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2013-05-14 16:45:20 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

First look at Jackie & Jeremy's Montelucia wedding

Wow, loved this one...stunning bride, amazing venue and a photobooth. Can't ask for more!

#montelucia   #phoenixweddingphotographer   #weddingphotographer   #phoenix   #weddings  

2013-05-13 17:44:06 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

A frame from Jackie and Jeremy's Montelucia Resort wedding

Jackie...wow, she looked absolutely stunning on Saturday...can't wait to share more from this wedding!

  #photographer   #weddingphotographer   #arizona   #phoenix   #montelucia  

2013-05-13 16:54:11 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

Mike Olbinski Photography: Promo Video

My official promo video filmed by Alejandra from Imaginale Design. Look her up here:  http:/www.imaginaledesign.com

I can't begin to describe how amazing this film is that she made and how it perfectly captures who I am, who we are and what I do...my family is everything to me and they are a part of everything I do. Thank you Ale for telling my/our story like no one else ever could. 

More background of the video here: http://www.mikeolbinski.com/theblog/2013/05/mike-olbinski-photography-promo-video/

https://vimeo.com/mikeolbinski/promoreel

2013-05-09 16:13:29 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 30 +1s)

The Twilight Zone

A winter storm scene from February of 2012. Love me some dark and moody clouds...but the single light on the roadway up ahead gave this more of an ominous feeling for me.

#arizona   #storms   #stormchasing   #superstitions   #photographer   #winter   #clouds   #roads  

2013-05-08 15:30:54 (7 comments, 3 reshares, 55 +1s)

Reflection of the Arizona Monsoon

From early in the monsoon season last year...near Casa Grande. A thunderstorm dying out at sunset. 

#arizona   #monsoon   #photographer   #thunderstorm   #stormchaser  

2013-05-07 15:24:09 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

A first look at Cassie & Jake's Arizona Biltmore Wedding

Such a fun time on Saturday...check out some frames from this rad wedding.

#arizona   #biltmor   #photographer   #weddingphotographer   #phoenix  

2013-05-06 16:57:58 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 15 +1s)

Biltmore Wedding Sunset - Cassie + Jake

We got some clouds on Saturday evening and so we took a stroll out to the golf course and this happened. 

#biltmore   #wedding   #photographer   #arizona   #phoenix  

2013-05-01 18:02:50 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Ginny + Jonathan: Windgate Ranch Wedding

A beautiful, intimate wedding at Windgate Ranch a few weeks ago. Amazing sunset we got too! 

#phoenixweddingphotographer   #windgate   #windgateranch   #photographer   #weddings  

2013-04-30 20:46:00 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Emma & Brian | Promo Video Shoot

We've been filming my first ever promo video for my business since last November and it's something that takes a lot of time and patience. I'm super stoked for it and hopefully will see it in a month or so!

A few weeks ago we finished up filming with a mock bridal shoot with a couple who's wedding I shot last year. They are amazing and we had so much fun...here are a few pics from our mock shoot.

#wedding   #portraits   #arizona   #phoenix   #phoenixweddingphotographer  

2013-04-29 16:24:24 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Antelope Canyon: Spotlight

My first ever visit to Antelope Canyon...was overwhelming at first because of all the people and trying to get compositions squeezed in there with everyone, but it ended up being awesome. Here's one.

#yolozona   #antelopecanyon   #arizona   #landscap   #slotcanyon   #lightbeam  

2013-04-26 15:30:42 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Hey, I gotta business page on here now...you may as well follow it yeah? :)

2013-04-26 14:50:12 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Backyard Wedding: Nichole + Rick

A fun little backyard wedding in Glendale, Arizona!

#weddings   #weddingphotographer   #backyardwedding   #phoenix   #photographer  

2013-04-25 23:39:42 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Trying to make a G+ comeback...what did I miss? Is this thing even on? Drop me some hints, clues and whatnot.

2013-04-25 22:10:47 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

The Milky Way over Sedona

I haven't shot the stars much, so seeing the back of my camera after this one blew my mind. An epic night with friends.

#milkyway   #stars   #photographer   #sedona  

2013-04-25 21:51:22 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

First Look: Arizona Biltmore wedding with Goli & Kevin

A few frames from a bad ass Persian wedding over the weekend at the Arizona Biltmore. Thanks to +Jesse Pafundi for helping me out!

#weddings   #weddingphotographer   #arizonabiltmore   #phoenix   #arizona   #phototographer  

2013-02-12 19:07:08 (12 comments, 3 reshares, 14 +1s)

Hey G+ peeps! I just released my first ever timelapse film about the Arizona monsoon storm season. It runs almost 20 minutes and I'm super stoked about it. It's also my birthday, so as a gift I am just asking people to share it if they enjoyed it! Put so much time and effort into chasing and filming last summer...it's been a ton of work putting it together. Thanks for checking it out! http://www.mikeolbinski.com/theblog/2013/02/the-2012-arizona-monsoon-in-timelapse/

2012-08-23 15:58:47 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Getting around to adding my business page finally!

2012-04-02 16:18:54 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 38 +1s)

Brian and Laura

One frame from their engagement shoot yesterday. Wedding is going to be awesome!

2012-03-29 02:48:48 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

We were excited to have +Mike Olbinski as a guest on last night's jpeg2RAW Podcast. You can catch Show #34 - Mike Olbinski - Storm Chaser on our site or by searching for the show on iTunes.

http://www.novstudios.com/2012/03/28/show-34mike-olbinskistorm-chaser

2012-03-07 16:58:33 (5 comments, 9 reshares, 67 +1s)

Cellular

Amazingly, I still have lightning shots from last summer that I haven’t posted yet! If you grabbed a copy of my Stormchasing Arizona book, you’ve likely seen this already.

This was an amazing night with some spectacular lightning strikes hitting all around Casa Grande. I was so stoked when I saw the first strike from the truck and knew I could stop and line it up with this cell phone tower.

Cannot wait for this season…have a major hankering for some lightning chasing.
(canon 5d mark ii, canon 70-210mm f/4, 125mm, iso 200, f/8.0, 20 sec)

2012-02-28 16:27:29 (8 comments, 3 reshares, 51 +1s)

Prickly Pear


Back in mid-December we had some great cold fronts move through the state leaving snow on the mountains surrounding Phoenix. I must have been out in the Four Peaks and Superstition Mountains area every other night for a week. Trying to capture a sunset...trying to get the snow on the hills.

This was probably one of the more gorgeous sunsets of 2011 that my camera saw. You can see the snowy Four Peaks off on the right horizon, shrouded by clouds.

The foreground is filled with Prickly Pear cacti...and you can see a few of the "leaves" have captured the last rays of the setting sun. In fact, it was kind of a hard shot to get because my own shadow kept getting in the way.

Within about 45 seconds, the light was completely gone. I took this shot right after this other one I posted awhile ago with the giant Saguaro... more »

2012-02-27 17:33:46 (11 comments, 6 reshares, 54 +1s)

Reaching for the stars


One of the more exciting opportunities in Joshua Tree National Park was the chance to shoot some nighttime star shots, including the Milky Way. I've never really done that before and have always wanted to give it a shot.

Props again go to my buddy +Heath O'Fee for inviting me to meet him out there (along with some other peeps), and also for finding this tree. Sure, we all probably would have found the tree eventually, but like Christopher Columbus, Heath gets the credit.

I've posted another shot of this tree from an angle further away, so this was one up close, almost underneath it. In fact, I took this one first...wandered around a bit elsewhere and then saw the second composition that I posted earlier.

This shot wasn't a solo effort. The entire group of us +Chris DeAngelis, +Chris Frailey, +Doug Wise, +Heath... more »

2012-02-03 15:26:16 (12 comments, 2 reshares, 70 +1s)

A gaggle of Cholla



No, a bunch of Cholla cactus grouped together isn’t called a gaggle. But I always liked that word and felt like using it today. Sure, it usually refers to a flock of geese that are actually not flying, but according to Dictionary.com, it can also mean an assortment of related things.

Feeling like that was a bunch of useless information and curious why I decided to share that with you?

Me too.

We’ve had an incredibly busy, stressful and amazing week. So much has happened with our pending adoption that we haven’t had much time to think, let alone rest much.

So when I saw the rainy clouds rolling into Phoenix yesterday afternoon, it felt like a perfect opportunity to take a break, throw Lyla in the truck and go for a drive. The clouds weren’t actually dropping rain, but there was “virga” hanging off thebottoms, an... more »

2012-02-01 01:04:11 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 18 +1s)

Just another image from B's senior session this past weekend. Haven't done too many senior shoots, they are a heck of a lot of fun :)

2012-02-01 01:04:36 (13 comments, 3 reshares, 40 +1s)

For fear all you think I do is landscapes...here's a shot from B's senior session this past Friday :)

2012-01-30 13:28:38 (9 comments, 5 reshares, 47 +1s)

If you ordered a copy of my Stormchasing Arizona (http://www.mikeolbinski.com/book) book, or happened to see my Best of 2011 (http://www.mikeolbinski.com/2011/12/a-few-frames-from-2011/), you may have seen this image already.

But it was one of my top five probably from last year's monsoon season, so I felt like it was owed it's own blog/G+ post.

This is from north of Tucson overlooking a huge cotton field. Awesome storm on the horizon dropping rain. Nothing I like more than a wide vista or landscape with a distant rain storm.

There was also a timelapse to go with this: http://www.mikeolbinski.com/2011/09/thunderstorms-over-the-catalina-mountains/

Cannot wait for monsoon season to return, it's been so dry and sunny here!

2012-01-26 22:39:35 (9 comments, 5 reshares, 84 +1s)

It’s funny. We were freezing cold at Joshua Tree National Park when the sun went down, but then the stars came out and none of that mattered.

My buddy +Heath O'Fee found this tree. Earlier the lot of us had been right under it, shooting upwards at the stars while someone light-painted the rocks. We were all having so much fun taking pictures of things we normally do not. The night sky. It’s fairly new to me and I want to explore it more.

But then we all kind of dispersed to find our own compositions in and around the rocks. And I found this one. I thought the sky would light up nicely on the horizon because of the far off cities and the sun having gone down earlier. The tree growing between the rocks was pure awesome.

The real treat though…was one of my cohorts doing his own light-painting on the far side of that tree. I decided to take advantage and so I waitedfor h... more »

2012-01-26 22:32:13 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

COLBY'S PHOTOGRAPHIC CIRCLE OF INSPIRATION

I have finally put together my 1st circle of photographers that I personally find inspiring. Nearly every genre of photography is represented here. These are individuals that are constantly providing photography work that speaks to me. They are hand picked and all active on G+. It includes full time professionals and amatures alike...all that create compelling photography. Everyone in this circle has less then 30k followers (although a few are very very close) and many have just a few hundred. Please enjoy...I know I have!

If you like what you find in this circle, please share it with your followers to help these individuals reach a wider audience. I will share more circles of those I find Inspiring in the future.

2012-01-10 15:32:33 (7 comments, 2 reshares, 43 +1s)

The Three Watchmen

Haven't dropped anything on G+ in awhile, been pretty busy, but here I am this morning!

There is something majestic about the Saguaro cactus. When they stand by themselves, or even in a group of three...they make me think of something ancient...guardians of the world. Almost like Ents from Lord of the Rings.

Ooops, there's my nerdy side.

I was driving down this road chasing a gorgeous storm coming in over the Bradshaw Mountains when I spotted these guys. I just loved, loved, loved the composition with the storm in the background, so I set up and prayed that I'd capture a strike.

This was one of those "I hope I get lucky shots" where I had to employ rapid fire with the camera because it was still so light out.

Well, I did get lucky and couldn't have asked for a better placed lightning... more »

2011-12-15 18:25:36 (15 comments, 5 reshares, 51 +1s)

Drove out to Four Peaks yesterday to grab the sunset after an awesome winter storm left snow on the mountains surrounding the deserts.

Ran into my buddy +Chris Frailey and +Bryan Snider out there too, not to mention a ton of other photographers and people just checking out the beautiful desert we live in.

Found this majestic Saguaro just as the sun lit up the sky in a beautiful orange...and the last bit of that light hitting the cactus as well.

Love me some AZ sunsets!

2011-12-09 19:33:02 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Hey Arizona Photogs! Myself along with +Christina Lawrie are putting on another downtown Phoenix Photowalk on December 17th @ 3pm. We'll be meeting at Coach & Willie's.

More info will be coming, but wanted to make sure you guys put it on your calendars!

2011-11-29 15:18:09 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 25 +1s)

Rachel and Scott are getting married in April, so we did their engagement shoot over the weekend down at the Pima Air and Space Museum southeast of Tucson.

Love these guys, can't wait to see them tie the knot!

2011-11-23 17:31:59 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 12 +1s)

My little family recently had our photos taken by Session Nine Photography (http://www.sessionninephotography.com), and they in turn asked me to shoot their family as well! It was an awesome, proud moment for me, and the entire experience of getting in front of the lens and then taking pictures of other photographers was a priceless one.

I wrote a blog post this morning showcasing the amazing photos they took and to urge you to think about the awesome benefits of booking your own session with a photographer that you love and admire.

It's so worth it.

http://www.mikeolbinski.com/2011/11/our-photos-by-session-nine/

2011-11-23 14:25:09 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

ATTN (Wedding) Photographers of Google+

First off, big, big thanks to all G+ photogs for the visual feast they have provided for all of us over the past few months. I think I’ve seen more amazing photography since the launch of Google+ than over the last 5 years combined!

So I’ve decided to have a fun little mass giveaway. No contests, no rules, everybody gets it. All G+ wedding photogs get free 2-year Premium accounts on my company’s wedding platform IamEngaged.com . Here's the skinny: http://eepurl.com/g8vyc . And while you are there, you can of course grab one of the few lifetime accounts we have made available. :)

Send me a message/post a comment/tag yourself and I will include you in the photography category. Also, if you like what you see, please share the info with your friends and colleagues outside of the photography industry –recepti... more »

2011-11-18 18:20:26 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 39 +1s)

One shot from a photoshoot last night in downtown Phoenix.

Love this family...and love the father and son in this image.

2012-02-26 13:38:18 (5 comments, 2 reshares, 33 +1s)

A couple of days ago I posted an Instagram photo of a new canvas we bought for the house of one of my shots from New York. I haven’t posted a shot from that trip in awhile, especially the bridge shots. In the days immediately following my visit there, all my photog buddies that I had met up with were unleashing a torrent of bridge images and we all got sick of them fairly quickly grin

But maybe enough time has passed by?

This was taken on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. You can see the Manhattan Bridge off in the distance. I have to give some credit to my buddy +Brian Matiash for giving me the idea to jump over the railings here to setup a shot on the beach. I tend to take what is given to me sometimes, instead of going for the shot that no one else is thinking about.

I love the way this turned out. I had a 10-stop filter on my lens for 292 seconds andi... more »

2011-11-14 17:45:06 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Love +Shelley Porkolab and The Blueberry Wedding blog! Check out her new brand page!

2011-11-09 02:21:58 (10 comments, 3 reshares, 54 +1s)

From a photoshoot this past weekend...this is Irelynn...crazy cute kid. Her other three sisters are all just as adorable, was a heck of an awesome time.

2011-11-08 02:09:07 (5 comments, 4 reshares, 24 +1s)

Stormchasing Arizona (2011)

Hey guys, I'm super excited to announce the release of my second Stormchasing Arizona photojournal!

Last season I wrote my first book that covered the 2010 monsoon season in not just pictures, but also stories and accounts of my adventures chasing storms.

I wasn't sure if I could do it again, but with a little prodding from a friend, I got to work about two months ago and now it's a reality.

The book is available for pre-order only right now for a special price and that period will last until November 21st!

You can get all the details on my website:

http://www.mikeolbinski.com/book/

Again, super excited about this new chapter in my annual summer storm chasing. 80 pages, over 100 images...lightning, clouds, haboobs...you name it :)

Thanks!

2011-11-02 14:11:17 (8 comments, 3 reshares, 56 +1s)

Alien


If I had to pick my top five favorite science fiction movies of all-time, I think Alien would be in there, and perhaps also the sequel, Aliens. The second one was fantastic...there was just so much awesome action and memorable lines ("Game over man, game over!") but the first one will always be a classic. A terrifying trip with some space travelers who are being slaughtered by a creature hitching a ride on their vessel.

For those that have seen Alien, you may already have figured out why I chose it for this week's Movie Title Wednesday image. One of the more haunting scenes in the movie is when they find the alien spaceship and rappel into the belly of the thing. Lining the floor in a strange mist are all these organic pods, which just happen to be eggs ready to own your face.

Kind of reminded me of the rocks floating in the... more »

2011-11-01 14:53:09 (7 comments, 4 reshares, 42 +1s)

A sneak peek at a family I shot over the weekend. Huge fan of sunset silhouettes if I can find them.

2011-10-27 14:52:51 (9 comments, 1 reshares, 33 +1s)

LAKE CAMERON

Last night I did my first bit of experimentation with luminosity masks which I’d heard of before but really had no idea what they were. Turns out, they’re a fantastic tool to help manually blend together multiple exposures for landscape photography. I didn’t do too much experimentation – just made a basic mask and applied it to two exposures to yield the result you see below…pretty sweet. If you’re looking to give it a try, this is the tutorial I used: http://bit.ly/twlm1U . It was very easy to follow.

This shot is from Cameron Lake in Waterton Lakes National Park. Watching the sun rise over the mountains behind and left of the frame to illuminate the slopes on the far side of the lake was amazing. Nothing beats that golden light :)

http://heathofee.com

2011-10-27 13:19:47 (16 comments, 5 reshares, 58 +1s)

Lightning on North Mountain


Getting any kind of lightning from a winter storm here in Arizona is possible, but a lot harder to come by than the summer monsoons. Tuesday night ended up being a lucky one for me, as some nice looking winter-ish cells blew through town and put on a bit more of a lightning show than we're used to.

This was taken on top of a 7-8 story parking garage looking north. Ironically, the lightning strike hits a mountain in the North Mountain Preserve, an area surrounded by the city. I didn't even notice until I zoomed in while in Lightroom that the strike landed right on my side of that hill. Love shots where you see the location of the hit.

Hoping this is a good omen for some more lightning photography this winter, but we'll see how that goes.

2011-10-26 13:47:38 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 31 +1s)

Cape Fear


As this <a href="http://www.mikeolbinski.com/tag/movie-title-series">Movie Title Series</a> continues on an on for over a year now...it feels like I'm running thin on movies I've seen that have titles which work well enough for images. Hence you may start seeing films that I've actually never viewed before. Or perhaps I may have seen portions of it, but have no clue what it was about, nor remember anything.

Sort of like <strong><em>Cape Fear</em></strong>.

I am certain I saw this movie, or at least the majority of it. But aside from knowing it was on the water, kind of scary and called <em>Cape Fear</em>, that's all I remember. Now that I look it up on <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101540/">IMDB</a>, I find out the plot was about "A convicted... more »

2011-10-25 20:12:50 (5 comments, 3 reshares, 22 +1s)

Home

2011-10-25 17:20:52 (11 comments, 2 reshares, 39 +1s)

This little guy is called Nathan and he's just under two weeks old. Was blessed to shoot him yesterday morning...

Welcome to the world little man.

2011-10-25 17:20:09 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Portraits

2011-10-25 17:20:09 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Portraits

2011-10-25 16:40:41 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

onOne Software Perfect Photo Suite 6 is NOW AVAILABLE!!!

Well, I've been asking a simple question for the past two months - When will Perfect Photo Suite 6 be made available???

As of a few minutes ago, the answer is RIGHT NOW! You can head over to our site to get all of the details.

I'd like to personally thank our amazing users for your support. You guys 'n gals rock and I'm sure you going to love what you see here.

2011-10-25 15:08:43 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 39 +1s)

A sliver of color

This was one of the last shots I took during the 2011 summer monsoons. I was about as far away from Phoenix as I'd been all year...near a town called Joseph City that I don't recall having known existed before.

The sky at sunset was pretty epic, but I found myself in somewhat of a bad spot...houses, industrial stuff around, so I kind of missed out on some clouds to my south. But I drove north along a very muddy dirt road to capture this unique looking scene.

The down draft of rain is being lit up by the setting sun...only the sun wasn't shining on it from below as you'd expect. The only thing I can think of was that it was hitting the tops of the clouds in such a way that it was reflecting downwards. The color felt like it was coming from inside the cloud, not from without.