This couple is getting married next year. Nelson is actually a fraternity brother of mine. He’s of the charter class. It was strange i met Jen at a fraternity event he introduced her to me and my girlfriend and a year later they’re engaged!

So he asked me to take his photos and now they’re asking me to shoot their wedding. I decided to take them on a tour of Detroit while taking the Detroit people mover. You’ll notice all the stops where we shot were on the people mover stop. I remember on this day that the Red Wings were playing that day as well and there were a bunch of Penguin fans everywhere. It was ugly they were all drunk and belligerent and talking trash.

I took jen & nelson on a tour of Detroit for their engagement session last month. It was just starting to get warm.  Too bad it’s still not warm enough. Summer seems like it just started here in Detroit. We walked around the new riverwalk. There’s a great area resting. Theres some well done landscaping around the new riverwalk. It’s definately beautiful and i’m very proud of the Detroit Renovation.

This past weekend i had the pleasure of working with several models in the DEAC collaborative workshop. I had the opportunity to work with Kitty. She’s been featured on covers of Real Detroit Weekly Magazine for the Detroit Exotica Events.

DEAC is a workshop aimed at creating opportunities for models and photographers to network and learn practice and learn about erotic arts as well as build their craft. I can only show you one set that is Pretty much Safe for work.

I thought this would be a great opportunity to work on glamour, posing & boudoir photography and add more pieces as well as refine my portfolio and break the rust that photographers get in the winter in Michigan/Detroit.

This model Kat was very experienced and very helpful in collaborating. I thought i’d share some of my photos from our DEAC photoshoot from the past weekend at the leland hotel in Detroit, Michigan.

For the lighting geeks. I lit this with one reflective umbrella in the first few shots. It was at 1/4 power and was at camera left of the subject. I set the camera to F/4 and wanted to delete any disgusting ambient light. So the shutter was at 1/200th of a second.

Photos in the break:

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So i was going through 2008 and playing with my favorite LAB conversion technique and updating my wedding photography brochures. I will blog about it later.

I am pretty confident I have one of the most excellant Black and White Digital conversion techniques ever. Thanks to David Williams, Dan Margulis & Dgrin.com

If you’re curious about the LAB Color space; theres an excellent book about it by Dan Margulis.
So here they are just a potpourri of black and white wedding photos (from several detroit weddings from around the area) that I have converted and would like to share with you.

Wedding Photographers hibernate during the winter. Especially this one. Here in michigan snow is no longer a pretty thing to see. At least for me. I feel like its an eyesore seeing and driving in gray snow and gray skies.

So a couple weeks ago my girlfriend and I  decided to head to the bahamas for a 4 day cruise on carnival. What a blast it was. This was my first cruise and first time ever visiting the Bahamas.

The food is excellent on Carnival Cruises and the service is unparalleled.

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is holding a photography contest in conjuction with its upcoming exhibition: Kenro Izu: Light over Sacred Places of Asia

The Detroit Institute of Arts are starting a contest through the Flickr Pool. Anyone can participate. If you’re not a member of Flickr, of the largest  photosharing communties owned by Yahoo!, you can signup so you can participate in the contest. They are looking for people to submit their photography that is related to Detroit. The subject can be anything related to Detroit.

Here are some rules from the official DIA Contest Blog:

• Photographers are allowed to submit one photograph that captures “Detroit’s Sacred Places.” An artist statement is required as part of the submission. The statement (maximum 100 words) should describe how the submitted image pertains to the contest’s theme, “Detroit’s Sacred Places.” Please include any photography technique(s) you would like to highlight. The artist statement should be included in the description portion of your upload.

• Submitted images must be in .jpg format and no larger than 20MB (3000 x 3000 pixels and 300 dpi) opened. Please make sure your image has a file extension of .jpg prior to uploading.

• Images should be unmodified. Please do not submit photomontages, double exposures, or photos with alterations, such as borders, watermarks, or added text.

• Please submit images that are true photography. Photos of paintings, screenshots, and illustrations will not be accepted.

• Photographs must be submitted electronically via Flickr and tagged with “Detroit’s Sacred Places”.

• Submissions are due September 3, 2008

• By submitting an image to “Detroit’s Sacred Places” contest, you affirm you are the creator and rightful owner of this image. In addition, you agree to allow the DIA to use the image in museum and/or promotional materials.

What do you win?

The prize is a signed copy of Izu’s work, Kenro Izu: Light over Sacred Places of Asia, and 2 front row seats to his lecture September 14th, 2008.