Last month I was traveling a lot for various reasons, and one of my destinations was San Diego, CA.  I had never been to San Diego let alone California, and I have to say that it was an awesome time.  First of all, what they say about the weather being great all the time is absolutely true.  I couldn’t believe how PERFECT the weather was.

My trip was business related, so I didn’t have too much time for photography, but I did take along my Fuji F50fd point-and-shoot camera, just to see what kinds of pictures that I could create.  There was one night in particular that was absolutely beautiful, and I decided to take a walk down to Seaport Village and do some sightseeing.  Most of the photos that you’ll see come from that walk.  The others were created at Balboa Park, an awesome place to hang out and see a lot of interesting architecture and great museums and exhibits.

As you look through the photographs, just keep in mind that everything you are seeing was created with a point-and-shoot camera (no fancy DLSRs here).  Just goes to show you that sometimes the camera just doesn’t matter.

On Saturday, October 3rd Steve, Brad, and I had the opportunity to shoot Megan and Jeff’s wedding.  You may recognize some of the people in the wedding because we shot Megan’s sister’s wedding in 2008.  Megan and Jeff lucked out with one of the last beautiful days of the season, and we had a great time shooting. We had a bit of a treat at this wedding because not only are Steve and I BGSU grads, but the Bride and Groom were as well!  Megan and Jeff got married on Homecoming day on campus, and I don’t think you could have a better recipe for success.  Congratulations to Megan and Jeff!

Hey everyone, it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything.  I’ve been busy traveling over the past few months to Salt Lake City, UT (to visit a very special someone)  and doing some business traveling to beautiful San Diego, CA. Along the way I’ve seen some pretty cool things, and I’ve had the opportunity to capture a lot of it. I’ll be doing a separate post with my photos from San Diego, but for now I’ll share some select SLC images. You’ll find everything from portraits to landscapes here, and if you look closely, you might even find a few fashion images.

Salt Lake City is truly an incredible place to be, not only from a photography standpoint, but from a personal one as well. I can’t say that I’ve been anywhere like it.  There is so much to do and experience there, and I know that I didn’t even scratch the surface (even over two trips)!  I had an amazing time visiting with Brittney and her close friends, and the things that I saw and experienced made me truly happy to be a photographer.  I hope you enjoy the images!

I saw this video on vimeo today and I thought it was an awesome example of time lapse video of something photography-related. These guys built a cardboard model of a twin lens reflex camera. Plus, I love the music they used. You certainly don’t see too many of these cameras around any more, but it’s cool to see these guys pay homage to a classic. Enjoy! I’m totally looking for one on eBay.

Kiel Johnson’s Cardboard Twin Lens Reflex Camera Time Lapse from Theo Jemison on Vimeo.

One thing I love about photography is that I get the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people. I especially love it when our subjects let their personalities shine. Hillary and Jim have been long- Kaufman Kramer friends, who have appeared in numerous other weddings we have shot. I’m sure it was a change of pace for them to be the subject of attention on their special day. Hillary and Jim have been awesome to work with. Hillary works at Z’s Hair Salon here in Ashland and is a very accomplished stylist. (Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to work with her this coming winter on some projects we had in mind…) It was really fun to watch her get her hair styled on wedding day. So often, the guys and I joke around about how tough it is to be the subject of a photograph instead of the shooter. I’m sure Hillary was feeling much of the same way not being in the drivers seat. The thing I like most about working with this couple is that they love to smile and joke with each other. From their engagement session, to their wedding day…nothing but smiles.

Being an Ashland wedding, we were able to bring in all 3 of us for their special day. We had Chris cover the ladies at the hair salon while Brad and I set up at the reception hall. Lately, I’ve been reading quite a few blogs about having multiple shooters on wedding day. I hear from friends who have been in bridal parties recently that the solo photographer just didn’t capture everything they could have. It’s hard to be in two places at once.

I think the beauty of having multiple experienced photographers is that we are able to accurately capture the entire story, not just the bride, not just the groom. During the reception, I’ve had numerous moms and dads approach me and comment on how wonderful it is to see what the guys were up to while the bridesmaids were at the salon, or vice versa.  Our slogan is Live Your Day, Share Your Story… and that’s hard to do with only one photographer. Again, this all relates to experience, and I appreciate sincerely the photographers who shoot solo… in fact…kudos! However, they still can’t be in two places at once.

With Hillary and Jim, we got a chance to steal the guys away for some fun group shots while the bride was getting into her dress… thus, we were able to capture the full story. The wedding was beautiful and was held in St. Edwards Church in downtown Ashland. It was a beautiful day all around, with sun pouring in through the windows during the ceremony.

We had a lot of fun working with Hillary and Jim and we can’t wait to see what they think about their photography. Congratulations you two, from all of us at Kaufman Kramer!

-Steve

Hi everyone!

We got a chance to shoot with a wonderful couple in Columbus recently, Krista and Scott. Now, this was an interesting story. Scott, who is currently serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, was unavailable (for obvious reasons) to shoot an engagement session with his finacé, Krista. Now, this absolutely bummed me out because they are both such cool individuals, I knew that we would have had a blast had we the chance to shoot with them before wedding day.

As a photographer, flexibility is essential. One of the key aspects of our business is our ability to work with a client before wedding day. This is allows us to build rapport with our client, and it really helps take “the edge off”. How many times have we had a camera pointed in our direction and we freeze? Plus… our engagement sessions rock , so… you can understand why I was bummed. Luckily, I was able to cover their rehearsal dinner, which turned out to be great since I got a chance to steal them away for a “mini” engagement session.

The reason why I named this post “rain or shine” is because we had a ridiculously rainy weekend. A funny story happened to Brad and I as we were shooting. The reception hall was in this fantastic old warehouse in Downtown Columbus. It’s called “The Venue” at Smith Bros. Now, the Smith Bros. building burned a few years back, and was renovated into multiple reception sites for weddings, corporate events, etc… Wedding day allowed for enough time for Brad and I to preset our photography table with the slideshow for Krista and Scott, extra gear, etc… While we were out shooting the bride and groom at the hotel, it absolutely down-poured. Since the reception hall was an old warehouse, the roof would leak in hard rain. Luckily, one of the staff (who we owe a debt of gratitude and cookies too, btw) noticed that our photography setup was getting dripped on. She moved our table out of the way just in time… since our iMac was just about to get rained on. No harm done…but definitely a close one.

Despite the rain, we had a great time shooting with Krista and Scott, and I think they’re going to love the photography. Scott is going to be deployed shortly after the wedding for up to a year, and so I hope that both them can look back at our photos and remember what a wonderful wedding day they had during their time apart.

Congratulations you two…and come home safe Scott!

-Steve