Lauren and Josh Engagements ~ New Bedford, MA ~ Library ~ Engagement Photographer

Personally, I don't like to read, so being inside of a library is normally kind of a boring time for me.  This time was different because I got to do something that I really like, make some great pictures with these two book loving readers.  My wife was there to help out with the posing and lighting [as usual], and since she also loves to read, she felt right at home inside this awesome, big library.

We were really excited for how these came out and we can't wait to shoot their wedding in September!  Check it out!

It didn't seem to matter what they were reading, they found a way to laugh, find interesting quotes and even flirt a bit.  In the shot above and below, they were reading a book on historical taxes for the area...and look how happy they are finding cool facts and figures!

There was gorgeous marble throughout the inside of the library and some of it was just beautiful.

This is one of our favorites from the shoot.

I am partial to the black and white version myself.

Can it get any cuter than this shot below?!  Props to Katrina for setting this one up.

They found these books and had a little fun.  It was great to see their personalities come through despite getting their pictures taken.  Some people freeze up or get nervous in front of a camera, but not these two.  Towards the end of this part of our shoot, they were coming up with these picture ideas!

Josh was so respectful of the books that we had Lauren stand on a stool for this shot and just made it look like she was standing on the books; came out pretty convincing.

Can you just tell how much she loves him here?

Thanks guys for an awesome shoot and we are looking forward to September!

Katrina's Roller Derby Team - Yup, she's BA

Last month I was asked to shoot some footage for Katrina's roller derby team so they can use it for their upcoming recruitment night.  Well, I have done some video projects for Teton Whitewater but I had not tried to shoot any derby footage before.  

Needless to say, I took the challenge and put together this video from that same night's scrimmage.  It was all shot in one night and edited in 2 days!  It definitely sparked a lot of my creativity and I enjoyed making this quite a bit.

I am happy to say that I will be working on more of these videos during the year and hope to share them as I produce them.

Perspective Challenge

  Here is my photo for the perspective challenge that Katrina gave me a few days ago.  The story behind the picture is that we went to Sundance, Utah for Brunch (which is amazing) and once we were done, Monica and Katrina were looking in one of the shops and I went outside to sit on a rocking chair.  As I was sitting I started to think of what I could use for this perspective challenge.  I first walked over to a bridge and thought about using the metal lines of the walls but the background on the sides of piled up snow (with some yellow snow from dogs) did not make for a great background, even if it was going to be blurred.  I then walked over to a table and 4 chairs that were set up on a corner of the outside walk way.  Along the entire side was a rope that was used as a wall.  I immediately thought that it would be cool to have the rope be a close up focus of the picture and have the table and chairs blurred in the background.  I really liked that idea and after about 3 test shots from different angles, I finally came up with a winner.

The following picture is what I chose to fulfill my challenge and I really do love it!  Not only do I like the chairs and table blurred in the back, but I LOVE the shallow depth of field and detail on the focused part of the rope.  This was taken with my iPhone 4s (I forgot my camera in the car). Let me know what you think in the comments section.

Missing Guatemala

   Now that New Year's is here, my wife and I find ourselves missing Guatemala.  We started this year in Guatemala as we were on a 2 month visit and we now sit here in the cold, snowy city of Logan wishing we were out on the streets of Guatemala, watching fireworks go off in a 360 degree panorama for 45+ minutes at midnight.

We have been blessed for all that we were able to do this year, from Guatemala and Chile to Jackson Hole, WY and now being stable in Logan, UT.   This has been a crazy year in terms of changing our lives around and it has been a fun adventure that luckily brought us closer together.  As we say goodbye to this year and welcome the next, I wanted to post up just a few pictures to remember where we have been and what we have done this past year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year!!!

 

Reflections Challenge

Katrina from time to time gives me challenges.  The challenge that I had earlier this summer was "Reflection" and I wanted to do something really cool.  I had an idea that I hadn't really seen before (so it was totally original, though I am more than sure that I am not the first one to do this).

Here are my 3 pictures that I chose as my finals for this challenge.  They can also be found on my facebook page - www.facebook.com/fotosbymendi

The original concept

A few hours later I had a giant window (practically a mirror) so I didn't want to pass up the chance to do this again!

My wife's sister decided she wanted in on this challenge too.  Her picture looks like it was taken from a horror flick.  She looks left and the reflection gives her a death stare back..

Hope you enjoyed these.  Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Challenge

So Katrina saw this great picture of a bride's face in partial focus and wanted to see if I could take a picture similar to or the same as the one she saw. Here is the result in two forms and let me just say that she was quite impressed that I was able to learn this and pull it off in just 10 minutes.