In Fall of 2017, I had the immense honor of photographing two of my Senior Sem students, Jo and Abby, who were dating at the time.

A while back, Jo and Abby reached out to me to inquire about a new set of photos, this time to commemorate their wedding. Although I was not able to be at their wedding, they traveled all the way out to Ohio this weekend to let me capture images of their forever life together.

Overjoyed is an understatement. Seeing them again and being able to catch up was a special pleasure. Then came the celebrating of their marriage by way of photos. Pure delight!

It is my hope that these images are as meaningful to Jo and Abby as they are to me.

All shots made with a Sony Alpha A1 and one of my all-time favorite lenses, Sigma's 35mm f/1.2.

This is just the beginning. I will do more, I need to do more...I just need to figure out how and when. More details forthcoming. June 10 (above) might seem like an arbitrary date, but that's when my calendar is already full for the summer. For now, I feel like I'm just sitting around, and am desperate to take action.

If you don't want pictures taken, I take no offense. However, I will implore you to click on the GoFundMe below to help the affected families in Uvalde. Just do it - please.

Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659

Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein, BWV 734a

Jeanelle and Jimmy's wedding was absolutely lovely.  We were able to book the lobby of Severance Hall for an hour for portraits.  Wow!  What a gorgeous setting!

Let's first look at the final result of one of our shots:

I needed the bride to "pop" from her also-gorgeous surroundings, so I had my assistant splash some light on her with a softbox. Took a plate shot after this, then masked the softbox out in Photoshop. Boom!
Photo was made on a Sony Alpha A1 & the 14mm f/1.8 GM lens. Lighting by Godox and MagMod.

Here's the shot without the artificial light:

Here is an excerpt from the cadenza of the first movement of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1 as performed by Will at the competition finals.

Will will be performing this concerto with the Kent State University Orchestra on Sunday, February 27 at 3:00PM in Cartwright Hall Auditorium on the Kent, Ohio campus of KSU. I'm so grateful for this opportunity for him!

I'm also grateful for the opportunity to create some publicity photos this afternoon for Will!  These images were made on a Sony Alpha One with 35mm f/1.4 GM and 50mm f/1.2 GM lenses, and the lighting was made with two Godox speedlights and MagMod modifiers.

This Sonata by Franz Schubert - his last Sonata, finished a mere two months before his passing - contemplates death. However, it is not dark or grisly; it looks to the beyond with beauty, promise, and hope. It is a vision of peace.

This piece is very dear to me. It has grown with me as I have grown up through the years. It has accompanied me since the day I discovered it decades ago.

Thanks to the video and audio crew at Kent State for their fantastic work on this video. I'll post more movements in the future as I am able. Hope you enjoy!

All photos were made on a Sony Alpha A1 camera & 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 16-35mm Sony GM lenses. Lighting by Godox AD200s and MagMod modifiers.

I love reconnecting with people to learn how they've grown and where life has taken them.

This entire session was shot with Sony 50mm f/1.2 GM & Sony 135mm f/1.8 GM lenses mounted to an A9II camera.

This entire session was shot with the Sony 50mm f/1.2 GM lens mounted to a Sony Alpha One mirrorless camera body. Love it!

I met Jeanelle in Phoenix, Arizona in November of 2009 when I was soloist with the Phoenix Youth Symphony Orchestra.  Jeanelle was a violinist in the orchestra at the time; thanks in part to social media, we managed to keep in touch over the years.  As luck would have it, I ended up moving to the Cleveland area where Jeanelle now resides.  It was such a delight to see her for the first time in twelve years, and to meet her brand-new fiancé Jimmy.  Naturally, I had to take their engagement photos!

In case you missed it, here is the video recording of my Kent State University debut faculty recital on October 18, 2020.

Many thanks to the amazing sound and video crew at the Kent State University School of Music!  They did a great job with this production!

Be well,

Drew

Wonderfully assisted by second photographer, Ruth Vanden Bos.  Entire wedding shot with Sony Alpha A9, A9 II, & RX1R II cameras, along with assorted Sony/Zeiss lenses.

--October 4, 2020: "Reinvented: Transcriptions for Solo Piano"
--January 10, 2021: "Vive la France!"
--May 23, 2021: "All-Schubert"

Tickets and details can be seen at https://www.drewle.com/sofa-series

Andrew Le (Drew Le) performs on the Steinway Piano in the John and Dede Howard Recital Hall in the Jack H. Miller Center,

If you may notice, I had the score on the piano in front of me. I had decided against playing from memory this time, even though memorization is a hallowed tradition of classical piano performance. Memorization can be a formidable obstacle for some students; I have had students give up hope of pursuing piano performance as a career path because of this. By having the score in front of me for this performance, I wanted to show my students that memorization is not always a necessary prerequisite, especially if it potentially gets in the way of an effective performance.

Of course, there are many advantages to playing from memory. Removing the score removes the barrier (perceived or otherwise) between the performer and his/her instrument. The performer can communicate more fully and fluidly. 

What do you think? Is memorization overrated? Would relaxing this hallowed tradition make piano playing accessible for more students? Please comment below and let me know what you think!

This photo is from 2016, when Matthew and Kate were practically still babies. We were traveling to northern lower Michigan with their cousins, and I was hoping that in mid-August we might possibly have the whole dune to ourselves. Yeah, right. :) So, when we got home, I decided to delete everyone except ourselves from the picture.  This is super duper easy peasy once you get the hang of using the right tools in Photoshop: the Clone Stamp Tool, the Healing Brush, and Content-Aware Fill were my primary tools.  Using these three methods, I strived to make it look as realistic as possible.  Once all extraneous humans were gone, I adjusted the color and shadow/highlight balance to taste.  Boom!  My hopes were realized and we had the whole dune to ourselves!

Camera settings: Sony A7 with Sony/Zeiss FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS lens @ 16mm & f/9, 1/320 second, ISO 100.

Happy Shooting!

Before. After.

This is definitely one of my all-time favorite family photos I've taken.  I exposed this shot for the highlights (the sky), knowing that the superduper sensor on my Sony mirrorless camera can dial up the shadows with minimal penalty.  All I did to the original file here was toy around with basic settings in Adobe Lightroom: White Balance, Highlights/Shadows, Hue-Saturation-Luminance, and Tone Curves.  That's it...I just moved the sliders around until the photo appeared to taste.  Boom!

Younger kids generally abhor posing for family photos, so I just let them run freely around the parents. :)

Camera settings: Sony A9, Sony/Zeiss FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA lens @1.8, 1/6400 second, ISO 100.

Happy Shooting!

   Before. After.

As you can see, the original SOOC (straight-out-of-camera) shot is pretty flat and dull, but has potential to become much better with a few easy adjustments. The Pros of this photo: strongly romantic moment; I love her windblown hair; nice and centered composition. Cons: the sky is totally blown out, obliterating the clouds; narrow color gamut; lack of contrast. 

The human eye is instinctively drawn to the lightest and warmest parts of an image. Since the brightness of the sky is super distracting, I dialed down the highlights in the sky using the Adjustment Brush, along with lowering the color temperature in the sky to help bring out the blues. I then used the Radial Filter to recover the shadows in her face, which helps to draw the viewer's attention first and foremost to their amazing kiss. I also added a touch of warmth with the White Balance Temperature dial, amplifying the effects of the Golden Hour. Finally, I cloned out (using the Spot Removal tool) a couple of distracting flare artifacts and a branch in the upper right corner, brightened her engagement ring a touch to give it some sparkle, and voila -- done! (All my adjustments were done in Adobe Lightroom Classic -- no need for Photoshop here.)

Camera and settings are as follows: Sony A9, Sigma 35mm f/1.2 @ f/1.2, 1/6400 second, ISO 100.

I hope this helps y'all. Happy Shooting!

Before.

After.