It was quite hot during this one. 90+ degrees, muggy, and threats of thunderstorms. Not the best for an outdoor wedding. BUT! A brief storm DID come, but right before we were to start doing photos, and it ended almost as quickly as it started. So that cooled things off a bit and the sun stayed out the rest of the afternoon/evening.

It was a very nice ceremony held at Krutch Park in Knoxville’s Market Square.

From 2:30 until around 10, I shot continuously. Ended up with nearly 1000 images. Here is but a small sampling of the images from the wedding ceremony and the reception.

Not only were we able to get 700 images, but she was able to get in more than a half dozen outfit changes. The bad thing is, I now have to sift through 700 images. The good news is, they’re all so good and should require so little editing that it won’t be difficult to get some quality photographs at the end of the day.

The most important part is, aside from the casual nature of the event (or perhaps because of it), I got some really nice pictures of the couple. Here are a few samples.

All in all, I think I made nearly 500 images. Now the fun begins – how do I filter through all those to come up with a handful of great images? That’s the problem, I guess, when a shoot goes really well – you shoot and shoot and shoot. Then there’s hell to pay when it’s time to edit. (Not that I mind looking through all these images of a rather amazing looking model.)

Some of these will be up on my website soon. Next shoot? Looks like it’s going to be deep under ground! Fun stuff.

Saturday I rode my bike down to Market Square for the Knoxville Farmers Market. Picked up a few small produce items (including some “Tennessee Redneck” garlic – strong stuff. I like the strong stuff).

Anyhoo, it seemed that the nice weather brought out a lot of photographers and snap-shooters. About every other person I saw on the Square had a camera in his or her hand. They were photographing crowds, buildings, kids playing in the fountains … name it. I usually try to keep a camera with me at all times, but I’ve somehow misplaced my little Nikon Coolpix pocket camera. I hate that. It’s usually in my bike “trunk” to keep with me always. I guess I need to get on the ball looking for that thing. Never want to miss an opportunity for that perfect shot.

Imagination abandoned by reason creates impossible monsters. United with her, she is the mother of the arts, and the source of their wonders.

Those are the words of 18th century Spanish painter Francisco de Goya. I’ve always liked his work, not because he had amazing skills as a painter (he really didn’t) but because he was a real no BS kind of guy. As a court-appointed portraitist for royalty, he was assigned to paint portraits of kings, queens, princesses, etc. Unlike his predecessors and successors, he pulled no punches. If the darling little princess had a big nose with a giant mole, it was in the painting. How he kept his job (and avoided being executed) I’ll never know.

I certainly would do what I could to accentuate the positive traits in anyone I’m photographing, and remove anything unflattering or distracting (Photoshop rules!)

But back to the quote. “Imagination abandoned by reason creates impossible monsters. United with her, she is the mother of the arts, and the source of their wonders.”

I’ve been in many discussions before about whether photography was an art or a craft. I’ve met both sides of the coin. I once knew a fellow who knew everything to know about photography –  the most minute intricacies of exposure, optics, mechanics, etc. He couldn’t take a good picture to save his life. On the other hand, I had a customer at the camera shop where I worked here in Knoxville who made some absolutely gorgeous photos. Calendar type stuff. Beautiful light, color, perfect composition … Didn’t know an f-stop from an effervescent cold preparation. Did she need to, getting such great photos?  Did she need to have the same level of knowledge as the other guy? Of course not. She got great photos.

However … what if she did? What if she were able to combine that knowledge of the craft with the eye and the artistic spirit she already possessed?

I’ve always tried to maintain that balance of art and craft. Yes, I can get geeky about f-stops and shutter speeds, and discuss depth of field and circles of confusion and camera controls and camera models and hyperfocal settings and pixels and dpi until the cows come home and make fun of me for being such a geek.

But I’m also an artist. And having all that geeky stuff in the storage banks of my mind allows me to focus on the art side, while the craft side goes on automatic. I don’t have to think about it. It makes the art happen. My imagination works with reason, instead of it being abandoned.

De Goya's "The Sleep of Reason."

Names omitted and details changed to protect the (currently) innocent.

An acquaintance of mine was telling a story the other night that had a nice little nit of insight. It was many years ago and he and some of his friends were sitting around listening to records – yes, vinyl records. Charlie “Bird” Parker albums, as a matter of fact. As they started a record and began to listen to the first tune, they were blown away by the smooth, slow, melodious sound coming from the turntable. Not your typical Bird be-bop brandish. A few minutes into it, it was discovered (an “herbally induced” discovery, but a discovery nonetheless – this WAS the 70s) that the record player had been set to 16 and 2/3 instead of 33 and 1/3 – half speed. When the setting was made right, it was the old familiar controlled chaos of be-bop that they loved so much.

One of the first lessons in photography that I ever read in some book whose name I forget now was: “Slow Down.” Take your time to look at your subject. See what it is about it that you find photogenic. Too often we see something that looks worthy of a photo, shoot it, then look at it and wonder what we found so interesting about it. In the days of digital, that’s not a huge deal. But I started with film. The only way to know you got the shot was to wait until you got your processing back. This made it ever so important to make sure you would take your time, find what it is about the subject you like, and then take the picture.

I still carry that philosophy today, even though I shoot digital and have instant feedback. Do I “chimp” after I take a few shots? Oh sure. But before I shoot, I’ve already gone through the motions in my head about what the shot should end up looking like. I’ve set the turntable on 16-2/3 to see what’s there. What is really going on beneath the be-bop that’s worthy of capture? Can a ramshackle, makeshift dwelling under a downtown Knoxville viaduct be a study in afternoon light and the subject of a “fine art” folio?  That’s what I hope to find out.

Everything should be working and linking the way it’s supposed to, but I’ll be checking back with it over the next couple of days to see if it needs to be tweaked any.

Boy, did it need some tweakage! Some weirdness with the headers (font issue – fixed) was the most glaring thing. It looked fine on my computers at home because they have the font I was using. Most people don’t. (It’s called “Maximo,” but don’t go looking for it. I’ve found dozens of fonts called “Maximo” and they’re all different. There really should be some standardization for font nomenclature.)

The navigation is more intuitive now, and it’s a little more colorful.

Anyhoo, thanks to those who gave me some feedback to let me know what was what!

Here ’tis: