First session to shoot with the new 5D Mark II.

Not going to lie, I could get use to this camera.

Just look at that bokeh.
"bokeh: (BO-KUH) Japanese: [boke]) is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image..."

The 5D Mark II arrived on Wednesday.Ohmygawsh holy full frame 21 megapixel camera Batman. I think this camera will take my work to a whole 'nother level.

Some of the stand out features for me, personally, are: 21 Megapixel (Had to throw away the 1GB memory cards, and buy two 8GB CF cards, this thing's file sizes eat 1GB for breakfast.) Expandable ISO to 50. (I haz no noises whatsoever!) FULL FRAME! (Is this what 50mm looks like?) Weather sealed.

I finally got a chance to take this thing out on Saturday and see what this thing can do. Below are the results:

I bought a new camera.5D Mark II. Arrives Wednesday.

For a family that has a photographer as a son/brother, we sure do hate having our photos taken. I've never convinced anybody in my family to let me take their photo, outside of the occasional snapshot. So when my sister, Emily, finally gave me the opportunity to have a hour and a half mini-session I was excited to see what we could get. And alas. I totally love it.

After mom saw Emily's photos she was finally convinced maybe I actually do know what I'm doing with a camera and allowed me five minutes to get a shot of her.

Special note to Elizabeth, next time I see you, I'm fully expecting to have you on here as well. :)

"...we as photographers tend to give them (clients) what we think they want, and so clients tend to see the same things everyday, just different versions of it. They see the same lighting, the same photoshop tricks... So when they see the personal work, they see the things that you would be doing outside of what they want..."

-Jeremy Cowart

I'm going to be posting a lot more personal work to the blog. I highly recommend if you're a photographer you take a look at the interview video I took the above quote from. Very inspiring interview with one of my favorite photographers, Jeremy Cowart.

Shooting a couple can always be a gamble. Simple common sense would tell you that, obviously, two people would be twice the work as opposed to just shooting an individual (I know, groundbreaking discovery), you're working with two personality types, two people have to get used to the camera, there's twice the posing, and so on. But it's when I thank my lucky stars when I get a couple like Abby and Andrew.

I know Andrew from graduating with him from high school. And knowing that he is one of the funniest guys I've met, and completely uninhibited, I was already expecting shooting him to be a breeze. And he completely talked up this Abby character, who at this point, I knew nothing about. I heard adjectives like "chillest", "amazing", and "freaking awesome" being tossed around when he was describing her. And who-da-thunk-it? She drives a Jeep Wrangler. Boom, I'm done, sold. I instantly knew she was awesome. I mean come on! We are basically kindred Wrangler driving brethren!

After weeks of delays and bad weather we FINALLY got to have the session. As soon as I met them at the scheduled time and place, I was pleasantly surprised to see the obvious rad-tastic-ness emanating from these two. They oozed confidence and were completely down for anything that I wanted to try. Both Abby and Andrew's personalities played off each other so well it took most of the hard work right out of the session and it felt more like shooting some really great friends.

I, being the goober that I am, thought we should start with one of the harder to get to locations first, so after a short 10 minute mini-hike and a very minor allergic reaction we started shooting. The next 3-4 hours seemed to fly by!

So, Abby and Andrew, I want to personally thank you guys for being such a riot to shoot and I hope you enjoy your photos.
And for the rest of you, enjoy the shots below and feel free to hit the like button, or post a comment.

I have one of the coolest gigs ever. It may seem as simple as just taking photos in exchange for mad cash, but when you look a little closer, you realize how truly awesome a job like this is. Not only am I documenting something like a child's innocence, or a couple's wedding, but when you get to see someone from behind the lens, you get to see a side of them that no one sees. It starts out as a nervousness or shyness, but when that fades away, you see the people for who they really are. And when I shot this session with Eric & Cassie I saw these people for what they really are. And that's truly in love.

I had met Cassie way back in the day in my freshmen year of high school when I was just starting to get interested in photography. We took the same class called "digital imaging" which was pretty much my first serious dive into Photoshop and image manipulation. And when I finally got to meet Eric before we started the session their chemistry was undeniable. Those two are like peas in a pod.

I'm always really excited to have the privilege of taking photos of somebody, or a couple from where I used to live in West Virginia. It feels great to know although that they have other local photographers, they still like my style enough to hire me. (So thanks, Cassie and Eric, you guys are amazuhzing.)

Our session started at New River Gorge bridge in West Virginia, and since all three of us were not from the area we had absolutely no ideas for locations to shoot. We literally drove around back roads and through small towns looking for a place to shoot. I'm the kind of person that I like to have stuff planned down to exact timing on which locations to shoot, but going with the flow that day was definitely fun! We took a visit through downtown historic Fayetteville, found surprise hayfields, stopped traffic in busy streets and considered stealing a golf cart.

Overall I had an absolute blast shooting this couple, and I hope you'll enjoy just some of the images below.