Captivating Imagery: Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer and Professional Photography Services

I’m taking a break from my wedding blogs to share a DIY project to keep cameras secure for my fellow photographers who use the Black Rapid camera straps. Camera straps made by Black Rapid (and a few other companies out there that I am less familiar with) seemed to be the must-have accessory among my wedding photographer colleagues in Pittsburgh this spring. As we geared up for the coming wedding season we were all looking for ways to save our backs because the equipment we lug around all day can be quite heavy. I know at least a handful of photographers who decided to go with one of the Black Rapid camera strap varieties, so I decided the $130 double camera strap might be worth it if it saved me from having a sore back on Sunday mornings.

The double strap does wonders if you’re a two-camera shooter with one on each arm. The strap balances out the weight—and I’ve found that because you no longer have to hold your body in awkward positions to keep the regular camera strap from slipping off your shoulder, that my lower back and sides are less sore too! That in itself was a major breakthrough in comfort on a wedding day.

The Black Rapid straps were working out very nicely until a few weddings ago when my D700 and 70-200 2.8 lens suddenly (or so it seemed) came unscrewed from the fastener. Luckily, I was in a grassy area so the camera and lens are fine, but I was not a happy camper. How could I continue to trust camera straps that do not securely hold my camera?

Doesn’t this photo make you feel uneasy? Here’s a close-up of the fastener:

The images from this post are SOOC (straight out of the camera) with no special lighting because I just needed to get this post out and move on.

Anyway, I contacted Black Rapid and after an exchange of several emails, they sent me a new double strap since their fasteners had been updated. I can’t complain. That’s pretty good customer service. But I decided that until they come up with some kind of safety feature, no fastener would really hold all day. When you let your cameras hang by your sides and you are moving in and out of limos and up and down stairs, there is a lot of movement that can cause the fastener to slowly unscrew and I wasn’t going to chance dropping my equipment again. If I had been standing on pavement when my camera dropped, it wouldn’t have been pretty.

Oddly enough, I had just finished putting together a leading line on my front porch so that my dog, Brownie, could be outside with me on the porch. He’s a sweet dog, but if he sees anything suspicious, he throws caution to the wind and runs out into the street. Now I keep him tethered to a leading line when we’re relaxing on the porch.

I’m not exactly handy, so to make the leading line, I got my supplies at Home Depot and asked for help with crimping the ferrule and stop set. Now, before this trip to Home Depot, I had no idea of what a ferrule was. Kudos to them for walking me through how I could put it all together! Anyway, this all relates I promise!

I used 1/16″ coated cable and to loop the cable through the pulley. The helpful people at Home Depot showed me that I could use a ferrule to close the loop. This requires a swagging tool to crimp the ferrule tight. Because I didn’t really have a need to purchase the tool, they used one in the store and did it for me. I went away happy knowing that I had found a place to go when I need help with such odd projects.

After some thought, I realized that I could use the same materials for the leading line to make a safety cable to keep my cameras secure with the Black Rapid straps. For $10 in supplies, I can now rest assured that my cameras will be secure.

As you can see above, I attached one of the quick links to the ring that holds the original camera straps and fished the other end through the opening for the nylon strap above the fastener and attached the second quick link to the ring on the other side of the camera.

To make your own safety cable, you’ll need a 1.5 foot piece of 1/16″ coated cable, two 1/8″ quick links, and a 3/32″ ferrule and stop set (they come in pairs). You’ll need to double that if you want to make two safety cables…

Oh, and you need a helpful hardware store employee who has access to a swagging tool and knows how to use it. That last part is free if you’re friendly and know of a good hardware store.

While I’d rather buy ready-made safety cables for this purpose, I feel like they’re not out there. I’ve looked a good bit. If Black Rapid or Think Tank were to sell them, I’d pick some up right away. A friend of mine mentioned that my DIY cables could scratch my camera body where the quick links rub. I’m open to suggestions, so please share! For now, I can at least rest assured that my gear will be safe. I’ve used the safety cables for a couple of weddings now and they don’t really get in the way and when my camera came loose again, the cable supported it until I could screw the fastener into the tripod socket again. My decision making regarding purchasing the camera straps, and the very nature of this blog post, have developed in a very roundabout way, but I think I’m in a happy place for now.

Today is the first day of spring and I can not hide my enthusiasm about this.  Each time I hear mention of this on the news, I do a little dance.  And here are some photos to commemorate this long-awaited day.

This is the first photo I took at Mellon Park yesterday afternoon and it was a gift from God, I’m sure. I love photographing nature and often get caught in a trance, waiting for just the right moment when the bumblebee hovers over the flowers. This moment was within seconds of finding this hillside of blooms. I couldn’t believe that the bee stayed just long enough for me to compose, focus and adjust the exposure. Sweet!

This is the newly renovated walled garden at Mellon Park. I went there yesterday to scout the location for an upcoming engagement session for a bride and groom who are getting married this summer. It looks as though the garden renovation is complete and a dedication is planned for the spring – not sure of a date, though.

This is a beautiful park for on-location photography. It’s one of my favorites because I have a sweet spot for formal gardens. I loved The Secret Garden (movie and musical) growing up, but had never seen a formal garden in person until the summer I spent in London in my early 20s. And Mellon Park in Pittsburgh, captures some of the whimsy and romance that I grew to love about the gardens in London.

Even the gates have beautiful floral details.

This is the other walled garden at Mellon Park. The walls are falling apart, so I hope it will be a future renovation project. For now, it has more of a rustic charm.

This is from the daylily and daffodil garden. The little daylilies look so triumphant with the sun illuminating their form. I can’t wait until the daffodils bloom. They are my favorite flower – I carried a bouquet of daffodils for my wedding, just like I dreamt about as a little girl.

This bird was curious about me and my camera. I think the noise of my shutter clicking is what interested him.

Happy spring!

Through a connection by my friend and fellow blogger of FoodBurgh, I picked up a fun job earlier this month: photographing beer.  This assignment took me to the Rivertowne Pour House in Monroeville, one of several locations where the beer can be found on tap.  I set up a mini studio in a small banquet room at the back of the restaurant and got to work.  Here’s one shot of the six varieties I photographed that day.  The brew master there referred to this one as Blonde.

The beer is isolated on white for graphic design purposes, as Full Pint is getting ready to produce and market their beer for distribution.

While there, the brew master offered me a taste and I happily tried their mango beer because I love mango and was curious about how it would taste in beer. Well, it’s delicious! I am definitely heading back to the Rivertowne Pour House for dinner and another mango beer. To other mango fans out there, you’ll have to head to Monroeville too, because the mango beer is not one of the varieties that they will be distributing.

I just heard from a friend, Ellen, who I met through Pittsburgh Filmmakers.  She was writing to let me know she noticed a photo of mine is on the front page of Filmmakers’ Web site and on the cover of their 2010 summer catalog which is also available on the site.  It’s the small photo of Ellen swimming in waves of light on the right of the site above the summer classes info.  This was one of those experimental projects that we just had a lot of fun with.  Here’s a larger version of the photo:

You can also check out our classmates photos on Flickr. This class had lots of great ideas.

As a wedding photographer, this project forced me to let go of my obsessions over making sure everything is just so.  For those who have hired me or are considering hiring me in the future, don’t worry I’m still meticulous about the details, it’s in my nature.

We were painting with light and there were lots of people involved in making this photo: strobe operator, light painters, and of course, the talent.  I was behind the camera and directing the scene during the 30 or so seconds the shutter was open.  So given the chaos of the process and the fact that it’s a Polaroid, I have come to accept that it’s not perfectly focused and that the multiple flashes cause ghosting of Ellen’s face as she made breast strokes while balanced on a coffee table.  It was so much fun and helped us all to remember some of the reasons we fell in love with photography in the first place.  Thanks to Sally Bozzuto who scanned in the Polaroids and submitted them for the summer catalog!

I’m taking an advanced class and workshop this winter to keep my skills sharp through the slow season and this post is my first project for my class at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.  We were assigned to choose two photographs and try to recreate them as much as possible by matching lighting, subject matter and composition in camera, and then by matching tone, saturation and cropping in post-production.

So, being a wedding photographer, I was instantly drawn to two photographers I recently learned about in Professional Wedding Photography: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers, published by Amherst Media.  The first image is from Chenin and Doug Boutwell of Boutwell Studio in Southern California.  For the wedding photographers out there, Doug is the guy who put together Totally Rad Actions.  I knew his name was familiar…  This couple is a great team and it was interesting to see their own Photoshop actions on their work.

So here’s the image I scanned from my book:

And here’s my shot at it:

Many thanks to my dear friend, Kelly, for modeling for this project.  She was brilliant and even laughed on cue!

The second image is from Jen and Stephen Bebb of Bebb Studios in Vancouver. This husband and wife team is awesome and they have over a decade of experience in the business.

Here’s the scanned image:

And here’s my take:

The lighting in my image is less soft and more directional. It was about 7 p.m. when we were shooting, so I relied on my speedlights the best I could, and while the lighting is not a match, I kind of like it!