PIXEL MAGIC - David Whitaker Photography's Photo Blog

Favorite 2010 Images

2010-09-12T16:43:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Jamie & Mike.

Super images from a winter wedding.

Love this image!
Taken by natural window light before the ceremony.

2010 Images

2010-09-12T16:30:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Amy & Kurt for a fun wedding at Birch Hill

Some Favorite 2009 Wedding Images

2010-02-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

Way To Go Tyler!!

2010-02-16T17:40:00.000-08:00

I want to give a "Way to Go" to my son Tyler for becoming a Dartmouth Relays Track and Field Champion in the 4 x400 meter relay. He has also qualified to run in the National Indoor Track and Field Championships in Boston in March in the SMR (Sprint Medley Relay) He is a member of Shenenehowa's Track team. In the fall he will be attending SUNY Cortland.

UPDATE: In March, Tyler's SMR team finished 17th in the nation at the Nike Indoor National Championships. In June, Tyler's 4x100 meter relay team set a new school record of 43.67 seconds and at the New Balance National Championships Tyler's SMR (Sprint Medley Relay) team finished 3rd in a school record time. Great way to finish a sports career. So proud of him.

Wedding Details

2009-03-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

I love to hunt for and record the small details of weddings. Many of these things would be forgotten if not photographed. I use these detail images in the wedding album layouts to give a complete flavor of the wedding day.

Favorite Cake images

2009-03-14T17:18:00.001-07:00

Here are some of my favorite wedding cakes from the past year.

More Favorite Images from 2008

2009-03-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Lindsy and Ethan for a great wedding and
some truly great images.

Matt and Leanne's wedding was a blast.

The Mohawk River CC sure does it right!

Keri and Brian's Wedding at The Glen Sander's Mansion
was one of the most rewarding events I've ever covered.
The bride and groom had great ideas and allowed me to
have fun and be creative and the images are amazing!

Thanks to Keri and Brian

Spring Weddings

2008-06-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Aimee and Jeff, Haley and Keith and Robyn and Austin for some great images in the past few weeks.

St James Gate

2008-06-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to photograph the Irish band St. James Gate for their First CD titled "The Road to Clare". For more info about the band and performance dates go to www.saintjamesgate.com

Band members are Bill Connelly, Rick Russo, Robert Daly and Cassidy Buckley

New Albums ....more choices

2008-02-23T11:40:00.000-08:00

I have just added 2 new albums to my wedding packages

The first one is a Large Format 10x13 Coffee table style Flush mount album. It is the same leather cover style as the 10x10 and 5x5 albums I have offered for the past 3 years. It is made by Tapperell Loomis and you can have your name and wedding date embossed in gold on the cover. This is a large album and quite spectacular to view. It opens up more design options as I am no longer constrained by the square 10x10 format of my standard album. It is an option in many of my packages. It comes standard with 10 pages/ 20 sides and can be upgraded to 15 pages/ 30 sides.

The second album is an 8x10 Flush mount album that I am now offered with my Engagements sittings and includes 10 8x10 prints flush mounted the same as the 10x10 and 10x13 albums. It also has the same leather cover, so all your albums will match.

Pro versus Amateur

2008-02-23T11:37:00.001-08:00

What constitutes a good photographer?

How many times have I heard "wow, that's a fancy camera ... you must be really good." Well, my camera has very little to do with being good. The ready and affordable availability of automatic cameras has led to the widespread misconception that becoming a great photographer is simple to achieve. Simply pointing and shooting a camera is not sufficient to develop the knowledge of all aspects of photography that makes the difference between the casual snapshot shooter and the experienced professional.

* Some couples today have decided not to trust their wedding pictures to a wedding professional but to a friend or relative with a fancy camera?

* You really should learn what the differences are besides cost.

* First, think about whether your friend really knows how to photograph a wedding.

* Does your friend with the fancy camera have a developed style or are they a snapshot shooter? Ask to see some portraits they have done.
* Does your friend with the fancy camera scout out the church and reception site for great locations and lighting issues?
* Do they know anything about lighting? Lighting is the key element in every image. Lighting is also the most complicated and difficult aspect of photography to learn and master. I know professional that don't fully understand lighting.

* Does your friend with the fancy camera have 25 years experience and knowledge and have the ability to handle problems when they happen? Trust me... problems will happen. A novice photographer cannot handle unusual situations and may not even be aware when unusual conditions are happening.
* How do you know what kind of quality your friend with the fancy camera will deliver to you? Do they know how to process the images in photoshop to produce the highest image quality? Or will they drop off the memory card at Walmart for processing.
* A fancy camera does not make a photographer good. Experience and knowledge makes a photographer good. The best photographers have dedicated themselves to the pursuit of excellence.
* Some other things to think about are: Does your friend with the fancy camera have backup equipment if something breaks?
* Do they have insurance if they hurt someone? That's a big no-no to not have insurance. I do not know a single novice photographer that carries a 2 milliion dollar liability policy.
* Can your friend with the fancy camera give you images like those above?
* As you can see there are many reason for hiring a pro vs. your friend with the fancy camera. These are just a few reasons.
* There are alot of wannabes with fancy cameras just waiting to mess up your magic moments.
* Professional wedding photography is expensive... and worth every penny.

Time to get going again

2007-11-18T06:47:00.000-08:00

I've been so busy I had almost forgotten about this blog. I have had a great Summer and Fall with weddings and some incredible engagement sessions. I did not have time for my annual Fall Foliage expedition but did do some local shooting of Fall images. In June I started working for Living Resources and this Fall I have been assisting with teaching a photography class for adults with developmental disabilities. It has been great fun to work with such talented people.

Thanks to Aimee and Jeff for the great images from their

engagement session. The lighting was magical at this spot in the woods with all the leaves on the ground.

I thought in this post I would talk about how to get better exposures with your digital camera.

I am now 4 years into the digital revolution and have not shot a role of film since. There are a few things film still does better than digital, but the differences are so small for my type of photography that the benefits for digital far outweigh those differences. I have found that the biggest difference was the way digital captures the exposure. I found it to be very similar to shooting slide film. With Slide film you had to be quite exact in your exposure to get a good print. With film you could be off by several f-stops and the lab could usually still give you a decent print. Digital requires you to be fairly precise with your exposures. The beauty of digital is that the camera tells you instantly if you nailed the exposure or if you need to make an adjustment. It's called a Histograph. If you have never used this feature on your digital camera, it is worth the effort to break out your manual and read up on how to use this great tool.

The histograph maps out for you in a graph all the different colors in your image and how much exposure was recorded for each. The graph looks like a mountain range inside a rectangular box. The mountain peaks to the left side have recorded the darker colors and as you move to the right it shows the colors as they get lighter with pure white being the peak at the far right. The most helpful info is on the far left and right. If the peaks are climbing the sides of the box then you have under or over exposed your image. You would need to make an adjustment to your shutter speed or f-stop to obtain the correct exposure. With film we hoped we had the camera set correctly and relied on the lab to fix our mistakes. With digital it is harder to fix mistakes after image capture. But, with the histograph you know you made a mistake and can fix and re-shoot the image in most cases.

The wedding party image was taken on the State Capital steps. Dan and Lauren loved it so much they had a 16x20 canvas made from it. It is one of my favorites from this summer.

Thanks to Keri and Brian for the image to the right from their

engagement session. I had a lot of fun shooting this session.We must have walked several miles to find just the right spots.

The Evil RED EYE

2007-03-27T09:57:00.000-07:00

I seem to get asked at almost every photo shoot or wedding I do..."Do you fix the Red Eye in the pictures"? Well....no, I do not have to fix Red Eye as it has never been in a picture I've taken. Few people understand what Red Eye is and how to avoid it. Red Eye is the end result of amateur equipment being used in a low lit room. In a darkened room, your pupils are dilated (wide open) to let in more light. When the flash goes off the light is reflected off the retina in the eye and that reflection is recorded by the lens. The retina just happens to be red. Hence, Red Eye. The best way to avoid red eye is to raise you flash about a foot or more above the camera lens. In doing this the angle of the flash reflection off the retina does not go directly back into the lens. Flash brackets are available that will raise your flash above the lens. If your flash is built into your camera then you can set your flash to a Red Eye Reduction mode. In this mode the flash fires a few short burst of light to cause your eye pupil to close down. This allows less light in to your retina. The biggest problem with this mode is that the pre-flash usually causes your subject to react and can ruin the image. Today, many of the photo editing programs have a Red Eye fix. I prefer to avoid having to fix every image and just put my flash on a bracket.

Way To Go

2007-03-22T05:15:00.000-07:00

Just want to send out a big congrats to my son Seth for being named an ALL AMERICAN in Indoor Track & Field. His Sprint Medley Relay team from Shen HS finished 4th at the National Indoor Track Championships in NYC last week. They shattered the school record and recorded the fastest time in NYS for the year. Outdoor track starts soon with a team trip to the Arcadia Meet in Los Angeles in April and the Penn Relays in late April. Seth has been accepted at RIT in Rochester for Computer Science and hopefully will run track for RIT next Fall.
UPDATE: In June 2007 Seth's 4x400 meter relay team won the NYS championship in a school record time of 3:18.50. He was named a TIMES UNION Track & Field ALL-STAR and featured in a special edition of the newspaper. Unfortunately, he fell during his last High School race at the National Championships in North Carolina and was injured. In 2007 and 2008 he competed for RIT's Track team setting a school record in the 300 meter dash. A nagging knee problem has ended his track career in 2009.

Studio on Wheels

2007-03-05T16:50:00.000-08:00

Five years ago when I started my photo business I wanted to create something unique. Having worked as a studio photographer and as a District Supervisor for almost 100 studios I decided I did not want the headaches involved with opening and operating a traditional studio. I hit on the idea of a studio on wheels, where everything is portable and could be setup on location quickly. I had a feeling that there were people who would love the service of the studio coming to them. My concept has evolved over the past five years to where I can set up a professional studio in my client's home in 15 minutes and produce professional portrait exactly like a traditional studio. Plus I have the flexibility to go outside for sessions. It has been very popular with my clients judging by the number of repeat and regular clients I have. This year I have added the ability to show the images at the end of the session on my laptop computer. My clients can now place their orders immediately and view a high quality image of what their enlargements will look like. I also have new software that allows me to drag and drop images into over 300 frames so you can see what your portraits would look like in different frames. Very Cool!
So, if you are looking for a different portrait experience where you can have top quality portraiture created in the privacy and comfort of your own home, give me a call at 461-7881 and we can chat about your portrait needs.

A new Website

2007-02-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

The Valentine's day Blizzard has given me the time to set up my new website. My old site was so old it was no longer editable and I need to make some changes, so I bit the bullet and started a new site. It is maddening trying to figure out how to use the new site builder. Hours and hours of trial and error to get the look I want. It is up and running now, but is not finished. It is always a work in progress. Why all the effort? Because it has become my #1 sales generator. Dollar for dollar no other method of advertising I use generates a fraction of the revenue that my website does.

Winter Photography

2007-02-09T05:22:00.000-08:00

A great time to break up your Winter Blues is right after a snow storm ends. Grab your camera and head out in search of winter wonderland photos. One thing to remember is that the bright white snow will fool your camera's light meter. Light meters are calibrated to record average scenes. When you try to record snow the light meter will try to record the snow as an average brightness or gray. You will be disappointed with the results unless you override the camera's auto mode and set your camera's metering to manual. Then you will need to open about 2 f-stops from the meter reading your camera is giving you. For example: Your camera's meter is telling you to set your camera to f/16 @ 1/250. This reading will produce an image with gray snow and underexposed shadow areas. Instead set your camera to f/8 @1/250. This will keep the snow nice and white. You may have to take several images at slightly different f/stops (this is called bracketing) to get an image just the way you like it.
I took this image of the old barn just as the storm was ending.

2006-09-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

I had a great summer shooting weddings. It ran the gamut from beautiful weather to 95 and oppressive to a thunderstorm in the middle of an outdoor wedding where it rained buckets for 2 hours. The poor bride could not get out of the Limo it was raining so hard. The wind blew all the place settings off the tables and soaked everything under the pavilion. I don't think I have ever seen it rain so hard for so long. But the rain stopped the wedding went on and it turned out to be a great wedding. Everyone including the bride Carrie and the groom Doug just took it all in stride and everyone had a great time. It was an experience I'll never forget. I got a lot of great images despite the weather.

With the advent of digital cameras, I now enjoy shooting weddings. When I shot film I always worried until I actually saw the proofs. Now I can see each image on the back of the camera as I shoot. I know what I've got and can relax and enjoy the day. Digital also allows me to experiment and see the results and make adjustments to make the images better. I've created some neat images with digital that would have been impossible with film.

More Fall Pictures

2006-09-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more of my favorite images from the past few years

Fall Foliage Pictures

2006-09-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

Every year for the past 25 or so years I've taken a day or two and just wandered around with my camera in search of the "perfect" fall foliage picture. The past several years I've been joined by my sister in this quest. We pick a day and play hookie from work and takeoff looking for this elusive image. After all this traveling in the Adirondacks, Vermont, the Berkshires the best images I've ever taken have been right in this area, especially in Washington and Saratoga counties.
The most important factor is the lighting. I've learned to avoid bright sunny days. The lighting is too contrasty. A sunny day may seem to be ideal as the colors seem brighter, but to a camera's digital sensor or to film... that bright sun also creates contrasty shadows that cannot be captured as your eye sees it. The best lighting is a cloudy day which creates very soft lighting and shadows. Last October I shot a series of images on a foggy overcast morning in Spa State park that were amazing. Early morning or late afternoon is the best time of day to shoot. The lighting seems to glow at that time of day. These images were actually shot on a drizzly day. I like to use a wide angle lens (18mm) and a tripod. This gives me the sharpest images. The wide angle lens gives me the depth of field needed to have everything from a few feet in front of me to the horizon in focus. I also use the slowest ASA film speed or digital speed. This eliminates grain in the images. Avoid 400ASA and higher. So grab your camera and take a ride next fall. You might just find that perfect picture.

A busy summer

2006-09-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

Now that summer is over I can breath again. I had a very busy summer with weddings and portrait sittings.
The digital revolution has excited me about photography the same way I was excited 25+ years ago when I started. Except digital has made me the lab technician. Every image you take has to be "adjusted" in photoshop for color, contrast, sharpness, retouching, etc. The photo lab use to do all this stuff for us when we shot film. No more! I now control the look of every image and it is very time consuming. But it is also very rewarding. I can create the image exactly the way I visualized it. The lab cannot do this. This creative freedom has made me think much more about how I want the final image to look. It has made me a better photographer.
If you have any questions about any aspect of photography send me an email. The link is in my profile. I am not teaching this fall at Shen HS community ed program and I kind of miss all the questions my students ask. So feel free.

Hello

2006-09-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start a blog to help me stay in touch with my clients and friends of my photo business. This is all new to me and a bit awkward, but I sure I will catch-on to how this blogging thing works before too long. It also gives me an opportunity to talk about photography in general and to show some of the other types of images I have created. It is a place where you can ask me questions about talking pictures and also about my photography business.