot. I first saw photos from my friends Nikon D70 and was amazed that stuff like that was possible! I decided on a Nikon D80 that I was hoping to get by Feb of 2007. When I went to the camera store I held the D200 next to the D80 and I had to have the D200!

I started photography loving candid kids shots and planning to try to do it professionally… until I shot my first wedding in May. I was in love. There was just so much going on all day and so much to shoot! I did a few more free weddings and by this time I met my now wife Holly, and shot our first paid wedding in December of ’07. It was very difficult with the pressure of being paid. We have gotten so much better the more weddings we shoot together. I invite you to scan through our earlier photos and see the difference! So much better in editing, and style. We have since done 17 weddings, 31 seniors and spent over $10,000 on equipment! We now have 17 weddings and counting booked for next year, and I will be joining Holly, going full time working in photography!

I never could have done all this so quick without Flickr and the people on it! Flickr has been part of our life and we see flickr as a collaborative person. We are always checking to see if Flickr loves us! It seems flickr enjoys us a little bit. We have surpassed 50,000 photo stream views, and a quarter million individual image views! We have 151 contacts that I love to check up on, and over 400 people that call us a contact! Can you tell I love stats? I wish I knew how many shots I have taken since then. Last time I checked there was 62,000 images in my computer’s hard drive. Minus all the copies in there, but then I am sure we deleted an equal amount!

We are constantly evolving and our style has become more and more our own! Thank you so much to everyone that has ever given us comments of encouragement and letters full of kind words! Thanks again everyone. I must also thanks the Lord for giving Holly and I the talent to do something we love for a living! I can’t wait to use my talent for him overseas!!

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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: 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!

{posted by: ryan}

The wait is over!! Full frame for me!!!

I was told the D700 would be released on the 25th but no one seemed to think I would get it in time. I was really hope to get it this weekend so I pray and said I know you have already given me so much, but you did say you do not have because you do not ask. So I guess I am asking! It would be a nice birthday present!

Then I called Norman Camera in the morning to see if they had at least got a tracking number from nikon, but they didn’t seem too wise to the matter.

I was disappointed and went home. 15 minutes late I got a call and said they had one waiting for me! It was awesome!! I think maybe he didn’t let me have it then because I would have picked it up on the way, and Holly wouldn’t have gotten to see me all giddy =) They Said I was the first one in Kalamazoo to get one! (Same for my D300!)

God is awesome!!

This Camera isn’t too bad either by the way 😉

{Gizmo and Pete Stealing the D700}

{Full frame and it’s huuuge viewfinder}

The Next Day Holly and I desided to have a photo adventure in Kalamazoo’s Crane Park.

We tested out some macro and did a mini photoshoot!

{Fast FX Macro!}

{My idea-mule testing some senior ideas =) }

{Holly insisted I have an upshot of my own}

{This is one heck of a hand-me-down =) }

I am excited to post some high ISO shots. This thing can really perform at 6400! Even at 25,600 I can get usable images! This Camera is going to rock my world!

More to come!