We’ve always wanted to incorporate video into our studio offerings but never quite found the right mix of cinematographer/editor that fit our style, until now. I want to introduce our clients to Brynmore Williams and his partner, George Cox. Together they provide the look and feel that is distinctively our style. This is their first wedding project for us although these guys have numerous credits to their names. Brynmore coins his unique vision: Love 2.0

Ashley & Carlo from brynmore on Vimeo.

Here is Brynmore’s description of his vision for you:

Storytelling is my lovechild. This gift has been a blessing that I have nurtured and cultivated over many years. For me, nothing is more fascinating than real life. But mix in a generous helping of some good ole fashion lovin’ and you’ll end up with a fairytale recipe unmatched by anything else in the galaxy.
We live in the era of “the cloud.” Our lives and experiences are shared widely and instantaneously; we create our own mythology. Love 2.0 is an idea that runs parallel with how we live our lives today. No longer are we inviting friends over to our houses to watch the 2-hour long wedding video. We are uploading clips and short films to Youtube.com and Facebook, embedding them on webpages and downloading them to mobile devices. We are sharing our love far and wide. As one blushing bride told us, ” It’s unbelievable to think 4 minutes of film could capture so much!”

Ashley & Carlo from brynmore on Vimeo.

When I asked Brynmore to come down to Gautemala to shoot video for this wedding I knew I wanted a video product that fit with our wedding photojournalism style and if this short clip is any indication of what’s to come I’m sure Ashley and Carlo’s over-the-top, blowout of a fiesta will not disappoint.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we spent the day with these two shooting in these little known ruins right in La Antigua (thank you Jacobo). Even with the looming threat of rain and mosquitos Ashley and Carlo were always laughing–sometimes at me and most of the time with us all. We had a great time as witnessed in the video and Sade’s “By Your Side” just gels it all together.

We spent 12 hours at their wedding last night so I can only imagine how much footage Brynmore will have to pour over in the next few weeks.

Here is a behind the scenes look at our photo shoot with Sarah and Noah on the Lenox Hotel roof. As a Boston wedding photographer getting outside even in the dead of Winter is a must. We just have to be careful how we phrase instructions…good thing for us that all our clients are as fun and easy going as Sarah and Noah. Enjoy!

Dipper Mouth Blues from Glen Cooper on Vimeo.

A little behind the scenes from last months wedding at the Lenox Hotel. Chris Gagne was shooting Canon 5D M2 and the 7D for this. Standing in the cold and snow on a windy rooftop I guess my mouth and brain were a bit out of sync–good thing Sarah and Noah are my kind of folk.

While it has absolutely nothing to do with wedding photography–Oh, wait, check that. It has everything to do with wedding photography. This is me training to get in shape for another incredibly busy wedding season. I promise I won’t wear the Vibram 5-Fingers when I shoot your wedding–well, maybe if I’m asked.

Winter Barefootin’ from Glen Cooper on Vimeo.

Winter trail run along the Skyline Trail in The Fells, Medford, Massachusetts. Shot with my Flip Mini HD during a 7.8 mile run in my Vibram 5 Fingers–I could feel every pebble and acorn but it was very primal and exhilarating experience.

Video and production by Glen Cooper

My Girl from Glen Cooper on Vimeo.

Waiting for clients in our studio–A video portrait of Asha.

Some more photography highlights from Nathan and myself:

Sarah and Noah Getting Married from Glen Cooper on Vimeo.

12/31/09 - Boston, - Sarah and Noah are married on New Year's Eve at the Lenox Hotel.

The year that was ended the same way for us at DMPJ as the previous year with a gorgeous, snow covered New Year’s Eve wedding celebration for two beautiful people.  Mozoltov to Sarah and Noah–what a great way to begin a life together.

It is one thing I really push for in the colder months that my couples try to brave the cold and elements.  This gives their wedding another dimension from the interior shots–usually taken with added light from our speedlights.

I always say to my couples not to worry about Mother Nature since she has her own plan but shiny, wet walkways and streets reflect so much light that when mixed with the artificial sources of the street lamps and storefronts contribute so much to the overall image.  Anyone of my couples who have done an engagement shoot with us will tell you that we love taking advantage of the city lights.

A big “thank you” to the GM at the Lenox that got us on the roof-top. It was one of those things that was promised to Sarah and Noah but it took the GM to make it happen at the last minute.

There is nothing like New Year’s Eve in the city. Last year we were down in Providence, Rhode Island for a 400 person fest at the convention center after a blizzard dumped a foot of snow on us all day. It was nice to have this wedding right here in town and thank you to Winter for providing the right form of precipitation sprinkled just lightly enough to make all things pretty.

We had Chris Gagne shooting 5D MII video and it is his sweet and cheap, ah inexpensive, SIMA LED that gives these last two shots the perfect light.  I’m becoming of real fan of these lights for still photography and plan to make the investment to the more expensive but simply better Litepanels brand.

Getting back to the video for a second we are experimenting with fusion products to find the right mix for out style.

We are busy following a tremendous 1-1/2 month trip to India. Michael and I ran a very successful VR workshop in the slums of Mumbai with the help of the organization CORO for Literacy and their incredible staff.  Asha and I finished up the year traveling with the girls in south India as most of you have already seen on our facebook pages.  There is a post coming for our Traveling Family Circus blog soon.

So this is how the year begins with Winter all around us and 2010 weddings piling up.  Visual Reportage is planning our annual Guatemala sojourn and NESoP is giving Michael and I the go for a reportage on Detroit with 16 of our best and brightest students this March.  Asha and I are resting up for the official start of another wedding season sometime in late March.

What I think is best at this point is to just say peace to you all this coming new year and new decade. Let’s hope it can end and begin for us all like is did for Sarah and Noah.

Sophie and Chris share their first dance from Glen Cooper on Vimeo.

Sophie and Chris were clients that every photographer dreams about–good people, beautiful family and friends and just easy to work with.  Still I found myself struggling–not making photos which were everywhere as evidenced below–but to find a place to interject the stunning video that my still camera, the Canon 5D Mark II, produces.  Even with two camera bodies I found my self asking, “Should this be video?”  A friend of mine and amazing photographer, George Rizer from the Boston Globe, once said to me during one of his yearly visits to the class I teach at the New England School of Photography, “When my editor asks me to shoot some video for the web site I ask him if the firefighter is running out of the burning building after rescuing a small child do you want a Pulitzer Prize or 30 seconds video for the web?”

While I am not worried about missing a Pulitzer I am conflicted as to when to let the tape roll so-to-speak.  Audio is a great added bene to all this too but can I truly sell this–or more importantly, who’s buying?  As I look through the still images I find myself reflecting on their timeless quality and see them for what they are–art captured in a split second.  There is no real truth to any still photograph when you compare it to an entire clip of moving video.  Our clients are asking us as photographers to capture and select instances of time that do not exist in “Real Life”.  That moment is gone in the blink of an eye and for most of us scanning the floor it is never seen or recorded with the naked eye.

Yes the new video from the Canon 5D MII is amazing and I’m sure some, more skilled than I at finessing the final edited output, can create true art–we’ve all seen it in just about every TV production and movie we’ve ever watched.  But this is not truth anymore either.  If it is truth you seek watch CSPAN or that 2o second video clip from your cell phone.

I’m always learning but dancing between two types of media housed in the same camera body is proving to be quite the challenge.

Pix:

Chris just lost in the moment--this guy could really dance!

My hope is that these guys look back at this photo often and remember who they really are.

A real nice moment from my Second Camera - Darcy Coyne. Nice shot Dar!

Another nice find from Darcy.

Great late day light coming right down Beacon Street in to the Public Garden. Photo by Darcy Coyne.

On (in) the Public Garden.

I know this is a near miss but I just love the feel of it.

Again same feel as above.

Like on BW can do for a shot. This just insn't the same pic in color.

I don't know what it is about some shots that just ask to be BW but many from this wedding asked for it.

This room just screamed BW to me.

Like son like father--not afraid to let it out!

"Billy Jean is not my lover."

Another fun shot from Darcy of the Best Man and the mysterious silver brief.

Groomsmen. What else can I say--great shot Darcy!

The room at the Hampshire House in Boston--right above "Cheers".

Sophie's mom and dad danced the night away. Photo by Darcy Coyne.

The dress!

A quiet moment--great catch Darcy.

"Its up to you, New York, New York."

A faery comes to visit from Glen Cooper on Vimeo.

Experimenting with the new manual control with the Canon 5D MII with a Lens Baby attached and my beautiful daugher as the subject. Only problem is that faeries and 3-year-olds don’t seem to understand the video function of the new camera–it’s cute anyway!

Also:
For the first time in my pro photo career I have 2 identical camera bodies.  I recently sold my Canon flagship pro camera body, the EOS 1D Mark III, and purchased a second 5D Mark II.  In the past as I upgraded to a newer, better model I would always be conflicted when shooting thinking – I should really be shooting this shot with the new camera.  The old body would essentially become an expensive lens holder–but no more, baby!  Now its like being ambidextrous.

Niveen makes here way to her Shaadi at the Lyman Estate in Waltham.

A lot has been written and discussed lately about HDR photography, especially in wedding photography.  As a photojournalist I have been scolded (that’s putting it mildly) by colleagues in the wedding biz for employing these techniques in connection to something as statedly pure as photojournalism–but c’mon folks, seriously, these are hardly matters of life and death. Let’s just enjoy.

That said I must state that most of my so-called HDR images are actually faux-HDR since I mainly use only one RAW photograph to create them and that is where I started with the above image of Niveen during her wedding last month.  From the get go I use a combination of Lightroom and Photo Mechanic for my workflow. First ingested through Photo Mechanic where a first rough edit is done (PM is made for speed and efficiency–other programs like Lightroom or Aperture simply can’t compete). After the first edit I import that raw edit to LR where the real work begins. For 90% of my images LR is all I ever use–the other 10% is a combo of PS4 and other programs like Photomatix Pro, Topaz Adjust and NIK software as well as a plethora of PS actions.

The image was selectively over saturated in LR using the TAT (target adjustment tool) in the H/S/L part of the Develop module. From there I opened it in Topaz and adjusted using manual controls but something similar to the preset of “vibrance” or “crisp”.  This usually produces a good deal of digital noise especially with high ISO indoor shots in low light. I ran a noise reduction filter on the image and then opened it in NIKs Color Effects Pro choosing “polaroid transfer” from the style presets–again some manual adjustments since every image has its own voice.

I’ll attach a sharpening filter, usually HIGH PASS in PS, and always on a separate layer so I can selectively sharpen the areas that call for it.  Like a painter knows when his piece is finished you just know when the image is done.  It is quite easy to go too far, too fast, and do too much with this stuff so I try to limit this part of my workflow to the images that really ask to be finessed with these techniques.

I’m always learning which for me is what keeps things fresh and exciting.  The students I mentor and teach at the New England School of Photography are a constant source of  inspiration and I’d be remiss if I didn’t recognize their contribution to my work.

Some great HDR tutorials are available on-line. Here are my favorites: Vanilla Days and Trey Ratcliff’s incredible site, Stuck in Customs.  Trey’s stuff is simply exquisit!

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I also have some video shot with the Canon 5D during this wedding that I will post soon but just some quick things on my ever growing passion to incorporate the moving image into work. We (my students and I) found some great and relatively inexpensive add-ons for this camera from SIMA. We like their <$20 LED light, their ~$10 side bracket for mounting things like lights and mics. And speaking of mics the RØDE VideoMic is hands down the best mic for the buck we’ve found.  Mounted to the side bracket you can still shoot photographs and the bracket allows a greater deal of stability. Look for a post soon,

-GC