My photography business is a blend of weddings, families, business portraits and photojournalism.  Getting published is always fun and getting a photo on the front page of a newspaper or the cover of a magazine never gets old.

My assignment this weekend was the Tour of High Bridge.  A series of fair short bike races in High Bridge New Jersey.   It was hot and humid Saturday morning but fortunately not mind-crippling or rubber-melting, over-the-top hot.  Not too hot for those lean, mean peddal pushing machines who wear tight colorfull clothes and strange shoes.

I wanted to show some speed, which means blur.  Shooting on bright sunny summer morning usually means fast shutter speeds and stopped motion but with a couple of speedlights and some dark shade its pssoble to get that shutter speed down and use the lights strategically.  Fortunately I didn’t go for the awesome “head-on” shot and get creamed, head-on.

The Prallsville Mills site in Stockton NJ (http://www.drms-stockton.org/)  is just south of Frenchtown, where my photography studio is located.  Kim and Roger selected it for their wedding the past Saturday and allowed me to be their wedding photograpy.

It was a wonderful wedding, a great day with great people.  Kim and Roger were a joy to photograph.

It’s August.  (In case you haven’t noticed) and that means it’s hot, humid and time to go to the fair (where is it hot, humid and dusty, too).

Here on the west coast of New Jersey, bordering the mighty Delaware River we still have farms and summertime agricultural fairs with rides, demo derbies and hot air balloons.  This past week was the Warren County fair.

I am a sucker for fairs, festivals and parades.  It’s our Americana.  Us being us. And it’s just way too much fun to wander around creating images of what I see from impressive mustaches and rides to glowing balloons.

I always enjoy being a presenter at bridal shows but it seems overwhelming for the ladies who come to the show.  There is too much to see and it is hard to remember all the vendors they visit (especially all the photographers).  So instead of just sitting at a table I decided to have some fun and do something a little different.

Erich Radlmann of  Hunterdon Weddings (http://www.hunterdonweddings.com/) has the best shows in the region and people love them.  I do too and I’ve pretty much decided only to do Erich’s shows. This year Erich presented a show at the Grand Colonial (http://www.grandcolonialnj.com/).

Aisling Carroll, Event Coordinator at Hunterdon County Chamber of Commerce (http://www.hunterdon-chamber.org/) graciously agreed to assist me for the show.  We set up a micro studio to create 1940s style glamor photos.  I wanted to just play a little to give the ladies a sense of what it is like to have me photograph them.  (Hopefully it wasn’t to painful.)  No one was really prepared to have their photos taken but everyone knew it was just for fun.

Karen Shankoff of Attachments in Flemingont (http://attachmentsnj.com/) lent us some gorgeous necklaces to let the ladies wear for their photos.

Check out our little handmade video (click on the link below) and see a few samples of the photos  we created.  All the photos are posted on Facebook Page at this link:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brokaw-Photography/

Here is the link to our video:

GRAND COLONIAL BRIDAL SHOW VIDEO

These are the actual photos of lovely ladies who appear in the video being photographed.

The men of the 44th Georgia Company from the Civil War bivouac up in Yankee territory over the weekend.  So I figgered I go do some shootin’.

Me, being a tried and true Yankee wuz takin’ my chances entering the rebel’s camp site.  But I had a Canon, so I weren’t not fearing them boys.

They just set and stared as I lit ‘em up with my Speedlights to get that late afternoon look (on a soggy Sunday morning).  A splash of light here and splash there and ya’d think we was back in 1861 (as long as I avoided getting the tractor trailer rig  in the background).

Its great to be the “house photographer” at major events like the Dance Theater of Harlem Vision Gala in New York City.  You can grab the best spots for shots and be part of the private party where everyone relaxes and enjoys the night.  The great Harry Belefonte was honored by the Dance Theater and humbly accepted his award from Lynn Whitfield and Soledad O’Brien.  The event was at the Mandarin Oriental in New York City and attended by over 250 of New York’s elite.  The dancers did a few numbers on stage and of course were truly awesome.