Shove Chapel at Colorado College

I have to admit that after having shot several weddings in the past couple weeks that were all either outdoors, in someone's home, or in a new modern church, is was just awesome to shoot a wedding today in the wonderful chapel at Colorado College, Shove Chapel. According to it's web site it's built in a Norman Romanesque style, modeled after the famous Winchester Cathedral, a stone from which was used as the cornerstone of Shove Chapel.

From a photography standpoint, there were plenty of plusses, and only a few minuses. On the minus side: it's a very dark interior from the back up to the transept and alter. And, there are many columns supporting the infrastructure which you have to work around. Both of these minuses are far outweighed by the positive aspects of shooting there (and easily worked around).

I have to admit I'm a total sucker for "heavy" church when it comes to the structure of a church building. One of my favorite things to do when traveling (especially in Europe) (and I have hundreds of photos to prove this) is to visit cathedrals and basilicas, getting as many photos as I can from different angles, of different features. I think I shot in 6 different churches my last visit to Paris alone. I love the sense of awe you can get out of stained glass, flying butresses, dark corners that rise up into sunlit rafters, whatever: I'm a fan.

So Shove Chapel at Colorado College in Colorado Springs is a very nice (and an ok size for an American church, seating just under 1000). With two lofts at each end of the transept, there's some vantage points to shoot down from. There's also a loft in the back of the church over the entrance... requiring a zoom to shoot from (which I used here in this photo).

But they've added some stage lighting from the two side lofts which help illuminate the stage or alter area, itself containing a beautiful pipe organ in the back of it, and with a grand piano.

Shove has nice side aisles under cascading arches, a smaller side chapel dedicated to the Shove family with an interesting plaque giving a brief history of the family from the early 1600's, and many features to shoot with on the outside.

This wedding in particular had 4 bridesmaids in red gowns, groomsen in supporting colors under black tuxedos, the bride in a beautiful white gown, everything was perfect for the location.

They left in a '68 mustang convertible... you don't get much more classy/hip than that!

Making Tracks During Senior Portraits (literally and figuratively)!

Ok, ok, this was fun... I was shooting a senior session yesterday on the tracks right by my studio in Rockrimmon in Colorado Springs. As I'm shooting at one point, something's nagging at me but it just doesn't register. I glance over my shoulder and see this monster train bearing down on us (although it was a safe enough distance away moms and dads!) that we both were like: YIKES! and laughing hysterically (with nervous laughter, I think) : we got a nice safe distance off on the side well before train got to our spot, and I whipped up the camera to try to get a shot of the engineer laughing at us (I saluted, he waved, and then he gave us a couple quick toots on the horn)!


Outside of the craziness, one of the cool things I did then was to position myself a little farther back shooting up towards Erica with the train rushing by in the background. I slowed the shutter down and pantomimed some poses to her (cause it was wicked loud, especially with the amplified echo of the train coming out of that overpass), so we got these incredible shots of her hitting cool looks with the train a nice blur behind her as it rumbled along. This was so awesome I can't tell you. Not sure why I hadn't done that before.

Some days it pays to be crazy.(most days.) (well, ok, within limits! I may be ugly but I'm not -that- stupid). We moved down into the overpass area you see in the shot here
on the left and got some killer shots against the painted rough cement wall down there. Another train came along: but this time we were both "dialed in", heard it and moved long before we even saw it coming around a bend.

I'm not kidding: it was a great shoot with awesome pics & a great story! Besides the two trains, there was a nice perfect breeze blowing out Erica's hair a little & with the light & dark areas you can use for shooting there, what more could you ask for?!?

(Dont tell: I'm totally stoked for shooting there again!)
:-)

i love new york (but man am i TIRED!!!) :-)

Just back from New York today where I was in a workshop with Doug Gordon and Kevin Kubota and other photographers. Shooting in New York City was way cool. Here's a nice shot I made of a bride and groom with the Empire State Building as a backdrop. Got alot of nice special photos from this foray into the city during the workshop.

We had one fun incident where we were shooting in Times Square - the bride was laying down on the pavement and about 500 onlookers gathered around and the cops came... we shot for another couple minutes and moved to the other end of times square... here she is twirling (much to the amusement of the crowd!)



I'm tired because because I slept 2 hours one night and 4 hours the next night... then flew home today and had all these great ideas for short tutorials on photography, so I didn't sleep on the plane. But it's catching up with me.

small intimate wedding

Saturday I shot a small intimate wedding at a friends house. Basically all in an open-plan living room / dining room / kitchen combination. Not alot of room to manuever, so I got locked into a couple spots by the other guests. Even so, I got some nice photos, including this one of the beautiful cake.

Notes About TFP/TFCD For Models

Many models (if not the rest of the world) have heard or seen the term TFP or TFCD ("time for prints" or "time for CD"). Essentially this is a trade between the parties involved, at minimum a photographer and a model, but may also include an MUA (Make Up Artist) or stylist (whether clothing or hair).

In many situtations whether you're just starting out as a model or have an established portfolio (or "book"), it may make sense to ask for TFP/TFCD. Photographers who are starting out need to build their book also, so this is a mutually beneficial activity. However, established photographers may or may not offer TFP or TFCD except in exceptional circumstances defined by the photographer (which may be as simple as, they have time on their hands next week due to a cancellation and your look may benefit their portfolio). Conversely you may want to work with a photographer who has a certain style lacking in your book, so offering TFP/TFCD when you would otherwise charge for modeling isn't unusual or "backtracking".

Note that there's no expectation of quality work with TFP/TFCD, although when you pay a photographer, you should have certain quality guarantees (if at a minimum, a guaranteed reshoot if something doesn't come out right). (And you have to be reasonable about this: if the photos are technically fine, but you didn't like your hair color or shoes that day, these are -not- reasons for a reshoot). I will say this: I know many photographers who are up and coming that are incredible photographers, so going TFP/TFCD is not to say you won't get quality shots. The photographer wants to show off good work too, so it's in their best interest to do well. However, when you pay, you may have more of a guarantee about getting quality work.

There are other expectations you have and benefits you get by paying a photographer. When you pay for photography, you are (or should be) guaranteed by the photographer to get "n" number of prints or "n" number of images on a CD with a license to print, and your expectation should be a pretty quick turn-around.

With TFCD, a photographer is not required to give you a set amount of images, although the expectation is that's what you're trading for. With TFP, you should agree up front how many prints you'll get (whether many, or one you can duplicate from). When you pay for photography you're under no obligation to sign a model release and the photographer will have limited rights as to what they can do with your photos. With TFP/TFCD, the photographer may insist on a release since the benefit to the photographer is being able to use photos from your session. This is not always a deal breaker, but just be aware of this before hand.

With TFCD, make sure you are promised images on a CD are high-resolution, usually 300dpi. For images that are going onto a web site, you need low-resolution images, usually 72 dpi. Good photographers will provide you with a set of each on CD. Expect the low-resolution images to have some branding or watermarking by the photographer which may be as simple as a small copyright on the lower side, or may be a more complex logo of the photographer or studio. Prints may or may not have a copyright or logo watermarking on the front, but will almost always have a stamp on the back.

Either way, when you get images on CD, make sure you get a license or release to make prints from the photographer. If you need to make extra prints from your portfolio shoot, most print shops or copy shops will not duplicate an image with a copyright notice on it, or even one that looks like it's professionally made without having a signed print release from the photographer.

Great resources for models looking for local photographers willing to offer TFP/TFCD are www.modelmayhem.com and www.bemodel.com.

There are more issues here to discuss for another entry, specific tips and secrets about model releases. Stay tuned.

Yay! Back To Normal!

Back to normal / back to work: I finally got the web sites - the real one and the couple temp ones - all coming up the way they're supposed to for the time being (until I get time to finish updates).

My temporary High School Seniors / Senior Portrait specialty site is up at http://www.IceCoolSeniors.com, the sports and event place holder page is up at http://sports.butchleitzphotography.com (or http://www.mountainsportphotos.net ), the links to the High School Sports galleries at http://www.HighSchoolSportPhotos.net is back working, and lastly... the main studio web site at http://www.butchleitzphotography.com (also know as http://studio.butchleitzphotography.com ) is back up - that was the one I was having the problem with. The code (which was working before the move) did a thing with frames and targets that apparently isn't working on the new server so I had to re-code how the site entry stuff works... which, like I said, is now back up.

A couple senior portraits to do, an executive session, a couple weddings coming up, finish senior mailers, finish some sports highlight galleries, hit the gym, now I can get back to normal! The vacation coming up which will throw the schedule a little (but since it was planned, not a big deal).

Kind of crazy when you like what you do so much you don't want to go on vacation... and when you do, you use it as an excuse to do job related stuff: like: build some more travel and art catalog.

So - I'm "back to normal". (Was I ever "normal"?!?)

Shades of gray...

The web sites: it's funny, I got everything moved into the new servers & have almost everything up - well, the old sites for icecoolseniors.com & the place holders for mountainsportphotos.net & agencyphotos.net. But oh, no, www.ButchLeitzPhotography.com had code in the startup that just totally whacks out on the new server & doesn't get past a certain point... it sends me an auto-email saying somebody looked at the site, but then (I'm pretty sure) doesn't actually show the site to anybody leaving a gnarly looking "somethings wrong" message from the server. Bumwads! More hacking to do to correct it, get it up, get back to finishing the placholder sites.

AT THE SAME TIME: working on High School Senior mailers getting ready to go out. I'm going to offer a special discount through mid August (before schools start back up in session in the Springs). Stay tuned.

Still looking for model-reps at a couple schools like Coronado and Cheyenne, send me an email if you're a senior or somebody you know is who might be interested in a free on-location and studio shoot in exchange for making money by repping for us at their school. It's win-win for you and me and there's no lose-lose for either of us!

Had some real bizarreness yesterday (Sunday): first, saw two little wanna-be tornadoes forming along the highway near Castle Rock as my wife and I were driving back from some business up in Keystone Sunday morning. It was raining, hailing, and everybody was slowing down to watch them I think. Very surreal. THENNN when we got home, my wife Linda found our one of our cats had dragged a full-size rabbit into the house - not a little bunny (like a few others times). But not just into our house... into the master bedroom. Max (this particular cat) had it's front feet pinning down the rabbit while it was growling at Linda as if to say, no you don't, it's MINE!!! So we got Max off the rabbit which immediately took off towards the master bathroom! Finally I caught it by covering it with big storage bucket. We slid in a (get this) old Obama / Biden lawn sign under the bucket, lifted the thing over & got the rabbit outta there.

Wild!
Ok, back to the salt-mines...
b

getting back up...

This is actually kinda fun, moving all the related web sites. I'm getting to review and clean house. The customer photo galleries are all up - (in fact all the site content for butchleitzphotography.com, icecoolseniors.com, agencyphoto.net, mountsportphotos.net, highschoolsportphotos.net and more has ftp'd up to the new server). Just waiting for the domain name transfers to finish.

Some of them, like highschoolsportphotos.net, is actually working and pointing to my galleries at printroom.com, my sports ecommerce & printing partner.

So, while waiting, I'm updating graphics and links on some of the sites I was updating anyway like icecoolseniors.com.

Have a happy and safe 4th of july weekend...

butch

More internet woe-is-me ramblings!

Well, I'm getting things shifted around. I was running my own web servers for so long (like, 10 years, almost 15 years actually) that it's almost funny being like one of the "regular" folks that need a web server; I'm waiting for registrars to move domain names around - I was setting up some sites at GoDaddy for a past client (moving them off my server) a month ago and decided to park some of my stuff there, problem is that my domain names are registered at, like, 5 different registrars for various reasons. So coordinating all this is *fun*, yeah, thats it, *fun*.

I was just in the process of redoing the www.IceCoolSeniors.com web site (again) and had started putting together a new butchleitzphotography.com web site and sports web site. So I guess I need to get the old stuff moved to the new servers (when I get the "account has been set up" go ahead) along with the new stuff (so I can finish it, duh. Guess that didn't need to be said, did it?!?)

Whatever. Shooting some seniors, got a print delivery & more fun stuff today. Life goes on even without the internet! (Wow... realllly?!?) :-)

You may reach me at the studio by calling 719.590.7112.
You may email me temporarily at leitz@q.com.

internet woes

...and the web site is down. the email is down. sheesh. i have connectivity but the servers are in limbo being moved to another provider.

you may reach me at the studio by calling 719.590.7112.
you may email me temporarily at leitz@q.com.

thx.