artistic first dance photos

One part of the wedding day that I really love to photograph (actually I love it all, but for the sake of this blog post one part I really love) is the first dance and father/daughter, mother/son dance. Normally these are in the reception venue where the lights come down, creating a nice dark room. I love to think of dark places as a nice blank canvas ready to create whatever vision is in my mind.

Since I have a really diverse background in photography (photojournalism and fine art) I pull out lots of different tricks throughout the day to really capture the images in my mind that will show off the day in a artistic and unique way. We usually setup some lights around the dance floor to create some unique lighting for the dancing. This can give us so many different ways to shoot with every angle being a little bit different for lighting.

Here are a few examples of some things you can do for some creative first dance shots:

Read more on our wedding photography blog
or for photography tips and tricks check out our photography tips website

Photoshop tips and tricks

From a recent post on our digital photography site:
http://digitalphotobuzz.com

Keyboard shortcuts can really be such a huge time saver that after awhile you will have a shortcut for everything. In photoshop there are preset shortcuts and you can also create your own shortcuts. Here are some of the most common photoshop shortcuts:
General Shortcuts
Hand Tool –> Spacebar
Apply Last Filter –> Cmd-F
Switch between open documents –> Ctrl-Tab
Viewing
Fit on Screen –> Double-click on Hand tool or Cmd-0
Zoom in –> Cmd-Space-Click or Cmd-Plus(+)
Zoom out –>Option-Space-Click or Cmd-Minus(–)
Rotate through full screen modes –> F

To read the rest of the article go to our website: Digital Photography Tips

holiday portraits

VIew more holiday slideshows on our new blog:
Stagi Imagery holiday portraits
Looking for a fun new way to get your family photos out this year? Want to be environmental and also save on postage? Instead of sending out the traditional holiday cards why not send out a ecard with a video slideshow of your family images. Check out a few of our holiday themed slideshows below. Contact us to setup a lifestyle family portrait session or have a slideshow created from a past session or your wedding images. We still have availability for family portraits this year!

To view more of our themed slideshows click here: Additional Holiday Slideshows

Christmas lifestyle portrait slideshow from mark stagi on Vimeo.

one more wedding photography workshop

One more wedding photography workshop of the year! Check out our wedding photography workshop info below:

We have one last workshop of the year and still have some spots available.

Our wedding photogrpahy workshop on November 13th will be a full day of learning and fun so don’t miss out.

If you are looking to learn more about wedding photography or just want a fresh dose of inspirations our workshops are perfect for you! Workshops are the best way to ignite your passion and grow your mind!

For wedding photographers new to the business or seasoned wedding photographers looking for new inspiration, a full-day workshop incorporating instruction in digital cameras, shooting, lighting, Photoshop CS3, and post-production workflow.

Learn how to find your style and expand your creativity while unleashing the artist in you. We will cover some basics in using natural light in an artistic way and start to get a little more complicated with bringing in external lighting to your weddings.

We will show you how to turn the ordinary wedding scene into an amazing art piece.

From using creative compositions to

creative lighting and how you work with the bride and groom, we’ll show you how we turned our passion for the art of photography into a successful wedding studio. Its all about unleashing the artist in you and making your work shine!

Our last workshop of the year will be November 13th, 2009. For more information or to sign up go to our workshop page at:

http://www.workshopsfromtheheart.com

Sponsored by: Bay Photo Lab, Emotion Media, Albums Unlimited, FastTrack photographer

For more of our wedding photography visit Fine art wedding photography

shooting for the soul

shooting for the soul, some recent thoughts by Mark.

We exhibited some of our fine art work last evening at the La Dolce Via event at Club auto sport.  I got to exhibit some of my own personal Fine art from an Italian series I did awhile back.  I haven’t been doing a lot of my fine art work in the last few years since we have been so busy with weddings and custom portrait work.  This event was awesome and it really felt great to get out there and show some of my personal work.  A lot of my past personal art series I have printed up and stored away in boxes.   I really love a lot of this work and this got me thinking a lot about why its been so long since I have done any personal projects.  I have always loved to travel and really get inspired by telling stories and capturing the feel and the essence of a new place.  I love to travel to a new locations and just soak up the culture, the food and the drinks while creating memories along the way.  Travel has always had a special romance to me, even the craziness of a airport or train station has always been so interesting to me.

We met a lot of great people at the event last night who all loved my work, and it was so much fun to tell the stories behind each image.  At the end of the night it made me realize that as an artist doing personal work can be so important.  It can help you grow so much and that can feed right into your clients work.  One thing I realized after viewing all of these images that have been in boxes for awhile was that some of my favorite images were taken with my good old Holga camera that I have had for about 15 years.  I used to use it often at weddings but lately its been collecting dust.  A lot of the work from this Italian series that I love are shot with the holga and printed  either in a sepia tone or black and white with acrylic oils over them.  It gives the work such a nostalgic, romantic feel to it and also matches the feel that I love to create for weddings.  This evening made me bring the holga out of retirement and dust it off again for some new use.  Im going to break out that T-Max film from the freezer and start popping some rolls off at weddings again and can’t wait!!!  I’ll definitely be posting some images on the blog so look out for some new artistic stuff.  And for all you photographers out there remember to take a little time and shoot for your soul, it will re-energize you and get you focused on your passion!

– Mark

Digital Photography Tips

Photography tips and tricks

Thanks to everyone who has checked out our Digital photography tips & tricks website so far at http://www.digitalphotobuzz.com. I have been amazed with the great response so far and am excited to have a lot of new articles, reviews and photoshop tips coming to the website this week. So check it out and leave us a comment :)

Digital Photography Buzz

photography tips

New photography tips website launched!!!

As most of you who know me or read my blog often know that I have a huge passion for photography and teaching. I love to share my passion of photography with everyone and can talk most peoples ear’s off when it comes to the art of photography. I love teaching the workshops that we offer but those are normally only a few times a year. During the rest of the year I always have some great tips and ideas that I sometimes share on this blog but have so much more to share. I have decided to create a brand new website that will be for photographers and photo enthusiasts. This new website will include shooting tips, lighting information, critiques and discussions, product reviews, workflow solutions and much much more. I am excited to be able to share all of the behind the scenes information hat goes into creating our artwork and share even more my passion for photography with the world. I hope for this to be a site where people can learn, be inspired and join in conversations about photography and art and look forward to forming a new community of photographers.

The website will be updated with 2-3 brand new articles every week so check back often or enter your email in the box at the top right to be emailed all of our new articles. The website address is: http://www.digitalphotobuzz.com

I am excited to be able to give back to the photography community which has been so good to me. When I started my photography path back in High School I never would have imagined where it would lead me. It has been an amazing journey so far and I am excited to keep growing and moving forward with my art.

Hope to see you all there!

– Mark
Digital Photography reviews and tips

Villa Montalvo Wedding Photography

Villa Montalvo Wedding Photography

September 17, 2009 – 9:26 am

We shot such a great wedding day at Villa Montalvo awhile back, it was a fun day with a great couple and think I am going to have to break the blog down into 2 posts since there are so many photos I want to include. Normally I try to post under 10 images of a wedding to keep the blog short and sweet and so it loads quick. This wedding started off at Villa Montalvo in Saratoga and then we stopped over at Hakone Gardens on our way to the St. Claire hotel in San Jose. Along the way we captured some great shot of the bride and groom and their families. I think i’ll seperate the blog into morning at Villa Montalvo and the the evening at the St. Claire Hotel.

So, here is a little glimpse into the morning of this beautiful wedding at Villa Montalvo.

wedding rings

bride getting ready at villa montalvo

see more images on our full blog at:
http://wedclix.com/blog/villa-montalvo-wedding-photography
Villa Montalvo Wedding Photos

Wedding photography workshops

We just finished our fall schedule for our workshops and also have a brand new website! There are going to be 3 more workshops this year, 2 of our wedding workshops and a new 1/2 day marketing workshop. Click here to check our more information about our wedding photography workshops.

Our new wedding workshop is going to be a blast, I am looking forward to sharing some brand new information with everyone. Here is a little info about our wedding workshop:

Our old weddings from A to Z is going to change a little bit and have more of an emphasis on finding your style, expanding your creativity and unleashing the artist in you. We will cover some basics in using natural light in an artistic way and start to get a little more complicated with bringing in external lighting to your weddings.

We will show you how to turn the ordinary wedding scene into an amazing art piece. From using creative compositions to creative lighting and how you work with the bride and groom, we’ll show you how we turned our passion for the art of photography into a successful wedding studio. Its all about unleashing the artist in you and making your work shine!

To sign up for a workshop go to our site: Wedding photography workshops

San Jose family portraits

One of our family lifestyle portraits this summer was for the Hao family. What an adorable daughter they have, she was pretty shy with the camera but super cute! Here are a few of the shots from the session, we shot these out at Vasona Park in Los Gatos. To see more of our Lifestyle photography check out our website: San Jose Family Portraits

Vasona park family portrait

[caption id="attachment_1583" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Vasona park family portrait"]
View more San Jose family portraits on our website

Half moon bay golf links wedding

Half moon bay golf links wedding, photography by Stagi Imagery

Here is part 2 from our wedding at the Half Moon Bay Golf Links a few weeks back.  David and Wynn were such a fun couple to work with and Wynn had the best smile all day long.  Every time I had David do anything (even just looking over at her) she had a huge smile from ear to ear.  It was a great day and I was so happy to be a part of it!  The Half Moon Bay Golf Links is also such a beautiful location to get married at, its right next door to the Ritz Carleton Half moon bay and is really a ideal setting for a wedding.  You have the awesome cliffs on the ocean, the Ritz (which always reminds me of being in Scotland with the look of the  hotel along with the normal fog of Half Moon Bay), and the beach all within a quick golf cart ride.  We got to spend a good amount of time with the bride and bridal party on the day which worked out great for photos.

Half moon bay golf links

[caption id="attachment_1559" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Half moon bay Ritz Carleton"][/caption]

Half moon bay golf links wedding

[caption id="attachment_1561" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Half moon bay golf links"][/caption]

at the Ritz Carleton half moon bay

[caption id="attachment_1563" align="aligncenter" width="900" caption="Ritz Carleton half moon bay"][/caption]

half moon bay golf links

For more wedding photography visit our website at http://www.wedclix.com/div>