Fourth wedding ever/this year, on August 31. Stu and Sarah were awesome people, and their wedding was super cool. Some plans and locations changed at the last minute because of the weather. It was rainy and cold (the temperture was hovering around 4C/39F all day), but the tradeoff was we got to have campfires at the ceremony, it smelled soooooo good. We also decided to crash a public mall in downtown Calgary instead of shooting in the rain. C&C always welcome.

Cyler.


1.

I love the concept of 27. It isn't executed perfectly but still is refreshing to see. Groom should have been 3 feet to the camera left. You've picked up off camera lighting and doing it well. Some of these, (many of these) are soft. Either cheap a cheap lens of camera shake. Regardless you thinking like a creative photographer and that's noted. Great job on numero quatro.

Sam

Thanks Sam.

I am still trying to find a really solid way to focus. When I upgraded from my D70s to my D200, I started to use the AF points rather than leaving it in the center and just recomposing. My problem is that I'm a left-eyed shooter, and my face covers up the pad that changes the focus points, making it cumbersome to change focus while my face is up to the camera. Any ideas?

Bump for evening crowd. Let me have it if they suck!

I also need to work on my WB issues. Stupid inconsistency of mine.

Wow, I think they are awesome, not for 4th wedding, but awesome period. Great job!

>> I am still trying to find a really solid way to focus.

You nailed the focus in #3... that tree is incredibly sharp... too bad those 2 people got in the way.

I love #30 except for the blur in lower-right.

#31... too bad that's not the boy's own arm in the foreground. And look at those pupils.

Nice job on 18, 19.

Good strobist back lighting on 20, 25... enough to mix in some flair.

19 is really, really cool. I dig it

A few of your shots 2 , 10 and a few others. I think your lense or body is front focusing?

alot of noise in most of the pictures...

but they are all creative and have awsome feel

I agree with everyone here and that you def. have a lot of creative ideas and concepts. You just need to work on your execution, and this will come over time with more experience and as long as you're willing to learn.

A few pointers if I may:

- Some of the images are mis-focused, 3 and 10 are the two most apparent ones. Don't even show your clients (or anyone else) mis-focused images, unless they work or were done purposefully. I had this problem when I first started, and I would even make excuses for those images. "Image is a bit out of focus, but it captures the moment so well...". No, just ditch them. When you look back at them in 3 years, you'll kick yourself for giving them to clients.

As far as focusing the image, just work on it. It's not about having a lot of fancy gear, you just need to really understand your gear well. Know what you're camera is capable of, and figure out what focus points and settings will work best for a dynamic setting such as a wedding. If I use a 5D, center AF point, and try to avoid servo if I can... if it's a 1D, specific AF points, servo it up. If the focus is due to a lens issue, then replace that sucker. With all that being said, I still will get really great images with slight focus issues sometimes (esp. when I use my manual focus lenses), so don't hit yourself over the head if every image isn't stellar.

- Most of your images seem a bit too warm for me. White Balance is key (and I have problems with this myself a lot), esp. for indoor shots. Learn to get proper WB for your settings. You will more than likely be able to fix it in post, but it's nice to get it right the 1st time.

- Sharpness, some of the images are just too soft. I think this may be because of the lenses you are using, but try to get nice sharp images consistently. Lens shake can also distract the viewer from an image, so watch out for those as well, and use a good flash or monopod even. Schriber, Hoffer, Sam, Baines, all these guys have very clean images, and they are consistently sharp across the frame. If they can do it, so can you... they're humans after all... I think

- If you can, visit your setting prior to the actual day or event. I really like 18 and 19 that you have, but the reflection kind of kills it. I think if you had gone to that location a day or 2 before, scoped it out (about the same time frame), then you would've seen the reflection on the glass and could have done something. A Circular Polariser filter would've quite easily taken care of that glare.

Some + critics, I really like 5, 12, 20, 23, and 25. I think they are done very well. As Sam said, 27 would've been awesome if framing would've been a bit better, and the focus wasn't on the car. Off camera lighting is challenging, but you've managed to do a pretty good job with it. All in all, good job, and hope to see some great images from you in the future.

You are definitely very creative. Seems like you excelled more when you were in control of the situation. The shots picked up a lot starting at 18. The few with mis focus are a little too OOF for me, I'd lose em'.