What a spectacular wedding shoot for a wonderful couple! This was my second "professional" wedding gig, and it went off without a hitch! About 2 months ago, Lindsay, a co-worker of mine asked me if I was available to take photos at her wedding, and as I am attempting to start a bit of a burgeoning wedding photography business, I graciously accepted! Lindsay (and I) work at Rocky Mountain National Park in northwest Colorado, and she and her new husband Griff decided to plan a nice, simple, frugal outdoor celebration. As the wedding began, I was a bit tense as this was only my second professional wedding job, but as the ceremony got rolling, so did I. Aside from a few rain drops mid-ceremony (which no true Coloradoan would let affect their ceremony), everything went swimmingly! Along with me I brought my wonderful girlfriend Liz as my secondary photographer. I shot with my D90, and a borrowed friend's D90 with both the 18-200mm and 11-16mm lenses and two borrowed SB-600 speed lights, and Liz had the D40x loaded with the 18-55 lens loaded for detail shots. For Liz's first real photo-shooting outing, she did spectacularly! I was very proud of her.
Many wedding photographers post process their photos with a bit of a washed out filter. This gives the image a soft, pleasant feel, and, I think, serves to accentuate pastel colors which are common in wedding color palates. Being that this wedding was rather informal in dress-code, the soft coloration I applied nicely accentuates the pastel boutonniere and removes any harsh contrast that Lindsay's father's dark suit might have otherwise added.
After the ceremony, The wedding party stuck around for a bit for a few more portraits. Just out back of the ceremony location was a very neat, beat-up old shed that had some teal doors and a bit of really cool green mold growing on it. I captured this photo just as the last rain drops stopped falling for the afternoon.
Interesting angles also help make a wedding photograph stand out. I firmly believe that not every shot taken at a wedding should be a straight-on 90 degree perfect frame. Here, I was lucky enough to capture a loving gaze just after the official ceremony ended.
Before everyone scattered to make their way to the reception location, I got up on a picnic table and asked everyone to gather together for a final shot of the entire group. Right before I clicked the shutter, I thought to myself, "lets have a little fun with this," and told everyone to, "jump on the count of 3!" The resulting capture came out really well. This was truly an easygoing and fun group of people.
After the wedding party shots were finished, we headed out for some couple-only portraits in a field of wildflowers that Lindsay was familiar with. For these shots I switched over to my 50mm lens and was able to capture some really stunning shots as the weather cleared for the afternoon.
The "ring shot" is a classic detail image that should never be left out of a wedding photo shoot. In the past I have struggled a bit with these sorts of "macro" or close up shots as I do not have a dedicated macro lens. This image, taken with my 50mm was a tricky one to pull off. First of all, a shallow depth of field is essential to make a close-up photo "pop." My 50mm lens is a master at shallow depth of field, but the second problem that I needed to overcome was the fact that this lens is not macro specific. This means that it cannot focus on something that is within 2-3 feet of the front of the lens. Thirdly, we were out in a field taking these photos and were not able to set up a tripod for a nice, steady, controlled shot. My way around these problems was to switch the camera to continuous shooting mode, but with manual focus. Then instead of focusing individually on each shot, I had Liz hold the bouquet of flowers, with the rings, as I slightly moved in and then out with the camera, shooting continuously for about 12 frames. This allowed a different micro-subject in the frame to become in focus in each shot. I figured, that at least one out of the 12 shots had to have captured the wedding rings in focus, and when I came home and check them out, I was right! I'm quite proud of this in-the-field (no pun intended) problem solving and am very happy with how the shot came out.
What a spectacular wedding shoot for a wonderful couple! This was my second "professional" wedding gig, and it went off without a hitch! About 2 months ago, Lindsay, a co-worker of mine asked me if I was available to take photos at her wedding, and as I am attempting to start a bit of a burgeoning wedding photography business, I graciously accepted! Lindsay (and I) work at Rocky Mountain National Park in northwest Colorado, and she and her new husband Griff decided to plan a nice, simple, frugal outdoor celebration. As the wedding began, I was a bit tense as this was only my second professional wedding job, but as the ceremony got rolling, so did I. Aside from a few rain drops mid-ceremony (which no true Coloradoan would let affect their ceremony), everything went swimmingly! Along with me I brought my wonderful girlfriend Liz as my secondary photographer. I shot with my D90, and a borrowed friend's D90 with both the 18-200mm and 11-16mm lenses and two borrowed SB-600 speed lights, and Liz had the D40x loaded with the 18-55 lens loaded for detail shots. For Liz's first real photo-shooting outing, she did spectacularly! I was very proud of her.
Many wedding photographers post process their photos with a bit of a washed out filter. This gives the image a soft, pleasant feel, and, I think, serves to accentuate pastel colors which are common in wedding color palates. Being that this wedding was rather informal in dress-code, the soft coloration I applied nicely accentuates the pastel boutonniere and removes any harsh contrast that Lindsay's father's dark suit might have otherwise added.
After the ceremony, The wedding party stuck around for a bit for a few more portraits. Just out back of the ceremony location was a very neat, beat-up old shed that had some teal doors and a bit of really cool green mold growing on it. I captured this photo just as the last rain drops stopped falling for the afternoon.
Interesting angles also help make a wedding photograph stand out. I firmly believe that not every shot taken at a wedding should be a straight-on 90 degree perfect frame. Here, I was lucky enough to capture a loving gaze just after the official ceremony ended.
Before everyone scattered to make their way to the reception location, I got up on a picnic table and asked everyone to gather together for a final shot of the entire group. Right before I clicked the shutter, I thought to myself, "lets have a little fun with this," and told everyone to, "jump on the count of 3!" The resulting capture came out really well. This was truly an easygoing and fun group of people.
After the wedding party shots were finished, we headed out for some couple-only portraits in a field of wildflowers that Lindsay was familiar with. For these shots I switched over to my 50mm lens and was able to capture some really stunning shots as the weather cleared for the afternoon.
The "ring shot" is a classic detail image that should never be left out of a wedding photo shoot. In the past I have struggled a bit with these sorts of "macro" or close up shots as I do not have a dedicated macro lens. This image, taken with my 50mm was a tricky one to pull off. First of all, a shallow depth of field is essential to make a close-up photo "pop." My 50mm lens is a master at shallow depth of field, but the second problem that I needed to overcome was the fact that this lens is not macro specific. This means that it cannot focus on something that is within 2-3 feet of the front of the lens. Thirdly, we were out in a field taking these photos and were not able to set up a tripod for a nice, steady, controlled shot. My way around these problems was to switch the camera to continuous shooting mode, but with manual focus. Then instead of focusing individually on each shot, I had Liz hold the bouquet of flowers, with the rings, as I slightly moved in and then out with the camera, shooting continuously for about 12 frames. This allowed a different micro-subject in the frame to become in focus in each shot. I figured, that at least one out of the 12 shots had to have captured the wedding rings in focus, and when I came home and check them out, I was right! I'm quite proud of this in-the-field (no pun intended) problem solving and am very happy with how the shot came out.
