This is an accident that could only happen with film. This is from Istanbul in 1992. I most likely shot this with a Leica M3 (this is only interesting to photo people, its a film camera), and did not advance the film all the way to the next frame. I am not sure why I took the photo once, then rotated the camera 180 degrees for the second, overlapping frame. But, am happy with the result.
My daughter is doing a project for her history class where they need to make a travel brochure to some historical location. So naturally she picked the Sedlec Ossuary or Kostnice v. Sedlci near Kutna Hora in Czech Republic.
When Anastasia and I lived in Prague we always called it the Bone Church (for obvious reasons). It is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people which have been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. It is one of the most visited tourist sites in the country (and it is a country with a lot of competition for places to visit).
To help her with the project I scanned in some of my old images from when I went there in 1992. It is quite an interesting place.
(mostly from Wikipedia) — The story of the place is in 1278 Henry the abbot of the Christian monastery in Sedlec was sent to the Holy Land, he gathered up a small amount of earth from Golgotha and sprinkled it over the abbey cemetery. Word spread of this pious act and soon the Sedlec cemetery became a desirable burial site in Central Europe.
In the mid 14th Century, during the Black Death and the end of the Hussite Wars in the early 15th Century many thousands were buried in the abbey cemetery so it had to be greatly enlarged.
Around 1511 the task of exhuming the skeletons and stacking the bones was given to a half-blind monk. The arrangements were redone in the 1700s in the Czech Baroque style by the Czech architect Jan Blazej. The present arrangement of the bones is dated from the 1870s and is the work of Czech wood-carfer Frantisek Rint.
The photo below is not from the church, I took it one day while riding up from the Prague Metro. They were students at an art school (isn’t everyone in Prague in an art school?) and the skeleton was for some project. Seemed a fitting photo to go with the rest.
Tiayani and Thor will be married at the Legion of Honor later this year. We had a great time the other week walking around Golden Gate Park making photos for their engagement celebration.
Yes, there is someone else on this planet with the name Thor. It was very unusual for me, his father shares the name so less strange for him. Still, it was awesome to meet another Thor and his beautiful fiance, Tiayani.
I know I have written this before, but I am so lucky to live so close to such a wonderful location for photos in Golden Gate Park. All of these photos are within walking distance from our house. This is Shakespeare Garden, a great location if you are looking for an outdoor wedding at a reasonable price.
Just across the street from the “Jurassic Park” area is the Conservatory of Flowers, always a great place. It is one of the more crowded places in the park, so we had to work a bit to not have a lot people in the background. Sometimes photography is as much waiting for the right moment as it is about all the technical stuff. It was kind of windy, Thor kept brushing Tiyani’s hair out of her eyes, which made for a nice moment.
We ended the photo shoot in front of the blooming cherry blossom trees. It was a wonderful afternoon spent with a really great couple. Can’t wait for the wedding!!!
It was a perfect day for taking a walk around North Beach, and even better for making the engagement photos for Stacie and Kevin. Kevin’s family has deep roots in the area, and the couple loves the neighborhood, so was a natural location for the photos.
Even though I have been to North Beach many times, I still get a thrill out of just wandering around, looking at the architecture and taking in the ambiance. There are so many great spots in San Francisco to make photos, we are very lucky to live in such a wonderful city.
We could not miss getting a photo in front of the iconic Peter and Paul Church.
Or the ally between the Vesuvio Cafe and City Lights Books. We had to avoid a few tour groups, but it was worth the wait.
A perfect way to end a great afternoon of photos, a drink at the Vesuvio Cafe.
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| Sunset photo at the Silverado Country Club, Spa and Resort, in Napa. |
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| Our happy couple photographed at sunset at the Cliff House, San Francisco |
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| The late afternoon sun creates a very flattering light source, wedding reception on the Russian River, Napa. |
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| Once the sun goes down at outdoor weddings, the ambient lighting becomes more important to both photographs and your guests ability to see where they are going. |
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| An outdoor night reception using my favorite source of light at night, globe lanterns. I think it looks like they are on stage. |
What questions should you be asking a wedding photographer as you plan your wedding day?
Photography can be a daunting mystery to many as they plan their wedding day celebrations. I have found most people have a vague idea of what they are looking for, but are often not sure how to ask for it. Or even what, exactly ‘it” is.
Over the next few blog posts I will be sharing my thoughts on the best way to get what you are looking for from a wedding photographer. If you have any questions about wedding photography please send them to info@thorswift.com
Often people get hung up on the technical aspects of photography and miss out on what is most important to them, the end result. Photography and camera jargon is confusing, and intimidating. Cameras are often sold like muscle cars, which one has the most MEGA PIXLES, a great sounding word, but what does it mean? Here is a good place to look if you are interested in the topic.
My advice is generally to not worry too much about the technical issues, any competent professional will have these covered, but be working with the photographer on timing, locations and most important communication between yourself and the photographer.
Often the easiest way to describe what you are looking for is with another photograph. Social media sites like Pinterest, or Facebook are a great place to start. It is also helpful to reference the images that first attracted you to the photographer you have hired, or from other photographers you researched. Photography is a visual medium so it is much better to show, rather than to tell.
Another potential point of confusion is the endless possibilities of post-production effects that are available. When I was in photography school and working in a darkroom on black-and-white prints, my friends and I would often wonder how we knew when a print was “done.” We could make this area darker or lighter, crop the image tighter, and make other adjustments. With digital imaging, the experimentation potential has expanded exponentially, and these can produce stunning work, but it is also good to know when to stop.
After the wedding generally a photographer will provide you with an initial edit of the wedding photographs, discuss them with you, and together with your input select images for enlargements, albums, or other uses. Prior to the wedding (or better yet, prior to making a final photographer selection) you should discuss the photographer’s work-flow, and understand what if, any techniques or styles that photographer uses or prefers, and express your thoughts on this process.
Again you do not need to get bogged down in the details (unless you are interested, I know most photographers can go on and on about this stuff, so if you are curious, please do not be shy), but it’s good to know and be able to describe what you like and are looking for.
The idea is not to give a photographer a script to follow, with very specific shots and technical notes, but to make stylistic suggestions, and then allow the photographer to express his or her own creative voice. A little bit of collaboration will enable your photographer to create that magical set of images that express the joys of your wedding day as only great photography can.
