Click HERE to check out the newly redesigned site!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Updates are Good!
Most of you have visited my website to check out my images or proofs at one time or another (at least, I hope you have). The company that hosts the site is Zenfolio 
and they just added a ton of features with a big upgrade, which means that MTS Photography got a much-needed face lift!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Love is in the Air!
Get photos with your sweetheart!
Book a Lovebird session for $150 before February 14th, 2010 and as a bonus receive 10% off all prints, including frames! Lovebird sessions include an online image viewing gallery and slideshow to send to friends & family. Each session includes 1 hour at a location of your choice!
If you're newly engaged, recently married, have been married forever, or just want some cute photos, Lovebird sessions are a fun way to get some treasured memories with your sweetie! Or if you're feeling bold, have a sexxxy Boudoir session to surprise your sweetheart for Valentine's Day and get the romance going!
Guys - a Lovebird session makes a great gift for Valentine's Day!
**Sessions don't have to be done before Valentine's Day, just booked by this time to received the special session fee and print discount.
Call, Twitter, Facebook, or email now to book your Lovebird session!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
To Photograph or Not to Photograph
I started a little research in the subject of photography in cemeteries and was amazed at the overabundance of information on the internet. There are thousands of websites out there for taphophiles (people with a passion and enjoyment of cemeteries). Taphophillia involves epitaphs, gravestones, photography, art, and history of (famous) deaths. Websites devoted to haunted cemeteries, cemeteries with famous people laid to rest there… you name it, it’s out there. Websites like www.cemetaryclub.com and magazines being published such as Epitaphs Magazine.
As interest in this subject has evolved over the years, so has some common etiquette for photographing in cemeteries. Some of the suggestions from a ghost hunting cemetery website included not disturbing the spirits by using flash photography! In addition, make sure you speak to spirits in a soft tone so as to not frighten them and ask permission prior to taking their photos. Apparently some undead spirits are not friendly about having their photo taken?
Anyway, I finally did come across several lists of what appeared to be common sense etiquette, and it helped me to rationalize some of the photography I’ve taken in cemeteries. I’ve never published any of this work before – I was afraid some would think it macabre or taboo. I’ve come to realize that it is indeed MY art, and I do want to share my art and view from behind my lens. That is what is great about our America – I have the freedom to make this choice and move forward with it.
The “common sense” rules that I came across are all things that I did adhere to at the time when I was shooting these. Obey the cemetery rules and hours, don’t’ litter, don’t damage/move/touch any headstones or flowers, and respect the dead. I feel that there is so much beauty in the solitude and significance in the finality of cemeteries that it is worth sharing.
These photos are from a rather creepy old cemetery we discovered while hunting for a non-existent ghost town in the desert of Arizona. Most burial plots were fenced in (I think to keep out scavengers!)
And in case anyone was wondering - I DID NOT PHOTOSHOP the skies in these images from Arizona - that's truly how the sky looked that day, beautifully blue with crisp white clouds. I did have a circular polarized filter on my lens when I took the images, though.
These images are from a small, older cemetery in Barrington Hills that I used to pass on the way to see my horse. This little cemetery has some forgotten about plots way in the back along the fence line that have hand-written crosses, and even one cross made of sticks, written on with a Sharpie that has faded with time to the point you can barely read it.
I hope you enjoy these and see the beauty in them! More will follow as time goes on. This spring I plan a visit to the (supposedly) very haunted Bachelor Grove Cemetery on the south side.
As interest in this subject has evolved over the years, so has some common etiquette for photographing in cemeteries. Some of the suggestions from a ghost hunting cemetery website included not disturbing the spirits by using flash photography! In addition, make sure you speak to spirits in a soft tone so as to not frighten them and ask permission prior to taking their photos. Apparently some undead spirits are not friendly about having their photo taken?
Anyway, I finally did come across several lists of what appeared to be common sense etiquette, and it helped me to rationalize some of the photography I’ve taken in cemeteries. I’ve never published any of this work before – I was afraid some would think it macabre or taboo. I’ve come to realize that it is indeed MY art, and I do want to share my art and view from behind my lens. That is what is great about our America – I have the freedom to make this choice and move forward with it.
The “common sense” rules that I came across are all things that I did adhere to at the time when I was shooting these. Obey the cemetery rules and hours, don’t’ litter, don’t damage/move/touch any headstones or flowers, and respect the dead. I feel that there is so much beauty in the solitude and significance in the finality of cemeteries that it is worth sharing.
These photos are from a rather creepy old cemetery we discovered while hunting for a non-existent ghost town in the desert of Arizona. Most burial plots were fenced in (I think to keep out scavengers!)
And in case anyone was wondering - I DID NOT PHOTOSHOP the skies in these images from Arizona - that's truly how the sky looked that day, beautifully blue with crisp white clouds. I did have a circular polarized filter on my lens when I took the images, though.
These images are from a small, older cemetery in Barrington Hills that I used to pass on the way to see my horse. This little cemetery has some forgotten about plots way in the back along the fence line that have hand-written crosses, and even one cross made of sticks, written on with a Sharpie that has faded with time to the point you can barely read it.
I hope you enjoy these and see the beauty in them! More will follow as time goes on. This spring I plan a visit to the (supposedly) very haunted Bachelor Grove Cemetery on the south side.
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