Lafayette Indiana based Wedding and Portrait Photographer :: Michael Meeks Photography

Madera Wedding Albums

Michael Meeks — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:51:19 +0000

It is crazy cold out here in Lafayette! I’m down at the studio at six in the morning and the streets are a mess! I’m getting everything together for the Bridal Expo at Purdue Union. It’s put on by Family Services of Lafayette and runs from Noon until 4 o’clock. I’m always trying to find the best products to go a long with the best service for my brides and grooms This new Madera Wedding Album is no exception. It’s 12X12, hand crafted and feels like a million bucks! If you have a chance, come by the booth and check it out. If you can’t make the show you can still contact me and we can set up a time for you to come downtown to the studio and look at it in person. I shot a few of these pictures with my new toy, the Fuji X100. Check it out!

Desiree and Andrew

Michael Meeks — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:00:35 +0000

This engagement shoot was supposed to happen the week before Christmas but the weather was miserable that day. We were able to do it last Saturday but it was still pretty cold out. I was a little surprised that Desiree was as much of a trooper as she was considering she was the only one in a skirt Andrew had a suit on and my assistant Nick and I were prepared as well. We managed to make our way through downtown Lafayette, over the bridge to the West Lafayette ice skating rink and then back up the other side of downtown. It finally got to a point where it was too cold for too long so we called it a day.

Chelsea and Joel Part II

Michael Meeks — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:16:20 +0000

The first time that I shot Chelsea and Joel’s engagement pictures we ran out of sunlight fast. It was getting to be that time of year when the sun disappears around six in the evening. Along with the fact that I couldn’t find my way around the “country”, we lost our light much faster than I was used to. That being said, we decided to shoot more about a month later on her family’s farm outside of Lafayette. They decided to go casual this time and wear hoodies from their respective colleges. They even brought their dogs along to join in the festivities but unfortunately, the dogs didn’t want anything to do with my silly pictures Check ‘em out!

You can see the first ones here.

Selena Gomez, Facebook and a Cell Phone

Michael Meeks — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:04:41 +0000

Last time it was chicken nuggets. I guess the stakes get higher as kids get older. It honestly didn’t take much to get these two to act up in front of the camera. We put on some Selena Gomez and a little Michael Jackson and we got dancing and a lot of other craziness. I also learned that Miley Cyrus is no longer cool! Who knew? Towards the end of the shoot I believe we offered the kids their own cell phones, Facebook pages and whatever else seemed appropriate. I’m just glad I’m not around when it’s time for the parent’s to pay up

Chicken Nuggets

Michael Meeks — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:48:32 +0000

CHICKEN NUGGETS? What kind of blog title is that? Let me explain. Most really young kids don’t appreciate having their portrait taken. So, sometimes we give them candy. Sometimes we promise to get ice cream afterward. Well…tonight we used chicken nuggets

First Christmas

Michael Meeks — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:59:05 +0000

One of my favorite little models came by the other day for her Christmas portrait. We had a fabulous time climbing on the couch and crawling all over the studio! She wasn’t a big fan of the Santa hat but I was able to get a few shots with her wearing it. I can’t believe she’s almost a year old. Time flies and she just keeps getting cuter.

The Havel Family Portrait

Michael Meeks — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:33:32 +0000

I photograph girls ninety percent of the time. If it wasn’t for the groom and his groomsmen at the wedding I would almost never shoot guys. Just recently, I’ve had the opportunity to shoot two families with only boys. Of course, Mom is there but just boys as far as the children go. I love shooting little girls because they are so pretty and cute and at the end of the day you walk away with darling pictures that the mom will love. Boys don’t really work that way though so it’s a whole different ball game! Take the Havel family as you will see below.
I traveled out to the south west side of Lafayette to meet them at their family home. The boys had a nice amount of land to run around and play football on. We started off with some simple portraits of the family and the boys were actually pretty willing considering what you would expect. Unfortunately, their dog didn’t really want to look at the camera though :p We spent a couple hours playing basketball, football, running around and jumping in piles of leaves. Playing in the leaves is something I never had the chance to do while growing up in South Florida. It looks like a ton of fun from what I’ve seen lately here in Indiana. I have a feeling that sooner or later I’m going to find a way to find out for myself. I’ll just make sure there aren’t any other photographer’s around!

Gabriella Senior Portrait

Michael Meeks — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:11:16 +0000

Sara and Justin-The Reception Part Two

Michael Meeks — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:29:59 +0000

Before and After

Michael Meeks — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:45:47 +0000

My friend, Brian, always tells me that I should put out “how to” blogs. It’s not something that I usually do but I figured that I would make an attempt at it. This is a basic before and after post which I stole the title from Brian as well. I’m sure he stole it from someone else first though
So, I was shooting my friend, Rob Theodorow. He’s the CEO of Stormfront Productions, a web firm here in Lafayette, Indiana. The concept was a pretty basic business portrait for a magazine cover. I was originally going to shoot him on white seamless paper. It’s something I do quite a bit and especially if I’m going to do a composite with the shot later. I started shooting him at 100mm which is what I usually shoot at when I’m doing a portrait of one person. After about 15 minutes though, I decided that I hated the results I was getting. I then switched to my 50mm and still didn’t like what I was seeing. I was shooting tethered to my computer which allowed Rob to see what we were getting as well and he wasn’t happy either. I finally decided to switch to my 24mm lens. This is a lens that people will tell you to NEVER shoot a portrait with. Fortunately, we both immediately liked what we saw!
Below is straight out of camera and then the finished product is below that. For anyone that cares, it was lit like this:

XSmall Octobox front and center with a 580EXII
Camera right I had a giant softbox feathered to the back with an AB800
I then had a rim light from behind shooting with a reflector through a grid with another AB800 (since he was not on all white I wanted to make sure to separate him from the background)

As you can see, I brought the original photograph into Photoshop and cut Rob out. I then retouched his eyes and dodged his skin and suit a little. That’s about it!