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Danielle and Jason are one of my favorite couples... ever. I shot their wedding back in March. I was buried in work at the time and I never got a chance to post their images which is a shame because, like I said, they're one of my favorite couples.
Their wedding was here in New York on the water near the Throgs Neck Bridge at Marina Del Rey. The Throgs Neck Bridge has played a big part in their relationship so it was integrated into all of their details and since the venue was close by we decided to take their portraits by the bridge. Not the worst place to have to take pictures, haha.
Oh yeah, my friend Victor once told me that the best food you'll ever eat at a wedding is at a New York Italian wedding. He was right. :)
Angela and JT are awesome.
It's not really fair having a wedding this great at the beginning of the season. It sets the bar unreasonably high for the rest of the year. Katie and David got married at Rancho Chiquita, a private residence, in the hills of Malibu. The grounds of the home were set up PERFECTLY for a wedding and the incredible house was a perfect backdrop to shoot against. The fact that its in the hills overlooking the ocean didn't hurt either. Haha. :)
Here are some favorites from their day!
Ely Roberts is a photographer from San Luis Obispo and when he brought his girlfriend to New York to propose to her he wrote and asked if I'd shoot an engagement session of them while they were in town. I've said it before but I love shooting photographers, haha. They're up for anything and whether they are or not they at least act like they're comfortable in front of the camera.
It was a blast hanging out with Ely and Abby that afternoon and I love the images from the session. Here are some favorites.
If you're a photographer or even just blogger you really need to check out BlogStomp. I've been using their actions to prep my blog images for about a year and a half but they just came out with an App that doesn't need Photoshop to resize, sharpen, create collages, add your logo or watermark, resize and save for web. It's unbelievable. Check it out.
I love this series, haha. Ely was playing around and jokingly got down on one knee reenacting the proposal... I wonder if anyone has ever done that for engagement pictures before?! Haha.
So, I suck. Between travelling, shooting, WPPI and everything else, it’s been a busy month. It’s taken WAY too long but it’s time to wrap this thing up
We have a winner…
Ashley Turner! Congrat’s Ashley, send me an email to claim your Madera Book! For the rest of the finalists I have something special for you too. Shoot me an email and I’ll fill you in!
I want to thank everyone so much for participating. This is a big issue in the industry right now and I’m really encouraged by everyone that sent in entries
Congrats again Ashley!
Last week I announced a contest. I grossly underestimated how much I would hate judging. You think it would be easy… it’s not. It’s a very difficult thing to place one person’s work next to another person’s work and say, “this one’s better”. I got a lot of great entries and saw some great moments. In the end I was so frozen with indecision that I had to enlist the help of my friends. We chose these five because of the strength of the whole collection. Some people had individual images that were stronger but we felt these as a whole conveyed the emotion of the day the best.
That said, THANK YOU so much for participating. Like I said before, I’m far from a pure photojournalist but I still take my job of documenting the couple’s day very seriously. And, in this day of styled shoots and wedding blogs showing almost exclusively details and portraits it seems like photographers have begun shooting for publication more than the couple.
If you weren’t picked please don’t hate me. :) I thought there were SO MANY deserving photographers, but we had to narrow it down to 5. If you click on the photographer’s name it will take you to their post of all of the moments from the wedding. Here are the finalists:
I just heard from one of my brides from last summer that her wedding was published in Manhattan Bride Magazine. I love seeing my images in print... even if the images aren't the ones I would have chosen... or the way I'd crop them... or how I'd lay them out. Haha.
I also got an email from The Knot that their first coffee table book, The Look Book is out on stands with a bunch of my images in it! There are lots of images on the pages so I won't go through and point out mine but if you've been following my blog for a while they should look familiar.
I shot Veronica and Jason's wedding in San Pedro a few weeks ago. As I was going through the images I loved how many great authentic moments there were. It got me thinking about my job as a photographer. Looking back over the images from Cyndie and I's wedding, the images that mean the most are the ones that captured a moment and more specifically an emotion. THIS is what weddings are about. Sure, I love to shoot portraits. I'd probably go so far to say that's my favorite part of the wedding day. But, the fact remains that in the end I'm there to shoot a WEDDING... and weddings are about 2 people coming together to join their lives. That is an incredibly emotional thing and we, as photographers, are given the responsibility of capturing it.
I've never received an email from a client saying, "I didn't even know you were there!" I talk, laugh, joke with my clients throughout the day. It makes them comfortable having me around and I feel like I get better images because of it. I'm definitely not a pure photojournalist but I take the responsibility of documenting their wedding day very seriously.
So after thinking about all of that I decided to do and entire blog post only showing "moments" from the day... no portraits, no details. The only images I had any hand in "staging" were the ones from the "First Look" and those I only told them where to stand. The rest were as real as they get.
So here's the contest.
If you're a photographer I want you to blog an entire wedding with no portraits, no details and no staged or directed shots. I don't care if you've already blogged the wedding. Go through and pick out the best moments and show me what you've got.
Leave a comment below telling me you want to be a part of the contest. You'll have 6 days to blog it. Next Thursday I will go through all of the entries and pick my 5 favorites. On Friday I'll post the finalists and we'll have a vote. Monday the winner will be announced.
One last thing... This is not about getting everyone from Facebook and Twitter to vote for you. I'll be checking up on everyone to make sure their not campaigning. Telling people to check out the contest is cool but none of this "I REALLY need your vote to win this contest" stuff I see all of the time. OK? Cool.
THE WINNER will receive a FREE 8x10 10 spread (20 side) album from Madera Books. (or an equal credit toward another size album).
Okay, now on to the images.
I love how everyone in the room has a hand in helping her get her dress on, haha. Only on a wedding day is that normal.
The first look and a quick prayer.
I LOVE this shot of Veronica and her dad watching everyone enter the ceremony. I was able to get this because I had my good friend and awesome photographer, Victor Sizemore shooting the processional. Good second shooters give you the freedom to take risks on the wedding day to get images you couldn't if you had to get the "safe shot".
Another great father/daughter moment.
A few shots from their communion that I love.
Shooting the recessional is always one of my favorite things. The couple is always so excited and usually shows a lot of emotion.
I also love focusing on the couple during the toasts. There's always a lot of great reactions.
This was one of my favorite weddings from last year and I'm just now getting around to blogging it. It was a collection of some of my favorite people to work with and it was at an amazing venue.
Wedding Coordinator: The amazing Angel Swanson
Florist: Kristin from the Treasured Petal
Cake: Melanie from Sweet and Saucy Shop
Venue: Rancho Las Lomas
Kristin (the bride) is a graphic designer and designed all of the stationary for the wedding. It was amazing. So much thought went into everything. Everything involved in the wedding fit together so perfectly. From the invitations to the color of her shoes, even to the color of the clothes she wore during their engagement shoot! I LOVED this wedding.
I love this shot of Kristin's mom helping her get ready... and if you look closely you can see Jessica Claire in the reflection as well. She's my favorite second shooter. :)
A couple of sweet moments from the first look:
I think parents often get overlooked during the wedding day. I love shooting the father walking his daughter down the aisle. Its always such a great moment, and you can tell how proud Kristin's dad was that day.
I also love shooting the parents during the ceremony. There are always so many great moments.
A few portraits on the amazing grounds at Rancho Las Lomas.
The couple with Angel Swanson, one of my favorite people to work with!
