Shawn Morrissey Photography’s Blog Has Moved
Grand Forks Wedding and Engagement Photographer, Shawn Morrissey, has a new address for his blog. You can find Shawn Morrissey Photography’s new Blog HERE.
SHARE AN ENGAGEMENT SESSION WITH MELANIE AND MATT
I met Melanie a few years back when I was asked to photograph her sister’s wedding. When Melanie asked if I would be the one to capture HER big day, I jumped at the chance because I knew how much fun it would be to work with her family once again! Melanie and her Fiance, Matt…met me downtown and we couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful evening to capture some engagement photos. They were both so easy to work with and we even got to work Matt’s motorcycle into some of the photos (I’m a big fan of motorcycles).
All in all…I think we had a fun evening, learned more about one another, and captured some amazing photos. I can’t wait to have the opportunity to photograph these two on their wedding day!
If you would like to book your Wedding or Engagement Session, Contact Me Now!
Olympus OM-D 5 Mark II
Olympus OM-D 5 Mark II
Olympus OM-D 5 Mark II
Olympus OM-D 5 Mark II
Olympus OM-D 5 Mark II
Olympus OM-D 5 Mark II
Olympus OM-D 5 Mark II
Olympus OM-D 5 Mark II
Olympus OM-D 5 Mark II
A Grand Forks Engagement Session with Kayla and Tanner
Despite the short summer we’ve had here in Grand Forks, autumn has actually been quite nice. October gave us a lot of days in the 60’s and 70’s which is awesome when you shoot photos outside. My engagement session with Kayla and her fiancé, Tanner, happened to be a nice sunny afternoon with no wind…which sounds perfect…but it was only 45 degrees out! That didn’t stop us from capturing the mood, the memories, the colors, and the emotions of the day while traveling from UND’s campus to downtown Grand Forks.
Some Favorite Summer Portraits 2014
It’s been a very busy year for me and one thing I’ve been neglecting has been my blog posts. Now that fall has arrived, it’s the perfect time to recap the summer with a handful of my favorite photos from the summer of 2014! Thanks to all the wonderful families that helped make my summer so colorful!
Becki and Spruce: A September Wedding in Gentilly, MN.
Becki and Spruce: A September Wedding in Gentilly, MN.
Becki and Spruce’s wedding was one of the most unique weddings I’ve had the privilege of photographing. It was an outdoor wedding in Gentilly, MN. Grey clouds blocked out the sun for most of the day which was great for pictures, but the accompanying winds made it a bit challenging. Towards the middle of the ceremony, the winds subsided and the clouds parted letting the bright evening sun shine down almost like a blessing from above on the soon-to-be husband and wife’s union. The blending of people, cultures, traditions, and religions made the whole day very refreshing and I’m very happy to have played a small part of it all.
An Engagement Session with Kim and Dan
An Engagement Session with Kim and Dan
At the beginning of the year, I donated a portrait session for a cancer benefit’s silent auction. Kim and her fiance Dan were the high bidders. They contacted me and wished to have some engagement photos taken but wanted to wait until summer. So, last week we finally got together. Starting off on UND’s campus, hitting Englestad Arena, walking downtown, and ending up in East Grand Forks…we sure got our daily exercise in. By the end of the shoot, not only did we get some great shots, but we all got to help out a good cause.
Jennifer and Paul: A Maternity Session
Jennifer and Paul: A Maternity Session
Jennifer and Paul are soon-to-be parents…Very Soon. Jennifer contacted me, not too long ago, for a Maternity photo shoot. She and her husband Paul invited me to their lovely home on a great summer evening and we took advantage of their spacious yard and the fantastic weather. I have very little experience taking Maternity photos, but the whole thing was very relaxed and I think we got some photos that the “expecting” parents can enjoy for years to come.
Mr. and Mrs. Krueger: The wedding of Leslie and Adam
Mr. and Mrs. Krueger: The wedding of Leslie and Adam
Leslie and Adam were married at Timmer’s Resort in West Bend, WI (just north of Milwaukee) on July 28th, 2012. The weather was just right for an outdoor wedding…80 degrees, sunny, no wind, no humidity. The resort itself had a very calming aura to it…even amidst all of the wedding day happenings. The whole day went by so fast and as evening came and the two were married, their friends and family celebrated with them on one of the nicest mid-summer nights you could ask for.
A Wedding in Alvarado, MN – Monique and Andy Become Mr. and Mrs. Manz.
A Wedding in Alvarado, MN – Monique and Andy Become Mr. and Mrs. Manz.
July 14th, 2012…Alvarado, MN. For Monique and Andy, this was the day they were to be married. You couldn’t have asked for a better summer day to shoot a wedding…well, besides the insane temperature! It was 90 degrees with 70 percent humidity. The entire wedding party was such a pleasure to work with and one of the more fun and entertaining groups I’ve had the honor of shooting for. The day flew by and the ceremony was great.
Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Manz on the start of their new life together!
Christina and her Kids: A Photoshoot in Downtown Grand Forks and University Park
Christina and her Kids: A Photoshoot in Downtown Grand Forks and University Park
For this photoshoot, we started in downtown Grand Forks and ended up in University Park on the University of North Dakota Campus. It was such a nice Sunday afternoon and it was a real pleasure shooting such great children.
An Evening at Sertoma Park: Photo Shoot with the Ryans
An Evening at Sertoma Park: Photo Shoot with the Ryans.
It was a great Friday evening last week when I was asked to take photos of the Ryan family. We decided to shoot at Sertoma Park in Grand Forks. The weather was fantastic and we pretty much had the entire park to ourselves aside from the occasional jogger. I think we got some great shots and it was a great way to end a very long week. 
Little Annika turns 1!
I was asked to come take photos of little Annika who had just turned 1 year old. We decided to shoot in the back yard of Annika’s house. She had just started teething and was not a happy camper at first, but she soon started enjoying herself. We just let her play and do her thing and got some great shots of her alone and also interacting with her parents. To me, the best photos are the ones that are unscripted and capture just a split second of the child’s natural personality. It was such a nice day out and everything seemed to come together well.
The band “SPLIT”…Let’s rock!
The lead singer/head guitarist for the local band Split approached me to take some photos of the band. We had been trying to set this up for some time now and either bad weather or schedule conflicts made it pretty difficult to get us all together. We finally got everything to work out and we couldn’t have asked for a nicer sunday afternnon to do our photoshoot. If you are ever in the area and SPLIT is playing…make sure to check them out!
Memorial Day Weekend with Little “Vivian”
Memorial Day weekend is always a big weekend for me. I travel down to southern Minnesota to visit all of my relatives on my Mom’s side and also to visit my Father’s grave and attend the Memorial Day service they have at the cemetery he is buried in. It’s always a great weekend with lots to do and see. This year, my cousin had a baby girl “Vivian” that was only 7 weeks old. She asked if I could take some newborn photos while we were at Grandma’s farm. The Day we shot was our big Family Bar-B-Q and most of my relatives were at the farm eating, drinking, and having fun. We tried taking a few shots outside with little Vivian but it was 92 degrees out with 40 mph winds…Needless to say, not very ideal for the poor little baby! So we moved inside the 130 yr old Farm house, which was 92 degrees inside, but with no wind. There wasn’t much space to shoot so we made a Make-shift studio in one of the tiny upstairs bedrooms. It was a real challenge. Vivian was great…sat perfectly still and loved looking at the camera. The problem was the room had orange carpet, and 2-tone brown walls…so I had a tough time with the lighting. After it was all said and done, I believe we got some precious photos of little Vivian. I hope my cousin likes them. 
Product Review for PERFECT EFFECTS 3 by onOne Software
I’m always on the lookout for products that may make my life a bit easier, make my workflow go a little faster, or help me bring a fresh new look to my photos. Whenever possible, I’ll try the demo versions of new photo editing software just to see if any of them can help me out in any way. That brings me to this quick little review for onOne Software’s “PERFECT EFFECTS 3“. In the past, I’ve tried another product from onOne called “Perfect Resize 7” which I loved…so when I saw this one advertised, I thought I’d give it a try.
Here is how onOne describes this product:
Perfect Effects builds on the popularity of PhotoTools to give photographers an even faster and more powerful way to create images with impact. Perfect Effects 3 includes a complete library of professional quality photographic effects that can be previewed live on your image before being applied. The new live previews are also shown in full screen so you can see your image at its best. You’ll love the ability to easily stack multiple effects together to create your own unique look.
Perfect Effects 3 takes the idea of stacking effects even further with the new blending options that provide even more control over how effects are combined. These advanced tools include blending modes options and the ability to limit effects to specific color or tonal range of an image.
Now Perfect Effects 3 works where you do. It integrates seamlessly into your workflow whether you use Lightroom, Aperture or Photoshop and even works as a standalone application. Photoshop is no longer required.
Ok…First I’ll go with the positives. The program is very easy to install and start up. The workspace is set up nice with “ease of use” in mind. I really liked the large preview image that you can add different effects to with the click of your mouse and see the changes in a split second. The other really great thing is that this can be used as a stand alone program. People that aren’t Photoshop or Lightroom masters can easily and instantly add creative effects to their photos without having to watch countless tutorials or read numerous “How-to” books. I think it would be a wonderful product for a beginner or a hobbyist. As for professionals…I really didn’t find much that this program could do that I couldn’t replicate in Photoshop…HOWEVER, Perfect Effects can do many of the effects with 1 click of the mouse which can save an Enormous amount of time. Also, you can stack effects on top of each other and make a unique look and you can save that as a “preset” so in the future, if you want that same look added to other photos, you can just goto your saved presets and apply it to them. I believe this product can save a professional a lot of time, if that professional spends a lot of time editing the photos to give them a certain personal style.
And on to the negatives. When I first downloaded and installed the program, it was on a computer that wasn’t mine. The program installed and loaded easily enough, but when I tried to open an image to edit, the image never appeared. I could see a small thumbnail of it, but the large image that was supposed to be right in front of me never showed up. The support on onOne’s website is a bunch of forums and FAQ pages. Spending over an hour looking through these I came across someone saying that my computer’s graphics card driver might not be up to date. The computer is only 2 months old but I found the driver and searched for any updates. It assured me that it was running the current version. Frustrated, I just went home and tried installing it on my computer. No problems what-so-ever!! Everything worked like a charm. I never followed up on why it didn’t work on the first computer because I get easily frustrated trying to ask a company for support and then getting an automated message, redirected over and over, or worse yet…a live person who doesn’t have a clue what they are talking about. I would definitely suggest that if you are interested in this product, try the 30 day Free trial first and check if it will work on your computer before shelling out the full price. I recommend trying the free trial in any case.
I guess to conclude things…Besides the glitch of me not being able to get PERFECT LAYERS 3 to work on the first computer I tried it on, and the round-a-bout support the site has…I would say that this is definitely a product that is worth checking out. Especially if you are a beginner at editing photos. It’s ease of use and massive variety of effects can really add that special “punch” to your photos. It is a useful “add-on” to Photoshop or Lightroom to help professionals as well. You can try it out for 30 days free here…or purchase it for a price $69.95. Not a bad price.
I hope this was a helpful review and thanks for taking the time to read through it!
A Thursday Evening with my Brother and his Family
My brother asked me to take some portraits of his family, so we headed to downtown Grand Forks near the River’s edge and took the following photos. It was a very nice evening near 90 degrees and very close to sunset. My nephews did their absolute best in making me work to get them to cooperate…but I think everything turned out nice.
Chase on his Grandfather’s Farm
Chase was my first photo session of 2012. We shot on location at his Grandfather’s farm.
Shawn Morrissey Photography 