Doug Bell - Photographer

An evening with Strobist

This past Wednesday I had the privilege of myself and a few other photographers to hang out for a few hours with David Hobby, otherwise known as the king of off-camera flash and the operator of Strobist.com.  We spent the evening discussing how he does what he does as it relates to professional photography, and most of the other photographers there were wedding and portrait photographers like me.  The get-together was part of the series called Photo Nights for Charity, put on by the Love Life Images studio to raise money for the Maryland Food Bank.

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Evening with Jeremiah

Today after work I took some time off from my photo work and spent the evening playing with Jeremiah.  Of course, I also thought to have the camera nearby.  He spent some time playing with the neighborhood kids.

Then we went to the local playground behind our house..

And then we were done.

Did I mention I was also playing with an awesome new lens?

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One-man firing squad

Someone asked me the other day why I would want to strike out on my own and not continue doing all my work for the local wedding photography company. Don’t get me wrong - I like working with everyone there, they do good work, and they helped me even find myself in this field in the first place. Plus the stream of income I can’t argue with. But the style is something I have just started to grow apart from.

I have become so inspired by work I’ve seen online from Still Motion Studios, The Wiebners, and Melissa Jill, that I just can’t stay forever in the world of line-em-up formals.

The format of ceremony from the back of the room, formals and lots of candids seem less to me like art and more like business. Obviously enough people like that style that they do very well, but it I feel like it’s almost execution style - Line them up and shoot ‘em down. I’ll still do work for them, I’m just trying to find my own direction in this great big pond.

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A new endeavor

Funny thing, coincidences.  Late last year at my day job a new guy was hired to do creative services - graphics, video production, etc.  Doing what I do, I was in cahoots with him for projects almost immediately.  This spring he asked me if I was interested in doing some pictures for the local midget football association.  I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I told him I’d consider it.  Fast forward a few months, and I told him I’d at least try it out with some test shots at a training camp.  (Keep in mind, I’ve never really shot sports before, unless you count all the fire action shots)  Check out a few.

Needless to say, they were quite happy with the outcome.  I’m now going to be photographing action shots for a number of games this season for their entire association.  I’m also going to be handling all the online sales for the images through my online gallery.  The neat thing about all of this is that it can make for a great boost for my business overall since people can look around and see all the other work I do and pique their interest.

One other thing - this significantly boosts the respect I have for the guys that do this day in and day out.  It’s HARD to get a decent volume of really good images.

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Canvas Prints!

So I am happy to announce that I am now able to sell canvas prints by Simply Canvas!  They are gorgeous prints of pretty much any picture done on fine art canvas and wrapped around a stretcher frame.  I don’t have any images of them yet, but please go to the blog of Nate Kaiser to see some of what he has!

As a promotion, I am running a special of 30% off for all prints done from now until the end of July!

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Pictures in the park

So last week I met up with our friends Malcolm and Jen to hang out and get some pictures of their kids. The last time I got with them to take pictures the kids weren’t entirely happy to stand and pose for pictures, so we decided to just let them loose in a park and see what good pictures I could get of them in that setting.There was some general playing with the swings and the monkey bars, but as soon as they found the merry-go-round, it was all over. Jen was pushing them as hard as she could but they still wanted more.

I managed to grab a couple nice pictures of the kids for the times that they slowed down.

They wore out Malcom pushing.

Jeremiah happened to be along and wanted to ride too…

Everyone had lots of fun and I got some great pictures. A successful day.

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New Logo

For quite a while now I have been thinking that I needed something to visually identify myself - a logo, an image, something.  This week I had a friend help me out and we came up with something that I like.  So, expect to see this logo integrated into all of my sites as I do all my updates.

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Katie and Blaise Wedding

So last weekend the whole family flew out to St. Louis for my Lyndsey’s cousin Katie to get married.  Last summer Lyndsey’s aunt and uncle were in the area and I convinced them to let me shoot Katie’s wedding.  That time finally came around and it was awesome.  That goodness I didn’t need waders for high water!  The Mississippi was extremely high, but it didn’t affect where the ceremony took place.

Their ceremony was at a gorgeous location called the Grand Basin in Forest Park, a huge park almost in the middle of St. Louis.  I was told it is even bigger than Central Park in New York City.

While getting her hair done, Katie couldn’t resist text messaging Blaise on her friend’s cell phone.

Their son Emery stole a lot of attention throughout the day, but he was such a trooper.

There wasn’t a ton of time after the ceremony, but I got some great shots of the two of them alone.

The reception was a blast.  During the Father-Daughter dance all of the daughters tried to dip their dad at once.   He wasn’t so sure about that..

Blaise hand-made the cake topper with a sculpture of the whole (new) family.

When in Rome, do as the Romans.  When at a winery for the reception, shoot pictures with wine casks?  Sure!

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Andy and Michele portraits

In order to stimulate some creative juices and to do some friends a favor, I dropped by Andy and Michele’s house a few weeks ago to do some pictures around their house, which is a little out of the way. (and happens to have a neighbor with a huge pond)

They have a dog named Lucy who loves being in pictures.

Mmm.. Tree lighting texture is yummy.

Did I mention a really big pond?

My personal favorite for this set.

Thanks guys for letting me come and play!

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Sioux Drive Fire

Made it to a house fire in my own township tonight.  Managed to get some good pictures.  I helped out a little - flaking out hose and relaying messages while moving and shooting.  One of the pictures I’m probably going to make into a large canvas print, I can’t wait to see what that looks like.Here is the entire image gallery.

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