Dekat Wedding

I had the honor to shoot my friend Daniel's wedding last night.
Daniel was one of the first people to tell me that I should take my hobby to a professional level. I thanked him for letting me be at his wedding last night and he said that he had me in mind from day one, even before he was ever in a relationship.
That's pretty strong confidence! I'm so lucky to have people like him who have faith in me - even on days when I'm not so sure I have faith in myself.

I shot the wedding and then the family photos, and as I finished up with the bride and groom, we turned around to realize that we were the only ones left at the church! So I was also the limo service to get them to the reception! How many times has THAT ever happened to a photographer??!!! lol I'm guessing not too many.

The reception was a total blast with both sides of the family getting out and enjoying the dance floor and each others' company.

Here are a couple of the images that I picked out from the bunch to show:

The above shot is one of those one-in-a-million shots. I was shooting at 1/30th of a second and happened to catch someone else's flash going off at the same time as mine. This has only happened to me twice in my lifetime, but both times I've gotten an amazing photo out of it. This photo just would not have been the same without that extra light. Thanks for the help, whoever you were!

I'm sure I'll put some more up soon, but for now that's all you get!!

As Promised: Bridal Portraits!

In my last post I showed you how I photographed my friend Melissa for her bridal portraits. Unfortunately I couldn't show the images at the time, but I'm happy to say that, as of yesterday, they are happily married and I'm now free to show off the photos!

As I showed you the setup for the indoor ones, I'll go ahead and show you those.


Here is one with only one of the strip boxes firing. As you can see, the black background and white dress create a beautiful contrast, and the light makes the photos so incredibly dramatic.


Both lights firing this time. I probably should have moved them back a bit farther behind her, but the result is still very dramatic.

Finally, my favorite image from the series, which was blown up to a 16"x20" for her wedding day:


She loved them almost as much as I did! I was very happy that she let me shoot inside, as I've been trying to convince the brides-t0-be that I've shot to do it, but none of them have gone for the idea. Since she is a very good friend she was kind enough to indulge me.

Bridal Portraits

I did some bridal portraits last night for a very good friend. I have been trying to get brides to let me shoot them indoors on a black background so that the images could be black and white. The white dress with a black background really creates some powerful contrast and draws attention to the dress. Finally I was able to, mainly because my friend was nice enough to be my guinea pig.

For the project I rented two 6' tall strip boxes. The guy at the rental place acted like I was crazy for wanting to use them for bridal portraits! But I wish he could have been in the room with me as I shot some of the most powerful and dramatic bridal portraits I have ever shot. I put one on either side of her so that only her sides were lit. The bride loves them and I'm hoping that now that I have something to show to future brides I will be able to do it more often.
I mean, why would you not want to shoot indoors in July in Texas??? Its 100+ degrees outside, with 90% humidity!! This way you can do your hair and makeup and it stays the way you want it. You are not wearing a 10lb dress and sweating for 2 hours. OK, I can't promise you won't break a little sweat in a studio with lights and a heavy dress, but I guarantee it will not be anywhere near as bad as if you were outside!

I can't show you the photos I got for another month or so, but this is the basic setup I did: