JAMES HODGINS PHOTOGRAPHY

Later this summer Vanja & Anthony will become husband & wife but today they were just as happy being engaged for their engagement session with us.  Now we hear this a lot…….”We don’t really photograph that well” and it always makes Joce and I laugh.  Let’s be honest, how many of you have gone and had Professional Portraits done before?  As a couple?  Not to many I am sure.  Most of your couple pics would be from family snapshots on special occasions or friends snapshot while partying.   In the end however our couples quickly realize that they DO photograph amazingly.   Especially when it’s with someone you love.  When your in love, you are always at your best, and the camera captures it exactly how we see it.  Thanks again you two, it was  great time with an amazing location.  Looking forward to posting more.

Halfway through the session Anthony mentions that he has his guitar, and it really means a lot to him and is a big part of his life.  Vanja has a good laugh while I roll my eyes and say “you tell me this NOW?  Why not say something before, OF COURSE we will do images with the guitar!!”  hahaha.  And of course we did.

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.

Hanging out at my sisters pool yesterday for my niece’s birthday party watching my nephew jumping in and out of the pool when a simple image appeared in my head.  Wearing his goggles he reminded me of one of those bratty annoying kids that never shuts up or stops running around waving his arms all over the place.  Fortunately for our sake (and his) he is not like that, but he does take a pretty cool looking picture when he allows me to photograph him.  I only had my canon G11 but I did have a sunpack flash and pocket wizard in my trunk, so using one light source and overpowering the sun I came up with this quick shot.  For some reason, nobody else wanted to go swimming.

“SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK”

We just finished documenting Tracy & Jeff’s amazing wedding which took place at the Timber Wolfe Golf Course.  We opted to do all the formal images before the ceremony which gave us loads of time to travel all around Sudbury and area.  Jocelyne and I are always talking about the connections we make with our wedding clients.  After photographing their engagement session and family sessions we know so much about them that we consider them friends.  When the wedding day arrives we are all smiles, hugs and hand shakes eager to be a part of this amazing day.   We had such a BLAST with everyone today and we personally want to thank you all for making this wedding day a photographic dream.    The guys were great, the women were stunning, the groom was all smiles and the bride was eye candy in front of my camera.   You really couldn’t have orchestrated a better wedding day than what just took place today.  YOU GUYS ROCK!  Have a great time in St. Lucia.

At least that is where Ashley & Chris will be spending their honeymoon this August.    Joce and I just finished photographing their engagement session this evening and the talks continued on after about St. Lucia.  As most of you know that is where Joce and I got married and where we also met our good friend Kirk Elliott.   We had a blast photographing them this evening, dodging dirt bikes & dust clouds we managed to create a great variety of images.  I take it as a true compliment when a guy (or groom) says “Hey, that was actually a lot of fun.” because usually it’s the guys that take a bit to warm up to the photography session.   If you think the engagement session is fun WAIT until the wedding day, it’s an engagement session on steroids.

Thanks again  Ashley & Chris, we are very excited for your upcoming wedding and we look forward to creating more stunning images and of course hear all about your honeymoon in St. Lucia.

P.S.  For those of you who are planning on going to St. Lucia, get certified, St. Lucia has amazing diving.

It’s been a couple of months since our cross Canada Road Show and I am delighted that I am still receiving emails from the attendees.  Several emails were concerning my reply to a question from our Calgary Event as we were on the topic of websites, galleries and social media.  The question was whether or not to have separate websites for each “niche” of photography.  So one website for weddings & portraits, another for commercial, another for glamor etc so that you present to your clients that you “specialize” in this type of photography.  Personally I prefer to have all my photography on my one site (as I do) and one response was “but wouldn’t a potential client look at someones photography site that only has wedding photography on it and think this photographer “specializes” in wedding photography while this photographer does weddings, portraits, commercial, pets and so on.  The perception being that you are a “General” photographer where as the other photographer focuses on wedding photography thus he/she is more suited for weddings.

My response was… “I am a photographer, I do it all.  If they go to my site they will not only see my wedding photography, but also see that I am pretty darn good at commercial, pet’s, babies, kids, maternity and anything else I attempt to photograph.  My skills as a photographer bleed into anything that I wish to photograph.”  I am not a “wedding photographer” I am a photographer.

We just finished photographing the engagement of Sheri & Mark.  They will be married this June right here in Sudbury.  Mark and I have known each other for years, going to the same highschool, hanging around the same friends, and I casting a few lines in the water every once and awhile (he is another fish whisperer).  We photographed a in a great little spot in New Sudbury keeping things close to home.  I  know Mark is not one for photographs, but I have to give him credit as he was all smiles for this session, even though he seemed to sulk a bit because he didn’t get to hold the dog’s leash.  Speaking of which, their little Pomeranian Sly was also on hand for a few photo ops.  Thanks again Mark & Sheri, it was great catching up and talking shop….fish shop.

We just finished photographing “Blue” a three month PUP that was adopted from the Sudbury SPCA by Linda Terris.  Like with all animals adopted by the SPCA we will photograph them for FREE as our way of saying thanks for opening your home to these wonderful animals.  Blue was HAPPY!  Play Play Play, but she soon settled down and we captured some great images of her.  We look forward to photographing more sessions from our Adopt A Pet Program

I am working on a canvas wall sample for my home and I thought I would share with you the thought process and the before/after of the finished product.  I get emails and phone calls ALL the time asking me how I workflow my images or how do I get my colors in my  photo’s to pop.  Anyone can pick up a camera and take a great picture, digital has opened the door for a whole new bread of photographers.  I still get surprised though when “photographers” ask me about the 2 most important elements in creating a great photo.  Exposure & White Balance.  If you master these two elements, then you have won 90% of the battle.  Fortunately for those of you that don’t have it mastered yet, there are numerous plugins, and color overlays that you can apply to your image to make it look like you “ment to do that”.  Anyways, back on track.   With the below image I took in Belize I already had the finished image in mind.  I knew that I wanted a long panorama canvas print (around 40 inches) for my wall.  The way the clouds were formed in the sky, the broken down dock with it’s leading lines into the shack.  All I needed was good composition, good white balance and a perfect exposure with my trusted P&S Canon G11

Like my presentation in Chicago on Elements of a Competition Print I want to focus your attention on the subject matter which is the dock and the shack.  Darkening down the sky and foreground  will bring your focus to the shack using the leading lines of the dock. All the elemnts were present in my original image, I just used some quick workflow to enhance them.  The key to a great digital image is to not “fix your image in photoshop” but to “enhance what is already there.”

Last day of our www.infernoworkshop.com  today and I am getting ready to present to the group.  The past 2 days have been amazing  with awesome speakers Like Danny Rabalais, Mike Long, Shannon Folton, Will Crocket, Nick Coury, Scott Crosby & William Foster.  Sometimes it get’s a little overwhelming when members come up to me telling me how much we have impacted their lives.  Sometimes I just don’t know how to respond, it seems like a smile and “your welcome” just doesn’t cut it.  It is also amazing to see the friendships that members have created with one another in our NoBs Community.  We all say “Friends for life” or something along those lines but again that really doesn’t cut it either.  I came up with my own version of this, and although it’s a little morbid (well that’s me) it does convey the meaning of “A friend for life”.  I look at these friends we have all made over the past years and I say to myself “Someday in the far far future, I will either be at your funeral, or you will be at mine.”  That is what a “Friend for life” means.  You know that they will be in your lives for a very long time.  Getting together for these workshops enrich our lives with not just photography but inspiration and thoughts of success.  I have rambled on enough here, I just want to publicly on my blog thank each and every member of NoBs.  YOU MAKE ME PROUD!

Here we are getting ready for our group shot.

The water was a little cold.

SEE YOU ALL IN NOVEMBER!