Vanessa's Bridal Shower - Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer

Pittsburgh Wedding Photography


Vanessa's family and friends joined her to celebrate her upcoming wedding to Andrew.  The bridal shower was held at the Bravo Italian restaurant in Cranberry Twp. Pa.  which is north of Pittsburgh, PA.  I had the honor of photographing this fun filled event.  It was filled with laughter, giggles, and love.  A short time ago, I shot their engagement pictures in Mt. Washington (Pittsburgh) and Station Square.  The images of their engagement shoot are here.

 As a wedding and portrait photographer, it is always an honor and pleasure to participate in this event.



Vanessa's Bridal Shower from Frank Kendralla on Vimeo.

Lemons to lemonade!

There is an old saying - "If life throws a lemon at you, grab it and make lemonade!"  I say, grab it, throw a few strawberries, grapes, water, and ice in your blender and make a tremendous strawberry lemonade.  One of my favorite mixes for a summer treat is this mixture:

Handful of globe grapes with seeds
1 Lemon
4-5 large strawberries
2 cups water
2 cups ice
stevia to sweeten or your choice of sweetener (some use Agave Nectar)

Put them in order in your Vita-Mix or Blentec and this will make a tremendous summer drink.  Pour this mix into Popsicle holders or something similar for a quick treat.  

Drew - Beaver County High School Senior Portraits Class of 2010

Pittsburgh Wedding and Portrait Photography by Frank Kendralla

Drew is a 2010 Graduate and was fun to photograph.  The images were photographed in Beaver, Pa adjacent to the Beaver Heritage Museum.  The textures and powerful detail in the majestic Civil War era home made for a tremendous setting for Drew's High School Senior Portraits.  Drew, we wish you the best in life!




Drew - High School Senior Portraits from Frank Kendralla on Vimeo.

New blog design and layout

I hope you like the change to the blog design.  I was playing with a few different looks and wanted to incorporate a three column design going into the summer.  It enables me to put a few new links on the left and hopefully make the navigation to my other items easier.

Below is an image I captured from the west end overlook.  It is an amazing area to view the city and all three rivers merging in front of the triangle.  When I shot this image, there was a line of bridal parties waiting to take their wedding pictures with the city behind them.  There is no doubt many wedding photographers use this area to take beautiful pictures with the city behind the bridal party.

This image was shot with the Nikon D300 and 70-300 VR.
Processing:
Lightroom, Photoshop CS2, Topaz Adjust

Handheld and a polarizer used to cut through the heavy haze from the humidity.





www.kendrallaphotography.com
www.kendralla.com

Summer veggie smoothie recipie

You might know that I have been a “health nut” for over three decades (actually over 35 years).  Since my late teens, I have studied and researched nutrition and other health related items.  In fact, we (my wife and I) became a Certified Nutritional Health Professional (CNHP) many years ago in an effort to learn more about health related subjects.  Although we do not practice as counselors, a few tips a few times per month might be in order.

Today’s tip is my favorite veggie smoothie.  We own both the Vita-Mix and Blentec.  Each has advantages over the other but either machine in their own right are outstanding and I recommend you buy the one that you feel comfortable with after testing.  It comes down to a few differences.  I compared both machines on a previous post.

Summer – Veggie – Smoothie

Put the ingredients in the container in the order listed:

1-2 Roma Tomatoes

Handful of grape or cherry tomatoes

1-2 Stalks of celery

Handful of ‘baby’ carrots or 1 large carrot

3 small peppers (orange, red, and/or yellow) include the seeds

Baby spinach (as much as you can fit :-D)

Tex-Mex or South West spice to taste

1 Cup water

1 cup ice

If you want a different taste or do not like Tex Mex spices, try a vegetable bullion cube or use a spice combination that you enjoy.  I like lots of flavor but you might want to add an Italian spice.

If you are using the Blentec, use the juice setting.  If it isn’t smooth enough after blending then select smoothie after the juice cycle finishes.  Vita-Mix users, start on the slow then slowly increases to the highest speed.  Taste and share (maybe :-D).

If you want your veggie drinks to have more tomato taste then add more tomatoes, if you like more green, then add more spinach.  

For a different flavor and more kick, add a dash of hot pepper or small jalapeño. 

This is a tremendous drink for any meal.  This is similar to the warm you up soup version which I will share at a different date.

Enjoy!

Pittsburgh - Point from the West End Overlook

This image was shot from the West End Overlook and it presents an amazing view of the city of Pittsburgh.  Most of the other views are from either side of the triangle.  However, this view is directly at the point.


Prior to this journey, I never was on the West End Overlook.  All I can say is Wow!  The view is amazing and it presents multiple amazing photo opportunities.  No doubt many Pittsburgh Wedding Photographers have the same opinion of this area.  While I was there, at least four photographers and four bridal parties had some of their wedding portraits shot from this angle.  In fact, at one point, there was a long line of people waiting for their photos to be taken by a myriad of Pittsburgh Wedding Photographers.  

There are many posing and scenic opportunities for individual and group shots from the West End Overlook and I am positive hours could be spent here and never the same image shot.

There is a beautiful tunnel of pipes and ivy that greets the visitor from the West End entrance.  It presents tremendous group and individual posing opportunities.   One of the amazing (funny) parts of this day is that I asked many different folks in the West End for directions to this viewing area and not one knew how to get here.  Everyone said they heard of it but no one knew where it was exactly.  It proves that there are many great areas in every locality that people do not know exist.  I was told that the city put many dollars in renovating this vantage point and it is apparent that the dollars were used.

Both images were taken with the Nikon D300.  The first was shot with the Tamron 17-50 and the second with the Nikon 70-300vr.  If you look close in the second image, you will see a helicopter flying around the point.


A circular polarizer was used to bring in the details of the sky and cut through the slight haze in the air. Some post-processing was done in both Lightroom and Photoshop.

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination."  Tommy Lasorda

Capturing the beauty of your home town - Turn Around

When I visit Memphis, one location I enjoy photographing is the Crystal Grotto.  Located within the Memorial Park Cemetery. Yes, in a cemetery.  This image looks like something from a theme park but it is from a cemetery.  On this trip, I didn't have much time before it was dark and I was attempting to get a unique sunset.  However, the sun kept moving behind the clouds and I decided to turn around and I noticed this amazing looking scene.  Typically, I would put on a circular polarizer to bring in the clouds.  However, I did not have time and I exposed for the sky/clouds and underexposed the subject.  I wanted the clouds to accent this great looking scene.  Since I shoot in raw, I was able to bring up the exposure in the main part of the scene while keeping the detail of the beautiful sky.  

This type of scenery helps create very unique looking images when used as a base for portraits.  I can image a couple standing on the walk with the beautiful sky as the backdrop to an eerie scene.  Convert this scene to a black and white and the mood changes.  Darken the image more, place a subject near the door with a small amount of light on their face and the scene changes even more. 

I can image many different light and scene combinations for this one setting.  This image looks as if it is a very scary image from a horror film or children's adventure story.  My hint and suggestion for today.  Turn around and look at each scene in a different manner.  In this case, I was looking for a sunset but found unique lighting angles for this amazing setting.  When you see a beautiful sunset, turn around and look where the light is falling.  You might find an interesting view that you never noticed before.

In this final image, I pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and turned around to see this beautiful twilight image.  Very little modification was done in the computer for this image.  The skies were amazing.

As always - get out and enjoy the beauty of life!

Printing Images Pittsburgh in Color

After spending the day photographing your child, family event, or your favorite scene, you find the perfect image you want to print.  You go to your favorite frame store and find a beautiful frame for the photo.  The frame matches your decor perfectly or it has a great saying on it.  Immediately, you know exactly where to hang the photo.  However, when you attempt to print it as an 8x10 or 16x20, you notice that the image doesn't fit in the crop line for an 8x10 or 16x20.  Why?  Without getting too technical, images out of the camera will fit 4x6, 8x12, 16x24, etc perfectly.  In the past, images would print as 4x5, 8x10, 16x20, etc.

What should/can you do to get the image to fit in the 8x10?  This is what I do.  First, if I didn't shoot the frame loose (with plenty of room around the subject to crop as an 8x10) and I do not want to cut off any part of the image, I crop the image in post production.  One method that I do is to create a digital mat in either Photoshop , or Fotofusion.  Normally, I use Fotofusion (Extreme) and utilize templates I built previously and modify for the current image.

Within Fotofusion, I create a black canvas set to either 8x10 or 10x8 and use the tools within the software to mat the image.  After creating the canvas, bring the image onto the canvas and adjust accordingly to the size of the mat you want.  In this image, I used 3/4 in on the top and both sides with 1.25 inches on the bottom to include some text.  By using post production software such as Photoshop, Fotofusion, or Photoshop Elements, you maintain control of the cropping and type of mat you would like for your image. There are many plugins and templates available for all three of these products but I will reserve discussing them for a future post.

This method is an easy way to get nice looking matting for your images and have them still fit in your standard frames.  By using post production software, you can create many types of matting and designs.  In the first example, the layout is very simple.  In the second example, I have more than one image and added more text. Software enables the photographer to design many interesting creative images.  Regardless if you are just starting or an a seasoned photographer, there are many creative options for today's photographers.  

Images and designs by Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer Frank Kendralla
www.kendrallaphotography.com