My posing/directing technique developed over time. It is a careful balance between directing people and allowing a real moment to happen.

My main recommendations are to watch the hands and eyes of the people you are photographing.

You should never allow a 'dead hand' where a hand is just hanging there doing nothing. A well placed hand can convey a feeling and connection between two people.

Secondly, if the expression in the eyes is wrong, for example a too wide-eyed, surprised, or bored look, then the entire photo will fall flat.

You can talk and work with your model or couple and get them to relax their eyes. Either by asking them to relax their eyes, or to close their eyes, and when you are ready have them open them slowly and look at you. It is kind fo a way to 'reset' someone's expression.

Also - a smile is not the only way to look into a camera and can often hide the real person underneath. There is nothing wrong with asking for a neutral expression. The subtlety of the person's real personality will be able to show through this way.

Do you feel guilty about using an oven, car, flash, jeans or toothbrush. You didn't invent those either. I get where you're coming from, but post processing is such a small part in what makes an image good, so I don't worry about using tools to get the results I need. With that said, I don't use any heavy presets or actions. All they do is enhance the image I've already captured.

no official announcements just yet. there are still 5 spots for FIND Mexico in San Miguel Nov 12-14th. it is being held here : http://www.vivasanmiguel.com/hacienda_trancas and we got a KILLER deal on it (read it is CHEAP).

but know I have all the dates/cities for 2013 already chosen for sure. an announcement will be coming soon.

2013 is going all over : LA, San Fran, Philippines, Nashville, Austin, New Zealand, Munich, St. Louis, Sydney, NOLA...and possibly Tokyo and Brazil.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQJyle4wvrI

Play

Lack of vision. So many wedding photographers shoot weddings in a way they expect them to be shot. It's like they started out by looking at what other wedding photographers were doing and tried to carbon copy that. There are a million ways to tell a story, but when you look at wedding photographers in general every post is is groundhog day.

I'm not saying I don't do the same, we all do, but it feels like so many wedding photographers completely lack artistic vision.

Shoot it your way.

I have a formula I usually stick to for group shots. First I will line them all up in a row and do that shot (if it's a small group, I'll then have them all lean in close to the middle and do another shot of that). Then I do the "look at each other and laugh" shot. Then I'll bring the most important person(s) forward and do a shot focusing on them, with the group in the background. Then I'll do the "flying V" (where they form a V with the most important people closest to me) and take a shot of that. Then I'll do a scattered shot, where they're all scattered into different places. Then I'll do a walking shot. Then I'll do another line shot but with each person in a unique pose, interacting with the people beside them. Then I'll do a layered group shot, where some people are standing on a step, some are standing on the ground, some are kneeling, and some are sitting. if it's a very large group, I may do two or three layered shots and skip one of the earlier poses I mentioned.

I really really like layered shots, not only because they gets lots of attention (brides and photographers love them) but also because it allows you to get closer up on the wedding party. Negative space is great, but sometimes you just want a nice shot with the subjects filling the frame, and with big wedding parties, often a layered shot is the only way to go.

The biggest problems I see with people doing group shots are 1) Not putting people close enough to each other (nothing worse than a big huge gap in the middle of a group shot), 2) Not enough variation in posing, 3) Symmetry (it doesn't have to be exactly symmetrical, but if you've got two people sitting on the left side and no one sitting on the right side, it's going to look off), and 4) Putting people in uncomfortable or awkward positions for their gender. For example, a girl is not going to look good down on one knee, and a guy is not going to look good sitting on his hip. It's important to learn how both men and women look best sitting, standing, kneeling, crouching, leaning, hugging, etc, and utilize those poses appropriately.

I've taken a long and hard look in the mirror and I've realised I have been short, angry and sometimes a little bitter here on Formspring. There's a number of reasons for this and at times I've thought I had legitimate reasons for my reactions.

BUT.

I do this because I like giving back, I like sharing and I want people to get an insight to why I do this thing I do.

Sure, I think there are too many "irrelevant" questions at times, but who am I to judge? People ask them because they want to know something and that's good, right? There's no reason (well...) for me to get shitty with people because they ask me what lens I prefer to shoot with.

They simply want to know.

So, 2012 is here and I've decided to start fresh. I do this because I love it and I want people to keep asking me questions without being afraid I'll turn into the soup nazi again.

But thanks for your kind words, I appreciate it.

I haven't always been kind on here and that's my fault, no one else's.

I considered erasing all my old answers, but instead I will just have to show people I realise I've been wrong too.

Here's to a fresh start.

But if you ask me what ASE is I will have to slash your tyres, ok?

Fanny packs! It practically adds 20 lbs.

a combination of my personality and again waiting for the right moment. i don't know if that is something you can teach. either you see it, or recognize something does not look/feel natural, or you don't. and as "natural" as they look, they were very much directed in what to do.

that is literally the dumbest thing I've heard all week. I hope it's not true.

this is the opposite of the Gospel.

Hi there :o) It'll vary from family to family of course, but some common traditions are:

- Many do an Advent calendar of some kind, either with little treats or gifts or things to do, scriptures to read (some will read a bit of the Christmas story in the Bible every day leading up to Christmas), or as simple as counting down the days with paper rings or some kind of pocket calendar. We had a big felt hanging growing up that had elaborate, embroidered pieces depicting the nativity and each day we got to turn one over (it had little bra hooks on each piece) and the Christmas day piece was the baby Jesus in a manger. My mom sends a box of little things for the kids to unwrap each day leading to Christmas - some are fun things some are spiritual.

- Lots of people sing Christmas carols, and our neighborhood will usually get a group together - but after doing it as a kid I feel weirdly shy about it, so I don't go anymore. My kids do, though.

- Many of us do neighbor gifts where we bake or sew and deliver handmade things to the neighbors on our street. I try to do cinnamon rolls every year, we're surrounded by folks who aren't members of our faith so I think it's a fun way to reach out and take some time to visit.

- I know some will do some kind of birthday celebration for Jesus; often with a penny or something baked into the cake - whoever gets it is supposed to have goodwill that year. This isn't something my family has ever done, though.

- Watching the First Presidency Christmas special on TV or internet broadcast! http://lds.org/church/events/first-presidency-christmas-devotional-broadcast-information?lang=eng

- It's really hard to get tickets to see it live -- they are free -- but millions apply and they randomly select 'winners,' so I've never been, but lots go watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. They have a guest celebrity singer every year. The rest of us watch it when it is broadcast: http://lds.org/church/events/temple-square-events/2011-choir-christmas-concert?lang=eng

- Recreating the nativity. In my family this was always done the night before Christmas, and it's so much fun. As a kid you got to take turns acting out the different parts, or if there are enough cousins gathered you've got enough to play everyone and a whole lot of shepherds. We use sheets and robes to make costumes and if someone has had a baby recently they get to play Jesus, otherwise we use a doll. My mom and I write out a program every year, and have hymns and scripture readings throughout. This year we'll be with my husband's family and so we'll have lots of kids to participate.

- Going to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Living in Idaho, we haven't had a chance to do this for many years, but we met up with family after Thanksgiving this year and walked the square to admire all the lights. There is a big nativity in the reflecting pond, warm visitors centers with displays, and hot chocolate outside of the Joseph Smith Memorial building! Yum! (I know some other temples do lights as well, we went to Mesa Temple when we lived in Arizona at Christmas time, and they put on a huge pageant... so lots of local festivities usually, wherever one lives.) http://lds.org/church/news/lighting-up-temple-square?lang=eng

- There is usually a ward (church group) party with a big dinner, some entertainment of some kind or a presentation on the life of Christ, and someone will dress up like Santa. All the kids will line up to sit on his lap and tell them what they want. Most LDS folks will do the Santa thing, though I grew up knowing it was only a story... here's what we ended up doing with our kids: http://balancingeverything.com/2008/12/14/yes-virginia-there-is-a-santa-claus/ (that's my grandpa's brother in the picture, he was a professional Santa for a long time, now he's on a mission with his wife).

Other than that, lots of baking, Christmas songs (hymns and Rudolph and all of that), decorating the house and tree, gift making, gift planning, fires in the fireplace, family visiting, and here in Idaho -- snowmobiling and sledding!

Thanks for the fun question!

Canon files are still super pretty, but I'm officially stoked about my skin tones and I'm not sure that I'm in any rush to made a change now.

Seriously. VSCO is my new savior. My old LR preset needed a lot of tweaking to deal with contrast issues and saturation issues if my exposure was off. It was a huge PITA.

I wanted to wait till I finished an entire wedding with VSCO before I gave a huge "omfg, I love VSCO" but I just edited a wedding with it and it's amazing. AH MAZE ING. (Note - these were ran through alien skin to mute the black, but the difference is hardly noticeable and I can post some VSCO edits only if anyone requests them)

http://www.nessakphotography.com/slideshows/jenntaylor/

AND! The best part is that I used the same modified Portra 800 preset on every single one of those files.

The trick (for me) for getting consistently good results was to lower the orange luminosity and saturation by -22. I said this to someone and they said it sounded like a recipe for oompa loompa skin and I would typically agree, but it just works. It got rid of all of the orange/green issues I was having with skin tones and I can warm up my images a lot more than I could after just choosing a straight VSCO film preset. I also took down the contrast a little and made a few other tweaks (no recovery, adding a bit of fill, playing with the tone curve) to make the preset match my style a little more.

What made me fall in love with them was... (here we go) tricking myself into not knowing what tones I was missing. I started by importing files I hadn't edited before into Lightroom and applying the preset I made immediately, so as to not look at my SOOC files. Of course, I loved the files, I wasn't clicking "before and after" over and over to see what tones were missing, and it saved me a ton of grief. The tones I get with VSCO are completely different from anything I would've put together myself and I was tricking myself into thinking the files looked too strange compared to my SOOC files because there were tones missing and it handled shadows differently, but I'm totally singing the praises of these presets now. They aren't exactly click boom, but they are, hands down, the best presets I've ever owned. They need a little tweaking for my taste, but they're amazing. Also, the camera profiles make all the difference, so if you purchased the STANDARD 01, I highly recommend upgrading. You won't reget it. :)

Nikon D700 files, LR, and VSCO are all getting along beautifully on my end. :)

I hope that helps!

front right now. I've done rear in the past. I shoot manual flash at 1/32nd or 1/64th power usually from f/3.5 to f/5.6 at 1/5th to 1/30th of a second.

Hope that helps!

i don't have thoughts on it as i don't use it. but if it helps someone, then so be it. and if it helps someone also get interested in shooting film, all the better :).

micro evolution, yes.

macro evolution, no.

Never been. Would love to go.

It has been posted before, but hey...

http://jonaspeterson.com/clients/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=10024

the password is: swpb

I move my 50mm to f/11, hit the aperture preview button and remove my lens. I just flip it backwards and it magnifys the image to macro status.

I had just turned 22, and hubs was about to turn 23. In the Orthodox community, our ages were pretty average. Sex before marriage is forbidden according to Jewish law, which tends to encourage purpose-driven dating and a condensed boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. I do like the idea that we are growing into our adulthood together, experiencing nearly all of our lives together, etc.

Haha, I'm currently listening to blue skies (by Noah and the whale), Two (by the Antlers), A gust of wind in different directions (by the last dinosaur) and Girlfriend (by pheonix). They're my last 5 iTunes buys!