Archive for November, 2005
Hola everyone,
We’re off to Mexico tomorrow for a week of glorious surf, sand, and sun. It couldn’t come at a better time, giving us a chance to take a breather just before the last of the Christmas orders rush, and allowing us to escape the fog that’s enveloped Vancouver for the last week.
We’ll be exploring the towns, walking along the beach, sitting by the pool, running into the pool to escape the heat, drinking to escape the heat, eating because..well…it’s an all-inclusive 
We’re gone for the next week and the Studio will open again on Friday Dec 2. If the opportunity presents itself, we’ll try to check our email and respond to any important requests. We hear there is internet access somewhere (just not in the hotel property itself). Let’s hope we can rent some scooters and explore the areas.
But it isn’t all just fun and games, we’re actually going down to photograph a wedding - we’ll be sure to post some images once we get back. There’s got to be the odd perk here and there for us photographers
(Here’s an image of us at our last vacation.)
Tanya & Jeff
November 23rd, 2005
I really like those illusion tricks that mess with your mind. I even like those Magic Eye posters
Here’s a good one I stumbled across today: Cool Illusion
Quick, follow the link before continuing….. I’ll wait…..
The message with this illusion is that the mind can be ‘tricked’ into not seeing something that is really there. By staring at the small plus-sign long enough, the purple dots disappear.
This illusion helps demonstrate something that all photographer’s have to learn to overcome. The brain is fantastic at filtering out extraneous information, allowing you to focus on what is important. In fact, your ability to filter out all the background noise going on around you is an important survival mechanism - by ignoring the superfluous, you can be attentive to the important (and to our homo erectus ancestors, important usually meant dangerous).
So again, what does this have to do with photography? Well, to take better photos, you have to learn to train your brain to stop ignoring all the stuff going on around whatever it is you are focusing on. It means when you are looking through the viewfinder (or at the LCD these days), don’t just focus on the foreground, but also pay attention to the background. Even though the LCD is 2-D, your brain is still seeing it in 3-D.
A common mistake when taking a portrait picture is to focus on the person (or people) without ’seeing’ their relation to the background of the image.
Here are a few tips for improving your photos - by noticing what’s going on in the background:
1) Watch out for trees and branches coming out of the top of heads. Move left or right to put the tree past their shoulder or between heads.
2) Do not place heads at the ‘horizon’ line (i.e. where sky meets land). Bend down a little, shoot up, and this will move the horizon line down.
3) If your camera allows it, set it to a low aperature (e.g. f2.8). The lower the f-stop, the more ‘blurred’ the background will be. This has the advantage of isolating the person from the background, making them stand out even more in the image.
4) Watch for people moving in your background. Often people way in the background can provide context or setting to your image, but you don’t want the guy in the bright red jacket back there - especially if the rest of the background is a green grass and trees. The red blob of a guy will definitely be distracting. Trust me!! Wait a few seconds until they walk out of the frame, or move left or right if they are stationary.
5) Try unfocusing your eyes a little while looking through the viewfinder and see what draws your attention. If you catch anything that draws you away from the primary subjects, try recomposing your shot.
6) Try to avoid dark clothes on dark background (or light clothes on a light background). You want the contrast between light and dark. Again, move either your subject or yourself to provide greater variation between the foreground and background elements.
Remember, you need to train your brain to stop ignoring the background - to turn your ‘pictures’ into ‘photographs’.
Jeff
November 17th, 2005
With the Christmas Season fast approaching many of you are starting to think about gift giving ideas. One of our most popular gift ideas this year is the Mini Brag book. They come in 2.5×3.5 (wallet size) and are small enough to fit in a purse or a briefcase. Due to their popularity we are taking pre-orders if you wish to reserve one for christmas. I need to have orders in next week so please contact the studio to reserve your mini album today!
Tanya
November 9th, 2005
Last week we celebrated our 5th anniversary. We married on October 31st, 2000 in Wailea, Maui. Yup, that’s right - our anniversary is Halloween.
When we booked the ceremony, it was for a Tuesday. It was only afterwards we realized that it was Halloween. Which is fine, everyday in Maui is just like the other and Tuesday was as good as Wednesday. Where we stayed, there was virtually no evidence of Halloween activities. Besides, Tanya likes to tell people that it makes it easier for me to remember our Anniversary. Whenever I see people dressed in up scary outfits, I remember that it’s our special day
Here’s to 5 years, and hopefully another 75 years, with the coolest and definitely most beautiful woman I know. There’s definitely no other woman I’d rather spend my time here on the planet with (day in and day out anyways).
BTW, I surprised Tanya with a spa treatment (well, they phoned to confirm so it sorta spoiled that surprise) and with our first Dance lesson (the Cha Cha is fun, but not really a big fan of the Waltz…).
Jeff
November 5th, 2005
We first met Jen last year at Jessica and Paul’s wedding. She was Jessica’s Maid of Honor. A few months later Rico proposed and they booked our services. Well now it’s their turn.
With their wedding fast approaching in December, we recently took Jen and her finance Rico to Port Moody’s Rocky Point Park. Jen and Rico were accompanied by their canine companion Jersey who loves to play fetch along the path.
For a change of pace we visted the ever popular Port Moody Station Museum. Due to it’s popularity the museum is now booking by appointment only and is also charging admission of $25 to photograph on site. We had a tremendous amount of fun being creative and using lots of funky angles to play off the architecture of the rail car. Here’s an image of them at the Port Moody Station Museum
We finished the portrait session at one of Jen and Rico’s favourite hideaways, Jameson’s in New Port village.
November 5th, 2005
Well, it’s about time!!! Our blog is finally up and running.
For those new to us, we operate a Wedding and Family Portrait studio in Coquitlam, B.C. (just outside of Vancouver).
A peek behind the Focused Elegance Photography lens reveals Tanya Harrison, that’s me, and my ever present and handy husband, Jeff. I work as a full-time photographer, while Jeff works as a Product Manager at a local software company by day and assists me at all weddings and many on-location sessions by night and weekend.
We have been wanting to start a blog for a very long time, but our dedication to our clients, family, each other, Jeff’s day job and our cats have conspired and put this project lower in priority than we would have liked. We could have had our blog up and running at any time if not for Jeff’s insistance on hosting the blog on our server, rather than having it hosted on other 3rd party web servers. Since his background is in software development, he prefers our ability to have control over the site (and besides, it gives him a chance to tinker…)
Our mission is to provide new content as time permits every few days . We want to showcase images from engagment sessions, weddings, family portraits, our vacations, etc. We also from time to time hope to provide you with helpful tips on making your own photography better. Certainly not least of all we’ll be using our blog to communicate new products, upcoming pricing specials and seasonal portrait offers.
This avenue of communicating to everyone from friends and family to current and future clients is something I am really looking forward to. As the business continues to grow, it is increasingly harder to call each of you up to catch up and just to say hello. Please feel free to call or email and update us on what’s new with you - we would love to hear from you.
BTW, with each post you can provide us feedback and comments. Please do so. We look forward to interacting with all of you!
Tanya
November 5th, 2005