Columbus Wedding Photography: GroovyDoodle Photography

We recently participated in a rather unique wedding show. Fully Committed was held on the second floor of the amazingly elegant Athletic Club of Columbus, and featured 20 hand-selected Columbus wedding vendors. This was the show’s first year, so it was a pretty intimate setting, especially when compared with the larger “meat market” wedding shows that are held in January and February. Aside from being later in the year and quite a bit smaller, what else made this show so special? Each vendor at the show was specifically chosen because they are either gay-owned or GLBT-friendly. The event catered to both GLBT and straight couples who wanted to feel confident that they could discuss their wedding plans and their family without prejudice, and we were proud to be one of the show’s selected vendors.

As it turns out, we’d worked with a good number of the other vendors in the past, and can happily recommend them to you if you’re still looking for quality service providers for your own wedding. Please note that the following are wedding vendors that we’ve actually worked with in some capacity, and our recommendation of them is completely unsolicited.

Read more »

“You guys take really nice pics. What kind of camera do you use? I’m interested in photography and thinking about buying a camera.”

We get this question a lot. To answer the first question “What kind of camera do you use?“, Adam shoots with a Nikon D300 and I shoot a Nikon D300S model. These aren’t the cameras we started with (which were a Nikon D70 and Nikon D80, respectively), but they’re the pro models we’ve grown into over several years – there are no ‘training wheels’ or auto features, which makes them very difficult (in my opinion) to learn to shoot on for first-time DSLR users and impossible to hand over to a non-photographer to get a decent pic of you when you’re on vacation with that stellar background that you bought the cam to capture in the first place! Why Nikon? I shoot Nikon because Adam already had Nikon when I bought my first “big girl” camera and it made sense to have the brands match so that we could share lenses (the real expense to quality photographs). Adam chose Nikon years before that, quite simply, because of the way the camera fit in his hand when compared with the Canon models available at that time.

(CC) Destin Photographers

Which brings us to the real question, “I want a ‘grown-up’ Digital SLR. What kind of camera should I buy?” The short answer is: the camera body that fits easily into your hand and your budget. While having a top-of-the-line camera body is nice once you really know how to take advantage of all the features, you can just as easily get amazing photos with an inexpensive camera body. Going for more than the entry-level consumer model isn’t going to earn you anything but a painful learning curve and bragging rights for having lots of cash to burn. Save your pennies for the lenses. That’s where the magic truly happens!

Read more »

As Columbus wedding photographers, we shot a lot of weddings in 2010. We traveled to destinations as grand as Las Vegas, as exotic as Jamaica and as cool as Niagara Falls. And while we do love to travel and will happily discuss the benefits of bringing your own trusted photographer along on your destination wedding, we’ve gotta say that we really love some of the wedding and reception venues in and around our own backyard.

So with that in mind, here are our top (totally unsolicited) picks for Columbus wedding locations:

The Bluestone (formerly Bar of Modern Art (BoMA))

The Bluestone has been one of our favorite venues for quite some time. In addition to featuring literally thousands of square feet including 3 separate rooms on different levels, 2 dance floors, a large stage, 7 beautiful bars created by nationally acclaimed artists, a multi-million dollar light system and in-house catering, you get the benefit of The Bluestone’s original purpose – cathedral church – complete with a fantastic stone exterior, amazing hardwood surroundings in the main room, cathedral ceilings and stained glass windows. This is a really elegant venue with a staff who seem to understand the level of service you should receive on your big day. Not to mention, we’re one of their preferred wedding photography vendors. Any Bluestone wedding clients who also book their wedding photography with GroovyDoodle receive an awesome discount on our services!

Graystone Wine Cellar This little wine cellar was new to us in 2010, and what a little bonus find it was! The venue occupies the hand-hewn limestone vaults of the 1875 Bavarian Brewery in Columbus’s historic Brewery District. While they no longer produce any wine on-site, they do offer catering and a historic, intimate setting for either your wedding or reception. And, like GroovyDoodle, they’re GLBT-friendly.

Grange Insurance Audubon Center

Ok, we weren’t sure what to think either when we first heard the name of this place. But we’ve got to say, we were pleasantly surprised. The non-profit center is located just south of downtown Columbus, and serves as a model for sustainable design with 18,000 square feet built with recycled construction materials – it is surprisingly beautiful with a modern, open feel. Their main purpose is to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats. So, by holding your reception at the Audubon Center, you’re helping to support these objectives. Obviously, they don’t offer catering themselves, but they do have a list of pre-approved caterers (which includes our beloved City Barbeque). Their pricing is very reasonable, and they allow you to bring in your own alcohol if you are planning for cocktails or a nice local wine to be available to your guests.

Bonus Venue – Grand Pacific Junction Looking for something really unique and don’t mind a bit of a drive (or perhaps you are looking for Cleveland, Ohio wedding venues)? Grand Pacific Junction in Olmsted Falls, Ohio is like walking back in time 100 years. This campus of historic buildings is essentially a small town that will go all out for your wedding. It features a wedding chapel (with a fantastic, balconied bride room), a banquet facility, a wine cellar, a local stable for hiring a horse-drawn carriage and a variety of other services you’re sure to find useful. There’s also a beautiful park with a covered bridge within walking distance of the chapel for your formal wedding photos.

Was this article helpful to you? Do you have another Columbus or Ohio wedding venue where you’ve had a stellar experience? Drop us a line in our comments and let us know!

Wanna know a secret? There’s one important component that makes or breaks every photo – one thing you just can’t live without no matter how good your camera body or favorite lens – light. The good news is that there’s a HUGE, low-cost, reliable light source at your disposal every day: the sun! And, as a bonus, it’s currently at its peak for awesome annual performance. Here are some tips to help you fully take advantage of the sun in your own photography.

In the studio, professional photographers can control the four elements of light (quality, intensity, direction and color) with relative ease. But most of us aren’t shooting in a studio and quite honestly, even having a high tech studio available to us here at GroovyDoodle we often prefer the sun’s light over controlled flash, especially in the Fall.  However, daylight is anything but constant. It changes hourly as well as with the weather or seasons. So here are some things to watch out for when shooting your own outdoor portraits. Read more »

As the preferred photographer at several Columbus wedding venues, we talk to a lot of couples who are searching for a photographer to capture their big day. Sometimes it turns out that we’re not available for their date, but we usually go ahead meet with those couples anyway just to pass on some helpful tips on how to choose the right wedding photographer.

Why do we take the time to meet with bridal clients even if we know there’s no chance of us shooting their wedding? Pay attention here, brides and grooms… This is important. The photographer you choose for your wedding day will be with you on your special once-in-a-lifetime-fairytale day more than anyone… More than your mom, more than your friends, and more than your partner. If you find your photographer annoying, guess what? That irritation is going to be reflected in every picture from your wedding day!

So, with that in mind, here is a list of questions and tips that we offer to every couple we meet with:

Read more »

It’s that time of the year – Backyard barbecues, pool parties, and who can forget the fireworks or, more importantly the rare elusive amazing fireworks photograph that most can only capture one time of the year in that very narrow window of time when they are seen “in the wild”. The perfect fireworks photograph is indeed a rare capture, but with a little help and some tips from us and others around the world, we’ll help you snag this beautiful, rare beast.

First, as always, I’ll preface with the fact that having an SLR camera will make it considerably easier to capture just about anything. However, that doesn’t make it completely impossible to get a great shot with a point-and-shoot, just more challenging. The real key is that your camera allows you some amount of manual control. Things like shutter speed and ISO are important components to capturing fireworks. But if you are in the market for an SLR, some serious deals can be had on the Nikon D40 right now, which is being phased out for the new D60. Don’t let all the new bells and whistles on the D60 fool you, the D40 is one of the most successful and longest manufactured cameras due to it’s success. [ B&H Photo | Adorama | RitzCamera | Best Buy ]

Next up, you’ll need a stable place to put your camera while you’re waiting on the beast to spring forth. Read more »

The most frequent question we receive as photographers, other than “Which camera should I buy?”,  is “How do I edit my pictures?” because “Photoshop is too complicated / expensive”. We stumbled upon an article with 8 free alternatives.

Sometimes you just want a light, simple program that doesn’t take forever to load and will let you do a few standard tasks. Well, here is a list of 8 simple free Photoshop alternatives under 2MB that will save you time and headache.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-simple-free-photoshop-alternatives-that-are-under-2-mb/

Thanks for reading the first official article in our new GroovyTip series, where we share little tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your home photography. As much as we’d love to follow you around every day and capture all the great moments in your life, we know we can’t. So, we’ve decided to put together regular articles filled with practical, groovy tips so you can make the most of the time between your sessions with us!

But before we share our first GroovyTip, let’s chat a little bit about your pictures. It really doesn’t matter if you love how your photos turn out, if you think they are just ok, or if you don’t like anything that comes out of your camera. The most important tip we can give you is to simply get out there and try new things, get inspired by others, and don’t be afraid to copy ideas from other photographers, including us! If you haven’t yet, go check out Flickr or even take a peek at the various photos on the GroovyDoodle blog.

To improve your own pictures, we encourage you to keep a folder of photos you’d like to try to recreate, or search around for pics similar to yours to see how you might improve ones you’re already taking. Make notes on how you think the photos you like were taken, how you tried to take them to match the result, then get out there and try it again! We’ll assume you’re using a digital camera of some variety, so try as much as you want, it’s essentially free. And if you see something you like and just can’t figure out how to recreate it, send it to us. Who knows? It may be the next GroovyTip!

So with that, here’s our first article…

GroovyTip: Get Up-close!

You know the pictures we’re talking about – All those pictures of flowers, or bugs, or some cool root growing out of a rock. You take picture after picture but something about your shots just doesn’t look as nice as you’d like.

You don’t have to have a super-fancy SLR camera to get close to your subject. You probably have a setting on your camera you’re not even aware of that will help you do it. It’s usually referred to as “macro-mode”, or sometimes people call it “flower mode” since the icon to use this mode on your camera is usually represented by a flower, like so: . If you look at the dial on your camera, even a point and shoot, it most likely has this setting and looks like this:

Macro-Mode

The macro-mode will usually allow you to focus with your camera physically closer to your subject than you can normally get with any of the other automatic modes. However, one of the challenges with using the macro-mode is an increased sensitivity to camera shake. Because you’re closer than you would be taking a picture of a person just sitting, any shaking you introduce from just holding your camera will be amplified in your pictures. To work around this you have two choices: use something to stabilize the camera while shooting (like a tripod) or add more light.

Read more »

We get a lot of questions about a certain type of photograph customers see in our portfolio book because it has a very unique look which tends to catch people’s eyes all the time. We call it the “ringlight shot”. It uses a special light we have that allows us to light subjects in a unique way that can’t be achieved with regular studio lights. This type of portrait, as Mel likes to say, “takes off 10 years and 20 pounds”. As you can imagine, women love it. Here are some of our favorite adult ringlight shots…

Ringlight shots are not specific to adults though. We’ve had a few seniors that wanted to give it a try and absolutely loved the really unique results:

Kids also look great in ringlight shots…

You may notice that the photos above are black & white and standard portrait orientation (If you haven’t yet, just click on the pic of your choice to see the full version). Because of the style of processing we use for the ringlight shots, they look best as black & whites and cropped vertically, but they don’t always have to be…

So that’s basic ringlight shots, 101. Just another service we can provide for you next time you’re in our studio! Don’t hesitate to ask as it only takes a few minutes and it’s included in your session time should you want to try one. Just let us know!