Kate decided to have her engagement photographs taken in her backyard in Brighton, Colorado. As a Denver wedding photographer I am always looking for new places to take photographs so I was super excited to see what she had chosen for her portraits. When I saw the yard it took me back to my days of photographing the vast countryside that Iowa had to offer. Her yard was picturesque and perfect. Tall trees, a lake, a beautiful skyline view and tall grasses. I was in love instantly.

I brought along one of my second shooters, Ginger, for the engagement session. I always love photographing with a second photographer. It’s great to have two perspectives, two sets of ideas and to be able to be in two places at once. As Ginger and I walked up to the house we were met by Kate and her fiancee Luke. I hadn’t met Luke before but he was all smiles from the first moment. As we began taking the portraits it was so fun to see Kate and Luke together. Such a great couple. So kind to each other, joking with one another and just full of happiness. I love seeing young couples together!

After an hour and a half we had taken more than enough photographs and the sun was starting to set. I came home and flipped through the photos on my computer right away and knew that these were some of my favorite engagement portraits ever. How could they not be great? With an adorable couple and a great backdrop….Kate and Luke sure my job easy with this shoot!

I can’t wait to photograph Kate and Luke’s wedding in June at the Denver LDS temple!

He is my shadow. Following me around all day. Copying everything I do. Wanting to be just like me.

Today I found him sitting on the floor staring at my camera. When I walked into the room he quickly put on his pouty lip look and said, “I just WISH I could have a picture of me and my batman cape.”

When I told him that I would take a few photos of him he jumped up, ran to grab his cape and I soon heard the beep of the front door. I went out to find him posing on the grass, ready for his photo shoot.

This was my favorite photo of the collection. Not sure why. It just screams “Jake” to me. The tilt of his head, that mischievous half grin and those adorable brown eyes staring right at me. This is how I picture my little Jake when I close my eyes.

That’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years of being a Denver wedding photographer. There is no such thing as a “perfect” photo. The photographs that we are personally drawn to tell some sort of a story {Jake wearing his batman cape that he never leaves the house without}, they capture the little things that are special to that person {his mischievous half grin and tilted head} and they are the photos that when we close our eyes that’s how we picture those people in our minds.

For my family, I tend to like the photos that capture our personalities and little facial expressions that are unique to each one of us. I usually skip over the “perfectly composed”, mannequin smile type photos. I go for the ones that, when I look at them, they make me think,”I want to remember this stage of our life forever.” And our life isn’t perfect….so I don’t expect our photographs to be either. I only expect that they will be true to us.

That’s what I try to capture when I take photos for others. The little moments: the wrinkled nose, shy shoulder raise or thumb sucking of a toddler. Not “perfectly posed” photographs. Real photographs. Pictures that capture that person at that time in their life. I’ll often notice a child doing a little something with their face and I’ll ask the parent, “Is this a look they do a lot?”

When I travel across the state as a Colorado wedding photographer I like to arrive when the bride is getting her hair and make-up done. There are two reasons for this: I just love the getting ready photos, they’re awesome! And it also gives everyone a few hours to get used to me being there so when we start taking the “once in a lifetime” shots everyone is more relaxed and natural in the photographs.

So, when I am photographing you just relax. Be natural and do what feels comfortable. And when the photos come back, instead of looking through them expecting “perfection” look at them to see if they captured the emotions and real story.

So…..because I just ate some Lucky Charms and because St. Patrick’s Day is heading our way I’m feeling like spreading some luck around.

I figure that I’m lucky to have eaten my favorite childhood cereal and YOU are LUCKY to have just gotten engaged {which is why you’re here on my blog….looking for your wedding photographer!} The surge of luck by us all is too much not to offer some sort of deal to celebrate.

Did I just hear a whoop whoop somewhere?

Here are the details of the LUCKY offer:

For the month of March when you book your Denver wedding photography with me you’ll receive a complimentary 16×20 gallery wrap of your favorite wedding photograph.

That’s a $225.00 value! 

LUCKY!

What are you waiting for, send me a note so we can start chatting about me being your Denver wedding photographer! Can’t wait to hear from you!

*This offer is valid only for new wedding bookings made during March 2012 and for weddings with 8 hours or more coverage booked. Cannot be combined with other offers.*

It’s like my second home. I miss it when I’m not there and I feel at home when I’m there.

While I am a Denver wedding photographer most of the year, I also spend a great deal of my time photographing in the extremely rural villages of Uganda, Africa. Places where they have never seen someone like me. Where there is no electricity. No flushing toilets. No television.

It’s as rural as you can find on the earth.

Driving on narrow, bumpy dirt roads not built for cars, but for walking. It takes us hours to make our way to the small villages where we do our work.

And I LOVE it.

I was the natural choice when TRUE Africa was looking for a Director of Photography and I jumped at the opportunity. I have come to love the little children that we work with. I love visiting with them year and year, watching them grow up over the years.

Can’t wait until I am on the plane heading back over.

When I am on the job as a Denver wedding photographer I try to capture the events of the wedding as if I were going to put the images into a story book. I want the photographs to tell the story of the day without needing to add words. I want to capture the bride getting her hair and make up done. I want to capture interactions with grandparents. I want to capture the little smiles that the bride and groom sneak at one another throughout the day. All the little things that, when added up into a collection, become a beautiful way to remember such an important day.

However, at least six days out of the week I am simply a mom who happens to be a Denver photographer. {This is where most of you will fall in, so this is where I will spend the greater portion of my answer.} I have always struggled with the fact that I have my amazing camera…..you know, the one that weighs as much as two jugs of milk when it’s all crammed into one of my many camera bags. {A girly photographer cannot have too many camera bags. I have six. I want a seventh. Don’t tell my husband.} The problem is that it’s not always practical to haul around my sweet collection of camera gear. At least not when I’m out and about with the family. So for years I felt like I had to leave my camera behind so that I would be able to focus on my family. I seem to get lost when I have my camera near me. I don’t do anything but fiddle with it and demand that my children allow me to photograph their every move. This can be cumbersome at times.

But I didn’t want to miss out on any moments. I wanted the ability to photograph my children at any moment.

This is where my {GASP!} awesome point and shoot camera comes into play. You see, even though I am a professional photographer I have learned over the years that ANY photo of my children is better than NO photo of my children. So, I asked my husband for a point and shoot camera that I could always keep in my purse so I would never miss a moment of my children’s lives. He looked puzzled by this request because I am usually asking him for a new piece of super expensive glass or leather camera bag….but I had never asked for a run of the mill camera before. He, wisely, obliged and purchased me a very nice little camera that still allows me to manually choose my shutter speed and f-stop! The best of both worlds! I have taken thousands of photographs with this little camera and I love it. It goes with me everywhere and I have been able to capture school presentations, silly faces while driving in the car and other moments that are fun but not needing a professional photo shoot.

So, how do I decide what to photograph?

That’s easy!

I photograph everything. Literally. Everything.

I try to focus on people because, for me, that’s what is most important. I try to get individual shots of my children. I get the brothers all together. I take photos of me with my boys. Of their dad with them. I always remind myself that I can always delete a photo that didn’t work but I can never go back and photograph a moment that has already passed.

I would suggest that you follow my lead: purchase a small, easy to use camera that you can always keep in your purse. This way you can snap a photo on the swings at the park, capture a quick moment of them jumping onto the bus in the morning or snag a cute photo of you and your girlfriend when you’re out to lunch. These are precious moments that should be photographed. {Even if you have a fancy schmancy camera, you still need one that is always on hand.}

Below is an example of a silly, unnecessary set of photographs that I took of my four year old son this week. His grandpa came to visit and they decided to play Scrabble. Not a glorious moment in his life. However, someday these simple photographs will remind him of how his grandpa took the time to play with him. To me, these are the photographs that matter the most. They are the ones that tell the story of our lives. They are simple. They are kinda boring. They are real. 

However, I had my second shooter with me {Koni, who I adore and miss terribly!!! Why did you move to Texas? We were such a great team!} and with both of us working extra hard….and with the help of two of the groomsmen we were able to take some of the most stunning photographs EVER.

Why do I share that with you?

To let you know that you do not need to be scared of the weather. As a Denver wedding photographer I encounter weather of all kinds. I stalk weather.com for the few days before the wedding and hope for a slightly overcast day but knowing that realistically the sun will not likely give me a perfect shooting day. So you have to learn to how to deal with crazy weather and make it into a fun adventure instead of being upset that perfect days for photography seem to only happen on Tuesdays….when no one gets married.

In my opinion strong wind is the worst weather to encounter on a wedding day. It can destroy a bride’s hair in an instant. And I would know better than anyone else because on my OWN wedding day {back when dinosaurs roamed the earth!} it was so windy that most of my wedding photographs have my long veil standing straight up in the air! At the time I was not happy about it, but it created some hilarious and great memories that we still talk about….nearly eleven years later!

So, what do we do when the weather doesn’t cooperate? Mostly just deal with it. And talk it through with the couple so they know how we need to counter the weather on hand.

Here are some tips to deal with weather than is less than perfect:

WIND:

Find locations that give you some coverage from the wind. Use tall buildings to your advantage. The wind usually comes from one direction so you can use the opposite side to buildings to get some photos without the wind knocking you to the ground.

RAIN:

I always suggest that my brides bring THREE umbrellas to their wedding, even if we don’t think it will rain. That way, in case it does, the bride & groom can be under one and I can have someone hold one over me/the camera & themselves at the same time. Surprisingly, rain offers some amazing photo opportunities, it’s just a little more work and you have to laugh it off.

SNOW:

If the snow is falling lightly then I use only one umbrella to cover the camera so we don’t get spots on the lens. But snow that is actually fallings is priceless…consider yourself a blessed bride! If the snow has already fallen bring a pair of cute cowboy boot to wear while you trek around the deep snow! Snow can be awesome!

FREEZING COLD:

As in the photograph below with the couple in front of the small airplane, we had nearly zero degree weather so the only advice I can give is to take it in stride. Do ten minutes outside photographing, drive to another location and warm up in the car before heading back out. Think “warm” thoughts and know that great photos are worth a little time out in the cold.

Denver wedding photography

Senior Portraits are one of my favorite things to photograph!

I love the excitement {and YES, the attitude!} that teenagers bring to a photo session. I love that the cute little smiles that quietly show how excited they are to have a photo session that just focuses on them. I love the fun personalities, cool clothing choices and I especially love when they come with funky hair-do’s that depict their life as a teenager perfectly.

I love seeing the parents watching from nearby and I know they must be thinking, “How did my little baby grow up so fast?” I can see how proud they are of their child and how excited they are for their future.

This will be the photograph that will hang proudly in the home of the seniors parents and grandparents for the next few years….until it is replaced with a wedding or graduation portrait!

Don’t get a stuffy “in-the-box” senior portrait and don’t let anyone try to get you to smile by using a stuffed toy…..that may have been cool when you were five but if that gets leaked on Facebook you’re senior year will come crashing down. {Unless in-the-box and stuffed bunnies describes your personality, in that case, go for it!}

Choose to have senior portraits that capture the essence of who you are.

Where should you take your senior portraits?

Choose a location that means something to you: your high school, home town or even your grandma’s house.

-OR-

Choose a location that you think suites your personality: beautiful Estes Park, energetic downtown Denver, calm rustic mountains or a fun crazy amusement park like Elitch in Denver.

When you choose a location that means something to you or works well with your personality your photographs will showcase who you are. Choose somewhere that will bring out your personality and make you feel comfortable.

When should I take my senior portraits?

I recommend scheduling your senior portraits during the second semester of your junior year {that’s right now for those who are currently juniors!} Schedule them to be taken sometime between May and August – BEFORE your senior year begins. Once the school year starts you’ll be busy with all the great stuff that your senior year offers and senior portraits will be the last thing on your mind.

What comes with a Senior Portrait Collection?

 All of my senior photography packages include the following:

*One and a half hour photography shoot

*CD of 30 artistically rendered images with full personal copyright

*Photo release for any of the photographs to be used in your school yearbook

*40 wallets, of the image of your choice from your CD, for you to share with your friends.

Want to schedule your Senior Portrait session now? Go to the “contact me” on upper right side of the front page of this blog and send me a note! Or you can also contact me via my website OR at rachel@racheleng.com

As a mother of three little boys {and being married to a guy!} I am constantly baking and cooking for the crew. {And it truly is a CREW!}

Let’s face it: In a few years I’ll have FOUR guys all taller than me living here, eating me out of house and home! I’m very nervous for the food budget which I am sure will be insane.

When I make the daily pick up from the school the boys jump into the car and it starts immediately:

“I’m SOOOOOO hungry!”

“I’m STARVING!”

“Did you bring anything to eat?”

On and on and on……

The boys love homemade food. In fact, my nine year old son declares often that he ONLY like homemade food. Whether it’s chicken enchiladas, my famous cinnamon rolls, fresh from the oven cookies, strawberry pie or piping hot bread they love it all. And beg for it!

 Today I decided to make one of the boys’ favorites for them to have for their after school snack: homemade cinnamon raisin bread. They like to toast it and top it with butter and cinnamon sugar. A child’s dream!

So, there you go! Something else you didn’t know about me: I love baking!

One of the greatest perks about my job as a Denver wedding photographer is that I get to use it in my daily life. My photography skills have allowed to capture so many memories of my children as they grow up. I hope that with my “More About Me Monday” posts that I’ll be able to share some of my fun casual family photographs with you!

Denver wedding photographers

With that segue……

It’s with great excitement that I introduce my photography colleague John.

I met John a year ago. Well, that’s not exactly how it happened.

My husband met John a year ago while they were lifting weights at the gym. They began talking and it came up that he was a photographer. My husband came home to tell me that he had met a great guy at the gym who lives in our neighborhood and who is also a photographer. He encouraged me to get to know him and promised that I would like him.

And I did.

He is hilarious. He is easy to talk to. He is kind. He is talented. He’s energetic. He has great ideas. He’s a hard worker.

John is exactly what I was looking for. 

After thinking about it for a while I opened up the discussion with John to see if he was interested in photographing weddings together. And he was!

With each of our own unique and individual styles of photography we can offer us a wedding photography TEAM allowing a greater variety of wedding photographs for my wedding clients.

Reasons why John and I are the SAME:

We are both highly motivated. We are both high energy and enthusiastic. We both agree that customer service is of most importance. We are both awesome.

Reasons why John and I are DIFFERENT:

Really, there’s only one main reason: He’s bald and I, luckily, am not. I have to give him credit, he pulls it off well. MUCH better than I would!

When booking your wedding with me consider adding John {aka “The Bald Camera Guy”} to the photography team. You’ll thank me for suggesting bringing him on the crew and if you ask really nice, he just might autograph a photo of his adorably bald head for you to remember him by.

]]> http://racheleng.com/blog/index.php/introducing-john-the-bald-camera-guy/feed/ 0 http://racheleng.com/blog/index.php/ask-the-camera-chick-can-you-really-do-anything-in-photoshop/ http://racheleng.com/blog/index.php/ask-the-camera-chick-can-you-really-do-anything-in-photoshop/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:00:08 +0000 Rachel Eng http://racheleng.com/blog/?p=303 For our very first Ask The Camera Chick question I decided to start with the most common question that I am asked:

Can you really do ANYTHING in Photoshop?

For me, as a Denver wedding photographer, Photoshop is a tool that I use to take good images and make them great images.

After a photography session you’ll find me zipping back to my computer to download all the images from the session. I then start the process of choosing which images have the most potential before starting my post processing work that makes my images ready for my clients to hang on their walls.

In this before and after example you’ll notice that the “before” image is a little dark. Don’t worry, this is done on purpose. When I photograph I prefer to shoot one stop under where I really want to be and I do this very carefully and purposefully. When I have someone looking through the photos with me before I have done the post processing work on the images I can see the look of fear on their faces as they think that I botched the entire session. I have to reassure them that the before images look EXACTLY how I intended them to look.

Which leads us to the first question:

Why do I shoot images one stop under?

One thing that you never want to do is to loose the details in your image. When you open your camera up too wide and let too much light in you risk “blowing out” certain things in the image that are lighter in color such as white clothing, skin, highlights and well lit backgrounds. Which is why I shoot one stop under where my eyes lead me to be. I do this because I know that during post processing I can bring the photo up several stops {meaning lighten the image} but once an image has been blown out you cannot recover the lost detail in the photograph.

And that brings us to the real question:

Can you really do ANYTHING in Photoshop?

No.

Sorry to burst the bubble but Photoshop is not magic. It does, however, allow me to make my photographs look awesome. I LOVE Photoshop!

With the help of Photoshop for my post processing work I was able to take the first image and turn it into better version which you will see in the second image.

I plan to go into more detail in further Ask The Camera Chick posts.

 Do you have a question you would like The Camera Chick to answer? Submit your questions to rachel@racheleng.com

{If you haven’t “liked” me on Facebook yet, you can do so by going to my Rachel Eng Photography Facebook page HERE. Once on my Facebook page you can watch the video!}

Seeing that video a few days ago reminded me that for a long time I have wanted to start blogging about the tips and tricks that as a Denver wedding photographer I have learned over the past decade.

Here’s why…..

When I am out in public and I pull my camera out to take photos of my children I can see people trying their hardest not to gawk. I don’t mind though. I mean, we call my camera “the beast” for a reason. It really is massive and draws attention to itself everywhere we go. It always has to be the center of attention.

After a minute of trying to ignore the massive camera I’ll usually get at least one brave soul who comes up to me. Usually the first thing out their mouth is, “Wow! That’s such a nice camera!” After that segue they go for it: massive amounts of questions about cameras and photography.

And I love it!

You see, I’m a camera nerd. I love talking about f-stops, shutter speeds, bokeh, post processing and all that good stuff. Sometimes I get so into talking about it that I don’t realize the person standing next to has the glassed over look in their eyes that tells me they have no idea what I’m saying. Other times I find the rare photography enthusiast who gets it. This is a rare but awesome moment.

I not only get stopped by strangers in public but I also get many frantic emails, texts and phone calls from friends, clients and family as they have a photography or camera emergency. I have opened my home as a Emergency Room to treat SLR cameras who are on their deathbed and have nearly 100% success when I perform my surgical magic on them, fixing their ailments and sending them home in perfect working condition.

So, because it is so far overdue, in order to address all of the many questions that I am always being asked about cameras and photography I will be starting a new “advice column” here on my photography blog.

This new advice column will be called: “Ask The Camera Chick” 

Nice name, eh? You know you like it.

Here is where YOU, my readers, come into play. You get to ask all those questions you’ve wanted answered and I promise to answer as many of them as I can. A friend of mine refers to my “photography secrets” and well, let’s face it, since I’m terrible at keeping secrets I may as well blog about all my photography secrets in a forum where the whole world can read them. Blow up the idea of my secrets all together.

There are several ways that you can ask your camera or photography related questions:

1: Email me at rachel@racheleng.com

2: Use the “contact” form on the upper right of this blog

3: Leave a comment on any of my blog posts

4: Leave a comment on my Rachel Eng Photography Facebook page

5: Get creative. I’m sure you can think of other ways to find me…..bonus points for the strangest way a person contacts me. Please, though, no crawling through my windows. I have an awesome security system and the police station is literally two blocks away so they respond very quickly. I don’t want anyone to end up in jail over this.

Are there rules for these questions? Not really. I would appreciate your name and state of residence so I can pretend that I’m talking directly to you when I respond. If you have a photo of the problem/question email it to me so I can use it as an example in the answer post.

Happy question asking! Can’t wait to hear them!

Thanks to my little sister, Laurie, for taking these photos of me. {I, of course, did the post-processing work….especially taking away the wrinkles under my eyes that have come from nine years of no sleep thanks to my cute little children.}

For me, I am mainly a Denver wedding photographer. However, when I take on a “destination wedding” they are usually within the United States. My most common locations are Iowa and Utah. Mainly because I have a lot of connections, friends and family in those states so I’m always very excited to take a long weekend to a place that I once called “home”. I was an Iowa wedding photographer for a long time and I absolutely love having the opportunity to go back to the beautiful farmlands, huge trees and many rivers and lakes that the midwest has to offer. However, I love to travel to any of the states to photograph in fun, new place.

I was able to travel back to Iowa several times this past year to photograph weddings and they were all awesome and amazingly beautiful!

One of the best parts of being there was booking my plane ticket for a few days in advance of the wedding so I had time to visit with my little sister for a few days. On one trip over the summer I was able to see my little nephew, Ben, learn to crawl! I grabbed my camera and took a few quick photos of him as he drooled and screeched with excitement at realizing that he could get around. What a great thing to get to be a part of!

How fun is my job? I get to capture big events such as weddings and seemingly small events like baby Ben learning to crawl. I love documenting LIFE. However it happens, whenever it happens and wherever it happens. Natural, unposed, REAL life!

Just like the never ending supply of drool that Ben shared with me!

Today our family traveled up to Fort Collins to celebrate her birthday and also to celebrate her baptism. Katelyn’s mom let her choose a dress and she has great taste for an eight year old little girl! It was a gorgeous long, white dress with the cutest little ruffle jacket over the top. Very fashion forward.

I arrived about an hour before the baptism so that I could photograph her in her new amazing dress. We weren’t counting on the huge amounts of snow but my husband was kind enough to carry sweet Katelyn to the spot her mom had chosen for her portraits so she didn’t have to get her shoes wet by trudging through the wet snow that was knee deep.

Although it was freezing Katelyn did a great job keeping a smile on her face. We didn’t do a full session since it was so cold but we’ll probably don her dress again another day when it’s a little warmer. For now we have a great selection of perfect wintery and snowy photos to help her remember her special day.

My favorite comment of the day came from Katelyn’s grandma. Her mother said, “Wow, I just can’t believe how much nice formal dresses cost for little girls!” Grandma then turned to her and said ever-so-cutely, “Dear, this dress is nothing compared to the next white dress you’ll be buying her!” Very true Grandma.

How grateful I am to be a Denver photographer so that I can not only photograph my clients, but also my amazing family. I cannot wait until Katelyn is ready to get married {in a decade or more of course!} so that I can put my Denver wedding photographer skills to work for her!

I simply LOVE what I do.

I feel blessed to be able to have the opportunity to photograph what is possibly the most important day in my clients’ lives. I realize that every wedding is unique and I love hearing about all the fun details that make each wedding special. I always take time to chat on the phone, e-mail and meeting in person with each bride. I believe that by giving each of my brides plenty of personal attention I am able to understand their personality, needs and expectations. 

As a wedding photographer I prefer to photograph in a natural, quiet manner which allows me to capture moments that are real and unposed. I love arriving for the first moments of the bride as she has her hair and make-up done and staying all the way until the dance floor is rocking with fun. By photographing the entire day from sun up until sun down I am able to capture the entire story of your wedding day so you can remember it forever.

Each of the wedding collections offered include a CD of all the images taken throughout the day {unedited}, a CD of artistically rendered images, personal unlimited copyright to all images on your CDs and a private online gallery. I feel very strongly that every bride should have the rights to all of her images which is why I recently added the CD of unedited images for each of my weddings. While the photos are not retouched they are still fantastic photographs of family and friends who came to celebrate the special day. In addition to the included items in each wedding collection I also offer gorgeous custom wedding albums, custom cards, beautiful gallery wraps, amazing wall portraits and much more.

While most of my business is focused on photographing weddings I also take many clients for other types of photography including family portraits, baby births, newborn portraits, senior portraits, etc. I love mixing it up and doing a little of everything!

When I am not photographing clients I spend my time raising my three little boys {aged 9, 8 & 4}, helping with husbands orthodontic practice, working as the Director of Photography & Fundraising for TRUE Africa {a non-profit charity}, running & exercising, baking yummy treats like cinnamon rolls or creme brulee, hanging out with my girlfriends and squeezing time in for much needed vacations with my husband and children.

I am anxious to chat with you and hear all about your wedding or other photography needs!

Rachel Eng, Rachel Eng Photography

rachel@racheleng.com

www.racheleng.com

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