JAMES HODGINS PHOTOGRAPHY

What a gorgeous day for wedding wasn’t it?  It started off cloudy and crappy and then wham, the skies opened up, the sun came out and the birds started singing.  We just finished documenting the wonderful wedding of Melanie & Mike and it was a blast.  It’s amazing the energy that stays in the air when everyone involved in the wedding are excited, happy and full of fun and today was no exception.  The wedding party was blast, the family (the huge families) were all smiles and the guests friendly, polite and very helpful.   After we are done, Joce and I tend to contemplate the day going over the images, the moments, the laughs and the emotions and it always keeps us saying the same thing, “This is why we love weddings.”

We would like to personally thank the two of you Melanie & Mike, your bridal party, and your family and guests for making this day very enjoyable.  THANK YOU!

Well the feedback so far is unanimous.  Those that took part in our Fathers Day Event “Fathers Favorites” are telling us that Dad’s LOVED their fathers day presents, and why wouldn’t they?  We must tell you that it was a lot of fun photographing your kids again, it’s amazing how big some of the have gotten.  We are THRILLED that the dads enjoyed their images.  We also had to laugh at some of the excuses you had to tell dad to get your kids away without being overly noticeable hahaha, covert ops and Hodgins photography LOL

I thought I would show off your kids to everyone else since they are all beautiful and handsome.  Thanks again everyone.

Mom told dad that she was helping in  the kids classroom that day, so if he needed her to call the school. Of course the teacher would tell him that she was busy and would call him back later.  Nice!

Mom was taking yearly pictures in the backyard (in case the kids said something)

These 2 boys had a dentist appointment.

Dad saw the charge on the Credit Card, but mom quickly said that we were having a great deal on family portraits and she couldn’t pass it up.  Hmmmm maybe we will.

These girls were off to an impromptu dance lesson.

This dad is just clueless all the time hahaha, just kidding Jamie.

We just finished documenting Lesley & Savario’s wedding today.  Boy was it a hot one, but I am not complaining since it was supposed to be rain with thunderstorms today.  Joce and I had a great time with everyone, Lesley & Sav were so laid back that the day went smooth & steady.  Sav’s smile didn’t leave his face all day, and it was even bigger right after the ceremony when he said I do.  Normally I post an image of the bride and groom on location some where, but I just loved how the series of images I captured as they were walking out of the church.  The lighting was perfect, and I chose to capture this in B&W to focus on the couple and less on the colored backgrounds of the guests.

Thanks again Lesley & Sav, it was a pleasure to be a part of your special day.  We will have to compare fish stories when you get back from your honeymoon.

Who says photographers don’t get their exercise?  Not only do you get to burn some calories but you also can come across some great shooting spots at the  Lake Laurentian Conservation Area.  That is where we just finished Krista & Jeff’s Engagement hike and nature walk.  We had the whole place to ourselves except for a few mosquitoes and deer flies (minus two now).  Every 20 or so feet I would stop them to capture a few more images where the light was spread out through the trees, or grass was high and the trail wide.  Some of the best images from this shoot is when I wasn’t really shooting at all.  I would be changing lenses and they would be snuggling up together or kissing and I would quickly grab the shot before they knew I was photographing them.  So many times I would tell them to stop as they just had that fleeting moment in a perfect capture.  These to “mold” together very well.  What does that mean?  It means when they are wrapped in each others arm, they are like one.  It’s soooooo easy to photograph couples like  this, you just can’t go wrong.

Yesterday we had another shoot for the www.sudburyfirefighters.com firefighters calendar.  This sessions was hot, really hot and was a bit tricky as we literally only had seconds to create the image.

Check out the video, there was no superimposing done here.

When we photographed the Leroy family earlier last week, I also photographed the daughters individually (In case mom wanted to create a wall college from the session).   As photographers we tend to stick with what we learned, and that is when photographing a portrait, try using a lens of at least 85MM or more.  I tend to use my 85mm F1.8 or my 70-200 MM F2.8 so that I can create a shallow DOF so that my subjects pop our of the image.    For this image below I thought I would break out my good ol trusted 50 MM.  A very standard simple lens (for most of us that started photography using “Film” this was the standard lens, no it’s all zooms that comes with the camera body).  I forgot just awesome this cheap lens is at achieving the same look.  I now have 2 50mm lenses, one is a macro lens for my closeups, but the other I bought a long long time ago for $149 and now they are available for $139 at most retail stores.    It’s small, it’s plastic, but it’s SHARP!  Personall, I think all photographers should carry a 50mm in their arsenal of equipment.

Along with most of the wedding locations, Kayla & Shaun’s engagement session took place in New Sudbury.  Sometimes it’s great to find new spots closer to home then heading to Bell Park or Downtown Sudbury.  You would be amazed at some of the cool spots you can find if you look hard enough.  This spot gave us the perfect pre-sunset backlighting for the soft etheral look and is only a 3 minute walk from Barrydown.  On their wedding day we will be heading to a variety of different locations in the New Sudbury area before we make our way to Falconbridge (another part that has some outstanding photographic possibilities).  This will be a great change of pace and Jocelyne and myself are looking forward to creating some more wonderful images of this young in love couple.  Thanks Shaun & Kayla for the great session.

Joce and I just got back from photographing the wonderfully color coordinated Leroy Family.    We scouted out a great location for this portrait and it just so happens to be a place that holds a lot of memories for the daughters which makes a family portrait like this more meaningful.   Creating a family portrait for our clients is something that we like to put a lot of thought into, especially the clothing choices.  No matter how great the poses are, the location is, or how big the smiles are, if the clothing is all over the place (stripes, patterns, different colors) it will distract from the most important element of the photograph.  The family.  Portraits like this are ment to be on the wall, to show off to your friends, and constantly look at while you walk by or into the room.  It will be a conversation piece, a comforting memory, and a life’s accomplishment.  When you have kids that have left the house, or are living far away from home, a family portrait is the perfect investment to keep them close to your heart.

Thanks Lorna, Amanda, Jennifer, Jordan, Carolyn, Mike and Emily, you have a fabulous family and it was a pleasure creating these images for you.

down memory lane that is.  Recently we had one of my previous brides come in and order more images from their wedding.  I photographed Jason & Sylvie Tripp back in 2005 where we did all the formal images before the ceremony.  Back then the Bell Mansion was a beautiful place to photograph weddings and they were pretty well booked every weekend.  I remember there being 6 photographers with wedding parties on the grounds photographing and we would all rotate around mansion picking our spots.  I went through the whole wedding again and remembered the day all over.  I thought I would snag a few images and post them here to share with you.  Enjoy.

Well it’s day one of our NoBs Photography Workshop and we have Will Crockett of www.shootsmarter.com (A Photography educational website that I write articles for)  on the stage at the moment and he is outstanding.  Yesterday morning I attending my good friend Mike Long’s workshop on retouching and later in the afternoon Joce and I attended (our other good friends) Danny & Diane Rabalais of We Shoot Sexy workshop.  This was their first time speaking at one of our Inferno Workshops and they hit the ball out of the park.   It was a live shooting workshop with several models and lighting setups where everyone can walk away with a sample of their style.   Now when I travel, I do not bring my Canon DSLR’s but opted for my trusted Point & Shoot Camera the Canon G11 for these photos (this camera still amazes me).  See Vince, maybe it isn’t because I usually use a big expensive camera (inside joke folks).  We will be back in the studio next week and Joce and I are looking forward to sharing some of the ideas and new sessions we will have available in the upcoming months.