Friday, August 20, 2010 at 1:12pm Posted in Wedding
It’s already been two months since Derrick and Kendall were marred, but I figured it would be good to still share a handful of photos from their wedding day. I actually met Kendall at a wedding I shot 2 summers ago and I hit it off with the both of them right away. Their wedding was in Columbia Heights, Minnesota and the reception was at the Northland Ballroom in Brooklyn Park, MN. Robby was shooting 2nd with me at this wedding and I also met up with Ethan Miller, who is an old friend from high school who was shooting video for them. The entire day went really well and they were pretty much up for anything….which is always a plus. I wish the both of you the best of luck and I hope to keep in touch over the years.
~Ben
The two youngest girls in this photo were so full of energy. Reminded me so much of my two girls.
This past week I spent 6 days up in the Minnesota north country in a designated wilderness area known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. I traveled up with 3 other guys, two of which were also photographers and we basically just unplugged from the world for that week. We entered in on Entry point 38 (Sawbill lake) and started the trip in a complete downpour that lasted for the first half of the day. After that first day of rain, the next few days were a mix of spotted rain and full on sun. We were treated to some pretty fierce winds most days and also some amazing sunsets on three occasions. Originally we had planned on taking a big loop, but with the winds we found ourselves having a hard time covering the distances we had hoped, so we decided it would be an out an back trip instead and we cranked back the intensity a bit. I’m happy we did as we were able to relax a lot more and do some exploring. I ended up finding a 30 foot cliff for jumping/diving off of and was able to shoot a lot of photos and video in the downtime that we now had. Take a look below at a few of the highlights of the trip.
~Ben
This is the 30 foot cliff that I found on Lake Polly. I jumped off a few times to get warmed up and then I dove off a couple times near the end of the fun. Pretty big rush to say the least.
Robby taking the leap.
This little guy was haning out on my camera bag strap.
I converted to sleeping in a hammock instead of a tent last year and I sleep better in this then I do in my own bed.
Robby and Mark
Can’t forget about the hanging the food up high between two trees.
Mark enjoying the view at the edge of our campsite.
I have been wanting to get my hands on a waterproof surf housing for one of my cameras ever since I started shooting photos. But the adage “you get what you pay for” ring very true with anything that goes underwater with very expensive gear inside it. This past year I was communicating back and forth with Mike Waggoner at Essex Surf Housing about a new design he was making for the recently released Canon 7d camera. The 7d is what I call a “poor man’s sports camera” as it packs in a fantastic autofocus system, 8 frames per second frame rate, improved controls and a large buffer so you don’t bog down when shoot long sequences of action…..all for under 1600 dollars. This is my first time putting my camera in the water, so naturally I was a little paranoid and spent a little too much time thinking about all the variables that go into it. After talking with Mike, I had no worries at all and put in my pre-order for one. A few months later and just in time for the spring thaw, I had this incredible new piece of gear to play with.
All the reading in the world doesn’t mean squat until you actually go out into the real world and give it a whirl. I’m not going to lie, the first time I dunked it in the water with my camera I held my breath and nervously pulled it back out for inspection. Of course everything was rock solid and I was good to go for 2 hours of shooting. Shooting in the water is unlike anything I have done before. I think I shot around 400-450 photos my first time and only came back with 10-15 that I liked. But that is with anything new I guess.
One thing that I discovered after I received it was that I can fit my Alien Bee’s CyberSync CST radio flash trigger inside the housing via use of the PC sync port without any conflict with the lens port. This was a huge thing for me since I love to shoot off camera flash via radio triggers and I was planning on eventually having waterproof flash housings for some cool dusk shoots out in the water. I have since tried it out on numerous occasions and found that it works fantastic.
take a look at how it sits in there:
Here are a few photos of the housing in various stages:
With no camera in it:
backside: 
With camera/lens in it and zoom adapter mounted on zoom ring. 
All put together with lens port: the zoom gearing on the bottom of the port works really well and is incredibly smooth to operate.
Where it lives when it’s not being used: 
On Sunday, My family and I are heading out to Madison for few days to visit Rachel’s parents and then we are heading up to the cabin on Thursday for an extended weekend for the 4th of July. I’ll have cell and internet access the entire time, so feel free to contact me if you have any questions. June has gone by so fast and I’m plan on posting a ton of content online over the next couple weeks. I have 3 more weddings from the past month to post online and a couple engagement shoots as well…so check back soon or even better RSS/subscribe to my blog and get content updates.
~Ben
Friday, June 25, 2010 at 11:15pm Posted in Family
Most of you know that I have 2 daughters (Hannah 1, Grace 3) and during the school year I am a stay at home dad with them. Rachel’s last day of teaching for the year was June 11th, so we have been enjoying the extra fun of having mom around now too. Earlier this week we decided that it would be fun to pick fresh strawberries at the Berry Hill farm about 20 minutes north of our home. Found out that Hannah can eat berries nearly as fast as I can fill the flats if I let her….which much to her disappointment I did not . My girls had so much fun picking (and eating) them. If you have never done something like this in the past, it was such a great way to spend some time together doing something a little out of the ordinary with the kids.
A few shots of the action.
Friday, June 25, 2010 at 10:51pm Posted in Engagement
When Kristy and I first started to plan out their engagement photos, the one thing that she kept repeating was that they were a very outdoorsy couple and that they wanted that to be represented in their photos. So we ended up having a little photo adventure in the creeks and other cool off the path places around my area of the cities. The only bummer of the day was that it had basically rained for a week straight, so sitting on the muddy ground was not going to be much of an option…but that’s just a slight inconvenience and didn’t put a damper on the day at all. By far, the highlight of the afternoon for me was the 30 minutes we spent playing around in a creek that is tucked in a fairly dark forest away from just about everything. The water was a little chilly, but they were real troopers about it.
Here are a handful of photos from the day.
Jennifer and Jesse love each other. Anybody that was at this wedding would have absolutely no doubts of this….none. I went to high school with Jennifer and we reconnected through the glory of facebook last year after I had posted some photos from Becky and Stanton’s wedding. We had emailed back and forth a bit and then sat down a few weeks prior to their wedding so I could get to know Jesse a bit too. They are so much fun and really open to just about anything….which was awesome because it rained a lot on their wedding day. What I found to be pretty neat was that they still went ahead with the outdoor ceremony and by some miracle the rain took a 40 minute break just when the ceremony was going on. Eventually the rained slowed down to few drops and we were able to have a great time doing some night shots with them out in the yard. Evan (lumen photography) helped me out again and we had a total blast all day. Check out the 4 minute slideshow for some of the highlights of the day.
Exactly two weeks ago, Evan (lumen photography) and I spent the day with Heidi and John out at the Millenium Gardens in Plymouth for an outdoor wedding and a reception held at the building on site. I had never even heard of the place before their wedding and I was blown away at how awesome this location was. I will be heading out that way again for future shoots or even to just hang out and relax. I started the day with Heidi and her girls out getting their hair and make up done and then we met up with John out at the gardens just after lunch. I love shooting photos of the “first sight” as it’s called by those in the wedding scene. The look in each of their eyes really tells more then any words could. We had no problem finding great spots to shoot and even had extra time to spare…which is a rare thing usually. I made a slideshow set to a song that Heidi picked out.
My wife and I have known Kara and her family for a very long time and we have been able to keep in touch over the past 13 or so years now. So when I found out she was getting married and that we would be working together, I was excited to finally meet the man that shares my name. He and I hit it off great right from the start and I was confident that we were going to have a fun time together. The ceremony was held at Our Savior’s in Excelsior and the reception was at the Lafayette Club in Minnetonka. We could have hardly asked for a better day and the venues they chose were fantastic. I put together a quick slideshow of the highlights from their day. A huge thank you goes out to Ben and Kara for having us included in your amazing day.
Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 2:51pm Posted in Wedding
Rachel and I (and my 2 girls) had a real treat two weeks ago. We had the opportunity to shoot a wedding out in Colorado Springs at the Garden of the Gods Club. I had never been to Colorado in the summer before, so this added a little bit more excitement to an already exciting event. Brandon and Laura had met at the Air Force Academy and had just graduated the week prior. Everything was absolutely stunning and we were so spoiled to have such a great backdrop. Here are a few samples from the day and I hope to have a slide show up in the next few weeks showcasing all of my favorites.
by Ben
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