Originally published at Dan Francis Photography. Please leave any comments there.

Wow, what a crazy two weeks I’ve had since my last writing.

Two weeks ago I shot some wedding pictures for a college friend’s mother. The wind was blowing at over 30MPH and yes the wedding was outside. It was around 72 degrees however with a nice sheet of clouds over the sun.  If it wasn’t for the blasted wind!

The day was fun and went fast. Congrats to Mike and Joy!

Here are some pictures:

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Last Saturday I shot some pictures of my friends wedding. I only took pictures from the limo to the end of the day. The fun pictures. I jumped into the extra large limo and began taking pictures of all the groomsmen and bridesmaids parting. We drove to Thunder road and the groomsmen and a couple of bridesmaids drove the go-carts. I had a 300 zoom lens so I was happy right behind the fence taking pictures as they went by laughing. Afterwards we went onto Island Park and I took some more fun pictures of the bride/groom/party.  The reception was being held at the Radisson Downtown. The dance didn’t start until 9 (3hrs after getting there) so I had a lot of down time, I wish I brought my laptop to upload some photographs. It was also a nice wedding and I wish Erin and Kevin all the best!

Here are some photographs:

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And finally. I did It! After months of waiting. I finally managed to plan the perfect wedding proposal.

It involved a Willow Tree (our favorite tree) the Beatles (our favorite music) and Photography (our favorite hobby)

The plan was for it to be Wednesday… June 4th.. which is…… 64… which is… a song I’ve been singing to Amanda for the past few days. (clue) It’s one of her favorite Beatles songs.  The willow tree is strong with us as one of our first kisses was under one. and Photography just had to be involved.

So, I took her to one of our parks here and I did a photo-shoot with her. She thought we were just going to take random pictures in the park (good way to get her all dressed up for the occasion) I took some great shots of her dancing and some close up shots of her eyes and then she thought we should get some pictures of us under the willow tree. (my plan the whole time, but acted like it was her idea.) Anyway, so after I set up the shot the way I wanted it, I put the focus dot right on her and set it to 10 seconds.

Self timer… 10 seconds… had to run fast and strike a pose!

Afterwards we sat with a blanket under the willow tree as we watched the sun set listening to some music (The Beatles - When I’m 64 and a few other of our favorites.

Here are some pics I took last night: All of them were shot before the proposal. The very last one is the actual question captured in time.

Originally published at Dan Francis Photography. Please leave any comments there.

Last night was our Annual Banquet.

We started out with our food and began to play: What is it? -with photographs that the president took of objects very close up. My girlfriend being who she is, figured a lot of tricky ones out fast and raised her arm in excitement. She loves a good challenge of wits.

After that the judge for the annual best of show (all images that scored First, Second, Third, and Honorable mention was collected. talked about how he judged. putting one section for yes and one section for no. and then kept added yes images into the no section, and then went through the no section and took out any that shouldn’t be there until he was down to one image. I had a total of 17 images. The winner went to a B/W Snow Scenary by Larry H.

I didn’t enter any online or slides, so I was done… or so I thought.

They also gave awards for total points in each category. Now remember, My first month was December and my first contest was in January. So I missed out on Sept-Dec prints (4 months of points gone.) But, what can you do?

My First plaque award was third place in Digital Modified Prints.

My Second plaque award was third place in Black and White prints

I’m not sure how many points I was away from getting second or first in those categories, but with 4 months of missing points. I am grateful I made the top 3.

My Third award was a grand slam medal for placing 1st/2nd/3rd in all three categories (Digital/BW/Color) in one months time.

Next year.

I think Amanda is going to join next year as well,I think she’s hooked.

The season begins in Sept again, so I better get outside and start making some prints.

Originally published at Dan Francis Photography. Please leave any comments there.

Last Thursday was the last meeting for the summer of Camera Club here in Fargo. We met at our HQ and decided on where to go.

Different people thought of different places, so we just scattered around Fargo instead of us as a group walking and helping each other take better pictures. We agreed to meet for dinner at 9 to talk about our experiences and to just talk photography. I started down at the east dike river. I took some close up pictures of the water hitting the rocks and some images of the sun behind a willow tree.

 

I then walked the streets of downtown Fargo looking for some good textures to add to my collection. I found some old damaged bricks and broken up sidewalks so it wasn’t a total loss. After walking for awhile, I drove up to the center mall parking ramp to get an overall shot of Moorhead/Fargo and the sunset. What I thought was going to be just some pictures of a sunset over Fargo turned out to be some pictures of skateboarders in front of the sunset.

 

They showed up about 5 minutes after I drove up. The got out of their yellow convertible yelling and full of excitement about taping themselves skating down the park ramp. I didn’t approach them right away; but after a few times of them returning I asked if I could get some shots of them posing with their boards. I’m not one to usually approach people on the street. so, I’m pretty darn happy that I did. I think from now on, I just need to tell myself that I’d be missing some great shots if I talked myself out of asking people. They were happy to do it, and asked for my business card so they could get some images.  After that, I snapped a few more images of the sunset and packed up and went to talk with the other photographers on how they did.  Fun night.

Quote of the day:

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.” -Robert Kennedy

Originally published at Dan Francis Photography. Please leave any comments there.

During the Northern Lights Photography convention here in Fargo this week, I took a few notes on wisdom, inspiration and the rules. Here is what I can pass on about photography:

(Rules)

Know what makes a great Photograph:

What is usually looked at for a photography to be great:

-Impact, Creativity, Style, Composition, Color balance, Center of Interest, Lighting, Subject Matter, Technique, and Story Telling.

(Wisdom)

What we need to do as Photographers:- Create Images / Make the Lighting great / Make the subject look great / Solve Problems

4+4 = 5.6   (Photography Math)———

What to do before you start to photograph:

- Determine your light source - Select environment/Background - Proper Placement of Subject - Natural Posing - and Keep it simple!

Start by setting goals and Targeting your market

Who is your client? - How do you reach them?

——–

(Inspiration)

What is your dream? Can you visualize it?

- Want it / Visualize it / Focus on it / Achieve it

Make your images valuable and priceless!

Make every experience with your client/subject enjoyable!

The Key to success?

- It comes from your heart.

- Touch the heart of your client and subject, raise and evoke emotion.

- Make it personal and everything will fall into place.

- Never feel you’ve learned enough.

- Take time to do Photography for you.

- Open your eyes to the beauty of the world around you.

- Give Back and of course Enjoy Life.

——

And always a few good quotes:

“You’ve got to push yourself harder. You’ve got to start looking for pictures nobody else could take. You’ve got to take the tools you have and probe deeper.” — William Albert Allard (National Geographic Photographer)

“When we surround ourselves with Excellence, it promotes excellence in us.”- Brooke Jenson

“When you do a thing, do it with all your might. put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic,be enthusiastic and faithful,and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation…It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” -Robert Kennedy

                                                                             

Originally published at Dan Francis Photography. Please leave any comments there.

Old Man Winter came back and hit Fargo hard Friday night as 35-40MPH winds blew snow to make it a zero visibility. unbelievable, April 26th and we have snow. It just won’t go away. 

This weekend consists of a wedding today and the Northern Lights Competition Sunday through Wednesday.

I shot some wedding formals this afternoon, It went well. The Bride works with my mom at the Kindergarten Center and and the Groom is a fellow Graphic Designer/Photographer.  They were great to work with and I wish them all the best with the beginning of their life together.

                        

              

The Northern Light Photography Competition that starts tomorrow involves ND/MN/and SD. It happens every year and this will be my 5th year attending it as a studio +1 with Scherling.  Sunday is the judging which is where I learn a lot of important information on what the judges look for. (composition, lighting, creativity, story) There will be speakers from all over the country doing different presentations about lighting, posing and marketing. I’m going to try and go to as many as I can. They also have a speaker from Canon coming on Wednesday night which should be entertaining as I just was at Jim Brandenburgs presentation a month a go and his was fantastic.

Originally published at Dan Francis Photography. Please leave any comments there.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdWwqAI6×9A

Here’s a video of the Kodak Commercial that was made a few years back.
It is a great commercial that really shows how important photography is.
I believe they only showed 30 seconds on television, but this is the complete video that runs 6:18.
It’s one of my favorite videos and I thought I’d share it with you.

They have a great quote within the video.

The worker tells the kids that the pictures are speaking, that they are telling them to keep me, protect me, share me and I will live forever!

Great Stuff!
Hope you enjoy!

-Dan Francis
http://www.danfrancisphotography.com/

Originally published at Dan Francis Photography. Please leave any comments there.

                                     

Last night while Barack Obama and Hilliary Clinton were asking for votes, I was attending a tribute band to the Beatles. I’ve attended a few tributes in the past, But this was the first time that they went through all the costume changes. It was great fun, and they played “In my life” (one of my favorites)

I was only disappointed with their choice of the last song. I’m sure they’re sick of it and I’m sure they want to change it up.  I thought it would end with “Let it Be” as it is a song in their their last album. And the best way to end a tribute concert; however their last song was Helter Skelter.  Sad times, people were actually screaming out after the group had left the stage. Let  it  Be! Let it Be!

I’ve never seen Paul or Ringo live. I’d like to forget the fact that I was only a day away from seeing Paul and Ringo in Las Vegas at the 100th show of “Love.”  Paul/Ringo/Yoko and George’s wife were all there on Monday (The day that I was flying out.) Amanda and I attended the 98th show.  I hope in the future that I get a chance to attend one of Paul or Ringo’s concerts. Hey, I might even get the chance to photograph them. (lifetime wish!)

                                  

                                  

                      

Originally published at Dan Francis Photography. Please leave any comments there.

Last night was April’s Fargo Moorhead Camera Club Competition night.

Last month I didn’t do so well, so I thought I’d go in there swinging this month.

          

 I placed 1st and 3rd in Digital, 2nd in Color A-Division, 1st in B/W and an honorable Mention, and a 3rd place in Assigned category: Street People. Not too bad of a night.

I also placed in my first attempt at N4C which is a group of camera clubs from: North Dakota, South Dakota., Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Wisc, Illinois and Wyoming. I placed 3rd in Digital Creativity with the picture: A Moment in Time.

My first white ribbon! Here is the real kicker though; the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons went to three different members of the Fargo Moorhead Camera Club, something that hasn’t happened according to the president of the N4c of FMCC. We took 9 of the possible 12 points.  

 I got an Honorable Mention for the Bison in Medora titled: Medora’s Guardian as well.

Even though both Barack Obama and Hilliary Clinton are going to be in Grand Forks, ND this afternoon/evening. I’m making the trip up to GF to see a cover band of the Beatles. I’ve seen a couple of covers before but this time hopefully they’ll have all the costume changes; as last time they were lost at the airport.

Have a great weekend!

The Minni-Apple
Amanda and I drove to Minneapolis this weekend to attend a Photography Workshop.

It was sponsored through the 16 different Camera Clubs in the Minnesota Area. Since I’m apart of the Fargo Camera Club I gave myself the option to crash the party and represent FARGO!

It was a good time. The first few classes of the day dealt with posing and how to talk to your clients while you are photographing them. (all good information that is needed.)

They brought out the models for about an hour and a half; at this time we were able to photograph different positions while the instructors told us what lighting would work and where the camera should be.

In the afternoon they had the Wildlife connection release two wolves outside in a closed area where we were able to photograph them.

At one point a wolf approached Amanda and the photographer inside her kept taking pictures even though she was eye to eye with one.

On sunday we listened to Jim Brandenburg from 9am to 4pm. I’ve seen his talk once before at the Fargo Theatre, but I think this time his work and his attitude really sunk into me, maybe because it was 5 hrs longer. He’s a really neat guy, and Amanda realized right away that he was an INFJ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INFJ

(take the quiz yourself)

Saturday night was spent with some friends in the hotel room. We all went out to a Mongolian BBQ, somewhat of a wait, but good food. And later played the best game of 2008: Settlers of Catan! (it’s been around, but just started playing this year.)

It was a great weekend, and took home some good images.

This Friday I head up North to see the Beatles perform live! First Row Seats! Bringing my 50 1.4!

I also bought a Canon Speedlight (flash) 580EX II online today. One more item checked off my wish list!

From Oakes to Ashley

Amanda and I took a road trip and got in touch with our neighbors down in the lower half of the state. Amanda had to deliver a care package to a few members that are in her organization at work; So I just grabbed my camera and rode along with her. On the way to Oakes, ND we got pretty excited if we saw a car, as for a couple hours it was just us and the open road. We drove by many photographic images though, I tried to take as many as I could from the window so we wouldn’t have to stop every 15 miles.

However, we had to stop at one spot that had a church. It was just torn apart with broken windows and the door torn off. It made for a very dramatic picture.

From Oakes to Ashley I saw a neat windmill, behind it, it had a broken barbedwire fence. Sometimes photography composition smiles down at me.

The real winner though was Ashley on the way back home. There was a ghost house that was on the verge of collapsing if I breathed on it. So, I walked up and took some pictures of the car as the main focus, then the creepy tree / house/Windmill in the background. Some days you just have to leave the house and take a 5 hour drive with your camera.

Amanda and I will be taking off tomorrow night for Minneapolis as there is a Spring Break Photography Workshop we’re attending. Jim Brandenburg

link: http://www.jimbrandenburg.com/

will be there Sunday to talk and show us some of his work, I’ve seen him before when he came to the Fargo Theatre; it was a great time. I’m going to be taking some classes with light and posing Saturday, and also hopefully take some pictures of animals they will be bringing in. It should be a fun time!

-Dan

Either today or tomorrow I'll have received my 1,000 visit.

This may not be a lot to some people, but for a thousand people around the world to see my photography, that's pretty big for me.

I want to thank a few places for visiting:

Fargo ND/ Minneapolis MN/Netherlands Nijmegen, Gelderland /Oklahoma City/ North Carolina, Sacramento, Ontario, Mauritius Saint Pierre Moka, New Orleans, Toronto, New York, Birmingham, Alabama / Huntington, Vermont Ontario, Buffalo, Egypt, New York, Eugene, Oregon (Go Pre), Germany Berlin, Sri Lanka Colombo, Cedar Rapids Iowa, Bosnia and Herzegovina Gradiska, Winter Springs, Florida / Singapore / Australia Townsville, Queensland, Australia Brisbane, Queensland, Norway Bergen, Hordaland /Croatia Zagreb, Grad Zagreb / Greece, Turkey/ Australia Melbourne, Victoria United Kingdom Douglas, South Lanarkshire,

Update: I received my 1000 visit, and it was from Vancouver!

WOW, not bad for a guy that has a camera and lives in Fargo, ND.

Originally published at Dan Francis Photography. Please leave any comments there.

Amanda and I drove to Minneapolis this weekend to attend a Photography Workshop.

It was sponsored through the 16 different Camera Clubs in the Minnesota Area. Since I’m apart of the Fargo Camera Club I gave myself the option to crash the party and represent FARGO!                                                

It was a good time. The first few classes of the day dealt with posing and how to talk to your clients while you are photographing them. (all good information that is needed.)

                    

                            

They brought out the models for about an hour and a half; at this time we were able to photograph different positions while the instructors told us what lighting would work and where the camera should be.

        

In the afternoon they had the Wildlife connection release two wolves outside in a closed area where we were able to photograph them.

                                              

At one point a wolf approached Amanda and the photographer inside her kept taking pictures even though she was eye to eye with one.

On sunday we listened to Jim Brandenburg from 9am to 4pm. I’ve seen his talk once before at the Fargo Theatre, but I think this time his work and his attitude really sunk into me, maybe because it was 5 hrs longer. He’s a really neat guy, and Amanda realized right away that he was an INFJ

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INFJ

(take the quiz yourself)

Saturday night was spent with some friends in the hotel room. We all went out to a Mongolian BBQ, somewhat of a wait, but good food.  And later played  the best game of 2008: Settlers of Catan! (it’s been around, but just started playing this year.)

It was a great weekend, and took home some good images.

This Friday I head up North to see the Beatles perform live! First Row Seats! Bringing my 50 1.4!

I also bought a Canon Flash: 580EX II online today. One more item checked off my wish list!

This goes out to those that don’t know if they are left eyed or right eyed. Because you should really be taking pictures with your best eye.

To Test if you’re a right eye or left eyed person, simply do this:
1) Put the tips of your thumbs together and then the pointer fingers tips together and now relax your other fingers on top of each other… (The opening should look like a spade from a deck of cards) 2) With both eyes open focus on something in the distance (16-20 feet) like a lightswitch or a clock in that open spade… 3) Now close the right eye, 4) Open the right eye, and close the left eye.
Where does that object appear? In the right eye or the left eye? Which ever eye sees that object that means that’s the eye thats the strongest. Use that Eye!

-Dan Francis
http://www.danfrancisphotography.com/

The only good thing about being a ND Photographer is that I get all 4 seasons in my backyard.

Winter:
In three weeks, The winter Cold will be gone.
In three weeks, The Snow will no longer fall.
In three weeks, The Sun will shine.
In three weeks, I will dust off my Macro Lens and photograph every insect/flower I come across.
I shall venture off on photowalks through the city and I'll be able to do this without freezing.
I'll miss the Winter, but I think I got as many good winter shots as I could this Season.

Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring!

- D

-25 below - check
A tripod that broke into 3 parts - Check
Couldn't feel my fingers or legs - Check
Getting one good picture before all of this happened.
Priceless.

Sadly the start to taking pictures last night didn't start out that great. It was well below zero, I probably shouldn't have even been out there with this much good equipment but lately I've really been into space/stars/moon and planets (I blame the History channel) So, I was excited and another total eclipse won't happen for another 3yrs.

So, anyway I was out there, had my cable release ready, my tripod was having a hard time getting into place with it being so darn cold. I got a few good pictures and then..... snap. the handle to move it around broke. I was a bit upset. I thought I could still take some pictures but when I tried to move the camera into the upright spot another part of my tripod broke. It wasn't that cheap of a tripod but I'm guessing the cold just really made this thing break, and my outstanding strength.

Oh well, it gives me a reason to go and buy a new tripod. Any suggestions out there?

Amanda was there with me the whole time, she took my G9 and snapped a few pictures of me at work. She also stayed on a snowbank so I could get her as the foreground interest and the moon as the sky focus.

Fun times, but also sad times. I hope I didn't damage my camera too much for being in that cold of weather, it was maybe 25 minutes total. Oh well. Got one good image at least.

I received my 50 1.4 lens today! I’ll try it out at my lighting class tonight now I can really shoot in low light if needed.

I received 1st place in the color Divison A. at the Fargo-Moorhead Camera Club for my macro shot of Hope within Loss.