Blog | Columbus Wedding Photographer

Laura & DanColumbus Engagement PhotosDowntown & German Village

Recently, I visited Laura to deliver her completed wedding albums. Essentially, we had reached the end. As we both sat on her couch, browsing the albums, we reminisced about her whole wedding experience. For me, working with Laura & Dan had been a highlight of my entire year. From their Columbus engagement photos to their Cleveland wedding, the entire experience had been exemplary. We talked about their wedding day, the incredible wedding design, and her family. As we chatted, we turned back to their engagement photos.

It was a really warm October day for their Columbus engagement session. I waited at a small park in German Village, standing in the warm afternoon sun. After just a few minutes, Laura & Dan turned the corner and entered the park. As they were walking closer, I immediately noticed Laura’s dress. The white dress flowed around her as the sun gripped them both from behind. For the next hour, we’d spend time moving through German Village, stopping at little locations to take photos. In between, we walked and talked. We talked about school for Dan, and Laura’s job. We chatted about family and the wedding plans.

Before long, we skipped into downtown Columbus to finish their session. One of my all time favorite locations is the Columbus State House at Capitol Square. The white limestone lights up beautifully, especially at sunset. From there, we walked down the hill to the Riverwalk, stopping to take photos as we went. Right at sunset, we ended the session by the river.

While Laura & Dan’s Columbus engagement photos are done, and the Cleveland wedding is long over, I’ll always remember working with them. They’re two of the most incredible people you could ever meet. And the future, like the photos, is nothing but bright.

Downtown Columbus engagement photos with Laura and Dan

Interested in booking your own Columbus engagement photos? Take a moment to browse my engagement portfolio, view my services, and get in touch. I’d be more than happy to help.

Contax 645 Reviewfor Wedding Photographers

I had dreamed of the Contax 645 for years. Mostly due to “gear acquisition syndrome.” I believed this camera would make me a better photographer. In the back of my head, I knew it wouldn’t, but I learned to ignore the rational voice. Six years ago, I finally reached a point where I could afford a Contax 645. Surprisingly, it did change my work for the better. With the camera, I could finally achieve the vision I had in my head. I was immediately in love! But the camera also has a dark side. I thought I would share my experience with others, so I created the detailed Contax 645 review video below.

To sum up my feelings from the Contax 645 review above, I would simply offer the following pros and cons –

Pros

The legendary Zeiss 80mm f/2 planar lens – it’s a dream factory
Available battery grip – easier vertical shooting, better battery life, and enables use of standard AA batteries
Auto-focus and exposure meter unlike some older medium format cameras
Ease of use – simple dials for major functions, good ergonomics, not too complex

Cons

Price – popularity has driven the prices surprisingly high (too high)
Parts availability – all spare parts are now gone. Any major problem will require cannibalizing parts from another camera
Prima Donna – when the camera works, it’s amazing, but it’s known for random errors and finicky operation
Film flatness – sometimes the film doesn’t lay flat on the film plane, causing weird focus issues. Solving this problem can be really tough
The camera only operates in full-stops (no 1/3 stops), although the aperture can be set in half-stops
It weighs a ton with the battery grip, albeit less than a Hasselblad H1

Thoughts to Consider

The Contax 645 is worth exploring if your photographic style necessitates this particular camera. If your style is built around shooting wide-open apertures for creamy backgrounds, then you should consider the Contax 645. However, if you commonly stop down the aperture, then the greatest asset of the Contax 645 is wasted. Because I was having film flatness issues, I decided to try a Hasselblad H1 with the equally legendary 100mm f/2.2 lens. Since that time, I’ve hardly touched the Contax 645, especially for professional work. If you’re seriously looking at the Contax, consider it’s problems, and whether another camera might be a better choice.

With all that said, I still own the camera and would buy it again today if I had to do so.

Hope the above Contax 645 review helped. If you enjoyed the video, consider subscribing to my YouTube photography channel. It’s dedicated to all things film, digital, and hybrid photography. You can also find my most recent work on Instagram. You can also find more information for photographers right here.

How to Organize and Sort Photosfor Film + Digital Photographers

If you’re a digital-only wedding photographer, then sorting and organizing a mountain of photos is easy. After all, the camera has a built in clock and each photo is tagged with the capture time. Film cameras have no such feature. Once you add film into the mix, then sorting and organizing the photos can become a tedious pain. A single wedding might have a pile of film rolls with no obvious way to keep them in chronological order. There is a better way! In the video below, I describe how to organize and sort photos the easy way when shooting film+digital or just film.

How to organize and sort photos breaks down into a few simple steps –

Number the rolls as you shoot
Ask your photo lab to develop & scan the rolls in order – most will do so
Cull your film and digital photos as you normally would
Once all the photos are in Lightroom, sort the gallery by capture time to get the digital images in chronological order
Rename just the digital photos with a temporary name – I use “digital-temp-001”
Change the sort order to filename, to get the film images in chronological order
Rename just the film photos with a temporary name – I use “film-temp-001”
Both batches of photos are now chronological, but not yet chronological together
Last step – drag the film photos to the correct position within the digital photo timeline.

All done. The images are in the proper chronological order (or whatever “story” order you desire). All that’s left to do is rename all the photos using whatever final filename you desire. How to organize and sort photos is more complex when using a hybrid film+digital approach, but it need not be difficult.

If you like the tutorial above, consider subscribing to my YouTube photography channel. You might also check out recent work on Instagram.