Doug Bell – Photographer

Dowd / Wedo Wedding

At the end of July I was able to help out a co-worker and photograph the wedding of his daughter Mara to Nick.  It was a blast of a time for all involved, with folks getting up to sing old Irish tunes and plenty of dancing and fun to go around.  The day didn’t start out so kindly as a big thunderstorm rolled through right about the time I was going to be taking some pictures of the families, but thankfully it let up and the sun came out in time for the couple to see each other beforehand and get some great pictures.

Mara looked radiant as she was getting ready.

Nick.  The man.

The ceremony included a really neat component – A traditional hand fasting dating back well into the middle ages.  The couple’s hands are tied together as a symbolic gesture.  It’s where “tying the knot” comes from!

The weather was kind enough for a little while to get a few photos outside.

He REALLY wanted the garter.

Irish songs.  Handwritten.  From text messages.  On a blackberry.  That’s dedication.

And they broke out ‘Thriller’ by the end of the night.  Rockin’.

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Reboot

My life in photography has come to a point of a restart.  Due to new full-time employment I have relocated to Denver, Colorado, 1600 miles away from everything I knew.  All that I had with my in PA: clients, networks, photographer friends, contacts – gone.  What now?  Everything before me is a blank slate.  A chance to define myself on my own terms, to find my own creative vision among the mountains, the vast outdoors, and all the people in the big new city.  With no clients (save one wedding for a co-worker), it’s time for me to find and create pictures that have meaning to me and just let the cards fall where they may.  Ideas I have right now?  You’ll see.  Stay tuned.

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Check your zipper!

Today while coming home from a fire call I was taking my camera bag out of my car and failed to realize I hadn’t zipped the bottom bipper back into place.  Needless to say when I slung the bag onto my back my biggest and most expensive lens went for a short and brutal flight onto the pavement. It was not mounted to a camera, which is both good and bad.  The front rings are bent hard, and the rear mounting ring is bent enough in one place I can’t even get it mounted onto any of my bodies to check the lens itself.

I am normally extremely careful about my lenses so I am kicking myself pretty hard.  I am shipping it Monday into Canon to see what the repair will cost me.  Thankfully in case of utter catastrophe I have insurance but the deductible is non-trivial.  Here are some pictures of the damage:

The moral of the story:  Check your zippers!  Then, do it again.

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DIY toybox labels

I recently built a toy box / cabinet to hold a couple of sliding plastic bins from Ikea.  The concept is great – one big cabinet, different size sliding bins to hold all of the toys (mostly) neat and organized.  However my 2 year old can’t see what’s in the bins to get his toys out which mans that he would likely start pulling out every bin to find the right one.  I decided to make some of my own bin labels with pictures I took of his toys since he’s only 2 and can’t read yet.  I’m pretty happy with the results.

The lighting setup is one White Lightning X1600 turned down as far as it will go, with a medium softbox and a folding white card for dual-purpose fill and white background.  Makes for a nice wrapping light and good shadow definition.

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Christmas Cafe 2008 photobooth

Every year for the last 3 years I have done a photo booth at my church’s annual Christmas Cafe.  It is a night of music, food, and social gathering that is really nice for people to enjoy.  I have a set, take posed pictures of groups, and do high quality prints for people to take home that night.  There are a fair amount of the ‘typical’ group and family pictures, but there are also some pictures that are just out there and so much fun to see.

I can’t wait for next year!

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New Kingstown Structure Fire

This was a cold one.  Reported ambient temperature was around 15 degrees farenheit.  I got there a little late and missed the background information for this call, but this was a outlying structure at a horse farm.  It was down a path and a hill from the main buildings, which were already a quarter mile back a lane from the main road.  Additional brush units were called simply because nothing larger could get down to the structure.  I left a little early due to losing feeling in my fingers as my camera gear approached ambient.

This ended up being the first of close to ten calls for the day for Company 33.

The full gallery is also online.

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Camp Hill Basement Fire

Call came in from a house around the corner that saw smoke from one side of the house.  Crews arrived on scene to find smoke on all floors of the house and heat in the A-D corner of the house.  Burned items were found on that same corner in the basement.  No open fire was seen (by my knowledge) by anyone.  Unfortunately for me, that makes for boring pictures.  Oh well, can’t hit them all the time.  I’m just glad to be back into shooting fire calls.

Photo Gallery

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Wilson baby 3 month pictures

The Wilsons contacted me to take pictures of their new baby boy every three months for his first year, and this was our first session.  Not much personality coming out yet, but I could tell he was just waiting to bust out a move.  Well, maybe not yet.  In either case, he made a great photo subject and was super patient in between meal breaks.  I can’t wait for the 6 month pictures!

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An evening with Strobist

This past Wednesday I had the privilege of myself and a few other photographers to hang out for a few hours with David Hobby, otherwise known as the king of off-camera flash and the operator of Strobist.com.  We spent the evening discussing how he does what he does as it relates to professional photography, and most of the other photographers there were wedding and portrait photographers like me.  The get-together was part of the series called Photo Nights for Charity, put on by the Love Life Images studio to raise money for the Maryland Food Bank.

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Evening with Jeremiah

Today after work I took some time off from my photo work and spent the evening playing with Jeremiah.  Of course, I also thought to have the camera nearby.  He spent some time playing with the neighborhood kids.

Then we went to the local playground behind our house..

And then we were done.

Did I mention I was also playing with an awesome new lens?

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