Tamee Renae Photography :: Official Online Journal

New Zealand Flowers

2009-02-07T12:17:00.000-08:00

Dahlia

2009-01-26T22:48:00.001-08:00

Roadside plants in New Zealand

2009-01-11T20:47:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of images of the beautiful plants growing on the side of the road in New Zealand.

Milford Track

2009-01-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

The Milford Track has been named the "Greatest Walk in the World". Obviously the person who gave it this title was there during beautiful weather! Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful hike, but man-oh-man are you at the mercy of the weather.

The track is 4 days long. The first day is an easy 2-hour hike. The second day is another relatively easy day of 6-hours, the last two hours being a pretty good climb. The third day consists of crossing over the McKinnon (altitude around 1045 meters), and then decending 870 meters in less than 7 kilometers! The fourth day is another 6 hour hike, mostly down-hill, to sea level.

The day my dad and I started the track, it was raining cats and dogs. The boat to the start of the track was delayed because the Department of Conservation was considering closing the track. Our 2-hour walk to the hut, was soggy, and involved many puddles, but we were able to walk around most of them. Had we started one day earlier (been on Day 2 of the track), we would have had to walk through meter deep water. Had we started two days earlier (been on Day 3 of the track), we would have experienced 100 kilometer/hr winds at the pass, and had to stay in a very small shelter with 90 other people for 3 hours!

We were VERY fortunate to have only one really bad day of weather--it did rain every day on the trail (they get upwards of 7 meters of rain a year there).

The scale of mountains was so mind blowing. Many times a picture wouldn't do the scene justice, so I just had to take a mental photograph. However, there were many opportunities to photograph the beautiful surroundings. Sometimes finding beautiful scenes were just a matter of stopping to look around. Below are some photos I took. I hope you enjoy them.

A new fern tree growth, called a koru

I (heart) New Zealand

Is that blue sky?

Soggy boots after Day 2

New Zealand's tallest waterfall -- Sutherland Falls (the right falls)

At Last, Mount Cook!

2009-01-01T02:14:00.001-08:00

When I was in New Zealand in 2004, I drove within view of Mt. Cook -- the highest peak in New Zealand, and the peak that Sir Edmund Hilary trained on for his Mt. Everest summit -- 3 times. Well, fourth time is the charm! At first, my dad and I were afraid that the cloud cover over the Southern Alps was going to obstruct our view again, but the cloud-gods pulled through for us. No joke, the lake water is the color you see (online it seems to be duller than my computer monitor) -- I remember someone saying there is something in the glacier run-off that causes it to be turquoise in color, probably sediment of some sort. We will be starting the Milford Track tomorrow (2 January here, 1 January for all you Americans), so I will not be posting for 4 days. It looks as though (knock on wood) tomorrow is going to be the worst weather-wise. Happy New Year!

New Zealand : Day 1

2008-12-31T01:07:00.001-08:00

I'm back in New Zealand! I studied abroad at Canterbury University for one year in 2004, and have been wanting to come back ever since.

A brief note : in 2004 I had a interest in photographing signs that were phrased differently or in a funny way. I hope to be able to share some new signs.

My journey started on 29 December at SFO. I flew 13 hours to Auckland, and then another hour to Christchurch (the city that was my home for 10 months). Needless to say, I was slightly delirious which resulted in a few odd photos. My dad arrived in the afternoon (he comes down here at least once a year for work). After dinner we went to the huge botanical gardens which is in the middle of the city. I have discovered my new favorite flower : the Dahlia

My new favorite flower

Why is there a sheep on top of my head?

Red Bull is sold in bottles?!?!

The best white chocolate ever!

Awesome sign.

2009 Calendar

2008-12-11T21:53:00.001-08:00

I have 11 2009 calendars left! Don't wait too long or you may miss out on the limited edition calendars. Here is the cover, the info page, and January thru March. Visit www.tameerenae.com/calendar for more info, more images, and a way to pay.

what i've been up to

2008-12-07T18:36:00.000-08:00

It amazes me how fast a year goes by. I remember when a week used to take forever back in elementary school! I've been busy, doing a wide variety of things. I've been working full-time for a wedding photographer, working part-time for another photographer, designing wedding albums for yet another photographer, and second shooting on weddings with several photographers. Oh, yeah...and doing my own work! Below are a couple highlights of the last few months.

mariah

2008-04-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

my family has been raising guide dog puppies since 1994. mariah is the 10th dog my family has raised. i took this photograph at my mom's office the week before mariah went back to guide dogs for the blind for her formal training.

another tree

2008-03-07T22:44:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more images I created yesterday. This will definitely be a new personal project!

davis

2008-03-06T22:30:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Davis about 30 minutes before sunset. The clouds were interesting and thought it might make for a pretty sunset. This shot was taken after the sun went over the coastal mountains, just a block from my house.

alcatraz

2008-03-02T15:45:00.000-08:00

I went to Alcatraz this past week. I have been wanting to go to the island since I moved back to Northern California...it has been 14 years since I went last. It is so amazing. I would really love to go back on the first ferry of the day and explore the island. Here are a few photographs I created.

daffodil

2008-02-05T23:13:00.000-08:00

Last night on my way home from work I stopped by the grocery store and picked up a small bunch of daffodils. I know everyone does it, but I felt like photographing flowers.

This was a definetly a McGiver setup. For my light source I took a small desk lamp and set it up on some boxes. My backdrop were two navy blue towels draped over my full-length mirror and the the wood frame the mirror used to be in--but it fell apart--which were leaning against the wall. I then had two sets of boxes pilled up, one blocking the light from my backdrop and the other set blocking the light from flaring my lens. And don't forget the vase that was sitting on a cardboard box. It was awesome.

For this shot, I had just moved my tripod or the flower, and was in the process of refocusing. I really liked the out-of-focus colorful shapes.

It's funny how I often go into a shoot with a particular idea of what I want but my favorite shot ends up being something completely different.

new logo

2008-02-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

I've been designing a new logo to brand my company for the past few weeks. It's a lot more difficult to design a logo that one would expect. But I have finally settled on one! Here it is

why are professional photographers so expensive?

2008-01-28T20:12:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting article originally posted at Caught on Film. It gives a little insight to the amount of work that goes into producing "professional results." The author says...

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home "photo printers", when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $55 for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?

Here's why.

Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved. If you don't read this entire page, at least read this first part.

For a two hour portrait session:
- one hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
- 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs
- 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.
- For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel time averages 2 hours.
You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.

For an eight hour wedding:
- I won't bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.

Now for the expertise...

You can read the rest of the article here.

wedding promo

2008-01-19T23:34:00.000-08:00

I've completed my wedding promotional piece. Now it's off to the presses! It's a 5 x 5 tri-fold

The front
Open the front flap,
Open the right flap,
Close all the flaps and turn it over,