Kevin Burdick is one of my favorite musicians, and it is not just because I know him very well.  He has a very unique story telling ability and is an incredibly talented musician.  Well, he will be in Arizona at the Higley Center for the Performing Arts on March 31st at 7 PM.  If you are anywhere in the area, you should come.  Not only will you hear some great music, but you will be supporting a great cause.  All of the proceeds from the concert go to The Dempsey Burdick Memorial Foundation and to the Coronado 8th Grade.  The Dempsey Burdick Memorial Foundation helps struggling and grieving families pay for headstones as they bury their young children who have died.  The concert is only $5 per person and $20 per family.  It really is for a great cause.  Please take the time to come and have a great time with your family and help other families in their deepest hour of need.

I will be there.  You should be there too…

DATE AND TIME: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 – 7:00PM – 8:00PM

LOCATION: Higley Center for the Performing Arts‎ – 4132 East Pecos Road, Gilbert, AZ 85295  MAP

Kevin is a talented and entertaining performer.  You can listen to his music on iTunes or at KevingBurdick.com.  And if you can not make it, please go toDempseyBurdick.com and consider donating the price of admission to help a family in need.  It really does make a big difference in a family’s life.  I hear stories from Kevin all the time about people they have helped.  Anything you can give will make a difference.

In case you didn’t know, we received a new baby into our family last week.  She is a beautiful and healthy little girl.  Both mother and daughter are doing well.  We have been very blessed.  She is already sleeping through most of the night and has been a joy to us.  I am thrilled to have her join our little family.

A little Tech Talk:

During an infant portrait, it is important to keep in mind that flashes and loud camera equipment can interfere with the portrait session itself. The equipment matters to the point that it does not interfere with the portrait session.

I shot all of these infant portraits with the Canon 1D Mark IV, a pro level camera, that offers an incredible 12800 ISO, which allows for very low light photography.  This ability was absolutely invaluable as I photographed our new little baby.  I hate using a flash during an infant portrait session and especially during the documentation process at the hospital.  It is just a bad idea to use a flash.  So shooting at a high ISO with a fast lens is the right way to photograph an infant.

In addition to the high ISO, one other invaluable option on the new Mark IV is the silent shutter mode.  Those who shoot with smaller, consumer or pro-summer cameras will find that the sound of the shutter is not too loud to begin with, still perhaps enough to wake the baby, but not too abrasive.  However, pro camera bodies have much more durable shutters and they make a lot more noise when they fire.  This is not good for weddings or infant portraits.  If you want the baby to continue sleeping, you can’t start snapping a loud shutter a few feet from her face.  And even when she’s awake, that shutter can startle her.  But the ever so quiet “silent” mode on the Mark IV work nicely.  It softens the noise made by the shutter movement by slowing down the movement of the shutter and by separating out the two movements of the shutter.  Pushing the shutter release button trips the shutter to expose the chip, but the shutter reset movement only occurs after you release the shutter release button.  It is a fairly ingenious system and helps to mitigate the noise coming from the camera.

While the baby was sleeping, I put the camera in Silent mode and when I was ready for her to wake up, I took it out of Silent mode and sure enough, she started to stir as a result of the sharp noise from the shutter on the camera.  So the noisy shutter turned out to be useful as well.

If you have shot with the 1D Mark III, you will have used this feature as well.  They seem to have improved it in this model.  It feels even quieter.  Still not anything like a leica and the 50D and other pro-summer models are just as quiet in normal mode as the 1D M IV is in silent mode, but their shutters are not nearly as durable.

As I may have mentioned before, my brother, accountant and second photographer, Rex, got married in San Diego a week ago.  The wedding was in La Jolla, Califonia and the reception in San Diego itself.  I was only there for a few hours, because I was needed at home (our little baby girl was just born).  So I flew in for the wedding and flew out before the reception was over.  It was quick, but it was a beautiful day and such an honor to photograph my brother’s wedding.  He’s a great friend and his wife is a fantastic person.

The wedding portraits were shot on the beaches of La Jolla, California.

My favorite images are below as well as a slideshow.  Enjoy.

The sky was blue and the sun was perfect, but sometimes, color, even as beautiful as it can be, is a distraction from the shapes and form of the photograph.  So, I removed the color and the image just sang to me.

The flowers were a subject unto themselves, so I couldn’t have the flower girl hold the flowers near her dress.  The needed to be on their own, against the horizon, just like she was.  She was already holding them up and out a bit, so I asked her to pronounce what she was already doing and for heaven’s sake, don’t look at me…  I think there is something wonderful in this photo.  I see a young flower girl who is just about to grow up.

Kacey really wanted to do a few shots in the gas lamp district.  We were running out of time, but we did it and I am so glad we did.  I loved the images we got down there.  And I think the effect here on the photos goes well with the feel of the streets in the area.  I make some pretty quick decisions (some not consciously) while shooting and editing images, but they usually end up being the right decisions.  I think that is what photography is all about.  Making decisions.  We make a lot of them in split seconds and have to live with them.  I am glad I make those decisions well.  I suppose if I didn’t, I would need to find a different career.

Can you believe the perfect luck on this photograph.  I couldn’t have planned it any better.  We got them into position and put the light on them to help equalize the exposure between the bright sun and the couple and then…  cue the bird!  That bird just makes the photograph.  Jonathan Livingston Seagull, anyone?

The La Jolla coast line is full of absolutely beautiful and strange beaches.  It is one of my favorite places to photograph wedding portraits.  No matter what time of day it is, there is a spot for some pretty magnificent photographs.

The next photo reminds me of a photograph I have by George Bernard Shaw (the author).  I found the photo in the archives at the London School of Economics where all of his films and prints are kept.  It is quite a treasure trove of images and I think the strangest place for a photographic collection.  The color effect makes it feel a bi more like BS Shaw’s Photo, albeit his is scratched and full of dust and poorly printed.  The LSE staff is not great at printing.  I suppose they would be the first to admit that the principles of division of labor preclude them from being good at anything artistic.  Anyway, as I was shooting this photo I was thinking about Shaw’s photo in my modest collection of old obscure photographs, which is one of the few little sentimental pleasures in my life.

This one Kacey broke out of her shell and started hamming it up.  That is always a good sign, when your bride and groom forget about being cool and just start having fun.

We recently shot a Aimee and William’s wedding at The Boulder House in Scottsdale, Arizona, near The Boulders Resort. It is a magnificant home and the most peculiar I have ever seen. It was designed by nature and one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s students. I think this is an instance where the student truly outperformed the master.

This was one of the most challenging weddings I have shot in a long time.  The ceremony was scheduled for outside, but it was rained out.  The house is an amazing home which is buried in the middle of a pile of boulders.  The outside and inside walls are made up of these large stones, so the home was very beautiful inside as well as out.  But the change between an outside wedding to an inside wedding was quite a challenge as the inside of the home was very dark and with the storm clouds blocking the sun, even the windows couldn’t provide much light.  Once the call was made to hold the wedding inside, we scrambled and pulled everything together.  With a lighting kit and some high speed digital cameras, we were able to make some great images and make sure that the inside ceremony was equally as beautiful as the outside ceremony would have been.  In the end, the wedding was beautiful and so was the photography.  Of course, always coming prepared was worth the Boulder House’s weight in gold (more on being prepared later).