Friday, May 28, 2010

Last blog update; switching to Facebook

After much deliberation I've decided to consolidate my workflow and use Facebook as my blog from now on. Managing both has truly become a little confusing and I'm too busy shooting to be distracted by what to post where. Plus, Facebook is much easier! I can upload 100s of images at once if I want instead of 5 max and it is easier to work with when it comes to writing out a story.

So, please click on the fan box to the right and that will take you to the Harley Bonham Photography page. It is public so you don't have to sign up for anything unless you want to. Please become a fan!
Thanks for reading!!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

the Georgia aquarium is amazing!

I was shooting an event in Atlanta last week and had some free time to go to the aquarium. As soon as I walked in I was really sad that Reagan and Julie couldn't be there so I decided to shoot some video and stills with my new Nikon D300s. I played around with the clips and this is my first venture into playing around with video. No plans on becoming a videographer, though; it takes way too much time in post production!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Engagement sessions!

Ever since February I've been swamped with either weddings, engagement sessions or big corporate events. Here are a few favorites from the engagement sign-in books created from the sessions. Spring has been incredible for shooting outside!
















Sunday, March 28, 2010

Event shoot in Orlando turns into family vacation!

With all the events, weddings and portrait sessions I've been shooting, I get so far behind updating the blog but wanted to show off a few of my favorite shots from our Orlando trip a couple of weeks ago. I was hired to shoot for the Academy of Osseointegration's annual conference (has something to do with dental implants) which took place at the Disney Dolphin hotel. I actually work for the event management folks who run several conferences like this one; they are the same people who brought me to Miami Beach last November for another event. I brought Julie and Reagan along and stayed a few extra days; mom drove out from Mississippi to meet us and see her little grand-daughter.

We stayed at the Dolphin which was next door to the "Swan" hotel but I noticed something unusual: While the Swan hotel had huge swan sculptures everywhere, the "Dolphin" had sculptures but they were FISH! You'll see in the following photo.


Why no dolphins? Did the building contractor order dolphin sculptures but get fish by mistake? Did he not notice the difference until it was too late? OR, did they order FISH sculptures, install them, then decide that "Disney Fish Hotel" didn't sound marketable? "Hello and welcome to the Disney Carp; please pardon the smell..." They should have consulted the focus groups sooner...or a marine biologist.

Anyway, after all the work was done we moved to a timeshare and took reagan on her first journey to Disney World! Julie dressed her appropriately and daddy took pictures; had great lighting on the condo's patio.





Then it was off to Disney World, (or in Snoop Dogg-speak: The Dizzle Wizzle)






My favorite part was the fireworks at the end of the day; Reagan got to see some a couple of nights earlier during a client event at Epcot and LOVED them! When we told her that we were going to see fireworks again she started saying "boom boom come out!"






I have never seen her so excited; she kept yelling "more! more!" and giggling. I actually got all choked up at how much fun she was having; Julie thought it was cute. I thought I was a dork.

Another favorite place was Downtown Disney and we discovered LegoLand; Reagan loves playing with Legos. She kept saying "so tall....sooooooo tall!"





It was all fun and games until it was time to go.



Hot fudge sundae works every time!



Fun pics from the place behind our timeshare:




Saturday, January 2, 2010

Wedding updates!

Wow, 2009 really flew by! Now that we've closed out an amazingly successful year I thought I would show off one of my favorite weddings from the latter part of this year. Looking back I see that we achieved our goal of an even mix of wedding, portrait and event/commercial work! I love the diversity because it allows me to try so many different techniques that eventually apply to other areas of my photography work. For example, I've done a lot of food and product photography which gave me new insight to shooting a wedding cake and small details such as rings. Portrait lighting gave me ideas on how to shoot events with a 2nd or even 3rd light on a stand which makes an ordinary shot of people networking really "pop."

Here are Mike and Andrea Laborin, photographed at Nardini Manor. I met them over a year ago at the bridal expo and I was amazed at how meticulous they were in planning their wedding down to the last detail!


First, the late afternoon sun was pouring through this frosted window where the girls were getting ready; the light was gorgeous and allowed me to create a dreamy look to some of these images.








The outdoor garden was another breathtaking spot for their formal portraits.






The ceremony took place in another garden area with an amazing elevated gazebo.







Chris Burkett from Birkett Entertainment was the DJ and it was a blast working with him again. He has a unique talent for getting the bridal party involved in entertaining the crowd during a Grease-themed skit and it was a hit! He also had a cool lighting effect which created a starry sky on the white tent ceiling. I use a special multiple-flash/exposure technique to get this "first dance" shot to work. You can't just set the camera to "auto" and expect everything to come together (that is a common "newbie" mistake now that everyone has a camera and calls themselves a photographer.) In fact, many of these shots benefit from the multi-light setup; it is a little more effort but the results are worth it. It also works well with my double exposures.










Finally, this combination of b/w and color tends to get overdone so I don't use it very often BUT loved the idea of the guys drinking their Dos Equis and having a toast.