Virginia Wedding Photographers | Williamsburg | Hampton | Virginia Beach » portrait

Hampton Roads Film Photographers | Michael and Carina Photography | Portraits of an Artist

michaelandcarina — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 14:49:40 +0000

When I first got into photography, (this is Mike talking here), I loved finding and connecting with other young photographers on image sharing platforms such as Flickr and 500px.

Right around 2009 is also when I noticed what seemed to be a new trend in photography, (at least I think it was new)… a movement of young artists who solely for the sake of fun and expression were creating an entirely original look of what I would call surrealist photography. Much of it focused on self-portraiture.

Artists such as Brooke Shaden and Joel Robinson weren’t just capturing the world around them, they were creating new worlds with their photography.

Even though my photography journey took me down another path, I still love admiring the worlds these artists create.

I was absolutely thrilled to learn that one of those artists lives right here in Yorktown, less than 5 minutes away!

Carol of Carol Persons Photography has a passion for for what she does.

She creates art with photography.

Her photography is influenced by both surrealism and fashion photography, but she is always thinking up new and interesting ways to be original.

She arrived at a beach on the York River at 6:30 in the morning to meet me.

As a personal exercise on an overcast day, I decided to shoot mainly film.

Shooting slower with film allowed for her to practice her passion.

She set up her camera on a tripod and using a remote shutter release and a timer took self-portrait after self-portrait.

I couldn’t help but admire that…

There I sat, next to my Pelican case filled with gear, two cameras in hand…

And watched her with one camera, one lens, one tripod, and one remote trigger, creating art.

That was really inspirational.

She inspired me to get back even more to the basics of what it is I love about photography, which can even be translated into wedding photography…

And that’s not snapping away… but looking for that one special image…

One that really captures your imagination.

Here’s one of Carol’s self-portraits taken in Yorktown, mixed with a little bit of Photoshop wizardry..

Thanks for inviting me to capture these portraits of you, Carol!

film: fuji400h // contax 645 // developed by Richard Photo Lab

Mentoring Session | Brittany Marie | Virginia Wedding Photographers | Michael and Carina Photography

michaelandcarina — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 23:48:33 +0000

Brittany Marie is a beautiful girl inside and out, a talented photographer from Northern Virginia and officially part of our 2013 mentoring-session-family!
There is so much more to mentoring sessions than talking about technical specs and branding. What it is all about is encouragement and inspiration. Brittany has big dreams and lots of personality, we just had a blast talking about her goals!
Finding “your style” and what makes “your brand” is one of the hardest puzzles for photographers – especially in a saturated industry. But when you realize that what makes your photography unique is YOU, good things just start happening!
You don’t need to emulate anybody else or any other style. And it is not all about equipment either. Brittany is so talented, natural and simply loveable, we have no doubt she will go very far! We can already see a big change! She took amazing photographs at our session and dared to step outside of the box!
We also shot with a fantastic model couple (hello, how much better does it get? a beautiful girl and a BOW TIE!) at around sunset. Different backgrounds, different lighting situations, different poses…we had it all. This hands-on exercise gave us the chance to demonstrate and experiment, without the pressure of a “real” engagement session!
Afterwards we went to a little bistro in the heart of Colonial Williamsburg, slurping smoothies and talking goals for the next year.
This is not the end of our session, this is the beginning of an inspired year and a lasting friendship.

Check out Brittany’s fantastic shots as well as her review of her experience here!

Part I

Part II

xoxo, Carina (and Mike)

This is Part I of our mentoring session with Brittany. Part II (all film) will follow tomorrow!

Hampton Roads Photographers | Michael and Carina Photography | Cherie’s Family on Film

michaelandcarina — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 05:36:45 +0000

A couple of weeks ago we received the sweetest inquiry based on a referral. We usually pass on family sessions to our friends, but this one was different.

Cherie, a fellow photographer, a mother, a fashion-lover, a soldier, and a New Yorker, had fallen in love with our work.

Together with her partner David, they have a little boy.

David’s a sailor too. But unlike Cherie, he’s stationed in Florida. They don’t see each other that often… something we are all too familiar with.

How could we say no?

This couple: beautiful.

This family: gorgeous.

We could tell that they knew how to treasure the moments they had together.

These were taken in Newport News, Virginia, not far from Cherie’s Hampton home. It was an honor to be able to preserve some of those precious moments on film, which Richard Photo Lab turned over in record time.

David and Cherie…… we fell in love with your family.

film: fuji400h / developed by Richard Photo Lab

Virginia Wedding Photographers | Hampton Roads Wedding Photographers | Williamsburg Wedding Photographers

Virginia Wedding Photographers | Q + A Thursday | What lens do you recommend for portraits?

michaelandcarina — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 18:44:48 +0000

Q & A ~~Tuesday~~ Thursday
Garrison: What lenses do you normally use and or recommend for people/portrait shooting?

We are in LOVE with primes.

All of our lenses are prime lenses. A prime lens means that it is a fixed focal length, or “not a zoom.” You can still zoom with them, you just have to use your feet.

Zoom lenses aren’t bad. They can be extremely useful, especially for their versatility, and Canon for example makes some tack sharp zoom lenses such as the 70-200mm 2.8 L IS II lens, a “a must have lens” of most wedding photographers.

What’s so great about primes then?

Primes can have huge apertures, meaning they can basically suck in light in situations where zoom lenses would struggle.

This also means you can achieve a super-dreamy depth-of-field effect by shooting “wide open,” with an aperture of f1.2-f2. You just have to really know what you’re doing to make sure that your images are in focus – with some lenses, such as the Canon 85mm 1.2, shooting wide open leaves you with a field of focus as shallow as the length of an eyelash!

Also, even cheap primes can be tack sharp if you find the right f-stop or “spot” with a bit of practice.

Finally, prime lenses are lightweight and comfortable… which can make a difference when you’re shooting a 10-12 hour wedding. That Canon 70-200 I mentioned earlier… it can quickly give you a backache!

To get back to your question, what lenses do we recommend for portraits?

There are a lot of nice portrait lenses that are out there; choosing one should be based on how it flows with your shooting style.

The 85mm 1.2 is an all-around epic lens but carries an epic price tag. Still, we’ve used it before and it was made for portrait photographers. It is, however, a little slow to focus. But for portrait photography, you can take more time with shooting than you might need, say, in the spur of a moment at a wedding.

The 135mm L f2 lens is one of our favorites and it’s a great portrait lens. Sharp, great in low light, and great for candids because you can stand off in a corner, using it’s extended, zoom-like focal length to get up close to subjects.

The 35mm L f1.4 lens is great for environmental portraiture, that is, portraits where you want to include some of the environment. It is a bit contrasty though and because it’s a wider focal length, it tends to distort if you get too close.

Our favorites though… hmmm…

Probably a toss-up between Canon’s 50mm f1.2 L lens for Canon dSLRs and the Zeiss 80mm f2 (I’m not linking to it because it’s hard to find by itself) lens for the Contax 645.

Both have a similar focal length, as the 80mm on a medium, 645 format camera equals roughly 50mm on a standard 35mm-format dSLR.

The 50mm 1.2 is just so versatile. It’s definitely our everyday lens. With an aperture of f1.2 we can shoot in just about any kind of light. We can also achieve that dreamy depth of field that we love so much in all of our photographs. It is also extremely sharp. I mean, make-sure-you-keep-your-Band-Aids-handy sharp. It’s what stays on our digital cameras most of the time. It gets a great, shallow depth of field but you can also back away a bit and get a nice, environmental portrait using elements of your surroundings.

It has some distortion, (distortion disappears around the 85mm focal length), but not much. Since it mimics the viewpoint of the human eye, we find it also creates a feeling of intimacy whereas longer lenses tend to add a more formal atmosphere to photographs. Granted, it can get a little close-up sometimes in small rooms, but with a little creative composition, we feel getting close-up just creates more sense of connection in photographs. A photographer once said, “If you feel like you’re too close, get closer.”

For our film work, our ultimate favorite is the 80mm Zeiss Planar T* lens. It’s just… hard to describe. It’s sharp, but the depth of field on medium format is just something else.

I hope this helps! Please note I wrote this from the perspective of a Canon full-frame/Contax shooter. If you want to buy any of these lenses for a “cropped sensor” camera (Canon 7D, Canon Rebels, etc.), just remember the multiplication factor!

And while all of the lenses I’ve mentioned are somewhat pricey, there are plenty of cost-effective alternatives! The 50mm 1.4 for example is a fantastic lens for photography on a budget… just don’t bump into anything with it
Enjoy these samples!

Zeiss 80mm f2

Zeiss 80mm f2

50mm f1.2

50mm f1.2

50mm f1.2, no editing (straight out of camera)

Zeiss 80mm f2, no edits, straight scans

Zeiss 80mm f2

Zeiss 80mm f2

Zeiss 80mm f2

film: fuji400h / developed by Richard Photo Lab

Virginia Wedding Photographers | Hampton Roads Wedding Photographers | Williamsburg Wedding Photographers

Virginia Film Photographers | Contax 645 Film | Michael and Carina Photography

michaelandcarina — Thu, 26 Sep 2013 21:00:32 +0000

Geena and Ashley met us in Newport News Park for a film session.

This time of year there is such beautiful light and such atmosphere in the Hampton Roads area, just perfect for photography.

In the middle of a lot of engagements, and weddings, it was a fun, creative experience to photograph two best friends in this mini portrait session.

Fuji400h. Portra 160. Contax 645s and 80mm Zeiss lenses.

Two beautiful ladies.

Could it get any better?

Hampton Roads Virginia Maternity Photographers | Michael and Carina Photography

michaelandcarina — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 06:08:32 +0000

Heather and Brandon are about to welcome a new addition to the family… and decided to celebrate with a photoshoot in rural Gloucester County, Virginia!

We wanted to wait until we got their film scans back to share these with you…

But… *sigh*

We couldn’t.

These are just too gorgeous!! Just can’t keep them to ourselves any longer!

Enjoy! <3

Richmond Wedding Photographers | Virginia Wedding Photographers | Williamsburg Wedding Photographers

(these links return you to our homepage!)

Williamsburg Engagement Session | Amber and Dustin | Virginia Wedding Photographers | Michael and Carina Photography

michaelandcarina — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 13:56:22 +0000

Amber and Dustin have been inseparable for the past three years. This November, they will finally tie the knot. They can hardly wait to start their new life together.
Dustin just knows how to make Amber happy; she could hardly stop smiling during our session. They are perfect for each other!

We photographed their engagement session in Colonial Williamsburg, one of our favorite places around. Amber and Dustin made a whole date-day out of it, which we think is a great idea! (wink wink to all our future couples haha)
The rustic feel ties right in with their vision for their big day. And what time of the day could be better to shoot in than golden hour?

After seeing how amazing you guys are in front of the camera, we can hardly wait for your wedding! Amber, you will make a stunning bride!!!

Richmond Wedding Photographers | Virginia Wedding Photographers | Williamsburg Wedding Photographers

(these links return you to our homepage!)

Richmond Virginia Photographers | Film Photo Shootout | Michael and Carina Photography

michaelandcarina — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 18:08:28 +0000

A few weeks ago we joined up with another photographer who invited us to a film shootout in Richmond.

Marek K was nice enough to organize everything for us. Thanks Marek!

Rules were simple – no digital cameras allowed!

We met up at a beautiful park in the middle of Richmond and were lucky enough, despite rain warnings, to have relatively mild June heat and beautiful evening sunlight.

Now one of the drawbacks of the Contax 645 is that it is a battery-eater. It consumes roughly one $10 2cr5 battery per 7 rolls of film (roughly one photoshoot), and that’s WITHOUT using autofocus (we always focus manually). Yea… it kind of stays hungry…

We tried out a rechargeable battery for this shoot, hoping to save money… meh… did not work out so well.

Our cameras were acting totally strange, so we dug around the bottom of a bag and found a used battery which we had almost thrown away from the shoot before.

We were worried the photos would not turn out well…

Luckily, it worked fine…

Annika and Kelsey were the gorgeous models who took the time to come pose out and for us…

We shot on a mix of Portra 400 and Fuji400h …

These are, in keeping with the spirit of the shoot, uncorrected & unedited, and developed by Indie Film Lab.

Personal | New Haircut

michaelandcarina — Sat, 13 Jul 2013 20:37:04 +0000

Okay, let’s girl this blog up a bit!

I’ve been aching to get my hair cut for quite a while now. After all, my last hair cut was more than a year ago!!!
I had grown so sick of my super-long locks; I hardly ever wore them open anyways. I just couldn’t think of any cool things to do with them.
So I wore them in a bun and a ponytail. That’s about it How boring…

Definitely time for a change! After putting together pages of inspiration photos (I know…I figured my hairstylist would end up hating me…), I finally got a makeover!!!
I am super excited about it, Lauren from Shear Style Salon in Yorktown did such an amazing job!!! Even better than what I had hoped for!!!
So I will spend tonight going through my hair and trying out new hair styles in front of the mirror Something I very rarely did the past year…

PS: PLUS, I am thrilled that my hair won’t accidentally dangle in front of the camera lens at weddings or photo shoots anymore, haha!

Yorktown Wedding Photographers | Hampton Roads Wedding Photographers | Williamsburg Wedding Photographers

(these links return you to our homepage!)

Portraits of Christopher | Yorktown Virginia Photographers | Michael and Carina Photography

michaelandcarina — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 07:37:45 +0000

Portraits of a good friend & brother.

He’s been through a lot.

His whole life he’s been moving from place to place.

His whole life he’s been following others…

Going through a lot right now…

He’s slowly finding his own way…

And he’ll get there.

fuji 400h, developed and scanned by Indie Film Lab.