My Equipment

I've been asked lately by a couple of people/friends about what equipment I use for shooting. I am a huge canon fan and I think their products are great! 

The full equipment I carry with me all the time are:

• Canon 30D and 40D bodies. I'm anxiously waiting for the new 5D MKII if it's true! 
  
• Canon 70-200mm IS L lens
  
• Tamron 17-50mm DXII lens (a great lens by tamron) - Canon 24-70mm replacing this soon. 
  
• Canon 50mm 1.8
  
• Canon 480EX/580EX flashes with off camera shoe cord.  I use the 480EX more than the 580EX for some weird reason. 
  
• Pocket wizards for portrait shoots
  
• Wescott white umbrella + Stand
  
• Lots of rechargeable Batteries
  
• 15" Macbook Pro
  
• Lots of flash cards
  

All my camera stuff + laptop fits in 1 lowerpro bag. My lighting stuff fits in a smaller canon bag.

I think that answers it all. Now to something to look at. 

The image below was shot with my 40D and 17-50mm lens. Flash on camera left manually set to 1/4 power and triggered by pocket wizard. 1/125 sec @ F4. Minimal post processing in adobe lightroom.

 

This Building

I will be shooting a major traditional engagement ceremony on the 60th floor of this building tomorrow for 8 straight hours. The son (Daivid) of a well know Man of God (Bishop David Oyedepo) will be traditionally asking for the hands of Kemi (a college friend of mine) in marriage. I did the pre-event consultation on Monday and It looks like its going to be pretty elaborate and I can't wait to get started.

Stay tuned for photos from the ceremony later this week!

The Wedding Reception|Mike+Christen

Mike and Christen had a wedding reception for friends and family at the Colcord hotel in Oklahoma City on Saturday since they had a beautiful destination wedding not too long ago. I had talked to Christen's mum, Debbie a couple of weeks back and I was very excited to be a part of the ceremony. The celebration was filled with a lot of Joy/happiness and I was having a good time as I snapped away. You can tell that the bride and groom are in so much love which made it easy to capture their emotions as the day went on. This was my first time shooting an outdoor event at night and I was glad I had my off-camera cord for my flash to be able to balance my exposures using the flash. It was a lot of work but a lot of fun. Here are some of the images from the night.

Thanks Mike+Christen and most importantly, thanks Debbie for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this special occasion.

The Stunning Bride| Christen Hope Crim

I had the privilege of shooting a beautiful wedding reception last weekend in Oklahoma City. I will be posting more detailed photos from that later on. I did a quick portrait session with the bride and groom before the ceremony started and I shot this photo. Guess where this shot was taken? Trust me it wasn't in any studio. With the right exposure, I was able to turn most of the background black and light the stunning bride using a shoot through umbrella and my 580EX flash.

I love when clients know what they want and can communicate that to me easily. I didn't do much directing as this bride was easily calling the shots. I only had to snap.

More coming soon.

First Wedding | Tanisha + Bernard - Part II

First Wedding | Tanisha + Bernard - Part I

I had the opportunity to second shoot the wedding of Tanisha and Bernard last weekend at the First Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. It was a beautiful ceremony and I was able to capture some wonderful moments as they happened. Being my first second shooting opportunity I learnt quite a lot from the main photographer as he directed and made sure everything went well as far a images go. I'm beginning to build myself as a wedding photographer and to be able to capture such a wonderful time in the lives of 2 people.

I started off hanging with the guys and getting Bernard comfortable with the camera since I had to shoot him pretty much dressing up which was quite interesting but he got comfortable after a while. The best man (groom's brother) kept the guys occupied as he told some interesting war stories from his soldier days. I then moved into the bride's room to capture some images as she got ready.

One of the interesting things I enjoyed was getting to see the bride in her gown even before the groom could. I think that's a wonderful opportunity and capturing that moment was a lot of fun as you get to witness the joy and emotions as the bride prepares for an important moment in her life.

Post processing for these was pretty straight forward. It was a black and white colored wedding so turning them into sepia made me really happy. Although I kinda told my twin I was keeping them mostly colored..Sorry James! I lied.

Here are a few of my favorites images from the day. I still have quite a lot to learn but still very satisfied with these. By the way I'm a lover of noisy images....Is that weird?

Enjoy!