Wedding and Portrait Photography – Karen Leaf

Gentle readers:

I have recieved 3 emails in the past couple hours with invalid email addresses. Please re-send if you’d like your quotes.

And congrats on your engagements!

It’s a question that comes up frequently in consultations… what kind of camera do you use?

My own preference, at the moment, is Canon.

For weddings I carry (2) 5 D cameras, with 2 other Canon DSLRs for backup, one of which is the faithful old standby that has never let me down, the 20D. When one of the kids was looking for a camera for his birthday, he asked about getting the 20D from my bag. From my cold dead hands.  It’d be like giving up an old friend.  I might use the 30D because the little extra range I can get with the cropped sensor for other projects.

But a very important piece of the equation is the lens selection. I have a great copy of the 24-70L that allows for wider images, the 70-200 2.8L lens that is probably the gold standard for longer ranges. A beast to carry for the day but SO worth it for the images it delivers. My 2 work horses. Macros, wide angle (there is NOTHING like a 15mm shot of a bride and groom at sunset with a WA lens, medium range, like the 85 1.8 which is great for low light receptions and can’t be matched for portraits.

Supplemental lighting is very important, especially for locations that are not well lit. I bring a couple of studio stobes, with lightstands etc for larger locations that will be very dark; I carry 3  Canon flashes to use outside and in smaller venues. I’ve just begun using the new Pocket wizards that allow for wireless communications between camera and off camera flashes and believe these will do really well in medium size reception halls. They are fabulous for outside imagery since the shutter can hit 1/8000, enabling a nice blue sky (if the weather co-operates!) instead of a white background.

These are a few really really quick grabs of my sister and nephew–they didn’t know they were going to be featured–or that I was coming up with my camera, lol! I love the shadows and contrasts the secondary flash provide in the bright sun.

Also, if you don’t have a sister, adopt one. Nothing else matters in the big scheme of things except the love and support of family. And I have the best.

We had our last session at Emma’s house today–one more to go.

She is such a princess all dressed up in her Easter finery and was fascinated by the reflective Easter eggs.  I think we managed about 15 minutes total of sit down time and she is so inquisitive but the one trick that always got a smile was reacting to her Mom.  Mom has the touch because even Owen got 2 minutes of quiet time.

Thanks again guys, as always, it’s a real pleasure to see her all growing up.