Ask me where we think God will take us on our photography journey we'll honestly tell you that we have no idea.  But one thing that we do know is that we try to continue to push the boundaries of what we believe we can accomplish. 

That takes us to our first concept shoot with my new friend Sam =)  If you've never heard of a concept shoot or a test shoot, its when we come up with everything for the shoot...from what the theme of the shoot will be, the kind of styling we want, the person doing the hair+makeup, the guy(s) or girl(s) that'll be modeling for us and lastly location.  Then after all that is figured out, we (the photographers) try to execute it.  Of course on a bigger scale (say for a client like J.Crew or GAP) this gets more complicated but i guess this is what you can call "practice" =)  For more details from a pro, click here.

This was a few week of work rolled into one long day so a big thanks goes to the team involved...you guys are awesome! =)...

Assistant: Kim Ugale
Hair+Makeup: Jo Mari
Styling: Daryl Manese
Model: Sam H.
Clothing: H&M

 

When we finally decided on a date to go to the fair I was pretty excited, not just for the ginormous Turkey Legs or Funnel Cakes but because at fairs, there's tons of vibrant color and lights galore!  It was the perfect place work on changing my cameras Shutter Speed and Aperture resulting in different looks depending on what I wanted to capture! I know there a handful of our blog readers that own SLR cameras and love taking photos so I thought this would be a great exercise for you that's super easy to apply =) The other day while Richelle and I were talking about a shot she tried to get of one of the rides from the fair, she says "I wanted to get that blurry look of the ride in motion but I couldn't remember what setting to change in my camera to do it!" She ended up liking how it turned out anyway but what was my response to her comment?  "Shutter Speed Richelle, Shutter Speed" =) Shutter Speed is simple.  Just think about it like this…the slower shutter speed the more movement I have in my picture, the faster the shutter speed, the less movement I have in my picture.  All it is is how fast you want your shutter of your camera to open and close! Of course, there are other factors such as available light that play into how fast or slow your shutter speed will be, but for now, just keep it simple. So what’s considered a slow shutter speed?  Rule of thumb would be that you never want to shoot below 1/60th of a second when you’re shooting people or else you’ll get what’s called camera shake (a blurry photo basically) and generally speaking, you don’t want that.  For now a great way to start off is by shooting in Shutter Speed Priority…it’s the Tv dial on your camera.  Turn your dial to that and the camera decides all your settings but you decide on the shutter speed. Ok so back to the fair. This first shot is one I took at 1/13th of a sec.  Granted these pics don't really land in my top 10 but they're good for show & tell =)

1/5th of a second...

and finally  at .3 of a second.

Remember how I mentioned that shutter speed is how fast you want the shutter of your camera to open and close?!  Well what I wanted to do in these shots was capture the motion of the ferris wheel.  At 1/13th of a second I was still getting a pretty "still" image so all I did was change my shutter speed to go slower and slower.  Simple right?!  Oh and btw, this shots would've looked way cooler on a tripod. **One quick note to keep in mind: notice how the longer I left my shutter open, the brighter the shot?  Well that's cuz the longer the shutter is open, the light enters the camera** I always tell people, don't be scared to play with your camera settings.  Yeah it could be tough sometimes, but like the cliche says...practice makes perfect. =) My next post will be on Aperture so stay tuned! =) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --- - - - - - -- - - - - --- Don't forget!  Our "Great Names Derive from Great Inspiration" contest deadline has been moved!!  The new deadline to submit your entries is now October 1st.  That gives everyone a good two months of inspiration! =)

If you want more information on our contest click here!

For our latest Wedding Day Slideshow, Click Here!

If you'd like to inquire about our services, email us at Weddings@johnlauren.com

If you have any questions you'd like to ask us, we'll do our best in answering them for you!  email us at John@johnlauren.com or Lauren@johnlauren.com

For the past few weeks, my mind has been in overdrive mode, thinking of ways to grow our business.  One of those ways was definitely scary, almost like jumping into the deep part of a pool for the first time as a kid…or reaching the peak of a roller coaster and not seeing anything in front of you but sky!...you’re not sure what to expect but you’re sooo ready for it!!  Know that feeling?! Well last week Lauren and I embarked on a new journey and took the next step in helping John Lauren Photography grow and be more efficient all at the same time =)  With much prayer and thought and discussion we decided to hire our first employee and we can’t tell you how excited we are!  With the demands of the business growing, and Lauren growing...literally, it was the perfect time to find someone to help us out around the office.  But it’s so much more than that. Being that we’re still young in the business, we wanted someone that could grow with us and be ready for all the joy and pain that comes with it.  We wanted someone that loves photography (duh!) and was just as hungry to learn the ins and outs of the business as we were starting out.  We wanted someone that we could mold and would fit into who we are and how we are to each other (more on that later) and still laugh and joke around just as much as we do.  WHEW!!  Talk about being picky! But, God once again hooked us up with all that and then some.  Meet our new Studio Assistant Richelle Jean!  WOOHOO!! =) Believe it or not, we’ve known Richelle Jean since she was a wee tad with a haircut reminiscent of Lilo from Lilo & Stitch!  Oh how these kids have grown! =)  And when we heard from the grape vine that Richelle loved photography and was looking for a summer job we thought…sweet! So after bribing her with a huge slice of strawberry pie from Marie Calendars, she agreed to the challenge! If only she knew how much work she’s actually going to have! Hahahah j/k =) One of the things that we hope she’ll come away with in working with us is simply a new/newer found love for photography.  She’s already so talented so it’s just a matter of time when she’s managing her own clients! This was a shot she took of a parking meter that I had just put coins in before we started shooting in Old Town Pasadena.  Ask me if I remember it looking that cool and my answer would be..."uh no!".  Can you tell, her eye for things is already so creative we love it! OK so I’m really not suppose to share these photos yet but I have to show you this shot that she caught during our shoot with the couple…. Seriously?!  Who taught her that?!  Cuz we sure didn't!!  The way she framed the shot was perfect!  When Lauren and I saw this image, we about fell off our seats in amazement!!  If this is any indication of how talented she is, did John Lauren Photography score or what?!! If you have a second, shoot Richelle an email congratulating her on her new position and if you have some encouraging words, she’d love to hear that too! You can email her at richellejean@johnlauren.com We can’t tell you how excited we are to have you on board Richelle!  You’ll be awesomeness and more! =)

PART 1 : Q&A Yesterday we had some awesomeness chatting with a Bride to be and during our conversation like we always do, we dropped the super put you on the spot question..."do you have any questions for us? Well it got me thinking about when we booked Me Ra for our wedding and boy did we have questions!  We ended up on the phone with her for over an hour!  And get this...we've never even seen or met or even spoke before! hahah.  Me Ra actually put a funny post of when we first spoke on her blog...check it out. With that said, I wanted to throw this same question out there for anyone of you that keep up with our life...I mean business (Lauren loves to write about anything and everything!) through our blog.  So if you've got questions like..."how's Lauren feeling?", "what's she look like now?" ask away!  Oh and yeah, if you want to ask some photography questions, you can do that too =) With that let me shift gears and talk about Linda+Dennis Part II, the second part of the today's post. Before we drop engagement slideshowness on you all I couldn't help but give a few more sneak peaks of some of my favorite shots of the day... We found this one green door towards the back of the Observatory that actually was indented from the wall about a foot...we love funky "one off" doorways =) I think if I had to pick any one shot to keep, it would be this one...the sun came in at a perfect spot over their heads and her eyes are almost piercing...add that to a sort of antique look...there you have it, my favorite image of the day. Keeping up with the modern architecture of this part of the Observatory, I took a more modern approach in processing this shot compared to the one above.  Like seriously, you can't go wrong shooting in a semi-empty hallway with glass walls towering 2o feet above you...how sweet is that?! For engagement slideshowness ***Click Here*** Don't forget to leave a comment or questions and we'll try to give you an answer! Happy Tuesday everyone!

When we went to shoot our last wedding, it's safe to say that we weren't sure what exactly was in store for us when we got to Borrego Springs other than we were shooting in the desert! =) But regardless, like all weddings we shoot, we always have to come prepared. Besides all our camera gear, camera bodies, lenses and all, we also bring our lighting gear. So what does that consist of?! Well right now this is what our lighting set up entails: - 2 Nikon SB-25 flashes - 2 10' Avenger Light Stands - 1 60" 60" Umbrella w/ Removable Cover - 3 Pocket Wizard Plus II's - and a 28" Apollo Softbog Again it's nothing fancy smancy but it allows us so far to get the shots we want. So today, I thought it'd be fun to share with you a time that we used OCL or Off Camera Lighting during our last wedding, along with some before and after pics as well as the final shot that I wanted. To make it easy I'll break it down into parts... The Environment: One of the first things we do the day we arrive at the wedding is scope out the diggs of where the Bride is getting ready. In this case, with the sun almost directly over the room, the only place light is really entering the room was through the door. The windows, because of the suns' position at that time, were sitting under shade so...no help there. What was cool about the room, besides the temp, was the fact the the door sat right in the middle of the two windows. The Shot We Want: Being that our best light source was coming through the door, there was no second guessing that that's where the Brides' dress was going... As we waited for all the Bridesmaids to come with their dresses, we start to use the curtain rod as the place to hang all the dresses. There were 8 total dresses, all of which were around the same length. With that said, remember "the situation"? There were two windows on each side of the door so we hang 4 dresses in front of each window. Great right?! Yes and no... Although I liked the way the dresses were positioned against the light coming through the window, there still wasn't enough light coming through. Even at an ISO 800 and my shutter speed at 250th of a sec, it was still too dark. I probably could've just dropped my shutter speed down to say 100th of a second but I didn't want just a brighter shot, I wanted the beautiful yellow dresses to pop! Are you guys still with me so far?! The Challenge: I wanted to get the yellow dresses to "pop" with color and match the illumination of the wedding dress hanging in the doorway. So how do I get more light to shine through the windows?! The Solution: 3 Pocket Wizards (one on my camera, the other two on each of the flashes) and two Nikon flashes sitting on two light stands! With all that said, the solution was fairly simple...let's make our own light shine through the window! We place a light stand behind each window in other words, outside of the room, attach a pocket wizard to each flash and set them all on channel one (same as the PW on my camera as well) so that when I take the shot, both flashes fire simultaneously. This is nearly the same shot as the one above but after a little trial and error... So finally I got the flash to the right setting and distance from the window and here's a shot more along the lines of what I wanted... The Outcome: What's great about this shot that we love is that besides a few minor bumps to contrast, this is how the shot turned out straight the camera! NO PHOTOSHOP NEEDED! =) And lastly, here's the final shot I wanted to achieve from the start, after it was all said and done... Whew! See, that wasn't that hard right?! The secret to all this is the plain old saying "practice makes perfect". Now, by no means have we perfected our craft but the better you know your equipment the easier it'll be to get the shots that you want! Remember there are probably a million and ones way you can use OCL! So let your creative juices flow and give it shot and once you do, we'd love to see and even post your results! Send them to blogit@johnlauren.com. Enjoy your weekend everyone!