Vantage Pictures

NEW BLOG!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, we've finally made the move. Check out our new blog at www.vantagepictures.net!

shooting people, shooting crowds

Having spent a good deal of my photographic career interested in documenting live music events, I often head to the local club to snap away. It doesn't usually matter to me so much who the band is, as long as a promising crowd will be there. I've been working on a personal project for a few months now, totally on film, on concert goers. One of these days a few from that series might make it up here.

Last night I decided to smuggle in my Canon, to see if security would care. They did. I got a few frames off before they made their presence known...

jetlag

Sarah and I FINALLY arrived home after 22 hours of airplanes and airports. Lets just say that I have no love for airport security that WILL NOT give film a hand check, insisting that xrays don't hurt film. Fortunately, none of my arm waiving was taken as a threat, and we made it back home without being frisked.

Greece was amazing. Having spent time there now, I would definitely have to say that I prefer the Greek Islands to cities like Athens. We stayed in a rental home on the island of Rhodes for 8 days, and in Athens for the rest of the time. Rhodes was gorgeous. The 3000 year old town on the Mediterranean was an ideal place to relax and enjoy the Greek culture.

We're excited to be back. Sarah and I will be moving over the next two weeks, so wish us luck!

lasers

The above music video was "shot" completely without cameras! The director and band used scanning lasers to capture the images which were then made into the video. How would it be to try something like this for a wedding! For this video, it took a month just for the captured data to process. From a wedding it would take at least a year. Maybe in a hundred years...

Sarah and I will be returning to the States in about 17 hours! We've had a great time during our vacation here in Greece, but are very much looking forward to getting back into the swing of things at home. I decided (just to make Mustafah crazy) that I would shoot mostly with film while on vacation. For some reason, it's relaxing for me... The wait to get it processed and developed, looking at the contact sheet, and finally the prints can be a welcome change from the instant and mechanical nature of digital photography. Anyway, it will be a few weeks before those are posted here. We did shoot a few digital frames however, and once home I'll go over those and try to get some up. Until then, happy traveling!

WHEW!!!!!

Starting tomorrow at 2:30pm, I'll start marathon of wedding photography. Friday will be Janel and Jon's wedding, followed on Saturday with Samantha and Ben's wedding. In 2 days, I'll be cover EIGHTEEN HOURS of weddings. It's going to be a blast to say the least! (Not to mention incredibly exhausting!)

It really is an honor to be working with these couples, and with all of our clients. While I enjoy most kinds of photography, shooting weddings is one of my favorite types of coverage. Before I began working with weddings, I mainly did photojournalism for newpapers and a few magazines. This was for the most part fun, but also demanded some very disturbing and traumatic types of coverage. I finally came to realize, after shooting a few weddings, that I much preferred documenting people on one of the happiest days of their lives, instead of at their saddest moment. Thanks to all of our couples for giving Sarah and I the opportunity!

After the gauntlet of coverage during the next two days, we'll have a month off (!!!!!!!) During this time we'll be announcing some huge changes. The first of these will come in the first half of next week, with the second following soon after. I know we've mentioned this a few times, but we've finally gotten things ready to go!

On the 6th of July, we'll be getting on a plane and heading to Greece for 2 weeks. We'll spend half the time in Athens, exploring the streets and ruins, and the other half relaxing on the Island of Rhodes. If anybody has any suggestions of what to do/see, please let us know! We'll be unavailable via phone of course, but will have access to email.

The second we get back, we have to pack up our apartment and get ready to move to our new home (er, a bigger apartment). Anyway, to say the least, we'll be busy.

Stay tuned Sunday and Monday for new posts from this weekend. Wish me luck!

Back from the Beach...

We arrived home from our vacation in Nags Head and shooting Brandi and Brian's wedding LATE last night (more to come about that in an upcoming post!) Our Day's were blessed with great beach weather, and our nights filled with anticipation for this coming Thursday, watching the former three Indiana Jones movies. (I'd forgotten how bad Temple of Doom was!) Anybody else already have their tickets for this weekend?

I'm including some downloadable sound files. The first one is from the Ocean waves. The second is from the Marsh.

Download surf.m4a

Download marsh.m4a

- Jonathan

Dean & Britta

Earlier today while working on some slide shows, I heard the above band on my favorite internet radio station: Indie Pop Rocks. The band's name is "Dean & Britta," and since listening to their work this afternoon, I've been incredibly surprised by the quality of their stuff. As I in no way pretend to be a valid critic of music, I'll keep things to the point: It won't be leaving my walkman any time soon.

Good Ol' Harrison Ford

In anticipation of the new Indiana Jones movie, we have bought the box set. Amazon must have sensed our excitement. Although we paid regular shipping, we received it in two days. Go Amazon!

Because we are nerds, we are not only going opening night, we are going to IMAX the opening night to see it. Needless to say, we will come prepared with mysterious maps, unbuttoned shirts, and our best cowboy hats. Just kidding....

To join in our excitement and see the new preview click HERE.

-Sarah

1 Year

One year ago today, it was my immense pleasure to be married to my lovely wife, Sarah. Having seen one to many chick flicks while growing up, whenever I used to think about getting married, I'd always imagined the pivotal moment when, after exchanging vows, I'd look into my girls tear-filled eyes and feel all the happiness one sees in every Disney movie. However, in my case, that wasn't exactly how it happened. At our wedding, it was MY eyes that were tear-filled... Sarah was the very picture of composure, while I seriously struggled to remain composed. It's surprising, covering as many weddings as we do, how often that's the case. For those of you about to be married, and those planning this giant step, be prepared. People always say that it's the happiest day of your life, but it will very seriously surprise you how true that is. I know it was true for me.

Happy Anniversary Sarah!

(Photo by our good friend and photographer Sean Flanigan)

Home

After a ridiculous amount of travel, Sarah and I are back home at last! The experiences and lessons learned have greatly affected my attitude and ambition toward photography. It (photography) is something that has obviously been at the center of my life for some time, but I feel like I, and of course my photos, have been refocused (no pun intended). I can't wait to start wedding season in 2 weeks! Additionally, I have already begun mapping out a few ideas for some long-term personal photo projects. More on those to come!

Here are a few more photos from Norway. I spent a huge part of my time riding the above-ground trains, and did a series on them. Below are a few that hopefully communicate something of what I feel when riding in trains, cars, walking down the street... or just coasting/laboring through life. For me, there's a bit of introspection and disconnection that sometimes occurs. I think that's something everyone can relate to. Anyway, these speak to that.