Neenah Archives

How to Find The Best Wedding Photographer

February 11, 2019
Wedding Photography

A Google search for "Wedding Photographer" turns up millions of hits! How do you find the best wedding photographer with all these options? The good news is there are lots of great photographers in the Fox Valley area of Wisconsin. The odds are you will find one of them. The bad news is that even the best photographer may not the right one for your wedding! So what things should you look for to find the best wedding photographer? Here are some of my suggestions. What makes a photographer the best for you? A great photographer provides a great experience…

A Winter Night in Neenah

January 4, 2019
Blog

It was cold, and snowy, and dark (one of the longest nights of the year). But out we went anyway to make some beautiful portraits. I like to say every day is an adventure and this day certainly was. Jump out of the warm truck and grab some photos and then back to the warmth to thaw out my numb hands. My beautiful model didn't mind the cold at all - oh, to be young again! Technically, these are a mix of natural light portraits along with some fill light portraits with a softbox. All were taken with either a…

Living Coral – Pantone Color for 2019

December 28, 2018
Blog

The Pantone color of the year is Living Coral. They call it "an animating and life-affiriming coral hue with a golden undertone that energizes and enlivens with a softer edge." Well, sounds impressive, I guess. On a recent safari I captures ice boats cruising on Lake Winnebago and thought they would make a great use of living coral. Here is the original photo: The next step, in photoshop, is to select all the highlights and create a new layer with a highlight mask. You then use the color picker to brush Living Coral into all the highlights. The next step…

Fireworks

July 24, 2018
Blog

It was a beautiful July 4th in Neenah & Menasha. We watched the fireworks from Neenah this year and watched both shows (Menasha in the background to the right). I did not really even try this year to get a great picture. I just set my camera up and turned on the intervalometer and let the camera take pictures. This way I grabbed some nice photos while enjoying the show. Enjoying the show is a good thing because it passes so quickly. Good words for life - enjoy the show because before you know it the show is over!…

Copper Box in Neenah – Film Test

July 9, 2018
Blog / Event Photography

Copper Box played in Neenah on a beautiful July evening. All these photos are using my Bronica medium format camera. All photos 150mm lens and used Kodak Portra 400 film. The film was "over exposed" one stop to test the look - I metered at 200 ISO in stead of 400. Pretty amazing how much detail in both the shadows and highlights when the film is pushed a bit - much better than digital. And no, I am not giving up my digital cameras! Film is just another tool in the box and has it's place. Look for more…

A Very Neenah Christmas (II)

December 6, 2017
Blog / Event Photography

Some more pictures from A Very Neenah Christmas Click on any picture to view larger

A Very Neenah Christmas

December 3, 2017
Blog / Event Photography

Friday night was A Very Neenah Christmas. Along with the store window live displays there were a number of "street performers" around main street. This poor girl took the double dog dare and ended up stuck to the pole! We debated on whether or not this was her real tongue - looks real to me... Canon 5d MkIII Canon 50mm f/1.4 | 1/40s at f/2 and 800 ISO

Budding Photographer

August 24, 2017
Blog

A quick portrait by the fountain in Riverside Park, Neenah. This photo was taken with the beautiful afternoon light during the "blue hour". The f/4 aperture should be obvious as the fountain is not in focus. I could have done more depth of field but that would have meant cranking up the ISO = more noise. I was at 800 ISO which for this camera is just fine. What makes this photo "work" is the good compositional elements. When we see a photo our eyes are first drawn to the brightest part. I did a curves and color adjustment to…

First Full Moon of Winter

Moon rise over Lake Winnebago

January 13, 2017
Blog

The first full moon of 2017 and Winter. It was a cold and windy night. I was thinking I must me either dedicated or crazy (of course, both could be true). To properly expose both the moon (which is very bright) and the light house I used a 5 step bracket, set for +/- 3 stops. I then used 2 photos to make the picture - one of the moon and the other for the lighthouse. Below is another taken at 400mm.