The esteemed annual awards program recognizes the top local wedding vendors from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism within the wedding industry. While many industry awards are selected by the organization, Gino Guarnere Photography was selected based on its stellar reviews from past newlywed clients.

Gino Guarnere Photography is recognized as part of the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire local vendor community, comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout the United States and Canada. The Bride’s Choice Award recognizes the best local wedding vendors across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is thrilled to honor the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “Since the launch of the Bride’s Choice Awards™ program four years ago, thousands of outstanding wedding professionals have been recognized by the bridal community for their supreme service and dedication to the wedding industry. It is with great pleasure that we congratulate Gino Guarnere Photography for their continued professionalism and commitment to enriching the wedding planning experience for engaged couples.”

We are happy to announce that Gino Guarnere Photography is one of the very best Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. Thanks to their positive feedback we were able to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards for 2012.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today!

To learn more about the Bride’s Choice Awards, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

About WeddingWire, Inc.
WeddingWire™, the nation’s leading marketplace serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding professionals. For engaged couples, WeddingWire offers the ability to search, compare and book over 200,000 reviewed wedding vendors, from wedding venues to wedding photographers. WeddingWire also offers a comprehensive suite of online planning tools for weddings, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding professionals, WeddingWire is the only all-in-one marketing platform for businesses online and on-the-go. WeddingWire offers one simple solution to build a professional network, improve search visibility, manage social media and reach mobile consumers. Businesses that advertise with WeddingWire appear on WeddingWire.com, ProjectWedding.com and other leading sites, including MarthaStewartWeddings.com (NYSE: MSO), Brides.com and Weddingbee.com.

Olivia and Greg found me through my website, and we hit it off right away. That counts for a lot when deciding on your wedding photographer.

Olivia and Greg chose a beautiful luncheon, and the food was fantastic. It was a hot day, but we braved the outdoor ceremony without a hitch and then retreated to the golf course for some fun candids.

A lot of people ask me how we get our couples to “look like that…” The answer is simple: we use “off camera lighting.” That means that instead of the simple flash you see on top of most cameras, I bring additional lighting including softboxes, umbrellas, and other lighting tools that shape and bend light to create images that are truly different. It’s one of the reasons I get calls (not to mention my fun, effervescent personality Anyway, if you’re considering me for your wedding, why not contact me to hear more about how my approach can make your photos truly stunning on the day of your wedding.

Olivia and Greg were just loads of fun, made us laugh, and I am always thankful to the couples who bring us out on their most important day to capture those memories that will last a lifetime. Thanks, ‘Liv and Greg, for having me along for your wedding. It was truly magic from beginning to end!

Preferred Vendor at Downingtown Country Club

On another note, I’m pleased to announce our status as a preferred vendor at the Downingtown Country Club. This status means that Gino Guarnere Photography is a trusted partner, we know the course, the staff, and that means your life just got easier on “game day.” What it means for you as a my client is that if you are having your wedding at Downingtown Country Club and you hire me as your photographer, we’ll do your engagement sitting on the actual golf course. That’s HOT!

This was my first professional indoor lacrosse event. I was invited to the game on a media pass by a good friend who works with the team. I wasn’t sure what the photographic opportunities would be, but I grabbed a Canon 50d, a 70-200mm f2.8L, and rolled out the door. When I got there, it was clear that I wasn’t going to be the only photographer: they have “official” photographers, media photographers, newspaper photographers, student photographers, and me, who fell into the “I have a friend who can get me in” photographers.

One thing that amazed me was how fast these guys are passing the ball and actually catching it. That ball looks pretty small to me, and trying to catch it with a net that is smaller than my sneaker looked like a pretty insurmountable task. Of course, that’s why I’m not a pro lacrosse player…

I got some great images at the event. I was able to actually take pictures from the field during the opening ceremony, was situated between the Wings bench and the opposing team bench for a good portion of the event, and got to meet some of the photographers who are down there every game. I hope to get down there more next year. In the meantime, I leave you with some images from the event. Enjoy!

Once you get past that, however, there are some nice, time-saving features that get you to the business of creating slideshows. I was happy to see that Fotomagico is using the slideshow below on their own website as a way of showcasing what the software is capable of. If you need to make slideshows quickly, Fotomagico Pro might just be worth a look!

We decided to approach the photography two ways: we wanted candid shots of some of the music lessons and instruction, and also wanted shots of the facilty itself. I did a 3 hour shoot there and captured a large number of images, which will be featured on the new website. You could look at this as part “product photography” and part “people photography.” I was really happy with the results as was my client, Glenn.

Included here are a few of my favorite images from the session. The new website is live and will be getting the final touches over the next couple of weeks. Check out The Music Centre to see more examples of my photography as well as the web work I performed. If you’re a musician looking to record, I highly recommend you check out The Music Centre. They have the talent, expertise and facility to bring your project to life!

You must take pictures that give people goosebumps. Show us your best portfolio shots and make us say, “Wow, I wish had taken that picture…” We’re not really interested in your photos of pets, art-house, still lifes of fruit, architecture, or Ansel Adams-type stuff. We need to see how you take pictures of people, both posed and photojournalistic.

You must be super-easy to work with and have the right blend of diplomacy coupled with the ability to tell large groups of people what to do without getting them angry…it’s a fine line and you must be able to walk it with your eyes closed and a couple thousand dollars of photography gear around your neck…

You must have dependable, pro gear including flashes, the usual arsenal of lenses, and at least 2 camera bodies. We don’t care what brand you shoot, as long as you know your system like the back of your 3″ LCD display.

Experience necessary.  This isn’t a gig for those interested in “getting into” wedding photography.  I pay well and expect results that will continue to build our studio in 2011 and onwards!

If you have what it takes, I want to hear from you.  Compel me.  Start with the contact form…

I have to say I feel blessed to do this. You get to hang out with families on what is one of the most important days of their lives and chronicle the entire day with a camera (or three). My last batch of weddings have just been so great, with great people, great families, and great parties!

Jen was getting ready when I arrived, and was still tweaking hair and makeup. Her bridesmaids were some of the most helpful I’ve encountered this entire year, and made things easy for both Jen and for me as I shuffled from room to room, getting my signature shots as part of the pre-ceremony.

After the pre-ceremony, I followed Jen’s brother over to Dave’s house. Dave and his groomsmen were looking slick, and they were ready when I got there. The weather was perfect on this particular day, with fall colors all around. I did a large series of shots of Dave and his groomsmen, but was particularly fond of a shot I usually do. I call it the “Sex and the City Strut.” It works for both males and females. The trick is simply to get the group to more or less start walking towards you, not have them look at the camera ideally, and to walk right past me while I tee off taking a bunch of photos. This particular shot was converted to a black and white to increase the dramatic effect, and I love it.

Dave was patient, and his groomsmen and I had a ton of fun exploiting the many outdoor photo opportunities available to us.

After that, we rolled over to the reception, and did a lot of the pictures that usually take place after the ceremony. This approach allows the bride and groom to actually be present at their own cocktail hour. While it creates a little extra hustle and bustle for me, the payoff is that by the time the cocktail hour starts, you have 90 percent of the wedding in the camera. Then it’s time to capture the party!

Dave and Jen’s wedding marks my second-to-last wedding of 2010. I can say it’s been a fantastic year for me, and next year I’ll be coming out starting in March to begin the next season in earnest!

Thanks to Dave, Jen, their families, and to everyone at the event who made it special for them. They certainly made it special for me.

If you would like to see the entire wedding, head on over to my event website!

The trick to getting good portrait shots in VFP is to either get there really early, or plan to find the shade offered by the many trees in the area. We opted for the latter, and while dodging the sun is never an exact science, I was able to find a long stretch of shaded area behind the chapel. Off we went!

The Waiting is the Hardest Part…

The toughest thing, however, about taking pictures of 2 year olds is actually getting them to focus on the camera long enough to have their picture taken. It takes patience, an itchy trigger finger and at least one person to stand behind you acting like a total nutjob in order to get the kids to look in your direction. Luckily, my brother-in-law was on hand to perform the nutjob duty, and he brought his large dog, a bull mastiff, to further the entertainment value…Of course, when kids choose to focus on play, that’s an equally great opportunity to get some natural photojournalism, which is primarily what Jessica and Tom wanted to get out of the session.

I did about a 2 hour session, and got tons of great posed and photojournalistic shots of the entire family. Jessica brought her sister along and I was eventually able to get them to ham it up in front of the camera as well.

I had a great time at this portrait session and I thank Tom and Jessica for having me aboard. To see the entire shoot, go check out my gallery over at Zenfolio!

To Convert or Not to Convert

First off, let’s talk about what tends to draw your eye when you look at a color photo. Yep, it would be the color itself. Advancing colors, such as reds immediately attract the eye, or “pull” it in. Receding colors, such as blue or green tend to “push” the eye. With this in mind, you can often look at a photo, and, based on the color palette, simply ask yourself, “Where is my attention drawn in this picture?”

Now, based on the answer to that question, sometimes there are colors in your photo that draw your attention to the wrong part of the image. Black and white essentially levels that playing field, allowing you to selectively “color” the parts of the image you want to recede as well as parts of the image you want to “advance.”

But Gino, it’s Black and White…

So, this is an important point: the photo that you will convert to black and white still has the entire tonal range of colors that you captured when you shot it. They just turn to colors ranging from pure black to pure white with lots of shades of gray in the middle. So, that means that we can selectively “color” those black and white values to either “advance” or “recede” using the color mixer found in tools like Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and Apple Aperture.

Take a look at the picture below. It was perfectly acceptable as a color photo. The background behind the faucet, however, was a really saturated shade of green, and it was competing mostly with the droplets, which was of course the whole point of that photo. Time to convert!

The photo above was about simplicity, and the choice to convert was about further simplifying the composition. By de-emphasizing the background element, the focal point becomes even more clear to the viewer. Now, this photo is an easy one, because there’s really nothing else in the photo besides the faucet. Let’s move on to a slightly more challenging composition, where we have both foreground and background elements competing for the viewer’s attention.

Take a look at the picture below. The rope in the foreground competed heavily with the horse in the background. While the horse gives the photo balance, it could be further enhanced by converting to black and white, giving the foreground more weight, which is what I wanted in this photo. Time to convert!

The idea in the photo above was two fold: better balance between foreground and background, and a second one, which was more of a creative choice…

It’s also about style

The horse on a farm picture had an older, nostalgic feel about it, at least to me. While I wanted black and white to balance it, I also wanted a vintage, older look, as the farm is old, rustic, and there’s nothing new about it. I wanted my viewer to see this shot as it might have look 35 years ago. The choice to convert to black and white is not only about selective coloration, but it’s also about creating a mood that sometimes is better served with no coloration.

The Tools

Great black and white conversions can be done in mostly any software. I use Adobe Lightroom for many of my conversions, but recently I have started to find a greater level of control using Silver Efex Pro by Nik Software. While Lightroom does mostly everything Silver Efex can do, it takes longer to get a similar effect. The big reason, however, to use a dedicated tool like Silver Efex pro is because of the awesome grain engine. Real black and white photos from a film camera bring a certain amount of natural grain, based on the film used. Silver Efex not only allows you to emulate the look of 18 different films, but it recreates the picture using the grain found in that particular film. This is different than most grain engines, which usually just put a layer of luminance noise over top of the photo. Silver Efex actually recreates the photo out of the grain, which makes it not only a part of the photo, but as realistic as shooting black and white with a film camera. The results in print are simply stunning!

I’m leaving you with my growing gallery of Black and White images, which I hope you’ll enjoy as you venture into that whole other world of photography known as black and white! Click on the thumbs to see a big’ole image and enjoy!

While I started downloading every trial I could get my hands on, I remembered something important while I was going through the same infatuation with HDR photography. I needed to remember that alongside the software, I needed to learn the photography techniques necessary to pull off a good panoramic. There are a couple basic ones, and once you have those, the only other requirement is to find something that would actually make a good panoramic.

So what makes a good Panoramic?

First off, you can shoot a panoramic of anything you want. So, the word “good” is a relative term. Shoot a panoramic to illustrate your awesome landscaping job on a Sunday morning. Shoot a panoramic of a crowd (that gets tricky, more on that later). Shoot a panoramic of the inside of a huge lobby in a hotel. Man, it’s kind of endless. There are, however, easier panoramics to shoot than others, and that has not only to do with your choice of subject, but also your choice of software…

Your choice of a Panoramic subject

For starters, try everything. You’ll quickly get a sense of what’s good and bad by trying both. “Good” tends to mean lots of overlap, good, even light across the scene, no moving objects in the scene (stitching get whacky when you go there, but I’ve done it), and of course something that will look beautiful when assembled as 5-7 images. After that, the sky is the limit! I often avoid tricky or uneven light, lots of movement, or overly complex panoramics that will stump the software, although as you’ll read, my particular software is pretty hard to trick. My stuff is easy compared to photographers who go out and shoot the real deal.

The rules

Just like everything else in photography, there are rules, but some can be bent, and others can be broken. The following, however, are really great guidelines that will make your life easier when you do your stitching.

• Use a tripod. I say this, but I usually don’t do it. So, if you have one with you, use it. If you don’t you’ll really need good stitching software to make up for your randomness…I’ve gotten away with hand holding my camera because I have gotten comfortable with my stitching software.
• Set your white balance to something other than “AWB” (auto white balance). I shoot on Cloudy whenever I’m outside. It’s just a stylistic choice (no it doesn’t need to be cloudy to use this setting, I just like the warmness of that Kelvin temperature).
• I shoot vertically (portrait) as opposed to horizontally (landscape). You get a better, “taller” pano. Your pano will be long anyway. Focus on height by flipping your camera longways, in the portrait position. More of a preference than a rule.
• I shoot in Manual mode. I will often change my shutter speed as I pan as the light changes as your move across your panoramic subject. Do NOT change your aperture. Your pano will look whacky if you have different apertures.
• If you have a continuous focal point at the infinity distance, then you can stay in Auto Focus. If you do not, focus on the first frame of your subject, then switch to manual focus. Leave it there.
• I try to overlap pretty significantly between each shot so my software has a lot of reference. I’d say I do between 25-35% overlap between each shot. My software is happy when I do that. That makes me happy, too!

All the tips above can easily be achieved with any modern point and shoot. I’d say the key is the white balance as well as the fixed aperture. Once you’ve got all that worked out, it’s time to stitch it up!

The Search for the perfect Stitch

There is a TON of software available for doing this. Photoshop users, especially those with CS3 and above will get tons of tools without leaving Photoshop. As a software junkie, I decided to venture outside of Photoshop for my Panoramic stitching needs. Again, no rules, just preferences.

I use Autopano Pro to do my panoramics. The reason? It allows me to make mistakes, which is important, because I almost never go out planning to shoot a panoramic. It is always a spur-of-the-moment decision. That usually means I don’t have my tripod, the light is uneven, and I know my handholding might actually involve multiple rows of shots, not a simple pan across the landscape. The best thing I can say about Autopano Pro is this: while it has really precision tools to tweak your panoramic, I simply have not needed them. I load “n” number of photos into the software and let it do its thing. It finds needles in haystacks when it stitches, and does complex stitching of busy architecture, ornate trussing, churches, and lots of other patterns that are not smooth or sweeping. I’m not a panoramic photographer, but I love shooting them. That means I can spend less time fiddling with the stitch and more time posting my work to my blog, which is how I wanna roll…

Here are some of the panoramics I created using Autopano Pro. Enjoy!