Jared Crawford Photography Blog

Nebriz & Shayne - "Just Because" Shoot in Fullerton, CA

2010-10-08T16:31:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of shooting my friend and co-worker Nebriz, along with her husband Shayne. Why? More like why not? They've been married for a while now, but they never took engagement photos. This was as good an opportunity as any to get them together in front of the camera, and give them a couple of pictures to hang on their walls.

We started off right by Wahoo's Fish Taco in downtown Fullerton. I have been there so many times, but I never really paid attention to the colorful mural painted on the side of a preschool there. It made the perfect backdrop for our warm-up shots. Shayne started off a little unsure (especially when other people were passing and possibly looking), but it didn't take long before he was coming up with ideas for the next shot.

SoCal Photog ShootOut - Fullerton, CA

2010-09-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's nice to mix things up a little. I've been keeping pretty busy, shooting at a lot of weddings lately. But when the SoCal Photog ShootOut group announced an event close to home, I knew it would be a lot of fun. I went to their Pasadena event earlier this year, and Hannsie Trainor and Matt Saville did a great job of organizing it, with the help of some great instructors, stylists, makeup artists, and models. So I had an idea of what to expect, but with this one being themed "Desperate Housewives meets Lady Gaga", I knew there would be some interesting surprises as well.

There were probably 50-60 photographers that showed up at this amazing Fullerton home. The owners, John and Monica, were extremely generous to let that many strangers run around different parts of their house. We were broken up into 6 groups, and rotated around, taking turns at each station with a different instructor and a different model. As the theme suggested, some of the girls were styled like desperate housewives, and some were styled like Lady Gaga. The stylists, Heather Skelton and Michelle Cunningham, really went all out to come up with creative looks for the girls. Special thanks also to Tianna DeGuire for makeup, and Kylee Heath and Diego Ortega for hair.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the event.

Ellie Paige

2010-07-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to my sister and her husband! On July 11th, they had a healthy, beautiful baby girl...Elliot Paige. One thing is for sure: Ellie will have no shortage of photographs as she grows up. Here's one from her first official photo shoot, at 1 week old. As you can see, she's totally posing with her back arm.

Laura & Mike's Trash-the-Dress Session

2010-07-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

On the one hand, I understand. A bride is never going to use her wedding dress again. And what are the chances she'll have a daughter that wants to wear the same dress for her wedding? Not likely. On the other hand, you could always sell it so someone else is able to get use out of it now. Or you could just save it for sentimental value. Regardless of how you feel, "Trash-the-Dress" sessions happen...in a variety of places and ways. If you are a dress designer, I offer my sincere apologies.

Only 24 hours after their wedding, Henry Chen and I headed down the Santa Barbara coast with Laura & Mike, looking for a perfect beach for their trash-the-dress shoot. It took a while to find a beach with enough sunshine, but eventually we found the clear skies we needed for the late afternoon shoot.

The pictures tell it all. It was crazy! Although Laura & Mike sacrificed their clothing, they came away with some amazing memories and pictures to help them remember their wedding weekend. And for me, it was worth sacrificing my favorite, perfectly broken in, Rainbow flops. I had no idea there was tar mixed in with the Santa Barbara sand, until it was too late...so nasty.

My lessons learned from the day:

1. Avoid walking on Santa Barbara beaches if at all possible.

2. Vegetable oil does an amazing job of removing tar from things like feet, shower floors, etc.

Laura & Mike's Wedding

2010-06-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

As soon as I found out about it, I jumped at the opportunity to help Henry Chen with Laura & Mike's Santa Barbara wedding and "Day After" shoot. I am so glad I did! The end.....just kidding.

The wedding festivities were held at Bacara Resort & Spa. The resort is very elegant and isolated, which was perfect for this intimate wedding. And when I say intimate, I'm not exaggerating....only the immediate families were invited...7 guests total! The ceremony was held outside on a large secluded lawn overlooking the coast. The staff did a great job of making sure no guests or visitors entered the ceremony area, which could have definitely spoiled the mood. And the thick cloud cover really made the colors pop in the photos Henry and I took...that is without a doubt my favorite lighting for outdoor photography.

Reason #49 why Bacara was so great: after the ceremony, they had one of the hotel staff drive us (Laura, Mike, Henry, me) around in a golf cart, anywhere we wanted to go, to take some romantic shots of the couple.

The reception dinner was held in a dimly lit room adjacent to an impressive wine cellar. The families enjoyed a 7-course dinner, with a different wine paired to each course, and the expert sommelier there to explain the differences. Meanwhile, Henry and I were served dinner upstairs in the Miro restaurant, which was closed to the public. They treated us VERY well...it was totally unexpected, and definitely appreciated. The night wrapped up with the cake cutting, some informal dancing, and some very "happy" guests (7 courses of wine will do that to you).

Juna & Paul's Wedding

2010-05-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

Juna & Paul started off the day at the JW Marriott Hotel at L.A. Live, getting ready for their one-of-a-kind wedding day. The hotel itself is an amazing...I could have just sat in the lobby area in awe for hours. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this was my first time at L.A. Live. That's one of the best things about photography...I get to check out places I might not see otherwise. It just makes me appreciate Southern CA that much more.

I just need to say it...Paul was the happiest, friendliest groom I've ever seen. It was a pleasure hanging out with him and his guys, as he got ready for his first look with Juna. For the ceremony and reception, we headed to the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. The church is very dark inside, but the intricate cathedral-style architecture distracted me from the photographic challenges.

For their after party, the couple rented out the entire Remedy Lounge in Downtown L.A....with open bar of course. Throw in some heartfelt speaches, a photo booth, and great music, and it was the perfectly relaxing way to wrap up their day. And of course it was great helping out Henry Chen and Will Kim once again!

My lessons learned from the day:

1. Korean food is probably not for me. I'm willing to try most things, and I'll usually give restaurants or genres of food a second chance, but it's gonna be a while for this one :-)

2. While the inside of the JW Marriott is amazing, you should probably ask permission before you try to shoot in their public areas. Fortunately we got most of our shooting done before Security asked us to stop.

Jeany & Andrew's Wedding

2010-05-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

Jeany and Andrew are just a cool couple. From Jeany jogging around the hotel in the morning with a big smile on her face, to Andrew constantly asking Henry Chen, Will Kim, and me if we were OK or needed anything. Well this cool couple had a cool wedding day to match. Their ceremony was held on a sailing ship at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point. For the reception, we headed up the coast and boarded another boat, provided by Electra Cruises in Newport Beach. Shortly before the reception boat docked for the evening, Jeany and Andrew climbed into a gondola and drifted off in the dark together. That's right, 3 different boats in one wedding day! They must have set some kind of record.

Thanks to Henry for letting me assist with this wedding. I had a blast!

Remembering Vegas

2010-04-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

Looking back through some of my pictures from this year, I couldn't help but slow down and remember the fun I had in Las Vegas during the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) convention. A couple of the evenings I just strolled up and down The Strip, taking random pictures like a true tourist, occasionally running into groups of other photographers in town for the same convention. Here are some of my favorite shots from those evenings.

Nadia & Dustin's Wedding

2010-04-23T22:21:00.000-07:00

I was pleasantly surprised when Nadia asked me to photograph her wedding, since we are former co-workers, and have been friends for several years. I had originally offered to shoot an engagement session for her and her fiance Dustin, but it wasn't long before she told me she needed more help.

Nadia and Dustin's ceremony was held at Holy Family Catholic Church in Artesia. Since Nadia teaches at the adjacent school, her students played a big part in the day. Not only did they lead all of the singing during the ceremony, but they covered the whiteboard in her classroom (where Nadia made her final preparations) with their congratulations. The Los Coyotes Country Club was the reception site, where the guests enjoyed the view of the golf course and the setting sun as the party got going.

Special thanks to Orn Thang and Anna Mae Lam for their help in capturing the day. I also want to say thank you to the planner, Raechel Lauryn Prochnow, for keeping the day flowing smoothly. It was great meeting you and hopefully we'll get the chance to work together again soon.

Ketchup Blog

2010-04-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

Three tomatoes are walking down the street: poppa tomato, momma tomato, and baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind and poppa tomato gets really angry...goes back and squishes him...says, "Ketchup."

Initially I wanted to retrace my steps and try to mention all of the things that have helped me grow as a photographer. The problem is I just need to ketchup. It's not that I've become a well-respected international wedding photographer and that my speaking tour schedule leaves too little time for blogging. No, not even close. But I am keeping myself pretty busy with any photography opportunities I can get, while balancing a full-time job...and a patient and supportive wife...and 2 cats...and 40ish tropical fish :-). So let me briefly mention some of the key things I've done or learned:

SmugMug User Group (SMUG) meetings - I've really grown to appreciate SmugMug, and they're much more than just an image hosting company. They are a close group of individuals that obviously love what they do, and it shows in everything they say and do. One of the great things they support is user group meetings all over the U.S. (and now 1 in Canada). Those of us in the Orange County, CA area have been spoiled by having Jasmine Star as our leader, and by having the Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa let us use their facility. I've gone to every OC SMUG meeting since I realized they exist. They have been a great source of information, as well as an opportunity to network with others interested in photography (whenever I'm willing to break out of my shell and actually meet new people). The best part about SMUG meetings is that they are free, and they aren't limited to SmugMug users.
Reading - The nice thing for new photographers these days is that there's so much educational information and inspiration readily available online. Instructional videos, Frequently Asked Questions, blogs...I could spend all day in front of my computer if that was an option. I've also spent plenty of money and time on books and magazines. My favorite magazine continues to be Photoshop User, which features a lot of great work, as well as step-by-step examples.
Practice - There's no better way to learn than doing. Whether it's a vacation, a car show, a family get together, or just stepping outside my house, I'll take pictures anywhere. Bindi usually doesn't understand pictures that don't have people in them. "What are you going to do with a picture of a giraffe?" Now I can answer...put it on the blog and admire it :-)

Mixers - Henry Chen was kind enough to host a couple of very informative mixers for local photographers in his Long Beach studio. I really respect the quality of Henry's work and service, and I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had to work with and learn from him since those mixers.
Group shoots - After learning of the SoCal Photog Shootout group at one of the OC SMUG meetings, I decided to attend their event in Pasadena, CA. This happened to be their biggest event thus far...much larger than their typical event. It turned out to be an amazing day, with plenty of opportunites to learn, practice, network, and come away with some great pictures! I hope to attend more of these events in the future.
Workshops - I decided to attend workshops back-to-back in March 2010. The first was Henry Chen's Las Vegas Workshop, which was about 6 hours of hands-on shooting practice. We started off in Red Rock Canyon in the late afternoon, and headed to The Las Vegas Strip after dark. The following day I attended Mike Colon's Seven Workshop in Las Vegas. This workshop was more of an interactive discussion focusing on some technical aspects of photography, marketing, pricing, etc. There was also an awesome photo shoot just south of The Strip in an empty desert field. The two workshops were very different, but were both quite educational for me. I have no regrets about attending either one of them. I know there is a lot of criticism going around about some photographer workshops right now, so if you have any questions about either of these, feel free to contact me directly.
WPPI - Wow, talk about photography overload! I attended the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) convention in Las Vegas after the two workshops I just mentioned. I wanted to make the most out of that trip and I certainly did. The convention was a lot of fun, even with the basic tradeshow pass. Spending only one day at the tradeshow was not enough, and I probably missed about a third of the booths. I found myself caught up in talks being given by well respected photographers at various booths...I probably could have sat at the Canon booth for several straight hours had I not been trying to meet up with a friend. One of the main goals I had for the tradeshow was to see and feel a lot of different album options, which is hard to do online. This turned out to be just plain overwhelming, with all of the different options available. I walked away with flyers from about 15 different album companies, not able to remember which albums I liked the best, and without even making it to the booths of the 3 companies I'm most likely to use. In any case, WPPI was a lot of fun, and I need to remember to block off more time and sign up for the full convention registration next year.
Social Networking - I have to admit I was not an early adopter of Facebook, or of Twitter. Before getting into photography, I was using MySpace fairly regularly and that was sufficient. I didn't see how Facebook was any different than MySpace, and I thought the concept of Twitter was just plain lame. Well things have changed a bit for me. Although I haven't deleted my MySpace account, I hardly ever look at it, and I never update the content. I have found Facebook to be a great way of getting my work seen. When I'm tagging friends and clients in pictures, I know their friends are likely to see the images as well. It's free marketing for me, and with a fan page, it's even easier to attract followers that may not know me personally. I'm actually reluctant to start blogging regularly because I'm already posting event highlights and Facebook and it is working for me, although I realize that not everyone has a Facebook account and there are additional benefits to blogging. As for Twitter, I can now appreciate why so many people use this powerful tool. It's a great way for me to stay current with news and events in the industry. You do have to sift through a fair amount of pointless comments and excess self-promotion, but I've found it pretty easy to get the information I want...which can range from inspirational work, to humor, to job opportunities.

Wow, that was quite a novel. But I now consider myself to be officially caught up!!

More than a Best Man

2010-01-29T17:19:00.000-08:00

Back to the timeline...

After my photography intro course, I did a little bit of practicing here and there. I started shooting in RAW format rather than JPEG. I'm so glad I made the switch when I did. Anyone that cares about their DSLR pictures, and has a computer that can handle it, should definitely shoot in RAW...that's my opinion. You have so much more flexibility to adjust the pictures later. I'm not saying you can't take great pictures in JPEG format...but why throw away image detail if you don't have to?

Anyway, somehow I got the bright idea that I could shoot engagement pictures for the upcoming wedding of my good friends Jesse & Tracy. They agreed. So when the weekend came, I packed up my camera and wife, and met them at their place. It turned out to be a lot of fun...low pressure, easy going, and great practice. Best of all, I got quite a few decent pictures that Jesse used for a guest sign-in book at the wedding.

The wedding was in early May (2009). I was the Best Man. Did that stop me from wanting to take pictures at the wedding? No way! They were having a fairly small destination wedding at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki. The wedding package included a photographer at the chapel and some formal shots afterward, but they wanted someone to take pictures at their reception. So again, I offered to help out...what a great guy I am... ha ha! Well since I knew this was important, I decided to rent a good lens. Up until then, I had only used the 18-55m and 75-300mm that came with my XSi. After much research, I decided to rent the 24-70mm f/2.8L from LensProToGo. Looking back, it was a great lens choice, but a lucky one considering how little I understood about different lenses. It was also quite a shock to see how massive this was compared to my other lenses once it arrived. It made my other lenses look like toys...more on that later :-)

The trip was great and the wedding was beautiful. The only times I put the camera down were for the ceremony (because I was in it), and for my speech at the reception. Bindi took some shots from her seat while I was busy. But once my speech was over, the camera was mine again! In addition to getting good practice and learning a ton from the wedding, I met someone that would become a good friend. The wife of Jesse's co-worker, Orn Thang, was interested in getting started as a wedding photographer. We met when she came in to get pictures of Tracy getting ready, before I had to run and get ready myself. Orn and I had fun shooting over the chapel photographer's shoulder after the ceremony, and then tag-teaming the reception.

My main lessons from the wedding:
1. Pictures taken with the built-in flash look like crap. That wasn't really a surprise, but I just hadn't thought much about it until then. Orn's pictures with her shoe mount Nikon flash, which was usually bounced off of the ceiling, looked noticeably better.
2. Canon L series lenses are fun. After returning the rental, it didn't take long before I got tired of playing with my "toy" lenses, and purchased the same 24-70mm for myself. Oh, and the Canon 580EX II flash followed closely behind it. That's probably when it sunk in for Bindi that we were gonna have a problem. At least I was learning from my lessons, right???

Delivery Time

2010-01-26T22:15:00.000-08:00

I have to briefly interrupt the retracing of my steps, to bring you this important announcement:

I JUST GOT MY NEW CANON 5D MARK II YESTERDAY!!!

Sorry for the screaming. In case you don't understand, let me explain a little. Like I've mentioned, I've been shooting with a Canon Rebel XSi for the past year. It's a great camera. I've had no problems with it, and I'm very fortunate to have gotten it. I fully understand that fancy-pants cameras and lenses do not make you a better photographer. I mean, some people choose to do amazing things with home-made pinhole cameras. However, I have learned a couple of important things over the past year:

1) While consumer DSLR cameras are great in a lot of situations, they do have some limitations. One of the main limitations I've found is shooting in low light situations, which is all you get at a lot of weddings and receptions. On the XSi, the ISO goes up to 1600, and image noise can be very noticeable above 400. The 5D Mark II goes up to 6400 (expandable to 25600), and can shoot quality images up at ISO 1600. Another big difference is the full-frame sensor on the 5D Mark II, as compared to the smaller sensor and 1.6 crop factor on the XSi. This will also contribute to better image quality with the 5D Mark II.

2) Wedding photographers need a back up for everything. What happens if your camera stops working in the middle of a ceremony? You're screwed, that's what. You've got one chance to capture that day for the couple and their friends/family. It is irresponsible to take on a wedding without a solid backup plan. Up until now, my "backup" has been my 2nd photographer. But to be serious about wedding photography, that's not sufficient. You need a backup for everything.

Throw in the full HD video of the 5D Mark II, which is very intriguing to me with a lot of the fusion work that has started popping up, and you'll understand why there has been no doubt about which camera I wanted for the past several months. Unfortunately for my wallet (and our non-existent house fund), that wasn't all I ordered. Throw in the battery grip, a 580EX II flash (my 2nd....remember you need a backup of everything), and an another amazing piece of art... a 85mm f/1.2L lens. Each one of those items is a big investment on their own. Add all of them up and I still get a little nauseous...ok a lot nauseous. Photography isn't cheap. And like I keep telling Bindi, you've got to spend money to make money. I just hope that some day soon my "making" surpasses my "spending." Right now it feels like there's no end in sight.

5D Mark II with 85mm f/1.2L and battery grip

An insane amount of glass

Exploring f/1.2...it's a whole new world

Refresher class

2010-01-21T22:25:00.001-08:00

I'm sitting in Terminal 7 of LAX, trying to make use of my time and technology, so here's the next chapter...

Around the time I assembled my computer, my wife noticed an ad for a basic photography course in our city's newsletter. It was a 4-night course to explain the basic concepts of photography, as well as the common settings on a camera. This was perfect. I was curious about my camera settings, and up until then, had left everything safely set on auto-pilot. Ironically, the course was being taught by Gary Apodaca of ImageWorks Photography, the same photographer that shot my sister's wedding only 8 months earlier.

Although the class was fairly basic, that's all I needed to get me going. I remembered a lot of concepts I had forgotten since my high school class, and I learned about almost every setting on my DSLR. The homework assignments forced me to try new things...some worked, some didn't. But since this course, my camera dial hasn't seen the Auto setting. That was the main thing I gained...the understanding and confidence to do some of the thinking myself. I didn't use the fully manual mode much, but aperture priority (Av) became a good friend of mine.

Pimp my computer

2010-01-16T10:04:00.000-08:00

After the honeymoon, I found myself with hundreds of new pictures....big pictures. My 5-year old Dell was struggling to open folders with lots of high resolution images, and the 17" monitor attached to it was not the greatest for admiring pictures and doing detailed Photoshop work. I went into full-on geek mode, and decided to do something I hadn't done for about 8 years...build my own PC. It seems like most photographers and artistic professionals would go straight for a Mac, but that's not how I roll. I got excited about the possibilities, and drooled over numerous issues of CPU Magazine. Like I said, full-on geek mode.

Well it didn't take long before I started randomly ordering components. Bindi didn't get it at first. She thought the 28" ViewSonic monitor looked absurd, especially next to a TV that was only slightly larger. But once I got everything assembled and she starting using it, she understood (at least somewhat). She really started to notice how fast it was when she went back and forth between work and home. So here are some geeky pictures of my geeky computer...Intel i7, 12 GB RAM, 2 x 1TB hard disks (mirrored), 1 GB NVIDIA graphics card, Windows Vista 64-bit (later upgraded to Windows 7 64-bit)...which, if you read this post 3 months from now, this computer will already be obsolete..ha ha! But it actually has held up very well for almost a year already...I still don't see many consumer PCs being sold with this kind of horsepower.

Retracing my steps

2010-01-14T21:40:00.000-08:00

Although I'm starting to blog well into my photography obsession, I still think it's valuable for me to look back and try to document how I got here. Some of the details are a bit fuzzy already, but here's what I remember...

I was fortunate enough to have a photography class offered at my high school, so I took it. It was a fun class, and Dr. Laurry Bishop taught us the fundamentals of working with a 35mm SLR camera, and developing our own film (film...what's that?). So what do I have to show from it? Well I have a lot of B&W pictures of friends' cars (as well as my own), and 3 matching shots of some dominoes stacked up away from the camera, taken at different aperture settings to show how the depth of field changes. Nothing too exciting.

I never really used the SLR after that. For vacations or special occasions, I would grab a disposable camera. And not too long after high school, digital cameras started becoming popular. A 3 megapixel Olympus point-and-shoot, and then later a 6 megapixel Casio, were enough to keep me satisfied until my wedding.

Getting ready for my wedding (AKA "The Circus"), I started realizing that I wanted to have better quality pictures. I was doing a lot of Photoshop work for our wedding website, and also for our save-the-date reminders. Mix that with shopping for wedding photographers, and I started to really notice the quality difference between my point-and-shoot pictures and what I was seeing online. I had it all planned out. Right after the wedding, I ran to Costco and picked up the new DSLR kit I'd been drooling over. It was 12 amazing megapixels of Canon EOS Rebel XSi goodness, and my excuse was our upcoming honeymoon in Cancun :-)

I'm sure Bindi would agree, this is when the obsession really began!

You're not a photographer if you don't have a blog...

2010-01-12T22:58:00.000-08:00

"Every photographer should have a blog."

"You do have a blog, don't you?"

"Let's see your blog."

Although I've been avoiding this, and I'm still not convinced a blog is really necessary, I am finally understanding some of the value a blog can have. I'm giving in to the peer pressure. Many photographers use blogs to showcase their recent work, or to expose more of their personality and make a connection with potential clients. Those are both good reasons to blog frequently, but for now my main goals are to organize my thoughts, and track my progress through the ever-changing world of photography. I hope that one day this blog will help me better connect with my clients and fans, and that other beginning photographers may pull some helpful information from this mess of thoughts, but for now I'm doing this to further explore where I've been and where I am today.

It's still amazing to think that when I picked up my first DSLR just over a year ago, I would have never imagined what I would accomplish with that consumer camera (Canon Rebel XSi). Why didn't I start blogging back then? If only I had known. I have gigs and gigs of pictures on my PC from the last year that serve as an unorganized journal of my progress. But already I've forgotten so many of the questions and challenges I've had to work through. So now, after so much research, practicing, investing, and obsessing, I need to assess where I'm at, and use this blog as another tool to improve my photography skills.

Here I sit late at night in my dark bedroom, with my wife soundly asleep, eager to publish this first post and see where it takes me. And so it begins...