Brandon Powers: Photographer Blog - Wedding and Portraits in South Georgia and Beyond » random

4th of July at Reed Bingham State Park

Brandon — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:23:35 +0000

Happy 4th of July weekend everyone!

Each year the local state park, Reed Bingham in South Georgia, puts on a 4th of July celebration. I purchased a D90 this week and took it out for a spin. Most of the footage was shot with a 70-200mm 2.8 VR This is just from a quick edit in iMovie then compressed with compressor.

Music: Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 4 in G

National News Interview on NPR!

Brandon — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:25:56 +0000

So about two weeks ago I got a call from National Public Radio’s “Marketplace”. It’s a popular financial and business news show that airs throughout the country on public radio. There are three different versions of the show, a Morning news report, a wrap up of the days business news in evening, and a weekend version.

Anyway back to the call. It was a reporter from the show who was doing a story about weddings in the financial environment. She wanted to know what my take was and if I’d noticed any changes. The call lasted about 30 minutes and ended with her asking me to go down to the nearest studio (WFSU in Tallahassee) and taping an interview that would air sometime the following week. So thats exactly what I did. It was a surreal experience especially since I’m an NPR junky, it’s literally on the radio here at the house, in the office, in the car CONSTANTLY! I can’t name a single current hit song because my radio hasn’t left it’s setting on 88.9 in the last 2-3 years. Anyway the story got pushed back a week and finally aired Friday! You can listen by checking out the link below.

Listen Here!

Here are some photos of our adventure that Jessica caught on her iPhone.

The Blog is now iPhone Friendly!

Brandon — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:44:04 +0000

Just a cool feature update. If you have an iPhone and visit my blog you automactically get an iPhone friendly version. There will be a feature option at the bottom of the page to see the full version as well.

Playing Catch Up

Brandon — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:04:00 +0000

Ok I’ve gotten behind on my blog postings but WOW! it has been busy around here. I got in some much needed vacation time to the culture capital of the world, New York City. There are some very VERY exciting changes are in the air around here but you’ll have to stay tuned for more on that. Oh and ’09 weddings have been booking up SO fast that I may need to think about adding more photographers and staff!

**REMINDER** If you want to lock in all the ’08 pricing for your ’09 wedding you have to book by December 31!

A pretty cool pano from NYC, looking south from the Empire State Building. (click for full size)

Pre-wedding Halloween Bash

Brandon — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:39:00 +0000

The night before Meg and Wilson’s wedding, they hosted a party for everyone that had come so far to be with them on their special day. It was great night with appearances by the Headless horseman (Wilson) and even Elvis and Andy Warhol who’ve been hiding out in England all this time.

Are you getting the best view?

Brandon — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:40:00 +0000

I got an email this morning from someone who was having difficulty viewing my blog and website. She said she had to constantly scroll side to side to read the blog and could never see a photo in it’s entirety without scrolling.

It turned out to be a common problem I notice whenever I use a computer other my own. Usually the monitor resolution is not set at it’s highest or best setting. Monitor resolution is basically the number of pixels used to display an image. The lower the number the bigger the image will appear on a screen but it will not have the clarity and sharpness as a higher resolution. It’s kinda like HD vs Standard def. This may not be the best technical description but who wants to get technical anyway.

Just try this you can always change it back it you don’t like the results.

Step 1. On your Vista PC right click on the empty desktop. You’ll get the menu pictured below. Click on “Personalize”. On windows XP click on “Properties”.

Step 2. On Vista click Display Settings. On XP choose Display Properties and “Settings”

Step 3. You’ll see a screen similiar to the one below. We want to concern ourselves with the slider that is labeled “Resolution” or “Screen Resolution” on XP. Generally you want to move the slider as far to the right as it will go. Alot of times it will in the center or to the left meaning you’re not getting the best picture out of your monitor that you can. If you move the slider to the right and choose “Apply” and don’t like the result you can always slide it back to where it was. Try the highest setting and then visit my website, blog or any of your favorite websites and notice the diffrence!

Email Problems

Brandon — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:04:00 +0000

It just came to my attention that my email account had been down for last few days. The fact is that my email server was not purging messages off the server when I downloaded the messages onto my local machine. So old messages were backing up in the system. Normally not a problem unless you get hit with a ton of messages with huge attachments. Anyway everything is fixed now and the system updated so it shouldn’t happen again. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused anyone trying to email us.

Malibu Rocks!

Brandon — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Literally I shot this a few weeks back when I visited California. This is at El Matador Beach in Malibu, which had some great rock formations and little sea caves. As you can tell the sky was overcast and grey which was fine with me because I new the scene would make a dramatic black and white image.

This was my favorite part of the trip because I got to hang out with an old friend from Daytona and have dinner with her family at their beautiful home in Santa Rosa Valley where I met her Uncle and learned that he is the Vice President of Tamrac, makers of some very awesome camera bags, one of which I use at every wedding! Small world!

Olympian Phillip Dutton

Brandon — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:41:00 +0000

So I was listening to the Today Show while getting started on a new album design when I heard the name Phillip Dutton. I thought that sounded familiar and sure enough it was an interview with U.S. Olympic Equestrian Rider Phillip Dutton. So, I tore into my archives and pulled up my film scans from the 2004 Red Hills Horse Trials. (4 years ago was just before I turned digital and this was probably my last event shooting film!)

Anyway, Sure enough I found this frame I shot of Phillip back when he was still riding for Australia (and won Gold in both the ’96 and 2000 Olympic games). I may have to break out my catalog of old negatives and film scanner and take a walk down memory lane.

*Tech Note: Shot with a Nikon N90s at 300mm on Fuji 400*

Look what finally came!

Brandon — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:53:00 +0000

Proof that I did it!