Introducing Jenn A – Office Manager extraordinaire! 2012-05-11

Over the past several years, I have had the great fortune of being successful, meeting some of the most awesome people and photographing truly gorgeous emotion filled weddings, the finest food, coolest products, unbelievable architecture and, well, just enjoying every aspect of this business.

However, it can be overwhelming.

As I’ve grown my business over the years, I’ve come to rely on a few very trustworthy, honest and talented people.  The busier I get, the more I have come to rely on them.  I am very honored to finally announce I have made it “official”, so to speak, and brought on one of these people full time into my business.  Jenn has worked with me, off an on, for the past 4 years and been an immeasurable part of our growth.  This month we finally made it official and gave her own brianmullinsphotography.com email address.

You can read more about Jenn on our Raleigh Wedding Photographers info page.  We tend to share a brain so if you call or email (or she calls or emails you), and get Jenn instead of me, rest assured that she knows my business just as well as I do.

So, welcome Jenn!  Here are a few fun shots we did of her in my studio.

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Raleigh Architectural Photography 2012-04-30

Not too long ago, I received a call that, honestly, I had always wanted but never thought in a million years that I would get.  It was from one of my commercial photography clients, Design Lines, with an opportunity to do some Raleigh Architectural Photography for a downtown Raleigh apartment.  The location was, honestly, one that I have been dying to shoot – high atop a condo building in the heart of downtown.

When I arrived that afternoon to start the shoot, the views, to say the least, were breathtaking and I literally had to compose myself for a moment before coming up with a game plan.  The location was, of course, gorgeous but when you add in the furnishings and design elements, it took it to a whole new level.  Each project I have worked with for design lines has really showed how talented they are with interiors – from simple color palette choices to entirely re-designing a room in a house.  Needless to say, I’m thrilled every time I work with them.

The photo shoot covered 3 main rooms – the living space, the master bedroom and the study.  We made the decision to photograph the main room with a  few different “looks”, both during the day and in the evening to capture the ambient light in downtown.  I’m thrilled to say design lines has submitted their images from this condo into a competition – here’s to hoping they win!

So without further ado, here are a few shots from the day!

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A few shots from today’s photography 101 class 2012-04-16

Hey Everyone!

As you probably know I have been teaching a few Apex photography classes on Sundays.  On 4/15, I had a full class come out for a very hands on, jam packed class that has about 3 hours of classroom time and 3 hours of hands on shooting.  The classroom time was mostly spent on mechanics, adjusting your camera, flash techniques, natural light techniques and, most importantly, how to make it work for you.  The best (in my opinion) topic of the day was the auto modes vs manual mode.  The pitfalls of having the cameras make your decisions, even partially, vs the benefit of having it work faster. My goal for every class is to have each participant come out with a solid knowledge of WHY something look great, and more importantly, why it doesn’t look great.

I’ve got a few shots below that I took throughout the day to help illustrate the points we were covering.  I’ve explained each setup below to help not only everyone who was in the class see the results I got (as well as their own), but also let anyone who wanted to take the class see the results. tury painter used in their masterpieces, window light!) This was shot using a “pool” of light coming from windows in two rooms, then being funneled down by two doors.

Working with natural light (using what every 17th century painter used in their masterpieces, window light!) This was shot using a “pool” of light coming from windows in two rooms, then being funneled down by two doors.

Inside my studio using cool lights. Similar setup to using natural light but with more control.

Attendees shooting a setup using no direct light but indirect light bouncing off of a white wall (camera left, out of frame)

More practice turning the model INTO the primary light source (we found by looking at shadows). Completely covered overhead with open sides – aka “open shade”

Charlotte working with moving the subject AWAY from the wall to create a more polished photo.

How do you deal with direct sunlight? Turn your subject away and backlight them with the sun. No flash was needed for this particular shot (although you may need to fill flash)

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New alien skin guest blogger – me! 2012-04-15

In the past I’ve always laid out business goals – how many weddings I wanted to book, portrait sessions, commercial work, etc.  Pretty boring stuff honestly, but one think I never really put a goal on was “community”.  I do quite a bit of work with the Wedding Photographic Society (www.thewps.com) and that keeps me pretty busy, but at the beginning of this year I made the decision go with a little more self promotion in different areas.  One of those avenues is networking with vendors in my field.  As part of that, I’ve been to trade shows, talked with manufacturers and started both teaching and consulting.  This lead me to an amazing opportunity that, quite honestly, I am still as thrilled about now as I was when I first got the email from the CEO of Alien Skin Software.

Thru my work with the WPS, I got to know the guys over at Alien Skin.  They have been one of the founding companies that has always stood behind the idea of helping other photographers and never failed to absolutely amaze us with their support.  They contacted me and request I consult with them regarding new product development & refinement – ya, I thought that was pretty cool as well.  I started with consulting about the UI for an upcoming version of one of their products, specifically for the user interface, the workflow process and how I would change things to make it faster, more intuitive and, well, just a better experience.  From that meeting with the programmers,  I received an email from the CEO asking me if I would be interested in writing articles for their blog.

Uh, ya!

So, make sure to look for my articles on their blog.  You should be checking it out anyway because they really do have some fabulous stuff on there.  All kinds of helpful tricks and tips for photography, software and lots of other goodies, all without talking you into buying their products.  If you haven’t checked them out before, I’ll happily recommend you look at “Blow-Up“, “Bokeh” and “Exposure 4” – 3 great products that are really fantastic to work with and, personally, saved me LOADS of time in post processing.

After you do that, make sure you take a look at my first post introducing, well, me, to their readers!

Brian Mullins – Alien Skin Guest Blogger

Since this post was about me, I’m throwing in a few random shots that I’ve taken recently!  Enjoy!  All of the shots with my banner were taken by me.  The ones of me (and the one of me and Cristobal Perez) were taken by Stacy Borelli.

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State Club Bridal Portraits | Mandy 2012-04-09

Everytime I blog about a Bridal Portrait, I always mention how it’s tough to NOT blog it before the wedding as we don’t want to ruin the surprise for everyone else.  The State Club Bridal Portrait we did for Mandy is a perfect example of this.  The State Club itself is a truly gorgeous location for weddings and definitely for a bridal portrait.  We decided to mainly work in the “great room” which is at the back of the building with stunning 20′ windows, mahogany fireplaces, white marble floors and a simple elegance throughout the building.

Like almost every bride I’ve worked with, there is always the nerves to work out.  Each bride is different, of course, in how long that takes.  Mandy was, well, about as good as it gets.  After the first few shots, and of course letting her see the results, we really got into it and really got some stunning portraits.  I’m so glad the wait is over now and I can finally post these as it’s definitely one of my favorite bridal portrait sessions I’ve ever had the pleasure of photographing.  I hope you enjoy Mandy’s State Club Bridal Portraits!

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