A few from the Holidays

Surprise! I know I said the last post was my last for the year but I couldn't help share a few photos from Christmas of some of my favourite people in the world! See you in 2011!!

Final Post of the Year - Tips for Christmas Photography

Well it's just about that time again! I just got word from NORAD that they will be tracking Santa in just a few short hours. Soon all over the world, children and families will be awoke from their slumber (mostly parents having ears tugged and eyes poked) with great excitment and anticipation as to what may wait under the tree!

I would easily venture a guess that this is the time of year that your camera/videocamera see the most use in a single sitting. So my Christmas gift to all of my readers is a quick list of tips to make those images great and ones that you'll cherish forever.

1. This is probably self explanatory but it never hurts to be reminded.... Charge your batteries, clear your memory cards and throw a fresh tape/disc/SDcard into that video camera.

2. Be sure to plan your light source. If your a professional you may want to check out The Strobist's blog for an excellent tutorial on using a couple speedlights to create some great cross lighting that'll be sure to please... Don't fret though if you don't! Most of our living rooms have some great sources of light. Try to position yourself so that your main light source (i.e a giant living room window) is illuminating your subjects face. Typically window light is very pleasing and flattering and most times will create some great catch lights in the eyes of your subject.

3. Get Closer! I believe Mr. Cowart quoted recently; "the least utilized tool in photography is your feet!"... This is very true and many of us get a little on the lazy side with our zooms. But don't be afraid to move in, fill the frame with your subject and remember to focus on the eyes. Don't be afraid to crop some of the head or neck, just keep the crop somewhere around the start of the hairline.

4. If your using video... Don't shoot 2 hours of footage of the entire christmas morning. Shoot little clips of some of the most important parts. This could vary for everyone but as a child I can re-collect that these would include the initial un-veiling of the gifts, opening the single item that I put on my wish list or even making a few calls to family. Don't be shy of some of the great built-in software on PC and MAC to take all that footage and edit it into a great seemless video that you burn and share with family.

5. If you're like me, I enjoy driving around on Christmas Eve and checking out all the lights. You may even feel inclined to snap a few shots of your own or your favourites that you see in your travels. A couple quick tips - Use a tripod if you have one and slow your shutter speed down, if your using a DSLR then try playing with your aperature values to acheive different effects... Stop way down to get some really cool starburts effects on the lights, or open up really wide and focus on a subject in front of the lights. This will give you a really nice out of focus lit background. Don't be afraid to experiment, it can be pretty tricky. Same goes for your Christmas tree; but instead of taking a photo with all the living room lights on, try setting the camera on something stable, turn on a few small living room lights (in addition to the tree lights) and use a longer shutter speed to get a more ambient light feel to your image.

6. If your capturing some group shots keep these tips in mind... Watch your perspective; if everyone is seated at the table, get down to their eye level. Keep an eye on your background; you don't want any christmas trees growing out of family members heads. And finally, take lots of photos; If it's a group of 5 or more people you'll want to take at least 3 and maybe more photos in a row to be sure to capture a single one with everyone's eyes open.

7. Don't be afraid to try a little post processing. Even if your not a professional and don't have lots of fancy software... Go out and download a free copy of google picasa. You can use it to fix red-eye, crop your photos, convert them to black and white and even add a little punch of contrast. Be careful about adding too much, a little goes a long way.

8. Finally... Be sure to pass the camera off to someone else. As pros and amateurs alike who tend to always be on camera duty, there are never any images of us to adorn the family album. Be sure to get in a couple before snagging the camera back :)

Hope all of you have a wonderful season and I truly hope Santa will be good to all of you!

Wishing you and your families a Merry Christmas from Mine!

Growth is a part of Life

Growth is inevitable and it is up to us to take advantage of it and learn from our Failures. 

No matter what struggles we have thrown at us in life, we must overcome them; learn from them; accept them with open minds and open hearts; and hope we survive to see the fruits of our toils. It's funny, I've heard so much this year about some truly successful people and the amazing struggles they've had on their own path. Maybe it's the industry I'm in but I'd like to think it has more to do with wanting to surround myself with people who are not afraid of failure.

Without risk we will never experience life to the fullest. We will never pursue our wildest dreams and for the most part will probably live life without ever really experiencing what it is to truly LIVE.

Some of the most successful people have undergone strains and struggles even beyond my own comprehension. Divorce, bankruptcy, breakdowns, etc... Luckily I have not had to experience these but I have come close.

My point to this whole post is that I would like for everyone who reads this to really challenge themselves. Look back over your year and for every hard time or failure that you've experienced write down what the positive was that came from it. This is not to share with anyone but yourself. If you cannot think of a positive, then come back to it when you can. If you haven't found a positive, go out and make it positive.

Life is too short to dwell on the things that anger us, or upset us. There are too many amazing people in this world that have overcome things that we as very priveleged citizens of earth will never come close to comprehending and they made it through.

Forget your grudges... Move forward. If you feel like you've made an enemy, make it right. This is a call to action for everyone who reads this to make their own lives better simply by thinking positive. Without negative thoughts you will open your mind to so many opportunities that otherwise may just pass you by. I also challenge you to make new friends and contacts this year.

As creatives we tend to keep to ourselves, not wanting to share our methods for fear of them being copied. I say throw that thinking out the window! If you're a professional photographer, go out and find another local photographer who is starting out and Mentor them this year. Don't be shy, I know when I was starting out I would've loved for someone to show me the ropes. Do not be afraid of a loss of business or market share. Look at some of the great photographers of our time like Chase Jarvis, Scott Bourne, Bambi Cantrell, David Duchemin, Christopher Becker... Too name a few! Sharing their knowledge through video, workshops, podcasts, critiques etc... They have not lost business! In fact they have probably gained!

Mentoring someone and helping them to learn and master their craft can quite possibly be one of the most rewarding things you could do as a photographer. This industry is under constant "renovations" and is ever changing. Equipment, style, techniques, you name it. By helping someone else you will learn how to open your mind to learn yourself.

To be successful as a photographer, one must accept that this industry changes and must be willing to learn when it does. You must accept failure as a learning experience and grow from it and You must be open minded! For a little perspective when it comes to our craft... Look back at images you created when you first started out or even in the past year. Notice the growth? Without all those failed attempts to make something truly remarkable we would never grow and never learn.

So I will end this post with a wish that all of you have an amazing new year and hope that it is Positive, prosperous and full of new friends!

Cheers to all of my readers and everyone in the industry!

Winner of David Duchemin's ebooks

I want to thank everyone who participated in my holiday contest! Between blog commentors and re-tweets I had some great support!

I am happy to announce the winner this evening... The lucky winner was Robert who commented on the blog post. You can check out his work over at http://rob214page.blogspot.com/

I really wish I could give every single one of you a copy of these books as I know all of you would find them useful and helpful on your own photographic journey. I would highly reccomend to anyone who particpated in the contest to head over to the craft and vision site and purchase them anyway! http://craftandvision.com/authors/david-duchemin/

David is a wonderful writer and these books are packed with information and insight that no doubt will offer some guidance on your journey of finding your vision.

I wish all of my fantastic blog readers and twitter followers a wonderful holiday and wish every single one of you a memorable and prosperous new year! Thank you all for your support and for continuing to stop by this blog. It makes my efforts to continue totally worth it!


Thank you again and Happy Holidays to All of You!

T-Shirts IN December!!

Ok, I know what your thinking... While the majority of this continent is suffering from a cold snap and some areas are in a state of emergency due to snow... There is no possible way I could be out shooting and my client be dressed in a t-shirt here in this beautiful province of Newfoundland!

I can't believe it myself either and I have to say all the delays and back and forth email between Jenay and I have paid off! When we originally planned this session, it was too cold to be outside in a sweater.

Jenay and Elmo (that furry thing she's holding) were awesome to work with! We started at 2:30 in the afternoon when the sun had started it's decent and we were wrapped at 3:30 on the nose!! Her and Elmo rocked the whole session and made my job soooo easy.

I truly enjoyed photographing both of them. Jenay has some of the most striking eyes I've ever seen... I'm sure we'll be getting together again for another session with Elmo!

Here are a few of my favourites - I had to limit it... There were a ton of images that I would've liked to share but these are my tops. Enjoy!!

Holiday Giveaway! Win your copy of David Duchemin's 2 recent E-books from Craft and Vision

A big Hello and Happy Holidays to all of my fantastic Blog Readers!! Since I can't send everyone a personal holiday card (as much as I would love to!) I thought this would be the best place to share.

In the spirit of the Holidays I have decided to give back to one lucky reader! The rules are simple... All you need to do is insert this link "http://up.vc/craftandvision" and @trevordeanphoto into your tweet -  If you do not use twitter (I don't see why you wouldn't) but you may also leave a comment on this blog post for your chance to win this fantastic prize. I will be holding a random draw on December 21st to choose the lucky winner. This is a great chance to either pick up a copy for yourself or a family member who thirsts for knowledge and vision in their own photographic journey!

David is an amazing photographer, Visionary, Creative and Writer! I own these myself and they are packed with information that will help guide you in finding your own way in this amazing world of photography.

Good Luck to everyone who enters and I will look forward to the draw. If you are the winner I will be contacting you on the 21st of December and will require your email address at that time in order to send you the instructions for downloading.

Happy Holidays to All!!

Experimenting with Light - Inspired by the Jeremy Cowart Workshop

So I will preface this post by saying this is absolutely personal work. Please don't think that when I show up to shoot your holiday photos this Christmas season, I'm gonna bring out an axe and get you to do something crazy :)

I just finished watching Jeremey Cowart on Creative Live teaching his Master Class called "Experimental Portraiture". If you have never seen his work, please go and check it out when you finish reading this post! He is a visionary among the world of photography and imaging and has done amazing things in what has really been a short time. This guy is still young and I am soo excited to see how he grows and what he will bring to the world.

The workshop was hosted by Creative Live which was founded by Chase Jarvis and Craig and the entire team there has done some pretty ground breaking work. Currently they offer Master Classes in photography, videography and a whole lot more. They stream all these workshops LIVE to the entire world to watch and learn for free. After the course is over, they edit all the best content and offer it to buy for an Extremely reasonable price. The info that is offered during these courses is invaluable if you are in this industry!

All that to say, that I was totally inspired by Jeremy to start "experimenting" a little myself. I have to say, the little self portrait session I did, was totally FUN! It was so freeing to just shoot something abstract and basically just play :) If you are a photographer, I highly recommend trying this on your own and if you didn't have the opportunity to watch Jeremy Cowart on Creative Live, go purchase and download the workshop. You will not regret it!


Here are a couple photos that I came up with. By the way, if you have access to models, friends or even a coat rack... Trying to shoot self portraits in this manner is a huge challenge. For the shots with me actually using the axe, I had to trigger the self timer, time it exactly so I could throw some bark and dust in the air just before my strobe fired, then grab the axe let the shutter open... Grab the flashlight make the stroke in the air and then hope for the best lol... I wish I had a couple more strobes to play with but I did this with what I had.

Here are my faves...

{Sugar and Treats} with DC's on my Feet

Wow! Where did the time go? December 1st already! It seems like the last quarter of the year always sneaks up behind me and jumps out at the last minute. Christmas shopping is almost done, lights are up on the outside of the house and we've got a spot picked out for the tree :)

In what I hope will be a continuing tradition for My little one, we decided that being December 1st we would build her Gingerbread house... Ok, maybe not so much build as just decorate. Fortunatley nan a pap bought her a kit this year and the walls and roof were already put together. Call it lazy but when your pressed for time... This was one sweet surprise :)

Here's a little mini series of the process... Oh, and Emily's shoes that she is very proud of. Thanks to her great Aunt and Cousin (I'm sure the boys didn't have a lot to do with it) she was given these last year for Christmas. She's just now fitting into a size 5. Although I don't think she gets her feet or her height from her daddy!

Hope you enjoy and I would love to see some photos of your own Gingerbread projects. Please feel free to leave a link in the comments!