The New Nikon D90 and Chase Jarvis

As you all know I am a loyal Nikonian and am always excited when Nikon brings out new products. Whether the product is Professional or Amateur, Large or Small, I honestly believe in and support Nikon. My Nikon products have served me very well over the years and I have no plans to ever leave them ;-)

That being said, Nikon just released the Nikon D90 which is geared towards the Advanced Amateur. This camera looks to be incredible! One stand out feature is that it does Video too! This camera may very well make its way into our arsenal and be my go to camera for all of our family and personal shooting. It sure is a lighter load than my Nikon D3! So if you are in the market for a killer Digital SLR for a reasonable price, look no further.

This brings me to Chase Jarvis. Chase Jarvis is a Commercial Advertising photographer that is just incredible. I have yet to meet him, but look forward to it someday. His work is so out of the box and extraordinary. He is highly regarded in the commercial industry and among photographers alike. I am an admitted blog stalker of his. His work is so inspiring as well as his personality and willingness to share.

Low and Behold Chase is a Nikon Shooter. He is big time. Nikon gave Chase and his crew pre release versions of the Nikon D90 so they could put them through the ringer. That they did and what they came up with is extraordinary. I encourage you to watch the Behind the Scenes video and then view the image gallery. After doing so you will be headed to B&H Photo to make your purchase. You can thank me later!

Enjoy!

My New Friend - Riz

This morning I had the pleasure meeting Riz Crescini. Riz found me on Facebook, via our common connection to Kenny Kim. How cool is that? Riz has been living in Japan for the last 9 years with his wife and 2 daughters, educating students in the English Language. He also has a ministry and is looking to incorporate Photography into it.

I always love meeting new friends and especially when we have common interests ;-) We talked shop quite a bit and learned about each other. It is neat to discover how many things we had in common. I hope that I shed some useful light for him! Riz promised to keep in touch and let me know of his progress.

Riz it was awesome meeting you. Maybe someday we will get together with Kenny Kim too! God Bless Bro.

Here he is in his Cubs Glory (Cubs are in town beating the Pirates):

Our New Nephew!

Our families have been blessed, yet again! My sister (Amy) and her husband (Steve) welcomed their second child to this world on June 30, 2008! Adia is now a big sister!

Meet Elijah Stone O'Toole. He is such a cutie. I also could not resist shooting some updated Adia pics too. :-)

We love you guys!

Grand Opening Party Wrap up!

Well, we had our official Grand Opening Gala last Thursday, July 3rd and we can honestly say that it was a huge success! First and foremost, so many people that play an important role in our lives were there to support us. We are so thankful and blessed to have all of you around us. Thank you!

Secondly we raised $500 for the Pregnancy Resource Center! We could not have achieved this without the donations from the following sponsors:

• Bangz Salon (Bridgeville)


• Create a Frame/Handworks Gallery


• Discover Organizing


• Enrique's Biscotti (Mt. Lebanon)


• Geno Levi Spirit of Style Salon (Bethel Park)


• John Rattenni Insurance Agency (State Farm Insurance) (Bridgeville)


• Julie Marckisotto


• La Pomponnee


• Los Chiludos


• Mineo's Pizza


• Parma Sausage


• Salon Vivace


• Studio Dei Capelli


• The Angel Reserve

For the winners that were not present when the tickets were drawn, you will be contacted today! Congratulations!

I also want to thank Justin, Mark and Diedre for performing wonderful melodies for us throughout the evening. It was awesome.

Here are a few snaps from the evening. Thank you to my buddy Peter for being the shutter bug. ;-)
Click through the images by selecting the number of the slide.


**Update** Also be sure to check out my buddy, Armin Defiesta's Blog for some more pics. He and his wife Denise made the trip from Washington DC to be here for the party! Thanks For being here!

Studio Grand Opening!!!

Hi Everyone!

This Thursday July 3, 2008 we are having our Studio Grand Opening! We are so excited to make it official! We have been working hard to put this together and it is wonderful to see it finally come together.

*Intentionally Blurred Images*




We are having a grand opening open house party 7/3/2008 from 5PM to 10PM. We are expecting a great turn out and would love for you to stop in and say Hello! We will be serving Light hors d' oeuvres, featuring Authentic Mexican from Los Chiludos Mexican Restaurant, the most wonderful meats from the one and only Parma Sausage in the strip district, as well as others. We will have Champagne, Red Wine and refreshments.

We will have some light acoustic live music from the band 'Soul Anatomy' which includes two of my good friends Justin & Mark.

To top things off we are having a fund raiser for the Pregnancy Resource Center of the South Hills that will consist of a Chinese Auction for a Gift Basket filled with Goodies from local vendors and also includes a Black iPod Classic!! (I love my iPods!)

We are hoping to raise a generous amount of money for the PRC. The PRC is a wonderful organization consisting of many volunteers to "bring the word of life to every client, trusting in the power of God to restore the promise of hope and a future." The PRC is very close to Bridget's and my heart. We hope it will be a huge success for them!

So If you can, please stop by and wear Black and White (Casual!) attire to support the studio ;-)!!
We are here:

View Larger Map

Have a great weekend!

We are busy getting ready for our Grand Opening at the studio, Next week! I will post more on Monday. Needless to say we are sooooo excited! We hope to see many of you here. It looks like we are going to have A LOT of people visiting for our Open House! We can't wait.

Here is a quickie of Bryleigh from yesterday. Have a great weekend!

Kids say the sweetest things.

Bridget and I have been entertained lately by some of the things that Brayden says. Bray is at that age where he is really starting to discover who he is and how he feels about things. He really has an incredible vocabulary and we have wonderful conversations with him. It is so awesome!

Here are two recent things he has said that really made us smile.

Bray: "Mom, who made rocks?"
Mom: "God made rocks."
Bray: "Yeah, Him make Teddy Grahams too."

How sweet!

Then yesterday, I was cutting the grass and Brayden likes to follow me using his litte Home Depot mower.

Bray: "It's a great day to lawnmower, huh Dad?"
Dad: "HaHa, you better believe it. It is a great day to lawnmower Bray!"

Taking time to talk to your kids really puts life into perspective. I love little nuggets like this. Have a great weekend and listen to your kids!

Pandora

I recently discovered a great website, Pandora. I am probably late to the party, because I think it has been around for a while, but never the less, it is awesome. You create an account and then you can create multiple "stations" based on an artist name. For instance I entered "Nirvana" and it started playing Nirvana and bands like Nirvana. So cool :-) I have since created a bunch of stations and then use the "Quick Mix" feature to mix all of the stations together. It is great to have while I am working at the computer or need music to play throughout the studio. Best of all it is "Free". How cool is that?

So if you haven't tried it, check it out! Pandora.com

Back to work now.... Frank Sinatra is serenading me at the moment!

Bryleigh Sitting up.

Our lovely, happy, cuddly and chubby :-) little girl is finally sitting up! I took her up on the hill last night and grabbed a few pics.

Don't you just want to squeeze her up? I love her!


David Burke Pittsburgh Children's Photographer

Brayden turns 3

Our little Bray turned 3 yesterday. We had a little party for him and had a great time. He is so cute! It was a Spiderman themed party, because Bray loves all things Spidey. He received lots of great gifts, much of which were Spidey themed. He has been enjoying them all. We got him the Black Spiderman Muscle Suit. Last night when he was going to bed, he looked up at me and said, "I'm really glad I got the Black Spiderman Suit Dad." He has been wearing it ever since. God Bless him!

Here are few snaps from our trusty ole Nikon D70.
Bray




Us adults had fun too with a one light setup at sunset.

An Interview with Kenny Kim

My good friend Kenny Kim was recently interviewed for F-Stop Beyond. Kenny is a fabulous photographer and more importantly, a wonderful friend. Kenny is one of the most giving people I know. If you are not familiar with him, I have no doubt that you will be eventually. Kenny has experienced a meteoric rise in his recognition as a photographer. He will soon be a household name when the Big Wigs of the industry are mentioned ;-) (Actually he already is!)

It is a wonderful interview and it gives the listener a great inside view of Kenny as a person, photographer and friend. He truly does have the heart of a servant. If you would like to listen, you can by going to Kenny's Blog or F-Stop Beyond to hear.

I am also excited because Kenny is coming to stay with my family for a few days this week. This will be his first visit to Pittsburgh, so it will be a pleasure hosting him.

Bryleigh @ 5 months

I was also told that I would be hit over the head if I did not start posting pics of my own kids too.

So as I was feeding Bryleigh some sweet potatoes, I could not resist a few snaps.

Here is one. I just want to eat her up. She is so adorable!

Shoot and Learn was a blast!

We are behind on blogging some fantastic shoots. I promise they will all get here eventually. This past week has been a whirlwind of excitement. New Studio, LifExpo and our first Shoot N Learn workshop. I am about to run out and shoot the engagement session of Jill and Joe so I have to make this quick.

I thought I may get 2 or 3 folks out for the workshop, but we had 10! I was blown away. The people that came were awesome. I made some new friends and cannot wait to do it again. We are brainstorming on what we can do each time to make it super useful. We are putting together a survey to send out to see what you all think. Thanks to everyone that came out and look forward to seeing you again!

Here are a few of my snaps from the night. We did Available Light Portraits. Fun!!

My beautiful Wife, Bridget, was our model. Bray Bray made an appearance too.

(these are from my flickr page, sorry for the small size)

LIFExpo 2008 - Come and see us!

**Update. We also have an awesome announcement to make later today**

We were invited to be a part of LifeExpo this weekend down at Heinz Field. We are very excited to be there and will be shooting the entire event this weekend. TWe would love it if you would stop by and say hello.

Here is some info:
Come Down to the LIFExpo at Heinz Field this Thursday May 1st through Sunday May 4th!

It’s a FREE Event where you’ll have the opportunity to:
See Tunch Ilkin of the Pittsburgh Steelers for autographs on Thursday from 12-2:00
See Jennifer Antkowiak speaking on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 1:00
Experience the Steeler’s Heinz Field Coca Cola Great Hall
See How You can “Go Green” Everyday right here in Pittsburgh!
Go Online at the KidZui Internet Cafe as seen on WTAE’s “Plugged In”
Enter Prize Drawings and Giveaways for All Ages
Introduce the Kids to the Pirate Parrot, Pirate Peroggis, and Kenny Kangaroo
Learn How to Lower Your Cost at the Gas Pump
Bring Your Home Products and Toys to Test for Lead Content
Visit the booths of many regional companies and non-profit organizations!

LIFExpo Times: Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 12 PM – 8PM and Sunday: 12 PM – 5PM

Visit the website at www.lifexpo.com for much more information!

And on the website, check out the Schedule of Events for more info on the Stage Schedule and Special Attractions!
(All scheduled times are subject to change)

We look forward to seeing you there!

Latest Self Portrait

Scouting the light the other night, I shot from the hip. Brings out my eyes, eh? LOL

Newborn Session to Maternity Session

Last week was a crazy week. With Brayden being sick, I had to line up my priorities accordingly and he came in first place. Everything else fell behind and we are now just about caught up.

Thankfully Brayden is now back to 100%. I tried to get him to make a video this morning to thank everyone for prayers and happy thoughts, but it did not work out too well. haha. I am going to post at least some happy face pics of him.

Friday I was able to shoot a newborn and a maternity session. Sweet.

Baby G is gorgeous and cuddly. Don't ya just want to eat her up? She was born to Amy and Chris ( you can see their maternity images here). I love her hair! Thank you Amy and Chris for having me over. We created some fantastic images that you are going to love! See ya soon. Here is a sneak peak.






In the early evening I had the fortune of hanging out with one of my favorite couples, Stephanie and Jeremy. We documented their wedding last March 31, 2007. It was so great to see them again and this time, with baby on the way! These two are so perfect together. I cannot wait to meet the new addition.

We had so much fun taking some images. Here are a few for a sneak peak. Enjoy and I will see you soon! (Aren't they beautiful??)
**Update Forgot to blog this one. My favorite!**

Back to the hospital.

This is so not the usual Brayden. It has been 5 days and he is still
not getting better. We are heading back to the hospital. Please keep the thoughts and prayers coming.

Update on Brayden and Apple Aperture 2.1

Thank you for all of the thoughts and prayers. They are working, so please keep them coming.

Bray is coming along, but he is still pretty sick. We decided to take him back to the Dr. today because he was so lethargic. He is definitely making progress and we should see him getting back in the groove by Thursday. His little voice, 'Da Da, I don't feel good...' Man it breaks your heart when you hear it!

Apple Aperture 2.1
Well my love affair with Apple Aperture has come to an end. I was LOVING Aperture. Totally LOVING it. Until they released the update for 2.1. Now I cannot keep the application running. It CONSTANTLY crashes. To the point that it is unusable. I am so heart broken. I have begun using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom again, until they get the quirks fixed in Aperture. I have faith that Apple will fix the issues, but still need to be productive with my time in front of the computer.

Has anyone else had this experience? Do any of my blog readers even use Aperture?? haha.

Peace out.

This week's Workflow Savior:

Our Little Brayden

I came home this afternoon from a great weekend with by son Damon and the youth group. On my way home, Bridget called to tell me that the Dr. Suggested taking Brayden to Children's Hospital. He had spiked a fever on Friday and was wheezing. So she did. I was 3 hours away by car and I was not driving... Worried? Yes. Confident that he would be OK? Yes.

So I eventually got to the hospital to be with him. He was lying there with a breathing treatment and being very quiet. Bridget and my Dad were there with him. He kept saying, 'I want my daddy.' (Which made my day!)

Long story (and day!) short... It turns out that he has a little pneumonia in his left lung, an ear infection and a stomach virus! Good Lord, how can his little body handle this?? I do not know how he is doing it, but he is. We were able to bring him home and care for him here. He slept relatively well and is still sleeping. I am praying that today is a better day for him.

Brayden is our sickliest child. He is so precious and soft. He is not frail, but there is something fragile about him. We love him so much! So if you think about it, please pray for him and send good thoughts his way. We just want him to get better and back to his old self.

Here is a little iPhone picture from yesterday. He is so adorable. I love you Bray Bray!!

Out of the office :-)

I will be out of the office until Monday April 7.

I am heading on a youth retreat with my son Damon. It is called Destination Unknown, so the kids do not know where we are going! It is going to be a wonderful time. I really look forward to these trips for so many reasons. Reaching out to the unchurched, having great times and spending quality time with my oldest son. Lots of value!!!

So, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. See ya next week.

Photobooth Fun.

Vegas is fun!!! Most of the parties we attended had these Photobooths for all to enjoy (www.fotocabina.com). Outside of the booth there is a basket filled with props to use, which makes it extra fun ;-) I definitely had my fair share of fun in these booths! Sometimes we try to fit as many people as possible in the booth for the 4 pics. Before each shot, someone yells out "Be Happy" or "Be Cool", "Be Sad", etc... The outcomes are hilarious.

Here is a quickie of my buddy Mike Steelman and me.


If you would like to see more of these crazy pics, check out my facebook page.

New Site and Vegas!

Out of the office from March 15 - 21




We are in the process of implementing a new website! We have decided to make our blog the first thing our viewers see because it is updated the most and gets the most traffic :-) The Portfolios will be consolidated to one 'Flash' page with multiple galleries for kids/weddings, etc.. We hope you enjoy! Please bear with us while we work out the bugs.

One of the bugs is with our email.. I am unable to set up an auto-responder at the moment, so you know that I am not ignoring you :-)

I will be out of the office from March 15 - 21, because I am attending WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) in Las Vegas. This is the years biggest convention for my industry and I make it a point to attend every year. I always come away with more knowlege, inspiration and more friends. I love connecting with old friends and making new ones.

During this time I will have limited access to email/phone and blogging. If you need to contact me, please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Thank you,

David.

Bryleigh is much cuter than me :-) (and some Photo taking tips)

So Cute, originally uploaded by burkedt.

I just love having a daughter. She is so stinkin cute. Her face is perfectly round. I think she looks just like mommy. I can only hope! Mommy is so beautiful!

*Tech note* (and a few tips!)
Window Light Right
Nikkor 50 1.4

ISO 400
f-stop 2.0
shutter 1/100
WB - 5300K

When I am shooting available light, To nail my exposure I typically pick an ISO that I want to use. After that, Aperture is most important to ME so I then select that (I like large apertures 1.4 - 2.8). Then, I dial in the correct shutter speed for a good exposure (using my viewfinder meter) and finally set the correct white balance (I use my RGB histogram on my LCD for review). After a test shot or two, I am off shooting. At this point I am thinking about composition and focus-points, etc...

When recomposing your image ALWAYS be aware of what is in your viewfinder, because it can affect the overall exposure. You may need to adjust your shutter speed to compensate.

I will post some examples later.

David being David.

My Good Friend Heather Grabbed this Beautiful shot of me this past Saturday!

The power of Faith and Love

I recently came across this site Confessions of a CF* Husband, which is the blog of Nathan Lawrenson who is married to Patricia Kirschner that suffers from Cystic Fibrosis. The link takes you to the "Fast Track" section of the site to get you quickly up to speed on their story.

Reading this story and the blog entries totally grips my heart and makes me realize how much I love my wife and children. Nathan's Faith in God and Love for Patricia and Gwenyth (born at 24 weeks gestation) keeps him moving forward. He has really gotten to know God through this ordeal. That is key with faith. It is hard to "just get more faith", but when you take the time to know God better your faith will grow.

Their story is very touching, but is such a story of strength and perseverance that it will make us all stronger.

God Bless Nathan, Patricia, Gwenyth and their families!

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.

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

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!

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.

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!