Monday, December 1, 2014

December Updates - Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday Sale, save 35% In December!

We hope everybody and a wonderful Thanksgiving with the family. But now the Christmas season is in full swing. In celebration of the holiday we are taking 25% off of all photo sessions booked in December. This is a great saving that can be used for High School Senior Portraits, an Engagement Photo Session and this is the perfect time to shoot something steamy for your Valentine. We offer a wide array of prints and canvases as well as albums.

In other News:

We will be attending Christmas in the Park in Lebanon held at Archly park on the evening of Friday December 5th from 5-7pm. We hope to see everybody there. It should be a very fun event for the whole family.

And we are very pleased to announce that the work of Brendan Beavers will once again be on display in Art Takes Miami an exhibit of contemporary art sponsored by The Miami Museum of Modern Art and held annually on Miami Beach Each December. "Scarlet Temptation" along with other works will be on display on December 7th. If you find yourself in the Miami area at that time be sure to stop in and check it out.
Scarlet Temptation



Saturday, November 1, 2014

November News Letter

This is shaping up to be a busy Fall. We hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween. Now that Halloween has passed Thanksgiving is fast approaching. For any of you that would like a current family portrait to send with your Christmas cards there is still time, though not much. Be sure to call us this week to schedule an appointment.

Keeping in the spirit of giving we are sponsoring the Hunger Games 450 challenge here in Lebanon on November 8th at Atchly Park. "The Hunger Games 450 Challenge is a 12 event obstacle course hosted by the City of Lebanon Parks and Recreation Department to benefit the L-Life Food Bank." And will be fun for the whole family.

For more info echamberlin@lebanonmo.org
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We know Black Friday has become a big tradition in this country, however, we are a small business and choose to celebrate the holidays with our friends and families, so we will be closed from the 23rd-30th. We hope you have a great holiday too, remember Friends and family is what it is all about.

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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

October News Letter

We had a great turn out at the Lebanon Business Expo and a couple of big winners! Congratulations to Rendell Pickard and Jim Gallaher.

We are looking forward to some more great high school football. Lebanon was in a battle to the finish last Friday night for Homecoming and Camdenton has their Homecoming showdown tonight. It should be an exciting game.

We are pleased to announce that we will have a booth at the Lebanon Art Walk on the 13th of Oct. The art walk is a family friendly event hosted by the Lebanon Art Guild featuring all kinds of local talent. For more information just call the Guild at 417.532.1895.

We have a lot of shooting going on in October with Brendan working at the Fork & Cork on Saturday before traveling to both New York and Colorado. Robin will be spending some time working in Kansas, but we also have several openings here in Missouri and we would love to fit you in.

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Monday, September 1, 2014

September News Letter

We just wanted to take a moment and let you know everything that we have going on.

Last Friday we saw a very exciting football game between the Lebanon Yellowjackets and the Waynsville Tigers. This coming Friday we will be traveling to Camdenton to photograph the rivalry between the Jackets and the Lakers. Be sure to check out all of the great photos @Shattered Images Photography. If you are interested in inviting us out to your high school event just let us know and we will try our best to fit your school in!

On September 6th we are hosting a free ice cream social for the LHS class of 2015 from 2-4pm at the Lebanon Art Guild and Gallery @227w Commercial St., Lebanon, MO. Be sure to spread the word to any of the LHS seniors you know. We hope to see you all there. And for our out of town fans, if you happen to be in town be sure to stop in and say hi.

Senior Portrait season is in full swing. We still have a few openings however our schedule is filling up fast, so don't delay. Both Brendan and Robin still have openings, but they are both looking at a busy September and October.

We will also have a booth in the Lebanon Business Expo at the Lebanon Civic Center this September 13th. Be sure to stop by and say hello. Also be sure to tell any brides you know that we will be giving away a free engagement session photo shoot that day at the Expo. They will want to be sure to stop in and sign up!

That wraps things up for us. I don't know about the rest of you but we can't wait to see all of the Autumn colors. Have a Happy Labor Day and we will see you soon.

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Wednesday, August 6, 2014

7 Tips for Great Wedding Photos

When planning a wedding there are three large expenses that can really make or break the day. The first is your venue and other than making it fit your budget, and being sure it can accommodate your guest list, fit your time frame and compliments your style, there is not much to think about. The second one is catering. Remember, this will include both the food and the drinks, has to accommodate differing dietary needs, (think vegan or gluten free options) and has to be delivered in a timely fashion to a large group. The last big expense is photography. Wedding planners generally advise couples to plan to spend about ten percent of their total budget on a specialized professional photographer. Photography may not seem that important when selecting a wedding gown, hiring caterers, arranging seating, guest lists, electing brides maids and groomsmen… but when it is all said and done you are going to take three things away from that day. While your marriage will flourish your memories of that day will fade - it takes a skilled professional to capture those moments otherwise they will be lost “like tears in rain”.


1) Do not let someone else choose your photographer. - This does not seem like something that would have to be mentioned, but in the chaos of planning a wedding it can be easy to let details slide. When dealing with budgets and limited time it can be easy to let a family member start making decisions, especially if they are paying. Be sure to stay involved in this process. Have them bring you 3-4 choices, take the time to look them over then sit down with said family member and discuss what works and what does not. Be sure that you are going to end up with a photographer that is qualified and whose work will represent you and compliment your sense of being.


2) Be sure you are making an apples to apples comparison between photographers. - This seems like it should be an easy thing to do, but there is no standard in pricing for photography. When discussing costs with a photographer it is important to know whether the cost they mention is just a creative shooting fee. Does their cost include prints? Just being handed a cd of all the images can seem like a good deal, but where do you get them  printed? How do you go about getting an album? When they quote you a price does that include image retouching? You will want these questions answered before you decide. How much of the ceremony is covered in their quote? What type of products are included? Is retouching included? What guarantees do they have that the photographer will be available…


3) Do not sign any contracts without experiencing their work. - With so many things to plan for it can be easy to look at someones portfolio and think wow, lets hire them and have this settled. Don’t do it! You especially do not want to get sucked into a “sign-up now”, get your engagement photos, wedding announcements, wedding photos and find out after the engagement session you are stuck with a photographer you don't want. Take the time to get to know your photographers, and only commit to small bites in the beginning. You do not want to find yourself stuck with a photographer you hate and the only way out is to buy out the contract for the wedding.


4) Remember you don’t want every photo. - In this digital age with a lot of instant gratification it is easy to think you want every photo that gets snapped. Some of them are just going to be bad, a setting was wrong, somebody sneezed or a random photo bomb occurred. The other thing is a lot of them will be very repetitive. Trust your photographer to be able to show you a selection of the best images, after all that is what you are hiring us for.


5) Make sure the photographers have an opportunity to see the venues. - Even if the photographers have worked in that venue before, your ceremony and decorations are going to be unique. They need an opportunity to see your style and what your ceremony will be like. Having them present at your rehearsal is a great idea.


6) Once the photographer is chosen be sure they coordinate with the wedding planner. - A professional planner is a good idea to help everything run smoothly, but whoever is coordinating your wedding should meet with the photographer so they can have a chance to plan your event in a manner that will not interfere with either the event or your capturing memorable images of it.


7) Ask your guests to refrain from shooting. - Your guests are there to share your day with you. If they are trying to shoot photos, it is disruptive, they are not really having the opportunity to share in your day, and it limits the photographs your professional can get. Just imagine every photo of your guests is nothing but a sea of cellphones and you will begin to see what I mean.


“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.” – Benjamin Franklin



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Sunday, January 26, 2014

Creative Lighting with Color

It is possible to use light as an element of creation in the production of a photo. Besides varying the position of the flashes or other lighting and their intensity, one can also change the color of the lighting so that the colors in the photo appear differently from how the subject appears to the eye without the lighting. To change the color of the lighting one uses lighting gels (also called colored gels). There are hundreds of lighting gels on the market each a different shade of a different color so that the lighting effects one can produce are endless. The aim is to produce a photo that is unlike what you can see with your eye. This particular photo was inspired by the artist Picasso's use of color, although you could take cues from any number of painters and artists.

For this setup I used three flash units with gels. You could experiment with using only two flash units, but the colors may not turn out as intense, and you run the risk of there being shadows where you do not want them. Of course there is nothing keeping you from using more flash units. By all means you should experiment with the lighting and the color of the gels to achieve what you wish to achieve with the photos. You will want an area where you can control the ambient lighting such as a studio as ambient light can affect the colors you wish to produce in the photograph. A way to dim the lights to just the point where you can see what you are doing is also desired. If you are not shooting in a studio, but say in a living room of a house, sunlight streaming in from a window can have dire effects on what you are trying to achieve with the colors as can light from street lights if you are shooting at night. If you do not have a studio available, you should try to find a windowless room in your home, or a room where you can put up heavy curtains to block out light. Use of a tripod as this will give more control if you are using a continuos light source. Camera movement could affect what you are wanting to achieve in undesired ways. A remote release is also advised to minimize camera movement. If you do not have a remote release you can use the camera's timer to keep movement to a minimum. Once you are setup, you will want to experiment with your camera settings to see what you can do. 

This particular photo was taken with a Canon 7D with an EF-S 18-200mm lens set to 50mm. The ISO was set at 400 and the aperture was set at f8. The shutter speed was at 1/200th of a second while white balance was set to 5600k. It was saved in the RAW format. Three flash units were used. A pair of 430EX-IIs were used to light the background, one from camera left, and one from camera right. Both used yellow gels. The subject herself was lit by a single 580EX-II at a 90 degree angle with a blue gel. You can experiment with the colors of the gels to get the best color as not all gels are created equal. With hundreds of gels on the market there is no reason you should not be able to achieve your desired color in a photograph. You can also experiment with the position of the flash units and the type. Using different flash units in different positions you can achieve different effects. By all means experiment with your camera settings.

Lighting with lighting gels is an area where one can feel free to experiment, and it can be argued that you are not so much a photographer using lighting gels as you are an artist. After all you are not recording the image as it appears to the naked eye, but attempting to produce something the eye does not see, something that can only be captured in the instant of flash units and the "click" of a shutter. To get ideas I recommend looking at the artwork of famous painters such as Picasso in his Blue Period for inspiration. Painting your subject, background, or both with colored light opens up a world of creativity.




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