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Welcome! Here's where we post most everything... from weddings and engagement sessions, to our personal vacations and thoughts. This blog is a great way to follow us and keep in touch. Our hope is that you are encouraged and inspired, along with giving you ideas.

402.440.4937 or 308.234.4556 ~ info@melenbackerphotography.com


Showing posts with label ray santana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ray santana. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

To Africa! - Thirst Relief & Grace Ormonde Benefit Shoot


Shane has officially started his trip for the Grace Ormonde benefit shoot with Thirst Relief International. During this trip he will be working alongside 12 other amazing photographers

Ray Santana, Mike Colon, David Burke, Andrew Bryant, Ben Harrison, David & Luke Edmonson, Jason Thon, Jeff LaPlante, Jim Davis-Hicks, Melissa Jill and Phillip Glickman

as well as auction winners Laura Parker and Michelle Walker. Their current plans for the trip include:

-working with Thirst Relief International to provide life-saving clean water to Tanzanians

- A photoshoot with models from South Africa wearing fair trade jewelry by The Leakey Collection and gowns that were donated by the following amazing dress designers:

Ines Di Santo

Amy Michelson
Adele Wechsler
Angel Sanchez
Jenny Packham

– an African safari!


Shane and the team flew out of California Monday evening and arrived in Dubai early Wednesday morning (somewhere around 12:00am from what I understand). After checking into their hotel they all took a midnight tour of Dubai. I'm told it was still around 100 degrees and humid at 3:00am.



Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Album preview and future visit to Africa



The summer is flying by and it seems like most every week we've been on the road or in the air. Next week will be no different as Shane will set out for Tanzania, Africa w/ Mike Colon, Ray Santana, The Edmondson's and more amazing photographers to work with Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine and Thirst Relief International. All your thoughts and prayers are appreciated during these next couple weeks as they begin an amazing adventure together. I will be incredibly excited to see images from this trip and will be waiting along with you in anticipation :)

Because time is moving by so quickly, rather than creating an entire post of Emily and Jeff's wedding, I thought it may be a special treat for you to see a glimpse of a few pages from their album.

Enjoy!

note: slideshow is accompanied by music




Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Pro Photo Hub - By Ray Santana




Our friend Ray Santana recently started Pro Photo Hub. It's a great resource for photographer's to hear about the latest in wedding industry and we love it! On the site there's interviews with some of the industry's greats, reviews of gear, and insight on some of the latest equipment available to reach the pro photographer.

You can check it out at www.prophotohub.com

His latest interview was with Grace Ormonde, publisher of grace ormonde wedding style magazine. As some of you may know Shane and I are included as platinum list vendors in her magazine and we love Grace's style, attention to detail and the strong imagery she chooses to publish. If you have never read her magazine, we would greatly encourage you to check it out.



Monday, April 21, 2008

Gear Review

Wanted to share some of my gear favorites with everyone. Whenever we get new equipment, we like to test it out and see if it's everything it claims to be. A couple weeks ago, we decided to test two of our favorite pieces of gear for weather. When the forecast called for rain, sleet and snow, we thought it was the perfect day to test things out! We took out our Nikon D3 along with our Boda Dry, as both claim to be water resistant, and put them to the test. I would guess that both of these great brands probably do not suggest testing their gear the way we did, but I can assure you they both held up under some extreme weather.

While in Vegas at WPPI, I was introduced to Boda Bag by a few friends and then had the chance to get to know Gary who manages Boda. It was also nice to meet Jim Garner, the creator of Boda as well as a great photographer. We tested the Boda Dry in heavy rain, sleet and snow all within a couple hours and the inside stayed, well...dry. I would have no problems using the Boda Dry during inclement weather, of course I would want to find somewhere dry to actually change lenses.



Pretty much anyone who has shot with me can attest that I am not the most delicate with my equipment during a shoot, and because of that I need equipment that will hold up in the worst of conditions. Nikon has done just that since I first started shooting landscapes over Ten years ago and weddings for about five years. Even though during a shoot I may be a little hard on my gear, I do make sure it is taken care of after, like drying it off :)



Last, the Think Tank (Domestic) rolling bag. I have to thank my friend Ray Santana for this suggestion. I had a Think Tank (International) for a while but just didn't think it was big enough. This bag fits most all my gear for destination shoots and I can't tell you how nice it's been to simplify luggage. At a wedding, we store our backup gear in a separate location (just in case), lock the bag and use the internal cable to lock it around a nearby pole or railing. Not foolproof, but it at least deters. And...because it perfectly fits all my gear, at the end of the night, I check the bag to make sure all the spaces are filled and if so, I'm good to go. As a side note, we back up our clients' images to a computer and hard drive the day of the wedding. But, we also keep the original copies on our memory cards on us at all times. As we never know what the day will hold, we feel it's incredibly important to have a backup for your backup.



If anyone ever has any questions about the gear we use or what we think of it, feel free to drop us a line, I love to talk about toys :)

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Boys Will be Boys...even when they're men.



I love this shot!!! Kenny just sent this to me and although we weren't going to put up another post for a couple days, I had to show this one. I think this will be a classic for a while. Everyone was so fun to hang out with and this is one of the reasons why (left to right: Kenny Kim, me, Mike Colon, Bob Davis, Ray Santana.





Fun at WPPI



Here are some fun pictures we took throughout the week and some awesome people we met during our time at WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International).

From Left to Right:
Picture 1... with Mike Steelman, Ray and Anna, Mike Colon, Harald, David and Travis.
Picture 2... with Becker and Geoff, Picture 3... with Gary and Jim, from Boda Bag


Picture 1...with Gloria, Jose, Picture 2...US!, Picture 3...with Anna.


The Hoover Dam...it took hours to get here because of all the traffic :)


Having some fun out in the desert!


And from our friend Kenny... Picture 1...a group of us after an awesome dinner buffet, Picture 2... at the tradeshow.
Picture 3...Erin and Julie having fun while me, Kevin and Geoff try to take a real photo.