Tampa

The Westin Tampa Bay Hotel Wedding with Mattie & Kenny

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Bride & Groom on the rooftop deck of The Westin Tampa Bay - wedding photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame rightIt had been over a year and a half since I last photographed a wedding, but since I did so many in the past it was as they say, like riding a bike getting back into the flow of shooting a four hour event.  Mattie & Kenny's wedding was at The Westin Tampa Bay on a narrow piece of land between Tampa and Clearwater floating in the middle of Tampa Bay.  From the rooftop deck with its clear glass walls, the feeling you are floating on water, as seen in the above photograph, was pretty cool even with overcast skies.

Bride getting ready at The Westin Tampa Bay Hotel - wedding photography - Nikon D300 Nikkor 105mm VR micro @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/100th - Strobist: SB-800 in 43" shoot through umbrella to frame leftIt turned out that Mattie and I had a few mutual friends, including my eldest friend Terry and his wife Beth, both of whom attended the wedding giving it a rather familiar feeling.  The atmosphere in her room as she was getting ready was very loose and full of laughing.  I began my shooting for the day by making a photo of Mattie putting on the finishing touches.

Bride & bridemaids at The Westin Tampa Bay Hotel - wedding photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/7.1 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 to frame left & SB-600 to frame right both in shoot through umbrellasMattie had seen images from another wedding I photographed in the Westin a few years back and also wanted some photos featuring the lobby's unique waterfall.  I used two shoot through umbrellas to provide enough light on the bride and bridesmaids for the portrait above.

Bride & Groom dancing at The Westin Tampa Bay Hotel - wedding photography - Nikon D80 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 800 1/100th with SB-600 hotshoe mountedThe reception was in a room with floor to ceiling windows facing southwest which flooded it with light during the late afternoon allowing me to use that light as a hyper backlight in the above portrait of the bride & groom having their traditional first dance.  

Groom & Bride listening at The Westin Tampa Bay Hotel - wedding photography - Nikon D80 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 400 1/100th with SB-600 hotshoe mountedCupcakes continue to be popular at weddings, with dozens under the wedding cake itself.  I got to have one of the cupcakes as a closing treat when I was finished shooting.  I often say I shoot weddings just for the cake!

Bride & Groom cake smash at The Westin Tampa Bay Hotel - wedding photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 640 1/60th with SB-800 hotshoe mountedFrom start to finish it was a joyful and surprisingly emotional wedding for Mattie & Kenny.  Not often have I seen the groom get so emotional during the vows and also during the speeches at the reception.  They also were not afraid to smash a little cake, which I also found refreshing since some newlyweds nowadays opt for a clean cake eating which is no fun at all!

Thank you Mattie & Kenny! 

Inside Sacred Heart Church Tampa Florida Wedding HDR

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The interior of Sacred Heart Church in Tampa Florida during a wedding - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRWith all the news this week coming out of Rome regarding the Catholic Church and a new pope, I dug into my unedited archives for these HDR images of Sacred Heart Church in downtown Tampa, Florida.  These images are from a wedding I photographed in the church back in May 2012.  The exterior of the church is very beautiful and elaborate, and as you can see the inside is even more so.

View from the balcony in Sacred Heart Church in Tampa Florida during a wedding - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRI was up in the balcony for all these photographs gettings a bird's eye view of the wedding ceremony.  When I see such architecture and detail I always think about how much work must go into building and creating something like this.  How much planning ahead of time is needed??

Stained glass windows of Sacred Heart Church in Tampa Florida during a wedding - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRThese windows are high up and in the back of the church.  Only up from up in the balcony with binoculars could one get a good view of them.  

Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park Panorama Tampa Florida

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Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park 3-shot panorama - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/500thAn oasis of grass and community in downtown Tampa, that is how I would describe Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park.  I made this 3-shot panorama image of the park while waiting for a potrait client to arrive.  On a sunny Thursday afternoon two days after Christmas, the park was full of people enjoying a crisp afternoon by the Tampa waterfront.  I thought I would try a handheld panorama shooting into the sun to see how it would come out.  

Sweet & Sassy Tampa Birthday Party with Juliana

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Juliana lying across the laps of 25 of her friends at Sweet & Sassy Tampa - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/60th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame left & SB-600 in shoot through umbrella to frame rightOn Saturday I ventured to a most unusual place in Tampa called Sweet & Sassy to photograph Juliana's 9th birthday party.  Juliana and her family are returning clients.  I photographed her 7th birthday party and also made beach portraits of her family.  At Sweet & Sassy she was joined by 25 (!) of her friends for a spa treatment and runway fashion time.

Juliana celebrating her 9th birthday in a most unusual way at Sweet & Sassy Tampa Florida - Nikon D80 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 800 1/100th SB-600 hotshoe mounted at 1/4 powerApparently having mud put on your face and cucumbers on your eyes is something done on purpose.  I am not sure if I would ever willingly try it, but it sure makes for an interesting photograph of Juliana that her mom can no doubt use to embarrass her at her 29th birthday party!

On the runway during her birthday party at Sweet & Sassy Tampa - Nikon D300 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/250th - Strobist: SB-800 in brolly to frame right front & SB-600 in shoot through umbrella to frame right backAfter the spa treatment and makeovers, it was time to hit the runway.  Each girl got several changes to walk the runway and strike a pose.  There was just enough space for me to set up two of my speedlights to get a strobist shot like the one above, which allowed for soft and directional lighting.  With the speedlight on camera, this of course would not have been possible.

Karaoke singing at Sweet & Sassy Tampa during her birthday party - Nikon D80 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 800 1/100th SB-600 hotshoe mounted at 1/4 powerAfter the runway out came the mic for three karaoke songs.  To my own embarrassment, and a blow to my punk rock cred, I knew all three!  I believe the first was called "You Don't Know Your Beautiful," the next was "Call Me Maybe," and the last was a new catchy Taylor Swift song about never, ever getting back together, apparently.  

Juliana with glitter makeup during her birthday party at Sweet & Sassy Tampa - Nikon D80 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 800 1/100th SB-600 speedlight hotshoe mounted @ 1/4 powerThere was sparkling glitter everywhere!  So much that I had to be careful what I leaned up against and where I set my photography gear down.  Juliana can be seen in the above photo with a glitter tattoo as well as a hairdo covered in glitter.  

Mother and daughter during her 9th birthday at Sweet & Sassy Tampa - Nikon D80 Nikkor 80-200mm @ f/4 ISO 800 1/100th SB-800 hotshoe mounted @ 1/4 power

Mom and daughter together for a quick portrait before Juliana went back to having a blast with her friends helping her celebrate her 9th birthday.  I am thankful that I continue to be her family's photographer for their life events.
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    1996 Ford Mustang Cobra Mystic color Tampa Car Photography in Ybor City

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    1996 Ford Mustang Cobra mystic color (green purple) in Ybor City Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/125th complex composite of 7 strobist shotsI returned to an Ybor City location I used some time ago to photograph a Lexus IS F.  This time I met a client with a 1996 Ford Mustang Cobra in the rare mystic color that can look green or purple depending on the light.  The above shot used a new technique that I tried for the first time involving taking many shots as I walk around the car with a speedlight in a brolly.  Then all those shots are blended together into a composite showing the best list portions of each one.

    Afternoon clouds over a Mustang Cobra in Ybor City car photography shoot - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 9-exposure HDRFor this shoot the surrounding environment was really included as-is, which meant the dumpster with graffiti was composed in the frame to contrast with the car, the ominous sky and the distant city skyline.  Using a 9-exposure HDR composite allows for shooting into the sun like this.

    Ford Mustang Cobra car photography shoot in Ybor City Tampa Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRMore subjects of varying contrast in this shot starting at the top with the American flag waving coming down to an American icon in the Ford Mustang.  The flag was waving but appears without blur in this HDR image because the final step I took in editing was to mask in a single frame of the flag.

    Highly stylized HDR image of a Ford Mustang Cobra - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRIn the above shot you can see some interesting "hearts" graffiti on the brick wall.  I wondered who would make such an expression in such a place and thus definitely wanted to feature it in the background of some of the shots.  

    Profile view of a Ford Mustang Cobra - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRNo hearts in this rectangle of red graffiti.  Maybe a yet to be finished work?

    Passport Photos for the entire family in your home St. Petersburg Tampa Florida

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    Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera HDR in black at Tampa International Jet Center

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    A black Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera at Tampa International Airport - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseThe Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera is a special version of the Gallardo for high performance on the track.  I believe it is the best looking Gallardo of the many varients.  I had a chance to photograph this Lambo at the Cars & Couture event at Tampa International Jet Center last week.  As is usually the case when photographing cars at events, the background had people and other objects in it distracting from the beautiful Lamborghini itself.  Plus, this was a very black car being sidelit by the setting sun.  To produce the final, fully edited image you see above, it too 1-hour of digital darkroom effort!  This is how editing this digital photograph progressed . . .

    As you can see, if I simply set the exposure mode to aperture priority at f/8 and let the camera's meter make the decision, the result would have been a decent looking sky, but a very underexposed Superleggera that lacked detail in the many shadows.  There was no doubt that I would need to make an HDR image to have a chance at getting both the car and the background looking well exposed.  I went to the max that my Nikon D300 can do, 9-exposures.  

    After processing those 9 shots in Photomatix Pro, the middle image was the result.  The worst part of it really were all the reflections in the side of the Lamborghini from another car next to it.  That required a lot of careful clone stamping and even a little painting to get to an at least acceptable level of reflection.  

    After that task I set to removing the people standing behind the Superleggera, then the building over the passenger's side, then the cones and finally the person half-visible in the left edge of the frame.  Once the image was all cleaned up I began selectively adjusting contrast levels and doing a little dodging here and there to balance the look of the pavement.

    All that is not even counting my initial color correction and adjuting done in Aperture 3 and Color Efex Pro 3!  So you can get an idea of how much work is involved in trying to get a usable car shot from a car event!