And They're Off...

Last weekend, the Kentucky Derby was held, kicking off the first race of the Triple Crown. We also kicked off our summer wedding season last weekend, only our first steps out of the starting gate were right in to a puddle.

Ellen, Missy and I photographed the wedding of Kevin and Jennifer at Bristol Harbour last Saturday. I started the day on a beautiful sunlit morning photographing the groomsmen as they played a round of golf at Bristol Harbour. By the time we headed back there to meet the bride at 1:00, the sky turned black and began pelting us with a monsoon.

The day wasn't a wash out though. We were able to get all of our photos in between rain showers, even if we did get stuck in the elevator shaft waiting one of the showers out at Bristol Harbour condos. Kevin and Jennifer also got their ceremony in after the sun came back out. No one let the rain dampen their spirits. It was a great way to come out of the starting block for a great wedding season.

First Steps

To walk to China, you first have to step out your front door. Sometimes, while taking that first step, you may not even know you're own your way to China. However one thing is for sure, with out that first step, you're not going anywhere.

Earlier today, I picked up the mail at the studio and looked at the cover of the new Professional Photographer magazine from PPA. The issue is devoted to the art of the family portrait and on the cover is an image of a family on a couch in a field of wild flowers. Every Spring, our little corner of the world is either blessed or cursed with an amazing amount of dandelions. In an open field, one million dandelions looks like a golden fairy tale landscape, however, in my back yard just 100 of them ruins my weekend and causes back spasms.

I posted on Facebook "Wanted: Cool couch, field of dandelions, and a family to photograph on the cool couch in the field of dandelions." Who knew I would get such a response? I had offers for families, couches, suggestions on cool fields to use and even suggestions on cool fields at other times of year with different flowers. It was then that the thought occurred to me to do a series of photos of different couches, different fields and different families. What started out as a small trip down to the mailbox, turned in to an explosion of inspiration and the start of a long term project.

That first step of posting a single idea on Facebook may have started me on a journey way bigger than I could have imagined.

Next stop, Beijing.

Car Show and Art Gallery

This summer we will be having an art gallery of automotive art printed on metal on display at the AutoWash on 332 in Canandaigua. This is a unique, water proof gallery will be on display in the bays of the car wash. We will be kicking off the gallery on June 5th with a Car Show including the cars that will be in the gallery. There will be food, vendors, car wash discounts and more, so mark your calendars and help us kick off this one-of-a-kind gallery exhibit.

Mother's Day Sale

Buy any style SnapTote custom photo handbag and receive a free session with Mom. Call the studio at 

585-393-9242. 

Click on image for a larger version.

Not Your Mother's Point and Shoot

I love my camera toys. I like to have the perfect camera and the perfect lens for the job at hand. A lot of times though, the perfect camera and the perfect lens may combine to be several hefty pounds to lug around. When I'm on a job that's fine, but when I'm casually out and about or on vacation, it's just too cumbersome. For years I have been looking for a camera that would be both compact and portable, as well as customizable and have great image quality. I was tempted by the Canon G Series, but before I took the plunge, Nikon came out with the P7000. Being a Nikon guy it immediately grabbed my attention. Housed in a rugged body and covered with buttons and dials galore, the P7000 might just be the little engine that could.

After months of researching the camera, I got one for my birthday last month. I played with it a bunch of times to get to learn the controls and menus, but I didn't give it a good work out until I went to Ocean Grove last week. I'm not going to go in to a long, technical review. I'll just give my impressions of the camera in human terms that anyone can understand.

My first impression was that it had a beautiful feel in my hands, not too light, not too heavy. It has a feeling of quality. It's not your average point and shoot being too big to comfortable fit in your shirt pocket. If you're looking for small and feather light this is not the camera for you. However, if your looking for something that you can control as much as a DSLR with out the size and weight and with out sacrificing image quality then keep reading.

After shooting with the camera for a few days, I learned that the menu system is not quite as intuitive as my Nikon DSLRs. In fact, there were a few times I got very frustrated that I couldn't get the camera to do what I wanted it to do. However as time went on, and I learned the menus and dials better, I was easily able to obtain quality images that rivaled the P7000's big brothers. Yes, the autofocus is slower and less precise, but this is in fact a point and shoot. As you'll see from the images below, I was able to capture quite a few keepers on a short outing on the beach and in town. You can also see some more images in the post "Sunrise with the Eddies."  The lens has a great zoom range with nice quality throughout. There is also a digital telephoto which zooms in even further, however image quality suffers. Even in bright day light, the camera had focusing issues often with the digital zoom. Stick with the optical zoom range and you'll be very happy. 

I will post more as I get more familiar with the camera, but for now, I am very satisfied with it. I even had a chance to play with my high-end flashes which are compatible with the P7000.  I was going to post images of the photos straight out of the camera, but I decided to show images I played with in Photoshop since that's what I will be doing most of the time anyway. I wanted to show you the final image the way I would be doing for my own enjoyment. That's not to say I had to Photoshop them to make them look good. The camera is of high image quality, to the point where it doesn't get in the way of creatiing the art.

 For $359, it was money well spent. To read more about it, click on the link below to Amazon.com.

Fit To Be Queen

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to photograph Amanda's sister-in-law, Jessica, a day after her fitness competition. Jessica is a personal trainer up in Fulton, NY and entered her first competition after weeks of training. As you'll see from the photos, it was not beginners luck that she took first place in her division and second place overall.

This was a fun photo shoot. I got to light more for contrast and definition than for a smooth looking portrait. Since Jessica was done training for the time being, we finished the photo shoot with her first donut in months. Eating that donut was almost a spiritual experience for her.

App Update

After weeks of waiting for App Store approval, version 3.0 of the Chesler Photo app is live and ready to be downloaded. You can download it by clicking on the icon located to the left. The new app is much more extensive and user friendly, with all new galleries, photo tips, news, and more. You can even request an appointment right from the app. The app will also link you directly to our website, blog, Facebook page, map to the studio and it will even text, e-mail or call the studio directly from the app.

I'm sure not many of you need such direct and intimate access to the studio, so to make the app more enticing, we will be offering app only specials that will be presented as news events in the app. As always, the app if free and now that is updated in the App Store, we will be releasing more galleries and news events in the coming days.

James and Leigh E-session

April 1st, which is opening day of trout season, is very exciting for any fisherman in the Finger Lakes. It's when all of the streams that feed the southern end of the lakes get runs of Rainbow Trout. The season kicks off with the Naples Trout Derby on the south end of Canandaigua Lake. I fished opening day there once but I wasn't crazy about the elbow to elbow combat fishing. This year I skipped opening day since I was heading down to Ithaca on April 3rd to photograph James and Leigh's e-session, so I figured I would hit Falls Creek that empties in to Cayuga Lake.

I finally met up with James and Leigh after trying to connect with them several times down in NYC between Thanksgiving and April. We were cancelled several times due to medical emergencies, blizzards and even an early baby. We decided to meet in Ithaca instead and the weather was perfect. We did photos at Buttermilk Falls and in Robert Treman State Park with the help of my son Cade. Cade was not only my human light stand, holding the wireless flash when I needed him to, he was also the certified dog watcher for their little pug. At least I think it was a pug. Nevertheless, we had a great time and the photos came out cool against the backdrop of one of the most spectacular water falls in the area.