Engagement Session – Eric and Sophie

Engagement Photography - Eric and Sophie by Edward Mendes

Eric and Sophie will be getting married this spring and stopped by for their engagement session a few days ago.  We headed out to one of my favorite local outdoor spots for the session and were greeted by some great light!  I’ve known Eric for a while, he’s one of my brother-in-laws best friends, so getting to hang out and create the images was a lot of fun.  It’s important to feel comfortable with a couple when creating images as it really opens up the session to fun and creative images!

Eric and Sophie were great, cool to hang out with and we even had a chance to work in some guitar images as Eric is a rocker!

Want to see more images from the session?  Check out my Facebook pages, www.facebook.com/edwardmendes (Personal Page) or www.facebook.com/edwardmendesphotography (Business Page)

2012 Senior Erica Orellana – Riverbank High

Erica is a senior at Riverbank high, one of the local high schools in my area, and stopped by for her senior portraits last week.  Erica was great to work with, she’s super cool, relaxed and a lot of fun and I think that shows in the images.  In addition Erica is an amazing athlete as she plays soccer and runs both cross country and track.  We were able to create some beautiful images in both the studio and during our outdoor session (check out the amazing light).

Want to see more images from the session?  Check out my Facebook pages, www.facebook.com/edwardmendes (Personal Page) or www.facebook.com/edwardmendesphotography (Business Page)

2012 Senior Ashlyn Caporgno – Beyer High

Modesto Senior Portraits - Ashlyn Beyer High School

I had a chance to hang out with Ashlyn recently, a senior from Beyer High in nearby Modesto, CA.  We had a great time creating some awesome images and man did we have some AMAZING light!  I want all my outdoor sessions to have the best quality of light possible so I only schedule one a day and this is why.  Light like this can’t be beat.

Want to see more images from the session?  Check out my Facebook pages, www.facebook.com/edwardmendes (Personal Page) or www.facebook.com/edwardmendesphotography (Business Page)

2012 Senior Lenicia (Leni) Lopez – Enoch High

Leni came on by the studio to update her senior pictures, she’s one of my senior models for 2012 and her original session was a few months ago.  We started in the studio before heading over to Stanislaus State for the outdoor portion of the session.  Leni is always awesome to work with and to top it off she brought her VW Bug for a few images.  I use to love Transformers as a kid so the yellow bug was very cool, the original Bumblebee.

Want to see more images from the session?  Check out my facebook pages, www.facebook.com/edwardmendes (Personal Page) or www.facebook.com/edwardmendesphotography (Business Page)

2012 Senior Laticia Joven – Enoch High

I had the pleasure taking Laticia’s senior pictures a few days ago, she and her sister Leni (one of my 2012 senior models) stopped by and we hung out for a while creating some awesome images.  Laticia runs cross country and track for Enoch so we did some sporty pics in the studio before heading out for the outdoor portion of the day.  Laticia’s easy to work with and we had a lot of fun.

Want to see more images from the session?  Check out my facebook pages, www.facebook.com/edwardmendes (Personal Page) or www.facebook.com/edwardmendesphotography (Business Page)

2012 Senior Dalena Anourack – Johansen High

Dalena stopped by the studio a few days ago for her senior pics, she was a lot of fun to hangout with and we made a ton of killer images.  Her boyfriend also joined us for a couple of pictures, he shipped out to the Army on Monday, he’s a good guy and I wish him a lot of luck!

Want to see more images from the session?  Check out my facebook pages, www.facebook.com/edwardmendes (Personal Page) or www.facebook.com/edwardmendesphotography (Business Page)

2012 Senior Morgan Mitchell – Johansen High School

Morgan is a senior at Johansen High School here in Modesto and stopped by for her senior portrait session a few days ago.  Morgan’s pretty awesome, super cool, easy to work with and totally photogenic, which makes my job a lot easier.  We started with some studio images before heading to one of my favorite local spots for the outdoor pics.  Morgan also cheers but unfortunately we didn’t get to do anything with that, bummer because I had some great ideas, but we got some killer images.

Want to see more images from the session?  Check out my facebook pages, www.facebook.com/edwardmendes (Personal Page) or www.facebook.com/edwardmendesphotography (Business Page)

Adam and Maria Baltzer – Modesto Wedding (Vintage Gardens)

I had the pleasure of photographing Adam and Maria’s wedding back in October (hey, I mentioned in the last post I was behind).  It was a great even, the ceremony was at the beautiful Vintage Gardens while we moved over to Seasons for the reception, both are awesome places for a wedding in the Modesto area.

We were lucky and received some nice overcast skies for much of the day which allowed us to work with the guys before the wedding.  By the time the ceremony started the sun came out and gave us perfect light for the formals.

Everyone was wonderful, Adam, Maria, their friends and family all were great and made us fill right and home.  Sarah and I really enjoyed ourselves and I think it shows in the images.

I’m back!

It’s been a while since my last post on this blog, August I think.  I’ve been busy with a lot of project and just life in general.

A new blog on Landscape Photography

During the last few months I’ve started a new blog specifically for my landscape work, www.edwardmendesphotography/blog.  This is where you’ll find my new releases, workshop recaps and general thoughts on landscape photography and photography as an art form.

Manfrotto’s School of Xcellence

I am also writing for Manfrotto’s School of Xcellence blog where I’ll be contributing a monthly column through January 2011.  If you’re not familiar with the site I encourage you to check it out.  Manfrotto has done a wonderful job of gathering some of the best photographers in the industry to share their knowledge and experience and I’m thrilled to be part of it.  My first two articles (March and April) are online!   If you’d like to give them a read here they are, March / April.  If you like them please tell a few others about them.  If you don’t like them, well let just keep that to ourselves

A change of direction

With the launch of my blog devoted to landscape photography a few months ago I’ve decided to dedicate this blog to my portraits, weddings and editorial style commercial work.  The hope is to feature every session and wedding here shortly after I shoot them.  It may be a bit ambitious but I’ll give it a try.

The Importance of Making Prints

We’re very lucky.  As photographers, photography collectors or lovers of photography in general we have the opportunity to experience the history of the medium whenever we walk into a museum or gallery.  Right there, hanging on the walls before us are the images of the medium’s masters, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Paul Strand, Imogen Cunningham, Alfred Stieglitz…well, I could fill this entire article with names of brilliant photographers but I’m sure you get the point.

Even though these great men and women are no longer living we continue to be influenced by the images they created because their beautifully printed images or the film they were made from still survives. It’s this great archive that allows us the opportunity to continue to enjoy and learn from some of photography’s greatest artists.

I wonder if this is something that will be lost to future generations of photographers and those that enjoy photography?  The ability to interact with and physically appreciate the art of photographers working today.  Without the physical recording of an image onto film and the subsequent necessity to make prints from that film in order for anyone to see your work many images live only in a virtual world, either online or on a hard drive.

While places like Flickr and Facebook have provided photographers with a way to get their images in front of more eyes than ever before they don’t provide a safe and secure place for them to be stored and viewed indefinitely into the future.

Regardless of how you store your digital files they are never truly safe.  Magnetic devices with moving parts such as hard drives will eventually fail.  Recordable media like CD’s, DVD’s and Blu-Rays are exceptionally fragile, one scratch and they may become unreadable.  In addition they are seldom considered archival and are always at the mercy of the ever continuing tide of technology.  Images backed up on DVDs today may not even be readable 15 or 20 years from now if DVD drives aren’t available to access them.  This forces image makers to continually make new archives of their entire library of images whenever a new technology decides its going to stick around for a while.  Certainly there will be photographers that do this and keep their images safe but how many?

At the same time isn’t there something about a tangible print that creates a deeper connection to an image?  Think about it, whenever you see something you like or a piece of history or something well-known, what do you want to do?  Touch it!  That’s why we’re surrounded by signs reminding us not to do so.  There’s something about humanity that deepens an emotional bond when we’re able to make a physical connection with something.  I fear that without the necessity to make prints that emotional bond between viewer and print may one day be lost.  In the end photography may come full circle, with the technology that is at the foundation of the mediums boom in popularity also being responsible for its eventual fall from emotional importance.