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It is always an honor to photograph Bryan Station High School’s multi-faith senior event in May. We are working hard this week to get a gallery ready for folks who attended the event (remember to keep the password from your program). Meanwhile, you can see a preview at our Facebook page.

If you have any questions, please  Email me.

Want to book Rich Copley Photo for your event or photo session? Check out our rates and booking info, and Email me.

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It was an incredible honor to photograph Eliana’s Bat Mitzvah, Saturday. This is a quick update for folks looking for photos. We are briskly working on images and expect to have photo booth pictures up by midweek and a gallery from the ceremony and celebrations by the end of the week. Meanwhile, you can catch a few more preview images on our Facebook page.

If you have any questions, please  Email me.

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Well, that was fast.

After three months of what was starting to seem like endless winter — by Central Kentucky standards — it got warm, the trees bloomed and dropped their white and purple buds, ginormous bees started bumbling around and, click, it’s spring. That means we are now in senior picture season, spring being a time where current seniors trying to get things done and current juniors trying to get ahead of the game are ready for their closeups.

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This is, of course, the time of the year where you’d really like to get your shots done if your tastes run toward blooming flowers and lots of vibrant green as your backdrop.

I have written posts before about how I approach senior pictures, but it is a topic I don’t mind revisiting because I love senior pictures and my approach has evolved. So, planning with me, here are things to keep in mind:

The place(s). I customize shoots to you in a style called portrait photojournalism. We want to get shots in places and doing things that say something about you, your passions and activities. For example:

Kevin loved Camp Burnamwood, so we went down there.

Damarcus is very into lacrosse, so we got him in that context.

Marylynne was a high school thespian heading off to study stage in college. So we got her at her beloved Lexington Opera House, and in her beloved Mustang pop top.

So think of a few settings that speak to you, and we’ll work to shoot there and put you in that context. I will frequently split shoots, at no additional cost, if you’re interested in two places that don’t necessarily work well for one shoot.

The clothes. Really, pick your favorites; clothes you look good in, that you are comfortable in. If you look good, you’re going to feel good, thus you will likely look good in your pictures.

One thing I do advise is pick at least one nice, dressy looking outfit. We’re not necessarily talking about a suit and tie or formal dress, but something you’d wear to an occasion where you want to look good, like, oh, graduation.These pictures are supposed to mark a moment in time, so you want to look your best.

What you’ll be doing. Not going to lie, there will be posing. But again, we aren’t aiming to make you uncomfortable and want poses that will make you look good. But I also like a little action in portraits. So, if your big thing is playing an instrument, we’ll have you do that a bit. I you play a sport, we’ll try to document that. When we shot Damarcus, a friend hung out for a few minutes to pitch lacrosse balls with him so we could get some  shots of him at play.

When we shoot. My shoots generally lean toward afternoons-evenings and weekends, though I am flexible. I try to max out at an hour a location. Just get in touch with me via  email, Facebook or Twitter, and we’ll get it set up.

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Click here to see more senior pictures by Rich. (This post will be at the top, so scroll down.)

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Over the years, my own kids have gone in and out of sports, and usually those activities have included the group team photo and individual, take-a-knee shots which we were heavily encouraged to get on a coffee mug, T-shirt or “photo sculpture.”

I have nothing against those photography outfits. They do what they do very well and efficiently.

But the pictures I wanted were from the field: my ultra-competitive son in the thick of the action trying to get a foot on the ball; my daughter grinding out a race. Blow that up and put it on my wall.

When I hung out my shingle as a photographer for hire, I was surprised and continue to be surprised to get hired to do youth sports photography. I just did high school ice hockey this winter.

Of course, spring reminds me of my favorite sports: golf and baseball — the crack of the bat, the click of the camera.

My sports photography pitch is fairly simple: You can hire me to come shoot an individual athlete or a team. I’ll shoot the action and get you some shots that get you into the game. Your time and budget allowing, we can also work in team and individual athlete photos. I will post the images at my photo sales website where all the team members and their families can choose and purchase their favorite shots.

So, play ball! That’s when I love to start taking pictures.

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Want to book Rich Copley Photo to photograph your child or team in action, or for something else? Check out our rates and booking info, and Email me.

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Rob is a movie guy.

He enjoys the movies, is always fairly up on who’s in what, what’s good and not so much, and what’s coming up. So, it makes perfect sense that he works at Lexington’s beloved Kentucky Theatre. And who knows, maybe his work will be up on that screen someday, as Rob is also and actor, and he’s taking a turn at theater directing before his senior year is out.

We did a split senior picture session with Rob, getting together at the Arboretum for a shoot toward the end of last fall, and then continuing a few weeks ago at the Kentucky Theatre. I’ve already told him that if he ends up as a Hollywood big shot, I’m going to send him some of these photos of him watching the screen to remind him how prophetic this shoot was.

Many thanks to Fred Mills and his Kentucky Theatre staff for letting us shoot in their place.

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Want to book Rich Copley Photo for your senior pictures or something else? Check out our rates and booking info, and send us an email.

Matthew West

This is what I knew heading out to cover Winter Jam for the Herald-Leader and LexGo.com, Saturday night: I wanted to keep the photography  simple with two lenses and two bodies.

Tobymac and Nirva "Nirva Ready" Dorsaint-Ready

I was going to be hoofing all over Rupp Arena. I was going to be reporting and shooting. I didn’t want to bother with hauling a heavy camera bag around. So I wanted two lenses. The first was easy, the 80-200, the bread and butter lens of a concert photographer — the one that gets the viewer up close and personal with the star. The second, in my bag, is a tossup: wide zoom 17-35 or normal zoom 24-70? The normal zoom is safe, as it’ll get you semi-wide and semi-closeup in one hunk of glass. But if you can get solid, wide concert shots, as concert photography guru Todd Owyoung preaches, they’re just about the coolest things you can get because they are so up close and immediate.

(Note: This repeated dilemma is why at some point I want to add a 17-55 to my bag, to cover the wide-to-normal bases.)

So, I decided to roll with the 17-35, and almost immediately regretted it. The security guard on one side of the stage limited me to to corner of the stage, rarely the spot for great wide shots, and what I was framing up zoomed to 35 felt really wide and short on character.

So, I was surprised when I got home, edited down the evening for an online gallery, and my choices swung about 70-30 in favor of the wide lens.

Part of it was my impatience. My frustration kicked in after snapping a few early acts, which usually keep to the center of the stage more, whether it’s because they aren’t used to having such a big playground as an arena stage or other acts’ gear is squeezing them in.

Then there was the camera back factor. The closeups often look more compelling on the camera LCD than the wide shots, which sort of need the computer presentation.

Whatever the reason, I was happy with the shot at redemption. After initial misgivings, the choice of the wider lens proved wise. It allowed me to get some really satisfying shots, particularly of Tobymac and his Diverse City band and when Red’s Michael Barnes decided to get really close.

Jason Castro

Michael Barnes of Red

Red

Byron Chambers of Tobymac's Diverse City band

Fan Logan Crockett of Dayton, Ohio

Russ Lee of Newsong

Zach Oswald of OBB

Tobymac

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When I met Dunbar’s High School’s hockey coach, I told him the last time I shot hockey was 1993. I was doing a freelance writing and shooting gig for an alt weekly in Norfolk, and I am sure the other shooters at the Hampton Roads Admirals game were amused by the kid with the Nikon FM and the slooooow zoom lens. One thing immediately came back to me: this game is fast. It’s also fun and the people who play it are devoted to it. I can understand, because after about 45 minutes of shooting, I was ready for more.

Team member or parent? Click here for the complete gallery.

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Want to book Rich Copley Photo to photograph your child or team in action, or for something else? Check out our rates and booking info, and Email me.

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You don’t have to look at my site long to figure out I love black and white. And Samantha and Antony’s wedding was a primo black-and-white event.

Black and white is a great storytelling medium, and that’s what I’m trying to do shooting a wedding: tell the story of that day. And for my money, wintertime is the best season for black and white because of the muted light and spare landscape. Of course, when the flowers are blooming or leaves are changing, we want to go all technicolor. But this is the time of year is great for the deep blacks, bright whites and silvery tones that fall in between.

As Antony and Samantha said, “I do,” Lexington was getting its first touch of real winter.

But mostly, black-and-white is romantic to me. Maybe it’s watching all those old black-and-white romances like Casablanca when I was a kid, but it is the tone that says true love to me. And all you have to do is look in Antony and Samantha’s eyes to see true love. So here’s a look at their snowy wedding, with a heavy nod to the black and white.

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WANT TO BOOK RICH COPLEY PHOTO FOR YOUR WEDDING OR SOMETHING ELSE? CHECK OUT OUR RATES AND BOOKING INFO, AND EMAIL ME.

Also, please note I have a wedding special running until Feb. 21.

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A diverse group gathered Sunday afternoon at Lexington’s Greater Liberty Baptist Church for an interdenominational service in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The youth-oriented service was organized by Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church, Greater Liberty and other congregations, and it featured a sermon by Rev. Michael Wortham of Atlanta’s Ebeneezer Baptist Church, Dr. King’s home church. The service had lots of music from a youth choir made up of kids from several churches, the Greater Liberty worship band and a few guest musicians, and neat moments like a time when everyone was instructed to find someone they did not know and take a cell phone photo together.

Watching the scene, you had to think it was a moment Dr. King would have loved.

Both my wife, who catered refreshments for the event, and I have to give a shout out to Rev. John Lee Jr. and his staff and congregation at Greater Liberty: All afternoon we felt so welcome and cared for, like we were family or something. We hope to go back there sometime soon.

Want to see all the photos from Sunday’s service? Click here.

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Want to book Rich Copley for an event or photo session? Check out my rates and booking info, and Email me.

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OK, kids. It’s January. The holidays just happened, and we know what that means.

A certain question was asked — a lot.

And the answer was yes.

So now you have a wedding to plan, including hiring a photographer. In the Lexington area, you have a lot of great options.

I am one of the newer kids on the block and certainly hope you give me a look. Weddings are one of my favorite things to do because I love immersing myself in the experience and tapping several different types of photography from portraiture to photojournalism. Most of all, I love having the responsibility of telling the story of your big day.

If you’re interested, here’s a little something to sweeten the deal: If you book me for your 2013 or ’14 wedding before Feb. 21 (after all, there is another big pop the question day coming up) I will throw in a free engagement photo session and a 10 percent discount on your total wedding package.

So please, take a look around at my wedding portfolio and wedding posts, and if you like what you see, get in touch and let’s see if we can get on each other’s calendars.