Rob and Lauren Blog

Hello blog friends! Hope you all had a stellar weekend. We got to see lots of friends, which definitely made ours a winner.

Anywho, this week we’re working on updating our portfolio site. We’ve done a lot of new stuff this year, and really changed the way we shoot, so we’re pumped to reveal it all. There’s a ton of our film stuff that we only just scanned in and have yet to reveal!

So I’m holding off on posting it all until we can have the website ready. Exciting!

Also, on Friday we created our holiday card photo. It’s absolutely hilarious. We may have topped last year’s image. So if you haven’t signed up to receive a card yet, make sure to do that right away, since we’ll hopefully send them out this week!

Lauren :)

Looking for a unique and memorable Christmas/Holiday gift this year? Well, look no further. We’ve figured it out. It’s perfect. You are going to be a hero! ;)

Silliness aside, we have carefully selected 14 of our favourite images from our travels to sell as fine art prints. These are images from Singapore, Vietnam, Greece, and India, taken by us over the past 2 years. You can purchase the prints from this gallery:

http://www.robandlaurenphotographers.com/pickpic/gallery/splash.php?gallery_id=229.

And you can securely use your credit card, for extra easiness.

The details of the print:

These are fine art images printed on archival lustre paper, and presented in a white conservation mat. They come in one size: 6”x9”. Why 6”x9”? We don’t like to crop our work, and 4x6 is too small, and 8x12 is too big. So we’re offering a custom print size. It is matted to 11x14, so it will still be very easy to frame. Wonderful! The mat will be signed by both of us, and we’ll write the location where the image was created, as well as the year.

Here’s a shot of one of the prints. (Note: frame not included, just to show you how pretty it can look). As mentioned, the print is 6”x9” and the mat is 11”x14”. Simply pick up an 11x14 frame and you’re dancin’!

 Price:

Donation:

Furthermore, for every print sold we will donate $5 to XDRTB.org, James Nachtwey’s foundation. 

From their website: “XDRTB.org is an extraordinary effort to tell the story of extremely drug-resistance tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and TB through powerful photographs taken by James Nachtwey.”

We wanted to choose a foundation that resonated with us. James Nachtwey has been a huge inspiration for us as photographers, and as people. Supporting his work definitely is a worthwile cause. The Canadian affiliate of XDRTB.org is called RESULTS Canada, and is how Canadians can support XDRTB.org. This is where we’ll be sending our donation. For more information on how you can help in Canada visit: http://www.results-resultats.ca/

Contest:

We’re super excited to finally start working on the fine art side of our business. And to get the ball rolling we’re having a little contest to give away the framed print you saw at the beginning of this post! It’s simple. If you purchase a fine art travel print, you’ll be entered to win the framed one! We’ll randomly select from all the names some time in December, not sure yet when :) But fun!

The images:

Here are the images we are offering. If you’ve seen one of our images in the past that you’d really like, but isn’t in this gallery, drop us a line and we might be able to swing something for you :)

Hope you guys enjoy these :) Here is that link again:

http://www.robandlaurenphotographers.com/pickpic/gallery/splash.php?gallery_id=229

Lots of love,

Rob & Lauren

UPDATE: Thanks for all who purchased prints. The print has been won, and money has been donated to Results Canada.

In the summer we had the absolute pleasure of hanging out with these two lovebirds for an evening. I gotta say, some of my favourite people to shoot are artists. They just have a different way about them, and the shoot turns more collaborative then directive from our standpoint. Buffy happens to be a rockin’ wedding photographer herself, and Mike is a graphic designer and together they help create Here & Noun which we have a copy of and is ridiculously great. 

Here are some fun times photos of them.

Tomorrow will most likely have a super awesome post, so come on back y’all!

Lauren :)

One of my favourite things about traveling to new countries is experiencing new types of food. And if you ever go to Thailand, you better make sure to grab some street food. It’s not food that’s fallen on the street, as most people would think, but rather food made on little carts that travel around. ;)

When we were in Bangkok this was our breakfast of champions. Pad Thai, a Coke, and two ridiculously strong and syrupy Thai Red Bulls. Probably the most delicious Pad Thai I’ve ever had. Good times :)

Keep an eye on the blog this week, hopefuly we’ll have a cool announcement!

Lauren :)

UPDATE: If you got that camera for Christmas and would like some tips setting it up then check out the following blogpost: http://www.theadventuresofrobandlauren.com/2010/jan/10/so-you-got-slrnow-what/

Hope you have a fantastic new year!

Every year around this time we start getting e-mails from almost everyone we know (and plenty of people we don’t know!) asking us what camera to get as a gift (for someone else or for themselves!). This year I decided to take a look at what would be the best camera for an amateur photographer. A lot of people give a price range and ask what’s best (which is an interesting approach to purchasing a camera). I think people assume that the more expensive the camera the better the photos. The fact of the matter is that while quality and price do have a correlation, most point and shoots do a decent enough job that there isn’t any sense saying one is that much better than an another. I think the important thing about buying a point and shoot camera is finding one that you’ll take everywhere with you, and finding one that you’ll find fun to use. To do that you pretty much just have to go to wherever cameras are sold (Walmart, bestbuy, futureshop, etc.) and play with them till you find one you love. Kind of seems like going to the pet store to fall in love with a new puppy. Because of that, if you want to buy someone a point and shoot then you might want to consider getting that person a gift certificate so that they can enjoy the whole experience of falling in love with a camera.

I also decided not to review or suggest the best professional camera. There is too much variety at the pro level and a lot of research needs to go into camera and lense selection. Not to mention that fact that most pro gear is usually way out of the budget for christmas presents!

So what did I decide on and why? First I considered who would be asking us for camera advice. It’s likely people who are pretty interested in photography and would like more flexibility than the point and shoots they probably already use. They probably want a camera that can keep up with them, something they can grow into creatively, but also something that accommodates a wide variety of skill levels. The Canon Rebel (500D) T1i fits that bill.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/613611-REG/Canon_3818B001_EOS_Rebel_T1i_Digital.html

First I’ll mention that I’m linking to B&H, a camera store in the States based out of New York. We buy most of our gear from there, they’re pretty much the cheapest around. However if you’re buying someone a Christmas gift it might be a better idea to pick the camera up from some place local like Vistek.ca, or bestbuy.ca. Or you might be able to save a few more bucks by taking a look on ebay or craigslist. There are always plenty of options to spend or save money when it comes to camera gear.

Now about the camera. This is an entry level DSLR camera. It’s bigger than a point and shoot, but it’s pretty much the smallest entry level DSLR. It’s got tons of features which I’m sure you’ll read about but here are the main reasons I like this camera.

1. It’s a DSLR. I think if you’re serious about getting into photography then an SLR is pretty much a minimum requirement. This SLR happens to be the newest cheapest entry level model by canon. (you could even save money by getting the older version XSi (450D). The viewfinder of this camera may not be huge, but it’s the experience of looking through the lens that makes getting an SLR the first point on this list. (The other big advantage of DSLRs is the lack of delay between pressing the shutter and the picture actually taking the photo - a lot of people seem to really enjoy that ;)

2. It shoots RAW. RAW is essentially the digital “negative” file format. We shoot all our images in RAW because it allows us to retain the full quality file and make more creative adjustments without having the image look very processed. Some people only shoot in JPEG and thus this might not be important to them, but I feel that shooting in RAW has allowed us to become much stronger photographers, by expanding our creative possibilities.

3. It’s cheap! It’s pretty much the cheapest entry level DSRL you can get.

4. Of course there are all those other cool features, lots of megapixels, high ISO, takes HD video (even 1080!), and lots of shooting modes. But the best thing is that it has manual control over shutter speed, and aperture. Shooting manual has really helped us grow and progress as photographers- both in our understanding of how a camera works, and how light works.

The other thing you’ll notice is that the link to B&H is for the camera body only. I’ve chosen the following lense to be paired with the camera.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/12142-GREY/Canon_2514A002_Normal_EF_50mm_f_1_8.html

It’s a 50mm prime lens which honestly is a little bit longer than practical for this camera, but it’s a very cheap (decent quality) lense with a large aperture (f/1.8) which will allow for creative depth of field control. It’s also a fixed focal length which will force you to move around and work to create some interesting compositions (as opposed to just zooming in and out). This will be a great starter lens, but it might not be a bad idea to pick up the camera with a kit lens (typically an 18-55mm lense) which isn’t the highest quality lense but at least you’ll get an idea of what other focal lengths are like.

Wow this article was a lot longer than I expected. I hope it’s useful for all you gift givers out there. If people are interested I might research a point and shoot. Let me know in the comments. Also just to let you know we weren’t paid by Canon or B&H to write this article and we don’t get commissions or anything if you decide to get that camera and lense. I think it’s important for bloggers to disclose information like that so that you readers know I wasn’t making a biased decision to recommend one camera over another.

Cheers,

Rob

P.S. Great stocking stuffer: Lenspen. This little tool would improve so many facebook photos! So often it seems that the lense of point and shoot cameras gets dirty or smudged and thus blurry/glowing photos result. This pen has two ends, one which removes dust particles and another when you can use to remove smudges from the front lense element. This a a great way to easily clean your camera and improve the quality of your photos!

Want a holiday card from Rob & Lauren? (You can see how epic the previous ones were here). Fill out this handy form, or email us! Hooray!

Everyone seems to want to see photos of us. You guys are weird ;)

Here’s another from an e-session in Greece!

And make sure to email me your address if you want to get on our holiday card list! 

Lauren :)

So, Rob had this crazy idea the other day. He wanted to send holiday cards to all our blog readers. What a nut right? Well, we’re nuts, I guess, since we’re going to be sending holiday cards to everyone who wants one!

We try to have fun with our cards that we create. To be honest we have no clue what we’ll be doing this year, but it’s going to be really really hard to top last year….

(Sorry about the quality, I didn’t feel like sifting through dozens of hard drives to find the original files so we just scanned the cards themselves!)

Our epic card from last year:

 The year before….

 And one of our first thank you cards!

So, here’s the deal. If you want one of our cards this year just send me your mailing address. Contact me at lauren (at) robandlauren (dot) ca. The catch? I’m going to put your email on our newsletter list. We don’t have newsletters yet, but figure we should. I won’t spam you though. Promise.

Lauren :)

Since you guys asked so nicely :)

 It’s some cacti, in case you were trying to figure it out. This one took a looooong time to do :)

Lauren :)

Hey guys!

Well, our new film scanner finally arrived. For all those curious, it’s a Microtek M1 Pro. Rob has been going through all our 4x5 and polaroid film and scanning it in, exciting! Today I have some really sweet polaroids to share with you that we took in Greece!

(Apologies for the slightly crooked scans, we’re still learning :)

 Now, these next shots on are on a type of film called TZ Artistic. If you start mucking around with a pointy object on it, the emulsion will start to move, and you’ll be able to manipulate the way it looks. Very time consuming (each one takes almost an hour to do fully) but very cool results. 

 This is a super close up of the detail. Very very painterly!

 Hope you enjoyed those! We had a ton of fun taking them. They were all taken with an SX-70 Polaroid camera, 600 film with an ND filter, and TZ Artistic film. 

Lauren :)

P.S. Rob has been “secretly” blogging for a couple weeks now! He’s never really blogged on here, but has so much knowledge, and amazing photos to share! Today he posted a couple scans from our 4x5 camera. So now you’re going to have to go over to his blog (www.roblim.com) and check it out! Make sure to leave him some nice comments! 

 Just wanted to share a cute image that caught my eye today!

Lauren :)

Well, my friends, it took us a little while to decide but we’ve just booked our tickets. I read through all your suggestions a few times, but one destination kept grabbing my attention. It fit all our requirements, and just happened to be an area of the world that we’ve never been.

In January we are going to be heading to…

 PERU!! And no, the above photo is not of Peru, but rather sand dunes in India. Relevance? Peru also has sand dunes! And also I don’t have any photos of Peru…yet….

A big thanks to Sharon, Ashley, Andrea, and Allison for the selling us on Peru! If y’all wanna email me (lauren [at] robandlauren [dot] ca) I’ll be hooking you up with a little thank you present! If anyone has an advice re: Peru feel free to drop us a line or leave us a comment!

And once again, thanks everyone for all the great suggestions. We really hope we’ll be traveling a lot in the next few years, and I know I’m going to keep coming back to all those comments!

Lauren :)

This was our first practice session of ourselves while in Greece. I learned a lot of things that day. The most important was probably regarding the importance of hairspray when driving around in a quad…Needless to say I was totally hairsprayed to the max on the wedding day.

 Lauren :)

I’m not sure what it is about Punjabis, but they sure know how to party! Without fail, when I hear the dhol going, and the bhangra pumping, I just get so amped up. 

 If you haven’t yet listened to bhangra music, make sure to find yourself some! Punjabi MC is a good intro to it. It’s guaranteed to get you going on a Monday!

Lauren :)

I’ll definitely be sharing more from this session soon. Just wanted to throw this one up here! These guys were absolutely the cutest, and we had such a wonderful evening playing with them! 

People often talk about how they miss the seasons when they move to places like California and such. I never really got that, until I became a photographer. I couldn’t imagine missing out on the amazing fall colours we get here. 

 Lauren :)

We make mistakes all the time. Alllllll the time. It’s the nature of business, and not something I’m too worried about at all. I know I have a ton of mistakes in my future, and I’m totally cool with that. As long as I see them as opportunities for learning and growth, mistakes aren’t really that scary to me.

One really big mistake we made was while traveling India. We were way too shy, and neglected to really photograph the people there. It’s something we still talk about, and I know next time we make our way to India, things are going to be very different. I’m excited for that. And I’m glad I’ve been able to see what I did wrong last time, and can change it next time. Yay for mistakes!

It’s images like this that show us what a mistake we made. These types of shots are very few in our gallery from India. The people there are so incredible, vibrant, and full of life. I’m glad that even though we didn’t get enough, we got a few wonderful images like this one.

 Lauren :)

I’ll be honest. By the time the reception starts at a wedding I’m starting to get a bit tired. We’ve usually been going like crazy for many hours, and at an Indian wedding it’s probably up in the double digits by then. So when I’m trying to get my detail shots before things get going I’m not usually too happy about screaming children running around and messing up my work.

But that’s the absolute worst mindset to be in as a photographer, and something I’m really trying to stop myself from doing. Photography is about the place, the moment, the truth. Instead of trying to shape the situation to fit my needs (getting a simple shot of the head table) I should be just experiencing what’s really going on. That’s when I’ll get a shot that’s more than just a simple record of what something looked like, but is unique and interesting and has depth. Tells a story, is a slice of reality, and all sorts of fancy terms.

Needless to say, I almost didn’t take this shot. My first reaction was to be frustrated that this kid ran into my frame, and “ruined” my detail shot. What a silly way to see things. I think this frame is 100x more interesting than it would be without this little boy.

 Embrace the unexpected, and keep your eyes and your mind open.

Lauren :)

So I told you guys it would pay to comment! And the wonderful Kate just won herself a Rob & Lauren Travel print! Kate, I’ll be dropping you an email right away with details! Woo!!! And in case you’re curious, that was comment number 1600 for us. Pretty cool!

Here’s a hilarious photo for you today. Rob seems to have this strange desire to put himself right in my photos…he thinks it’s funny…I don’t always agree with that….;) We often get asked how we get such natural, happy expressions from our couples. I think the most important thing is that we are genuinely having fun and enjoying ourselves. Then the bride and groom just tend to do the same :) We also try not to take ourselves too seriously, and are fine just being goofy. Life is way too short to be serious.

 Happy Wednesday! And keep up the comments, who knows, I might throw in some other giveaways in there!

Lauren :)

People always ask us what we do during the winter. We don’t shoot any weddings or portraits, so I think they wonder if we just do nothing! That’s most certainly not the case :) We are really fortunate to have such a unique opportunity. Nearly 6 months of time to do whatever we want. And finally some time to work on some projects we have in mind. We were brainstorming for one of them this morning, and I’m really really excited. No details yet, but hopefully we’ll get it up and running in a couple months!

Until then, enjoy this image from Jaisalmer, India.

Often when I’m designing an album for one of our couples I’ll come across images that I missed when I was prepping their blog post. There are so many little gems hidden on our hard drives! That’s why I’m so excited about this “photo a day” thing. I can find frames like the one below that are just awesome, but get lost admist all the other shots. Enjoy! And happy Monday!

We had a chance to see Bishop recently, a few weeks after his newborn session, and I cannot believe how much he has changed! It’s just amazing to get to capture the way a little one looks, and to know that they will never look that way again.