Chinese Lantern photography

Here in the midwest or at least lonely ol Kansas we don't get a lot of weddings that use Chinese Lanterns. There are some, yes but not that many. Maybe it has to do with the fact that in a lot of our surrounding area's it is illegal to do these. Either way we have yet to photograph a wedding that sends off a Chinese Lantern. We have done some sparkler photography but not the lanterns. So it goes with out saying that I was super excited when at a 4th of July family get together one of my cousins had one she was going to send off in memory of a couple of pets that had recently passed away. I often like to use family for experimenting photography wise. I got a few test shots before they lit it to get an idea of the settings, then I started shooting. As it turns out I nailed the settings for the most part on the camera. I will say that it was not fully pitch black out at the time they sent the lantern off, there was still a little light in the sky but I think that made it even better. Gave me a little more ambient light to work with at the same time providing a dark enough background for the lantern to really shine.

I've never done a blog post on how to. But here it is! The first how to from Highlights Studios Photography!

As I said it wasn't completely dark, this was July 4th at around 9pm central time so a really dark dusk time for us. Thus the settings, since we rent the really GOOD lenses for weddings we didn't have anything but the lens kit that came with our Nikon D90.
Here is the basic equipment I used for this shoot.
Nikon D7100
Nikon kit lens 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 (this just means that that as you change the focal length of the lens the f-stop changes automatically.)
Most of the images were shot at a focal length of 18mm. First off I think it's best that you have at least 2 people who are sending off the lantern. You need 1 person to hold the lantern and 1 person to light it.
The way I did it DOES require you to use fully manual settings.

Step 1: Set your dial to M (Manuel)
Settings for this picture were:
Focal length:18mm
f3.5
Shutter speed: 1/125
ISO: 4000 (note: the higher the ISO the more grain you will get in your images. The better the camera the higher the ISO can go with little to no grain so each camera will differ greatly in the amount of grain).

Step 2: Light the lantern
For those that have never done a Chinese Lantern you light the entire square in the middle. My cousin had trouble figuring that part out at first.

Step 3: Rotate the lantern into the up position and hold to allow it to fill with hot air. This part takes a few minutes but that is perfect for taking pictures.
Camera settings: Same as above
Focal length: 18mm
f3.5
Shutter speed: 1/125
ISO: 4000

Step 4: Instruct the subjects to hold it up (or pose them however you'd like while the lantern is filling with hot air).

Camera settings same as above. Notice this entire shoot I didn't need to change my setting hardly at all. All I did was move my body just a tad to get different angles.

Step 5: Be prepared for that moment of lift off! In this case my cousin actually said "it's ready to fly, it's pulling at our hands" so she gave us warning. Her daughter is the one in the center. This was her lantern in memory of her beloved horse and pet duck that passed away this year. You can see the name "Stoney" written on the side that is her horse.

Camera settings:
Focal length: 22mm
f3.8
Shutter speed: 1/125
ISO: 4000

Step 6: Photograph in flight.
Camera settings:
Focal length: 58mm
f5
Shutter speed: 1/125
ISO: 4000

The only settings that changed the entire shoot was the focal length and the f-stop. The f-stop changed because the focal length did.

Finally I did do some minor edits to these images. Although the images looked amazing right out of the camera. I used Adobe Lightroom 5 to add some contrast to make the sky a little darker and brighter blue. I reduced the image highlights and increased the image shadows (increasing the shadows helps to lighten the darker area's such as the front of the people). Those were very minor adjustments and just used to enhance the over all images.

So there you have it! Highlights Studios first how to!

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New custom print boxes!

We have something exciting to offer our clients! Now when you order $75 or more in prints you can get a custom print box to hold your prints! The boxes come in 8x10 and 5x7, the 8x10 can hold 100 8x10 or smaller prints. The 5x7 box holds 100 5x7 or smaller prints. Each box comes with a elegant ribbon and box filling. These would make great gifts for friends and family members! Order the prints and give them in the special box! Additional boxes can be purchased for an additional price. Take a look! These are stunning!

With your order of $75 or more your prints will arrive in this custom (top) box, ribbon and filling.

This 8x10 box will hold 100 8x10 prints or smaller. Pefect for gift giving!

The bottom of the box & filling are made with recycled material.

Not to mention the fantastic professional prints!

Each box lid is custom designed for each client.

I'm so excited to ship these to the waiting client! I think they are going to LOVE the box.

Welcoming the Penguins!

Our local Zoo which we have their yearly membership to just opened their first Penguin exhibit! We have waited all year and watched the construction. We were so excited to get to go see the Penguins, of course I took my camera along.

Figuring they would be behind glass knowing they were in a building I wasn't sure how good of pictures I could take. However they had tremendous lighting and the glass being so new was still sparkly clean and pretty easy to shoot through. Here are some of my favorite images from our morning at the zoo.

Welcome Penguins!!!

Pregnancy Session

I met Shawn'Ta and Ed a few years ago after shooting Ed's sisters wedding. They liked the pictures so they asked me to photograph their wedding too. At the time I was a few months pregnant with our now 2yr old daughter. Since their wedding Shawn'Ta has been excellent about referring clients to me as well as coming back to me herself. This weekend I had the pleasure of photographing her own pregnancy! We started with a mini family session and then went in for some pregnancy pictures. Here are some of my favorites from this session.

Thanks again Shawn'Ta and Ed, you have a lovely family and I can't wait to photograph the new little one when she is born!

Little Ty didn't want to have his picture taken. This is how we started the shoot.

This is what I got when I asked him "Do you like Turtles?"

My favorite from this session, I've always liked these kind of shots. Intimate but in a nice way, highlighting the the pregnancy. Strong, yet soft.

We're expecting!!

We are so blessed to be welcoming baby number 3 coming in June! God has really blessed our little family!

Missy + Bruce = Engaged!

I met Missy at a bridal show/gown sale. She was looking for the perfect dress. While she may not have found her perfect dress at the show she found us! We talked a little about her wedding day, she told me that her groom to be had a very clear vision of what he wanted in a wedding photographer. I couldn't wait to meet him, I love to hear what visions my clients have and while keeping with that vision I like to put my own spin on their pictures.

We scheduled to do an engagement session for this last weekend. Both are very athletic and enjoy the out doors. We decided on Loose Park for this session, even though there were 2 weddings going on that day (On a Sunday no less) we still got plenty of awesome pictures.

During the shoot I when I would get a shot I KNEW was going to be beyond awesome I would show it to them on the screen. After looking at one shot in particular Missy said to me "Aww you make me look good! No one makes me look good!" I find that hard to believe as she is so pretty! I'm glad she liked the ones she saw and I think she's going to love them all!

While shooting there was a group of men playing on drums and varies instruments in a very ethnic way. We talked about how fun it would be to do some shooting with them dancing in the middle of the ring of men playing their drums. So we asked the gentlemen if they would be willing to be a part of some pictures. They agreed. First though they had to teach Bruce some basics of playing the drum so he could play a song with them. While the pictures in that series look more candid then portraits, it shows how much fun they can have together and just added a relaxing moment away from posed shooting. How many couples can say they danced in a ring of musicians on their engagement session? This couple can!

Congrats Missy & Bruce! I know your wedding is going to be just as amazing as the engagement session!