Here’s a good look at Kelly and Tom’s 70 page Make Love Real album design:

Here are a couple of my favorite spreads:

If you’ll give me a moment to talk about the elements of design we use in our albums – in this horizontal spread, I cropped the images in a tight panoramic 1:5 format to show the tight moments of the bride and groom placing the rings on each other’s fingers. The tight spacing and blurred edges allow for a quick ‘read’ of the eye across the page. That emphasis is heightened by the horizontal bars of color running through the background of the image at the grooms eye height and the bride’s ring height. The lines tie together the separate pictures with implied continuation of line that I ‘felt’ between the photos while laying them out. This extra amount of care and attention brings your album to life telling the visual stories of your wedding.

In this spread we use the design element of a light vignette to tie together and soften the overall page design, can you see the subtle darkening at the coreners?

And if you’re looking for a creative photographer, look at how we tie the action of the day into the album design! We’re wiling to see the whole day for what it is, without presuppositions about what wedding photography ’should be’ – so we notice the littlest things that make your wedding yours! (did you notice the bee on the clover in the above spread? – I know it’s hard on the web, but we noticed it and shot it!)

Enjoy your album Kelly and Tom.

What does your photographer do when you’re not looking?

Take silly pictures…

 

What would you do?

Aw, my long arm technique needs work – can’t get our faces in focus!

International men of mystery, the Ontario Place pavillions do look like something out of a mid 70’s James Bond film.

So we better act the part!

And turn it into a fight scene on the precipitous edge where only the strong survive the sunset.

Or maybe it’s a kung-fu movie, who knows – after working a wedding for 8 hours your minds a little bent.

Ok but just in-case this is the first time you’ve met me or Amish – take a look at what I shot that day, and here’s a few of Amish’s images if you’re looking for a Toronto area wedding photographer.  Just moment’s before our silliness:
… Read more

Let your clock die, Reclaim Your Time is an article I read the day I made this:

PSSST – You’ll want headphones to savor this 4min experience.

The slideshow track is by John Martyn – Small Hours from the album Sweet Little Mysteries: The Island Anthology

Many of the slides on this slideshow are longer than 10 seconds.

I enjoyed stretching the rules and am beginning to feel the space between the photos more fully.

Check your wedding date to see if we are available for your wedding!

This was my last wedding in Lima, my once-upon-a-time hometown, where Liesl and I bought our first house, and where the sky invites the face of god. It reminds me of the amazing tropical thunderheads I’ve seen in Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.  I am so grateful I was blessed to experience this August evening.

Just a technical note of interest – the web is the best place to view these photos because of the amazing Electric Magenta, or Fucia color of the sky.  It is nearly impossible to reproduce that coloring in a print as explained by wikipedia:

Electric magenta vs. process magenta

When electric magenta is reproduced on paper, it is called fuchsia and it is physically impossible for it to appear on paper as vivid as on a computer screen. In order to reproduce it, a small amount of cyan printer’s ink must be added to printer’s magenta to make fuchsia, and therefore fuchsia is not a primary color of pigment–it is the color of printer’s magenta that is one of the primary colors of pigment (along with cyan and yellow).

The name fuchsia was chosen as the alias for electric magenta because that is the color name for the color that in printed reproduction is its equivalent.

Since prior to the introduction of personal computers magenta was synonymous with printer’s magenta, colored pencils and crayons called “magenta” are usually colored the color ofprocess magenta (printer’s magenta) shown above.

So while we experience it – it’s not yet something that we can fully capture!

I just thought that was a beautiful analogy to a photograph.

 

 Slow Moment Slideshow - Madisonne & Matt [4:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (798)

The WPJA awarded my photo from New Zealand 4th place in it’s quarterly awards:

However the judges comments went like this:

But I have to comment on this category in general. There were so many pictures of people walking away from the photographers that it puzzled me. I saw so many pictures with stunning light in other categories that I wondered what the photographers were thinking when they got to this category. All of the moments and good storytelling went away.

Who is this judge that feel’s so strongly that there’s no story from this image that they take the liberty to complain about my photo as exemplary of the category? But they award first place to a haphazardly composed and monochromatic image of the same theme? Boy does that sting.  In my experience this goes to strengthen the stereotype that ‘photojournalistic’ images are ‘careless snapshots in black and white’ and doesn’t work toward showing how a good photojournalist can transcend the basic elements of what’s happening and make an image with stronger themes. I would love to hear Sister Wendy discuss the results.

Realistically, when you’re up there your eyes are glued to the splendor that’s enveloping you! When the couple looks at the camera the image loses it’s compelling fixation on the mountain. When you’re there, just as in the picture, it feels like you can reach out and touch it. In my picture I worked to transcend the basic experience of being dropped off on the side of a mountain by helicopter, and tried to capture gesture and pair forms that form an allegory for the wedding experience.  I was looking for body language that helped describe the awe we all felt.

It’s funny how every time I hand out the business card with this image on it, the response is – “did you photoshop the background?” Nope, I was really there – and the story of this image, doesn’t just begin when the shutter clicked. You see, it was my vision to wait until the very last minute to get the sunset on the mountain. In this position, we’re in danger of being surrounded by clouds moving up the mountain. Here’s Nigel, our pilot on the lookout for clouds coming in.

The only reason we were able to make this picture is because of Nigel’s experience, daring and willingness. He told us that on his warning we would have to be back in the chopper within 1 minute, because if a cloud covers us – we can’t take off – because the pilot flys visually. The helicopter is perched on loose stones, and Nigel got out and propped us up with extra stones before he would let us get out. The helicopter is idling with the blades spinning so we can make a quick takeoff. On the port side of the bird, there’s probably only two meters to the edge of the cliff from the rotor tips. So Nigel has made a pretty difficult landing at my request, so that I can capture this scene.

From this angle, you can see the clouds at our elevation across the valley.

Oh boy wouldn’t I have loved to had the time to get to the Tasman Peak & Ben Ohau Mountain Range side of the valley to land the couple on the west facing ridges – but that will have to wait until next time. From that side I could get more of the turquoise hues of the glacially fed Lake Pukaki also. Just plan your destination wedding at the Luxurious Mt. Cook Hermitage Hotel and I’ll be there to make unforgettable images with you!

So as a bride which would you be satisfied with a few snapshots from the top of the mountain, or would you want something that transcended your experience? something with allegorical intent?

Shannon and Andy were married in 2005 and we were there!

Little Ryan Anthony was born November 17th 2007 and I was there to help Shannon make her birth announcements.

But sadly that’s another blog post you’ll have to look forward to another day – this one is is about “Where Art Lives” – we hope the different answers you see us helping our clients making, gives you creative ideas about how to use the art we make for you.

So here’s a look at Shannon’s classy cute bedroom arrangement, decorated with her wedding photos. … Read more