Hey Everyone!

Its been an amazing experience this past week in Vegas at WPPI (Wedding Portrait Photographers International). I am exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually (we’ll get to that in the next post, but its all good things friends). I am definitely ready to come back home. I cannot wait to hold Grit in my arms, and sing to her pregnant belly. (hee hee)

The week of infinitely long walks through smokey casinos, and cramming as much into your brain from the plethora of classes and tradeshow booths is enough to wear anybody down. The funny thing is: as exhausted as I am, I am so excited and inspired to get working on what I have learned and experienced that I could probably run home from Vegas to Vancouver.

For the moment I leave you with this image of the view from my 27th floor room at MGM Grand (for the record New York, New York shown in the image is by far my favorite looking hotel). The technique used on this image was HDR (High Dynamic Range Imaging) which involves the combination of various images shot at different exposures. I have never really liked the look of this form of imagery, but today I did what I loved to do. I explored. I played and did something different (for me). Please enjoy.

Until next time my friends,

Michael

Yesterday I had the opportunity to shoot my very first fashion/fine art photosession as the primary photographer. During the winter months I want to make an attempt and build a fashion / fine art portfolio. I have always wanted to try this but just the thought of trying something I knew NOTHING about made me want to tuck tail and run. I’ve had experience with studio lighting and have assisted on quite a few fashion-type shoots, but never once have I done anything similar where I was the head/only photographer. Over the last little while I’ve been going through an inner monologue with myself, and with the help of many great people around me inpiring me every day I have decided to leap.

A few weeks ago I met a makeup artist by the name of Hailey at a networking get together and we immediately starting organizing ideas for photoshoots in the near future. Once I mentioned my fiance Grit was a hairstylist, Hailey was STOKED! Hailey had this amazing idea for a ‘Virus-type makeup’ that she wanted images of and was very dark and organic but still gave room for the model to incorporate a feeling that was very sexy and fashion-like. Right off the bat I was envisioning what it would look like, but when Hailey and model Iulia came over Wednesday morning and the transformation began, my jaw dropped.

I am looking forward to making mistakes on this journey because I know how amazing it feels when things finally all click together!

Enter: My first solo Fashion / Fine Art Photoshoot

Hair: Grit Becker
Makeup: Hailey Howse
Model: Iulia
Photographer: Michael Wachniak

For Photographers: The entire session was a one light setup with an approx. 50″ softbox and 42″ silver reflector for fill. All images processed in Lightroom with my own custom presets. 1 image in this entry was taken into Photoshop for further dodging and burning.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Yesterday I posted a Part 1 of my favorite wedding images of 2009. Today, I give you Part 2! I can’t decide which one I like better!

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a comment! Every comment until this Friday = One can of food I will donate to the food bank!

Hey everyone! Last year I posted several “TOP 25″ lists of my favorite images I shot in 2008, which was an absolute riot, but this year there’s a bit of a problem… I have 260 favorites. :) To fix this I have put my personal favorite images  of 2009 into the form of a slideshow!

*ahem* ok, so because of the volume of images I kinda had to split it into 2 equally cool slideshows! I selected all of my favorite images and placed them in chronological order as if it were all one wedding day (getting ready images with getting ready images, ceremony images with ceremony images etc). I have personally watched this slideshow three times already, and I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have such amazing people in my life. Every image has a story that I hold near and dear to my heart, and will remain with me forever.

Tonight I am posting Slideshow 1 of 2. I will post the other tomorrow. I literally took every second image from my list of favorites and put it into another slideshow, so both slideshows will have a full “wedding day experience” from start to finish. You will see what I mean.

The song choice for this slideshow is my little homage to the late and very great Haydain Neale of Jacksoul.

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a comment! Every comment until this Friday  = One can of food I will donate to the food bank!

Hey Everyone! I am beyond excited to announce that today is the first day on my blog for year 2 of Cans for Comments! Created last year by the amazing Chris + Lynn Photographers, Cans for Comments started off as a blogging concept where for every comment left by readers, Chris + Lynn would donate either one can or one other non-perishable food item to their local food bank for Christmas. Within minutes of posting this ‘idea’ on the blog, this amazing event was already spreading to other local photographers…but it didn’t stop there… soon photographers in other cities were doing it, and then other provinces, and then other states…Cans for Comments was International!!! It even started spreading to blogs from other professions, like designers, and radio personalities, it was amazing!

This year, will be even better.

I started my participation last year on December 4th and so to carry tradition, from today (Friday December 4th 2009) until Saturday December 12th 2009, for every comment made on any of my blogposts, I will donate 1 can or other non-perishable food item to The White Rock / South Surrey Food Bank.

Honestly, it doesn’t get any easier than this folks. Give someone the best gift they can have. It doesn’t cost you anything but a second of your time and perhaps a comment or cheesy joke like ‘Q: What are a Wedding photographer’s favorite flowers? A: Posies.’ lol Do whatever! Just comment! Better yet, why not comment and then go drop off another can to your local food bank yourself? Seriously! I gotta tell you that leaving a comment feels pretty good knowing you’ve just fed someone, but dropping off that can yourself I GUARANTEE you that you will feel amazing! Last year’s total number of comments was 50! This year I hope to crack another one out of the park! 60? 70? 80? The sky is the limit, and you can bet your sweet gingerbread latte that I will be bloggin’ some things that will make you want to stay home from work and comment all day!! Well… maybe not THAT good, but seriously, you’ll like what I’ll be posting…I HOPE!

Click here to check last year’s entry on Cans For Comments, and also to see a cute photo of Adobe, the doberman. Why not comment on her Christmas scarf while you’re there?

Here is a list of fantastic people who are a part of Cans For Comments this year. I know there are more that I haven’t listed so please feel free to COMMENT …*wink wink* …if you are one of them, and I will be sure to update the list as soon as I can!

john heil photography
kristel wyman photography
the other angle photography
blue olive photography
tracey l heppner photography
kayci gough photography
white album weddings
sakura photography
david redding photo
pelaez photography
kp photography
erin wallis photography
studio jeanie
chris + lynn

I have been holding off on new business cards for quite a while now. I really wanted to find something that not only looked professional, but something that went above and beyond from the moment you held it in your hand. First impressions are SO important! (Letterpress pun intended. Impression? HA!)

I have to say that after searching and searching I found there are a lot of Letterpress Companies out there and most of them do an amazing job, but the folks at The Mandate Press are (in my opinion) the best of the best. From start to finish they exceeded my expectations (which trust me, were high to begin with!).

Quite Simply -
Quality of Card: 100%
Customer Service: Infinity %

If you are looking for a letterpress company I highly recommend The Mandate Press. Thank you guys so much! :)

Today I joined a small group of photographer friends WAY up in Mission for a vintage fashion shoot. Special thanks to Jason Brown aka “The Birthday Boy” (this coming Tuesday)

I have always wanted to shoot fashion, and in all honesty I don’t know why I haven’t until today. I absolutely loved it, and I’m looking forward to getting some concepts I have out of my head and into the real world!

P.S. This is Amber, she is such an AMAZING model and was so much fun to work with! Thanks Amber!

When Grit and I were in Germany in September I had the opportunity….nay…the PRIVILAGE of partaking in Oktoberfest. It was truly amazing, not to mention *slightly* overwhelming, but I held on with all my might! I actually didn’t know until I got there that there was more to Oktoberfest than just Beer and Dirndl’s. It was a full out carnival! Food, drinks, rides, music….CHAOS!! (note to self: ignorance makes for better surprises!)

And with that…a video. This was an absolute blast! The best part is Grit didn’t want to go on the ride so I went with her friends and they don’t speak English… so ya… made it even MORE interesting!

For the photographers viewing this, yes I did take my 5DmkII on a ride that plummets to the ground in a complete free-fall of DEATH. I also don’t edit video much, so this one is pretty silly….nevertheless it was fun and I wanted to share. Yes it was edited in iMovie and not Final Cut Pro.

Oktoberfest. Video Editing.

There’s a learning curve.

For both. ;)

After a VERY weird day of weather, this gorgeous sunset is how it ended. I saw this while driving around and scrambled to get my camera and head to the beach. I hope you like it!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Hey everyone! Today’s blog post idea actually came to me via a nice little spam email I got late last night. No, it wasn’t a special offer for the magic “Blue Pill For Men” or  ”Where to get cheap flights to anywhere I DON’T want to go”…. it was actually entitled: ”How well do you know Photoshop?” …..I have to give them an “E” for Effort, at least these guys are doing SOME research as to who they are emailing lol! It got me thinking….how well DO I know Photoshop? How well do ANY of us know Photoshop?  I have used Photoshop extensively for almost 11 years, I have taught private lessons, I have even assisted in instructing a few larger classes, but I still learn new things almost every day. OF course (and I don’t mean this in a bad way), many photographers know how to use “Actions” (usually made by other photographers and then bought by millions worldwide), which are essentially several individual editing ’steps’ or  ’tweaks’ done to your image all rolled into a shortcut so you may execute it and look like every other photographer at the click of a button. :) I have to admit, I am guilty of doing this at times, so I don’t condone ‘Actions’ as being wrong, however they should be used as a stepping stone towards a final product of YOUR style, not someone elses… They are great, I just think as photographers we are using other people’s ideas more-so than our own. We won’t get into this, this is a blog post in itself :). But what about all the other stuff? The day-to-day Photoshop tasks such as zooming, opacity, merging layers? Did you know that you can press ‘command+alt+M’ on the keyboard to open up the Curves Dialog Box? Sure it only takes a second or two to click on the Image menu, roll over to the Adjustments menu, and click on ‘Curves’… but what if you have 1000+ images to sort through? (well, first off, you’d probably use Lightroom and save about 8 hours! That too, is a post in itself!). Forming a habit with hotkeys and shortcuts will shred MINUTES off your editing, so you can spend time with your family and friends…away from your office! Time isn’t money. Time is more valuable than money, therefore you should be spending it how you want.

I have done a bit of research and have found  some great links that I would love to share with all of you.

Photoshop Hotkeys for Mac and PC – www.spoono.com

Photoshop Tool Hotkeys and More – www.associatedcontent.com

Top 10 Hotkeys Every Graphic Artist Should Know – www.hyperninja.com 

Go through them and find out what you use the most. Whether you are a seasoned Photoshop Wiz or a beginner willing to learn by experience, these tidbits are certainly worth a look and will save you more time so you can get out into the sun!

My personal favorites that I use all the time (and aren’t even mentioned on the links) are: 

Dodging/Burning Toggle: shift+o
Brush Size Increase: ]
Brush Size Decrease: [
Brush - 1 step Softer Edge: shift+[
Brush - 1 step Harder Edge: shift+]
Opacity: press 1-0 (where  1=10%, 2=20%…0=100&)
Flatten All Visible Layers: mac: command+shift+E    pc : ctrl+alt+shift+E
Dragging an image around (in fullpage mode): hold spacebar + click and drag the mouse to move the image

I hope this was informative! I’d love to hear feedback from all of you!

Have  a great weekend! 

Michael

p.s. I thought I’d add a photo as well, just in case the text was a little TOO on the ‘blah’ side. :)  This abstract shot of Canadian Geese in flight was shot outside my house in Calgary in 2004. Processed in Lightroom and prepared for web in Photoshop. Hope you like it! :)