Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

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‘Light The Way’ Lighting Workshop

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

Photographers: Want to learn more about lighting techniques and posing in a dynamic, hands-on workshop?
Want to experiment with new equipment (or better understand the equipment you already own) in a fun, supportive environment?

Bring your camera and your lighting questions to Light The Way at Club Fête in Providence on March 24 from 10am – 3pm. Hosted by Brad Smith Photography & Seth Jacobson Photography, the program will include strategies for creating dynamic & dramatic lighting scenarios. There will also be an opportunity for peer feedback and review of your work. We believe in learning by doing, so this is not a lecture. This is an interactive program with a strong emphasis on play. We will have models and lighting gear on hand and participants will have the opportunity to immediately test and apply what they learn in a creative, supportive setting.

JOIN US!
The cost is $100 for the 4 hour workshop, and the registration deadline is March 10th. We will have a break for lunch (Wes’ Rib House is right next door!), but participants are welcome to bring a bag lunch and continue through lunch.

Please email workshop@smithbrad.com to secure your spot.

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Photograph your kids!

Monday, February 6th, 2012

My little one:

…on the phone…

…in the clothes hamper…

…in my shoes… (all ways to get him to stay in one spot for more than a milli-second!)

…tantrum time, but milk should make it OK.

Photograph your kids! … Or better yet, hire a professional to do it for you!

I’ve seen first hand over the last (almost) two years how fast a little one can change. It’s crazy really. I’ll take a photograph of him one week, then another the next, and there’s a clear difference between the two. He’ll look older in the new image, for sure. And for that reason, I make it a point to try and photograph him all the time, as much as possible. Whether it be on the iPhone, my Digital SLR, or my Fuji x100 point and shoot camera, just making sure I take pictures of him on a regular basis is the key.

I don’t always set up a backdrop like the images above, as a matter of fact, most times I photograph him we’re just playing out in the yard kicking a ball around. But every once in a while, I’ll take the time to schlep all my gear upstairs and set up a nice clean background like this for a simpler shot.

I’m trying to decide now which one to send off to my canvas company to be made into a beautiful wall portrait. Because what good are the pictures if not printed out for everyone to enjoy?

Take pictures of your kids and your family – then PRINT those pictures of your kids and your family, and hang them on the wall. If you think you’ll never get around to taking and printing those type of pictures, call me or another professional photographer to do it for you. I’d be more than happy to help!

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2012 WeddingWire Award

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

{Warwick,RI} – January 24, 2012 – WeddingWire is excited to announce Brad Smith Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2012 for Photography!

The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top local wedding vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism within the wedding industry. While many industry awards are selected by the organization, Brad Smith Photography was selected based on its stellar reviews from past newlywed clients.

Brad Smith Photography is recognized as part of the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire local vendor community, comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States and Canada. The Bride’s Choice Award recognizes the best local wedding vendors across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is thrilled to honor the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Since the launch of the Bride’s Choice Awards™ program four years ago, thousands of outstanding wedding professionals have been recognized by the bridal community for their supreme service and dedication to the wedding industry. It is with great pleasure that we congratulate Brad Smith Photography for their continued professionalism and commitment to enriching the wedding planning experience for engaged couples.”

We are happy to announce that Brad Smith Photography is one of the very best Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. Thanks to their positive feedback we were able to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards for 2012.

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Katherine Quinn @ Club Fête

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

I had the opportunity to hang out with my friend and fellow photographer, Seth Jacobson for a bit the other day at a brand new Club Fête in the Olneyville section of Providence. We were there to take some images of Katherine, a talented musician who happens to be opening up for Pat McGee in a few weeks. (If you know me, you know I’ve been a fan of Pat McGee for a very long time. I might have to get out and check out that show!)

This was part of Seth’s RI Portrait Project that he’s been working on over the last several months. We were given full access to the club, which was expertly decorated and very interesting visually, throughout. These are a few images that I took during my time there. The above image was taken with my brand new 43″ Octabox (with the Elinchrom Quadra light inside) up and overhead and the image below was taken with the same Octabox and Quadra off to the left, with a small strip light behind and to the right.

Below: Just a cool detail shot of one of the wall decorations at Club Fête.

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Mystic Model Session

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

I attended Mystic Seminars last weekend. This is the third year now I’ve made the drive down to Mystic, CT in January to see some amazing photographers speak on a variety of subjects ranging from lighting and posing to business and customer service. While the event is chock full of speakers, vendors, inspiration, and networking with local photographers, there isn’t any actual photography involved. So for the third time, myself and a couple of other photographers organized a little shoot. We met up with Niky and shot around a bit down at UCONN’s Avery Point campus. These are some of the shots from the time we spent photographing. It’s nice to get out and photograph for the sake of photographing every once in a while.

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Farewell 2011 Season

Sunday, November 13th, 2011

Another great wedding season comes to a close! I had my final wedding of the season a couple weeks ago and now it’s on to wrapping up albums and other loose ends before looking forward towards the 2012 wedding season. Thanks to all the couples that trusted me with documenting their wedding day in 2011: Sarah & Peter, Brianne & John, Melissa & Patrick, Stephanie & Nick, Meagan & T.J., Jenna & Brian, Lin & Phiroat, Ashley & Kyle, Kathryn & Plato, Tracy & Chris, Celeste & Jay, Lindsay & Joe, Catherine & Dan, Erin & Dan, Traci & Tip, Jillian & Ryan, Jesse & Ben, Joan & Mike, and Sara & Shawn.

I was able to photograph at some gorgeous venues: Wequasset Golf Club & Resort, The Towers in Narragansett, (where I held my own wedding reception several years ago)  Linden Place in Bristol, Aldrich Mansion in Warwick, Independence Harbor in Assonet, MA, 41 North in Newport, Blissful Meadows in Uxbridge, MA, The New Haven Lawn Club, Lake of Isles at Foxwoods, Alpine Country Club, Heritage Gardens in Sandwich, MA, Kinney Bungalow in Narragansett, The Dunes Club in Narragansett, Atlantic Beach Club in Middletown, and several more, as well as a few private residences throughout the season.

Of course, I’m continuing to photograph engagement sessions throughout the winter as well as some other projects – so you’re sure to see some new work here soon! Thanks for following my work here, and remember to jump over to facebook to ‘like’ brad smith photography there as well.

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Kelly: Portraits

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Below: Just a fun little series of four images

This past week I spent a couple of hours hanging out with Seth Jacobson and Kelly Meyer, two talented local photographers. Kelly was actually on the other side of the lens that evening, standing in for images that were a little different than the ones I normally photograph. We set out with a couple of lights and location in mind and simply wanted to make some cool photographs. The images we ended up with are simple and fun, and will hopefully give Kelly some great new Facebook profile pictures to choose from.

Below is a shot Seth took while i was working with Kelly on a shot. Thanks, Seth and Kelly for a fun evening! Let’s do it again soon.

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Let It Rain

Sunday, June 5th, 2011

It’s always fun to just play. Finding time for shooting things like the above images is important to the growth of any photographer.

I called my friend and fellow wedding photographer, Seth one day and told him about this idea that i had. I wanted to shoot a relatively dark image (unlike most of my other work which is considerably brighter in tone) that featured rain that was back lit to create a stunning display of individual rain drops. I wanted to light the subject simply and dramatically. I originally thought of finding a model to come in and pose while I made the shot, but after talking to Seth about the idea, he suggested using himself as the model. Photographers generally don’t work well in front of the camera, but Seth was good at making the transition. He brought along a fantastic black trench coat and hat that helped transform the look of the shot to something darker and more menacing.

I set up before sunset and waited until the sky went dark to capture this series of images. The main light was an Elinchrom Quadra Ranger to my left, shot through a grid spot towards Seth’s face to control the light falloff. The back light was a Canon 580exii to illuminate the rain. I varied the composition in some frames to allow the flash to be seen in the background, and in others I obscured it with Seth’s body. The “rain” wasn’t rain at all. It was a run of the mill garden hose, clamped to a step ladder, and pointed upward. The falling water created the rain effect.

I thought about how bummed a couple can get if the weather doesn’t cooperate on their wedding day. So I tried to think about how I could incorporate this technique into a rainy wedding day. I think it’d be a pretty smooth transition, actually. I’d have the bride and groom hold the umbrella and set up the lights similarly, and you’ve got yourself a very dramatic image that will likely be a pretty fantastic shot for an otherwise gray, rainy day.

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PVD Street Studio

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

I stepped out of my comfort zone yesterday. Fellow wedding photographer James Hazelwood and I ventured up to Providence to a busy street corner on what turned out to be one of the warmest days in months! It was a technically simple shoot – just a 50mm lens and a white backdrop – but it was difficult in other ways.

We set up our white backdrop right outside Aruba Steve’s bar on the corner of Dorrance and Weybosset. We each took a couple of test shots to determine our exposure values and we were ready to go. What followed was a lesson in rejection, a lesson in learning how to speak to strangers (especially for me, who rarely approaches people I don’t know) and a lesson in getting people comfortable within a matter of seconds. Usually, during a normal portrait session, there’s time factored in at the beginning of the shoot to warm up to each other a bit, with the Street Studio, there was none of that. It was fast paced and remarkable simple once we found a willing subject. Many people asked us, “What is this for?” – to which we replied, “Just for fun.” Others asked, “How much will this cost me?” – obviously, it cost them nothing.

It was a great afternoon, and I’m real happy with the way these images came out. If you feel up for it, please check out the whole gallery of my images by clicking on the image below.

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The Story of a Lost Roll of Film

Thursday, March 10th, 2011

Earlier this year, Todd Bieber was cross country skiing around the neighborhoods of New York City (after one of the heavy snowfalls the Northeast saw) when he stumbled upon a roll of film. He picked it up, developed the images, and vowed to find the owners of the images.

He made a short video and posted it to YouTube. It went viral and was watched by millions of people. The video eventually made it’s way to the owners. This is the story of Todd Bieber and what he did to find the owners of this film.

It’s a cool story, it’ll take about 10 minutes of your time. Take a look!

Watch Part 1 below, which will link to part 2 and part 3, or you can click the links below.
Watch Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtzN-Ltob2w
Watch Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI93y2oJ4ck

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