Here are a couple of shots from a wedding I shot at Cannon Beach Saturday. They say if it rains on your wedding day it’s worth good luck. If this true Megan and Zach can expect to win the lottery next week. Seriously, when has it ever rained in Oregon during the month of August! Hats off to Megan, I walked into her hotel room to shoot some prep photos before the ceremony and she was just as happy as if it were 75 and sunny. Needless-to-say the ceremony on the beach was very short, but this allowed more time with the group shots. In my past weddings these photos are typically a bit rushed simply because they are not as important  as the couple shots, and the groomsmen eager to commence drinking. This time we had a little more time, and the beer was conveniently located right next to the spot were we shot.  It was nice to take a little more time with my lighting and composition. I shot the groomsmen in a skate park next to the reception hall. I was down in the bowl shooting up. The low cloud cover produced a white backdrop that made the pink/black tuxes pop. The girls shot was under a gazebo in the park with two off-camera flashes. This photo was originally a full body shot, but I liked it with a waist crop and slightly tilted.

Sunsets are hit and miss this time of the year in Oregon. If you want to practice with lighting during one. you really cant hesitate or it will be cloudy before you know it. I packed up my gear and sweet talked my wife into being my test subject the other day. This is with a two strobe set up. One strobe is set up to the left of my camera at about 6ft high and the other is set up behind her, and to the left, at around 8ft height. If I didn’t have a second strobe I could have slowed down my shutter to around 1/50th of a sec and used the setting sun  “hair light”. However,  in this case I used  a shutter speed of 1/200 of a second @f4 to darken the background and leave the blue haze of the sunset. The trick is keeping your flashes set on low or they will easily blow out your subject at this low of an aperture. At least she has some new Facebook photos now!

Here are a few images from the wedding last weekend in Phoenix. It was nice to get out of the rain and soak up a few rays. I am really happy with the images. I am starting to learn that every wedding presents a challenge in terms of lighting. This one was no different. As the sun began to set the lighting was changing very rapidly. My white balance was all over the place at times, and what was was a proper exposure at one time, wouldn’t be in 5 minutes! Ryan & Erin were great to work with. We were running a little behind schedule following the ceremony but they made time to take one last shot out in font of the country club with the sun setting. Its on my websites home screen right now. The shot of them dancing was interesting. I set one of my flashes on slave and controlled it with the other that was on my camera. I thought it would look cool to get a shot of them back lit during the first dance.  The tricky part is that to do this I have to stay in one place to have the other flash directly opposite of me. I took several shots and never got the “look” that I wanted. Just as their dance was ending I took one last shot and got the image below. My flash was sitting on the table behind them; it really makes them pop out of the background! I love it when an idea works!

“Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight? I always ask that of all my prey. I just like the sound of it”

Batman, 1989, The Joker – Played by Jack Nicholson

I’m still processing photos from the wedding I shot in Kansas City last weekend.  I wanted to post this particular shot first though. It was taken of the bride and groom dancing during the reception. Since the wedding was on the 31st of October they turned the reception into a costume party. You really couldn’t of asked for a better setting. It was located at the Bingham-Waggoner estate in Independance, MO. The house was built in the mid 1800’s and really looked like it had a few unexplained stories behind its doors. The area where the reception/dance was held was VERY dark. Its tough to shoot in this type of setting because  your constantly trying to find an appropriate balance of off camera flash and available light. To make things more difficult, you have to maintain a decent shutter speed if you want any chance of your flash being able to freeze the action on the dance floor. Not to mention the camera’s auto focus is pretty much useless because its so dark, so the only option is to manually focus.  I think the lighting balance in this shot turned out perfect and I squeaked by with a just enough shutter speed to freeze the action with a few light trails in the background. I guess it just goes to show how much goes into a shot like this to get it to turn out the way you want.

Technical details.

24mm @ f3.2 1/4 sec shutter ISO 1000