Archive for December, 2009

(Not so) Professional Photo Contest | Winners!

December 31, 2009

Cincinnati, OH | On December 1st I opened our first of many (Not so) Professional Photo Contests.  You can read about the reason and criteria here.  We had 19 entries from a couple states and even one from Great Britain! Today is the day we get to see some shots and see who won!

1st Prize – A free portrait session

Wendy Clark – “God Smites a Glacier”

This is such an incredible photo!  No photoshop, no high end equipment…just nature and good timing (and a big travel budget).  Brilliant shot Wendy!

Mentions – A copy of Capture Cincinnati ’09

Dale Craven – “Overachiever”

I love this photo because you totally connect with the idea of it.  There’s always one in every crowd that is trying so hard to stick out:)  Again, nothing special about the equipment or editing, just a good eye and having his camera on him.

Tiffany Judd – “Bubbles”

This is one of those pictures that you can feel.  The joy and innocence of a child is so contagious.  We’ve all been there and we all would love to unplug for a few minutes during our normal workday and just go blow bubbles.  Grab a camera, give your kid something to play with and wait for some cuteness to ensue…a recipe for a good photo every time.

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I wish I time to walk through and tell you what I love about each of these photos but here are some of my other favorites sent in to the contest:

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Cincinnati Engagement Photography | Incredible “Art Show” Proposal

December 21, 2009

We love hearing about especially clever or inspired marriage proposals… (Like the Super Mario Bro’s proposal that we posted earlier.)
But this next one is in a league of its own. It goes a little something like this:

1. George loves Sara and wishes to marry her.
2. George creates an abstract piece of art that, when viewed from a certain spot, spells out “Will you marry me?”
3. George organizes an art show at a gallery, inviting all of George and Sara’s friends.
4. George hires an actor to play the artist. His name is “Serge Gandaora,” which is an anagram for “George and Sara.”
5. The night of the show arrives, as do the “guests” and Sara.
6. Sara views the piece titled “My Early Muir Owl” (another anagram, this time, “Will you marry me”)
7. Sara says yes.

This is brilliant stuff! Very creative!
Here is a video which shows pictures/video footage of the setup and the event. (As if all that wasn’t enough to get you to watch the video, the soundtrack is Sigur Rós!)
Enjoy!

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Posted in Engagement Pictures | 1 Comment »

Quality Christmas music… for FREE!

December 14, 2009

For those of you that follow us on Twitter, you will be familiar with this. BUT, by all means, keep reading!

First, can we all just admit that the genre of Christmas/Holiday music is rather scant when it comes to good music?

I mean, sure… There’s nothing quite like listening to Sinatra croon Frosty The Snowman or Nat King Cole sing The Christmas Song while decorating the tree… And the first couple times I hear Paul McCartney’s “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time” I get fuzzy, warm feelings confirming that Christmas is near.

BUT, while I’m driving around town, I’d much rather listen to Radiohead’s Kid A or U2′s Joshua Tree than Sinatra’s or Cole’s holiday tunes… And concerning the McCartney Christmas song, to quote a recent tweet from Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrutte from The Office), after a while it “makes me want to kill and eat a raw, bloody reindeer on his lawn.”

Maybe that’s a bit over the top, but I understand the sentiment behind it: with very few exceptions (that I am aware of) Christmas music is usually only listened to out of nostalgia, not for quality/depth/importance/etc…

A friend sent me an invite to get some new, FREE, Christmas music. I was skeptical at first, but checked it out because this friend usually has pretty good taste in music. Until now, my Christmas music playlist was pretty much just the Sufjan Stevens Christmas albums. (If you don’t have them, believe me, you NEED them.) They are so good that I would have to stop myself from listening to them throughout the rest of the year… Especially when Fall arrives…

Anyways, the name of the band is Sojourn. And yes, they were giving away the album for free.
The deal was:
A. Give them 5 email addresses of family or friends that they could send the same invite to.
or
B. Pay what you want for the album (a lá Radiohead for the release of In Rainbows)

I have listened to the album several times since then and I must say, I am REALLY impressed! This is great music! It is holiday music without the kitsch. I especially love the intro to Joy To The World… It’s very….. Celestial… or Glacial… Maybe both. I can’t decide. Point is, it’s great!

I get the feeling that I will have to stop myself from listening to this throughout the rest of the year too.

Here is the link for you to get the album… Hope you enjoy! When you give the album a listen, come back and let me know your thoughts on it. I would love to see what other people think!

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Photographer in Cincinnati | Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

December 7, 2009

Cincinnati, OH | Have you ever had an experience that seemed so surreal that you wonder if it really happened? A couple weeks ago I got an email from a city-wide photo contest called Capture Cincinnati. The email stated that I had won some sort of prize for one of the photos I had entered a few months back. I knew that this contest was huge so I figured there was some sort of “Thanks for playing” prize for everyone who entered.  Regardless, I blocked out the time and planned to go, just in case it was something real.

When I showed up my name was on a list and I was ushered to a special area with about 20-30 other people.  I started to get an idea that something was more than I thought seemed when there was free food and drinks to those of us who were up there.  When it came time for the award announcements I was starting to get a little nervous.  Am I really winning something?  Is this an episode of Punk’d?  Did they accidentally send the email to me instead of Mason Teel?

The host began to read off the categories and explain how a person could win.  There were 9 categories, a cover photo and a grand prize winner.  Each of the categories had an editor’s choice and a people’s choice award.  The people’s choice meant that you had been selected by the number of votes you received throughout the contest.  She read off a few categories and then came Landmarks & Architecture.  ”And this year’s People’s Choice in Landmarks & Architecture is Nathan Peel”.  Wow.

1400 photographers, 25,000 photos and over 2.4 million votes and I was 1 of 20 photographers to win an award?  That’s nuts!

And if that wasn’t surreal enough they had all the People’s Choice winners stick around for the book release to sign on their winning photo…seriously:)  It is hard to believe that it actually happened and that I really signed a hundred or so people’s books.  I have never had an experience like that I am guessing they will be few and far between.

Thanks to all of you who voted!  I have 2 photos in the Cap Cincy 09 book and a couple more on the accompanying DVD.  If you want to get it you can go to the Capture Cincinnati Website or local bookstores and purchase it.

Here are the pictures featured in the book:

Cap Cincy-100Holy Cross Immaculata (page 122)

*winner of the People’s Choice in Landmarks & Architecture

Cap Cincy-101Tickets to Heaven or Just the Fun Slide? (page 57)

This one is one the DVD (I haven’t watched it all the way through to see if there are any others):

JayaJaya (in the “Friendly Faces” section of the DVD)

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One (super cool) eskimO!

December 7, 2009

So, I was hanging out with a friend at Starbucks a few weeks ago. As I was stirring in my sugar I noticed they were in the middle of changing out their “Discovery Download” cards and had a bunch of them laying out. So I sifted through them to see if there were any that looked interesting. There was one for The Avett Brothers, but I already had the album… There were a few others that I had already checked out or didn’t grab my attention, but there was one that caught my eye… It was a video download for what seemed to be a cartoon. So I tucked it in my wallet and forgot about it, until today, when I decided to purge my wallet of all the useless receipts that I keep for no reason.

I downloaded and watched the video… And I was IMMEDIATELY blown away! It is a beautiful story that I am not going to ruin by trying to explain here, because believe me, you need to just watch it.

Apparently, the music is from a band in England (named One eskimO) that wrote/recorded this album and someone wrote a cartoon episode for each song… So, I finished watching the video and went on iTunes and immediately bought and downloaded the rest of the episodes. Seriously, they are incredible! You can get all 10 episodes for $8… That’s right $8.

Do yourself a favor and get them… You will NOT be disappointed!

Posted in Just for fun! | 1 Comment »

A picture’s worth a FREE session (and 1000 words)

December 1, 2009

cincinnati photographer

Cincinnati, OH | I get a lot of emails and texts throughout the normal week from friends and family that just want to take better pictures.  They ask questions about cameras, lenses, lighting gear, etc. and I am constantly telling them that a lot of that stuff doesn’t matter.  It’s true, you can tell a difference between a photographer who uses great equipment and one who doesn’t but a really good photo is about one thing: how it makes the audience feel.  There have been plenty of great pictures snapped with point and shoots, disposable cameras and, yep, even those crappy little cameras inside your phone (the photo above was taken and edited with my iPhone).

So to prove to everyone out there that there is a photographer lurking inside all of us I am introducing the first of many Fyrefly “Not-so-professional Photo Contests”.  My hope is that it sparks some creativity, passion or courage among you “I wish I had better equipment” photographers out there.

Contest details:

  1. You must submit your photo before midnight on December 30th.  The winner will be announced via the blog, Twitter and Facebook on Dec 31st.
  2. One winner and several honorable mentions will be chosen by me (and probably my wife).
  3. I would love it if your photo came from a point and shoot, polaroid, 35mm film camera, camera phone or something of that nature.  I have no way of checking where it came from but just play along…pretty please.
  4. You can submit 1 photo per person, BUT I will always take your most recent submission as your 1 photo.  So if you submit a photo and then take a better picture send it over!
  5. Please make all your submissions to contest@fyrefly.com.
  6. The winner gets a FREE 2010 portrait session with DVD from Fyrefly ($250 value).  Honorable mentions get something fun also.  If you live outside the Cincinnati area, I won’t be able to give you a free session but I will you send a copy of my favorite photography book or something.
  7. One last thing:  we will have a winner even if there is only 1 photo submitted.  I have no idea how many people will participate but if you submit 1 photo you have a better chance to win than if you don’t:)

I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with…so get out there and snap away you little shutterbug!

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