remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

The Hackers took advantage of a common vulnerability in the back end of type of sites l use. Working with my hosting company, we were able to get the sites up and running fairly quickly but spent the last couple of days scrubbing the site to look for other hacks to try to get rid of them.

The good news is that we think we got it all and the site is up and running. The bad news is that I’ll have to repopulate my entire site which will take some time.

I’m looking at it as an opportunity to go through my work for the past couple of years to see what I can re-blog and update my images in my portfolio. So please check back often as I update the site with new work and revisit the older stuff.

This image is from my June 10, 2010 wedding for Anastasia and James in Culpepper, Virgina.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church is a beautiful historical building in downtown Culpepper. This was taken at a hall adjacent to the main building. I loved the symmetry of the stain glass windows and the light of the afternoon backlit her perfectly.

I have the following lighting gear:

Big Strobes:
4 x Hensel Integra 500

Small Strobes:
3 x Canon 550ex Speelites
2 x Canon 580exII Speedlights

Tungsten:
1 x Lowell iD light

I also have various gels and other modifiers to help control thees lights and radio triggers to help fire them off camera.

I often get asked what gear do I shoot with. I know where this question is headed.

Some are just curious what tools you use and some are under the misguided impression that gear makes the Photographer.

Cameras are just tools.

I would love the challenge of shooting an entire wedding with a point and shoot camera. The cameras are so good now that 90% of the time you can get a great shot in auto mode.  It’s my specific shooting needs that dictate my gear choices so the listing below is not for everyone.

Camera:
Canon 5D
Canon 50D

Lenses:
primes
28 1.8
50 1.4
85 1.8
100 2.8 macro

telephoto
24-70 2.8 L
70-200 2.8L
75-300 4.5-5.6

Crop factor can be confusing but I’ll do my best to explain it you you. Sorry for the impromptu math seminar .

My cameras capture images at a 3:2 or 2:3 ratio. Meaning that if the longer side is divisible by 3 the shorter side is divisible by 2. So an uncropped image out of my camera (and other 35mm based cameras) comes in 6×4, 9×6, 12×8, 15×10, 18×12, 24×16, 30×20, and 45×30.

If you order any variation of this ratio, the image need to be cropped. So an 8×10 (a 4:5 ratio) is basically a crop of an 8×12 (2:3) meaning that a full 2” will be cropped off the image. This is why when you see some of your group images there seems to be a lot of space around- that’s leaving room for the different size requests. My on-line shopping cart does show you the crop before you place the image in your cart so you can see the effect of the different crop sizes.

• Do ‘you’! Look casual and fun and not too formal, while wearing something that really is very ‘you’.
• It’s important to wear clothing that you can sit, stand and walk comfortably in because you will be moving around a lot for a variety of different photographs. Also, try to wear something you would not mind getting a little dirty (like jeans or khakis).
• Wearing clothes that match your partner’s (for example you both wearing khaki bottoms and a white shirt) often does not work well for this kind of shoot. That kind of matching works better for family portrait session where that kind of dress connotes one unit instead of two personalities in love.
• You do want to stick to the same color family or complementary tones and keep in mind that darker colors are most slimming on women.
• Try to avoid busy patterns, you do not want to wear something that will compete with your face for attention in the  images.
• It’s also important to incorporate the same level of formality into your outfits – meaning one person should not look like they are going to the beach and the other to an office meeting!

I’ve decided to move to a blog-based format. This will allow me to update my site with my latest work and provide me an opportunity to let my clients and fans more easily follow my wedding and portrait work.

Over the coming months I will be back blogging my weddings and portraits over the past couple of years so that you can get a sense of my development as a Photographer.

I hope you enjoy the site.  If you have suggestions for what would be helpful for you to see on this site, I’d be happy to here them!