benrugersblog.com.au

Some of you may know Adam from around the traps. Adam is also known as DJ Coxy and plays in a few of the bigger brisbane night clubs. Adam is now moving to Sydney to play down there and needed to update his portfolio for promoting the gigs he will be playing down there……this is the outcome.

Luen had worked with xsight previously for some portfolio images and came to us to update her portfolio. We always have alot of fun working with Luen and this day was no exception.

Make up – Hayley Walke

Stylist – Rebecca Williams

Photography – Ben & Justine Rugers

Boomstar Loco is a music group that performs in the valley and all sorts of different night spots.  I was lucky enough to have these guys play for my 30th Birthday at the Family night club in Brisbane just recently and they just rocked the house,  everyone was just blown away by their unique music.  If you every get a chance to go and see these guys play it is an absolute must!

The group is made up of Anthony Radazza on the decks ,  Darren Skaar on the trumpet and Stephane Elmosnino on the bongo drums.

This is probably a little bit different to my normal wedding photos but I like to experiment with different types of genres,  i find it gives me more inspiration in the weddings.  Speaking of which the weddings that i have to blog are pretty fricken amazing (if I do say so myself) so come back now ya hear!!

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Something that I have wanted to do for ages is get back to doing some more personal shoots,  my aim is to do something for myself once a month or at least once every 2 months,  it gets my juices flowing and allows me to expand a bit of my creativity.  I told the gorgeous Luen that I had some things in mind and she was happy to participate on the shoot.  Luen got super organised and got a stylist and makeup artist which just made the shoot so awesome,  It was pretty funny the amount of clothes and makeup that we were dragging through the valley as well as getting changed in the middle of the street.  It was heaps of fun getting a few different looks and seeing what we came up with.

So special mention to the stylist:  Rebbecca Williams (which can be found on facebook here)

the wonderful makeup was done by:  Hayley Wake

this video was shot by whoever had a spare hand at the time on a little camera with video, so excuse the quality but you get to see a bit of behind the scenes to the shoot.

Luen Shoot in the valley from Ben Rugers on Vimeo.

I came across this interesting article which i thought i would share as I have been hearing more and more that people are using family and freinds to take their wedding photos which can sometimes see not the most pleasing results.

Author: Michael Graham P

 Hiring a wedding photographer may seem like a simple task, but choosing someone to capture all the moments and details of that special day can be much more difficult than most couples realize. The professional you select will create a photographic record that will be treasured by your family for generations, and making this decision is a critical step in the wedding-planning process. In some instances, hiring the wrong person might not only result in poor wedding photos, but could also have a negative effect on your entire wedding day (for example, imagine a sloppy-looking photographer running around, blocking the guests’ view and constantly distracting you from enjoying your day).

One of the most common and unfortunate mistakes couples make is hiring a family friend or an enthusiastic relative to photograph the day. Some may even ask guests to take as many photos as possible with the hope of piecing together an album composed of candid shots, most of which are unusable. Keep in mind that even with the proper equipment, photographing a wedding properly is a daunting task requiring significant experience, the finesse’ to be virtually invisible, and most importantly the talent and artistic vision to capture the memorable details and emotions of your wedding day. It is certainly not a job for the faint of heart.

How, then, does one choose an accomplished, professional wedding photographer? The key items to consider are your personal preferences in photography, your budget for the event, and the professional relationship and chemistry you have (or don’t have) with the photographer.

Wedding photography is usually classified as traditional, photojournalistic (candid), and artistic. There is a wealth of information online regarding these categories, if you would like more explanation of each. Although some photographers may declare that they are “hardcore photojournalists” (the current buzz-word in the wedding photo industry), I believe that a good wedding photographer must be able to do all the styles equally well. It is important to review a good selection of the photographer’s work, and you should love most (if not everything) you see. You should insist on viewing complete wedding albums to see how your final album could look. If you don’t feel an emotional connection with the photos, you need to interview another photographer.

Couples also either under-budget for their wedding photography, or they try to shop around for the cheapest package, forsaking quality. As with any creative service, with most photographers you normally “get what you pay for.” If you see an all-inclusive package with albums under $2000.00, the quality of all the products and services is usually poor. If the package is above $5000.00, you should expect 2 photographers present, at least 8 hours of coverage, and high-end wedding albums (along with some extra items, such as proofs or parent copies). Make sure you compare apples to apples when reviewing various wedding packages, since they can be confusing. In most cases a typical wedding photography budget would be in the $3000.00 – $6000.00 range. Don’t treat your wedding photography as an afterthought – photographs are the most enduring and viewed remembrance of your wedding day (more so, even, than a video recording).

Make sure you feel a personal connection with your photographer. Some of the best photos of the day are usually taken “behind the scenes” as the wedding party prepares for the day, when you will be interacting with your family and friends. You should feel comfortable inviting the photographer “backstage.” As a wedding photographer, I regularly get invited to see the most intimate parts of the wedding day that are normally not visible to most guests or even family. Your photographer should be calm and assertive and have a positive energy about them. Make sure he or she shows a genuine interest in you and your family. Do not hire a photographer that makes you feel that your wedding day is just another job for them. Your photos would certainly reflect that.

About the Author:

Michael Graham is a Los Angeles and Palm Springs based wedding photographer known for his exceptional ability to capture special moments and details of a wedding day. You may visit his website at: http://www.mgpweddings.com and http://www.michaelgrahamphoto.com

Article Source: www.linkroll.com -
Wedding Photography – How To Chose The Right Wedding Photographer

Here is a trash the dress shoot that we did ages ago, Bec and Nat were just amazing, since then she has graced the front cover of ideal brides from her wedding and we still have her trash the dress photos up around the studio.  This video dates right back in December 2007.  Oh how time flies.

Trash the dress – XSiGHT Brisbane from Ben Rugers on Vimeo.

Well in the last couple of weeks our eldest daughter turned 5 so we had a pirate and fairy party for all of the kids to come and have some fun.  Someone forgot to tell me that i could dress as a Pirate so i was greeting all the mothers at the door in a fairy outfit, all inclusive of wings, a tiara and a tutu.   I have a feeling that I did scare a few people but the soon got over it.

Happy Birthday to my precious girl Holly

We had a makeup artist who did a fantastic job with the kids facepaint and baloon twisting

Yes,  I dressed up like a fairy for the day,  and I kinda enjoyed it haha,  this is me with my mum, and her with Holly

this is Hollys best freind at day care

Scarlett didn’t get left out and also got plenty of attention for the day.

Holly with Laura,  Holly hadn’t seen Laura since we moved a bit closer to the studio and they were very excited to see each other.best of freindsPass the parcel

finally Dad,  bring out the birthday cake!

Here I am coming to you again apologising for my lack of blogging.   The studio has been tremendously busy doing heaps of wedding expo, shooting weddings and engagement shoots.  We had a 3 week break in the middle which was good to get all of our senses back before getting back into shooting again.

So…   this is what i am going to try and do to make up for my slackness. For the rest of the month and next month I am going to try and aim for 3 blog posts a week to make it up to everyone who has been so patiently waiting for all of the updates.  I have had some interesting things happen over the last month or two so I will share some photos and stories…

This reminds me if you really  want to get an update of what I am doing more reguarly  (like who wouldn’t want that) you can add me as a friend on facebook. you can add me clicking here

I dont Twitter yet and Justine has told me that i am not aloud to haha.

AND most importantly

become a fan of the xsight fan page to get all of the up to date stuff from our other studios in Melbourne, Sydney and most recently Darwin.

So to get started here is one of some of the shots from the recent awards that i didn’t get anything for but i think is still worth showing because i am pretty proud of them,  of course i couldn’t have done it without all the wonderful brides and grooms that have worked so hard to be in the images…  cant do it without you guys!!!

Here is the photo of Erin that we caught before the wedding,  i am still stoked at this shot

This below shot was one of the last shots for the day and was only taken a couple of weeks ago,  So I guess that it is a bit of a preview of Melanie and Davids wedding

So heres hoping that I am under-promising and over-delivering and I can keep up with my promise of blog posts.  Ben

I said that I would post up all of the videos leading up to the final episode but instead you can go here  to check them all out.  The fstopblog.tv blog is also a great resource for education for photographers .  However what I am going to do is put up the last episode which is a recap of the whole series and the final videos that both teams of photographers had 24 hours to come up with.

What a great effort for such a great cause.

The two videos are also being voted at the WPPI in Las Vegas where over 100,000 photographers gather at the biggest trade and education show in the world.  Justine and I cant wait to go next year with XSiGHT Syndey and Melbourne,  but in the mean time we will just have to hear about it from all our friends on the world of facebook and blogs.  Hope everyone is having fun over there.

 P.S  We will be at the Ideal Bride expo this weekend at the RNA showgrounds so if you are a blog stalker come and say hi to Ben, Justine, Emily or our newest staff member Danielle.

I have recently been following a program called the longest day and I love it!!

The premiere episode of the first online reality TV show for and about professional photographers, “The Longest Day,” this year’s buzz-building videos series for WPPI 2009.

The premise is simple: get 24 of the hottest professional photographers in America and Canada, bring them all to southern California armed only with the knowledge that they would be split into two teams and given an assignment to complete in just 24 hours. Once they arrive, they find out their assignment is to write, shoot, and edit an original short film about photography, AND an original PSA about the respective charity for which they are playing: ThirstRelief and Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.

episode 4 here:

Episode 3

Episode 2

Episode 1