Street photography from Chicago, IL towards the end of 2012.

Check out my Flickr photo stream to see more of my photos.

Follow me on Facebook to stay up-to-date with everything that is happening with Vonderau Visuals.

Check out my Flickr photo stream to see more of my photos.

Follow me on Facebook to stay up-to-date with everything that is happening with Vonderau Visuals.

Check out my Flickr photo stream to see more of my photos.

Follow me on Facebook to stay up-to-date with everything that is happening with Vonderau Visuals.

Check out my Flickr photo stream to see more of my photos.

Follow me on Facebook to stay up-to-date with everything that is happening with Vonderau Visuals.

Check out my Flickr photo stream to see more of my photos.

Follow me on Facebook to stay up-to-date with everything that is happening with Vonderau Visuals.

Hundreds of boats leave the Chicago area during the annual Race to Mackinac.  Click the photo to see a larger version.  This is a composite of 20 images, shot with the Canon 70-200 at 200mm.

People relax at the Pritzker Pavillion in Millenium Park prior to a concert.  This is a composite of 17 images.  Click the photo to view a bigger size.

“The best camera is the one that’s with you” – Chase Jarvis

Last time I looked there were over 6800 iPhone applications available in the App store related to photography and video.  Of those, I have approximately 23 currently installed.  What follows is a quick list of some of my favorite apps, and some sample photos.  Be sure to drop a comment below of the photo and video apps you love to use.  I plan to update this list over time as I continue to download and try more applications.

Sun Seeker – This is an excellent app for determining the position of the sun at any time of the day for your location.  If you are scouting a new place to shoot, or if you are looking to see if the sun wil be behind a building on a future date, this is a great app.  Check out my previous blog post where I used this app to help plan shots for a wedding.

Snapseed - This is my favorite iPhone app.  The versatility and functionality provided in this app is endless.  This app is great both on the iPhone and iPad.  Here is a sample photo processed only with Snapseed:

Diptic – This is a neat application for creating diptychs, triptychs and so forth.  You can customize the size and positioning of the frames to suit your needs.  Listed below is a sample image made in the Diptich app.  The photos are from a 7D, but the frame itself was made using the app:

VSCO CAM – This is a great application for applying pre-defined filters to your photos.  This application comes from the Visual Supply Co, the people who make plug-ins/add-ons for desktop applications.  This application contains a lot of filters designed off of actual film stocks and film grains.  Great for creating a vintage or faded look.  Here is a sample shot from the South Loop of Chicago, IL:

360 Panorama – This is a great app for…you guessed it…making 360 panoramas!  I have used this application quite a few times to show the interior of a room, or an outdoor space.  Helps give a great sense of a location to people who have not been there before.  You do not need to do a full 360 to use this app.  It is great for creating simple panoramas as well.  Here is a sample photo from the bleachers at Fenway Park:

Here are a few additional photos, processed using a combination of some of the applications listed above:

This was a quick teset of the “Brenizer Method“.  A technique named for photographer Ryan Brenizer, where you use the stitch together multiple shots of a subject, to create a simulated short depth of field.  This is a cool technique to isolate your subjects, and provide a unique perspective.  I used the potted plant as a subject, as it was not moving and easy to get a quick series of shots.  Check out Ryan’s website for more detail on how to implement this technique: http://www.ryanbrenizer.com/category/brenizer-method/

Each summer, on Michigan Avenue, a public chess board is setup, encouraging people passing by to stop and play part of a game.  WGN had a nice and informative segment not too long ago:

http://www.wgntv.com/videogallery/70906087/News/Portable-chess-board-owner-fixture-on-Chicago-streets

The empty road:

Selective focus:

In late June I had my first wedding shoot as the main/only photographer. Amy and Bill, a fun and lovely couple, asked me to shoot their wedding at Byron Colby Barn, in Grayslake, IL – a unique and fun venue. The bride was a former work colleague of mine and had seen some of my previous family portrait work, and asked if I was interested in shooting her wedding. I am relatively new to wedding photography, so preparing for the shoot I tried to do as much research as possible.

Pre-Wedding Day:

The weeks leading up to the wedding I began doing research. Looking at other photographer’s work, researching poses and lighting techniques. I figured the best approach was to KISS (keep it simple stupid), and to make sure that I was there to capture all of the “big” moments, since the couple asked that I document the day, then from there, get creative with my shots. I kept a list of ideas in a spreadsheet, of photos and poses that I have seen and liked and that I thought would help represent the couple. I wrote/drew out these ideas, along with all important info about the venue in my small portable notebook to keep with me the day of the wedding. Looking into a written notebook is more professional that constantly checking your phone for notes (the client might think you are texting instead of photographing their event).

For my initial conversations with the happy couple, I tracked all of the basic info in a spreadsheet (ex: location, date/time, etc…). From there I asked questions specific to their wedding (how many people, what type of photos are they looking for, are they familiar with my photographic style (if not, I try to explain it to them), are the familiar with my experience level, if they have a budget, if there are any “must have” shots. This was a good way of keeping all of the relevant information in once place.

Once the bride and groom chose me as their photographer, I began to gather the necessary gear to shoot the event. For the weekend of the wedding, I rented a 5D Mark III and the Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II L from borrowlenses.com and borrowed the Canon 24-70 2.8 L from a co-worker.

A week prior to the event, I followed up with the bride and groom to see if there were any changes to the wedding day schedule and to ask a few more questions (who should be included in “formal” photos, I ask again if there are any “must haves” as this might have changed since we last spoke, any one who shouldn’t be photographed together, contact info for coordinator, etc…).

The day before the shoot I began to organize and gather my gear. The gear I packed was:

Gear I brought: Total weight – 60lbs
Cameras
Canon 7D
Canon 5Dmk3
GoPro

Lenses
Canon 70-200mm f2.8
Canon 24-70 f2.8
Tokina 11-16mm f2.8
Canon 50mm f1.4
Canon 85mm f1.8
Canon 100mm f2.8 L

Accessories
7D battery grip
5 Batteries
6 CF Cards (112 GB Total)
2 SD Cards (24GB Total)
Card Holder
CanonBattery Charger
Interfit Strobies (two transmitters, two receivers)
Jolby Gorilla Pod
PC cords
Card reader
USB cord
Lens cleaner
Sandbags
ND and UV Filters
Canon Wireless remote
Bogen Tripod

Lighting
Canon Flash
Vivatar Flash
Manfrotto Light stands (x2)
Profoto Umbrellas (x2)
Manfrotto Light stand adapter (x2)
Honl light modifyer

Misc
Business Cards
AA batteries
Light stand bag
Think Tank Speed Pack Hip pack
Porta Brace Large bag
Knife
Redbull
Powerbar
Sunblock
Tissues
Lip balm
Water
Paper Towel
Rain umbrellas
Rain Jacket
Notebook

And here is the gear that I actually used at the event….

Gear I actually used:
Canon 7D
Canon 5Dmk3
Canon 70-200mm f2.8
Canon 24-70 f2.8
Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 (only for wide, general view shots of location)
Canon 50mm f1.4
Canon 85mm f1.8
Canon 100mm f2.8 L
7D battery grip
3 Batteries
5 CF Cards
1 SD Cards
Card Holder
Interfit Strobies (1 trigger, 2 receivers)
PC Cords
Sandbags
Canon Flash
Vivatar Flash
2 Light stands
1 Umbrella
Business Cards (gave to DJ for networking)
Redbull
Notebook
Water

I definitely over packed, but I was prepared to be shooting a lot more setups than what actually ended up happening on the day of the wedding. The sandbags (total weight 20lbs) and my lighting gear/tripod bag contributed to most the weight (about 40lbs together), which I really only had to carry from the car to the initial setup location inside the ceremony/reception.

Gear, pre-packed, all laid out and inspected:

Gear, all packed and ready to go:

Day of Wedding:

As for the wedding day, I arrived at the venue early. The wedding ceremony and reception was held at Byron Colby Barn, in Grayslake, IL. As this was a place I had never been to before, I drove around the area scouting possible locations for a post-ceremony bride/groom shoot. Near the main barn, there is a small pond, a farm with nice high wheat grass and rustic fence and barn house, and a communal gazebo. I used the sun-seeker app to calculate the angle of the sun at the approximate time we would arrive at each of these locations. If you do any photo/video work outside, this is a great app for determining the position of the sun, especially if you are trying to shoot at “golden hour”.

Once I found a few good spots, I parked and unloaded my gear. I spoke with the wedding coordinator and began to setup my gear. The caterer/DJ were doing final setup, so I took this opportunity to introduce myself and to take some initial shots of the venue and decorations before the guests began to arrive. Using the 50mm and the 24-70mm I got some general view shots from a lofted balcony, and some close ups of the decorations. I kept the light natural, as the venue had a lot of north and south facing windows, letting in excellent light.

As the ceremony neared, the groom arrived and I began to photograph his anticipation and final preparation for the ceremony. A short while later, the bride snuck in to a basement room, right below the main floor. I went down and greeted the bride, and began capturing her final preparation and anticipation for the ceremony. I mainly used the 50mm and the 24-70mm as these focal lengths provided the most latitude in the tight quarters, were good in the low-light, and allowed me to create creative images with the right amount of intimacy.

The ceremony flew by, and I tried to make sure that none of the big moments were missed. Due to the setup of the venue, I wasn’t able to quickly go from the back of the ceremony to the front. This is where having a second shooter would have come in handy, covering both the front and back of the ceremony location. As the bride and groom walked down the aisle and headed out the door, I quickly had to adjust my settings from interior/naturally lit room, to outside, bright/direct sunlight.  We ended up not using any of the locations I had previously scouted out, which worked out for the best. The temperature was around 95 degrees with 85% humidity, and having the bride and groom walking around in the heat for an hour to take photos would have not been enjoyable for them. We ended up using a few spots right outside of the venue for the immediate post-ceremony photos.

For the reception/dancing, I placed my Vivitar 285 on a light stand near the DJ booth at one end of the dance floor. My intention was to trigger this light remotely to create a more atmospheric and more dramatic rim light around the dancing subjects. One trick with this technique, you need to be careful when shooting into the light, if your subjects move, you are basically shooting directly into the flash and your shot will be over exposed. If you do it properly, and get the timing right, the light creates a dramatic rim light around your subject, creating a unique shot.

At the end of the night I checked with the bride and groom to see if there was anything else they needed, packed up my gear as the reception was winding down and went home.

Editing:

As for editing the photos, I got home and began dump the cards onto one of my external hard drives. Transferring 100GB of RAW files ( about 3000 photos in total) takes a while (about 12 hrs with my old card reader, and due I/O issues with to the transferring directly to an external hard drive).

Once all of the files were transferred I opened the photos up in Apple Aperture and began my initial edit. Deleting all out of focus, closed eyes, horribly over/under exposed shots. From there, I made a second pass through the photos, flagging/rating the best ones. This cut the number of photos down to about 450-500.

I began my initial edit/post-processing pass of the photos which consisted of color correcting, retouching and color grading the photos. This took about 18-20 hours for all of the photos to be edited.

Once finished, I exported the files as full resolution JPGs and uploaded them to a Dropbox folder. I sent a link to the bride/groom so that they could download all of the final copies of the photos and share the photos with their friends and family.

Conclusions:

All in all, this was a great learning experience and I had a lot of fun shooting and editing the photos for this wonderful couple. Here are a few things I learned that will hopefully help me in the future:
-Having a second shooter for the ceremony/post-ceremony photos would have been nice for additional coverage and help with setup of lights.
-Come prepared with specific shots, and ideas planned, but expect for everything to change and to think on your feet for quick solutions when things change.
-Wear comfortable and quiet shoes, as you will be quickly moving around for the whole event. If the ceremony location has wooden or hard floors, having rubber or soft soled dress shoes helps ensure you are quiet when moving around.

To see more photos from this Wedding visit the gallery page: http://www.vonderauvisuals.com/portfolio/amy-bill/

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Gear and Services I like and Use:

Cameras and Photo Gear:

-Canon 7D

-Canon 50mm f1.4

-Canon 85mm f1.8

-Canon 100mm f2.8L

-Tokina 11-16mm f2.8

-Canon 70-200 f4L

-Think Tank Speed Pack

-Manfrotto Light Stands

-Interfit Strobies (Cheap, but reliable alternative to PocketWizards)

Computers:

-MacBook Pro

Software:

-Apple Aperture

-Adobe Photoshop

-Dropbox

Misc:

-Zipcar – Great last minute rental car service, very convenient if you live in a city, or if you don’t own a car.

-Borrowlenses.com – Great gear rental service, I highly suggest checking them out if you need to rent photo/video gear.

-Moo.com – Great service for getting business cards/stickers printed.

Thanks for checking out vonderauvisuals.com, the photography portfolio of Bob Vonderau.  I have recently updated and redesigned my website to make it more user friendly and to display better quality and higher resolution photos.  Feel free to browse the various sections to see samples of my client and personal projects.

In addition to the site redesign, I now have a blog!  Keep checking the blog for additional updates, behind the scenes/setup photos and links to interesting articles.  Don’t forget to follow me on facebook (www.facebook.com/vonderauvisuals) or twitter (twitter.com/vonderauvisuals) to stay up-to-date with the most recent info from Vonderau Visuals.