Friends, Laughter, Wedding…Minnesota

I was asked last spring to attend a wedding of a friend of mine that grew up with me.  Once invited a few months later I was asked if I would take the pictures. If the first part wasn’t enough of an honor, the later really meant a lot to me.  A really small wedding on the beach of a quiet lake made for quite the romantic little ceremony.  With that backdrop, mixed with the fun of the “North Woods” we had a great weekend filled with laughter, crying, and a lot of shutter clicks!

Windy Wedding

As spring began to knock on the door, I had the opportunity to shoot a wedding at the South Shore Pavilion in Milwaukee.  I had met Nick and Katie last fall when we took their engagement pictures at Minooka Park, and they are a treat to be around.  The love they have for each other and the constant joy they have being together made it really fun to shoot their engagement pictures, and I expected nothing less than that on their wedding day.  I was able to shoot with a good friend of mine, Scott Machin, who I had met about a year ago.  The venue was old and rustic, and had a very welcoming appeal.  The only issue we had was that the winds off of Lake Michigan were close to 30mph that day, making any attempt at outdoor shots lakeside a nightmare for a hair stylist.  Needless to say, we had to make it work and with the help of some creativity, and some strobes, we were able to utilize the time limit given to us and produce some quality shots that Nick and Katie would enjoy.

During the ceremony we setup two strobes set at full power on either side of what would be called the front of the room.  We both had a set of CyberSyncs set on both of the strobes.  We both set our transmitters to the same frquency so that we could both trigger the flashes.  It really comes in handy having the same equipment, as this would not have been possible if I had CyberSyncs and Scott had PocketWizards.  The main challenge we faced was that the Nick and Katie were standing so close the wall that there were limited angles that we could get of their faces during the ceremony.  Secondly, any shots taken from the back created a really harsh shadow on the wall directly in front of them.

Lastly, Scott introduced me to Totally Rad Actions and Filters, and specifically the Dirty Pictures filter set.  I had been able to in the past add texture to my pictures, but many times they didnt turn out very well.  Plus, it took a long time.  With the Dirty Pictures set, it is easy to use one of the included textures, or use one of thousands found on the web, or any that I might design in the future.  You can easily add a filter to an image, and adjust a few settings based on the style that you are going for and within seconds you can transform your picture into a textural art piece with depth and character that the image might have lacked.  I enjoyed working with the textures as you can see below, and sometimes just that little bit of difference is all a particular picture needs to really set it off.

My First Wedding

I was asked by a friend to help shoot a wedding for a coworker.  When the conversation started, this was going to be a real low key and casual wedding.  This was our first attempt at a wedding, and the couple knew that.  They were fine with it, as originally they were going to shoot the wedding from smaller point and shoot cameras.  Nothing really wrong with that, but I think that we were able to outperform what would have occured.  Since my friend was shooting primary, it was my job to try and catch all the small things.  I was looking for vail, profile, small loving moments, hand holding, and so on.  When it was finished and driving home I was pleased with the day.  I thought that being almost incognito lurking around was more fun than having to stand around and call out, “Can we get the mother and father of the bride over here?”  I had a blast, and look forward to doing this again.

I was able to use my friends Canon 70-200mm 2.8 L, and it was an absolute joy to use.  I cant wait to get one of my own.  I need to also get my hands on the 24-70 2.8 L, the little bit of zoom would be nice.  For many of the wide pictures I was using either the 28mm 1.8 or the 50mm 1.4.  There is something to be said for the speed of those primes that even a fast zoom cant get.  Not too many chances to use a real low f stop because the light was very harsh outside…the sun was hot and direct.  I was able to use it inside with a mural backdrop.

I found it a bit strange being at a wedding that was not one of my friends or family members.  I still get choked up during ceremonies, and there was a few times that I caught myself listening to the sermon and taking pictures.  Lesson learned.