Thru my work with the WPS, I got to know the guys over at Alien Skin.  They have been one of the founding companies that has always stood behind the idea of helping other photographers and never failed to absolutely amaze us with their support.  They contacted me and request I consult with them regarding new product development & refinement – ya, I thought that was pretty cool as well.  I started with consulting about the UI for an upcoming version of one of their products, specifically for the user interface, the workflow process and how I would change things to make it faster, more intuitive and, well, just a better experience.  From that meeting with the programmers,  I received an email from the CEO asking me if I would be interested in writing articles for their blog.

Uh, ya!

So, make sure to look for my articles on their blog.  You should be checking it out anyway because they really do have some fabulous stuff on there.  All kinds of helpful tricks and tips for photography, software and lots of other goodies, all without talking you into buying their products.  If you haven’t checked them out before, I’ll happily recommend you look at “Blow-Up“, “Bokeh” and “Exposure 4” – 3 great products that are really fantastic to work with and, personally, saved me LOADS of time in post processing.

After you do that, make sure you take a look at my first post introducing, well, me, to their readers!

Brian Mullins – Alien Skin Guest Blogger

Since this post was about me, I’m throwing in a few random shots that I’ve taken recently!  Enjoy!  All of the shots with my banner were taken by me.  The ones of me (and the one of me and Cristobal Perez) were taken by Stacy Borelli.

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I have recently made a commitment to be “arrested” for the Muscular Dystrophy Association on April 19^th. I need your help to bail me out. I am very excited to be a part of this Lock Up event and have set my goal at $2,500. This will send three children to summer camp or provide over 30 minutes of life saving research for our local families. Any donation you can make will be appreciated. Keep in mind that $30 pays for a flu shot and $74 pays for a minute of research.

You can make a secure online donation at www2.mda.org/goto/brianmullins or get in touch with me to make a check or cash donation. The donations are tax deductible and a receipt will be provided upon request.

The Eastern North Carolina District office located in Raleigh currently serves 18 counties with over 1,100 individuals living with a form of Muscular Dystrophy.  Funds raised through these Lock Up events benefit these individuals by providing extensive patient service programs through MDA clinics at Duke and University of North Carolina, our ongoing worldwide research and a week long summer camp for children and young adults.

Get excited with me about helping MDA find a cure. Thank you in advance for helping me break out of jail while providing hope for the local families served by the MDA.

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I will be blogging this wedding soon but if you wanted to check it out before I get a chance to write mine up, you can see if on their wedding photography website.  I did the actual writeup and provided the photos of the details (well, of the whole post of course) for their viewers.  I just took a quick peek at their monthly traffic and it’s pretty ridiculous.  Here’s to getting some great exposure!!!

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Well it’s been a heck of a week.  My photography blog set a personal record with over 1100 hits in a single day, was commissioned by a national magazine (yes, I can guarantee you’ve heard of it) for a shoot next month and, now, I’ve had an article featured on a very cool website.  The-Unveiled is a website designed to provide wedding photography tips to other wedding photographers.  My Article, working in bad light, discusses how I shot a tough image with mixed lighting conditions (including camera settings and the thought process for the shot) and, if given an opportunity, how I would make it better.

As you may know (if you read my blog with any regularity), I love shooting at night, in tough lighting conditions and making something pretty cool and a little different in the process.  To me, it’s all about having some fun on the wedding day and producing something unique and gorgeous for my clients.  It was a real pleasure being contacted by Tobiah (who is one heck of a photographer himself) to submit something for his site.  Make sure and check it out and keep an eye out for future updates!

http://www.the-unveiled.com

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If you are not familiar with the Washington Duke Inn Bridal show, it is a different wedding event where vendors hold classes, show off collaborative table designs, have a full fledged wedding fashion show and then an informal meet & greet with everyone in attendance.  This is not your walk around bridal show and I highly recommend any bride getting married in 2011 (or 2012) to attend just to get better educated on what is out there.

To sign up for the Washington Duke Inn Bridal Show, visit them at  http://www.washingtondukeinn.com/Weddings/weddings.asp and make sure to register.  There is very limited seating so please sign up early as once the seats are filled, you’ll have to wait until next year!  Hope to see you there!!

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The theme of the event was Alice in Wonderland but, honestly, I’ve never seen the movie all the way through and as the proceeds from the competition all go to a wonderful charity, the Inter-faith food shuttle, I decided to go with a little different theme.  As I love Sushi, I decided on an Asian theme for the wedding but still stayed under my category financial limitation of $150.  I had two wonderful vendors help me out on the table – providing both flowers and table/plate rentals.

Michael McLamb from Fleurtations Weddings in Raleigh not only provided the gorgeous flowers, vases and candles, he helped greatly with the overall design of the table as well as some really helpful tips on how to avoid bugs in spanish moss and how NOT to kill goldfish when using tap water.  Before anyone asks, the goldfish are happy and healthy in their new home – Michael’s pond. American Party rentals provided the table, lines, black chargers and napkins and Amy Greene, from going greene events, helped out with the final touches.

I am not sure how much money was raised but I know the event was truly a huge success and I was thrilled I could be a part of it.  Here are a few photos of my table.

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About 40 vendors exhibited at the show, including your truly, to meet with future brides and their friends and family.  I really enjoy doing these shows as I meet such great people and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves!  I have a few shots of my booth below and I’d like to give a special thank to Steve Taras from the Watered Garden Florist who provided my flowers.  Steve also handles all of the florals at the Umstead hotel so you can see his lovely arrangements anytime you stop in.

Here are a few shots of my booth and the hotel!

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One of the things I really enjoy is hearing about how different and unique everyone’s wedding plans are.  From wedding & receptions in barns, to brides who love architecture. I love the diversity and creativeness displayed by everyone – especially as I get to be there and photograph everything.

I’d like to give my most heartfelt thank you for all those who stopped by and talked with me!  Congratulations again on your big day and always feel free to drop me an e-mail or call me with any questions!

Here’s a few shots of my booth!

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A new wedding photography group has been born in Raleigh and I wanted to share it with everyone!

The Wedding Photographic Society (WPS) – a network of professional photographers who share ideas, thoughts and information to help raise the artistic, technical and business level in our profession. Membership in the WPS offers many professional & personal growth opportunities through educational opportunities, networking, critiques and camaraderie. WPS meetings, forums and web pages are open to any and all professional wedding photographers across the world. Although our initial location is in Raleigh NC, we will be opening our doors to photographers all across NC, the US and the World.

This all started with a handful of photographers meeting at a coffee house talking shop in 2005. Four years later the core of WPS was born. The 6 Raleigh Wedding Photographers who started the organization are:

Martha Manning
Shane Snide
Robin Lin
Brian Mullins
Stacy Borelli
Christobal Perez

Our objective is to spread good business practices for wedding photographers and other information to help the growth of photographers across the country. Everyone is invited to help and donate their time so The WPS grow into a international organization.

The WPS was created to help build relationships, share knowledge amongst wedding photography peers and help create a competitive yet supportive photography community. Leaders & Members of the WPS donate their time in order to help find guest speakers, topic discussions and provide advice, guidance and information sharing freely without compensation.

With that goal in mind, the WPS launched their website, forums & blogs to bring together the professional wedding photography community.

You can visit us by going to the The Wedding Photographic Society’s website/blog.

You can also forward any questions to info@weddingphotographicsociety.com.

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Here’s a shot of my booth from this weekend!

Congratulations to all the happy couples and I look forward to hopefully be talking with you soon!

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Again, this isn’t about your or my feelings on if we should even be over there. It’s about letting the troops over there know we haven’t forgotten them.

So, without further ado, I highly encourage you to visit the following website and send someone a card.  You don’t get to pick out who, but what better way to celebrate the holiday season by letting someone over there know they are in your thoughts.

http://www.letssaythanks.com

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The call I received last week was for portraits, but not quite the kind I was expecting.   The Raleigh SPCA has an annual Santa Paws pet portrait session that Santa gracisouly donates some of his time for.  All proceeds go to the SPCA and help them shelter, treat and place pets into good homes.  It’s a great cause and I was proud to have been called to help out.  We had about 3 hours with Santa and all the pets were on their best behavior (I guess even they know about coal in the stocking).  Below are a few shots of the event.

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I did meet one aspiring National Geographic photographer during my visit. He’s using film cameras right now and will be getting a new digital camera for Christmas. If you happen to be reading this blog, I wish you good fortune on your journey! As for everyone else I met, please feel free to call or e-mail me with any photography related questions – whether it be educational, business, technical or artistic.

Here’s a few random portraits I shot in the gymnasium as part of the day.

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After the official class and Q&A session were over, the attendees had a chance to shoot using my umbrellas & soft box to get a better feel for how they can use these tools to alter and enhance your photography.  I really enjoyed having the opportunity to present and hope to be invited back again.  Here’s a couple of shots from the evening using both an umbrella & softbox as well as a flash and a wall.

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With such a worthy cause, and appealing prizes and locale, the event drew many poker players from the area to compete for a seat in the big game! The backdrop for the event was a beautiful estate home in North Raleigh worth 3.4 million dollars. The builder, Pinnacle Construction Group, was gracious enough to open this home to the tourney and give us a view inside some of the areas finest high-end construction. It certainly provided an appropriate atmosphere when the stakes involved a $10,000 seat in Las Vegas.

All in all, everyone had a great time and all the months of hard work and planning paid off.

For those that would like to see more photos, please do the following:

Go back to the main page and click enter website
Click on the client proofing link
Enter your e-mail address
No password required.

THE PHOTOS ARE POSTED!!!

Photos are available for purchase. 50% of the proceeds will go to the Andy Transplant Foundation to help with their cause.

Again, I’d like to offer my appreciation to all the players and vendors who participated in the event! Don’t forget to place for the Heart to Heart Poker Tourney happening in February of 2009.

Now, on to some pictures!

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Senator Clinton did happen to mention she would be visiting other places in North Carolina during her campaign so I’m looking forward to going back and capturing some more great images!  Here’s a few from the shoot:

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It was actually fairly difficult, for me anyway, to really sum up photography in a few words. Questions like, “What are your responsibilities” have such wide-ranging answers that you tend to ramble a bit with the answer. I settled on,”anything in front of my lens” as the answer.. a bit vague and mysterious, but all the better to capture their attention, right? I did go on to explain that, depending on what the photographer was trying to actually capture, he/she could be a makeup artist, hair stylist, welder, set maker, body painter, wardrobe specialist, posing expert, lighting expert, etc… “the photographer can always hire these people but, in the end, it’s the photographer who is held ultimately responsible for the final product”. I really enjoyed my time there today and as part of my booth, I setup a simple strobe on a pocket wizard (remote trigger) and took some quick, dramatic shots of random people to show that the final product is really in the imagination of the photographer, and often not what you see in real life… example A below:

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