Tammy Howell Photography Blog- Louisville Wedding & Portrait Photographer

Flush Mount Wedding Album

tammyhowell — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 02:49:25 +0000

Lori and Arnaud live in France but were married here in Kentucky at St. James Episcopal Church one year ago. She was here visiting family and we were able to get the album finished and delivered in time for her to take it back to France to her darling husband for their anniversary. It was a 12×12 flush mount with a canvas photo wrap cover. I was thrilled with how it turned out! One of the great things about the flush mount albums is the beautiful panoramas.

Rowan • One-year Portraits •

tammyhowell — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:44:47 +0000

I love it when clients bring back their babies at one year for portraits! We got so many great shots of Little Rowan that we had to do an album. I’ll be sure to post pictures when it comes in. He wasn’t at all crazy about getting icing on his hands and feet, but he sure loved the bubble bath we gave him to clean up!

Lucy + Seth • The Wedding •

tammyhowell — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 05:44:47 +0000

Lucy and Seth were recently married at Kye’s in Southern Indiana. Here are a few of my favorites from the day. Lucy looked absolutely stunning in a dress that looked like it was made especially for her! The weather wasn’t the greatest, but we did mangage to pull off a decent image with the Bentley. It might be one of my favorites for the year!

Engagement Photo Guest Books

tammyhowell — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 05:37:00 +0000

After 17 years of moving my wedding guest book from house to house in the same box of unused items, I finally threw out out. I didn’t even open it. I honestly don’t think I ever have. Wouldn’t it be great to have a guest book that has special meaning to you, instead of just a plain white book with a list of names?

Fortunately times have changed, and artistic options are available. One of our most popular products in the last year has been the Guest Book from the engagement session. I much prefer this option over a traditional guest book or a signature mat. The main purposes of a mat is to provide white space around an image and put the focus on the photo. Signatures take away away that impact and it is difficult to evenly space the signatures on a mat so that it looks nice.

Tips for getting the most from your guest book:

Only use the pens that we provide. We have tested several pens and the one that works best by far is the Slick Writer from American American Crafts. I got my last batch from 123stitch.com
Take your book to the rehearsal dinner and have your wedding party and family sign it then.
Have a guest book attendant that can be responsible to getting the signatures, making sure the guests use the correct pen, and keeping it safe.
Don’t allow the book to be placed on a table with food and drink.

Jennifer & Taylor • Engagement Session •

tammyhowell — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:08:12 +0000

Here are a few of my favorites from the engagement session for Jennifer and Taylor last fall. We had a perfect warm and sunny day at Bernheim Forest and these guys were awesome in front of the camera. I’m especially looking forward to this wedding next month because Taylor is my almost-step-brother! It should be a great time working with family.

Little Olivia

tammyhowell — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:38:40 +0000

Babies are always a blast to shoot, but right around 6 months is definitely one of my favorite ages. They have so much much personality, can usually sit up, and can’t crawl away from the camera! Olivia was all smiles fom the time she came in the door. Don’t you love just her little monogrammed bloomers???

Widget Wednesday • The Vagabond Mini •

tammyhowell — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 06:37:08 +0000

Shooting in bright sunlight can be difficult, especially with the limited dynamic range of DSLRs, and shooting toward the sun usually results in blown skies, desaturated images, and poor contrast. There are ways to work with the sun and get perfectly lovely images, like using scrims, reflectors, or avoiding it altogether, but these can sometimes result in artistic compromise. Yes, the sun can be a formidable foe and not easily overpowered. The solution? Bring your OWN light to the party.

The hardest part of lighting a scene in bright sunshine is the power required. It’s possible to use speedlights, but it would take many speedlights, with many, many batteries, to even come close, with questionable consistency and recycle time. A monolight with a portable power pack is perfectly suited for shooting in the sun. The Vagabond from Paul C. Buff has always been a popular choice for a power pack, and there many DIY solutions on the internet, but the additional weight (18.6 lbs!) is just a bit much to add to the gear bag. Enter the Vagabond Mini, announced by Paul C. Buff last September. My good friend Shanna Simpson had the foresight to order one early but it was on backorder for quite some time. It was finally delivered on Friday, so a field trip was definitely in order.

The Vagabond Mini is a pure sine wave power source, and weighs in at an unbelievable 3.5 pounds! It has two power outlets and a USB outlet, and can power up to four Paul C. Buff flashes. I took two Alien Bees: the B1600 and B800, and it had no problem consistenly firing them. Our playtime photos are below. We were too excited to bother getting a suitable subject…so we were our own models! As uncomfortable as it was being other side of the camera, it was a good experience to help to remind us how our clients feel.

All of these shots were taken between f14 and f20, with shutter speeds of 1/125 or 1/160, ISO 50, on the Canon 5D Mark II, 24-105L, with a split neutral density filter (although in hindsight I don’t think the filter was necessary). The B1600 was the main light, set on full power, with the B800 as fill at about 3/4 power. It was too windy on the river to use the softbox or umbrella and I was too lazy to bring sandbags. Our objective was to shoot straight into the afternoon sun and still get beautiful skies and great skintones. I was more than pleased with the results, especially for the first time taking my studio lights outdoors. The images required very little post processing.

Shanna rockin’ the shades.

The image on the left is straight out of the camera. The image on the right is with some minor Lightroom corrections and Photoshop work.

The sun was sun was so bright that day it was hard not to squint, even looking away from the sun.

Another one of Shanna.

In case you were wondering…No, I didn’t fall.

I know I really shouldn’t, but I love sun flare!

The sun dipped behind the building so this image was taken in the shade.

I’m definitely hooked. Since I’m pretty sure Shanna isn’t going to let me steal hers every time I shoot, I guess I’m going to have to break down and buy one for myself.

Wendy + Steven •••Video Preview•••

tammyhowell — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 02:39:42 +0000

Here’s a little preview of Wendy and Steven’s February wedding in Madison, IN.

Natalie + Eric •••Wedding Photos•••

tammyhowell — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:01:56 +0000

Many weddings that I shoot are so focused on pulling off the event that the whole meaning of the day sometimes gets lost. It was incredibly refreshing to shoot Natalie and Eric. They had a small December ceremony at the Louisville Boat Club and Natalie looked absolutely stunning (makeup by the lovely Hope Mitchell). The First Look before the ceremony was so touching…every girl should be so lucky to have a man look at her the way Eric looks at Natalie. They held a beautiful reception with family and friends in January at the Sawyer Hayes Community Center. The decorations from Flourish Wedding and Event Florals looked fabulous and I’ve never seen a cupcake table look so elegant. They were almost too pretty to eat but the guests really enjoyed them thanks to Plehn’s Bakery.

Thank you Natalie and Eric for letting me be a part of your day!

Best of 2010 Contest

tammyhowell — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 00:22:47 +0000

It’s time once again to vote for the best images from 2010. This year we will also have a portraits category, and the voting will be conducted by clicking “like” on the image on Facebook. These images will also be posted on the blog if you would like to see them in higher quality.

Contest Guidelines:

1. Images will be placed into one of two categories: “Weddings & Engagements” or “Portraits”

2. All of the images (selected by Tammy Howell Photography) will be posted to special contest photo albums on the Tammy Howell Photography page. Click to go to the album:

Portraits

Weddings and Engagements

3. Instruct your friends, family, co-workers, etc. to “like” the Tammy Howell Photography fan page and then “like” their favorite picture (i.e. YOURS!)

4. The winner will be based on the total number of votes (“likes”) for each entered image. Votes are counted as likes on each individual image. A person must be a fan of the Tammy Howell Photography fan page to like a photo. Voting will be closed at 11:59PM on 2/18/11. The winners will be notified by email.

6. PRIZES:

The entry receiving the most votes each category will receive:

One 16×20 from the image of their choice from any 2010 session or wedding
One free small family session to be used anytime in 2011
$100 Gift Certificate toward print purchase from any future session.

The second and third place winners in each category will receive a free 11×14 from the image of their choice from any 2010 session or wedding.

Any entry receiving 20 or more votes will receive a 50% discount on their next family portrait session.

View the images on the Blog here:

Best of 2010 {Portraits}

Best of 2010 {Weddings & Engagements}