Bar Mitzvah Photography

I just posted a new article on Photocrati.com. It's about how photographers can take better dance floor pictures at a wedding or Bar Mitzvah.

Learn to be a photographer

Last Tuesday we went to Disney World to celebrate my youngest daughter's birthday. While we were in the park I took the opportunity to look around and notice what sorts of cameras the other vacationers were carrying. If I had to guess I would say that maybe 25% of the cameras that I see now at Disney World (or at a school function) are really nice DSLR's.

While it makes me happy to see so many people buying cameras that are capable of taking great pictures, it also makes me sad to see so many people using a $700 camera the same way that they would use a $100 camera. It's like buying a Ferrari and not learning how to drive a stick.

Learn about shutter speed and you can take pictures like this...

I've been trying to put together a lesson plan for a class (or classes) that I want to teach after the holidays. I meet so many people who have these nice cameras and just don't understand how to use them. The problem for me is trying to figure out what it is that people really want to learn. I have no desire to teach someone what all of the buttons do on their expensive camera. I do, however, love teaching people how to take good photographs. Once you learn how to take good photographs you can do it with any camera.

The trouble with photography is that the hardest thing to learn is the very first thing that you have to learn. The great thing is, once you learn that very first hard part, the rest is much easier. My fear is that people will come to my class thinking that I will simply show them what setting to put their camera on so that they can take a good picture and then be shocked when they discover that I actually planned to teach them how photography really works. The truth is that modern cameras have a hundred different settings for every possible situation and yet none of them will ever be able to take a picture as good as a photographer with his camera set to "manual." Only the photographer knows what he is taking a picture of. Only the photographer knows how he wants the picture to look.

Learn about aperture and ISO and you can take pictures like this...

The good news is that you don't have to try and learn what all of the buttons do on your fancy camera because you really don't need those buttons at all to be a good photographer. In fact, if you plan to use all those "auto" settings on your camera then you really wasted your money. While it's true that your $700 camera may take better pictures than your $200 camera, I can guarantee you that it won't take $500 worth of "better."


The bad news is that you are going to have to learn a little bit about photography if you want to be a good photographer. You need to understand shutter speed and its relation to motion blur and ambient light. You need to understand aperture and its relationship to depth of field. You need to understand ISO and its relationship to grain. Finally, you need to be able to put these three things together and understand how they interact with each other. It sounds daunting, I know, but if you can just find your way clear to learn it you will suddenly discover a whole new world is available to you.

You can see much more of my work on www.boorayperry.com.

Bat Mitzvah at Congregation Schaarai Zedek in Tampa

Congregation Schaarai Zedek in Tampa has some of the most beautiful stained glass. The temple is very modern with low ceilings (for a temple) so instead of the typical tall windows, it has these beautiful long windows that take up the entire wall. I love shooting Bat mitzvah and Bar Mitzvah portraits against those windows.

For this picture I used a flash off-camera left with a shoot-thru umbrella. This allows me to really frame the face with light.

This shot is all natural light but requires careful positioning to balance the face just right. Turn the face too much towards the window and you will wash out the right side... turn it too little and the left will be dark.

For more Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah pictures taken at Zedek, please visit my photography website.

How to balance flash with ambient light

I just finished up an article on Photocrati.com that details the steps I take when shooting an outdoor portrait with a flash. The trick is knowing how to balance out the flash so that it doesn't overpower the ambient light. One of the pictures that I show in the article is from a recent portrait session with Kelly:

For more Tampa portrait photography, visit my website.

Tampa Wedding Photography and the garter toss

Time once again to show-off a favorite image from a recent wedding. Wedding photography is funny sometimes because the things that you think would be easy can be quite hard and vice-versa. The garter toss is a good example.

Most of the time, the garter toss is really several pictures. There's a picture of the groom throwing the garter and there's another of the men catching. Seldom do you get a chance to capture the entire thing in one shot. You need a lot of light, a large enough space to frame the shot and a little bit of luck.

At this wedding I got everything I needed. I set my off-camera flash on a tripod to my right and bounced it off the ceiling above the guys and I used my on-camera flash to bounce left and light the groom. Then I waited and prayed for the Hail-Mary shot...

You can see more Tampa and St. Petersburg wedding photography on my website.

A wedding cake picture that's a cut above

As a wedding photographer in Tampa Bay, I see a lot of cake. All kinds of cakes. Big cakes, little cakes, red cakes, blue cakes. I also see a lot of cake smashing.

Photographing the cake cutting at a wedding can actually be challenging. To the outsider it might seem simple because the subjects are standing right in front of you but it's actually tricky to do because of the typically fast motion involved when someone starts smashing cake in their spouse's face. The more motion involved, the more you must increase your shutter speed to "freeze' the action. Every increase in shutter speed means less ambient light in the picture. This is why you will often see cake shots where everything behind the couple is dark.

But I'm getting away from the subject of this post which is to show a picture from a wedding a few weeks ago that I love. As a wedding photographer, I love a picture that tells a story and this one tells a story loud and clear:

There's a lot that I love about this picture from the great color in the background to the groom's obvious attempt to explain why his new bride has cake on her nose while his face remains clean. But without a doubt, it's the little boy that I love the most. I love everything about him, all the way down to the glass in his hand. He just adds so much energy to the shot!

For more wedding photography in Tampa Bay Florida, visut my website.

Never let a black cat critique your work

One of the great things about having a father who is a professional photographer is that you get beautiful portraits from every event that occurs during the year. One of the bad things about having a father who is a professional photographer is that he's always bugging you to let him take beautiful portraits during everything that happens during the year.

Yesterday being Halloween, I of course wanted to take some nice shots of my two daughters in their Halloween costumes. So, after they were dressed, we went into the studio and took some pictures.

Because they're my family and because I do this quite a bit, I don't typically spend as much time or care when taking pictures of my two girls. As a result, yesterday when I looked at the pictures I had taken of my youngest daughter Mackenzie, I discovered that her Strawberry Shortcake hat was pulled down just a little bit too low over her left eye. The left eye, though visible, was in shadow. As my wife and I were looking at the picture I turned to her and said, "I'm probably the only person who will even notice that." No sooner had I said it when my oldest daughter, Samantha, walked up behind me, looked at the picture and said, "that's a great picture of Mackenzie but you can't see her eye."

Let's keep in mind that my oldest daughter is only five years old.

Now, I don't know if the shadow on Mackenzie's eye was that obvious or if Samantha, having spent her entire life being photographed, has actually developed an eye for spotting mistakes. What I do know is that five minutes after she said it, we were back in the studio taking new pictures of Strawberry Shortcake.

These two pictures are actually good exanples of how I like to work when it comes to portraits. When photographing Sam (the cat), I lit her in a more dynamic fashion with more shadow on her face. This creates more depth and contrast in the picture which I thought was appropiate for a "roaring" cat. Also, because she is in black, I shot her against dark blue. When Mac came in for her picture, I changed the background to a more red tone to match her color scheme and moved the light more on center to remove most of the shadows on her face. Strawberry Shortcake shouldn't be scary.

You can see more of my work on my website.

This picture cracks me up...

Some of my favorite pictures are the ones that I take when I'm not supposed to be taking pictures yet. Typically, I'll take a few pictures while my model is still getting ready so I can test the lighting, etc. Sometimes this results in a picture that I like, even though it's not really something you would print and frame.

Today I was photographing The World's Most Photographed Children © when I got this shot. Bobbi's arm seems so loooong. Meanwhile, there's Mac..... the bored Diva.

See more Tampa children's photography at www.boorayperry.com

Portrait of author Laurie Kellor

Last Friday I went to Samantha's school to take some pictures of a visiting author. The school is always on the lookout for parents to take pictures for the yearbook and so I volunteered to help out.

Laurie Keller is a children's author and illustrator. She spent an hour with the entire 4th grade class and tolerated me like a champ.


I imagine that I probably behave a little differently than the other parents who volunteer to take pictures since I show up with my entire gear bag and take pictures like it's a job. (I don't suspect that the other parents walk around with two camera's around their necks!) One of the great things about photography is that you can create something special from any circumstance if you just look for the shot. Once I have the camera in my hand I immediately start to scan for something creative... just the right angle or light... that will make for a good picture. (My wife sometimes won't let me take my camera unless I promise to "take pictures like a Dad, not a photographer." :) )


I mentioned that I brought my entire gear bag with me. I prefer to keep all my gear together all the time. I have a small bag that I sometimes will pack with just a few things if I will be moving around a lot (like Disney World) but otherwise I just take the whole bag. I like knowing that I have everything I could possibly need with me. There's also the peace-of-mind that comes with never having to worry that you left some vital piece of gear in another bag.


After Laurie's presentation I asked her if she would mind sitting for a quick portrait. I couldn't resist the chance to photograph an author in a library. She was a great sport about it and we got a great picture.




You can see more of my photography on my website.

Wedding on the beach at Treasure Island

Perfect Florida Beach Wedding has everything you need for your beach wedding in Treasure Island, FL.

A few weeks ago I was shooting a wedding where the reception was at the beach but the wedding was in a church. Around sunset, I took my bride and groom out to the beach for some nice shots and discovered that the water was about a half-mile from the back of the hotel. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration but it was far.

I told my bride that I would be happy to walk as far as it took to get close to the water but that it was really up to her since she was the one in the dress and it wasn't exactly cool outside. We decided to stay near the hotel.

The effect that this had on the pictures is that we ended up with shots that almost look like they were taken in the desert because it's nothing but sand as far as the eye can see. That's okay, though, because the pictures were still great!

See more St. Petersburg wedding photography on my website.

St. Petersburg Wedding Photographer

When you're a wedding photographer in St. Petersburg, you have to be prepared to take pictures on the beach. A lot of people get married on the beach in Florida. A few weekends ago I had a unique situation because my bride and groom got married in a church but had their reception at a beach resort. Typically, it's just one thing or the other but in this case I got to shoot wonderful formals in the church and then later shoot wonderful formals on the beach.

By the way, if you are planning a beach wedding in Clearwater or St. Petersburg than Perfect Florida Beach Wedding has everything you need from arches to chairs... photography and officiante!

The wedding was at the Pasadena community Church which is right next to Treasure Island. The reception was at the Bilmar Resort on Treasure Island. The church is fantastic... very big and lots of light (we photographers love lots of light at a wedding ceremony). The Bilmar doesn't have a lot to offer in terms of ambience but it doesn't have to offer much because it's on the beach. As long as you have the beach and a sunset you have plenty of opportunities for great photography.

This is my favorite picture from the church. As I mentioned, there was quite a bit of light in the church so I had to make adjustments to my shooting style in order to isolate Danielle from the background. Usually, it's the other way around when you're shooting in a church and the problem is trying to get enough light on the background.

Sometimes a church will have beautiful stained glass in it but the windows will be high or far in the back which was the case here. In this situation a big zoom lens comes in very handy because it allows me to make the background look much larger and fill the space behind Danielle and Sean.
All of my favorite shots weren't formal ones, of course. One of my favorite moments at a wedding is when the bride steps into her dress. It frequently takes four people, a crowbar, and several ropes and pulleys to get her into that huge dress. It almost always makes for a great picture.

That's it for now, I'll post some of the pictures from the reception and the beach a little later.

More St. Petersburg wedding photography on my website...

How hard is it to photograph a wedding?

Here's a nice piece from the BBC about wedding photography... Link

See Tampa wedding photography on www.boorayperry.com

Wedding Photography and the importance of little things...

I'm still catching up from the three Tampa weddings that I photographed on the last month. I wanted to talk a little about jewelry and shoes because I was reminded of just how important these pictures can be to many brides.

Scott and Katie were married at the Bayanihan Cultural Center. I've shot there many times and it's always a pleasure because there's no travel involved. We photographers love it when everything takes place in one spot because we only have to unpack our equipment once.

Katie had mentioned that she wanted a picture of her shoes and jewelry but I didn't realize how important it was to her until I arrived and she handed me the shoes the minute I walked in the door. Ten seconds later I was on the floor with a long lens getting this shot:

I think that most people don't really realize all the "atmosphere" shots that a wedding photographer has to take. What's even less widely known is how difficult these shots can be to do well. It's easy to take a picture of a cake but not so easy to take a great picture of a cake. For the shot below I had to use a second flash on a tripod with a radio remote because the cake was in a dark area with no walls nearby (except the one behind the cake) for me to bounce my on-camera flash. It may look like a simple picture but it's actually quite involved.

Another good example of a shot that can involve more work than is apparent is the ring shot. You can't just toss the rings on a table and snap a picture. First you have to find a good location and figure out a creative way to show the rings. Then you have to get the rings to sit correctly (this can be a fine balancing act). Then, you have to light it or, in some cases, use a tripod so you can shoot a long exposure using available light.

On the surface these pictures may not seem that important but they are, especially if you are designing large, custom wedding albums. You can't devote a great deal of time to taking fine-art style wedding pictures only to surround them with poor quality "atmosphere" pictures. My goal is always to make each shot magazine quality. That way, the entire album is raised to the level of art.

For more wedding photography shot in St. Petersburg visit my website.

How to take better pictures of children

I've already blogged about composition and how it can help you take better pictures. Now I want to talk about "angle of attack," which sounds like something a fighter pilot would say but can be roughly translated to mean "where do I stand."

Once again I will be using my own daughter for this little demonstration as I feel that one should never miss an opportunity to exploit one's own family. Also, one should never miss an opportunity to refer to oneself as, "oneself." It just sounds cool. But I digress...

In order to prove my point, I have taken a few snapshots with my Canon 40D. I set the camera on "Auto" (I can hear the collective gasp from any pro's who are reading this) and I used the built-in flash (What! Are you insane!). Also, I haven't retouched the pictures at all except to watermark them (at this point, I'm only talking to the amaeturs because the pro's have passed out from disbelief). My point is that I'm just taking snapshots that anyone could take with any camera.

So, armed with my camera, I walked into my daughter's room this morning to find her busy preparing breakfast. I took a few steps back and snapped a picture:

Not a bad picture but it could be better. With kids the thing you need to remember is that their world looks very different from ours. When you stand above them, they look small and well, childlike. This angle of attack can be fine but sometimes it's more interesting to see the world the way they do. So, I dropped to the floor and took another picture:

Look at the relationship between the subject and the kitchen. In the first picture she is a small person in a big world and now she is suddenly a commanding presence. The kitchen is much smaller in relation to the subject. She has gained power in the image. Instead of being a small part of the scene, she is the driving force. Also, in this shot you might notice that she is offering me a plastic cookie. I eat about twenty plastic cookies a day. Not too tasty but great fiber.
Let's take one more picture:

Now she's no longer the focus of the scene. It's all about the plastic bologna (oddly, tastes just like real bologna). You'll notice that I tilted the camera so that she would fill the space from one corner to the other. This sort of shot is so easy to do yet people don't do it because they are in the habit of taking pictures where everyone is visible and inside the lines. You're not taking a family portrait, you're trying to convey to the viewer what was going on and this picture clearly shows that my daughter was all about daddy eating some plastic bologna.

Mmmm, that's good plastic bologna!

It doesn't matter that her face is cut off or that she's a little out of focus. The closeness of the picture serves to put the viewer in the action. You feel that you are there as opposed to just observing from a distance.

Now, go back and look at all three pictures. Taken together they bring the viewer into my daughter's world: first as an adult viewer, then as a child on her level and finally as a participant in the scene. If you look at my work as a wedding photographer in Tampa, you'll see the same sort of angles. Some of the tricks that the professional photographers us to take incredible pictures are actually very simple and can be used by you everyday to take better pictures of your family.

So, now we come to the last little nugget of photography goodness that I'll leave you with today:
Less is more.

I have always hated that statement. More is more, not less! But there's truth to the statement when it comes to snapshots. Take all the pictures you want, take hundreds.... but don't show them all. With the digital age in photography came the ability to take hundreds of pictures without any cost at all and so people have gotten into the habit of showing them all.

Don't.

Pick out the best ones, the ones that tell the story, and just show them. You don't need to show 100 pictures of your trip to DisneyWorld. There will probably be some great pictures in there but they will not stand out among the deluge of mediocre shots. People will pay more attention to your pictures if they come to believe that you never take bad ones. Your pictures should be a treat to view, not a chore. When I shoot a wedding I throw out half the shots, then, I assemble the wedding album from about 10% of what's left. One of the problems facing the wedding photography industry today is that many couples don't get an album anymore. They just want all the pictures on a CD. You can't tell a story with 600 pictures, it's too much (but that's another post).

That's it for today. Go take some pictures. :)

Booray Perry is the best wedding photographer in Tampa. Just ask him and he'll tell you...

Tampa Wedding Photographers will love this venue

I recently shot a wedding at Twenty-Eight Twelve in Valrico, FL. If you're a wedding photographer in the Tampa Bay area and haven't had a chance to shoot this venue then you are missing a great opportunity for some nice images.  Wedding Planner WCG Events ran the show and did a great job!

The venue itself is an old house with a large backyard. The interior is very nice with wood floors and a big staircase, victorian furniture, grand piano... tastefully done all around.

It's not big. The ceremony itself is held outside (reception, too) but there are so many great places to take pictures both inside and out.

Shooting outdoors can be tricky on a bright day but on a cloudy day it's a dream. I used a Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens for most of the ceremony with no fill-flash necessary. This enabled me to shoot with wild abandon with no worries about harsh shadows. Of course, a cloudy day sometimes means rain and we were forced to stop the ceremony and move under the back porch eventually but as I told the bride, "These are the things that make a wedding memorable."

The thing I really loved about this venue is the variety of backgrounds that were available to me. There aren't many places where you can shoot the bride (through a chandelier) reclining in a well-appointed room and five minutes later shoot the wedding couple in front of a barn!

There's great texture there as well (bricks, etc) and they have fountains in the pool which are nice for shoot-through.

Let me warn you that if you have a cute daughter in your wedding she will be photographed almost as much as you. As the father of two girls (3 and 5 years old) I'm a sucker for little girls in white dresses. :)
It was great fun shooting there and my bride and groom were very accomodating every time I would grab them and ask for "one more shot."
Visit my website for more of my tampa wedding pictures.

Wedding Photography Tampa - Selective Color

One of the things that you see quite a bit of on wedding photography websites is selective color. Selective color pictures are the ones where the image is black and white but something in the image is in color (typically it's the flowers). It's a style decision that each photographer makes (along with a million others) as to if and when a photograph should be modified that way. Personally, I stopped thinking about it years ago because I never seemed to come across an image that I felt would be better with selective color. If a client requests it I'll do it but I can't recall the last time I did it by choice.


Then, last week I was working on a recent wedding that had a picture that seemed perfect for selective color. The reason it was a perfect choice was because it already looked like selective color! The picture below hasn't been modified at all... it just so happens that the tie is green and everything else is black or white. More Tampa wedding photography available on my website...

Naneu Camera Bags

Wow! What a weekend!

I shot two weddings this weekend, one of which was stopped halfway through because of rain (we moved under a big porch). In addition to the pressure of photographing back-to-back weddings in Tampa and Valrico, I was also breaking in a new bag.

Yaniv Haramaty is the President/CEO of Naneu Pro in Orlando. His company makes a full line of bags for photographers. One of the unique things about their bags is they are actually two bags in one. There is an inner shell/bag that holds all your camera gear and an outer suitcase/backpack bag that holds the inner shell. It's a unique concept because it allows you to remove all your gear from the bag simply by removing the inner shell, leaving you with a fully functional backpack/suitcase for whatever you might need.

I met with Yaniv today after using his bag all weekend and I'm happy to say that it was a great experience. I was a little worried about working from a new bag but it wasn't a problem at all and I was able to move my equipment around much easier than with my old setup. I was surprised to discover that I could fit all my gear into the bag despite it being much smaller than my old case. It's much more convenient.

Meeting with Yaniv and Ed (Marketing Director) was a great experience too. You really get the sense with these two that they are trying to get it right for us photogs. It's tough to make a bag that fits the needs of every photographer because we are so varied in our specialties (weddings, nature, journalism). Yaniv asked me a lot of questions and really seemed interested in learning what I thought would make a good bag. Who knows, maybe one day you'll be able to buy the "Booray Perry Limited Edition" Wedding Photographer Bag! :)

I've got two weddings to post-process and I promise I'll have pictures online soon!

Booray Perry is a wedding photographer in Tampa Florida. See more of his work at www.boorayperry.com.

CSI - Booray

From an email I received yesterday:

So on another note your photos came in very handy for some detective work I had to do. Haha. Here’s the story. Jared’s black blazer went missing that night and we came home with someone else’s that had been left instead. I had sent a note with the thank you notes to no avail. So, I used the pictures on the website last night to narrow down the possible “culprits” It was so funny- my prime suspect had the wrong buttons on his sleeve… So I finally narrowed down to 2 kids and 2 adults. But the adults left early and never took jackets off. My 2nd call to a parent landed me Jared’s jacket. Hooray!! He needs it for cousin Raquel’s Bat Mitzvah in Maryland on the 12th.
So thanks also for the unintended police help.
Veronica

Tampa Bat Mitzvah Photography

Shooting portraits for a photo guest book I noticed the charm bracelet that Rachel was wearing.
"I bet that's pretty special," I said.
"It is, " she said, "my Grandmother gave it to me...."



More Tampa Bay Bat Mitzvah Photography on my website...

You never know who you might run into...

I was shooting family portraits for a client following the baptism of their twin grandchildren when I was reminded of one of the great things about this job.

While taking a picture, someone said, "This is the California contingent."

"Oh," I said, "Did ya'll come all the way from California to Tampa?"

"Yes"

"I lived in San Jose when I was a kid. I went to August Boeger Middle School," I said.

A woman in a blue blouse said, "I went to August Boeger too, but only for a few years."

"Me too, "

"I was there in 77' and 78.'"

"That's when I was there...."

"When did you you graduate high school?"

"1982."

"Me too!"

One of the great things about all the people you meet when you are a photographer is that you might end up taking a picture of someone who was in your class at August Boeger Middle School, 32 years ago, on the other side of the country. :)

Booray Perry is a photographer in Tampa Florida.

St. Petersburg Engagement Session

The set up on this picture was funny because we were in beautiful downtown St. Pete for the session and I dragged Danielle and Sean into an alley so I could use the big yellow wall. A woman walked by while we were shooting and said, "You're taking pictures here!?" (see more on BoorayPerry.com)

Engagement session in downtown St. Petersburg

It's been raining every day for a month here in Tampa, which can be a problem for a wedding photographer. On the other hand, if you're lucky enough to catch a few hours in between the storms you get great, even light because of all the clouds. Such was the case last week in downtown St. Petersburg when photographing Danielle and Sean.

At the end of the session I asked Danielle if there was anything else she would like to do... anything that caught her eye. She said, "I'd like to do something with the statues." You'd be surprised at how many great picture ideas come from the client and not the photographer.

More of my Tampa engagement photography can be seen on my website..

Tampa baby pictures at home

One of the advantages of shooting newborn pictures at the client's home is that I can use the baby's enviroment to create something more unique than the standard studio backdrop portrait. I think that the portrait below would look great hanging on the wall of a nursery!

See more Tampa baby pictures at www.boorayperry.com

New baby pictures on location in Tampa

In the past, I've always had new mom's bring their baby to my studio space in Tampa for those first important pictures. Lately I've been thinking of doing it the other way around. New mom's already have so much to deal with without having to pack up all the baby gear and come to the studio. Shooting a new baby at home also allows me to use some of the natural environment for more creative pictures while at the same time getting the required "fingers and toes" shots. Fortunately, since babies are so small, I can carry a small black backdrop into the home and get studio quality pictures.

Tampa baby photography by Booray Perry Photography

Olivia in the desert

Taking pictures of toddlers is hard because they don't sit still. You spend the entire session crawling around on your hands and knees trying to get an angle on the child and usually end up covered in dirt or grass. However, it's the exploring nature of toddlers that makes for such good pictures. You don't have to tell a 1-year-old to "act natural," they are always acting natural and it can make for some great pictures if you are fast enough to get into position when they happen.

For more of my Tampa baby pictures, visit my website.

Excuse me, would you like me to take that picture for you?

As so often happens when I am walking around with my camera, I ended up taking pictures of strangers while in Las Vegas. It's very hard to "turn-off" my photographer switch. It happened twice on this trip. The first time I was in The Bellagio and saw a couple attempting to take a picture of themselves with an old, (gulp!) film camera. The second time it was at The Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace where I saw a man trying to take a picture of his entire family (20 people). I have always had a tendency to step up whenever I see something like this and offer to take the picture for them (with their camera) so that they can be in the picture. However, sometimes I just know that the picture will not be very good because of the light and the limitations of the small camera they own and so I will offer to shoot it with my camera and send them the image. I know, I'm a professional photographer and shouldn't be giving away my work but I just hate to see a good picture opportunity ruined by a cheap camera when I have my rig in my hand.

When I saw this family posing I immediatly knew that they weren't going to get the picture they were hoping for. This picture taken with a small point-and-shoot camera would look like a group of people standing in front of a black cave with a few lights in it. You would never get the ceiling and background to show up because the lens is too small to let in enough light.

More on http://www.boorayperry.com/

Red Rocks, Las Vegas portrait session

I'm just back in town from a week in Las Vegas. I have a client there who wanted some family pictures at Red Rocks, a beautiful part of the desert just outside of town.

My clients were on a tight schedule so we only had about a half hour before dark to take the portraits. I would have stayed all day if I could have just to take High Dynamic Range shots but we were losing daylight fast. Still, I was able to get one good HDR shot before we lost the light.

I'll get some of the portrait shots online in a day or two but first, time to un-pack

See more of my work at http://www.boorayperry.com/

Tampa wedding photography at Palma Ceia Country Club

Lindsey and Tom had their reception at Palma Ceia Country Club in Tampa and it was beautiful. The room was wonderful, lots of light and those gorgeous tall windows along one wall.

There are so many great locations at Palma Ceia in Tampa for wedding photography that I could have easily shot twice as many pictures. I especially liked the wallpaper:

More pictures from the Palma Ceia Country Club in wedding coming soon so stay tuned! (or, just go to my website, there are more pictures there....)

Tampa Wedding with Lindsey and Tom at Grace Catholic

Lindsey and Tom first met as pre-shoolers in daycare at St. Paul's Catholic in Tampa. Two weeks ago they were married there and I was their photographer. You've got to love a story like that!

More pictures coming soon!

See all my wedding photography at http://www.boorayperry.com/

Bar Mitzvah pictures at Rodeph Sholom (part 2)

I wanted to post a few more pictures from the Bar Mitzvah at Rodeph Sholom real quick because I have a couple of weddings that I'll be posting soon and i don't want to forget.

This was taken inside the temple. Two sisters and their two sister-in-laws. It's a really nice family grouping.

It wouldn't be a Bar Mitzvah without this picture. I love the Torah because it's such a dominate item in any photograph.

Not the Bar Mitzvah boy ( a cousin I think ) but he was such a great sport about posing for me and his portrait turned out great.

See more Bar Mitzvah photography on my website..

She's a natural

I've created a monster in my oldest child. It is now impossible for me to do any work in the living room with my camera without being hounded to let her take pictures. She's not big enough to hold the camera herself yet but she can certainly rock the tripod!

What I love about this picture is the way she is holding her left foot.