Happy Wedding Weekend, Tim & Erin!

Stay tuned for their wedding day images…

Blogging is hard. At least for me it is. I admire people who can post 4-5 times a week. It’s one of my goals to post more. And I’ve decided that I need you, my readers, to help me with this! (Keep reading to find out how.)

In order to help me post more, one thing I am going to do is to start a weekly series. Once a week I am going to post a before and after image. Of what, you ask?

How many times have you been somewhere taking pics and thought, this background stinks? How in the world will I get a good picture? This series will hopefully be a tool to help you think outside of the box… much like I have had to do in the past. There are times when you just have to rely on your creative juices to work over time!

So on to our first installment of this series…

I was hired to shoot a wedding at a location of which the bride and groom both warned me was not the best place for photos. Now as a wedding photographer, this is the last thing you want to hear. But for me, it happened to appeal to my side that loves a good challenge.

So as I usually do before our weddings, I went to scope out the location. I met with the facility manager who told me that most photographers bring backdrops for weddings at this location. Wait…. WHAT?!? Bring a backdrop to a wedding?? I don’t think so… not my style at all. Nothing wrong with it… but just not my style. And definitely not what my clients hired me to do.

While looking around the facility I realized that my bride & groom were right– at least at first glance. This was no place for gorgeous images. So I headed outside to see what I could find. This is what I saw:

Behind the building I found a field of weeds and even a little trash that hadn’t made into the dumpsters (that also happened to be located back there). Definitely not a place that just jumps out and screams “gorgeous” to ya! In fact, the above image doesn’t even show all the parked cars, dumpsters, trash and dead grass that were back there. But I knew that with a little bit of creativity and some warm sunlight this would be the perfect place for the images they were hoping I’d give them. Combine some fancy manuevering and a willing bride & groom (major key component!), and we managed to get this image from the same field of weeds and trash:

We ended up with images that they didn’t expect to look good. Even while I was shooting, I think they were still a little skeptical. But in the end they were both surprised and loved the final images :)

So where does *your* part come in? In order to help me blog more consistently, I would love to know what things you would like for me to post more about. Feel free to send me an email or post a comment below with any suggestions or questions and I will do my best to answer them!

9. Master the use of off camera flash with Zack Arias.

It’s AH-MAZING what you can do with your camera and one single off-camera flash!

As most of you know, I have been a natural light photographer up to this point in my career…. which means I rarely use flash (except during times like wedding receptions). I use whatever available light is in my shooting environment. This kind of photography can be challenging and definitely limiting at times. So because of this, I wanted to get over my fear of those intimidating flashes and master how to use them both correctly and creatively. There’s nothing worse to me than a pic that screams the deer in headlight look of “I used flash in this pic.” I hate flatly lit images too. And I think that’s why I’ve shyed away from it for so long. But after I started following photographers like Zack Arias, I knew that there was hope for me. So I signed up for Zack’s OneLight workshop. As soon as he posted the dates I jumped on it because his workshops usually sell out quickly. And I can honestly say, it’s some of the best money I’ve spent this year! He’s an excellent teacher!

I’ve been looking for inspiration to take my skill to the next level. I feel like I am still searching for my “corner” in this field. And after this weekend, well, I think I may have found the path towards it :) The use of one off-camera light makes your creative options endless. And I can’t wait to get out there and have fun!

FYI for the photographers reading this: I’ve done NO edits to these pics. They are straight out of camera.

The workshop was held in Jeremy Cowart’s studio. And I think we all fell in love with the red velvet drapes he had there!

This above image was literally taken in the middle of The Factory’s lobby. The lights you see behind him are actually the lights from the shops.

This last shot was taken after 9pm. Outside. With a speed grid. I LOVE knowing I now have the option of shooting whenever and wherever! For those of you following me on Twitter, you probably saw that we were shooting outside as late as midnight!

I’ve already found my next willing model… so stay tuned to see what creative images we come up with!