CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-06-17 00:11:35 (4 comments, 3 reshares, 42 +1s)

Again, not the worst spot for a ceremony…

HDR only to replicate how it looked to the eye … if, of course, you have bulbous frog-like eyes with a 122-degree frame of view.

2013-06-14 02:58:26 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 16 +1s)

The amazingly awesome Vlad at http://www.vladfilms.com/ did a little teaser of my talk at the Canada Photo Convention. I actually learned a lot about teaching and getting my message across in the early part of the year or so, and I'm having fun coming up with entirely new lectures for my speaking engagements in the winter … plus I'm gathering new material and ideas all the time simply from fighting the good fight, shooting weddings every weekend. Excited for what's to come!

2013-06-10 20:10:54 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 33 +1s)

Tracy and Dan's wedding at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Palm House is on the blog! www.ryanbrenizer.com/2013/06/brooklyn-botanic-garden-wedding-tracy-and-dan/

2013-06-09 13:53:43 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 13 +1s)

Maybe not the product review you were expecting, but I highly recommend this for ALL wedding photographers. It's fascinating how well they work. When I first put them on I thought they might be faulty, because normal ambient noise dipped down just a fraction -- I could still have conversation with people talking at normal volume. But noise just never gets loud. You can wander in front of the band's speakers and it only sounds about twice as loud as normal conversation. Not only is this valuable for long-term hearing protection in a business with very loud environments, but they really help for crowded dance floors, since with good earplugs you can make your way in from the area right next to the speakers, which is less crowded due to the noise.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/628093-REG/Etymotic_Research_ER20BP_ER_20_ETY_Ready_Fit_Earplugs.html/BI/6962/KBID/7503

2013-06-08 13:08:07 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I've taken my morning before a Manhattan wedding to answer a slew of more questions at http://ryanbrenizer.tumblr.com -- now with working search function!

2013-06-06 21:43:47 (9 comments, 4 reshares, 76 +1s)

This setup took 20 lights, but we only had access to Tracy and Dan for about 30 more seconds. No problem -- same light, 20 times. For 19 of the frames, they were on their way back to cocktail hour. Dramatic photos AND cocktail shrimp, we can have it all!

2013-06-05 20:17:02 (3 comments, 1 reshares, 34 +1s)

Yesterday I lectured and taught at the WPPI Online Road Show in Atlantic City. As always it's an honor to work with these folks, and I liked the set-up where I could talk about concepts in the morning, and then show them hands-on and let people try it for themselves in the afternoon. I was tasked with teaching techniques for working with speedlights, and we went through everything from reception shooting techniques to how strong your flashes can really be when you use them right (lighting a subject at ISO 100, f/29 at 1/8th power!)

But one of the most important lessons I taught is when to ignore me. Or specifically when to ignore the plan and the tools you've set out for yourself. In a lighting class, we're going to overshoot and overlight -- that's how teaching works. But start simple and if you make a setup more complicated, know exactly why you're doing so. Don't use... more »

2013-06-04 11:08:30 (1 comments, 3 reshares, 33 +1s)

Good morning Atlantic City! Today we're going to have the most fun in AC you can have without military-grade anti-depressants. #iphonepanorama

2013-06-04 00:02:54 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 48 +1s)

More fun with with the straightening tools in LR5. Four years later, I finally got the lines on this to square up the way I like.

2013-06-03 00:15:48 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 24 +1s)

Resting after two long, crazy, back-to-back weddings, with so many great moments and photos that I don't even know how to begin wading through them all.

So I'll begin with funny.

2013-06-01 16:31:54 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Nice, in the Huffington Post again for Bill and Annie's first kiss photo! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/01/first-kiss-photo_n_3354714.html?1370100658

2013-05-29 23:48:55 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 10 +1s)

I was having a lot of website problems before -- it seems to be working at least temporarily now: http://www.ryanbrenizer.com/2013/05/marcus-and-kathys-central-park-surprise-elopement/

2013-05-29 20:29:19 (6 comments, 1 reshares, 27 +1s)

The full story of Marcus and Kathy's surprise elopement, and how I ended up knowing about the wedding six months before the bride did: http://www.ryanbrenizer.com/2013/05/marcus-and-kathys-central-park-surprise-elopement/

2013-05-29 18:03:40 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 36 +1s)

Coming soon, the story of a man who went the extra mile. From "Will you marry me?" to "Will you marry me … Wednesday?"

Admittedly, I'm giving away the ending, but it's a heck of a Journey.

83-image me-method panorama.

2013-05-28 22:23:41 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 30 +1s)

Sometimes the best thing we can do as photographers is to take a moment and distill it down to its essence.

2013-05-28 19:45:37 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 14 +1s)

Calling an audible on which one to post, since this looks better on small 'Net displays and I liked the black and white. When you just have a few minutes and nowhere to go, if you light people in a way that shows off how good they look, you're 95 percent of the way there.

2013-05-28 02:17:54 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 10 +1s)

Kelsie's story is on the Huffington Post (with some of my photos)! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/kelsie-fields-idaho-car-accident-young-and-beautiful-cover_n_3333855.html?utm_hp_ref=women&ir=Women

Sadly Internet commenters have behaved exactly how I expected. But I'm happy her talent can be shared.

2013-05-27 20:53:43 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

The Lonely Photographers did a podcast with me at the Canada Photo Convention. Listen to me talk a little about what I do, with extra "aboots."
 http://thelonelyphotographers.com/2013/05/27/episode-50-interview-with-ryan-brenizer/

2013-05-23 22:31:03 (6 comments, 12 reshares, 76 +1s)

A story of an amazing girl, a terrible day, and timely celebrity intervention. If you've ever read anything on my blog, read this. http://www.ryanbrenizer.com/2013/05/kelsies-story-young-beautiful-alive/

2013-05-23 17:05:01 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 18 +1s)

The only thing "being a professional photographer" means is that, if you stop taking photos, eventually you will starve to death. It's an unfortunate quirk of language that it gets conflated with "being a photographer who acts professionally."

2013-05-22 21:38:38 (3 comments, 4 reshares, 17 +1s)

A few days ago I posted a piece sung by my amazing friend Kelsie. Well, you are going to want to click this link. Finally her incredible (untrained!) voice was combined with a studio, and it's beautiful. She was in an extremely severe car accident this past week, and I'm so glad we still have her personality and talent in the world.

PS: You are REALLY going to want to take note of the top comment.

Lana Del Rey- Young and Beautiful cover

2013-05-22 03:49:57 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 25 +1s)

"Anything for the shot," I say.

"Wait," you ask. "Would that include dodging swords?"

Now you know. Shot at 12mm, which is kind of like using a pencil for wrangling 'gators.

At +Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver

#vancouverwedding #asianwedding #martialarts #kungfu  

2013-05-20 15:54:17 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 59 +1s)

So happy to have a photo chosen in the first major Engagement session contest I've seen, the Junebug Weddings  Best of the Best. More than 4,000 entries from top photographers around the world were submitted. My main goal in most engagement sessions is to learn more about the couple and make them comfortable in front of the camera, rather than to create crazy art, so I'm glad to see the crazy art that sometimes happens along the way be rewarded!

2013-05-18 17:51:15 (13 comments, 3 reshares, 27 +1s)

Always fun to land in the US after being in airplane mode for a few days…

2013-05-16 09:46:36 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 32 +1s)

Apparently the sun also rises.

Headed to Vancouver again! Very happy déjà vu.

2013-05-16 02:32:15 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 78 +1s)

Apparently vertical photos look really good in the new Google+ layout. Generally I prefer to take horizontal, as that's how the eye sees, but I figured I'd try one out.

2013-05-15 19:10:18 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 50 +1s)

Looks better here: http://www.ryanbrenizer.com/2013/05/a-hard-nights-day/

A hidden advantage of the Nikon D4′s live view — being able to compose a shot like this without burning out your retinas. ISO 100, 1/8000th, f/8 — the sun, it don’t mess around.

#engagementphotography #weddingphotography  

2013-05-15 04:42:48 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Claudia and I are on +The Huffington Post! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/14/wedding-photoshoot_n_3275888.html

2013-05-13 19:32:03 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 25 +1s)

The "double hug" is always a good get for a wedding photojournalist -- emotion + timing + anticipation + layering + using the frame. But the double hug with identical twins? Score!

2013-05-13 01:56:14 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 23 +1s)

A pretty lady at ISO 10,000 with the 6D in extremely low light (EV-1)

2013-05-12 23:36:07 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Back to answering Tumblr questions now that I've gotten the search working properly. This was a particularly good one: http://ryanbrenizer.tumblr.com/post/50298800835/your-top-5-photographers-influencers-go

2013-05-12 15:30:50 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 11 +1s)

I'm playing around with the 6D, and loving the WiFi capabilities. It works so much better than the Eye-Fi card, that's going to be the thing that will make me keep it. Might add a cheapo zoom and it's perfect for Photobooths.

2013-05-12 00:56:53 (42 comments, 1 reshares, 14 +1s)

Darn, it might be a little better than the 5DIII, but Canon still hasn't figure out how to have Nikon's extremely clean shadow areas, which allows you to dramatically underexpose an image and bring it back in post, making for incredible native dynamic range where you can expose for a scene's highlights and then pull up the shadows. This is 3.5 stops up from ISO 100, which something like the D800 wouldn't even break a sweat at.

2013-05-10 15:47:27 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 13 +1s)

April and Rich got married, and it was fantastic. See the full post here! http://www.ryanbrenizer.com/2013/05/westminster-hotel-wedding-april-and-rich/

2013-05-09 02:39:20 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 38 +1s)

Looks best here: http://www.ryanbrenizer.com/2013/05/a-new-york-story/

I try to be a storyteller, but it’s an amorphous thing. We all have a story, sure, but what was the story of your today? Was it just some stuff that happened? Was it something you learned? Something you felt? What will the story be when you look back on it later?

They aren’t simple questions, and that’s just a random day … a Wednesday, even. How do you tell the story of a place like New York? There have been thousands upon thousands of attempts, and they scratch just the surface’s surface of the complexity and the dynamics of this crazy town. Last night I saw a beautiful woman walk by openly sobbing. That, I thought, was a New York story. In the small town I grew up in, we keep our tears and our strangers separate. In New York, people’s pain is in your point, and the pain itself is part of the point. Thegrind of Ne... more »

2013-05-06 15:56:06 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 63 +1s)

I would not completely mind if all ceremonies looked like this.

2013-05-05 14:38:29 (9 comments, 2 reshares, 41 +1s)

What we must remember as photographers that while we try our hardest to bring technical perfection to an image, there are other elements that are far more important: Emotion, storytelling, that perfect moment. At this moment, a groomsman was readying himself to jump into the groom's arms on the dance floor. Connection, emotion, action.

This photo was taken at an adjusted ISO of 72,400.

I knew I wanted to get a lot of frames to tell the story of running and jumping, but I was shooting in a dark, hard-to-light area, so I knew my flash couldn't keep up. I had my shutter speed at 1/250th to catch action, I had my aperture at f/2.5 so as not to be too shallow, so the only place to go up was ISO. I set my flash to a bit lower power setting to catch more frames, but still it had been working hard so it didn't catch very many. And the adjusted ISO of the non-fired frames brings us... more »

2013-05-03 21:10:25 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 46 +1s)

Looks better here: www.ryanbrenizer.com/2013/05/a-matter-of-perspective/

I can’t wait to tell this full story once I’m done processing all the photos, but for now all I’ll say is that this fantastic bride had a heck of a week…

2013-05-01 02:31:53 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I am about to answer the 40 or so questions in my Tumblr inbox. Feel free to ask me anything!

2013-04-30 20:56:47 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 18 +1s)

Anyone recognize this photo? #prettycool  

2013-04-30 13:33:37 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Starting the day with a one-on-one instruction session! Getting my teach on…

2013-04-29 00:26:55 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Watching Vampire Weekend (and a surprise opening by Fred Armisen channeling Johnny Rotten)

2013-04-22 18:33:31 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 31 +1s)

I'm on a pre-Canada Photo Convention posting frenzy! Here's another bit of architecture helped by Lightroom 5's new auto straightening tool.

2013-04-22 14:37:40 (1 comments, 4 reshares, 35 +1s)

Speaking of … here's a 56-image method image of Caitlin and Charlie. Blossom explosion. One of the wider ones I've done, equivalent to a 22mm f/0.36. www.ryanbrenizer.com/2013/04/blossom-explosion/

2013-04-22 14:37:14 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 29 +1s)

A 35-image Brenizer method of multiple people trying the Brenizer method, by Brenizer. Brenzception.

2013-04-19 20:40:17 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 21 +1s)

My recap of the London and NYC workshops is on the blog! See more photos here: http://www.ryanbrenizer.com/2013/04/ryan-brenizer-workshops-early-2013-recap/

2013-04-18 21:14:04 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 17 +1s)

One of the best things about this past weekend's workshops was re-connecting with some of my amazing couples, such as Elizabeth and Anthony. I'll have a full recap of this winter's workshops soon, but here's a taste.

Shot with the Sigma 35 … I'm spinning a lot of plates, but I'll have a review one day. Optically, it's astonishingly good. www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/898836-REG/Sigma_340306_35mm_f_1_4_DG_HSM.html/BI/6962/KBID/7503

2013-04-17 04:49:26 (7 comments, 5 reshares, 49 +1s)

OK, the Lightroom auto-straighten is finally one magic Adobe tool that works at least as well as advertised. T and I were in the +Musée d'Orsay  and wanted to get a silhouette, so we set up my OM-D and had a random tourist take it. You can't really expect them to get perfect perspective. The only edit between the top and bottom photo is clicking the "auto upright" button."

2013-04-16 16:22:01 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 21 +1s)

32-image panorama of the Louvre on the OM-D.

2013-04-14 12:51:55 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

Business day today at the workshop. It makes me think: I'd love to hear a panel discussion of photographers who were once very successful and now are not. What happened? What factors were internal versus external? (I know many workshops are given by people who meet this description, but they don't really use that as a selling point)