we're winners!




check out this cool site, the wedding photography project, dedicated to "creating better wedding photographers," created by seattle-based photographer, cory parris. this is a great place to learn more about photography, especially for those who contact us with lots of questions about how to improve their craft. we're actually featured in the latest post as the winners of the
"cool photo" contest, with an entry from joy & john's e-session. check it out below!

We have a winner!

In the first ever Wedding Photography Project contest, we have a winner! And the winner is (drumroll please)…Ed Pingol!

Here is the winning entry:

ep-3.jpg

camera setting was 100iso 30th @ f19. this smooths out the water falling and also gives us enough ambient light to light the whole scenery. monica, my wife is hiding behind the falling water on the left side (notice i didn’t clone her out so you can see her head) holding a SB-24 triggered by a pocket wizard mounted on a monopod.

The reasons behind my choice are first that I thought it was a cool composition with the lines traveling around the frame, the way line of the groom’s head and neck echo the line of the rock above him, the slow shutter speed to let the water blend, the cool use of flash during the day, the educational value it has for the people that read here, and just because I liked it!

I know that contest judging is always controversial because everyone has different favorites, but I hope everyone will congratulate Ed!

A big “thank you” to Ed Pingol, all the other entrants (I learned a bit, so hopefully others did, too), and Jim Garner the owner of the Boda bag company for putting up the prize!

here's the contest entry rules/description:

The “Cool Photo” Contest!

This website is all about teaching each other cool tips, tricks, techniques and philosophies. So here is our first contest to convince people to send me some cool tips, tricks and techniques.

Send me a cool photo (c@coryparris.com) that you took at a wedding. Include with it a short paragraph about how you shot and processed it. If I like it, I’ll publish it. If it’s the best entry (judged solely by Cory Parris, no complaining), meaning that you have a really cool photograph and included some cool thoughts or ideas on how you did that could help another photographer, then you win a brand new Boda Bag!

To show you what I mean here is an entry from me (I’m not going to judge myself the winner - I already have a Boda).

wpp-sampleentry.jpg

I took this photograph at Hill’s Resort in Priest Lake Idaho. The couple loves the lake and mountains, so I had them go out on the dock and used a telephoto lens (85mm on a 30D) to compress the distance between the couple and the mountains in the background. I used a small aperture (f7.1) to have some detail and definition in the mountains. When I processed this, I used a neat trick that I just discovered. For the last few years, when I want the colors to really pop, I create a duplicate layer and change the blending mode to “Overlay”. This time I sandwiched a black and white layer in between the original layer and the Overlay. This created the high-contrast, desaturated and intense look.

Here’s the prize.

bodabag.jpg

I can’t wait to see your entries!

//ed pingol
707.334.1468
edpingol@gmail.com
edpingol.blogspot.com