Saturday, August 22, 2009

Sarah and Goodwin's wedding - San Jose, CA





Sarah approached me a few months ago about her wedding. She told me she had been looking for a while to find the right photographer for her wedding. She looked through numerous of portfolios and she said they where mostly over photoshoped and fake looking and what she wanted is some one who who take a good photograph without all that extra stuff.

We set up a meeting where I told her about my style. I also explained to her that I would do some couple photos for her to have, and will play a bit with photoshop for her but would be just a few photos, not all of them. She loved my work of my pure photo-journalistic approach and how I can shoot a wedding without needing a "list."

*my photoshop image :)



Granted... you still need a small list so you will not forget a few photos, like the rings, details of the dress, and so on, but the fact that I would not tell her where to stand, other than the posed couple photos and family group shots, was one of her two biggest selling points, with the other being the body of work I offer ;-).

The wedding came up quick - Aug. 15 - by far one of the most challenging weddings I had shot. The lights where either harsh or none existing, so there where a lot of adjustments to go through constantly. The experience of being on an aircraft carrier had came in handy, since a lot of different light temperatures and availability was a constant challenge through the 5 years I spent in the military.

It all started at the couples home where Goodwin was getting prepared. They recently moved in so there was still stuff that needed to be put away as well as the lighting was dim. A hand flash to bounce came in very handy since there was no big ray of light coming through the widows.

After my second shooter showed up and she got a few photos in as well, we headed over to the bride where she was getting ready at the church. I sent in the second shooter since I needed to park my car in the garage down the street to start shooting. Again... a challenge... though much more room the lights where harsh but something I could use to my advantage! After all said and done, I took the limo with the bride to the location while my second shooter followed me in her car.











The limo was interesting... the bride and brides maid where making faces at me the whole way lol so I took both my cameras and pointed it to them so while they made their faces I took their photo.. HA! :P

At the rose gardens - IT WAS HOT... and I was wearing black... not a good combo... shadows where harsh because of the time of day but with the umbrellas they had (they also have a name that I cant think about at the time) it helped a lot. The ceremony was short and intimate. Only family members.



After the wedding was all finished, and the family, formal, and any other shot requested was all finished up, the challenge now was to get a nice slide-show out for them during the reception. Since everything was running smoothly I had a bit over an hour to meet this challenge... so me and the second shooter rushed over to the church reception hall to get set up. We dumped (downloaded) out cards to my laptop and started to choose the photos with photomechanic. Once everything was selected I imported them to Lightroom for a quick edit. Over 60 photos for the slide show where chosen and lightly color corrected within an hour! (total amount of photos where over 1,000 downloaded at that point so that was a lot of sorting out)

The reception hall was very dark but we made it work!

* more photos will be uploaded as they are edited :) I hope you enjoyed my blog

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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Courtney and Matt - Carmel by the Sea

This wedding was taken earlier in the year. Courtney and Matt approached me to shoot their wedding well in advanced wanting everything possible in the package.

Over time, the economy hit them hard and they both had difficulties to pay for their wedding so they decided to have a free one on the beach and the reception at a friends home. Due to their limited budget they could no longer afford me.

Since Courtney and Matt still needed photos of their day I customized the package to where they could still use me and have memories of their day. Here are a few of the photos from their day! Enjoy -









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