blog and site Face-lift!!!!

yep, the title pretty much takes care of this post!

(for all you google readers, you are just going to have to actually view my blog and site to see it.)

 

(p.s.  i promise it is worth it!)

www.markbrooke.net (blog)

www.markbrooke.com (site)

FAQ: Tilt Shift...

The last few months Candice and I have been on inbox overload with our badical blog readers questions. We love to help everyone out, so we will usually respond to every single email that comes our way. Well, after "copy and paste"-ing the same answer in several emails. We decided to answer this popular question on our blog. Starting today we will be answering our popular questions via blog posts to help answer those reoccurring questions.

Todays Question(s)

"How do you get that blur in your pictures?"

"What type of post-processing do you use to blur one side of the picture?"

"How are you making one area out of focus and the rest in focus?"


The questions listed above are all in reference to using a Tilt Shift Lens. NO we do not add a lens blur effect to our shots  in photoshop...We use an awesome lens that was originally made for shooting buildings and architecture.

This lens is fully manual! So to be honest it takes lots and lots of practice to line everything up. When we first started using the lens it would take us an awkward couple of minutes to get the settings just right, but now it takes just a few split seconds. So you must practice with this lens before you hit an E-session or a wedding for that matter.

The best way to describe the Tilt shift is... a lens where the front half is shiftable. This creates a clear rectangle designates what will be in focus in the frame. 

Then, by turning the focus-ring, you can move the selected focus to the left or to the right, depending on how you have the lens oriented. You can also adjust how harsh you want things blurred. So sometimes I will chose to put the clear rectangle in the center of the picture and other times I will choose to put the clear portion all the way to one side of the frame. The awesome part is "I" am in complete control. I can tell the lens exactly what I want and it is done!

I hope this helps you all! fell free to comment with other questions and i will answer then as best as i can.

here are some examples of some tilt shift shots.





 

Goals for 08'

Our New Years Resolutions: 

Does everyone remember making their new year resolutions for 08'?  We remember being with Gabriel and Carlie (some of our greatest friends), so excited about the future and what it held. We were all new at clicking our cameras and we had no idea what would happen.  We made goals like: shoot X amount of weddings...do X amount of destination weddings... get ridiculously good at a taking pictures...fly around the moon etc.... Back then I dont know if we ever really believed all of those X things would happen. But we were young (meaning 6 months younger) and we were all driven.  

Well, today we (Candice and Mark...aka us) had a little bit of a freak out. We realized that many of our goals have been accomplished, many goals we thought would never happen happened. We feel very blessed to be were we are in life, and to have the support of our friends and blog readers. 

 * We hit over 20,000 blog visitors a few days ago. (shout out to Melissa for doing that ages ago).

* We have accomplished all our little goals ex: pricing, studio, albums..etc..

* We have reached our X # of wedding we wanted to book in 08'

* We have reached our X # of destination weddings.

I know everyone has goals... We still have several that we would like to accomplish on a personal level and a business level,  but we are encouraged that we made it this far (and how much fun we had doing it). Sometimes, like us, you might not even realize how far you have made it until you breath and look back. We have found that if you shoot for the moon you will at least get to the stars. So wahooooo to everyone who has shot for the moon!

Now to explain the pictures:

We got hired a few months ago to shoot a celebrity wedding! We love them to death. They had us rolling over laughing when we hung out with them...probably because their job is to entertain us Americans.. which is a ridiculously hard job. Unfortunately we can not say who they are, but they allowed us to take these fun paparazzi pictures of them. 

 

note: for those close friends who know who this is, please do not say in the comments we want to respect their privacy :)

Will and Sarah :: Picture me.... engaged!

Will and Sarah freaking rock!!!!  Sarah grew up in London so they decided that the closest thing to English architecture was shooting their engagement at Union Station in L.A.  Which they were 100% correct! 

Will and Sarah met through words, they feel in love with each other online (like most of our clients:) When they met face to face they knew it was l.o.v.e.

Will and Sarah are sooo cool because: they drive a mini cooper (like us), they go to our church, they are sooo funny, and they might as well have been SNL skit.

Thanks for everything!!!!

Click here for the slideshow.... No, Really click right here!!!!!!!!

Ladera Ranch swim team...(my version)

My not so true swim story ( but i wish it was)....

O.k. so for the last few years I have been training for the swim Olympics. I knew I had to step up my practices to 12 times a week instead of 7 times if I wanted to go anywhere in life (anywhere in life meaning becoming the next swimming champion)......

I ran into Jessica at horseback riding lessons ( I mean poker lessons), she mentioned that she is on a swim team with chenin that practices 4 hours a day! perfect, I said!!!! The next thing I knew I was swimming my little heart out every day, running into little four year olds with fins and getting a great tan.

The true story....

I have always loved to swim... in a resort pool with a margarita!

When Jessica and I decided to work out together we were mortified to get wet, on purpose... but now it is an awesome passion of mine, I actually get excited. Its the best feeling in the world to jump into a heated pool and splash through the lap pool lanes, do sit ups on the side of the wall, and use a kick board. It beats running any day of the week.

Jessica and I = hard core

Chenin and I = strength

Please keep the peace in your local pools!

Splash till we can splash no more

Rock , like its your job

Michael Norwood's House Warming Party

Michael Norwood + Sushi + friends = a good time!

Last night we attended Michael's house warming party. It was way cooler then ours!...We started the night with all you can eat sushi and chatting and ended the night with a serious game of poker.

 Michael and Becker split the pot. 

And of course... thanks Lan Bui for the awesome video!!!!

 

* candice would like to make a note that she doesn't usually talk like that....and if she does she needs someone to give an intervention on her nerdyness. 

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Josh & Ann :: Picture me... Engaged

Josh = RAD.

Ann = ICAL.

Josh + Ann = RADICAL.

This past weekend we had the opportunity to shoot an engagement for Josh and Ann. They are so fun to hang out with!!! I seriously love photo-shoots with clients, but I also love when they go so smoothly that you almost forget that there was a camera in your hand. THAT is how awesome they are!


They are getting married on March 13th 2009. I love how on top of things they are!


We can't wait for your big day guys!!!!!!!

CLICK HERE FOR THE SLIDESHOW!!! DO IT!! DO IT!!

Andrew and Stacey Derr :: Picture me... Married

So when i got to phone call from Amelia to come hang out with her at Stacey and Andrews wedding i was so stoked!!!!!!  Not only is Amelia a Freaking amazing Photographer, but she is WAY rad to hang out with!  Her husband Justin is equally as rad, and the producer for Yo Gabba Gabba, easily the best thing on T.V. right now, besides Dexter of course!  

Justin and Amelia just got nominated for Photog of the Year by Blu Domain. GO VOTE FOR THEM!!!!!!!!  (IN JUNE!) and don't forget to check out her post!!!

Her are some of my shots from the day.... :)