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October 24, 2006
Christian and Rachel’s Wedding at The Branford House
The weather has been great this year for October weddings and Christian and Rachel’s day was amazing!
Christian and Rachel got married in Mystic, CT at St. Marks, just off Main Street. I loved this aisle shot of Rachel’s dad looking at his daughter:
and Rachel and Christian enjoying the moment:
Hugging mom right after the ceremony:
Rachel’s sister was her MOH:
This is one of my favorite shots of the day…Rachel’s brother throwing rice and we can see both her brother and Rachel in the window too:
Here’s Christian’s family cheering them on (with mom leading it!):
Catching up with them on the highway on the way to the reception:
The reception was at The Branford House in Groton. I loved this shoot of the couple’s portraits – an easy walk to the ocean and back and we got a ton of different shots.
The lighting and sky were awesome. Please note, these shots are all in their original shot color and I haven’t done any photoshop tweaks to make it look more dramatic (which I’m the first to admit, I sometimes do!)…so, basically it really did look this way!!!!! The only things that changed were the directions that we were facing and the sun quickly setting. We were probably out there about 30 minutes, right at sunset.
Appropriately dubbed "Gone with the Wind" lighting by Rachel:
Rachel’s shadow on the sculpture:
A silhouette:
Sometimes when the flower girl doesn’t want her picture taken, you get a more interesting picture:
The cake had real roses on
Rachel and Christian had special wine with labels with photos of their families on the bottles:
I love funky lighting and flares to make an image unique. Here’s a first dance shot with Christian’s parents looking on.
Rachel and Christian, thank you so much for such a wonderful shoot and such a great day with you and your families! Talk to you soon!
January 10, 2009
Holiday in the Florida Keys with a $13.99 Underwater Camera
Well we may be too young to be snowbirders yet but we LOVED spending the holidays with my family in Cudjoe Key, which is about 20 minutes north of Key West…12 days of 70-80 degree weather!
As I thought about what camera to take, I just kept thinking water/sand/water/sand…not great for a professional DSLR, so we opted instead to buy two $13.99 underwater disposable cameras…54 pictures total, and we actually found that we loved the picture quality that came out (when we did it right) and the freedom of not worrying about destroying it!
These are almost all straight out of the camera (except the Dennys and beer goggles photos) and I think they have a dreamy quality and a natural vignette…kind of like the Diana cameras. As I order our new $2799.00 Canon 5D Mark II (body only…ouch) this weekend for the 2009 wedding season, I'm wondering if we can just get by with these at the weddings :)…kidding, but actually, maybe we'll bring a few to a wedding this summer….we'll see.
Here are Sebbie and my brother, John, who just moved to London …it was great that he and his wife, Rei, could make it over! This was at our closest beach, Bahia Honda, but we call it Portuguese-Man-of-War Beach!
Brothers, Sebbie and Jude…
Mike and I had "date afternoon" with my folks watching the kids, and walked all over Key West.
We met a few characters…if you can't see it, his glasses say "beer goggles"…if you are interested in photography, I think it's great practice to ask strangers if you can photograph them…when you are not comfortable doing that (and it is still uncomfortable for me!), you miss pictures and think about the ones that got away!
What do you do when your kids get up at 6am in a house full of
sleepers…go to Denny's! This one is right near mile marker zero of
Route 1 that runs from Key West to Fort Kent Maine.
We went on the Caribbean Spirit, a huge catamaran for a four hour cruise out to the coral reef for some snorkeling and Sangria. The water is a little cold this time of year…think CT in early August! 🙂 so a wetsuit (shorty) made it perfect!
Jude stayed on board and ate about 15 oreos:
Sebbie braved the swells to try some open ocean snorkeling and crashed immediately after:
We decided to go deep sea fishing on Christmas Eve. Grandpa Dean had never been and hoped to catch a big sailfish, which was what was running this time of year. Mike and I have been a number of times and joke that we always catch the most expensive small fish we will ever eat. I am also notorious for catching things that shouldn't be caught like pretty reef fish, crabs, cuttlefish, etc. We've been in the English Channel many times, Key Largo, Lake Huron, etc., so this time we were psyched to get a big fish!
Well, Grandpa Dean made the first big catch….yes, that's a seagull. The seagull dove for his bait and is actually attached to the line in this photo as the 1st mate helps reel it in!
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We did get the hook out and he flew away unharmed, but of course I made Dean pose with his first catch!
Unfortunately, no sailfish today. In fact, these were the only two keepers and our dinner…the two most expensive Yellowtail ever caught!
Great trip though!
Here are some tips about using underwater disposable cameras:
1) Disposable cameras are optimized to focus at about 5-7 feet (my estimation, not fact)…you can see where I was too close for sharpness in several of the shots (although I kind of like them anyway). So when you are shooting…back up a bit!
2) With any camera, it's all about enough light for quality…taking the pics in bright sunshine provided the best quality. However, the Denny's and beer goggles shots still came out it the dark but very faint and grainy. I improved the pics in Photoshop, but here you can see how it came out of the camera:
3) Underwater…yeah, my one underwater picture didn't turn out in the turbulent ocean! They do work better in pools or if there's a ton of light streaming into the ocean…. I did use one of these cameras for Lindsay's (of Sixpence Events) pool maternity shoot and an image is going in her album…so it's really about experimentation!
Well that was "what I did on my holiday" and we've started our new resolution…to blog more!!!!
Happy New Year!
October 11, 2008
Heather and Chris’ Beach Plum Inn Wedding on Martha’s Vineyard
What a great wedding on Martha's Vineyard with Heather and Chris…thank you so much for welcoming us to spend the day with you and your families!
Heather grew up coming to the Vineyard and got ready at her parents' home in Oak Bluffs:
Chris' mom just before the ceremony which was at Trinity Church, right off Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs:
I love Heather's mom getting a kick out of the ring bearer:
Heather and her brother during the receiving line:
I don't know why but I love this photo…maybe the colors of Heather's grandmother's hat with the Ocean Park Gazebo…
We took Heather and Chris' formal photos at the Ocean Park Gazebo and I loved the inside of the roof and the shakes with the formal wedding clothes:
Then it was out to Menemsha for the reception at the stunning Beach Plum Inn with all the tables set in navy and silver:
A favorite shot from Mike. The cocktail party was in a tent:
The dinner was held inside the Beach Plum Inn with an attached tent to allow for maximum seating. Heather and Chris picked the Beach Plum specifically for the view and light at sunset. So, as dinner started, the sun started to go down. This shot of the blessing looks totally photoshopped to me but it's barely touched…the light looked this amazing all through dinner and just made for a beautiful, beautiful setting. The other thing I want to point out is that in the attached tent, they had swagged a striped yellow and white fabric on the underside of the tent, making for a beautiful tent ceiling:
The light, the setting, the cake at sunset…amazing!
Then, everyone headed down to the lower tent for a great night of dancing!
and a little bonfire!!!!!
Thank you guys for a lovely experience!