The Aaron Watson Photography Blog » General

Bonjour from France!

Aaron Watson — Wed, 19 May 2010 23:18:18 +0000

Bonjour from France! A few months ago I was given the opportunity to travel to France to be a part of A Lovely Workshop with Elizabeth Messina! It’s only been a few days, but I am really excited to share with you my first few images. So far it’s been an amazing experience living at Chateau St Julien L’Ars outside the town of Poitiers (just north of Bordeaux). The Chateau is massive and I’ve enjoyed exploring a few of its secrets including a secret staircase, some secret underground tunnels, and a forest with a hidden statue of Jesus. The food is great, just as you expect French food to be! The group of photographers (from all over the world) are talented and have great personalities. It’s truly been a great experience to this point! I want to thank everyone that has helped put together the shoots from Erin and Lauren who did make-up and hair, to Eden who designed the sets, and Kim and Adam who hooked us up with the Chateau and have been running errands every morning to get things we need for the shoots (thanks for letting me tag along to get my Orangina!), to Jacqueline, Ulrica, Leah, Yvette, the ladies in the kitchen, and special thank to the models, Gina, Julie, Myra, Erin, Jack, and Isaac (the baby). … and of course Elizabeth for bringing us all together!

So without further ado, enjoy a few of my pictures from our first shoots:

Top 10

Aaron Watson — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:03:03 +0000

Happy Holidays! I’m sure you’ve noticed my lack of recent posts, and I have a great excuse … we’ve moved! I recently bought my first house and am excited to welcome everyone into my new home (just as soon as I get some fruniture)! I promise to post some photos just as soon as we finish decorating! Until then I have some other great news …

I am honored to announce that I recently placed in the top 10 for the ISPWP (International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers) Fall Competition! I am even more honored considering that I was one of the few photographers from Virginia to place (it seems the Europeans were running away with the awards this time)! The picture that placed (below) is one of my favorites from Laura and Tim’s wedding back in August. According to Tim, most groomsmen gifts are pointless things that will never be used again. While searching online for Groomsmen gifts he stumbled upon these Samurai swords and decided that if he was going to give a pointless gift, he might as well make it the coolest pointless gift ever! Needless to say it was a huge hit and it made for a very interesting cake cutting. I love all of the reactions from their friends and family in the background as well as the nervous expression on Laura’s face!

Be sure to check back soon as we have a few announcements coming up that I am very excited to share with you!

Photoshop and Proofing

Aaron Watson — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:23:00 +0000

It’s no secret that photographers often photoshop their photos to make them look good. I am always asked if I retouch, enhance, or photoshop my pictures, and pretty much my answer is always yes. I think it is important that you make a picture look as good as possible! Although, too often I will see other photographers’ work and it’s blatanly obvious that they overdid it in photoshop. My rule of thumb is that if you are distracted by the work done in photoshop then the photographer/editor has either overdone it or not done it correctly. Most of the time I use Photoshop (or Lightroom) to make the pictures look the way I had originally intended, or to give them a little extra pop. I want my pictures to look natural so you shouldn’t be able to tell which parts of the image I enhanced or retouched.

Often I am asked what the difference is between proofs and reprints, and what the difference is between our “enhanced proofing” and straight out of the camera proofing. So I thought I would provide some visual aids. For the first set of photos you can see the difference between what was shot (straight out of the camera), the editing I did for the enhanced proofing, and then the extra editing I did for the final print. The second set of photos shows the difference between straight out of the camera and the final print.

Straight out of camera:

The enhanced proof:

The final print (darkened the background so your eye focuses on Daniel and Ruth):

Straight out of camera:

Final Print (Made B&W, lightened Mom’s face, selective focus on dress and Mom/blurred bridesmaids in the background, darkened distracting objects, and cropped):

Pamplona & San Fermin

Aaron Watson — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:23:13 +0000

As promised San Fermin (aka Running of the Bulls) was crazy! 24 hours a day people were partying, bands would stroll by your window at 2am playing as loud as they could, and beer was everywhere you looked! Then there were the bull runs, or Encierro as the Spanish call it, which if you were lucky or planned well ahead you could get a 30 second glimpse of the bulls as they gored, trampled, and tossed runners around the street. I have so many stories to share, but for now I will let some of the pictures giver you an idea of what it was like. Enjoy!

Look 3/Downtown

Aaron Watson — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 02:46:45 +0000

This last week has been really crazy, not only for me, but also Charlottesville as the annual Look 3 (a.k.a. the festival of the photograph) is taking place. Over the next few days I will be posting some more cool Fusion films and recent wedding pictures, but for now I just wanted to share a single photo of the downtown mall that i took tonight …

Each year one of my favorite parts of the festival is the Trees exhibit. If you are in Charlottesville definitely make sure you check out the dozens of nature photos hung throughout the canopy of trees lining the mall!

A New Look

Aaron Watson — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 07:12:17 +0000

Just a quick note to let you know that I am updating the look of the blog and it may take a few days to complete, so please excuse any construction issues while I renovate. I am excited to get blogging again after months of putting it off, and hope that you will like the new look once it is complete!

Also, a special thanks to Sara Borsari for inspiring me to get back on the wagon!

The wait is over!

Aaron Watson — Thu, 01 May 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Well as those of you who have visited my website over the last year may know the Blog has been “coming soon” for what seems like forever. Not anymore! I am happy to announce and introduce to you for the very first time … my blog!

I love to read other photographer’s blogs. Often I become inspired by the creativity in their pictures and feel like I have a personal connection with them even if I have never met them before. My aim with this blog is to develop that same personal connection with you and hopefully inspire you with my work so that you want to share it with your own friends and family!

Please leave comments and check back regularly! I would love to hear from you and look forward to your reactions and thoughts about anything and everything! I hope to update my blog with new adventures, pictures, and thoughts a few times a week. So Stay Tuned!

Lastly, I would like to thank and credit my good friend Eric Kelley for my awesome profile picture (the first of many)! We were in Brazil this past year for Barbara and Sam’s wedding, and on the last night that we were in Buziós I decided to sleep outside in my new hammock. I woke up to an amazing sunrise over the ocean, and after going out on the beach to capture some of the beautiful scenery, I returned to my hammock to grab a few more minutes of rest. Eric then captured this amazing scene, which has become one of my favorite moments and memories ever! Here is a larger version of the picture: