Ruth Berry Photography

If you’ve met Michael, you’d never forget him!  He has an infectious laugh, and is ALWAYS wearing a smile.  

And Laurel.  I just recently met her, but her sweetness exudes from her hair follicles.  seriously.  if you stand too close to her, it just gets all over you.  You cannot help but fall in love with her!

They’re getting married this June, and I am blessed to be able to photograph their wedding.  If the wedding is any indication of the engagement session, it’s going to be a BLAST!

We made a few photos just outside the studio.  Here’s a few:

Check out Laurel’s expression in this one.

and then we went over to the Bay.  I wanted a nice gulf sunset, and fortunately this little area is only about a half mile from the studio.  

And some more romance:

He stopped laughing only long enough to go all “Twilight” on her neck.  

And of course, we have to have the silhouettes.

After these, we went back to the studio and finished up inside.

Michael & Laurel – I had a great time!  Your wedding is going to be a smashing success!

Love, Ruth

Have you seen this lens?

Nikon 85mm lens

This is one sweet lens!  

I used it Saturday evening to photograph a concert at our church, High Praise Worship Center in Panama City, Florida.  More on that in a minute though.

The color and clarity it renders is beautiful.  This lens is so sweet, and BUTTERY!  

speaking of buttery, look what I did for the first time EVAH on Sunday morning:

buttery biscuits

Fresh Hot fluffy home made biscuits.  so hot it melted all that buttery goodness.

But back to my buttery delish lens.  

At the concert saturday night, I got a lot of amazing images.  So, take a look at this:

David Cook

Do you know who this is?  American Idol’s 2008 winner, David Cook.  

Amazing performer.  

That’s not my picture though.  THIS is:

CJ - Eddie James Worship Team

Is it?  no?  maybe?  

That’s what we were saying!  He looks JUST LIKE DAVID COOK!  

Seriously, doesn’t he?  

Meet CJ.  He is part of the ministry team with Eddie James Ministries.  This group is amazing, you should really see them if you ever get the chance!

This was taken in our new sanctuary.  I’ll have more pictures to share later of the whole group, but for now, I really wanted you to see the David Cook look alike!

and the lens was awesome!  

tech info: ISO 1100, f1.6 @ 1/100  

no flash.  available light.

sweet.

Leave a comment.  Let me know what you think!

With so many of my friends getting their own digital cameras and wanting to photograph their own friend’s weddings, I thought I’d do a post about my thoughts on it.

There’s more to photographing a wedding than owning a nice camera!  

I get several calls a month asking me how to light a wedding, which lens to use, and in general, how to photograph a wedding.  If you are serious about photographing your friend’s wedding, you owe it to your friend to prepare well in advance of the big day.  

Here are some things to consider:

• Do you fully understand how to use your camera in a setting other than “program” mode?
  • You have your new camera.  Now what?  One of the first things most people tend to get excited about is getting a really nice sunset picture.  Maybe they’ll hang out on the beach and keep clicking the shutter until something pretty happens in their camera.  Then they get really excited about it, right?  At a wedding, there’s simply no time for that. The best way to overcome the random surprise of getting a great picture is to learn how to use your camera on MANUAL settings.  You can use aperature priority, shutter priority or program mode on your camera at the wedding, just know WHY you are doing it.  Sometimes, you have to ‘trick’ the metering of  your camera based on what you are photographing.  Read the manual, invite a friend over, and shoot, shoot, shoot!
• Do you have a second camera should something go wrong with your primary camera?  
  • I bring several extra camera bodies, lenses and flash units to every wedding.  Have you thought about what could happen if your camera locks up or otherwise ceases to function?  Talk about stress!  If you have a second camera system ready to go, you can just pick it up and keep photographing.  The last thing you should be thinking about at such an important event is if your gear will function properly.
• Do you have an assortment of lenses you can use during the wedding?
  • Most camera systems will come in the box with what is known in the industry as a “kit lens.”  It’s an all around good functional zoom lens.  It will usually be a zoom somewhere from 17mm to around 55mm.  For a wedding, you will need a wide angle lens, and a telephoto lens.  Sometimes, it’s impossible to get close enough to the action to get good pictures, and you have to use the telephoto lens from quite a distance.  A telephoto lens would be anywhere from 105mm to 400mm.  If you do not have a camera with interchangeable lenses, please do your friend a favor and let her know you’ll be attending as a guest and not the photographer!

• Do you have an external flash for your camera?
  • When using only the pop up on camera flash, it will produce harsh, flat lighting.  It’s a good idea to try to bounce the light from the ceiling, behind, or with a light modifier.  If you only have the pop-up flash on the camera, it’s pretty difficult to have flattering light.   In some situations, you will be able to remove the flash from the camera body, and trigger it with a wireless remote.  That is very flattering light!
• Do you have any flash modifiers to soften the light?
  • If you are in a situation where you are not able to bounce the light, you can still have softer light than direct flash would produce.  There are several modifiers on the market that you can attach to your flash.    Gary Fong is pretty well known for inventing several of them.

• Do you have several Compact Flash cards to bring with you?
  • It may sound impressive that a 2Gig compact flash card can hold so many photographs, but if you are photographing a wedding, you will need several of them.  Never, ever,  EVER delete photographs from your card in the middle of a shoot if you run out of  space!  If something goes wrong, it is possible to recover the images deleted by mistake, but why put that stress and pressure on yourself?  Format your cards before you arrive at the wedding and be ready to go.  I keep my cards in a compact flash wallet.  They are numbered and facing up.  Once they are used, I place them face down in the same wallet.  I always know which card to use next, because there’s an empty space between the new one and the used one.  I encourage you to get a system so the cards don’t get mixed up.
• Do you have a sturdy tripod?
  • Often times during a ceremony, you will not be able to use flash.  If you have a tripod, you will be able to get beautiful ceremony pictures using the available light in the sanctuary.  It’s also a good idea to use the tripod for the group pictures whether you are in a church or on location outside somewhere.

These are just a few things to consider when venturing into the world of wedding photography.  And as always, I’m just a phone call away if you still have questions!

I’d like to add that these are MY thoughts.  Everyone will have their own thoughts and ideas on the same subjects I may write about.  What I’m sharing is based on the experiences I’ve had.  Hopefully, it will make your photography journey more enjoyable!  Remember, there are several ways to get to the same place.

Above all, be yourself, and go create something beautiful!

Yesterday was Stefanie’s first day back at work.  She’s been working from home, and she’s had a few times where she’s gone to the office, but yesterday she had to leave her sweet little boy at home.  

Of course I brought my camera!  Here’s a sneak peek of the pictures I made of him.  This is ‘tummy time’ after his second feeding.  He thought the dog Lilly was amusing!

Katlyn is a regional winner for the National Charity Model Search!  She goes on to the National contest!  Congratulations, Katelyn!!!

Thad and Stephanie brought their baby girl to see me at the studio.  Here are a few of my favorite photographs: