A Wedding Album Reveal

Well, I’ve been working like a madman ever since I got back from Vegas. Sure, the wedding was amazing. It was fun and I made a lot of new friends who are nothing short of awesome. Plus I got to photograph in a lot of places including the Neon Boneyard and in front of the Bellagio while those fountains were going. Pretty amazing.

The revel is tomorrow. There’s a few months this year where I’m booked every weekend. So, in addition to teaching the classes, I’ve got to go through all the photos and edit them in a week so I’m prepared for the next wedding.

The typical photographer will get 1,500 shots per a wedding, but I tend to get more like 4,000. That’s a lot of photos to go through. The blurry ones needs to be thrown out (Yes, even with our amazing cameras these days, our focussing systems aren’t perfect), the sharp ones need to be color corrected. Distracting elements need to be removed. Leading lines need to be considered. In some rare cases, flare needs to be taken away. Contrast, hue, and saturation need to be perfect. It is a wedding, after all.

A kiss in an open air bus

 

So what am I up to now? I’ve got a few hundred photos to go through still. The boneyard, the baby in the wedding dress. And isn’t she cute? Then we’re putting together a slide show. and doing a play by play. It’s the raw amount of photos that is making culling them so difficult. But that’s also the beautify.

My favorite is when I’m done a wedding, get to give them their special engraved “Draht Photography” memories box. Then the next day, I wake up extra early and put freshly charged batteries into my camera. Because it’s time for a new adventure. <3

A Wedding Album Reveal

Vernon, BC Photography Lessons

Vernon Photography Lessons

Don’t forget, we’re gearing up for our photography workshops in May! This class is for the photographer who can’t turn on their camera, all the way to the photographer trying to invoke a bit of extra depth in her photographs. We talk about operation, equipment, accessories, natural and artificial light, posing children and adults. Taught by myself and Image Studios, it’s not a class you’d want to miss!

We’ve got eight photography lessons, plus a bonus lessons where we learn how to put it all together. We talk about focus recompose, the four laws of depth, 7 steps to a perfect portrait, natural vs artificial light, how and when to use your flash, black and white and when to use it, the correct way to watermark a photo, benefits of raw, long exposures, time lapse photography, how to correctly pose both babies and children, silhouettes, manual mode on your camera, bulb mode and how it can make your photos more vibrant, trick photography, uses of an intervalometer, a diffuser and when to use it on your flash, bounce light, reflected light, and a ton more.

You can even get access to our facebook groups, where you will post your weekly homework in an open, encouraging environment. Send us a message today to sign up for may!

Vernon, BC Photography Lessons

Travel Photography 2015

Travel Photography 2015

Stunning Slot Canyon Photos by Vernon Photographer

Hello Internet!

What a week it’s been! Just got back from Vegas on April 6, just in time to teach the photography class at 6:30. We went through different kinds of light, and the nine steps to making a perfect portrait. We teach the beginner classes on Monday, so it’s a breeze.

A stunning photo of Antelope Canyon in the evening by renowned photographer Eric Draht in Vernon, BC

But what happened in Vegas?

A wedding.

What didn’t stay in Vegas?

Everything else. First day we were there, my good friend Mark and I decided to rent a car from the good people at Dollar Rent a Car in Vegas. It wasn’t much, and the unlimited mileage really helped! We spent the next sixteen hours driving around the Nevada desert.

the rocks at Antelope Canyon, Arizona

And as far as deserts go, I have no complaints! We saw the gorgeous Antelope Canyon, tour provided generously by Navajo Antelope Canyon Tours. What an awesome tribe! We found out our tribal leader was Christian and spends a lot of his weekends trucking up his band to churches and playing! This guy has been going for seven days a week for I don’t know how long! He was very patient with us and told us all the best spots to take pictures.

Coming out of this photo, and a phantom perhaps?

It was quite windy, though. For two days after, I would rinse sand out of my hair every time I took a shower. After I took the lens off my Canon 5d Mark 3, sand dropped out of the weather sealing! I’m glad Canon seals those cameras tight!

Soon after this, it was time to hit the Grand Canyon!

Grand Canyon, Arizona, in the evening taken by Eric Draht

This may look like it’s photoshopped, but this is how it came out of the camera! It was so dusty from all the sand blowing around, all you could see were silhouettes of the mountains far away!

I’ll come up with a better preview soon. Thanks for reading this far!

All the gorgeous colors from the grand canyon in the evening

 

Stunning Slot Canyon Photos by Vernon Photographer

Vernon Photography Lessons!

Great news! We’ve figured out our schedule, and we’re now accepting sign ups for May!

Every level is welcome – even if you don’t know how to even turn on your camera, we’re going to give you the information you need to make amazing photos you’ll cherish forever!

These photography lessons take place right here in Vernon, BC. At Image Studios, right across from Bookland and Nature’s Fair, above Triumph Coffee.

Or just look for all the students with cameras wandering around.

 

Vernon Photography Lessons!

A first look you won't forget

Today was quite the day.

 

I photographed a wedding that blew us all away. In the middle of town, by the Vegas sign, on an open air bus.

 

I hope everyone here stays tuned. We have a quite large album coming very soon.

A first look you won't forget

A Flair for the Unusual in Vernon

This week, we brought it up a notch.

I was showing this photo to my class. If you’ll remember, I teach 6 classes a week on photography. Everything from beginner to advanced. I was showing this to my students, as an example as to when to use colored gels on an off camera TTL flash. She said, “This photo looks very complicated. I can’t decode the composition.”

Tara & Dan by Vernon Photographer Draht Photography

Well, spoiler alert, it is.

I’m typing this in my room in Vegas. I’m sketching up all my concept shots for tomorrow and thought to myself, “What better way to break this up than a blog post?” Here we are.

So the off camera flash is behind the couple in the above shot. The idea is, you’d like it to just graze your model’s cheek – just enough so that you know it’s there, but not so much you light her up.

Grey days are a mixed blessing. I used to love cloudy days because I wouldn’t have to worry about diffusing my light. In the same stroke, without hot or cold light, my photos would look bland. I set out to fix this.

Tara & Dan by Vernon Photographer Draht Photography

What you’re seeing is an off camera flash with a CTO (color temperature orange) firing towards me. I know there’s a ton of pollen in the air in the spring, and I also knew if I used a fixed aperture setting (f3.0/f4.0) I could capture it. But what about the balance of the image?

Tara & Dan by Vernon Photographer Draht Photography

That’s where Tara’s hair comes in. I knew I could have a lot of grey, or a little bit of black. Her hair was black, and so it gave the image that hint of seriousness I needed. The bright colors gave the photos a fairytale look. The pollen gives this shoot a dash of the unexpected. The tattoos add badassery.

And this couple?

Let’s just say you haven’t seen anything yet. The timeline I’ve got figured out for the wedding is a game changer.

 

 

A Flair for the Unusual in Vernon