What's in my Photography Bag?

Recently, I discovered Pinterest - and I'm hooked!  For fun, I created a board to show what is in my bag, so to speak.  Sure, I don't carry around all this stuff, but it's still part of my overall gear.  All these things are important to creating the ultimate wedding and family photos!

So, are you curious what camera I use?  Which lenses I have?  The software I prefer?  Then, check it out....

Peek inside Gardner Photo's gear bag....

While you're at it, check us out online at our website or visit us on Facebook.  We'd love a "like" while you're there!

Something Borrowed, Something New...

 I love playing around with Photoshop.  After all, I've been doing it for....gasp....20 years now!  But there's always something new to try - a filter, technique, action, you name it.  I especially like some of the tools from Nik Software and Alien Skin.

Yesterday, I came across a tutorial for making faux HDR images.  From Wikipedia:

In image processing, computer graphics, and photography, high dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of luminances between light and dark areas of a scene than normal digital imaging techniques or photographic prints. This wider dynamic range can allow HDRI to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to deep shadows.

In English - it creates some very cool images.

I haven't really done much with HDR.  My one and only attempt didn't turn out, so I poo-pooed it as some passing fad and moved on.

Yesterday, I read a tutorial about faking HDR and gave it a try.  What fun!  I saved it as a preset in Lightroom and went to town on a bunch of photos.  It is definitely NOT for some photos, but I rather liked how crazy some others turned out.

Full slideshow:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/gotbaby/sets/72157622154433356/show/

I may start to offer this option to Clients who want something a little more edgy or artsy - ask if you're interested in knowing or seeing more!  Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the photos.