Back to school special

Well summer is almost over and school is starting soon. Our September special will be $25 off on any children's portrait session in the month of September. Just mention the blog code: Twenty five dollar special... and your receive $25 off your child's portrait session. This special will also include seniors. All children up to 18 years of age. So don't delay. If you were procrastinating about getting your child's portrait done, now is the time. What are you waiting for? Call 283-0303 today.

Restoration part 2

This photo restoration is a snap shot from the earlier client. I used the same techniques as before but kept a square format cropping and then adjusted the mat sizes to get my 8x10 final image. The mats help me keep the image smaller and retain more resolution.

Instant Portraits

This is my daughter Christina. Today she got a new doo. Looks nice don't you think? I took this portrait of Christina in my livingroom using a portable studio set up. One Nikon speed light in 15x15" soft box as my main light. One Nikon speed light into an 42"umbrella -1 stop from behind the camera as a fill light. And one Nikon speed light with grid -2 stops on the background. Shot with Nikon D3 using 24-70mm lens @ 70mm. Exposure was iso 320, 125th sec @ f-6.3. It took approximately 20 minutes to set up, shoot and and break down this set up.

Restoration Project

Today I am restoring an image for our client of her Father taken in 1957. The original image is 3"x 3" and was a snap shot taken by her aunt. The image shows normal wear marks with some wrinkles and a few spots. It also has adhesive tape marks on the corners. Our client wishes we restore the image and make the final image 8x10 size. In order to do that I had to crop the image to 5:4 format. I don't think the image holds enough resolution to enlarge to 8x10 so I added a nice matted border. This allows me to keep the actual image size about 8x6 and with the mat the final output will be 8x10. The entire process has taken about one hour from start to finish and is shown above. Click on image to enlarge.

Announcement

Congratulations to Mary Helen Nixon & Dan Johnson on their engagement. They plan on a June 2009 wedding. We had a great time at a photo shoot at the falls yesterday. What a wonderful couple. We met them at the base of the bridge that goes to Goat Island and used the upper rapids for a background. We got a ton of pictures here are some of my favorites. I will be looking forward to shooting their wedding.

Lighting basics

Close up shot of this bumble bee created in my garden. The image has impact because of the great directional lighting used to light this scene. One speedlight on camera left as a main light and the sun from behind as a fill light. This combination gives my subject 3 dimension on a 2 dimensional plane. If you want your photographs to pop out with impact you need to use these types of techniques. Learn to use the light to your advantage to make your photographs look their best.

Amazing image quality

The Nikon D3 has a full frame sensor with great cropping ability without losing resolution. Here is an example. The top image is a raw image straight from the camera ( hand held without a tripod ) from the Joan Jett concert. The three bottom images are 100%crops from within the picture. I used a 70-200mm AF-S VR 2.8 lens with VR off . Click on image to enlarge.

A beautiful ceremony.

Congratulations to Lisa & Scott Dingwall. Married today at St. Mark's Lutheran Church on Oliver Street in North Tonawanda, NY. Here are a few of my favorites from the day. Click to enlarge on each image.

Outdoor Concert

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts performing in an outdoor concert at the Seneca Niagara Hotel and Casino on Friday night. It was a hot and steamy evening and the show was rocking.

Macro photography

Great photos are everywhere. You just need to learn to see them and then learn how to render them in photographs. I shot this bumble bee in our garden today. I loved the flowing lines of the cosmos leading right to the bee for a great composition. Close up images of bugs or flowers are always an interesting topic. Click on image to enlarge.

huh... Who knew?

Here is a two headed calf. I found this artifact at the Sanborn Farm Museum. The Farm Museum is on rte 31 in Sanborn, NY and has many artifacts from the farming industry housed in a barn that dates back to 1888. Admission in free but you need an appointment.

Nathan

We stopped by to check on my grandson Nathan and I snapped a few pictures of the happy baby. He is now 5 months old and cute as a button. I am looking forward to get him into the studio again soon.

Just Married

Congratulations to Terrell And Nina Dillard. They were married Saturday, August 9th, 2008 at Bethlehem Revival Temple in Niagara Falls with a reception afterwards at The Crown Plaza Hotel in downtown Niagara Falls.

Niagara's newest attraction

We took a break and went to the newest attraction in Niagara. It's called Niagara's Fury and is located at Table Rock by the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. Admission is $15 and it is really neat inside. You start out with a Disney type animated movie of how Niagara Falls was formed and then your moved into a room with water underneath you and a 360 degree surround screen. Then your introduced to all the elements, thunder, lightning, rain, mist and even snow. While a video of melting glaciers and then flying through the gorge and over Niagara as the floor bumps, sways and shakes gives the feel of actually flying. The picture above is a feeble attempt to show you rain and snow coming down inside the theater. Be prepared to get wet if you go.

Congratulations!

Congratulations go out to Alan Lisiecki and Karen Watts. They tied the knot with an outdoor wedding held at Banchetti's Banquet Facilities in Amherst, NY. This wedding was one of the sweetest and most memorable wedding events of the year that we have done. The ceremony was held in the gazebo in back and they finished off with a giant pig roast at the reception. Here are a few pictures from Sunday, August 3, 2008. A great day for everyone except maybe this pig...haha!

Joseph & Jessica Lengen

Congratulations go out to Joeseph Lengen and Jessica Stufkowsky. They united in marriage at Zion Lutheran Church in Niagara Falls on Saturday August 2, 2008. The church is the second oldest church in Niagara Falls and located on 10th and Michigan Ave. We had a great time photographing this lovely couple and their wonderful families. Their reception was at Niagara Active Hose on Lockport Rd. in Town of Niagara. Here are a few images from the day. We hope you enjoy them.

It's summer time!

Summer is a marvelous time of year. Gardens are blooming. Color everywhere. Even with my hectic schedule I still find time to photograph nature somewhere, someplace, sometime at least once a day. This butterfly happened into our garden and I couldn't resist taking this shot. Anyone with a camera can enjoy this hobby and all its rewards. So get out there and shoot.

August Promo

Our July retouch promotion is over today. It was quite a good deal and not many people took advantage of it. Too bad. I know almost everyone out there has at least one photo in need of restoration. We will be posting this promotion again sometime so keep watching if you missed this one.
Our August promo will be buy one print ( any size ) and get the second for half price. Just mention our code: "August Bonus Days" and get the discount. Simple as that.

Nikon performance

This is not a blog to argue of camera makes and who's best, but I am so impressed with the D3's performance, I got to mention it. I have been a loyal fujifilm S3 user for many years but my fuji never came close to this camera. Here is a crop of a photo taken at night. You can clearly see the people inside and maybe whats for dinner. Totally amazing what digital cameras have evolved in to. Now you possibly could take this image with other camera brands but none make it as easy as this D3.

Off to the races!

I took a break yesterday and went to Fort Erie Race Track in Ontario, Canada. It is a great deal. Free admission, free parking and on designated days one dollar hot dogs and soft drinks. The tracks infield is nicely landscaped and the horses and people are colorful. A great place to be entertained and take photos too. Here are some of my favorites from the day. I have plenty so I may be posting more soon.

Restoration

Today's image came from a smart consumer. She has taken advantage of our July Special and has qualified for one hour of free restoration work. This image is severely damaged and needs quite a lot of repair. The client is mostly interested in restoring the main subject, her, so we did a liberal crop around the edges to save time. The original image was wallet size and we needed to enlarge our final image to 4x6 and then added the white border for nostalgia. It came out really good considering the lack of cloning material in the image.

A few more...

Here are a few more of my favorites from Josh & Caroline's wedding. One neat thing they did was have a live band play at the reception. This is rare now days, as most brides opt for the DJ.

The band ( named Music Krew ) was rockin' and a very nice touch of cool to a wedding celebration.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Josh Miller and his new bride, Caroline. They tied the knot on Saturday at St. Bernards Church in Youngstown. What a wonderful couple to work with. Both families had a great time celebrating the occasion. Here is one of my favorite images from the day. A prominent local dentist loaned his estate to Josh and Caroline to use for their outdoor environmental portraits. A beautiful property and I will post more of my favorites later.

Wedding bells are in their future.

Congratulations to Joe & Jessica. Engaged to be wed in August. We are looking forward to working with them again soon. Yesterdays photo session was a blast. We got a great set of images and this couple had fun and looked great together.

Framed ?

Do you want to make your 8x10 photo an even more impressive gift or a more handsome subject for framing? Consider the inexpensive option of having it mounted in a double mat.
We offer a huge selection of mats. Or, you can use our new computer generated mats. These mats can be added to any size image and give the appearance of the real thing. So real in fact people have to touch our wall portraits to tell the difference.

Female Blue Jay

I took this image on the 4th of July of a female blue jay. We went to Wendy's aunt Sandy's for a picnic in Gerry, NY. She has a lot of bird feeders and it was a good opportunity to take some bird pictures.

Family Portraits

Yesterday, Mark bullock who owns Scott's Furniture here in the Falls came in with his son Jeff and his daughter Jen. We had a wonderful photo session with this family. We lots of pictures with dad and his kids , then some with just Jeff and Jen together. We took one or two individual portraits of each and this gave Mark exactly the kind of coverage he wanted. These are a couple of my favorite from the session and I am sure Mark will be very pleased when he sees all of his images.

Happy Fourth

Today the Gallery is closed, but I still post things from time to time even on holidays so keep checking in. Happy Independence Day.

Cloudy Days

Make the most of cloudy rainy days.This image was taken just after the rain. The sky was still heavily overcast and the light was wrapping around my subject perfectly. Colors are more saturated in this kind of light. Your images will look so much better. Try this with your camera.

July Promo

Hi Gang,

Another new month and another exclusive Portrait Gallery promotion. For the entire month of July you can receive one free hour of retouching on any photo restoration. Just mention our code: .... Save 25 ..... and you'll save $25. Yes, that is right, retouching fees run $25 per hour and this could give you a substantial savings. So dig out those old photos and bring them in. This promotion can only be used once per customer and may not be redeemed for cash.

Vows Renewed

Harold and Mary Boorne celebrated their 50th anniversary on Saturday. The family had a wonderful party at Banchetti's Banquet Hall in Amherst where the anniversary couple renewed their wedding vows. We were fortunate enough to be chosen to photograph this happy event for them and had a great time doing it. Afterwards we photographed many different family groupings and some candids at the party to give them a great selection of images to remember it by.

Holy Cow !

Today's economy is nose driving drastically. People are cutting their budgets to make ends meet. Gas prices are sky rocketing, along with food and utility costs. No one knows where this will lead us, except maybe the poor house. We are constantly hearing stories about how newlyweds can't afford the rising costs of a wedding. Articles in magazines on how to save, save save. We believe that every new bride deserves a great wedding and great wedding images. So The Portrait Gallery has slashed its wedding prices to give every bride the opportunity to get the best wedding memories possible. Check out our new pricing at:
http://theportraitgallery.homestead.com/Weddingpackages.html
and see the savings.

Time is running out!

June is Passport Photo Month

The Portrait Gallery will do your passport pictures. During the month of June you can get a 50% discount on passport pictures. Just make your appointment ( 283-0303 )and give the promotional code:
PAS-50
and receive your discount. This promotional offer is only valid for the month of June. Your passport photos are 100% guaranteed.

Is bigger better?

I took a field trip today to shoot some tree swallows. I borrowed a longer lens because I wanted to see how it compared to the 70-200 ED AF-S VR Nikkor lens that I had been using. These images were shot hand held with Nikon D3. I used Nikkor 300mm ED AF-S f.4 with 1.4X Kenko Teleplus pro 300 lens. On a full frame senor camera like mine this combination gives me 420 mm which is a lot more than the 200 mm I am used to. I was very impressed with the results and feel I didn't lose much resolution at all. I did notice the lens is slower focusing and it takes a little more patience to get sharp images.