Bottle stopper and business card holder

This idea came to my mind after I saw table filled with guest names at one of my California Coast wedding last year. I liked the idea so much and started to use it whenever I want my card stands out somewhere on the table. I took this photo at my kitchen couple of minutes ago to show you how it looks in general.

Canon 85/1.2L | Capitol Hill Studio

All time devoted assistant Fluffy is holding one of my favorite lens for portrait sessions. The Canon 85/1.2L is a great quality short telephoto lens. The lens produce an extremely shallow depth of field that throws away any background objects out of focus in medium light. I love the fact that it works perfectly without using a high noise ISO like 1600 or 3200 as well.

What I do in general is to focus on subject's eyes and hoping the viewers to accept the rest of the image rendered slightly soft.

Emilia Sin and Peter Padiotis's St. Katherine’s Greek Orthodox Church Wedding in Falls Church, Virginia

Hi everybody, Slacking a little on my blog post lately, and in general, back to back weddings are taking its toll, but...from now I will try to post every day...see how that goes. Wish me luck. This image is from Emilia Sin and Peter Padiotis's St. Katherine’s Greek Orthodox Church Wedding. I shot that image from a small stair behind the mezzanine with my 15mm f1.2 lens. I run back to aisle to catch the first kiss right before they were announced husband and wife for the first time.

Thank you everybody for attending Contemporary Wedding Photography Workshop in Istanbul!!

I just received this beautiful picture from Istanbul Contemporary Wedding Photography Workshop host Muammer Yanmaz.It was such a beautiful day with great people. Thank you for all the phone calls and e-mails after the workshop. I decided to share some of the e-mails (only the good ones:) with my curious fans.

"Çok verimli bir seminerdi. Fotoğrafçılıktaki başarınızın yanısıra, eğitici kimliğiniz de gerçekten çok kuvvetli...

Bu hafta 2 defile çekme şansı yakaladım. Aynen anlattığınız üzere, çekim boyunca elimdeki tek iyi lens olan 50 mm.f1.4 ile bol bol hareket ettim ve çok iyi kareler yakaladım. Ve en önemlisi hedeflenen 5 kişi ile tanıştım:)

Çok çok teşekkür ediyorum. Motive etmeniz ve inanılmaz enerjinizle bizi büyülediniz... Başarılarınızın devamını diliyorum, sevgilerimle" Süreyya Arıkan

"Tekrar tesekkurler, sayenizde cok yararli bir bulusma oldu. Umarim tekrar gorusebiliriz, sizinle tanistigim icin cok cok memnun oldum" Merve Toprak

"Bugünkü keyifli sunumun için teşekkürler. Belki net bir çizgi ile hayatımı kesip profesyonel fotoğrafçılığa adım atacağım bugünlerde çok faydalı oldu bu workshop benim için" Barış ER

Contemporary Wedding Workshop | Istanbul

I had been invited by Muammer Yanmaz to speak at his famous workshop series in his Mecidiyekoy, Istanbul Studio this weekend as a Contemporary Wedding Photographer. This will be the first Contemporary Wedding Photography workshop that will hold in Turkey and I'm so exited and so grateful to be part of this project.

Here is the snapshot from Haber Turk.

Demet Evgar | Istanbul

Demet Evgar is one of the most talented Turkish film actress. She came to prominence after bringing in several awards and nominations for her roles. She is noted for having played diverse characters over her career has since established herself as a Modern Turkish Cinema lead actress, starring in several films, including “Banyo”, "Beyza’nın Kadınları" and "Güneşi Gördüm".She is currently working on the set of "Yahşi Bati" with Cem Yilmaz.

I had this session almost 8 moths ago with Demet Evgar while I was documenting her preparation before her performance at Kenter Theatre. I'm in Istanbul right now and yesterday we were having a meeting for her upcoming movie "Yahşi Bati". These are my quick picks from the previous session.

“Why Loyalty Matters” | Washington, DC

This image is from a photo shoot session at my DC studio for a jacket of bestselling book by Timothy Keiningham and Lerzan Aksoy. "Why Loyalty Matters" which came out July 7th, 2009 and made the Nielsen National Book scan Business Bestseller list in a week. It is a "Groundbreaking Approach to Rediscovering Happiness, Meaning and Lasting Fulfillment in Your Life and Work"

If you would like to get more information please refer to this link.

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Loyalty-Matters-Groundbreaking-Rediscovering/dp/1933771720/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249009088&sr=8-1

Importance Of Using Reflector | Washington, DC

This last portrait session I had at the medical center is a great example to show the importance of using a simple light reflector to turn the location into a studio. To bounce the light onto your subjects you can use reflectors with a variety of surfaces, white, silver and gold. The idea is to bounce some light into the shadow areas thereby reducing the overall contrast of the shot.

By moving closer to the subject or further away you can play with the amount of contrast.

In this shot I used white 22" round bounce to control the florescence light by reflecting some portion of the beam before it reaches the lens.

Deren Kurtay | Washington, DC

I love being part of surprises. Here is couple of pictures from special Father's Day Photo session.

Eleven Hearts Photography Selected One Of The Best Photographers Near Beverly Hills, California

I received an e-mail couple of days ago that I had been selected as one of the 5 best photographers near Beverly Hills, California. This gives me a great pleasure to receive an award from Associated Content Society. I love working in California and be there soon to shoot more.

Mother's Day surprise photo session at our Capitol Hill Studio in DC.

Happy Mother's Day everybody. I wanted to post my recent Mother's Day shooting for this special day. Recently father of Samantha contacted to me to shoot her pictures for a surprise gift for his wife. We immediately arranged the shooting and then gather the prints and the slide shows together. As you can see she is unbelievably cute and being part of these great moments as a photographer will last in my memory for many years.

Tracy Mitnick + Ross Levitt | Baltimore

I shot this wedding as an assistant of a great photographer and good friend of mine Cliff Mautner at Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore. That was such an honor to be around and to see a pro like Cliff at work. He had to deal with difficult light situations all day. At one point he shot the formal portrait session against a huge mirror which is usually a very laborious job because of the reflection. After I got back from the wedding I felt like I attended a really good workshop. Learned so much as usual by just being around him. He is the Light Master.

Can't wait to work together again.

Venice Beach |California

Very fun session with Samone Jewett and her friends. They all lived in California before but later decided to move to different States. Love to get together and visit Venice Beach every year. Thank you very much for letting me part of their fun fun day.

Gigi Goknur Olguner has been featured in Hurriyet Newspaper

Gigi Goknur Olguner has been featured in Hurriyet Newspaper

Bilgehan Tuncer and String Theory The Music Band

Bilgehan is a very talented Turkish-American musician who resides in Boston, MA. After he graduated from Berklee College of Music, he decided to stay in States and teach music. Every year people travel from different states to be able to work with him.

This photo session took place in downtown Boston in the middle of the night. I intentionally wanted to use the available light at night. We drove for an hour in the city until I find a place where I can play with different light shots. Most of the pictures took place in the park of the Church of Scientology.

To get the longer shutter speed I needed to decrease the aperture. The smaller the aperture the longer the exposure times become and the more depth of field your images will have. I know I Just repeat the basics of photography but low-light photography is possible only if you’re experimenting fearlessly just by using the basic knowledge.

String Theory is one of his newly gathered music bands. I shot the featured photo while Costa was having fun with my beloved Polaroid  SX-70 camera.

Gigi Goknur Olguner Featured in Perfect Wedding Magazine

Gigi Goknur Olguner Featured in Perfect Wedding Magazine

It's an honor to be featured for Perfect Weddings first issue in Turkey. I wish them a good luck and many many happy brides. I'm sure they will discover great tips for their weddings by just flipping the pages.

Gigi Goknur Olguner Listed in Best Photographer in Washington, DC By Washingtonian A-LIST

We are so proud to be Listed as Best Photographer in Washington, DC By Washingtonian A-LIST.

Thank you D.C.

Wedding Day Letter to the Bride.

It is nothing as romantic as the moment when the bride reads a letter from the groom. A wedding day letter to the bride is one of the best gifts that the groom could ever give. Their love has embarked upon a journey that will change their lives forever. During this time, it is normal to reflect upon hopes and dreams for the couple in the future. A beautifully composed letter is sure to be passed from generation to generation, becoming a family wedding tradition for years to come.