"Going to the Chapel"







Our wedding this week took us to Tonawanda's St. Francis Chapel. Where our lovely bride Vicki Derby wedded Richard Carhart on the 4th of July. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful ceremony. We got many great images. The bridal party went to Glen Falls in Williamsville for their outdoor environmental pictures. The reception was held at Sean Patrick's on Millersport Highway. we couldn't ask for a sweeter couple to work for. Congratulations Vicki & Rick and thank you for the opportunity. You can view their entire album of images on our main site at: www.theportraitgalleryniagara.com.

Mary Helen & Dan





Congratulations to Mary Helen & Dan. We photographed their wonderful wedding on Saturday at St. John's Catholic Church in La Salle. A great day for pictures. We went to the Art Gallery for some really beautiful environmental portraits. These guys were awesome to work with and everyone had a great time. You can view the entire gallery at our main site: www.theportraitgalleryniagara.com.

Nathan at the playground






My grandson Nathan came over on Sunday and we took him to the playground. He is now 15 mos. old and he loves playing outside. He will be getting a little sister next month. We will be posting pics of her soon.

Saturday's Wedding






Congratulations Kim & Deron. We photographed their wedding at Fort Niagara State Park, Youngstown, NY. During the reception a few french soldiers stopped in for a photo op. The Brodbecks and Gerbers are wonderful families to work with and we got a lot of great images. Memories that will last them forever. Here are a few of our favorite images from the day. The complete set of images is online at our website client proofing gallery :wwww.theportraitgalleryniagara.com

Notice

We will be closing down the homestead site soon. If you haven't already booked marked our new site you should do so now. The new address will is www.theportraitgalleryniagara.com . Thank you.

Special Offer

News Flash... The Portrait Gallery is now offering CD's, DVD's or negatives of your wedding images if your wedding date is over two years old. That's right, you can own your digital files or negatives for a small transfer fee of $25.00. Any wedding photographed from 1983-2007 is eligible for this promotion. Contact our studio if your interested.

Notice

Sorry for the delays in updating our almost daily blog. We are upgrading our computer systems. The windows vista program is not functioning as well as we expected it would. We will have the kinks worked out shortly. thank you for your patience.

Water treatment







I am still working on the water drop project. The amazing images are different in so many ways. I have used colored gels on the lights to get some really beautiful colors. I have used flowers and colored objects placed between the drops and the light to create interesting colors and patterns. I have tried food coloring the drops red and dropping them into clear water. All have made for some great effects. But, the one effect I am still striving towards is to get one drop colliding with another. To date the best I have achieved is two drops side by side at the same time.



Water drops









This a cool thing to try. These are water drops as they slash on the surface of a pool of water. Colored gels are used to get the colorful effects. I love the way each image is always different. I can control the image colors and get many different effects. I will be experimenting with this technique a lot to see what effects can be achieved. Click on image to enlarge.

Re enactment of the burning of Little Fort Niagara











An encampment of French soldiers, Native warriors, and early fur traders on the banks of the Niagara River above Niagara Falls. Complete with a French Infantry demonstration and musket firings. The Day ended with a simulated burning of Fort du Portage.

Hummers


The hummers are back for another season. I love to capture images of these tiny birds. When shooting birds try to get them coming toward you or a side view. Very rarely will an image of a bird flying away from you will be interesting. Try to get your birds doing something interesting. It helps to use a large aperture like f2.8 - 5.6 to blur out distracting backgrounds. Make sure your birds are well lit so you can see detail in the eyes and feathers. These images are almost full size. I cropped for composition only.

April Martin

PreBridals... Oh, Yes







When thinking of wedding photography a prebridal session should be a definite yes on your list of must have photos. The images you will receive from this extra session are a great value to you and can never be done on your wedding day. You will get images with better quality lighting and better posing in a more relaxed atmosphere. Your photographer will make you look and feel like a famous model or movie star. This session is beneficial too. It affords you an opportunity to see your hair style and how your dress fits you months before your wedding so changes can be made if necessary. It gives you a chance to interact and relate to your photographer, so you will be more confident and relaxed that he or she will get the pictures you want on your wedding day. And, some of the images will be included in to your storybook wedding book. This is a win, win situation for the bride.

Lighting Lesson




Sometimes less is more. This is my daughter Lisa. She is a wonderful young woman. Works a full time job, goes to college, is independent, vibrant, energetic, and pretty. With her hectic schedule she stopped in for a visit. This image was taken in my office which is a small 8 x 9 room with beige walls. I used one on camera flash bounced to my left onto the wall and back at my subject to light her face. I held the camera in my right hand and with my left I pointed a dual Zenon Brinkman flash light at the wall behind her to give separation and dimension. I removed a partial distracting picture frame from the background with photoshop. One click and it doesn't get any easier that. Learn to see and use the light. That is all there is to it.

Morning dew

I shot this dew drop this morning using extension tube with a nikkor 24-70mm 2.8. This is four images stacked together to achieve maximum depth of field. I can get a good star effect by shooting at f-16 to f- 22 and back lighting with the sun.

Opening Day

May 2nd was opening day of the 2009 race season at Fort Erie Race Track. We had a great time taking photos and broke even at the track. Here is slide show of some of our images of the day.

May Special

Mother's Day is May 10th this year. This month we are celebrating Mothers. So for all the Moms out there, for the entire month of May we are offering a free portrait session that includes a free color 5x7 print. There is no purchase necessary but additional prints and wall portraits will be offered at an additional cost. Her portrait session can be of just her or with anyone she chooses. She may have it taken in our studio with a huge selection of backgrounds or she may choose to have it on location. Please call early for appointments. 716-297-3387

Digital Magic


Our latest project was a little photo maniplulation. Our client wished to make a large wall portrait of the image with her and her new husband standing in front of his race car outside the church. The problem was she wasn't crazy about the pose in that picture and asked if I could take the two of them out of an image we took earlier inside and exchange it with the their pose in the original image. I first cut out the two of them from the alter picture and cleaned up the edges so I had a good clean image to start with. I did run into a few snags with this image. First the groom was holding his grandmother's hand so his entire left arm an hand had to be re done and blended together. Then their heads didn't cover the original heads so I had to rebuild the background bushes behind the bride and groom. The gown needed to be rebuilt because her stance in each image is different and her gown flows in different patterens in both pictures. I didn't have another image in her wedding album to use that showed her complete gown and in that position so I cloned out the original and rebuilt the pavement underneath. I then copied the right half of the gown and reversed it and pasted and blended it to the left side. This action also required the reflection in the car door be addressed to make the the image look believable. Now I color corrected the layers to make the ambient light images from inside look like they were taken outside. I then added a double mat effect to the image to dress it up. Wahh-laaahhh..finished....just like magic. Our client was very pleased with the results. Her exact quote was: "IT IS AWESOME> THANKS SO MUCH> LOVE IT LOTS> GREAT WORK> WONDERFUL> SUPER> TERRIFIC> THANK YOU". When my clients are happy I am happy.
Click on image to enlarge.

Nevada Rocks

A slide show of some of my favorite images from our tour of Red Rock, Mt. Charleston and the Valley of Fire. Anyone who did'nt sign up for this workshop missed out big time.

Announcement


We'd like to give Mark & Erika a big congratulations on the announcement of their upcoming wedding this August 22. Mark and Erika stopped in on Monday and we shot some great engagement portraits for them. They are a wonderful couple to work with and we are so looking forward to shooting their wedding. You can see the complete set of images at our client events gallery.

Valley of Fire






We saved the Valley of Fire for last on our photo safari and I am glad we did. This place is so beautiful. The park is about 50 miles north east of Las Vegas and it is a quick drive up I- 15 to the entrance. The park drive is 15 miles of the most beautiful painted desert scenery ever. Around every curve Wendy and I gasped, " Wow, look at that! " It truly is a photographers paradise. We spent 6 hrs in the park shooting and we still needed more time. Here are a few favorites. The entire gallery of all these parks is at this link:






Mt. Charleston, Nevada







Mt. Charleston is approximately 25 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The drive up is breath taking. The mountain has an inn and a ski resort at the top. We dined at the Mt. Charleston Inn for breakfast. We watched hummingbirds feed against the back drop of snow covered mountains from our window seat view along side a toasty fireplace inside the inn. The scenic drives of Nevada are well organized and easy to follow. Here are a few scenes from the mountain. I have a gallery of all our Nevada images at this link: http://www.pbase.com/g_muth/nevada_rocks

Spring Mountain Ranch State Park







Spring Mountain Ranch is about 15 miles out of Las Vegas. A great place for pictures and a picnic. The oasis in the desert was first owned by the Wilson Family and later purchased by a German movie star, Vera Krupp. The property was then bought by Howard Hughes and then made into a state park. The park features 6 natural springs and two lakes. Guides at the park take you on a detailed history of the ranch. Here are a couple of my favorite images from the ranch and surrounding area. Click images to enlarge.