Catchlight News

The lucky Sevens

2007-06-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Ivone & Alfrin are getting married on 7/7/7 this year. I have been chosen as the lucky photographer and given the priviledge to capture the special date wedding. Last week, I photographed their engagement session:

As far as I know, they are not professional models, but there were moments during this shoot when I felt like they were:

Oh, maybe at least part of the credit for those good looks will go to the photographer ? :)

Ivone:

They were also a good sport about dancing on the beach, I really did not have to encourage it too much:

Slow dancing allowed me to capture some more romantic images, too:

Ivone & Alfrin - Thanks for the fantastic shoot ! Can't wait to photograph the wedding !

Cinematic weddings - the future of my photography !

2007-05-17T09:08:00.000-07:00

I don't really want this statement to sound too profound but I think the wedding of Samatha and Lou was a milestone, a breaking point for me. That is because after photographing it and discussing the future of my business with Monika Broz (who has recently been my best friend, a mentor and inspiration in photography) I have realized where I want to take my wedding photography. 16x9 has become my format of choice. Cinematic coverage is what I truly want to do. From now on I will make changes to my website and direct my marketing efforts to attracting customers that appreciate movies. I consider myself a hard core movie person. I was always fascinated by the work of great movie directors. I believe cinematic wedding photography, when done right can be fresh, different, amazing !

It all started when myself and Monika approached our MAD LOVE engagement session from a different perspective and decided to do all photography for it in wide, 16x9 aspect ratio. Ever since then I have been discovering more and more how "at home" I feel working in this format. Whether cinematic coverage is going to be my way to stand out in the crowd of other wedding photographers or just something special that I can offer to my customers - it is a goal that I am going to pursue now.

Time to change this game a little ! Welcome to David's world of cinematic weddings !

DWF Convention 2007

2007-05-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas, Nevada. 600 photographers from all over the World come together to exchange experience, learn from each other, create friendhips that last a lifetime and have a ton of fun in between. All of them are members of DWF (Digital Wedding Forum). This year, I was honored as one of the speakers for this unique event. Together with Dina Douglass of Andrena Photography, I presented a seminar about lighting in wedding photography.

Speaking in front of hundreds of other professiona photographers requires a great deal of preparation and hard work, in order to deliver valuable content, but working with Dina was flawless and our presentation was fun !

Together with Dina and Yoshi Morimoto - author of some of the four above images:

The Convention offered to photographers so much more than just lectures. Here's some photos from our desert escapade and John Michael Cooper performing his anti-shoot:

DWF'ers and a desert sunset:

and myself, could not resist posing in front of the red convertible.... oh, those fantastic colors !

Christine, Thank You for this shot !

Las Vegas 2007 and the whole DWF experience was something truly amazing !
In the meantime I even got to photograph a real couple, on the streets of Vegas, getting married:

...and right after the Convention, went for a road trip through Nevada and Arizona with Monika, that I will never forget:

To many people, the first word that comes to mind when talking about Vegas is... cassinos ! What I learned this year, is that you don't have to make a fortune (or come with a fortune) to leave with the most amazing memories. There are, really, different ways to own Vegas..... :)

MAD LOVE

2007-03-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

I think it is important for every wedding photographer to differentiate themselves from the competition, stand out from the crowd and show something to their customers that nobody else is offering. It's a task not easily accomplished. Towards the end of 2006 season I teamed up with Monika Broz for the project called MAD LOVE. We decided to try and approach engagement session photography from a new angle. Instead of keeping it "all sweet and pretty" we wanted to shoot a couple in a setting that provides dramatic contrast to warm and cozy feelings of love and affection. We have also come up with a little scenario for our models so that in the end we could create a slideshow of not just accidental images but one that would have a storyline to it.
Our Models, Marta and Tim are a real couple and we are booked to photograph their wedding in September 2007:

They both turned out to be extremely patient and easy to work with:

The location that we have found for our session was an abandoned warehouse and an old school buildings in Passaic, NJ:

Tim was fearless in 'attacking' the rusty staircases and walking accross the rooms, where wooden floor panels remember much better times:

Marta was following his footsteps with the same amount of bravery. The courage and devotion they showed allowed us to produce a fantastic and very distinctive set of images:

An interesting fact: during the entire session we were accompanied by a black cat. We had no idea who it belonged to but it would not stop following our couple, trying to get into literally every photo we were framing:

So we decided to include the nosy animal and get the best out of the opportunity. Monika managed to capture this fantastic composition:

The little black hero, one more time:

For some technical info, all images were captured using 'regular' digital cameras with 2:3 sensor ratio. However, when we were shooting we had the final format of our choice (16:9) in mind. The ultimate purpose of our work was to create a widescreen, cinematic slideshow recorded to a DVD disc. Here's how the finished product looks like:

To keep the look and 'feel' of the entire presentation consistent we have created our own post-processing action in Photoshop that allowed to achieve the bluish tone, contrasty and dramatic appearance and slightly dreamy effect (the latest may not be visible in the small images that were resized for this blog):

During the entire shoot we have of course captured a lot more images and processed them in different ways:

Although the overall mood of the MAD LOVE session was slightly more serious and dramatic than what one would normally expect from a similar shoot, we of course had tons of fun creating those images:

Monika working with Marta and Tim:

to create this:

Personally I am thrilled at the prospect of working with more of our couples in the future and creating similar projects. Not necessarily in the environment of decay and destruction. Let's go to a sunset cafe boulevard in a small town, a beach at wintertime, ride horses in a countryside. Something different and special for everybody. Let's change the way we play this game !

THE STUDIO !!!

2006-12-23T22:26:00.000-08:00

It gives me a great pleasure to announce that my studio is open for business ! A few images showing the client meeting area:

The opening party took place on Wednesday, December 20. I was fortunate enough to have some good friends join me for the celebration ! In order of appearance in front of the camera, Scott Bush:

John Bagdowitz with his wife Sheri:

Neil van Niekerk and his wife Sara:

the one and only Jose Reyes

Desha and Kyle. Myself, Neil van Niekerk and Jose Reyes had a pleasure to photograph their wedding in July of the current year:

Martha and Tim, whose wedding I will be photographing on September 14, 2007:

Ivone and Alfrin, my 'lucky' 7/7/7 couple ! Looking forward to this one:

Alexa and Michael, a couple that I photographed in November 2005 - their wedding was a great adventure for me:

Milton Gil! My good friend and the best businessman in photography I know:

Robin Roemer, another photographer that I admire:

Monika Broz, what can I say - incredibly talented and creative Monika helped me so much in creating this studio that it's hard to find words that would fully express my gratefulness:

Nina and Jozef - myself and Jose Reyes photographed their wedding in August of this year:

All Milton Gil Photographers crew:

Everybody that made my big day even more special with their appearance - Thank You from the bottom of my heart !

Friends in business

2006-09-15T09:14:00.000-07:00

Wedding photography in the Tri-State area is a highly competitive business - no doubt about it. However, ever sice I became a professional 'wedding shooter' meeting other photographers has always been a positive experience. It's amazing how true professionals can change competition into cooperation, get together, exchange ideas, experience and learn from each other. Therefore, I would like to recommend some other, talented wedding photographers that I know and consider my friends. If you came here because CATCHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY team is booked for your date, please check out any of the photogaphers mentioned below - I am sure you will not be disappointed with their services:

Monika Broz - Monika Broz, Fine Art Wedding Photography
Titusville, New Jersey

Jose Reyes - Jose Reyes Photography
Nyack, New York

Neil van Niekerk - One Perfect Moment
Wayne, New Jersey

Scott Bush - Scott Photography
Clifton, New Jersey

Josh Lynn - Josh Lynn photography
New Jersey

Zlatko Batistich - Zlatko Batistich Photography
New Jersey

JC Carley - Carley Photography
Connecticut

Catherine Leonard - Catherine Leonard Photography
Upstate New York

Bill Wang - BWangPhoto
New York City

The BLOG is alive and runnig !

2006-08-17T01:46:00.000-07:00

I finally started my photography blog ! This project has been coming for some time. I've been hearing it from everybody "a blog would be a great idea for you". Yes, it's very cool ! Hopefully, YOU will stop here often and check our progress, most recent weddings, news and products. Oh yes, the products page is meant to be a bridge between new customer's first contact with us and the consultation meeting - I think it's a great way to get familiar with the basic albums we offer, find out something more about what an engagement session is and what happens to the images after it's done (the signature books !) and see what the actual difference is between a Coffe Table Book and a traditional, slip-in album. It will also serve another purpose: if you are an existing customer of CATCHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY you can now take a look at the albums you are about to order after the wedding. Your consultation meeting was a year or more ago - you are quite likely not to remember what a Mosaic parent book looks like...

This section will contain all the information about what is going on in the business, summary of an ending season, plans for the future. I am intending to report all the 'backdoor' activity of CATCHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY that helps us serve you better (ok, this is starting to sound like a cliche bank commercial...) but guess what - we do have plans to expand the business in the near future - THIS will be the place to hear about changes so stop by often and just... CATCH our BLOG ! ;o)