Christopher Rebo Photography

Need any more reasons?  Ask about adding a photo booth setup to your wedding reception!

Andy and Angie Wood, of A&A Photography are going to be giving a workshop here in Helena on Monday, July 11th.  They have spoken at WPPI the last couple of years, and also Andy was a print competition judge there last.  They really know their stuff, both with the images and the business side of things.  And they are a ton of fun!  The images I posted are from a workshop I took with them early last year in Denver.

The cost for the day is $200.  If a 2nd person from your studio attends it is just another $50 for them.  Here is a rough outline for the day:

9:00AM – 11:30PM

~  Work with models, walk around using different light

11:30PM – 12:15PM      Lunch

12:15PM – 1:45             Business

~  How to market in this economy
Where to spend your advertising dollars, how to save money
Standing out in the sea of photographers

~  Getting Published
Two Bright Lights
Wedding Blogs
Magazines

~ Social Networking
How to use Twitter for your business effectively
How to use Facebook for your business effectively

~  Branding
Making everything flow and match (online and print)
Design & Printing Marketing for less
Ideas to set you apart

~  Organization & Customer Service
Emails
Cards
Data Base & Keeping track of where you are at with each one

~ Creativity
Other processes (Collodion & Polaroid)
Thinking outside of the box
Inspiration
Shooting for yourself & for client

1:45PM – 4:30PM  Shoot with Models

4:30PM – 5:00PM    Wrap Up & Last Questions

Obviously that is subject to change, but that’s the basic idea.  Also, I might guest teach a small section.  That’s still in the works.    Also, I know we have people coming from Missoula and Bozeman, so the start time might get adjusted slightly – we will keep you posted.

Email Angie with questions or to sign up and make it official – andy@a-a-photography.com

Oh, and we nee a couple to model for the workshop – email me if you are interested.

Thanks!

Chris

We are excited to let you all know that we were recently invited to join The Little Black Book on Style Me Pretty!  In case you don’t already know, Style Me Pretty is one of the premier national wedding blogs, along with some of the others like the Wedding Chicks, Green Wedding Shoes and Junebug Weddings.  All of these are great places to find ideas and inspiration for your wedding, but Style Me Pretty has always been my favorite – the work they showcase is always amazing, and most closely fits in with the kind of work we do.

The Little Black Book is the vendor guide on Style Me Pretty, which features some of the very best wedding vendors each area.  Most of the vendors are hand picked and invited to join – after being recommended by another vendor or vendors.  Before being invited you have to pass an internal review by the SMP staff, and then also a review by some of the top vendors on The Little Black Book.  If you get a thumbs up from everyone, then you get an invite.

All that to say that we are proud to be the first photographer in Montana to be in the Little Black Book, as well as featured in the Idaho section of the book.  We look forward to connecting to even more future brides using this very well thought out guide – you can’t go wrong with vendors in the Little Black Book.

Anyhow, just a little bit of news I thought I’d share.  We’ve been busy shooting a lot the last couple weeks, so there will be lots of new work to see very shortly!

Chris

Something a little fun here today…  A couple weeks back my good friend Jeremiah and I decided we should do a shoot – just for fun.  While that doesn’t sound like any thing revolutionary (and it isn’t) it is surprising how many professional photographers don’t take the time to just go out and shoot for themselves.  I am can certainly be included in that group all too often, although I am working hard to shoot more and more personal work.  It is a great way to shoot what you really want, try new things, and just remember why you love the feel of the camera in your hand.  All without the pressure of having to deliver something to a client.  Anyway, I will climb off my soapbox now…

We really wanted to have a model for the shoot, and so I put up a quick notice on Facebook to see if anyone was interested.  Well, we got more than we bargained for, in a good way.  We got two models, which was awesome, and we got to make some great new friends on top of it!  Angela and her sister Tegan came along with us to see what kind of fun we could dream up.  Angela also happens to own Timeless Photography up in Choteau, and is an awesome photographer.  Big thanks to Angela and Tegan for coming along and rocking it as our models for the evening!

All of the shots I am posting here were shot on film.  And as promised, I’m going to do a little explaining as to why you’ve seen so much film talk on here lately.  First a few reasons why I’ve been shooting some film: For starters, I love the look that some of the new film provides.  And, working with a great lab (thanks Richard Photo Lab!) means I get great, consistent results in the scans I get back, which means getting images that look great right of camera, so I spend less time in front of the computer.  Which is a good thing, trust me.  Secondly, shooting film forces me to slow down more and really think about the shot I am trying to get.  Shooting film isn’t cheap, and that really makes you think about what you are doing, and why, before you click the shutter.  Third, I am really falling in love with the 645 format (and my Mamiya 645 AFD).  The format is a bit more square-ish than 35mm, but not too square.  Hard to explain – it just fits the way I shoot and the way I see.  Finally, I feel like there is a look and feel in film that is hard to copy digitally – so why not just shoot it on film anyhow?

So, that’s all great for personal work.  Are we going to be shooting our client work on film?  Yes and no, for the time being.  All of our weddings booked for this year (thus far) will be shot digitally, with some film shot alongside just because.  We are looking at transitioning to shooting more, or even mostly, film at our weddings for 2012, but the logistics of all of that aren’t quite sorted 100% yet.  We will let you know.  (and if you are a booked wedding client for 2011 and want to talk about us shooting your wedding on film, just let us know!)  For portrait work, you will likely see me shooting a lot of film, or even all film, depending on the type of session and so forth.  I’ll address more of the specifics of shooting film for client work in another post coming up soon.

Alright, after that mountain of text, it must be time to get to the images, right?  Yup!  There were all shot on 120 film with my Mamiya 645, and developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab.  The only adjustments I have made have been slight curves adjustments, resizing for the web, and touch of sharpening.  All were the new Kodak Portra 400 (shot at box speed), except for the last two which were Fuji 400H (and overexposed 1-1.5 stops).

Hope you enjoy looking at them as much as we did shooting them!  Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to leave some feedback in the comments.

Chris

And the Fuji 400H shots…

So, this will be a little departure from my normal posts.  To all of my clients, potential clients and blog stalkers: feel free to skip to the next post.  This post is a quick little write up that will mostly be of interest to other photographers.  There are some nice images, though, so feel free to stay and look, too.

I went to Las Vegas last month for the WPPI convention with a few photographer friends.  While I was down there, I got a few rolls of the new Kodak Portra 400 in 35mm.  (They were giving it away at the Kodak booth… Bonus!)  We had already set up a fun little shoot on the strip, so I decided to leave my trusty D700 behind and just shoot this new film in my F100.

I have to say – my initial impression is this film is pretty awesome.  Great color and skin tones, very forgiving to work with, and very fine grain.  Almost perfect!  Or at least a lot better than films from days past. Don’t know what else to say about it – if you want to shoot some film, this is a great one to start with.  And if you stumbled across this little review, you are probably looking for some images…  Well, I won’t disappoint you.

This first set was shot at box speed – ISO 400 – and developed and scanned by the great people over at Richard Photo Lab.  Nothing has been done to them other than some (not all) have a very slight curves adjustment, and then they are all resized for the web.

And this second set was rated at ISO 800, and then developed normally.  To clarify: it was shot at ISO 800 and NOT pushed at all in development.  Pretty fantastic results.