Weddings, Events and You!
Located in Northwest Wisconsin, my goal is to capture your life, your adventures, your everything.
I primarily serve Western Wisconsin (Menomonie, Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls, River Falls, Hudson) and the Twin Cities area but I am very much open to travel and capturing you in your favorite corner of the world. Now for the big question - why should you stick around, check out my work and hopefully add me to your 'short list' of photographers that you believe can truly capture you, your style and your life? How about three reasons? :)
- There's more to me than just Black & White and Sepia Tones
I honestly believe that one of the strongest qualities that sets my art apart from so many others out there is my prowess for creativity. Take a look at posts in my Wedding category to get a great idea of my shooting and artistic style.
- I'm professional but also FUN
My goal for every shoot I am on is that when it's done - I want to have captured all of the memories you were hoping for while having a good time getting there. My personality is laid back with a touch of quirky humor. Basically - I feel like I can get along with just about anyone and because of that - I can capture great images of you being you.
- I have a passionate dedication to your happiness
I am NOT one of those photographer's that is watching the clock and the second it strikes 'Contractual Time Over' bolts for the door. I believe that the really special events of our lives happen organically and can't be planned or timed. For that reason - sure - I have specific time periods of coverage agreed upon but if the vibe at the end of that time is showing promise - you can bet I'll be there to capture it. My goal, my job, is to capture you and your life. I will do everything in my power to do the best I can for you.
I invite you to read further. My posts aren't always about a specific event I covered or portrait I took but all of my posts exemplify who I am and the passion I have for capturing you!
Cheers! Erik

Jun 10 2011

Adventures in HDR Round 1

Posted in Goofing Off, Happy Hour, Personal

A few weeks back (actually it’s been just about a month – I’m running really behind on my “for fun” photo editing), my buddy Panda and I took a drive heading west out of Menomonie with no destination or plan but to enjoy one of the first really nice days we’ve had this year. Of course I did have a slight ulterior motive and brought my cam along. I have been following a lot of HDR photographers/blogs/Flickr groups for a while but never really played around with it much. It’s not that I don’t LOVE messing with photos using all the digital tools we have available nowadays – I just – well – never played with it. Fail Erik I suppose. lol.

Our journey westward took us to the famed Mississippi River where we made stops in such scenic cities as Maiden Rock, Stockholm and Alma (among others). I brought along my spare camera so Panda had something to play with while I lugged around my favorite Manfrotto tripod and my ol’ faithful 40D. Thanks to technology (mainly RAW and auto bracketing) – capturing truly inspiring HDR imagery is actually not as difficult as it once was but you still need a good eye. I’m still working on that one.

I suppose a short explanation of what HDR is would be appropriate. lol. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. I’ll point you to the Wikipedia article for a more technical explanation (Wikipedia rules so hard!). The definition I give when trying to explain the concept to people is as follows: When you take a picture, you typically expose for the main subject area of your image. You can see this easily when taking a picture of a friend outdoors and they look fine but the sky is blown out. When creating an HDR image, you take several pictures exposing for the different areas of the scene you are capturing and then using software such as Photoshop’s built-in HDR processing or as I did with Nik Software’s HDR Effex Pro plugin, combine that data into a single photo. The human eye is without a doubt the best camera ever made but with the proper images, software and patience, you can create some amazing images. Depending on your settings that image can be photo realistic or swing far on the pendulum to the hyper realistic. I feel just from the images I’ve played with thus far that my personal artistic preference definitely leans towards the hyper realistic. Not a big a surprise. haha

So with that I present some samples of my first dabble into this rather intriguing area of photography. The technique is time consuming and really doesn’t work well for moving subjects however I just tried it again at a wedding I shot this past weekend and am very excited to see the results!

View more pics from the day on Facebook!

Share and enjoy!
Cheers!
Erik