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Houston Wedding Photographer

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The Neverending Journey of Photography

By gmiller | Published September 5, 2011

the neverending highway

I have been photographing since I was a kid. Like many photographers it was just something that I fell into during my curious childhood. There wasn’t a specific reason or person or incident that I can recall that sparked my interest. I have always been creative and photography was just another form of creative expression for me. I went through many different phases beginning with landscape, then more abstract, like Pete Turner or Jay Maisel, documentary, commercial, black and white, fine art and now fine art wedding photography. Each phase has taught me something about the world and about myself as an artist. I never consciously moved from one phase to another but rather I just drifted into it. I let my creative part guide me all of the time.

For me photography is a neverending journey. To many people that does not seem like something that would attract them to it but rather something that would deter them. Many people cannot start something unless they can see a firm goal in mind. They want to know when we are going to arrive at our destination and in the process they forget that the journey is much more important than the destination. Now I am not advocating being goalless, aimless, some kind of new age artist that is riding the wave of life man. I lived in California for five years and I have seen many of those people. While I admire their free lifestyle I never saw them going anywhere except in circles. Photography attracted me, still does, because there is no end in site. There is always something else to learn, another photographer or artist to study, another level that you can take your skills to, another whatever. There is always another challenge. You can read more of my thoughts on this in my post ‘Never Stop Learning No Matter What.’ One of mentors/teachers in graduate school, Jim Wood, used to remind us that every time that someone goes to the gym they don’t use the same weights over and over again. Hopefully they get better, stronger, more in shape, then they have to increase the weights or something else to continue to stress the body and to grow. There are too many lazy photographers out there who reach a level of complacency and then they stop growing. They have lost their passion for photography and then it just becomes another job. Well that is not for me. The day that I am totally satisfied with my work, or I lose my passion, or I stop growing, is the day that I will stop photographing. And if I have my way that will never happen.

I encourage all artists to continue their journeys and enjoy the challenges that are presented to them along the way. There are many reasons why I now do wedding photography. I want to help couples capture those special memories of the day to keep forever. But I also do it for the challenge, because it makes me grow as an artist and as a photographer.

Gary Miller

Eye Candy and Brain Veggies

Posted in digital photogarphy, fine art photography, philosophy, photography, wedding photography | Also tagged fine art photography, houston wedding photographers, Jay Maisel, Pete Turner, tutorial Comments Off

Respect the Past, Create the Future

By gmiller | Published September 2, 2011

fine art photograph from an amusement park

Photographing wedding always reminds me how important our memories are to us and our family. We need to make sure that these are preserved and I prefer to do that with fine art wedding photography for my clients. I have written before about how important wedding photographs are, for keepsakes, for lifelong memories, for respect of our family members. You can read more about this in my post ‘Why Wedding Photographs are so Important.’ That is one of the reasons why I really prefer to deliver custom designed wedding albums to my clients. They are tangible, physical, you can feel them, touch the leather. They are an integral part of the fine art process for me. There are so many more cameras around now, even in phones, and so many more casual pictures are being taken by everyone. But these digital images are becoming very temporary. They are easy to work with, post online, email to friends, but they are also easy to loose. I talk about this in great length in my post ‘Back Up or Be Sorry‘ because most people are not archiving these images. Even professional photographers, and so called ‘professionals’, are either not backing up their images or not backing them up properly.

So all of your digital photographs, your memories of fun times and historical records, could be lost, misplaced, killed by a virus, etc, in a fraction of a second. At least in the film and print days you had the prints. Who is going to find a box of CD’s or DVD’s in an attic twenty or thirty years from now? And if you did will you even be able to read that disk? Maybe you left all of your images on your high tech laptop. But twenty years from now is someone going to be able to boot that thing up and actually work with it? Chances are no.

We are living in a very disposable society where technology has made things easier, but there is always a price to pay. We need to protect our memories, our images, and our past. They will help up create the future. I love looking through old family photographs , finding those albums that my parents or grandparents kept. I cherish old wedding albums. What will the experience be like for us in the future? We really need to think about that now.

One of the most importance functions of photography is historical record. It is the main way that we know what things, people, buildings, places, looked like. It will always serve in that role unless we let it slip away. The image above is from the Lake Winnepesaukah Amusement Park in Chattanooga, TN. It is eighty-six years old. That is history that we want to preserve.

Gary Miller

Eye Candy and Brain Veggies

Posted in digital photogarphy, fine art photography, philosophy, photography, wedding photography | Also tagged amusement park, digital photography, fine art wedding photographer, houston wedding photographer, wedding Comments Off

Jessica and Antonio’s Amazing Houston Wedding

By gmiller | Published August 31, 2011

bride and her father on their way to the wedding ceremony

fine art wedding dress photograph

groom preparing for the wedding ceremony

a make up session for the bride before the wedding ceremony

We have been working with Jessica and Antonio over the past months leading up to their wedding. We photographed their Civil Wedding ceremony dinner, their engagement session, ‘Jessica and Antonio’s Houston Engagement Photography Session,’ a bridal portrait session, ‘Jessica’s Houston Bridal Portrait Session,’ and finally their wedding day events.

I think that it is important to spend quality time with clients in order to help produce unique, fine art, wedding photographs. Besides learning more about your client’s likes and dislikes, it puts them more at ease in front of the camera. I like to take a lot of photographs, so I imagine that it can get a bit tiresome to some people to have be around someone who is photographing all of the time. This is an integral part of my documentary photography style.

The wedding preparations took place at the Marriott in Sugar Land, TX. It was fun to spend time with Jessica, her family, and friends. The make up artist, Thea Pheasey, from Kayo by Thea, and a hair stylist prepared eight members of the bridal party. It was fun spending hours with ‘the girls’ and watching the transformations. I also photographed the guys getting ready during the same time period. This made for a tight schedule as I had to leave the hotel for an hour to go over to the groom’s house, then come back to the hotel to photograph Jessica and her father leaving for the church in a beautiful vintage Rolls Royce.

The ceremony was held at St John Vianney Catholic Church in West Houston. This is where all of the formal portraits were taken. After the ceremony we were off again to the reception at Briscoe Manor, in Richmond, TX, just outside Houston. Briscoe Manor is the same location where we photographed the bridal portraits. It is a lovely, pastural setting. The wedding reception was full of wonderful food, great latin flavored music from Salero, out of Austin, and loads of energy. Despite my 14 hours of photographing and driving about 75 miles total, the day was great and Jessica and Antonio were wonderful clients. Congratulations to them both.

Gary Miller

Eye Candy and Brain Veggies

Posted in digital photogarphy, fine art photography, photography, wedding photography | Also tagged Briscoe Manor, fine art wedding photographer, houston fine art wedding photographer, houston wedding photographer, wedding ceremony, wedding reception Comments Off

The Communication Power of Photography

By gmiller | Published August 30, 2011

petroglyphs in Monument Valley photograph

petroglyphs in monument valley, az

Photography is a powerful medium, but many people forget how important it is in its role as a communicator. Photography is all around us most of the time. Pick up any newspaper or magazine, go to any website, wall around any store or mall, and you will be surrounded by photographs. We now use our phones to take pictures and nearly every person in the industrialized world has a camera. We use photographs for many different reasons. As a fine art wedding photographer my job is to capture the memories of people in unique photographs so that they will be able to look back on these images and remember a special time in their lives. I freeze moments, fractions of a second, of details and emotions, and places. So it alarms me that many people do not take their wedding photography very seriously and they look to spend as little as possible, and in the end get little in return. You can read more about my thoughts on this critical area in my posts, ‘Hiring the Perfect Wedding Photographer‘ ‘Why Wedding Photographs are so Important‘ and ‘Photography is not a Commodity.’ If you have been following my blog at all you know that I am a big proponent of educating the public about not hiring lame photographers who are not experienced professionals just to save a little money. The memories that are being captured by your wedding photographer as your memories. They will communicate the wedding day tomorrow and for years to come. Many couples are so busy and occupied during their wedding day that they are genuinely surprised when they see the images from the ceremony and the reception.

Besides photography serving to preserve memories, this is part of the history recording aspect of it, it is a form of communication. I used to teach a Visual Media class at Texas Tech University. We covered all types of media. Many students were not surprised when we spoke about art, printing, movies, TV, and graphic design. But many were surprised when we spoke about photography. It is everywhere, as I mentioned above. And it is so powerful that people rarely see it’s strong communicative side. Photographs can influence society and laws. When Jacob Riis photographed child laborers and slums in the early 1900′s in New York, laws were enacted to change things. That is the power of photography, that is communication.

The image above is from some petroglyphs in Monument Valley, Arizona. This is a very ancient form of communication, the photography of the day if you like. Like photographs these petroglyphs recorded history, opinion, and daily events. These were memories that were important to the people who put them there. For us today, photography is fulfilling that same role. Even though there are many other media out there, some newer and some older than photography, I still think that photography remains the most powerful and the most cherished.

Gary Miller

Eye Candy and Brain Veggies

Posted in digital photogarphy, fine art photography, philosophy, photography, photography techniques, wedding photography | Also tagged communication, fine art photographer, houston wedding photographers, Jacob Riis, Monument Valley, petroglyph, Texas Tech University, Utah 1 Comment

5 Successful Engagement Photography Tips

By gmiller | Published August 27, 2011

engagement photograph

Part of being a fine art wedding photographer, and photographing weddings, is that I photograph engagement sessions. These sessions are always important to me because I like to spend time with a couple before their wedding day to become more at ease with them and to learn more about them. It gives me a chance to see if they are nervous in front of the camera or more natural. I can see if they like being posed or respond better to a more casual photojournalistic approach. It also gives the couple a chance to begin to get used to having a photographer around taking lots of pictures. For may people this is a unique occurrence, even if they like having their photograph taken. Many couples do not realize that an engagement session, or a portrait session, can be tiring.

The engagement photograph above is from a recent session with Jessica and Antonio and was taken in Sugar Land, TX, part of Houston. We decided on a more casual outdoor feel and ended up photographing in three distinct locations. You can see more images from this session in the post ‘Jessica and Antonio’s Houston Engagement Photography Session.’

Here are some tips to help couple get great engagement photographs.

1. Planning

Make sure to have a game plan when it comes to your engagement photographs. You should discuss this with your photograph prior to the actual day of the session. Make sure to have several alternatives. It is always better to have more choices. Please don’t wing it, and don’t let your ‘artist’ photographer talk you into figuring it out on the fly. The best times to photograph are early and late in the day and you will only have a small window of great light.

2. Relax

The engagement session should be a calm affair. If you have a plan that will help a great deal. If you have a good, competent, professional photographer, that will help alot. You can read more about hiring a professional photographer in my posts ‘Hiring the Perfect Wedding Photographer‘ and ‘Photography is not a Commodity.’ If you hire the right photographer you can relax, knowing that you are going to get great images and have great memories preserved. Spend the extra money to hire someone who is good. It will pay off big in the long run.

3. Have fun

This goes hand in hand with being relaxed. Don’t forget to have fun during the photography session. In fact I prefer more of the documentary style and do not like to pose or stage my couples. I want them to be as natural as possible, have fun, and show their love for one another. So leave any troubles behind and really enjoy the great moments.

4. Be yourself

I am never happy with photographs that do not show the true individual, the real people. Just be yourself. It is fine to become something for a photography session, but I think that the best value lies in the true individual. It is part of that fun, relaxed thing that I mentioned before. People should be real and approachable. If you want to do a high fashion thing make a separate photography session for that.

5. Know your style

Knowing your personal style, your likes and dislikes, and telling the photographer, will make your images better because they will resonate with you more. Let you photographer know if you are really into the Texas country thing, grunge, or an urban feel. This will really feed into the choice of locations and could even influence which photographer you choose. On the flip side I do not recommend that a photographer take on a style that they either do not like or are not feeling. Forced photographs from either the subject or the photographer will always look forced. So be honest and open. You may even have to use a different photographer for the engagement session than for the wedding. It is unusual, but it may be the best thing in certain situations.

These tips should help your engagement photography session go smoother and help you to have great images and a great experience. Don’t discount the importance of engagement photographs. They are not just important for their memory-value, but they will make your wedding photographs better. I always recommend that a couple spend the time and the money on an engagement session.

Gary Miller

Eye Candy and Brain Veggies

Posted in digital photogarphy, fine art photography, photography, wedding photography | Also tagged bride, engagement, fine art wedding photographer, groom, houston wedding photographer, wedding photography Comments Off

Jessica’s Houston Bridal Portrait Session

By gmiller | Published August 26, 2011

jessica at the chapel at briscoe manor, houston, tx

a detail photograph of a beautiful wedding gown

bridal bouquet and wedding dress

flowing veil and wedding dress detail

I have been working with Jessica and Antonio on their wedding for several months now. You can see some of the photographs from their engagement session in my post ‘Jessica and Antonio’s Houston Engagement Session.’ As I mentioned in that post we like to spend adequate time with our clients leading up to their wedding day to help them become used to being photographed and to help us to learn more about their likes and dislikes. We care about our clients and want to provide them with the highest level of fine art photographs that will preserve their wedding memories. To get this level of imagery you have to invest the time before, during, and after photograph sessions. This post is about the bridal portrait session that we did with Jessica at the chapel at Briscoe Manor, located just outside of Houston, TX. Since this is where the wedding reception was to take place, and they have a lovely attached stone chapel, we thought that it would be a great place for a bridal session. With the weather in Houston already hot and humid we look for indoor locations, especially for bridal portraits. We like to keep our brides comfortable and relaxed. Briscoe Manor provided the perfect setting with a beautiful bridal preparation room and a very cooperative staff. It is a wonderful place to be married, have your reception, or any other type of special event.

The portrait session day was a complete one. We were allowed to photograph at the chapel from 9-12. But Jessica was going to have her hair and make up done beforehand. This process can take up to 2 hours and then there was about 30 minutes of travel time from her home to the portrait location. This meant an early start for me, the make up artist, the hair stylists, and Jessica’s friends who were there to help. I am so glad that she had some people around to help her get dressed and to give her support. I attended the make up session to take some preparation photographs. The make up and hair styling was going to be done again on the wedding day, but at that time there would be seven other people involved and you can never be sure how much time, or room, you will have. I wanted to cover myself by photographing the first make up session.

Once we arrived at the Briscoe Manor Jessica was able to quickly change into her wedding gown and we were able to get started. The chapel had lots of natural light so we had many options for our portrait session. Jessica did a great job posing and we are all excited with the results. I purposely have waited to post these photographs. Many people do not like to show off the dress until after the wedding. I will be posting images from their wedding reception shortly so stay tuned. During the session we covered both conventional and fine art photographs.

Gary Miller

Eye Candy and Brain Veggies

Posted in digital photogarphy, fine art photography, photography, photography techniques, wedding photography | Also tagged bridal portraits, fine art wedding photographer, houston fine art wedding photographer, houston wedding photographer, wedding photography 1 Comment

Photography is Not a Commodity

By gmiller | Published August 24, 2011

i give you money

Everyone seems to be looking for the best deal. We want to buy things at the lowest possible price. While that may work for some items, especially products that are all the same, that approach does not work very well when it comes to services, like wedding photography. Too often customers looking for a wedding photographer will make the mistake of going after low price without realizing that they are sacrificing many things and will more than likely not be pleased with the level of photographs that they receive. You should read my post ‘Why Wedding Photographs are so Important.’

In my experience everyone who is making a buying decision is looking for three things; high quality, great service, and low price. I have found, and I would think that you have too, that you can not get high quality and great service at a low price. The equation will never balance out. Low priced items are cheap, both in cost and in workmanship. Yet people mistakenly believe that they can go out and look for the lowest priced photographer for their wedding. Or worse yet they have their cousin Joe or their hobbyist neighbor do the job. This is a bad idea on several levels. So which part are you willing to give up. High quality, great service, or low price? Which ones are the most important to you?

Wedding photography should be done by an experience professional photographer. You do not want a jack of all trades. Your wedding is a very special day that will only happen once and you want to capture those memories in great, creative photographs. Those are precious memories that you and your family will have for a lifetime. Now do you want your cousin Joe with his $200 digital camera to do that job for you? I hope not. You see, wedding photography is not a product. It is a service, and with services the high quality, great service, low price equation is in full effect. Too many people make the mistake of seeing photography as a product. Well it is not. I am a fine art wedding photographer with years of experience. My business partner and I at Red Photo have years of photography experience in the wedding, portrait,commercial, and fine art worlds. We know what we are doing. We have been there and captured beautiful, timeless images before and we will continue to do it. That expertise and experience demands a higher cost.

People have to see the value in something before they are willing to pay more for it. If I show you two oranges and tell you that one of them is 50 cents and the other is $1.50, which one are your going to take. Most people will go for the lower priced one. But if I told you that the $1.50 orange is organic, has more flavor, more vitamin C, lasts longer, and does not have mold like the cheaper orange, you might change your choice.

Photography is not a commodity and you should not be buying it based on price alone. Wedding photography is an important service and you should buy it based on what you want and the level of product and services that you need.

Gary Miller

Eye Candy and Brain Veggies

Posted in digital photogarphy, fine art photography, philosophy, photography, wedding photography | Also tagged commodity, fine art photography, houston wedding photographer, wedding photography 1 Comment

The Power of Silhouette Photographs

By gmiller | Published August 24, 2011

silhouette of bride and groom at wedding reception

contemplative bride before her wedding ceremony

bride and groom portrait at sunset

In photography there are certain techniques that are often guaranteed to create dramatic and memorable images. One of these photographic techniques is the use of the silhouette. I have found that they can work especially well when I am photographing weddings. There are many ways that they can be utilized, but I find the results are always stunning. There is just something about the drama and the mystery of having your main subject be very dark. The silhouette technique can come in very handy when you find yourself in a backlight situation. This is where you have a strong light source behind your subject. Many times it is better to put the light source behind someone then in front of them. If you are outside, putting the sun in front of your subject creates flat light and squinting brides and grooms. This situation can be really uncomfortable to your subject. And the last thing that you want to do is make your subjects uncomfortable and teary-eyed. There are more appropriate parts of the wedding for people to be teary-eyed and portraits is not one of those times. When you place the sun, or your light source behind your subject you can get very dramatic results but you have to know how to handle this type of exposure properly. You could use a flash unit to light the subject, and this is very common. You could also choose not to light your subject and let them go dark, thus creating a silhouette image.

There are some important factors to keep in mind when producing a silhouette image. They usually look better if the subject goes very dark. You can see this above in the two images with the bride and groom. Letting your main subject go very dark creates a great deal of drama. As I mentioned before there is also that air of mystery because you cannot always see who they are. Another aspect of these dark subject images is that you get to work with the form and shape of your subject(s). I have written several times before about how I like formalism and use in my work often. You can read more about formalism in my posts ‘Photography Movements- Formalism‘, ‘Simplicity in Photographs‘, ‘7 Steps of Better Black and White Photography‘ and many others. I actually talk about formalism a great deal and it is one of the most searched terms on my blog.

The other type of a silhouette is the partial one. The image above of the bride looking out the window is an example of this. Here we can see details in the subject. The key is to find that fine line between showing too few and too many details. If you show too few, it becomes the type of photograph that I spoke about before. If you show too many details you loose the allure of the silhouette.

I have used the silhouette technique countless times over the years in my commercial photography and in my fine art wedding photography. It also works great in color or black and white. So keep to the shadows, go into the light, and create some dramatic photographs.

Gary Miller

Eye Candy and Brain Veggies

Posted in digital photogarphy, fine art photography, philosophy, photography, photography techniques, wedding photography | Also tagged fine art wedding photographer, houston wedding photographers, silhouette, wedding photography Comments Off

Why Use a Wedding Planner?

By gmiller | Published August 24, 2011

fine art photograph of wedding rings

Wedding are very special events. There are important moments in someone’s life and therefore they take a great deal of planning and preparation. I have written before about the vital importance of having great wedding photographs taken to preserve your memories for a lifetime. You can read about this in my post ‘Why Wedding Photographs are So Important.’ Unfortunately some people think that they will save some money by hiring a less expensive wedding photographer. That is a mistake because you are not going to get high quality and service from an inexperienced, low priced photographer. I am especially sensitive to this because I get to hear the horror stories about people who skimped on their wedding photography budget and received a CD of lousy images that their neighbor could have taken. Please make the investment in a good, competent and experienced photographer. In the long run the extra investment will be well worth it.

Recent I was speaking to a wedding planner, Alexia McWhinney with Savvy Consulting and Event Management in Houston, TX, about this very thing and she mentioned that people are also trying to save money by not hiring a wedding planner. Again, this is a mistake as I see it. Wedding planners and coordinators are well worth the price that you will pay for them. They are professionals with the experience to make your wedding day run smoothly. So often when I am photographing at a wedding the couple is asking me what to do in which order and when. A wedding planner provides the knowledge. She/He can tell you when things should occur and keep you on track. Their experience is valuable. Along these lines, that level of experience will allow the bride and groom to be freed up more to enjoy their day. The bride and groom should not be worrying about when the cake cutting should take place, etc. Let the planner handle that.

Planning a wedding takes a great deal of time. Some brides really enjoy it, but a planner can take a great deal of that burden from you. They know many competent vendors, like Red Photo, and can help you to book the right people for a great event. They do not procrastinate or get inundated with the opinion of ten different relatives. They know how to schedule themselves and build a timetable. There is actually a logical order to setting up a wedding ceremony and reception. I think that creating a great wedding is really an artform. A planner can also provide a bride with moral support and a solid outside opinion. They have been through this before and can help you.

Many people think that wedding planners are expensive, but as I mentioned before, hiring them can save you money in the end. Their connections can bring you discounts or special advantages and access that you might not have on your own. Their vendor connections will bring you reliable people who will perform a great job. Their attention to detail will really add that finished dimension to any wedding event.

So if you have been considering saving a little money on your wedding by hiring a cheap photographer and leaving out a wedding coordinator, I caution you against both moves. You wedding is a very special event and you deserve to have great people supporting you and working to make it a beautiful and memorable event.

Gary Miller