2009 March | Brian Dowling Photography - Philadelphia, PA Athletics, Runway Fashion, and Wedding Photographer

Monthly Archives: March 2009

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Cluster Maps + Wedding Photography

March 31, 2009 – 12:21 pm

Wow, a real blog post without any photos. I’m starting to get more and more visitors to my blog, but I don’t know how they(you) are coming to my page. So, just for curiousity’s sake I have installed the ClusterMaps script at the very bottom of my page. Basically, it puts a red dot on the map where each person is viewing your website from. For more info visit http://www.clustermaps.com

As for the Wedding Photography, its something I have wanted to dive into. I was asked to shoot a few weddings this year in Charlotte, but since I was moving I declined. I should have been smart enough to accept the offers as it would have been a good way to visit some old friends too!

I am currently being mentored once a week by one of my favorite photographers, Henry Chen. Its great when you respect someones work and they are an even nicer of a person. His website is http://www.henrychenphoto.com/blog and hopefully I am on my way as a wedding photographer. If you are in the Philadelphia area and are looking for a wedding photographer, please feel free to contact me. Or if you are back in Charlotte, I would love to visit.

Diesel Black Gold FW09

March 20, 2009 – 2:20 pm

The media pit at the end of the runway in “The Tent” was easily 250 people deep and you are shooting elbow to elbow. If you are one of the lucky ones, you have someone short in front of you. Even at 6′1 I find myself standing ontop of my Pelican 1510 Case to get more height and even further back on the risers in the last row, guys are standing on their cases vertically like a row of dominoes. I’ve heard stories of a guy falling off and knocking down ten other photographers, but luckily I’ve never seen anyone start a row of tumbling. Its been close though…real close.

As for the show, I was in love. Dark tones with tons of back lighting which really made the huge waifish of hair pop out against the black. You could hear the moans from the other photographers as its difficult to shoot, but I like shooting something different. Clothes walking down a white background are easy to shoot, but its just boring. So, kudos to Diesel and to the challenge. There was also a six or seven person jazz band at the front of the runway. I’m not putting up any photos of the band, but a quick search on YouTube should point you in the right direction.

Most photographers are shooting at 1/320th with a 70-200mm, but with the longer glass of the 300mm 2.8 IS - I like to shoot at 1/500th and at iso 800. I will sacrifice a tiny bit of noise for much greater sharpness. Plus, even when blown up on a large magazine page such as V Magazine’s, you can’t tell the difference from iso 640 to iso800. . I shoot in manual mode. So, I’m adjusting in camera from f/2.8 to f/4. The turn around point is usually the brightest. So, you have to compensate quickly or you will overexpose the models face.