Carefully captured.

We ask ourselves as visual storytellers, ‘what is the story’?  here it is, in a single moment – captured perfectly as Mindy walks down the isle and John sticks out his  tongue  at her.

I revel in the moment, and capturing this gives me great pleasure – both to work for clients who understand individual expression, and to work so hard to really capture it for them.

There’s a lot of competition in the ‘wedding photography’ market these days, but as I’ve been observing weddings since 2003 – these nuances are easily noticed to my experienced eye.  The WPJA gave me a top 5 in the nation ranking in 2004, and aging has only made me more sensitive to these moments – aware and able to capture them.

Wedding Workout with guest Sherry Granader Alkalize and Energize for Great Sex « Wedding Podcast Network Wedding Talk Radio the blog

Sherry discusses acid overload and which foods you should and should not be eating that will make a huge impact on how you look and feel. She has the scoop on the importance of eating alkaline foods, super green foods, antioxidants, and what makes the body crave sugar and salt. Sherry shares her Cupa, Cupa, Cupa Smoothie recipe that’s easy, delicious and very good for you. Find out what you can do today to make a difference in your daily regimen to maximize your energy and watch your vibrant, sexy self return!

[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/weddingpodcastnetwork/WWSherryGranader.mp3]

I enjoyed this show’s encouraging tone, and let those positive motivations build up to a completely healthy lifestyle as you make healthy choices for your wedding!

“um, aaah, well….the face of God smiled on me”

I can’t really explain it any other way…in case you were wondering what I was doing earlier tonight.

We had to tolerate thunderstorm downpours – but we got to  receive  the blessings of the August sunset.  If you’re planning an August wedding in Upstate New York be sure to plan some time for sunset portraits.

Just start up this little YouTube video for your soundtrack as you browse on down!

Read on to see the emotional rollercoaster

My eyes are wet just posting this….

….more to come soon…till then this small podcast!

1. Plan the longest engagement ever!

I’ll admit it, I’m addicted to being engaged. There’s a certain sparkle in telling people I have a fiance and watching their faces light up as they reminisce about their own weddings and romantic memories. I loved the time I spent with my mother planning every detail, listening to my bridesmaids discuss their dresses & dancing partners and learning new things about my man of 9 years. (Who knew he loved cake pillars?! Seriously?)

2. Book a crazy bachelor/bachelorette party yourself…aka go to Vegas.

There’s no written rule you can’t plan your own party! Our trip to Vegas with 6 of our closest friends was the best vacation we ever experienced. Though I’m sure my bridesmaids would have planned a fun outing, be spontaneous and go somewhere you know you’ll never forget. Well maybe you’ll forget some things……

3. Laugh at the drama and write it down!

Our wedding planning wasn’t without bumps. We “restructured” the bridal party a month before the date, sent out invites totally last minute (3 weeks to be exact) and desperately lacked in funds more than once, but when I tell my stories to others, they just make me laugh and realize the long and adventurous path we’ve taken to get to this amazing moment. Write it all down and when you’re finished, you just might be able to pitch your own soap opera!

4. Hire fantastic people.

I consider my taste to be high class, but the professionals I hired are in a class of their own. My caterer, cake decorator, stylist and of course, my photographers! are such wonderful and fun people to be around and this eases a huge amount of stress. Always there to answer any question, I couldn’t be more pleased to have met and shared my time with these people and I’m glad I choose my vendors based on personality, not just a portfolio.

5. Kiss each other goodnight EVERY NIGHT.

We might not be married yet, but almost a decade of dating means we must be doing something right.

Best wishes to all you beautiful brides! I hope your stories of celebration are as memorable as mine.

So it’s been a while since I’ve discussed a picture, and I thought this would be a good one to talk about. I shot this image at a recent November wedding with it’s bride only counterpart. I enjoyed creating this image in an empty lot next to Christina’s (the bride’s) parent’s home where she prepared for the wedding. The enjoyment came from being able to create mood and style easily in the early evening that comes in November. The frame above was made at 5:03:22PM between the ceremony and reception. The early sunset gave me the chance to control the lighting in the image by using my strobes instead of relying on the mood of the natural light.

Planning for pictures

The early evening gave us ample time between the ceremony and reception and the double bonus of having both daylight and dusk to make pictures in. With a wedding plan that allowed us two hours of shooting between the ceremony and reception I was able to shoot several styles of pictures with the wedding party and the couple. The November temperatures, the foliage valiantly holding on the Red Oaks and a freshly dressed bride inspired this photo’s tonality:

Even though the day was started with a light snow and the grey skies remained through the day – with my equipment and vision I was able to create a unique photo for Christina. She was brave enough to wear her lacy dress into the weeds before the ceremony to win this great photo!

Composition and presentation

I made a new category today in the content management system here called presentation as I will be posting some interesting presentation options soon. Let me talk just a moment about the composition and how it affects presentation of the photo. First, the proportion – or the size of the couple related to the overall image – has several relationships to how you may or may not appreciate presenting the image in your home. My experience in preparing images for display in my clients homes, mailing as postcards and designing into websites has shown me that there are two general groups of clients that hire me; the visuals and the emotionals. One group are generally more bold and visually literate, meaning they have greater experience reading, using, or collecting images. The other group of image buyers are less sure of what they want in visual terms but are drawn to My wife & I’s work on emotional terms and the romance of documenting real moments of family and friend’s connections.

The visually literate bunch, often work in advertising, communications, or practice photography as a hobby and have more graphic tastes in photos and a stronger tolerance for seeing themselves in the photos. The emotionally motivated bunch, have less of a tolerance for displaying themselves and would rather see demonstrations of love but not of themselves. Interesting paradox, I know since it’s their love that is demonstrated.

Print size and proportions

No client represents either of these polarities completely, however I felt Christina and Mike were somewhat of the more romantic type and so I composed several of these images in this proportion to give them the opportunity to make a large print where they don’t feel visually large in the print, but can cherish their togetherness and warmth in the chill night air under the moon. The scale of this image should allow it to be printed as large as some of our largest prints, meaning 4 feet tall by 6 feel long on a fine canvas frame. If you have a big blank wall to cover in your home, we can take care of you!

Browse the ‘Where Art Lives’ category to get more ideas about how to frame, mount, and creatively present your wedding and portrait images.

∞