Swartz Creek Michigan Wedding Engagement and Lifestyle Photography by Jeffrey Simms » Sports

day19 – 1picaday

admin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:29:35 +0000

This is what I see every morning as I look outside my office. Today it’s cold, windy, and raining. Lately, the mornings have been somewhat Michigan spring weather (a few days in!) Today I see people running in trying to avoid the light rain and wind. It’s kind of funny… ladies with their trench coats on but not buttoned up so the wind blows and twists the fabric and they end up getting rain all over them. Students with athletic pants on with hoodies pulled over their head trying to shield their heads from the rain. Why don’t people bring umbrellas?

Day7 – 1picaday

admin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 02:03:37 +0000

On March 9 1856, Sigma Alpha Epsilon was founded at the University of Alabama. Today my brothers and I celebrate 153 years of excellence and brotherhood. I am proud of the rich heritage of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. To my brothers, Happy Founder’s Day, and Phi Alpha!

Shot with Canon 5D with 580EX II mounted on top, 1/125, f2.8, 33mm, ISO 100, meta info here.

To my brothers, if you have yet to see the Youtube video from our ESA Todd Buchanan, check it out below.

Contest Results & Updates

admin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:51:29 +0000

The voting is over. The results have been tabulated. The contest is over. If you have no clue what I’m talking about, be sure to check out a few posts below. For those that do know, two photos of mine were entered in the Bliss Wedding Photo of the Year 2008 contest. Out of over a 150 submissions, two of mine were selected into the top 17. After a few weeks of voting, one of my photos came in 3rd place. I’m quite humbled and happy to have been apart of this experience. My friends and colleagues all came out to support my work, that is truly humbling and I’m very greatful, thank you! I believe the best part of the contest isn’t getting my work recognized, but rather the conversations that I had with other photographers, friends, and those who are just starting to pick up a camera. Having the ability to share stories and interests is much more important than any contest. Be sure to check out the other two photo’s on the freshly redesigned Bliss Blog!

It’s been awhile since I’ve updated… so much is going on with being a full-time intern, I’m enjoying it but haven’t had time to do all the things I would really like to, like blog and update more. I always say that after not posting for awhile that I’ll do better, I don’t know if I’ll do better at staying on top of updates for the next few weeks. I do have a new photo project that I’ll be working on starting in the next two weeks or so… watch for that!

I created a Facebook business profile today. Be sure to check that out and become a fan! I have a few remaining bridesmaids photoshoot to post and the rest of the Chicago birthday trip experience… soon to come!

If you haven’t seen this video created by photographer Zach Arias, take the next few minutes to watch and dive into what it really means to be a photographer and how that fits into the big picture.

Oakland 76 vs. Michigan 89

admin — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:05:24 +0000

I shot at Saturday’s college men’s basketball game at the Palace of Auburn Hills that hosted Oakland University against University of Michigan. The game was pretty amazing and exciting to sit once again on the court and photograph the game. I learn a lot every time I shot in a new venue and also feel inspired sitting next to photographers like Jose Juarez from the Oakland Press and AP photographers.

Check out my photos on SPMsportspage by clicking here or the picture below.

OU Basketball

admin — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 23:24:14 +0000

Here’s a few shots from today’s basketball game. I’m not too happy with how the pictures turned out. I used my XTi with a 70-200 f2.8 for the majority of the game and my 5D for the wide angle, but didn’t take much with it. After using the 5D it’s hard shooting with the XTi now. If sports is gonna become a bigger venue for me then I need to consider using another camera along with the 5D and retire the XTi. The difference in color is so apparent when comparing the two cameras… Anyone looking for a entry level dSLR?

Photo gallery link is live on SPMSportspage.

Rock N’ Roll {Simple Sunday}

admin — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:59:33 +0000

This is such a great performance. Dave on drums and Taylor out front rocking out his best Robert Plant voice… not to mention the amazing performances of Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. I’ll likely be listening to Zeppelin for the rest of the week, thank you guys!

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Lots of writing and napping happened today. The semester is finally winding down and I’ll be finished at the end of this month! I can’t believe how quickly this semester has passed. Between working, wedding planning, taking 2 intensive classes, and meeting with clients time has come and gone… and I’m excited that the end is within reach.
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I really enjoyed shooting Oakland University volleyball this week, it was a nice break and kick off to the weekend. I wish I was able to shoot more this past season but with my schedule being so difficult that wasn’t possible. However, I am looking forward to shooting some Oakland basketball, possibly both men and womens.
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I may be shooting one of the upcoming Pistons home game… and I’ll be sure to let everyone know about that though.
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I got some new gear in these past weeks that includes: Tamron 28-75 f2.8, Wacom 4×6 Tablet, extra batteries, and a Shootsac. I actually utilized all these in the recent shoots. The wedding I shot 2 weekends ago allowed me to test out the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 lens and I have nothing but positive feedback for it. Price is great, build quality seems good, and 28-75 at f2.8 is pretty much a great walk around lens. The only negative I have is the auto focus is a little slow compared to the Canon 24-75 f2.8 but it’s also 1/4 of the price, so in the end not a bad lens. At the volleyball game I used this lens and was very happy with the end result pictures straight out of the camera. I carried my Canon 5D, 28-75 f2.8, and 85 f1.8 in my new Shootsac. The neoprene material fits snug around your gear and really keeps things within reach. I also used the Wacom 4×6 Tablet to edit the volleyball game. I’m not used to using a pen and tablet but I can see the benefits in this already and I’m looking forward to finishing up Adam and Kellie’s wedding using it. Photo editing should be a blast now…
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Dr. Drew is coming to Oakland University on Tuesday evening! I’m hoping that I can attend and see what he has to say. I can admit that I think Dr. Drew is awesome without any reservation. From his past years on LoveLine and more current Celebrity Rehab – I really believe he is a talented man with a passion for helping people. I’m planning to bring my camera and get some shoots… so look forward to that (fingers crossed).
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That’s all! Have a great week and keep it on the positive.

Oakland Volleyball

admin — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 03:23:59 +0000

Here’s a few from Oakland University’s victory over Western Illinois. The photo gallery should be up in a few hours or tomorrow morning at the latest on SPMsportspage. Check out the my other volleyball photos here.

Photo gallery is live on SPMsportspage.

Retro

admin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:20:54 +0000

As I’m still cleaning out my LightRoom catalog, I came across these two images that I shot for the Detroit Shock game a couple months ago. This guy was full of energy and was pretty much amazing as he ran all around the Palace sporting his red, white, and blue afro. I decided why not play around with more of the TRA2 actions.

Billups Traded!

admin — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:28:23 +0000

Chauncey Billups has been traded to Denver for Allen Iverson. To make the deal more interesting Antonio McDyess was also part of the package. I’m shocked! I cannot believe Joe D would trade Mr. Big Shot… out of all the starting line up for the Pistons, I did not expect Billups to go first. It’ll be an interesting year…

View the article here.

Billups Edit

admin — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:21:50 +0000

Trying a different kind of editing today at work. What do you think?

Pistons Media Day

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:37:47 +0000

Here’s my favorite black and white edits from Media Day, I had an amazing time! Check out the photo gallery on SPMSportspage!

Hump Day – 2 Days Late

admin — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:44:48 +0000

I was pretty busy on Wednesday and didn’t get to blog my normal Wednesday Hump Day updates, sorry! Now off to the good stuff.

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Monday is Media Day for the Detroit Pistons, and I’m going! I’m pretty excited to have this opportunity to shoot at the Pistons practice facility for 2 hours. Later Monday evening you’ll see a few of the pictures here and a link to the photo gallery on SPMSportspage.

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Megan came back from Boston and she got me an awesome Red Sox hat! Today we had our Friday afternoon lunch date at Olga’s and totally devoured a basket of snackers and our entrees.

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I just made a photo gallery from this year’s VBS, take a few minutes to check those out. I really loved the Mentos and Coke experiment and the resulting photos…

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Tomorrow I’m looking forward to taking it easy and being domestic. What does ‘being domestic’ entail? It means cleaning my room, doing laundry, and getting organized for next week. I really need to do some major dusting in my room. A big task for this weekend is to go through my photo library and clean house. Right now I’m running just over 7gbs of free HD space on the Macbook Pro. I have many upcoming events, and the time has come to go through Lightroom and weed out the photos that I’m never going to do anything with.

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Sunday Megan and I are hanging out with Miranda from Inner Circle Photography to shoot our engagement session and we’re super excited! We have some really fun ideas and I’m looking forward to spending the afternoon with my fiance and getting some rockin’ pictures taken.

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I promise that I will try to limit the amount of posts without photos starting next week.

Simple Sunday

admin — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:51:34 +0000

Anyone that has to deal with paperwork everyday at work, you deserve a raise! I put together two folders of paperwork that I need to do every time I see a client and it’s a lot of time and energy to get things organized! I feel a lot better now that I have things ready to go.

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I have some disappointing news, I am no longer going to the Gymnastics Tour in East Lansing in November. Long story short is that the event organizers were putting restrictions on the photographers to only photograph the first event and the last 6 minutes of the competition! Can you believe that? Hopefully other opportunities will come up in between now and then.

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The 5D is amazing! The quality of pictures straight out of the camera are awesome and the full-frame really gives a great view. Shooting the Grizzly Volleyball game gave me the chance to really experiment with the 5D. The only beef I have with the 5D is that it isn’t really a sports camera because it only shoots 3 frames a second. I had a lot of decent shots but wasn’t able to get the full action sequence. I’ll have more sporting opportunities in the coming weeks to push the 5D to the limit.

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Megan and I have our engagement pictures a week from today (Sunday 28). Our friend Miranda from Inner Circle Photography will be taking our pictures for the session. Megan and I are really excited to hang out for the afternoon and get some great pictures. Our friend Jackie is coming along to do Megan’s hair and makeup. She is a rockstar and we are so excited to have her spend the afternoon with us!

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I really want to take some headshots or portraits sometime next week, send me an email if you need anything! My week is kind of crazy but I will do whatever I can to fit some photos in, just let me know!

OU Grizzly Volleyball

admin — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:41:34 +0000

Here’s a few photos from Oakland University Women’s Volleyball loss against UMKC. Here’s the link to the SPMSportspage gallery. It was quite the different experience from shooting a football or basketball game. I learned a lot (once again) and believe it was a good learning experience.

{Hump Day} Adventures With 5D

admin — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:15:28 +0000

Here’s a few shots from my 5D taken this morning. The first shot is actually my favorite from today’s adventure in my backyard. I love the bokeh on the right side…. mmmhhh! The hammer was actually shot in the garage with little light at ISO 1600.

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Upcoming Shoots:
Oakland University Volleyball hosts UMKC Friday @ 7:00PM
Oakland University Women’s Soccer hosts Green Bay Sunday @ 12:00PM

Check back here and SPMSportspage for my favorite shots and photo galleries.

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The [B] school is now enrolling, be sure to check it out. I’m about 75% sure that I’m gonna enroll in the coming weeks to get the 2 months for free.

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Canon announced the 5D Mark II this morning and it seems pretty slick. I’m sure lots of 5D owners are going to update when it’s released. It has a HD video capability and a lot of similar features that Canon’s top of the line 1Ds Mark III has. This begins to bridge and possibly close the gap between the two cameras. It’s an exciting time for photographers that own a 5D.

No I do not plan on purchasing the 5D Mark II – I have a perfectly great 5D that I just bought this week – no upgrading needed.

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If you need a head shot, portrait, or e-session send me an email and we’ll get you taken care of. I talked briefly last night with a friend about possibly shooting their upcoming wedding. Spread the word!

It’s really nice to have a day off from work! Now it’s time to be productive, pay some bills and get things done!

Exciting News!

admin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:15:38 +0000

If you’ve been following my blog or Twitter the past week or so then you know I’m been leading up to this post. I wish I could make this more exciting (horns, whistles, bells, people juggling things on fire, etc.) but I’ll get right to the news…

The first thing is that today I purchased a Canon 5D! I blogged about this briefly a few posts back but didn’t go into detail. The story is that I found a great deal on this camera and could not pass it up. I bought it used but it was purchased in May and used twice with only 400 pictures taken! The 5D is in mint condition and looks like it’s never been used. I’m excited for this new addition to my gear and cannot wait to put it to use. Hopefully if I have a few minutes between work and class I’ll get to experiment! The picture below doesn’t show the quality and mint condition of this camera but trust me, it’s superb.

Second, I’m going to be shooting Oakland University athletics this fall, particularly woman’s volleyball and soccer. If I have extra time I’ll try to incorporate more sports later this year. I’ll be posting some of my favorites from the games right here in glorious 900×600 resolution and also on SPMSportspage.com.

Going along with the sporting updates, I’m also looking into covering some Central Michigan University football as well, but this is still in the works. I hope to cover a few homes games this fall because the Chips are going for a three-peat as MAC champions this year!

I’m not sure if I’ve posted this already on the blog, but I am covering the USA Olympic Gymnastics Tour that is making a stop in East Lansing in November. A big thanks to SPMSportspage for giving me this opportunity to cover such an awesome event.

Lastly, there’s yet another big announcement but I can’t share that just yet… sorry! As soon as I get more information I’ll post it. Until then be sure to watch my twitter and flickr!

Simple Sunday

admin — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:23:59 +0000

Here’s my first step to getting back into blogging more often. I’m calling this Simple Sunday. This is when I look at my past week and week to come quickly. For a better experience of what my week is like be sure to follow me on Twitter.

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First off I love CSS and the ability to change a whole website’s color scheme with a few clicks. Because of this ease of change I made a few cosmetic changes to the blog…

I decided that the blue was not a ver flattering color for the blog. I choose neutral colors and I believe they work much better than that comic book blue. I also changed up the background image as well to make it a little more subtle. I also added a FAQ and My Gear pages. A few more are on the way…

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I’m pretty excited for the new Canon release (hopefully) later this month. Rumor has it that the 5D is about to be updated. The 5D is a camera that i’ve been looking at purchasing for the past few weeks and if the speculation around the blogosphre is correct than the 5D price will drop… this would be amazing because the 5D is a great camera from what i’ve seen.

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Starting my 2nd to last semester as a graduate student this past week. I’m only taking 2 classes, research and practicum. Both require a lot of time and work but I believe this will be a great experience for me. I’m looking forward to counseling ‘real’ clients.

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Tigers won. Lions lost. Bring on college football please!

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I’m looking forward to potentially shooting more sports this fall too. If you didn’t know I shoot for an online sports publication called SPMSportspage.

Shock and Brawl

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:56:19 +0000

Last night I shot the Detroit Shock Vs. LA Sparks for SPMSportspage. The game will be remembered for the last 5 seconds of brawling. It was my first assignment for SPMSportspage and I enjoyed getting to shoot it! Here’s a video of the action…

Check out the story about the game and one of my photos from the brawl. My photo gallery will be up shortly on SPMSportspage – I’ll post that when it’s added.

Update!
Here is the link to the photo gallery.

Exciting Things!

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:56:52 +0000

Some really cool things are in the works and I wish I could tell everyone about them… but I can’t just yet! Just know that things are going well and I am excited to share the upcoming projects with you soon!

Oh yeah… if you haven’t noticed the header (look above) has changed and so has www.jeffreysimms.com. I added a portfolio section that now encompasses some of the graphic design I’ve done. I’m really happy that things are starting to look on the up and up around here

!I’m teaching myself Adobe Lightroom and figuring out how to incorporate that into my workflow with Adobe Photoshop – it’s exciting!

MAC Championship Favorites

admin — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 21:43:48 +0000

Here’s a few of my favorites from December 1, 2007 MAC Championship Football Game at Ford Field.

You can view the set on my flickr here.