The last thing we did was the bride got into the lake wearing her dress. This was a group shoot rather than just individuals.
This one was nice, but you can’t tell she’s actually in the water. In the one below, she is obviously in the water.
A post in a Facebook group asked for a photographer for a wedding. It was from another photographer who was in the wedding party and was going to do the miscellaneous shots before the ceremony and at the reception, but just needed someone to photograph the ceremony. We settled on a price and met and discussed it. The bride was her sister. The wedding was to be outside at Whitehall Park in Woodway. Their family was mainly biker types, and the wedding was to have that atmosphere. The night before, it rained fairly heavily. I got to the location early to scout things out, and the ground wasn’t too bad. Given the logistics, I decided on three lenses – 10 – 20 f/3.5, 24-70 f/2.8, and 70 – 200 f/2.8.
I had a free afternoon, and I had been told that there were lots of really interesting places in Hico. Hico is a small town on Hwy 6. It is apparently the home of Billy the Kid because there is a statue of him in the middle of town, and apparently a museum as well. I drove around the town and saw lots of interesting locations.
There were alleys behind buildings that had back doors like this. It was really cool.
I can imagine these as great places for a bridal shoot.
This shell of an old building had tons of character.
After the ceremony, all the guests were made to go out into the foyer while the formal portraits were taken and the chairs removed. There were refreshments and a calypso band. Once the ballroom was ready, everyone was ushered back in. The first event on the agenda was the toasts. I don’t remember what the best man said, but it got a reaction from the others.
The bride did not want pictures of the guests at their tables for dinner, and that was fine with us. There were too many guests, the lighting was terrible, and we got to rest just a little. After dinner, they started the dances. The bride and groom danced, then the groom and his mother. The bride’s father was deceased. So, she decided to do four dances, one with each of her brothers. Her brothers came from Puerto Rico. So, it was a special occasion for them. Cindy said that this meant a lot to the bride. So, we concentrated on getting really good pictures of these dances. Again, the lights were down really low. So, focusing was a serious problem. Even at that, this is a picture of the bride dancing with one of her brothers.
The rest of the evening was spent dancing and visiting, and we got some nice pictures of the rest of the reception.
The wedding was in the ballroom of the convention center. It was obviously not the easiest place to decorate. The wedding planner did an outstanding job with what she had to work with. The ceremony was held in the center area, and tables and chairs for dinner and the reception were set off to the sides. After the ceremony, the chairs in the center were quickly removed to form a dance floor for the reception.
Sometimes you capture a moment. This was in the middle of the ceremony. I am not sure of the precise context as it happened so fast. But, the preacher looked up to the heavens, and I snapped the picture. This made for a unique image for their wedding folio.
These pictures look pretty good because they could not find anyone who could turn the lights down. Although it was far from bright sunlight, there was really good, diffuse inside light and that helped us a great deal.
Cindy finished her editing of the over 5000 pictures we took at the wedding three weeks ago, and the bride and groom have seen them. So, now I can post some of mine.
This was a pretty standard shot of the groom anticipating the day’s events. My assignment was to get the groom pics. The groom and his groomsmen were in a room in the Hilton hotel. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, he was already dressed. So, I only got a couple pics of him dressing. There was pretty good light from this window. So, I closed the drapes to restrain it and good this shot.
I took some more of the groom, his parents, and the groomsmen around the Hilton. One of the shots they wanted was of the groom’s party coming from the Hilton to the Convention Center. There is an open walkway, but the light was terrible. The walkway is covered and kind of dark, but the surrounding area was very light. With bright sunlight, there was really contrasty light that made a good exposure difficult. Much of this shot was saved in processing. The background was blown out in order to get good exposure of the faces.
While we were doing this, the groom commented that it was kind of a “rat pack” thing – a bunch of guys in tuxedos. Someone else commented that it was kind of an “Ocean’s 11” thing. I had a little different slant. I told them it looked more like a “Reservoir Dogs” to me. To each his own, I guess.
I posted the rest of the preparation pics in the Wedding Gallery and will post more tomorrow.
I haven’t posted in a few days. Cindy is finishing the edits for the wedding I shot with her three weeks ago. Once she is done, I can post my images here.
We have been discussing an album for the couple. I have used Aperture for other books. The problem was there is no way of exporting the compiled pages except as pdf files. So, you are limited to using Apple’s vendors to produce the book. Their prices are reasonable, but there is not a whole lot of selection. Now, I see Apple has allowed a few high end vendors to produce plug ins that allow for the ordering of really high end books.
In spite of that, it appears there is much better flexibility by producing a book outside of Aperture. I have been trying to learn a program called PhotoJunction that interacts with a variety of vendors to allow for the design and production of books. So, I have spent some time the last couple of days trying to learn this program. For the most part, it is intuitive and utilizes lots of drag and drop procedures.
Additionally, I am looking at a web site called albumexposure that allows users to upload compiled albums and then allows the customer to look at them and proof them. After all changes have been made, then the album can be ordered from a variety of vendors directly from this web site.
I have found out that there are essentially two different categories of such albums. The “press” books are produced by using one image per page. (The images can be multiple pictures like the one above.) These are then printed on book/magazine quality paper. The resulting book is like a standard coffee table book. The process is relatively cheap, and the price of the books that are produced depends on covers and linings, but is relatively inexpensive.
The “matted” books print the images on photographic paper. Although the templates allow for multiple images on the same page, apparently the production process will not allow for any overlap of the images. So, in my page above, the four pictures would be printed on the page, but not the background image. The resulting photographic print is then adhered to a mat, making the pages very much thicker. This is kind of like an old style scrapbook, but one of extremely high quality. In looking at various vendors for these, it would be easy to spend $500 on a book. In one case, the cost of the book was $6500!
I was not paid as the second shooter on the wedding, and that was what I wanted. This way, I am able to use my own images.
I recently read something that made me really think about that. Sal Cincotta has an on line magazine called “Behind the Shutter.” In it, his wife has an article about second shooters. She says they always pay their second shooter. They learned a hard lesson about that early when they had a second shooter who was not paid. That person shot over their shoulder. Thus, they go the same image as the principal photographer. They then used the image on their own web site, claiming credit for it. So, now, they pay their second shooters and the second shooter uses their memory cards and must surrender them at the end of the shoot. They are not allowed any use of the images at all.
In some respects, I think that is as immoral as what the second shooter did. I understand that the principal photographer is the one with the job, and has the right to sell and market the images. That’s fine. However, for that person to take credit for producing the image isn’t right. If I shot as a second shooter, and made a really great image, I would not have a problem with not selling the image to the client, but I would have a problem with never being able to use or display that image as mine. And, I would have a great deal of problems with someone else taking credit for the creation of that image. They are no more entitled to that credit than the second shooter who shot over their shoulder.
I did not have time last night to post, and I have spent all day processing files.
I was second shooter yesterday at a wedding. The primary was Cindy Graf. We also had two more shooters – Craig, Cindy’s husband and her friend Corey. We started at 3:00. I shot some details for a while and then went to the groom’s room. The groom was Keith Meyers. When I got to his room, they were already dressed. I got some standard shots – groom looking out the window, groom and groomsmen, groom opening gift from the bride. We then met in the lobby for shots of the groom and the preacher and then the groom and his parents.
I then went back to the convention center for shots before the ceremony. The ceremony started at 5:30. I shot from the back, but with my (old) 70 – 200, I got some great shots during the ceremony. After the ceremony, I shot guests in the foyer while Cindy and Corey shot the formal portraits. This was while the chairs were taken down and the band set up.
For the rest of the evening, we shot the dinner and reception.
Debbie even came along. Originally, she was supposed to be my “assistant.” I was going to have her hold a light. That just didn’t seem practical. So, she helped out with the wedding coordinator and helped organize the flow of the formal portraits with Cindy and Corey.
All together, I got 588 pictures. The place was very dark, and I was too anxious many times. So, my flash didn’t fire, and the autofocus was problematic at times. I ended up processing about 150 files. Can’t post them for a week or so.
I’m getting excited. I’m shooting a wedding with Cindy Graf on Saturday. It is the Convention Center. So, lots of glass and reflections. We will be meeting Friday afternoon to try some things out and get a lay of the land.