A Photo Site from last Friday’s wedding has just been uploaded…

Link: Jarvis / Reid September 2006

So as the weddings slow down, we’re getting a chance to catch up on enlargement orders. Clients have been sending orders ranging from weddings as far back as the beginning of last season right up to two weeks ago.

This is the first year that Jennifer and I have shot together throughout the whole summer, so we’re not really sure what to expect going into the winter. I’m guessing that the “slow season” that we’ve been talking about is not going to be terribly slow though, as we’ve got everything from the enlargement orders, to photo editing, to re-orders from family of couples that we’ve covered. On top of that, the main part of the 2007 summer season is pretty much booked and requests and consultations have started for choice days in 2008. Still, I’m expecting to start relaxing on the weekends soon…

We’re also starting to book a few modeling shoots – I’ll be “going back” to the newfoundland photographer site starting in a few weeks – the I suppose the poor newfoundland wedding site won’t get any attention for a few months. _sniff_sniff_

One thing I really like about shooting weddings is the variety – I get to shoot many different styles. This variety is most often defined by the client, as each client has a different expectation in what they want from the photographer.

Some clients want traditional pictures – posed pictures of themselves and the family. This presents a challenge in the form of working with people, particularly in dealing with a large group. You deal with multiple personalities within the group, ranging from those that want to get as many pictures as possible of different groupings, to those that see the “picture taking” as mainly an annoyance or something that has to be endured. It’s more a practice of dealing with people than it is the camera, so you need patience and the right personality to handle the full range of situations.

On the other end of the scale is the client that wants the day documented from an artistic perspective with candid, natural pictures. The challenges change drastically with this type of shooting, and although it’s more difficult than posed stuff in more ways than one, the payoff can be well worth the effort.

I’m delighted when this type of client comes along, as happened on Saturday. And they don’t come along as often as I’d like. This is either a person who has analyzed your work and is willing to place a great deal of confidence in you, or has a great deal of confidence that things will just go right (fingers crossed!). When the situation presents itself, you sometimes have to change gears suddenly – with this example I wasn’t absolutely sure of the goal beforehand, as I’d only chatted briefly with the client for a few minutes earlier that week on the phone. In contrast to traditional wedding photography, this style requires an odd combination of skills on the part of the photographer – a good technical knowledge of how a camera works along with a somewhat more artistic eye that can see a moment as it happens or anticipate it before it happens.

Of course, even when you’re given the opportunity to document an event like this, you still cover all the bases. I still concentrated on some posed shots, because someone in the group, inevitably, will expect to see some traditional pictures. You’re dealing with the expectations of not only the couple, but the parents and siblings as well.

In other news… there’ll be another session web site online within the next day. This was supposed to be a weekend off – I’m not sure what happened.

A new gallery is online on the wedding site…

Link: Gallery 8

I’ve been working on this weekend’s weddings and thought I’d put a few shots online. Here’s one from Friday and one from Saturday.

And, I don’t mean to drag this out, but these were too funny to pass up…

Ooops! What is that in the background? _sigh_

Well it’s about two in the morning and it seems I have developed a mild case of insomnia. We had two more weddings this weekend. Friday brought us the the beautiful community of Norman’s Cove – the people we’re so nice and welcoming that I wanted to stay. When you spend an entire day playing shadow with a family you feel you get to know them fairly quickly. Maybe I’m going crazy but I pretty much balled during the toast to the bride.

Saturday was great as well – we got to shoot at one of our favorites, Corpus Christi, then on to Bowring Park for group pictures. Now, as I’ve said before, if you’ve ever been to Bowring Park on a sunny summer Friday or Saturday, you know that there is going to be at least five wedding parties present during any one time of the afternoon. The park is fully open to the public and it works on a first come first serve basis.

On Saturday, Jennifer and I were the first to arrive at this particular spot. We set up as usual to start our group shots, then along comes another photographer, an old schooler, who sets up almost on top of the tiny space we are already using. Now for those of you not familiar, Bowring Park must be somewhere between 50 to 100 acres, with at least ten good spots for pictures. Ah well.

So we’re working happily side-by-side, when he decides to shoot under a tree off to the side and in the back of our shots. Not a problem – in my group I have this one step forward, that one back, I move to the right a few steps – assistant moves the light – on with the show – click click. Next, an old car comes along, turns off the road, and drives right up amongst the tress and onto the lawn. Wow – pretty bold – he starts posing the group around that. Now our couple had a horse and carriage rented for the afternoon. During an attempt to get a group shot around the horse, poor Mr. Ed decides to continue walking closer and closer to the second bridal party. We re-construct the shot and try again – and the stress builds.

During all this, we have apparently crept into his shot. So he‘ll also move a little perhaps? Rotate, as I did? Take a step to the left surely? Not quite. He calls out that we’re in his shot, and while clearly being able to see that we are dealing with a difficult situation and a party of almost 20 lifeforms, within a minute, is yelling savagely. Nice.

So at this point, he’s managed to piss me off, but more importantly, has ruined the mood of both his own party and ours. And that, in the end, is everything that is acomplished by this sort of exchange. The really funny bit is I don’t think any of us got the perfect shot.

Anyway, I’m glad to say the rest of the day went beautifully – we headed to Quidi Vidi for the couple pics. I also want to add that the groom (Stephen) was very sweet – I’m sure I was introduced to everyone in the family again making me feel very much at home. Thanks to Stephen and Jennifer for being so warm and friendly.

Another Photo Web Site has just gone online.

Link: Tibbo / Gushue September 2006

This is another example of a couple that were both gracious and adventurous – and it shows in the pictures.

I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating: Everyone wants nice wedding photos, but we’re not magicians – the people being photographed have to relax and have fun for the end result to work out as well as this one did.

So we’ve got two more this weekend before things start to slow down a bit. We’ve actually got an entire weekend off coming soon and I’m really looking forward to that. It’s mostly one a weekend from here on till our vacation in a few months. After we get back, it’s a few modeling sessions, family shoots, then a few more Christmas Weddings.

We’re also trying to work through updates to the wedding site and perhaps even my site during all this. We’re concentrating on new galleries and banner images for the wedding site now, and perhaps more travel pictures to my site in the next few weeks.

I still haven’t gotten around to posting a few from Saturday’s wedding, but I’ll get to that in a few days. Maybe Sunday.

Well if you seen my blog posting last week I mentioned that our wedding on Friday included a few gold winning Olympic athletes. Jennifer and I had the privilege of photographing the Krista Tibbo and Brad Gushue wedding and it couldn’t have went any better. I say this a lot but I really, really love these pictures! Krista was gorgeous and Brad was so sweet I got a tooth ache.

I just finished looking through the pics and I’ll include a few to hold you over till I can announce the web site is online. The ceremony was held at the Basilica and the location for the couple pictures was Cape Spear – the light was that really deep yummy gold colour. I’m glad to say we got a ton of funny candid shots and with two little cuties in the bridal party (one of whom you’ll see crying on Brads lap) we had a ball. Everyone thought my noises to get the attention of the kinds were hilarious – but it seemed the adults laughed more then the children.

We had a wedding on Saturday as well – Carol and Billy got married in St. John’s and had most of their pictures taken on the grounds of Government House – always a great choice. The highlight of their day was the vehicle they had rented to transport the 21 members in their bridal party to each location, a limo bus from Memories Forever. I hitched a ride to the reception with them and took a few pics on the way – I’ll post a some from that wedding a little later this week.

The best thing about photographing children is their inability to mask true emotion – generally, if a child smiles, it’s because they are sincere in doing so. I got the following candid shots at last Friday’s wedding. I think it’s fairly easy to guess what each subject was thinking at that exact moment.

This doesn’t happen often, but I found myself with a little time to spare. So in fear of having an afternoon to relax I decided to put together a collage using some pics from last Sunday’s modeling shoot. Hope you enjoy.

The new wedding site has gone online. There are a number of improvements and we’ll be working on more stuff over the coming days and weeks.

We now have an unprecedented amount of photographic content on that site – the number of images can be measured in the thousands. One of the goals of the new design is to make that abundantly clear to a new visitor, and as such, we have a rotating banner at the top of each page. Each time a page is loaded, a script on the server selects a new banner with pictures from our coverages to display at the top. There’s only about ten banners right now, but I’ve tasked a minion on adding many more.

Some other changes and improvements are listed on the news page. We’ve considered going all the way by adding a blog to that site as well, but I think one is enough!

And in other news… we’re covering a wedding this weekend that I’ve really been looking foward to – hint: there will be six Olympic Gold Medalists attending, and one of them will be getting married. Any guesses?

Another busy weekend has come and gone. Friday we shot a wedding that took place at the Fairmount Hotel, the service was held in the atrium – lots of natural light – followed by the reception in one of the ball rooms. It worked out great considering that it rained for most of the day.

Saturday we were in Witless Bay and it was beautiful. I’ve said this before but it deserves repeating – I love these small charming churches. Lots of clear glass windows, paint peeling off clap board and understated architecture. The priest who performed the service had actually christened the groom himself back in the day. We were lucky that the weather cooperated letting us get some great pictures on the beach and in a nearby garden.

The day did however present some minor obstacles. When we arrived to shoot the guys we discovered that the groom had no tux! Apparently there was a mix up at the rental shop and he ended up wearing a pair of navy blue pants and his brother’s jacket – which he pretty much swam in. I have to admit he handled it very well and was ready and smiling for his pics shortly after his tux arrived by taxi.

Sunday we had another shoot, this time with Sabrina Jenkins, a representative for the Miss Galaxy competition. I really like these pics – if she doesn’t win most photogenic… I’ll freak! :)

Anyway I thought that I was going to get a little R and R today considering the holiday and all but my presence was requested at a family get together, or should I say an extensive photo shoot consisting of kitchen cabinets, empty garages and vinyl siding deceptively disguised as a pot roast… I was bamboozled into taking real estate pics so my parents can promptly sell their house on line – you really can’t trust anyone these days. Well, I’m tired and my face hurts from keeping one eye clenched since Friday… good night.