Andrew Bryant Photography Blog | International Wedding Photographer

Archive: March 2008 | view all recent posts

new associate...

Monday, March 31, 2008 | NEWS

Courtney and I have discussed the need for an associate photographer for some time, but it's just never quite seemed to work out as planned. For now, this is our associate... our "westie," Tressel fills that role. Sleeping on the job as usual.

it's the little things...

Monday, March 24, 2008 | PERSONAL

The last few days Courtney has been running around uncontrollably like a child who found waaaay too many easter eggs and ate all the chocolate in one setting (ok, not really, but nice visual right?). Actually, she's been quite busy with work and I thought she could use a little cheering up... and a glass of wine doesn't hurt either!

I used to randomly give Court flowers in college and still try to do so, but we both enjoy finding new non-chain restaurants in town so the money usually goes towards that. What are some of your favorite dates? Leave a comment below (keep it PG-13 guys!).

More vegas pics...

Friday, March 21, 2008 | PERSONAL

From time to time Courtney and I would see a photo booth at a party that we were at and, being the shy guy that I am, I pulled Court into one of the booths and this is what came of it...

I love the one on the top right 'cause Courtney didn't see that one coming and her reaction is priceless... I love making her laugh!

Good times.

Nikon D3...

Friday, March 21, 2008 | NEWS

One of the things that made my trip out to Vegas all the more rewarding was actually finding a Nikon D3 in stock (they're backordered for months) AND at a discount!

I'll be posting more images with the camera in the coming days, but first wanted to just echo many other photographers on all of the great features. (***Caution*** nerd alert coming***) First off, it's full frame! What I mean by this is that there's no longer a magnification factor when I place a lens on the camera body (you may know a little something about the magnification factor if you've searched for a digital slr in the past few years... if not, drop me a note and I'll try my best to explain it!). What's this mean to me? Well, for one, I get my 50mm lens back to a true 50mm instead of it being converted to a 85mm (due to the magnification factor). Second, this camera can shoot in a pitch-black, never see the light of day, room. Oh, and all with VERY little noise (also called grain) in the image... you have to really, really look to see any... I've been waiting for Nikon to come out with a camera like this for some time.

The D3 focuses even quicker than my D2Xs, which I thought was quite a feat considering how fast that camera focused.

Lastly, another feature that caught my attention was the dual CF (compact flash) card slot. I can choose to either shoot on one card and back up to the second card a duplicate image, or I can allow for the second card slot to be an "overflow" of sorts... once the first card is full, it will automatically switch to the second card so that I can continue shooting... brilliant! (I've highlighted in the second photo the dual card slot)

Here's the highlighted dual card slot that I mentioned earlier...

Well, with all that said, I'm anxious to get out and photograph some more sessions! Actually, I plan on heading out and doing a night shoot next Thursday (3.27.08), so if you're in the area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) and want to come along just let me know (leave a comment or drop me an email) and we'll all get together.

***Side note*** Did you guys watch the Duke game last night? What in the world?!!!! They only won the game by ONE POINT... wow... and to Belmont???? Props to Belmont for actually making it a game, but wow, they almost screwed over my tournament bracket! Who did you guys pick to win it all? If you wondered who I picked, it wasn't Duke, but I'm ashamed to say that I thought Arizona had a good crack at making it at least to the Final Four... well, can't win 'em all I guess.

Snapshots from WPPI (Las Vegas '08)

Thursday, March 20, 2008 | PERSONAL

Last night Courtney and I arrived back in North Carolina in decent time, but still couldn't quite adjust to the time change that we had encountered while in Vegas for WPPI. For the most part, I didn't take too many photos except for a few of Courtney and I enjoying some time out on the town.

I picked up a few tidbits of information from several of the speakers I was blessed to hear and also learned of other techniques and products via the trade-show.

Some other photographers that we ran into, some that we learned from, and some that we got to know a bit better...
Me Ra Koh Photography
Mike Larson Photography
Jim Garner Photography
David Burke Photographers
Mike Colon Photographers
Ray Santana
Justin and Mary Marantz
Garrett Burdick Photographers
Shaun Austin :: Kiss Wedding Books
Michael and Anna Costa Photography
Kevin Swan :: Kiss Wedding Books
Becker
Jessica Strickland
Shyla
Alex and Tiffany Albojer (Life Images Photography)
Alex Rodriguez Photography

... and the list goes on.

Well, like I said, Courtney and I didn't take too many photos as we were enjoying most of the time with other photographers and a few dinners by ourselves. (we also were able to see "O", a cirque du soleil show. Here are a few of those moments (minus the cirque show as we weren't allowed to have cameras in there)...

Note: these were taken with our point and shoot, so that's why they don't look *quite* as professional. :)

We went shopping at Miracle Mile (next to Paris Hotel) and Court found these swanky sunglasses... always the character. I love her!

And while sipping drinks on the balcony of Paris Hotel, we couldn't help but laugh a bit at this banner (below the Paris air balloon)... Court and I were going to recreate the ad below, but figured you guys wouldn't want to see that.