“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”
Lighting is under-rated. While some thinking of super zoom and wide angle lenses as the major tools in a photographer’s toolbox, the truth is that no matter how great your lenses, the photos will be awful if the lighting isn’t done right. Sometimes you get lucky and there is no work involved in creating beautiful lighting, like at Maggie and Jason’s wedding at Oxon Hill Manor. With amazing window lighting flowing in through floor to ceiling windows, it was like giving someone chocolate on a Top-Chef challenge and asking them to make something that tastes good.
It’s hard to describe Maggie and Jason, the bride and groom, with a word other than adorable. Maggie says “Handsome” when talking about Jason…like I said, just adorable. We had a great time walking around the monuments a few months ago doing their engagement photos and we just felt so lucky to be a part of their wedding day. Here are some of our fave photos from the day:
Early morning getting ready. Maggie has an identical twin!
This picture totally cracks me up. Jason to nephew – “Hey want to take a picture with me? High five?”
Absolutely stunning, are they?
Sister dance of joy.
And I love this photo from Lotus Ryan, from the bride and groom’s soul train dance during the reception. Woot woot!
About 70% of a photographer’s job is spent in front of a computer going through the hundreds of photos from each wedding (yes, that’s a totally made up statistic, but it seems about right =). It’s crazy how much the substance of the photos can really affect your mood…if I’m staring at a photo doing the editing for a few hours and there are tons of photos of people laughing like crazy or smiling, it’s hard to be anything but happy.
Reese & Chris’ wedding has kept me on the happy-high for at least a week now. At this wedding, there was definitely no one happier than Reese–in every single photo, her smiling/laughing/just plain beaming just jumps out of every single photo. Here are some of my faves from the wedding, and a video with more of the wedding photos at the end.
Here is the wedding video that we created, enjoy!
Congrats Reese & Chris! Thank you guys so much for letting me be a part of your amazing day!
I’ve known Mary Lynn since first year of college. Earliest memory–she was ob-sessed with Penn State…it was unlike anyone I’d ever met before. We lived together sophomore year with Lara (also in the pics below) and spent days watching Real World marathons, eating Papa John’s pizza, and singing Army by Ben Folds Five at the top of our lungs. There have been tons of other memories, including some crazy careening around a golf course while volunteering as the beer cart girls for a charity tournament and an almost-fight with some Auburn basketball fans after their team lost. Some seriously fun and crazy times.
When she met Dave, I think she knew that he would be the one. After dating for 5 or 6 months, he got a job transfer to Tokyo, and trusting in how she felt, she moved a million miles away with him. Crazy and amazing at the same time, right? That’s how much she knew she loved him. After Tokyo, Dave got another job transfer, and they’re now living in Hong Kong totally in love, and with their adorable dog.
They flew in to New York City for the wedding, and tons of people flew in from all corners of the word, including Australia and Japan, to attend. Everything about the wedding was just amazing! I was sad that I didn’t get to use my camera much since I was in bridesmaid mode, but here are some photos from before the ceremony.
How great is the flower in the hair?
Here is Lara, trying to convey how big she wanted her hair to be.
I’ve spent some serious time wondering where or when I could rock out these crazy fake feather eyelashes.
Some of the lovely purple details. We had a running discussion about whether asparagus was actually used in the bouquet, so someone took a bite and confirmed…not asparagus. Isn’t the stamped “Bride” tag adorable?
The Vera Wang gown was seriously TDF fabulous [my sister has informed me that I am too old to say TDF...] and the detailing on the dress was unbelievable.
Sandra helping Mary with attempting to find a bustle.
Sarah was the winner of the contest that District Weddings held for the best proposal. Joe saved up for months and planned a suprise getaway to propose in the most romantic city, Venice. He told Sarah that they were just going on a weekend trip to New York. She had no idea the trip was happening until they arrived at the airport, walked up to the curbside checkin, and her tickets were scanned for DC to NY to Venice!
When Sarah first called me, she had some fantastic ideas, including a Man Men themed shoot. Words cannot describe how much I love that show! All of the dresses are so cute and the men always look so dapper. Love it. I was all about this idea! Then she mentioned that she might be able to get us permission to do so photos at PX since they knew one of the bartenders that work there. Right then, I knew we would be making some serious photo magic.
Ever get that kid in a cupcake store feeling? I think the typical expression is candy store, but I’ve got cupcakes constantly on the brain lately since I’ve got the Red Velvet cupcake store about two blocks from me, and the Curbside Cupcake twitter/facebook updates constantly following me. Ok, refocusing. So, kid in a cupcake store is the exact feeling I got when Kristin told me that we’d be able to photograph on the grounds of the National Cathedral. Typically, commercial photography is not allowed on the grounds, but Dave had special permission to photograph on the grounds because he rings the bells at the National Cathedral. Isn’t that crazy? It never occurred to me before that the booming church bell music originates from some people in a room swinging ropes, attached to bells, with precision.
Kristin and Dave are hilarious. One minute, they’re striking Top-Model-worthy poses…the next, they’re bursting with laughter at something that the other has said. They actually met because they both ring handbells. I’ve never seen handbells before, but they’ve assured me that there will be plenty on hand for their wedding in Williamsburg, Virginia. I can’t wait!
I love everything about the National Cathedral, but oddly enough, the wow-this-is-amazing-point came when we first pulled into the parking lot. Check out these stripes.
Rocking the “10″….they’re getting married in October.
Remember what I was saying about Top-Model-Worthy?
The architecture at the National Cathedral is just breathtaking.
So I’ve been terrible (awful!) at blogging regularly lately…but I swear it’ll be worth the wait! Here is a preview pic of a recent shoot. More to come!
There are tons more photos to go through, but I couldn’t resist putting up just a few shots from this past Saturday’s engagement photo shoot at the National Cathedral. We met up with Kristen and Dave and headed straight up to the bell towers, where Dave gets to ring the giant bells. It’s pretty unbelievable up there…giant bells in these old looking wooden structures. While it was pretty dark, we were very lucky and could bring in lightstands, which definitely made all the difference in these shots.
This last shot is in the parking lot of the National Cathedral, which may just be the most amazing parking lot I’ve ever seen.
We met up with Maggie and Jason at the Jefferson Memorial where there was all sorts of construction going on, a wedding happening on the side of the Jefferson Memorial, and then on top of that, tons of people there for the Cherry Blossom Festival. It wasn’t quite the original plan, but after pushing through the crowds, we set up a blanket in a patch of grass nearby and managed to get a whole other perspective on the monuments from the other side of the Potomac. It’s neat how that can turn out…you start out with an intention to get a certain view or perspective, it goes wrong, but then you end up getting a whole other amazing look.
Maggie and Jason met on Match.com and besides both being super-adorable, they both love English! Maggie is getting her PhD in Medieval Renaissance literature and Jason teaches English to high school students. We met up to do some faux-reading and some serious ham-ing for the camera. They have this amazing connection and it was tons of fun sharing in all the laugher they have. Congrats guys and I can’t wait to photograph your wedding later this year!
Check out the smoldering eyes…Maggie doesn’t actually have red hair, but I think it’s the light reflecting off of Jason’s shirt.
How great is “The Divine Comedy” for a book in a pre-marriage shoot? =)
Doesn’t Maggie just look so in love?
And my favorite…I love how fantastical this photo feels.
The day was unbelievably gray and at any minute the skies threatened to open up and just rain buckets on us, but we pushed on through. Reese & Chris were great sports –totally willing to walk around the monuments and find places where we could somewht avoid the huge crowds of people that descend upon DC each year for Cherry Blossom season. Here are some of the photos from the session — aren’t they ridiculously photogenic? Also, if you can believe it, Chris can actually do that crazy eyebrow thing with both eyebrows.
This is my absolute, hands down favorite photo of the day!
I’ve been noticing a rather unpleasant phenomenon with my photos lately. I edit them on my beloved Mac and they come out all vivid and shiny and bright. But then, I looked at those same photos on a different PC monitor and the images look flat and desaturated. I realized (rather slowly….) I was doing something wrong. A quick dig around photoshop and some googling, and I realized that I haven’t been looking at the right color profiles while I edit.
To avoid my rather silly blunder, go to View –> Proof Setup –> and select Monitor RGB. Then, go to View –> and select Proof Colors. Finally, go to Edit –> Color Settings –> and for RGB row, click on the pull down menu and select the last sRGB option.
Here is a before and after of one of the photos I posted yesterday. On a Mac screen, the difference is pretty subtle.
Before
After
It’s back to the drawing board with some more color profile fixing.
