I’m ready to show off more photos from the wedding, but this time in a video slide show format. I’ve been working feverishly trying to process the ridiculous amount of photos that I took that day. I was planning on deleting all the bad photos and figured there would be plenty of those, but strangely enough, just about every photo came out nice. Now this is by no means a self-compliment of my own photography. The fact of the matter is that the bride is one of the most photogenic creatures on Earth. There is simply no such thing as a bad photo of her. In almost 1,000 pictures, she only blinked 4 times and never, not once, looked like anything less than a princess. I couldn’t have asked for a better scenario to take on this challenge.
If you would like to take a little peak into what the day was like (the full story, from beginning to end) then I invite you to hit the play button below.
What a great Mother’s Day I had. First off, I got to spend the morning with Jessica. Not that I ever actually feel like a “mother” around Jess. She’s more like my buddy, but it was sort of nice to have my whole tiny little family together, if only for the morning. We headed to the airport in Boston and had a nice leisurely breakfast together before she had to fly back home. Boy was I surprised when she slipped me a handmade card. I never got a Mother’s Day card before and certainly wasn’t expecting one. The note inside the was so amazingly sweet that it made me cry. I got through the entire wedding without shedding a tear, but cried over breakfast at the airport.
Then, driving home Karlo and I were talking about the wedding and how hard I worked. He said that I deserved a new lens. I couldn’t agree more, but he followed this comment up with, “The ducks told me they want to get you a new lens.” How adorable is that? A Mother’s Day present from the ducks! Such generous ducks. God I love them.
And this new lens marks an important milestone for me. It’s my first professional level FX lens . . . which means that now I have to some day upgrade to a professional level camera body. I think I’m ready . . .
I survived my first big wedding shoot! I haven’t recovered yet, mind you, but I did survive it. The whole day was quite the grueling process. I spent months trying to prepare myself for it. I read wedding photography books, I watched professional instructional videos, I gathered shot ideas, I practiced with new equipment. I really thought I was ready to tackle this challenge, but even with all that preparation, I had no idea what was in store for me.
I learned a long time ago to force myself to never have expectations – for anything. Nothing ever lives up to my expectations and life just happens so much grander in my mind than it does in reality. So I had this idyllic idea of what this whole day would be like and right off the bat I was slapped with the cold harsh reality. I envisioned all the girls getting ready in one big beautiful room (hair, makeup, the works). I thought the mother of the bride would be there and I would capture all those lovely iconic images . . . you know, if front of a window with soft glowing light. Yeah well, that didn’t work out quite as planned. There were 7 bridesmaids and the hotel rooms were so small you could barely fit everyone all in one room. Every single room that I stepped into looked like a hurricane blew through with debris scattered about. To put it in a nutshell, it was complete and utter chaos. My heart sunk because this was merely the beginning of the day.
It didn’t take me long to realize that one person can not possible cover all the action on wedding day. I was counting my blessings that I had, not only one professional photographer to back me up, but TWO! I managed to snap a few pictures of the groom during all this chaos, but I mostly concentrated on the bride getting ready while my new best friend took care of the groom’s preparation photos.
We planned to leave the hotel early and stop by the reception to take the detail photos of the tables and flowers and such before any guests arrived . . . but that didn’t happen. As it turns out there was a road race happening that same day and the traffic was grid lock. Just what I needed to add a little more stress to the day.
Straight to the church it was and we arrived with plenty of time for me to go inside, check the lighting, and have a nervous breakdown. It was like a dark cave inside. I fiddled endlessly with my camera to make sure it would expose right in the dark, only to later find out that all the lights would come on for the ceremony. I was well covered for the church shots. I had one of the pros stationed on the balcony getting wide sweeping shots of the entire church and birdseye scenes of the bride and groom at the alter. My buddy Scott was there to get the angles that I could not get. After all, you can only be in one place at one time. It was a great combination of team work and I’m sure the entire day is going to be amazingly well documented. I was just so darn proud of myself to be at the right place at the right time to get some of the important ceremony things, like the rings and the first kiss.
The most dreaded part of the day for me was the formals. I knew I could handle all the “detail” shots because that is my specialty. I even felt confident with the “documentation” portion of the day. But when it comes to posing people . . . well, that I know nothing about. I was terrified to say the least, but I did manage to get some great shots of the bride and groom.
Boy was I looking forward to the first dance and cake cutting because I knew that after that I was off-duty and can start to have a little fun dancing – and that I did.
I haven’t yet seen the photos taken by the pros, but I wanted to gather and document just the photos that I took (as a mark of an accomplishment for me). I will have the full story uploaded within a week or two, but for now, if you are curious to see my own work, you can view the photos online here. And for a real treat, you can head over to Scott’s blog for a sneak peak at his amazing work. I can NOT wait to get his photos!!!
#5-6
TROT
#5-7
SCATTER
#5-8
SHOP
#5-9
CONVENTION
#5-10
PRACTICE
#5-11
MARTINI
#5-12
FAIRYTALE
Well, I’m officially running out of ‘practice time’ for the upcoming wedding that I’ll be shooting. I have to say, I haven’t really touched a camera in days and I’m strangely very calm and unstressed. I think that is mostly due to the fact that I have a pro helping me out and covering my you-know-what. Jessica seems to be very confident that we can handle the job and she has volunteered to be my assistant. Wow, I have my own assistant and I’m shooting a wedding. Maybe I really “am” a photographer! I better let the photos I take be the real judge of that.
So what have I been doing all week while I haven’t been practicing with the equipment? Well, Jess is in town so that usually means there is lots going on. We always have a lot of talking and catching up to do and time seems to travel at warp speeds during her visits. I’ve been busy at work, we had a local trade show to attend mid week, haircuts had to happen, massages needed to get done (yes, my stupid shoulder is acting up again and I swear this time it’s not from stress), and most importantly Jess and I have been hunting online for cool wedding photo ideas. It feels like I blinked and went directly from Monday to Friday without passing Go and without collecting $200.
I think at this point my biggest concern is my wardrobe. I spent months picking out my dress and lived through the stress of Boston Proper telling me that it was back-ordered until the week AFTER the wedding. I was so happy and relived to get it far sooner than expected. All was well. Until the pro photographer that is helping me out told me that I absolutely, positively should NOT wear a dress to shoot. He said that I’ll need to be standing on chairs and squatting on the ground and just won’t be able to, or be comfortable in a dress. Dammit! I tried and tried to justify not listening to him and sticking with my plan of wearing the dress, but after shooting the simple shower and having to sit on the floor and then stand on a chair I came to the conclusion that he was right. I better wear pants.
Then Karlo got involved as my fashion consultant and insisted that I buy a new suit for the occasion. Oh, and not just any pant suit, it had to be a pinstriped suit. So I went nuts searching for a pinstripe suit and bought one online from Macy’s. The shipping notification told me it would arrive 3 days before the wedding. All was well again.
Or not. Last weekend we just happened to be in West Hartford so we popped into Westfarms Mall so I could try on my new suit. And thank God I did. I HATED it. I never saw a more ill-fitting or unflattering piece of clothing on me. Now what? We were one week out and I had nothing to wear. I bought two blazers and decided that I could just wear a pair of dress pants that I already owned. I’ll just have to make due.
So now my last dilemma is what shoes to wear. All of my ‘dress’ pants are really long (meant to be worn with high heels) and I need super comfy, easy-to-walk-in, and ideally quiet shoes. We all know how impossible THAT is for me to find. I bought a new pair of shoes with heels just high enough so my pants don’t literally drag on the floor. Thank God I wore them to work today to test drive them. At first they were so tight they were killing my heels. I stood in them for an hour until both feet went numb. I took them off and pulled, stretched, and yanked on them until they loosened up. Well, they loosened up alright, so much so that I now walk right out of them. Even without nylons on, my feet pull right out of them which is the worst possible shoe scenario I could have. I’m now under 24 hours to go and I have NO SHOES TO WEAR. Sigh
Please pray for me to get through tomorrow without falling on my face, making a fool of myself, letting Jessica get me too drunk, or screwing up the photos.
#4-29
QUACK
#4-30
HOMEWORK
#5-1
WEEDS
#5-2
HEARTS
#5-3
BELIEVE
#5-4
EARS
#5-5
ATTACK
I’m entering into my final practice week for getting ready to shoot my first ‘real’ wedding. I say ‘real’ wedding because I did once shoot a very small and informal wedding, but that was nowhere near the stress level of a traditional wedding with a church, a big wedding party, formals, first dances, cake cutting, etc. For my little informal wedding I was just a guest with a camera that happened to be snapping some photos. But this time . . . well this time I’m the “official” photographer. gulp
So in preparation, I acquired my incredibly trustworthy and generous friend’s camera equipment. I now have several thousand dollars worth of goodies all in my possession with a one week deadline to figure out how to use it all. You might be thinking that I should have plenty of experience behind a camera by now and although that is true, working with foreign equipment is a whole different ballgame. The camera controls and settings are different, the lens weighs a ton and is difficult to steady, even the basics of how you focus the camera is completely different. I am under the gun!
Last week was my first attempt at shooting with this new stuff and to say it was a disaster would be an understatement. I’m not even going to show the results of my first shoot. Just about every picture was either over exposed or out of focus. This did NOT give me a warm sense of confidence less than two weeks from the big event. Luckily I have a couple photo mentors that I can call upon in these moments of photographic crisis and they sure did help out. Not sure where I would be without my pal Sandy who is an incredibly patient and thorough teacher. After 40 minutes of phone lessons and camera tweaks I set out the following day for more experimentation.
I needed to master the art of focusing with this new “back button” method. The theory is that I will be able to grab both still and action shots without having to make any adjustments to the camera controls. So I gave it a shot. I worked on practicing some of the easy “detail” shots that are my favorite.
Those were no problem because it’s what I’m used to. Not to mention that sweet 70-200mm 2.8 lens makes everything look like a work of art. But now the harder part. I tried to focus on and catch some action. Gosh, I hate shooting things that move.
The most important thing that I needed to practice was my most dreaded subject . . . PEOPLE. With a little arm twisting I finally got Karlo to stop complaining about me pointing the monster lens at him long enough to snap a few pictures.
The thing that makes this lens so special is the wide aperture giving you a very selective focus. This comes into play the most when you’re zoomed up on your subject.
And then a little practice with the group formals . . .
I guess I should stop wasting my time in front of the computer and spend more time behind the camera. I got more practicing to do . . .
The ducks survived their second trip to the big duck pond yesterday and it was quite exciting. Karlo chased them out of their kennel and, with no rakes to guide them, the duck gang happily followed me and Cooper down to the pond. The little ducks were so excited that they were actually running and at one point passed us on their way to the water’s edge. This time they needed no coaxing and happily dove right in with zero hesitation. It is so amazing to see how quickly they adapt to things after they did it just one time. They are a lot like our dogs in that way.
I laid on the dock, duck-sitting, while Karlo cut the grass. Cooper was lounging in the grass and the ducks had plenty of supervision while they played in the water. Considering just this morning I spotted our resident fox midway between the duck kennel and the pond, sniffing for duck tracks I was a bit concerned about leaving the little quackers unattended.
I was snoozing on the dock when I heard a bit of commotion and the next thing I knew all the ducks were out of the water and trotting around in the grass. When they started to run around on the grass, Cooper got very excited and wanted to join in. Boy did he give those ducks a run for their money. I swear he had his tongue hanging out and he not only scared the feathers off the ducks, but also off of me. I tried to yell at him to stop and as he torn around after them – every duck running in a different direction – and I realized that ultimately all the ducks dove head first into the water to escape the big mean greyhound. Well, this was very good news. They actually have some survival instincts in them and Lord knows this will come in handy around our place. Even the dog that was just minutes ago happily keeping watch over them could at any moment become a predator. Important lesson for the little duckies.
Soon everything quieted down again and things got back to normal . . . Cooper and the ducks all lounging in the grass happily together. As I sat there watching I couldn’t help kick myself for not having my camera with me. I desperately wanted to get up and walk back to the house to get it, but what were the chances that everybody (dog and ducks) would stay put and not follow me? Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore and I slowly made my way back to the house. (Yes, I was willing to risk the duck’s lives in order to take photos. Does this surprise anyone?) I was stunned that nobody moved. When I got back to the pond this was the scene.
Cooper was patiently keeping guard and watching over the ducks who seemed to be happy and content in his presence, despite the recent chase and scare.
I had a ball snapping pictures of the little quackers and when Karlo finished the grass we decided that we were going to walk away and leave the ducks happily napping by the pond. We planned to do some yard work near the house and just keep a watchful eye toward the pond. By the time we got halfway up the hill back to the house we turned around to see our gang trotting toward us. What a riot. They were perfectly fine while Cooper was there watching them, but when everybody left them, they got up on their own and came to us. They walked (actually ran) all the way up the hill and straight back into their kennel all by themselves. Too cute!
I was quiet all last week and had no motivation to blog. That might be because I’m in a state of denial over the fact that my neck and shoulder are acting up again. There are just no words to describe how upset and disappointed I am. I truly thought I put an end to this nightmare. I thought last year closed a chapter on the major stresses in my life. I got myself into meditation, I worked my way back up to being strong and fit, and I even bought a lighter motorcycle helmet. How ignorant was I to think that it was really over? sigh.
OK, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Instead I’ll talk about something that brings me great joy . . . the ducks!
They are getting so big now. They are in that awkward teenage stage. They have a combination of baby peach fuzz and feathers. They are growing like weeds and yesterday I noticed a slight blue/green tint coming through on some of the feathers on two of them. I’m hoping that means we have two boys and two girls. Only time will tell. Still no quacking yet, but they have adjusted nicely to the outdoor life. They are self sufficient at putting themselves into their house at night where they can stay warm and dry. They love these new digs so much, in fact, that even when their kennel door is wide open, they still choose to stay inside. Since they are so comfortable with this set up it worries me that they won’t easily adapt to yet another new set up we have planned for them.
Karlo has been designing, building, and putting the finishing touches on the floating duck house all week. Yesterday it was time to drag it to the pond and launch it for the big test . . . to see if it really floats! He hooked it up to the ATV and towed it down to the pond.
And then the moment of truth . . .
It floats, it floats!
What a thrill it was to see it actually float. Karlo had to figured out a way to secure it to the dock so that it stays far enough from predators, but we can easier get it back to shore when need be. Here he is working on that set up.
Now the fun part. It was time to introduce the ducks to the “big duck pond.” I was a little worried about them traveling so far from their kennel up at the house to the pond (it’s a long way to go with those little duck legs), not to mention the mystery of how we would get them OUT of the pond to go back to their kennel, but we just went for it. Here’s the scene.
We finally managed to get them into the water and they were thrilled. We just watched them swim and play around. Even Cooper was very interested in all this action.
Luckily the entire process of getting them back in was pretty easy. Karlo is getting good at duck herding and Cooper is becoming quite the sheep dog!
#4-22
SHOWER
#4-23
RAPIDS
#4-24
DOPEY
#4-25
BUBBLEY
#4-26
SPRING
#4-27
LOUNGE
#4-28
FLOATS