Canon xs50 hs ...WoW!

I am testing out the new Canon Powershot XS50 HS camera this week. I think it will make a great walk around camera. The optics on this camera are simply put...WOW! Here is an image I shot today, hand held, at the Erie County Botanical Gardens. One at 24mm and one at 1200mm, yes the 35mm equivilant to 1200mm, holy cow what a lens. Pretty awesome for a point and shoot camera. I have lots more testing to do but so far I like what I see. More to come soon.

How to Decorate your Wedding Reception Facility on a Budget.

Mr.& Mrs. Signs by Lisa Englert

I fell in love with these chair signs...but not so much with the price! We decided to recreate them to fit our wedding budget. First we started off by purchasing 2 wood plaques from Michaels (at 40% off) for $1.95 each. We drilled a small hole at in the top corners of both plaques (to hang them). We purchased a distressed ivory painting kit made by Rust-Oleum from AC Moore (with a 40% off coupon of course) for around $10 (we used this paint for several other wedding projects that we will be posting soon so it ended up being a really good buy!) We followed the kit instructions and painted the signs with the ivory paint. Next we sanded the edges and roughed it up a bit to give it a worn out look. Then we applied the antiquing paint that came with the kit, let it sit for 5 minutes, and wiped it off with an old cloth. This really added to the aged and distressed look. For the lettering, we printed the words “Mr.” and “Mrs.” in Edwardian Script IT font from Microsoft Word in the biggest font possible. We then enlarged them one more time to fit the plaques perfectly. To create an at home stencil, we then flipped the paper over to the blank side. We colored the blank side of the paper with a lead pencil where ever there was lettering on the opposite side. We colored the paper completely with pencil lead. Then we flipped it over so that the font side was on top and the pencil side was on the bottom. We positioned the lettering in the center of the signs and secured them with tape so they wouldn’t slip and slide. Next we took a regular BIC pen (any color) and traced the outline of the lettering. This transfers the lead from the pencil directly onto the plaque and gives you an easy to follow pattern. Once the patterns were completely traced and transferred we took them off and set them aside for reference. With a thin paint brush and black acrylic paint ($0.99 at Michaels) we painted the outline of the letters and then colored them in. After the signs were dry, we threaded approximately 24” of thick pink ribbon (purchased from Michaels with a 40% coupon) through each hole. We secured them to the chairs by looping each side around the chair and tying into a big bow. You can find more of Lisa's tips at our main site, The Portrait Gallery Niagara at this link.

Christmas Photos

We only have a few available openings left for Christmas Pictures. December 12th is the deadline to get your images before Christmas. Call now to get your appointment 297-3387.

Engaged? ...Getting Married in Niagara Falls?

If you got engaged between now and Christmas 2012, you are elgible for a free Engagement Photo Session from The Portrait Gallery Niagara. Just visit us or call in (716 )297-3387 and give Gary Muth the special code letters IGOTIT. You will receive our best engagement session valued at $150. You have a choice of shooting it in our studio or on location and with each session you receive a free 8x10 and a free 5x7 image.No purchase is necessary. Only residents of Niagara or Erie county may collect the special. Not refundable for cash.

Niagara Falls Wedding Photographer adds Money Saving Wedding Tips to his Website

Lisa Englert is our newest addition. She has graciously agreed to write us articles on how to save money in planning your wedding. Lisa is a master at budgeting your money to get the most impact for your dollars.She is also co owner of Englert & Englert and has her own line of unique home decor items. Lisa has many great ideas and helpful tips on wedding planning. You can read more about her tips on our main site at: The Portrait Gallery Niagara

Waterfall Workshop

Our autumn waterfall workshop was a great success. Thank you for all who attended. Althought we had little water in some of planned waterfalls we still had good shooting. The day was perfect fall weather and the winds and rain held off long enough for us to get some great images. I posted a couple favorite here from the day and will probably post more soon. Click on any image to enlarge.

Autumn Workshop

I will be offering a new October waterfall workshop. Registration fee is $99.00 per person. Experience five upstate NY waterfalls on October 17th. This workshop includes personal hands on training and lunch. If you are interested contact me for more details. gary@theportraitgalleryniagara.com

Monticello

We took a mini trip to Virginia last week and stopped at the home of Thomas Jefferson, Monticello. Mr. Jefferson was not only our third president and the author of the Declaration of Independence. He also founded the University of Virginia. He was well traveled and a highly educated man. We got a chance to take a few pictures of the outside and surrounding gardens. Photography was strictly prohibited inside his home.

Birds of Prey

Last week I went on a workshop with my brother. We took Raymond Barlow's Bird of Prey workshop at the Mountsberg Raptor Conservatory in Canada. The birds presented were incredible and great fun to photograph. If I wasn't already a wedding photographer I could really get in to shooting wild birds for a living. The four hour workshop went by too fast. I got some of the best images I have ever taken. Here are a few of my favorite shots and I have more in a gallery in our pbase site.

Day trip

We took a ride out to Canandaigua, New York to see Sonnenberg Gardens. A very nice place to visit and a great place for photos. Brides must be lined up for years waiting to have their wedding and reception there. The grounds are beautiful and I found it virtually very easy to find a picture around every corner. I posted five pics here but I have the entire set I shot at our main site. The Portrait Gallery Niagara. Just click on the portfolio section then click on the Sonnenberg Gardens Gallery.

It just keeps getting better and better!

I am working on some new post processing techniques using the new CS6 photoshop program and Photomatix Pro 4.2. Both programs utilize 64 bit which basically means faster processing times. Each of these images are five exposure bracketed raw images shoot on Nikon D3 processed in Adobe Camera Raw then merged together in Photomatix then finished in CS6.

Niagara Falls welcomes Wallenda

Nik Wallenda will attempt to walk a wire from USA to Canada on June 15th, 2012. The event will be nationally televised and should give our city a major boost in tourism. Mr Wallenda has set up a pratice wire at the Seneca Niagara Casino. Open to the public, people can watch his daily practices in front of the casino. I took a few captures today. He makes it look so easy but in no way is it. He usually makes several trips on the inclined wire , sometimes walking forward and backwards.Afterwards, he talks with the media and answers questions to the public. Today he had his good friend Bello Nock, who is also an accomplished wire artist, and New York State Senator George Maziarz with him.

Niagara Falls Bike Path

I've been getting depressed lately because I don't feel our city does enough to make it appealing to our citizens and visitors. Today they changed my mind a bit when I decided to take a bike ride along the the Robert Moses. They now have bird houses set up along the river for tree swallows. These tiny metalic blue and white birds dart back and forth chasing bugs to eat along the river. It's quite fasinating to watch and quite difficult to photograph the little guys while they are flying so fast. Fortunately the winds sweep off the river and if you time it right you can catch them in a head wind and get that great shot. Today I got one.