Finally Finished... Editing That Is...

So I've finally finished editing the YBP event. It took nearly three weeks, but I am very pleased with the images. These are photographs from the Safari Excursion. Now that all my editing is done I need to work on getting my website setup to accept orders. I'm getting close to having that complete so I need to run some numbers for pricing purposes and beginning burning DVDs. Things are coming together nicely for Donnell Crear Photography. I wish I had more time in a day to work on this startup. Its coming along nicely, but me being me I always want it to move faster.

Watermarkage...

Have I mentioned that I had a logo designed? Really, not even one blog post? I'm slipping on updating everyone on my endeavors. Way too much is going on right now in my life. Well anyways I did get a logo professionally designed by my good friend Amanda Eng. She did an amazing job, I'm totally pleased. And the process was extremely fun as it gave us an excuse to talk, which we don't really even need. The logo itself is actually inspired by my initials. I think it is really cool and will stand the test of time. I can't wait to update my site and business cards with it. Well with this YBP trip I took I thought it would be a good test run for it, so I decided to watermark some of the pictures. I'm actually fairly pleased with the turnout even with my watermark in them.

PS: This also knocks off one of my photographer goals for the year. I'm actually doing pretty well so fair...

YBP: White Party Cruise

So I've been somewhat MIA from the blog scene lately. Its not because I haven't been shooting though. It actually might be because I've been shooting too much. I recently had the honor of being the unofficial official photographer for the Young Black Professionals land cruise vacation. It was an awesome experience. I got to meet some of the coolest people I've ever met from all over the country. And on top of that I was allowed to follow them around and photograph the festivities. It was by far the largest event I've ever shot/documented as it stretched portions of 5 days. I ended up taking over 2100 pictures and filling up 36 GB of memory cards over the week, but it was all worth it to catch the special moments. A few people who've seen the proofs had commented that the pictures are beautiful, but I can't take all the credit. When you start with beautiful subject matter it makes my job easy. I'd like to personally extend a thank you to all the parents of the ladies who attended for giving them those good look genes lol. I don't believe I mentioned the disproportionate ratio of female to males? 70% of the the ~115 in attendance were female. Lawd have mercy, that's 2.3 woman per man. Since you can't have a fraction of a woman (at least as far as I know) you have to round up to 3. Throw in an expensive camera with a charming photographer and I have to inflate my personal number to 5 lol. Real talk next year I'm going with a shirt that says "Kiss the Photographer". I'm just joking (about everything except the shirt), but it was a blast. I hope you enjoy a few of the selected pics. I will have to do several blog posts to give a feel of the week. I'll be editing for a few weeks to try to get these turned around in a timely fashion

Also I'd like to give a shout out to Saundra Q. for organizing everything. You did a tremendous job with everything and I can tell you will do some special things in this world before its all said and done.

Publish Post

Jaqueta Photoshoot | Cincinnati, OH

So I had the distinguished privilege of doing a portrait session for my beautiful friend, Jaqueta, while I was in Cincinnati for work. I've known Jaqueta since 7th grade and even had the honor of taking her to our senior homecoming. Wow that feels like an eternity ago, but still good times. I don't know how much longer I can deny that I'm getting old. My hairline hasn't started receding and it is still a rich black so I'm going to keep denying my advancing age.

The shoot itself went incredibly well. Jaqueta came ready to pose and made it so easy for me. All I had to worry about was the exposure, lighting, and slight improvements in her already excellent poses. The shoot went so smoothly it was over before we knew it. I'm very happy with the results. I had a wonderful time catching up with an old friend and ended up with some great work for my portfolio. All in all not a bad Saturday afternoon.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

So this past weekend I had the dubious honor of participating in my first photo scavenger hunt. Basically it is a game where you are given a list of 100 places or things to do and capture with a photograph. You get more points for creativity and involving total strangers. An example of a challenge from the photograph above was to fit the entire team in a shopping cart (unfortunately you can't see the shopping cart because the idiot stranger who took the pic chose to not include it. Why else would we ask for a picture as we all stand in a shopping cart other than to show we are in a shopping cart!) Let me tell you the remainder of the hunt was a blast. My team was made up of my friends Andrea, Amanda, and Owen. I don't think you can find three crazier people to pair with me for a evening of comedy, stunts, and picture taking. I'd like to give a special thanks to my friends Vijay and Liz for organizing this amazing game. Three days later and I'm still not certain how none of the participants in the hunt ended up in the hospital or back of a police car. For the complete album of our pictures throughout the night check out my Picasa album on it. And yes that's me on top of my Yukon speeding down the road at night (that shot was worth like 50 points!)