Two Sticks Studios – Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Poconos Wedding Photographers » Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Poconos Wedding Photography, Senior Photography and Portrait Photography

Hi, my name is Chad and I’m an addict.

All together now, “Hi, Chad.”

It’s true and my addiction is …. magazines. The glossier the better. I love ’em. I get near a magazine rack  and I’m helpless. Photo magazines, running magazines, golf magazines. During one bender, I even picked up a Log Home Living  magazine. Even today, it’s hard to talk about. for me, a trip to Wegman’s takes four or five hours – two minutes to pick up the Gatorade and the rest of the time strolling the row of mags. CQ, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek.

So why the hell am I telling you. Because I learned a lot about photography through reading these magazines. Don’t get me wrong, nothing replaces picking up your camera every day and going out to shoot something. But if you want to get a better understanding of the basics, learn some lighting setups, stay current on the latest trends, grab a photo magazine. I swear it helps. I have to admit, I’ve been ditching the photo mags lately for something else. I’m sure I’ll take some crap for it, but I’ve been looking at fashion magazines, and believe me I’ve gotten some looks standing in the aisle at the store thumbing through “W.”  I have a good reason – at least I think I do. I want to see what the best fashion photographers in the world are doing because you’d be surprised how well some of their lighting techniques and posing translates to brides. They provide just a ton of new ideas to try out. Some work, some don’t but it keeps our work fresh and current and that’s something I think our clients can appreciate.

Now, if I can just get Bob to admit he has an addiction to photography videos, we can start him on the 12 steps. Maybe next week.

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It might not be the traditional way to spend New Year’s Eve but a wedding ain’t a bad idea, either. In fact, it’s a pretty great way to bring in the new year. Grab a couple hundred of your closest friends, toss on a wedding gown, throw in some tuxedos, a few drinks, a cigar or two and you have the makings of a good time. Combine all that with a really fun couple and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate. Here are some photos from Amy and Sean’s wedding at the Collanade in Scranton. The setting was perfect with midnight fireworks, thanks to the First Night celebration downtown. It really could not have been a better night and thanks to Amy and Sean for letting us come to the party.

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In our last post, we offered a couple of tips to take fun Christmas photos. I hope for anybody that whipped out the camera Christmas morning in search of some emotion and some great memories got exactly what they were looking for. I can tell you on my end it happened fast. Once my daughter was out of bed, it was only seconds until paper was flying. I thought it might be the case so I had my camera set up the night before but the first 15 minutes I was still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes while I was taking photos. In our house, we had everything from cooking in the new play kitchen to diving in the paper pile to several wardrobe changes in the living room. Pretty standard stuff I guess. I know I gotta get up earlier next year.

So here’s what we got. Share your photos on our Facebook page. We’d love to see some of your Christmas photos.

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It’s almost here – one of the great picture-taking days of the year. The Fat Man came down the chimney and unloaded the goods. The morning cup of coffee is ready to roll. Everyone is in their traditional places and the kids are hyperventilating because it’s time to start tearing some paper. OK parents, get your camera ready. This only comes once a year.

Bob and I wanted to offer some quick tips on how to get the best photos on Christmas morning. Don’t have kids? Don’t worry. Most of these tips work great for everyone, including pets. We enlisted our daughters as our models. The beautiful little girl with the straight hair is Bob and Stephanie’s  daughter, Eliza. Henceforth, she will be known as The Good One. The curly haired cutie is mine. We’ll call her No Touch, That’s Mine.

So let’s get to some pix.

Here we see The Good One sitting patiently in front of the Christmas tree. There’s a couple of things I love about this photo. First, we got nice and close and filled the frame. That’s really important. Don’t leave a lot of  “dead space” in your photos. It can make it hard to figure out where to look first. Second, I love how the lights look. It’s a simple technique if you are using a digital SLR. Just set the camera on aperture priority at it’s most open, whether that f2.8, f3.2, f3.5, f4. That will do a great job of blurring the background and making your lights pop.

Next we caught No Touch, That’s Mine with a smile. Christmas is loaded with emotion. Try to capture it. I don’t want to tell you not to get caught up in the moment but if you can keep your camera on your subject at just the right moment, you can get shots you will love for years.  Also notice, we tilted the camera a little when we shot this. Just that little tilt can add some interest to a photo. Just remember not the get carried away with it. Too much of a good thing can be way too much!

Here’s an example of what not to do. Let’s just say for the sake of argument Bob shot this photo.:)The Good One is perfectly in focus. No Touch, That’s Mine not so much. Our mistake here was a depth of field that was too shallow. If this was shot at f8 or f11, both of the kids would be in focus. No Touch, That’s Mine is only about 8 inches in front of The Good One, but you can see it makes a huge difference. If you have more than one person in the photo, pay attention to depth of field.

Kids do funny stuff. They don’t know it, which I guess is what makes it funny, but I got one frame of this before it was over. I had walked away from the tree for a second and sure enough there’s No Touch, That’s Mine crawling under the tree, presumably to make sure Santa had enough room for the loot. Have your camera ready! You just never know.

No tip here. I just thought it was funny.

A couple other tings to consider if you are shooting with a DSLR. Set the ISO to a high setting like 1600. Chances are you’re not going to have a whole lot of light to work with. Try to make sure you get a shutter speed at about 250  of a second. You need to be able to stop the action. When all else fails whether you are shooting with a point and shoot or a DSLR, turn the flash on, get close and keep shooting. There’s no better time than Christmas, and grabbing a few memories along the way is a big part of the fun. Merry Christmas!

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Nothing is better than working with friends. Except maybe working with a friend’s child. Usually because its not actually work at all. In this case it was more like a day at the park. Mellow Park to be exact. I love shooting there because it is the park I go to the most with my family. Its so close to home that I could walk there if I wasn’t so lazy.

Making some portraits was a good excuse to spend more time with Janna and her little boy Noah than I would usually be able to. Noah had a blast playing in the playground, running around in the grass and hanging out on the railroad tracks. What more could a little boy ask for?

Noah was a sweetheart and a ham in front of the camera. What more could a photographer ask for?

Filed in: Portraits
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I think I’ve mentioned it before but Bob and I really consider the people who hire us friends. I mean we spend all day with them on their wedding day – which can be a tad emotional. While we might be flies on the wall, we’re there for some supercharged family moments. You can’t help but get close to people.  We think it probably makes for better photos as well because in the end you can have the greatest gear in the world but if you don’t have access and the trust of the people your photographing, you’re just taking snapshots. Really great photos come from the moments when the camera melts away and it’s just family and friends.

So it’s really exciting to us when friends we photographed at their wedding invite us to take more photos as their family grows. Amy and Jerry were nice enough to invite us to take some photos of the newest addition to their family, Shane. He’s a good looking little dude and obviously we couldn’t be happier for Amy and Jerry and their growing tribe.

Also be sure to check out little Shane’s new hats. Mom (Amy) made them and they rock!

Welcome to the world, Shane! Maybe someday you’ll find this blog post and say, “I remember those dudes taking my picture.” Or, maybe not.

 

 

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