We ventured out into the monsooning Colorado summer to document the wedding of Jessica and Alex. In a black forest in Colorado (one recently devastated by a fierce wildfire), we found an old chapel built in the 1920s. With exquisite paintings, and a southwest flair, we photographed Jess and Alex exchange their forevers.
It was a beautiful wedding, with just enough sunlight to get us through. We’ll share more images soon.
I’m not entirely sure I put much stock in the notion of always having a Plan B. A backup plan. Because if you have a backup plan, doesn’t that indicate you don’t entirely believe in Plan A?
I’m not speaking in total black and white terms. For instance, if we are talking about the Zombie Apocalypse Town Evacuation Plan, you should probably be ready to innovate a Plan B (for brains) through Plan Z (for zombie, naturally), just in case. Don’t get so caught up in Plan A that you are literally caught by a zombie and become brain food.
I’m just saying.
However, for those of you who are still reading this (bless you, by the way), my point is this: If you have a dream, your ideal Plan A, shouldn’t you be fighting for that instead of concocting backup, just in case, Plan Bs? Sure, you have to be flexible and willing to work on a whim when inevitably something goes off script. But I advocate for owning the core of your ideal and not letting that go for anything. Not even a safe, comfortable Plan B. If you know what you want, go for it. No matter what. Adapt when necessary, but hold tight and make it happen.
And if all the forces of the universe conspire against you along the lines of a Greek drama, then become a hand model. At least that’s my plan after editing through the photos Dan took for my mother’s wedding and coming across this frame. Well, maybe just a right hand model. The left looks a little crab like.
So…this post is a special kind of something. I’m not really sure where I went wrong. Probably around the time the zombie apocalypse made a cameo appearance.
I’m going to go.
Thanks for sticking it out, all two of you that did.
I owe you a cocktail.
Or several.
OK…. bye.
My mother got married this past Saturday. To a man who wore a red bow tie.
They married in a gold-glinting church on the campus of Stanford University in California. There was some talk about a fearsome tree. We’re still looking into that.
I will go into more details regarding the whole wonderful wedding weekend at a later date. For now, I present to you two frames from the post-first look portrait session.
Two frames.
One wedding.
We delivered photos to Johnny and Erica yesterday. That’s always such an exciting and fulfilling finale to the wedding photography journey. At that point, you’ve been working with your couple for months and months. From the moment they hire you, to their engagement photo session, to the wedding day, and then through each photo in the editing process, delivery of that final set of images is a long-time coming.
I was looking through our final edit again today and loving these two images. The first is a different angle of a moment you’ve seen before. Looked at in the context of the full edit, it really gets your heart back in that scene. As this photo was taken, Dan was upstairs in the church, photographing the start of the procession to the altar. Erica and I were downstairs, where the music could be heard just well enough to know that it would change to the wedding march in mere seconds.
The second was taken on a golf course as we strolled around nine holes, taking wedding party portraits before the reception really got swinging. I love how relaxed and contagious these two look in their happiness. (And the cowboy hat made a second appearance!)
The wedding day offers so many clashing, yet interlocked emotions. I love that my job is to capture them all to be relived for the days to come.
I’ve been staring at this post for two days, trying to muster up the words to open this set of images. Writer’s block sometimes gets the best of you. They say the best way to overcome writer’s block is to simply write whatever comes to mind. However, for me, that usually results in a startling revelation of just how much silly nonsense enjoys spurting from my brain folds. That sentence seems an appropriate example.
The fact of the matter is, herein lies a small take of photos from a wedding I second shot for Gino Siller a few months back. You may recall I second shot another wedding with Gino at the beginning of the 2012 season. Both instances educational, both instances totally awesome. This particular bridal party was just itching to pop some bubbly and celebrate the love Jessica and Robert had for one another. They had a palpable vivacity among them.
That’s the long and the short of it. Sorry there isn’t more ping or pizzazz in my writing today. I believe that with enough coffee and Reese’s peanut butter cups, I can punch through this writer’s block. Tune in tomorrow to see the result of that experiment.
Check out Gino’s blog post from Jessica and Robert’s wedding.