tlc photography BLOG!

Kenya Kreations, Logo Design

Jonathan — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:39:49 +0000

Lettering and Illustration that captures the essence of Africa . Animals inter-twine with letters using the same idea of someone wearing jewelry. Click Image to enlarge.

Photography isn't the only type of work that keeps me up to my ears with work! While I've slowed down my graphic design business considerably, I can at least say I haven't lost my touch! If anything, I think I'm still honing my skills.

Our good friends, Jade and Julius Kenyamanyara, are opening their new business today in the New Sudbury Mall. They have a kiosk setup in the aisles and will be selling unique hand-made merchandise such as purses and jewelry made in Africa. I know that I'm a little tired of North American chains and bracelets, and something with an African look and feel would be very fresh and unique to Sudbury shoppers.

The profits they earn will go towards funding a future missions trip to Kenya.

Megan & Jesse, Wedding Day

Jonathan — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:54:44 +0000

It's been a long summer of hot and humid weather, injury rehabilitation, adapting to having a new baby, and weddings, weddings, weddings! Take those elements and add them together in a single day! Now that is pushing me the very thresh-hold of what I can manage at once. Come to think of it, all of those elements were strung together on my wedding anniversary. My wife and I celebrated this grand occasion (our 6th, in fact) on the day of a newly married couple, the Prud'hommes. Yes, Jesse and Megan have joined the newly wed club, and did so on our wedding anniversary. It was a destination wedding - Cambridge, ON. What?! Staying in the province doesn't count as a destination?! LOL But c'mon! We're talking about Sudbury here. Cambridge is practically exotic in contrast! And I have the portraits and locations to prove it!

Megan's shoes appear stylish and comfortable

Jannah, the bride's sister, diligently laces the intricate back of the dress

Megan steps out of her comfort zone for portraits and gels into this tranquil scene of peace and reflection

Holding in the tears as she approaches her groom

The girls, showing off their swag.

The first glances at each other

I'm always appreciative when ministers look down during the kiss for the sake of photographs...

A few crunched church portraits before the next wedding commenced!

after the receiving line

Naturals behind the lens

Relaxed pose on the stony bridge

Letting completely lose and having fun with it!

Just because it's over-done doesn't mean you shouldn't just go for it anyways!

Some quiet romance apart from the days business

Spying on the love-birds

A deeply romantic picture which reflects a couple's raw emotion of the day.

A more serious pose in front of the churches and river that paint the landscape behind

Summer colours for the reception hall

Youth, Oscar Night

Jonathan — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:45:28 +0000

New Sudbury Pentacostal Church held a gala event for the youth this past friday. My wife catered the meal by herself (amazing undertaking! amazing food!). I was asked if I didn't mind doing portraits since the kids would be all dressed up. Since I'd already by there watching our three kids, I thought "sure. why not?". While there was a high turn-out, only a handful of attendees felt confident enough to pose for the lens. I think that confidence shows in the next images.

Cyndi & Gerry, Wedding

Jonathan — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:08:25 +0000

May was a rough month. Probably the roughest I've had. Four days into May we had a new baby. Our third baby, Isabella, was born May 4th. Three days later, I tore my acchiles tendon. Bad timing. Not to mention, I had a wedding to cover 18 days after the incident. Pulling off a day's photographic wedding coverage on crutches isn't easy. I had to get my arms in enough shape beforehand to withstand the demand of such a challenge. Every time my wife asked if I wanted to tag along at the mall or the grocery store, I was quickly there by her side. Also to help make the day go smooth, my friend and photographer, Atheson, took pictures since getting close-ups of the ceremony would have proved too distracting being on crutches wearing a bright green cast. Thank you, my good friend, for your support on this day I needed you the most!

Jesse & Megan Engagements

Jonathan — Sun, 30 May 2010 17:45:41 +0000

Me and my lovely assistant, Tonya, and newborn, Isabella attached by our baby snuggly, hit the streets with our fun and adventurous engaged duo, Jesse and Megan, for a some picture snapping through the streets of downtown Sudbury. I won't say anymore, and I'll let the pictures tell their story!

Carlson Maternity Session

Jonathan — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:11:58 +0000

Despite not having a designated studio in our home, we managed to shuffle the furniture around and set up the backdrop+lights for a photo shoot of my wife and our baby-to-be. Space was limited which posed some major challenges getting the lights in their ideal positions. Having to do this late at night when the kids were asleep in bed was another difficulty as we were both drained and little energy left. We wrapped up the session on day two by including our two boys in the pictures. The youngest was far from cooperative - but luckily there were some chocolate easter legs in the kitchen to bribe them into obeying somewhat.

Spring Boardwalk with the family

Jonathan — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:28:09 +0000

Just some personal shots of my beautiful wife and children. As you might notice, our family addition is just around the corner. Expect to see more photos relating to this (hint hint, maternity). You'll notice these images are washed out. It's intentional as nature's colours have yet to bloom here in Sudbury. Enjoy!

Website Renovations

Jonathan — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 03:19:55 +0000

It's been a busy past few days. The website has undergone some cosmetic surgery. I'll admit, the site's initial appearance was not as high of a priority than having content and information up on its release. Now that the content is filling out, making my business more transparent to my viewers, I can enjoy massaging all of the visuals just the way I like it. One of the pages that I particularly like is the "our styles" page. It gives users a clear idea of how far I push each picture during the post processing phase. I know a lot of pros out there invest as much time in post compared to myself. Reaching from my artistic background and channeling it into my editing is an area I'm particular serious about - and I hope that resonates through the examples I have posted there.

If you've been to the website before, then you'll notice that the amount of changes are many. Still in the works is the services and prices page. A major set-back keeping me from moving forward here is a lack of pricing in the area of portraits. I've been approached several times before about doing portraits. While my session rate is up-front, I don't have portrait packages to select from as of yet. I'll have to research the competition and determine what my prices then.

Corner Gospel Church, Promotional Material

Jonathan — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:47:30 +0000

Just some material I recently shot for a church near North Bay (Restoule)

Birthday Portraits

Jonathan — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:42:30 +0000

Not all of the portraits from the session are completed, but this is a preview of what has been done to date. It was the right girl's birthday.

Photography can be used for comedy, go figure.

Jonathan — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:13:57 +0000

At times, our family can be down-right hilarious. Not me, no - my wit is nothing compared to some of my family. I don't always fit in because of such. But at the request of my father in law, I've been given an opportunity to create my greatest lark yet.

My grand in-laws (is that even an actual term? probably not) celebrated their 50th anniversary recently. I took a portrait of them and they received a framed copy for Christmas. My father in law was in my office and came up with an idea to digitally replace my grand-mother with a "babe" of some kind. Being the master of photoshop that I am, I was immediately up to the challenge. The task was not that difficult, but it was somewhat time intensive. I lost some productivity time in the office today as a result - so I'll just have to make up for it on the weekend! Here is the before and after....

Recent family portraits

Jonathan — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:26:29 +0000

New Ordering System

Jonathan — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:40:28 +0000

As of late last night (so late that I had to post this announcement the following morning) I have a new ordering system in place. I have a big disclaimer to add here: I AM NOT A PROGRAMMER thus it is not as intuitive as an online ordering system that you might find on a major website like costco or mpix. While it's not as fancy as those found on the big boy's websites, it is still a huge leap ahead of the old system which involved writing down lists on an order form. Actually, I'm not bashing that system either because implementing this second, hand-written, system is something I'm going to implement as well for those that do not have internet access or don't necessarily have web savvy skills. That's the next frontier I'll be tackling in the coming week!

If you'd like to take the new online order form for a test drive, you may do so by clicking here.

Cyndi & Gerry, Engagements

Jonathan — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:13:24 +0000

It's been a while since I've posted anything. I always seem to be up in my ears in things to do. My most recent priority has been hitting the gym regularly. Granted, I haven't been able to work-out in 1 week due to so many responsibilities needing tending to do. But before that I managed to lose 10 pounds in a little over 2 weeks. It meant eating a lot of veggies, drinking a lot of protein shakes and doing a lot of cardio - let me tell you! Anyhow, here are some shots from my last couple's session. It took place on the 6th of March, and it was our first day of +10 weather. The surroundings were rather daunting and the sun wasn't cooperating (mid-day) but we still managed to have fun and pull of some nice shots. Cyndi is very photogenic, and I Jerry was a terrific sport despite claiming his lesser appeal towards the camera. He think he did a wonderful job.

The “Wedding Rings” shot. A different approach.

Jonathan — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:47:16 +0000

As I prepare for wedding season I will be expanding my shot lists that my clients might like for their albums. I was thinking about the two rings shot and really, really wanted to get away from the "rings in a flower" shot. It's nice, but there's something in me that needs to be a little more unique rather than following the cookie-cutter approach. A thought that recently came to me was to brings those rings closer together... play on the "2 flesh become 1" idea. So, using my magical photoshop skils (LOL) I literally inter-locked the rings which, I think, nicely tells the metaphor I wanted to convey. My next step involved using a back-drop that would display the rings in a complimentary fashion. It couldn't just be another rose. It had to something less accessible... unique! Well, I won't give away all of my secrets, but I'll just say that I didn't have to go to very far. At first glance, the shot appears straight forward. But there was actually a lot of work that went into this. There are 3 exposures in total. Forming an attractive looking heart and having it placed properly within the composition was a unique challenge. I must have traced out the outline of the heart a good 50 times before I was satisfied. Even having the sand work well in terms of background/foreground slant had its degree of challenge. Depth of field was another consideration as I tried a few deep and short depth variations before I found what I had liked. In this final shot the light is actually supplied from ambient (daylight, cloudy). However, in my 1st round of shots, I had a wireless strobe so that I could control my light source/direction and shadows. The results were too contrasty, and the light direction from the ambient turned out to be the most ideal. After much experimenting I'm very satisfied with the results and I couldn't be happier. The hard work certainly paid off in the end!

Happy valentine's day, sweetheart! (yes, these are our wedding rings)

My most cherished photograph

Jonathan — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:56:53 +0000

Tonight, the olympic games were opened on the west coast of my great country, Canada. It was very emotional for me to get through, actually. There was a powerful speech given during the middle of the presentation which spoke admirably about our dreams, ideals and culture. It probably would have been easier to get through had I not delved into photoshop and worked on a certain picture earlier. This picture I speak of is one of me and my mom. It is tremendously special to me. In fact, the more I look at it, the more I've come to regard it as the most deeply and emotionally profound picture I have. It embodies purity and joy, undefiled by any of the impurities of the world. It reaches deep down into a part of memory that is buried so far away, but so fresh and full in my spirit today. Maybe it's the distance of time that it possesses. Maybe it triggers some familiarity that I can't specifically reference but still I'm able to re-experience it so completely. The colours... the red... it's so warm that I can feel it with my soul. Hmmm.. yeah, it's pretty intense. I get choked up every time that I see it. Oh, those Alberta days. I was too young to really remember them. But through the pictures that exist, I'm able to somewhat feel... or sense what life was actually like then. I know for certain that during those years, 1 to 3, I had unconditional love for my parents. They were my world. There was nothing else. I see it in my kids now as they latch to me, never wanting to let go. It's a beautiful bond and I get really scared at the idea of my kids growing older. I know what I'm in store for and it's a fear that I try to resist. Ok, ok.. I'm getting pretty intimate here in the middle of my business blog. But you know what, it doesn't bother me because chances are, if you found this post, and you got here because of your interest in photography and there's a part of you that can relate with your own childhood pictures. I'm currently having Costco prepare this photo as an 8x12 enlargement which I'll be giving a copy to my mom, as well. And now, finally, I share with you this very non-perfect, but to me, perfect picture which I know I'll never be able to tear away from my heart.

Scanned 35mm slide. Cleaned in photoshop.

Raw to the Rescue

Jonathan — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:08:23 +0000

I love RAW. Seriously. I used to edit straight JPEG's out-of-camera... back in the day. I honestly have no idea how I did it. Come to think of it, I just didn't. If a picture came out over-exposed, for example, it was ruined. Period.

When a picture has clipped highlights, such as the example before, I don't sweat it. Sure, there are several instances where adjustments just aren't good enough. Details in a bride's face is something you don't approach lightly. But there are instances where textured, or busy, areas of improperly exposed areas can be salvaged.

As stated in the previous post, it's winter, which means my assignments have grown quiet slim. That said, I knew there was a photo in my archive that I'd been meaning to tackle. At first glance, the photo looked like a mess. But I shot it in RAW, so I was feeling rather optimistic. Plus, when I was going through the shoot I was smart enough to take a few bracketed exposures. (an underexposed shot, an even esxposure, and an overexposure) With all of these pictures, one can "fill in the gaps" where one particular picture lacked image detail (clipped highlights).

It is now 5 o'clock and I'm punching out for the day. I'll let the pictures take over and as always you can draw your own comparison based on the before and after. Hopefully I've inspired some of you anti-RAW shooters out there (are there any of you left out there???)

After extensive manipulation of RAW data + PS processing

Straight out of the camera. Used 3 stacked 72mm ND Filters for time lapse.

Winter, what is there to shoot?

Jonathan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:06:06 +0000

Ok, I confess. I pose a silly question. Many great photographers have captured aspects of winter that are just as captivating as those from any other season. Well, I've got kids - do you want to suit them up in all of their winter gear for me so that we can all get out?? I didn't think so!

We actually did get out the other day, mostly be cause of rising cabin fever among all of us. We went for a walk to and fro' beside Ramsey lake skating path. It had been so long that I'd used my camera that I failed to check my battery and memory card reserves before heading out. Sure enough, I power my camera on, and the LCD notifies me that I've got a nearly dead battery (flashing icon) and only 21 shots left on my 8gb CF card. Frustrating, you say? Yessum!

I got a few shots of Tonya and the kids walking. I also caught a candid of a skating couple as they held hands. Very romantic. Reminded me of the dating years... fond memories.

Many photographers will tell you trying to get the shot right the 1st time is key to saving bundles of time in post proecssing. Such was the case with the picture I'm going to demonstrate. I've provided the before and after to compare. I'll let your eye decipher the differences.

Skating Couple, After Post Processing

Skating Couple, Straight Out of the Camera

In the case above, there were a few elements in the background that I could not control. It wasn't really my fault. Living the in days of photoshop can be very satisfying when its tools can get you out of some of these inherent complications with your composition.

Prices and Services

Jonathan — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 22:31:04 +0000

Services and Prices Brochure (PDF)

It's been a while since I've been able to post to the blog. It seems like there's always something big and meaty needing devouring on my plate. This time it was my service brochure. I couldn't just plop in a few random prices. Everything price had to have a real mathematical value behind it. I won't go in to the details, but two weeks later, now that it's FINALLY complete, I can say that I'm extremely content with my product line, my wedding packages and their accompanying incentives, and the value of each product. I didn't just want to sell my photography style, I wanted to sell top of the line products that people truly wanted to display in their homes... at a price that was extremely reasonable. I'm probably one of the few people in this business that doesn't care much about making a big profit. Seriously - I'm not making this up! Hey, I've got a great job, a family, what else could I want!? But back to topic - I just wanted to make these products affordable for those that don't necessarily have huge, dual incomes. Anyways, if you want to talk to me more about these products, give me a call. Otherwise, take a look at the brochure, mull it over a while... I hope you can appreciate the full value in these very special items.

It’s happened. The website is officially launched!

Jonathan — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:43:58 +0000

I'm going to be keeping this post very breif. I've just spent the last 2 hours debugging the website as a few errors cropped up having been re-situated from it's old home on my computer to it's new home on a web server. I had to relink 230 pictures individually, so you'll have to pardon my lack of enthusiasm. Having blown an entire 2 solid weeks at my desk trying to get this done has left me feeling somewhat edgy. The last time I was even outdoors is when I came home from work was Sunday morning... and I'm going to be stepping back out tonight, thursday, to go back to work. Can somebody say cabin fever? Anyways, the site is up. Hope there are no more glitches. I just want to get back to living life, and heck, maybe even manage to pull in a gig or two now that my presence is out there on big old web of the world.