Newborn Photo Session

Our new niece, Julia turned 1 week old today. We headed over for a newborn session. My goodness is she beautiful. As I have said before...God is Good!!







I LOVE her skin tone.


Tech Stuff:
All images shot with available window light
ISO 400-640
f 1.8 - 3.2
shutter 1/125 - 1/250
First two had Kodak Tmax 400 action from Alien Skin Exposure 2 run on them.

Interview with Michael Gerber

Michael Gerber, Author of The E-Myth, was recently interviewed by Tim Ferriss. It is an excellent read for you budding entrepreneurs out there. Gerber has a new book coming out on March 4 "Awakening the Entrepreneur Within". I will be picking up a copy of this book too. The E-Myth is one of my all time favorite business books. He has a way of writing that really gets your fire going for success.

One thing he touches on that is VERY VERY important is that successful entrepreneurs today, seek Meaning rather than Money. This is not to say that the entrepreneur is not interested in money, but money without meaning is too big a price to pay. I cannot agree more.

Meaning is what has driven me to continually create and improve my business and purpose. We all need money, but the meaning of making a positive difference in people's lives far outways the weight of any dollar I can ever make.

Hi

bryhat, originally uploaded by burkedt.

Author Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss, author of "The 4-Hour Workweek" has a great blog that I subscribe to and read whenever he has an update. I have read the book and refer to it often to stay "fired up". His blog is a great supplement to the book. He is currently working on a second revision of "The 4-Hour Workweek" due later this year or early next. I will be certain to pick it up. If you have not read the book, you should!

His blog has lots of cool information and is just different from all things photography. Check it out sometime.

Tim Ferriss' Blog

Julia Prudence Schumacher

The Schumachers, originally uploaded by David Burke.

I am an uncle again! My Brother in law, Darren and his wife Erin (my assistant) welcomed Julia today at 1:28pm. She is SOOOO cute and has so much hair! You can see more at my Flickr Page


Welcome Julia we love you!!!

3 months OFFICIALLY today

OK, so yesterday I posted a video for the out of town family members to see. Today is Officially 3 months old for Bryleigh. We love her so much. She is eating and sleeping so well. She is growing so quickly, that we already miss the things she did last week. It is amazing how quickly they grow. True miracles.

Bryleigh is developing some really cute wrinkles. I called her "Chubbers" and Bridget was like "Don't call her that!!! She is a little Girl, not a boy!" My Bad, Lack of experience with daughters I guess. Now I just call her "Cutie". Another interesting tidbit is that when Brayden, Christian and Damon were 3 months old, they could all lay on their tummies and hold their heads up. Bryleigh is still a little dainty here :-) We are going to work on that.

Brayden woke up from his nap and joined in for a few pics too. I could photograph my kids around the clock. Sometimes they just want me to play. I do play, but it is hard to resist taking pictures.

Here are a few from our little shoot. We put up our grey seamless backdrop and used window light. I processed these all with Aperture 2.0 (I am really diggin it, can't ya tell!) and added a few Film Filters (mainly Ilford B&W 100 grain) from Alien Skin Exposure 2.

Enjoy!

Bryleigh at 3 months.

Our little girl is growing so quickly! It is amazing to see her grow.

God is good!

Christian and OneLight

It was FREEZING this afternoon, but Christian and Brayden insisted on going outside. (Brayden lasted a whole minute before going back in the house!)

Before Christian went in, I wanted to capture the coldness (notice the little moisture under his nose) and the blue skies. I set up my onelight (Nikon SB-800, Pocketwizard Plus II, Light stand and 28" umbrella) camera left to create this image.

Isn't he a cutie!

Feedburner!

Hi Everyone! You can now subscribe to this Blog via an rss feed reader, such as Google Reader . You can also subscribe by entering your email address and having updates sent right to you. This is a great way to keep up to date and prevent you from spending countless hours surfing your favorite blogs :) You will be notified when new posts are published instead of checking only to find out that there is nothing new.

Time is precious so subscribe to the feed. I placed the tools to do this on the right-hand sidebar ----->

Have Fun!

Engagement Session - Anne & Sean

We had beautiful weather on Saturday, in Pittsburgh! I met with Anne and Sean for the first time and shot some engagement photos. We had a great time and I can't wait to get to know them better!! Thanks guys and see ya in May!!!









*Photographers* - These images are straight out of camera and were processed using the new Aperture 2.0 from Apple. I am really working with this software and have to tell you that it is fantastic. I will never say a bad word about Adobe Lightroom, but this version of Aperture is a HUGE upgrade. Blazing Speed, very intuitive, plug-ins that make sense to me and of course Aperture's stellar file management. I may actually change my flow... We shall see :-) I will write a full review when my 30 day trial is up. You may want to try it yourself

Newborn Twins

Today we photographed baby C & E. Oh my goodness are they cute! Big sister M was also there for the fun. We had such a great time and can't wait for Mom, Dad & Grandma to see these sneak peaks. Enjoy!

My Valentine

My Valentine, originally uploaded by burkedt.

Lil Bryleigh is our newest Valentine. She is getting SO chubby!! High Quality Nutrients ;-)

Newborn and Big Sister

I started the day off with a newborn session and to my delight, Baby R's big sister was there too. I could not resist creating images of her as well! These two are so precious!!!

Baby R was born on January 29, 2008. (Such a special day!)

Enjoy the sneak peak MOM! Thanks for having me over!

Apple Aperture 2

Today, Apple announced Aperture 2, the successor to version 1. I tried Version 1 and 1.5 and it just was missing some key features that I really liked in Adobe Lightroom. I am excited to try this version for a few reasons:

1. It's Apple Baby! They get it right more often than not.

2. It looks to be improved as far as User Interface and Speed, not to mention key image adjustment features

3. Like I said in an earlier post, workflow is ever changing. If Aperture 2.0 has something to offer that can make my life easier, I will take advantage of it.

I will let ya know what I think.

Play mat

Master Your Craft - Mike Colon & Bob Davis

We headed down to Baltimore, MD last week to attend the Master Your Craft workshop with Mike Colon and Bob Davis.

There was a few additional bonuses to this workshop, 1. The hotel had a pool, so Bridget, Christian, Brayden & Bryleigh joined me for a mini-vacation. 2. My good friend, Kenny Kim was accompanying Mike and Bob on this leg of their tour. We headed down Thursday so that we could hang out with Mike, Bob & Kenny to catch up and grab some dinner.

The workshop was fantastic. I love 1 day workshops. They really get the juices flowing for shooting & business. Mike and Bob are so passionate about teaching and sharing. I am happy to call them friends. I picked up a lot of new things and relearned some old things. It is like sharpening your sword... Learing and continuing to learn is awesome. If you are in one of the upcoming cities, be sure to attend!!

I met quite a few photographers that I hope to see again in the future. I am heisting some collages that Kenny Kim created and some images a few of my new friends captured. I didn't take any pictures this trip! I was on vacation....hahaha

Thanks Mike, Bob & Kenny for a great time! I also want to thank Michelle and Maureen from Graphistudio for hosting/coordinating such a great event. It was nice to talk and spend time with both of you! And to all of my new friends especially, Peter, Armin, Asim and everyone else! I hope to see you in Vegas next month.

New Toy - AppleTV

I wasn't sure what to think when AppleTV was first released. I didn't get too excited about it, but always wondered if it would be a good fit in our home.

Recently, I purchased one and I can tell you that I am very glad I did! It is super slick and easy to use. We have so many photos, movies, videos, music tracks, tv shows, etc on our home machine and AppleTV has enabled us to show them off on our TV instead of having everyone gather around the computer.

Apple is going to be releasing an update for the AppleTV soon, so that you can rent movies right from the iTunes store. Library movies are $2.99 and new releases are $3.99. This will be great!

We also buy a lot of children's dvds that tend to get scratched and start to skip. Now we can download many of the titles for the same price or cheaper and just stream them to the TV. No more scratches.

If you are sittin on the fence about the AppleTV, I say get one. It is great!

Quick Overview of Wedding Workflow

The question 'What is your workflow like?' comes up quite a bit. I think workflow is an ever changing process that needs tweaking, every once in a while to improve efficiency. When I first started I discovered a workflow and decided to emulate it. It worked well, but it was not entirely for me. I eventually tweaked and adapted strategies from other workflows as well. Now, I have my own that works well for me. This is not the end all nor the greatest, but it works for me.

I love repetition (steps that are easily repeatable) and automation. Wherever I can batch process or script, I do. Saves TONS of time in the end. I have posted a .pdf of my workflow here if you are interested. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line at david@davidburkephoto.com.

I also posted this to my Facebook group of David Burke Photographers. I plan on posting lots of tips, tricks and info here so be sure to join the group!

And a post would not be right without a picture or two. Here is Bryleigh today:

New Website: davidburkekids.com

Hey Peeps!
We have launched a new website!!! to showcase some of our children's work. The site has a few portfolios as well as information about David and details about our sessions.

The site will be updated frequently, with new pics and information. The 'Pricing Details' link is not active but will be shortly :-).

davidburkekids.com is an extension of the David Burke Photographers brand that is dedicated to providing excellent service and imagery of David's favorite subjects... KIDS! Maternity to Seniors is what we are about.
Our Galleries are named:
Fresh - the freshest lives. newborns and babies.

Exploring - the toddler to youth years

Leading - seniors. moving on to be the next leaders.

Together - maternity & families. we want to capture the 'togetherness' of people, not just a portrait.

We are SUPER EXCITED to launch this site and are already booking up sessions quickly! Please drop us a line @ info@davidburkephoto.com to let us know what you think!

Without further adieu please visit http://davidburkekids.com