First Studio Subject | Test

Sorry Cooper!  Actually who knows maybe he liked being my first model?  Cooper sat there calmly for me for about 15 min before getting a bit restless.  It was in my benefit that he was scared to jump off the chair and run away.  Or perhaps waking him up from his nap and putting him straight on the chair helped?  Either way, he was a good dog ;)

Stenberg Studios is Born!

Well it aint much but its a start ;)  My new place in Sylvan Lake has a lot of extra room downstairs in the unfinished basement so I thought I would experiment with the space.  I got my hands on some stands/crossbar and a medium slate backdrop and set it up.  A couple of small strobes, umbrella, and a chair and its ready to go!  Well... I still  need to iron out some kinks... or should I say creases in the backdrop haha!

More pics and info after the jump... click read more below

Seattle Downtown Pike Place Market

I went to seattle a while back and sat down today to edit a few pictures from that trip.  I am drawn to the pylon picture for some reason... well there are lots of reasons but I think you have to appreciate the weird qualities it has.  Does anyone else like it?  What does it represent to you?  What symbolism can you find and why does this picture work???

Please click READ MORE to view more pics

Cooper Stenberg | Pet photography!

Hey Everyone!  I got a  new puppy and his name is Cooper.  He is 11 weeks old today when I took these photos.  In case you are wondering, he is a yellow lab.  So far he has been well behaved and very loving.  However he still is a puppy and likes to investigate everything he can get his nose and mouth on!

RDES | Red Deer Emergency Services Firefighters in action

Working with RDES I had the opportunity to get some cool photography during training.  We took to the streets of Red Deer and were given the opportunity to use real structures to practice forcible entry as well as  simulated firefighting evolutions and rescues.  Equipped with smoke machines and various tools, fellow firefighters laddered roofs and cut holes for ventilation.  Attack teams entered the smoke filled, zero visibility,  house and completed searches and rescued victims.  RIT teams also made entry to the house to rescue down or trapped firefighters and break through walls to escape "over-heated" rooms.

* More Info and pictures after the jump.  Please click (read more) below...

Cherie and Tanner | Edmonton Engagement shoot Downtown Jasper Ave LRT

Weeks ago I took some engagement shots with Cherie and Tanner downtown Edmonton.  We started off on Jasper Ave near Rice Howard way and made our way to Hotel Mac and eventually down the streets of Jasper.  We got so cold that we had to make a warm up trip to the LRT and were able to play around and get some cool motion blur photos.  Congrats to Cherie and Tanner on your engagement!

Click the read more link to see more pics :)

Tech Info:  All photos were done with natural Ambient light with an ISO of 400 - 800.  The motion blur photos were with a shutter speed of about 1/25th.

Wedding Photos Joe and Kristin complete!

I have finally completed their photos after lots of long hard editing.  I have posted a few more of my favorites but will post more on my facebook account for further viewing.  If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to contact me.  More photos after the jump!

Wedding Teasers | Kristin and Joe

Here are a few teaser shots I thought I would post to keep up on this whole "blog" thing.  I still have to edit the rest of this wedding as well as various other shoots I have just recently done so please check back for more posts ;)

I will most likely post a larger album of 100 pics or more from this wedding on Facebook when its complete.  Please don't hesitate to add me if you want to see more pics!

Kristin and Joe's wedding was beautiful and full of calm autumn weather and warm sunlight.  I loved shooting this outdoor wedding with all of the great available light combined with off camera flash.  Alex Campbell also assisted me and was able to get some more great experience and some solid shots.

I hope to have the rest of these pics done very soon!  I hope you all enjoy.

*To see the rest of the pics click after the jump!

Edmonton Wedding Favorites from Citadel and Coast Plaza

I have already posted some teaser photos of Laura and Darcy and can now finally say I have completed all of their editing.  Here are some of my favorites that I tried to widdle down while I was editing.  If you are interested in seeing a larger portfolio of images from their whole day please contact me.  Or add me on Facebook where I have an album of this wedding with over 140 photos in it.  My facebook page gets updated in a blog style format as well but has more updates and a variety of photos you will not find on this blog.  See below for more info...

Family photos Edmonton Park "Strobist style"

The Sohnle family was a great time to shoot.  They were so easy going and very naturally playful for the camera.  They made my job so easy!  We met at the park under the SHAW conference center where they have some gazebos and natural green areas.  You overlook the river and Queen river boat and have a nice city skyline behind us.  Since it is getting later in the year, we were able to use the earlier setting sun to our advantage and get some great color from the sky.  I would try and underexpose the sky and compensate with a flash or two.  I would experiment with a CTO on one or two flashes.  In a few pictures we had three flashes in use.  Two were at 45 degree angles in behind the couples shooting down and hair / rim lighting them while a large umbrella shot down above them to light up their faces with a softer light.   You can always look for shadows in pictures to reverse engineer where the light was coming from.

In the end, I was very pleased with how these pics turned out.  I think we really captured the fun loving happy family feel in all of their photos.  I have posted some of my favorites!

*more photos after the jump!

Citadel Wedding Edmonton "teaser shots"

Hey Everyone!

I am part way through editing a wedding I shot for Laura and Darcy and couldn't resist posting a few on the blog.  I will continue to edit and post as time goes on :)

Feel free to click on the pics to make them a bit larger for better viewing.

Take care,

Kurt

Iphone photography

Hey,

I finally got a new I phone and have already started seaching 'apps' for the Iphone related to photography.  There are tons and tons but so far I have found a favorite and thought I would let you in on it.  It is called "TiltShiftGen".  Basically this app automatically applies a tilt-shift effect to photos which can then be adjusted to your liking in a radial or linear fashion.  If you don't know what tilt/shift photography is, it can be best explained by... hmmm... selective blur vs focus?  It is another way to emphasis certain things in photos.  

You can also add vignette, adjust color sats etc etc.  I found it to be handy and definitely something fun to play around with and keeps things interesting and forces you to get creative with that little 3 Mgpix camera!

I currently upload most of my I phone photos as a blog style format to Facebook or Twitter for ease of use.  If you would like to follow me there please search username:

Stenberg Photographyblog (Facebook)  or...

Stenbergphoto (Twitter)

Take care!

Kurt

Canmore Valley East From Heart Mountain Panorama

I took this panorama earlier this summer while out scrambling Heart Mountain.  I was not quite at the summit yet when I looked north and saw the vast landscape and Hwy 1 winding its way through the valley.  I ended up shooting 5 pictures in total to create this 1!  I did it all handheld and stitched them together in  PS post-production.  Camera right you can see Highway 1 towards Calgary heading East.  Eventually the hwy drains, camera left, just outside of Canmore.  If you look closely at the image or zoom in, you can see the cement plant among other things.  This image is in a 12 x 36 Panoramic format which can be printed custom or even at your local Costco ;)  If you are interested in a print please contact me at 403.307.LENS or stenbergphotography@shaw.ca

Kurt

Sydney's 2nd Birthday party

Hello family and friends.  I have posted an online photo-share that Sydney's family and friends can look through and download if they choose.  They are a bunch of casual shots I took while at her party.  The password for the photoshare is Sydney's last name.  Please CLICK HERE.

Please contact Niki if you would like larger file size to make any prints.  However the downloaded file online should be good enough to print 4 x6's and maybe 5 x 7's.

Take care and Happy Birthday Syd!

Kurt

Tolsma Family Group Outdoor Portraits Edmonton Area

I recently spent a couple hours with the Tolsma family out near Spruce Grove on their acreage taking a few family photos to mark the moment.  They were having a family reunion and had not taken any family pictures in a long time.  Everyone had a lot of fun and we kept things pretty casual.  Thanks again to Joe for all the help with keeping everyone organized and together.  It is a lot of work trying to arrange people especially if you just met them!  So again, Joe, thanks.

The Tolsma Family, friends, and relatives can view their photos by clicking here.  

Like all of my Portrait sessions, whether its for a couple, family, kids, pets or whatever, I always include a DVD of all creatively edited images in web and print formats.  I charge $250 for a portrait session that lasts 1-2 hours at your location.  Please contact me for more info :)

Kurt Stenberg

stenbergphotography@shaw.ca

Stenberg Photography | Graduation Oregon

This summer I was down in Oregon, specifically in Salem, shooting a graduation.  Graduations in the US seem to be a 'big deal' compared to up here in Canada.  It's not that they are not as important or have any less significance, there just seems to be a lot more graduates and everything is on a larger scale.  Bigger venues, more people, big families!  It was a pleasure to have this experience and take part in my first event outside of Canada.  I was faced with many challenges, some I had not experienced especially in the morning of the shoot in the salon.  I took a few set-up shots of what I was up against and how I used my equipment.  My next post will have behind the scenes shots and more tech discussion.

Kurt

Children's and Family Portraits Edmonton

Looking for a few pictures of the family this fall?  I know you hate the Portraits studios at the department stores and would like something a bit more original, casual, and not so "posed".  I offer portrait packages that can be customized to suit your needs.  For a couple hours shooting time, we can get individual pics of the kids, pets, and even the whole group.  We can meet on location at one of your favorite places or even near your home.  Its great to get pics of the family doing something they love and interacting with each other.  These make the BEST portraits.  Give me a shout and we can exchange ideas :)  

Estimated cost for a session is $250 for approx 1-2hrs of shooting.  This includes ALL creative editing, and rights to all of your digital negatives on DVD.  I provide pictures in two formats for print and for displaying on the web.  I can also setup on online gallery with or without password for viewing and download by family and friends.

Talk to you soon!

Kurt 

STENBERGPHOTOGRAPHY

stenbergphotography@shaw.ca

780.238.0678

BIG Aperture = Soft, Professional Portraits

Hey there,

I finally returned from holidays and began to edit some photos from a graduation I shot down in Salem OR.  I came across these two portraits and thought they would show a good example of what aperture can do to your photos.  

When using a DSLR and you have a lens that can shoot as low as F 2.8 you get a very very shallow depth of field (DOF).  This means you have to be very precise and quick were you focus and must realize that everything in front and behind your focus point will blur very quickly.  This means 2.8 can be great for portraits giving skin and background noise a very soft look while keeping the eyes sharp.  It is important when shooting portraits to always focus on your subjects eyes for obvious reasons.  A sharp nose and blurry eyes will not have the same impact and will leave the viewer uninterested in the photo.

The color photo and the monochrome picture were shot with almost the exact same settings as follows : F2.8 ISO 400 1/160th second.  The color photo was with a length of 70mm on my 24-70 lens.  The b/w photo was almost the same at 67mm.  This means that I was "zoomed" in as much as I can with my lens.  Zooming in and using a lens of at least 70mm creates the best portriats as well since it helps to further blur the background and tighten up the DOF focus point.

Although the b/w photo isnt my favorite composition for a portrait or nessessarily what I would desire for soft focus, I thought it was unique and shows a great example.  The one eye and lips show some nice sharpness but falls a bit too quickly into blur to the farther eye.  To improve this I could have used a slightly smaller aperture of 3.5?  This probably would have dont the trick.  However, it is subjective and sometimes something out of the ordinary makes the best photos.

PS:  I uploaded both photos in a large size so you can click on them and see up close where the sharp vs blur interacts on the photo.

The color photo is what most photographers would consider more desirable since both eyes are in focus and the blur quickly falls to the background.  Her face was more square to the camera (90 deg) where as the other photo was on a sharper angle.  Please click on both photos and compare the difference.  It is quite noticeable.

Anyways, hope you enjoy and feel free to comment

Kurt

Wildflowers of Kananaskis Country

Hey

I am in-between camping trips and couldn't stop myself from previewing some of the pics I took while away.  I got carried away and thought to heck with it I will just edit them now and put up a post.  

We camped off of the Forestry Trunk road perched up above a big valley with a great view of the mountains as you can see in the last photograph.  It was an almost 180 degree view when we woke up from our tents in the morning.

When we first arrived we immediately noticed the huge number of wild lilly's that were so vibrant red and orange so I knew I had to at least get one shot of them before leaving.  It was pretty cool to have such a variety of flowers all around us and not have to  hike up a  mountain pass to find them for once!  In the end I got a good variety of pictures of many flowers in the area.

TECH INFO: I took all of these shots in the morning shortly after sunrise with a nice cross-light.  I only used natural light for these and didn't bother experimenting with flash.  I wish I would have brought my tripod so I could have opened up the DOF a bit more but oh well.  So in the end I boosted my ISO slightly to 400 F8.0 and shot in a range of 1/60th to 1/500th sec.  In PS LR I adjusted the WB and exposure and adjusted the black values, added some needed contrast and got rid of some of the noise before sharpening.  Some of the photos also have a slight boost in saturation but most of the flower photos didn't need it because they were so vibrant already.

Hope you enjoy.  I will be gone again tomorrow and back after the weekend so I will have another post up after that.  Thanks!  Please leave comments, critique, or let me know which one(s) are your favorite and why.

KURT

if you have any questions or would like to inquire about getting any of my photography custom printed, please send me an email at    stenbergphotography@shaw.ca