The newly joined James and Martha Bowen and family put on a great wedding. The ceremony was nestled in a very private venue tucked into the woods, a well-landscaped property, which was surrounded by its own forest of flowers, with a great view out of the end of the property that overlooked a large valley. As hectic as weddings can be for the people who are called upon to provide services during events like these, the relaxing nature of the place helped bring the stress levels down a bit.

Its very easy to talk about a couple in-love as you watch them take their vows in front of friends and family, as its almost an assumption, right? I’ll tell you what, there was no assumptions needed here. Even though I only just gotten to know the couple, I couldn’t have been more convinced of their love by the close of the ceremony. The pair didn’t take their eyes off of each other. You could tell it wasn’t an in-the-moment experience, it was something that was there with or without the glamour of the wedding facade. It gave me a chill as I watched it through my lens, I caught myself uncontrollably smiling like many of the women in-attendance. Such a powerful experience when you see the real deal, love.

Little bit of play with the flowers in the framing…

Kids, what can you say… short attention spans

The rings and walk…

A moment alone at the end of the isle before the chaos that is a wedding resumes….

Formal group photos went well. I scouted the location for 30 mins or so when I arrived prior to the events, and picked out a few spots to capture the staged photos. Very few photos in a wedding have the luxury of being staged and well-lit, so I was going to make sure I nailed those, and leave all the other other candid photos I’d be taking at event in the hands of Lady Luck. I was a bit nervous, having to take the formals in open, hard, mid-day sunlight, but I was able to overpower the sun with a studio strobe.

The best and worst part of the day for me was the couples private formals. The good – tall grass, good lookin couple, very storybook feel to the photos. I was happy how they turned out. Time is pressed (as always at weddings). Lighting was prepped, exact locations mapped-out, and I had roughly 5 mins to work with the couple before they were whisked-off to the reception. I had three varying spots I wanted to shoot the couple in – one walking look, one sitting in the tall grass look, and then one under this funky tree. First two went smooth, but as we were just starting the under the tree look, something went painfully wrong, literally. I had my light and myself tucked up against the trunk of the tree, with the couple just on the inside of the umbrella of the tree. The whole areas was tall grass (about two feet), so you kinda just had to blindly step as you moved along. As I was looking through my lens, popping off a few shots, I was right as the base of the tree. I should also mention that I was wearing flip-flops (hot day, dress clothes, packing lots of heavy gear – you cheat where you can in efforts to stay as cool as possible so you dont look like just walked out of a sweat lodge). I was lovin the photos I was making, so my eye was glued to the camera, trying to work as fast as I could. At that point I felt a sharp pain on my foot, but I ignored it so that I could finish the photo set. But then another shooting pain, than lots of these unpleasant sensations at the same time. I pulled my foot out of the grass and it was covered in very angry ants (ya know… the nasty ones that are trained to kill). My luck, an entire field and I blindly have to step into the ants nest, and they’ve latched onto my skin. What followed was what I’m sure looked much like an indian ritual dance, flinging off my sandals and taking large, lunging steps as I rotated dragging the tops and then the bottoms of my feet on the ground to free the biting grip of the ants. We decided to wrap the shoot at that point, and let the couple proceed with the rest of the evenings events. I proceeded to capture the reception with a slightly bruised ego and a tingly, warm sensation in my foot as I finished out my work. And I’m happy to report that the reception was killer-ant-free.

Last images before I got eaten alive…

The theatre itself was fun to photograph, the interior lighting design was well-thoughtout.

Looks so nice and calm, right? Minutes later, the attendees were let into the facility, and it was a packed joint.

On to the show, enter Ryan and Colin. This show played-out very much like a ‘Whose Line’ show. A variety of fun improv games where the quick-witted comics played off of each other, some with the help of the audience.

The two were joined by some surprise participating celebrities for a game or two.

After the show, Ryan and Colin posed for some group shots. This one is pretty great. Ryan, Colin, and Mike, the founder of the Burned Children Recovery Foundation.

That’s it! Stay tuned for the photos from the other two events – the gala and golf tourney.

The Ryan Stiles crew asked if I’d oversee the photography needs for the event and I said yes. Donating my time for the weekend will produce a lot of great photography for the organization, providing plenty of memories and marketing material for years to come.

700 photographs dumped off of my two cameras tonight. Ouch, there’s a few hours in post production… I’m going to guess that the weekend’s total will come in around 3,000ish.

Loved working in the Mt. Baker Theater. What a beautiful structure. Attention was paid to details and you can tell. Not a bad seat in the house either.

Like I said, I dumped the pics, my laptop is pissed off as it is currently having to chew through them all, but I skimmed through and snagged a couple to post up. Lots a lots of pics from this weekend’s events coming your way soon! Hold tight.

Picture at top, snapped just before the show started, everyone seated. Picture below, empty theater, taken from back. Awesome lighting, right?!

There were 30+ centerpieces and five larger arrangements. With so many centerpieces to create, the design had to be fairly simple, but that didn’t mean that it had to be boring by any means. Walking into the building, I could easily pick out Tomasi’s work, it’s got a flair and style rarely seen. Elegance through simplicity and lines, never trying to overdo it by adding more content to designs. I love clients like Tomasi, cause he makes my job pretty dang easy, I just need to ensure I properly capture it. If you search back through my blog, you’ll see numerous shoots we’ve done, all of the pieces he designed are unique and like nothing I’ve ever seen.

His designs were sprawled across the entirety of the museum so I got a good history lesson while I traveled the building capturing the flowers. Enjoy the photos from this event, and keep an eye out for Project Showcase content coming soon!

London Couture is moving into a huge, three-story building, as their business is blowing up at a dizzying pace. This is where they hosted the event, a kind of pre-open house. The building is in the middle of a remodel, so things have that half-finished look, which I think looks cool. The backstage area is a catacomb of rooms, hallways, and curtains. It almost felt like a game of Frogger, as I dodged models, MUA’s (hair/makeup artists), and coordinators as they whizzed about while I tried to take photos. Hairspray so thick in the air that there was a definite haze to the backstage area. I have a tendency to get right in on the action to get my photos, but I had to watch it, as one stray blast of hairspray would pretty much doom a $1500 lens, and those MUAs meant business, they where not going light on the spray. It was like a scene from Rambo, just swap out the heavy machine guns for dual whelding aerosol cans and you have a team of ozone eliminating assassins. There were four designers showing collections, each with their own set of models. The designers did multiple outfit changes for their models during their set, so that made things extra hectic during the show.

As it drew closer to showtime, the models were ready to rock and I was able to steal each one for a couple seconds for a super quick set of shots. You’d laugh if you knew how chaotic this area was when you see the shots, cause you just wouldn’t believe me. If you weren’t walking to and from you had your back against the wall to let people by. Space was a premium, and for a photographer a clean shot was a laughable thought. Leave it to me to determine the one staircase which everyone used to scamper between floors backstage was the best opportunity to accomplish the task. One by one, the girls came over, each getting about 30 seconds of camera time. That was the limit as we literally had to hold up traffic at both ends of the staircase. Between models, a line of people zoomed through the choke-point. It was a situation where I could have used two more assistants to hold those traffic signs at each end, like you see during roadwork. I can’t believe we actually pulled it of with all the time and space limitations, but these challenges make the photos that much more fun to make. Luckily I had Alice, my amazing, helpful, and patient assistant to help me make great photos possible in this kind of environment. This was not a place for a light stand, and without her operating my off-camera light, manipulating the light between each shot to create great light, these photos would have never been made. Once we got in a flow, I didn’t even have to direct her, she just knew where the light needed to be and moved in sync with my camera, as if my wireless flash remotes transmitted information to her as well (I kid, but she is really good at it). Like a dance, the camera and light angles have to be spot-on as variables change or the photos just suck, cause after all, photography IS all about the light, but we have the luxury of making good light when and where we want, it’s an awesome thing. We used a softbox very tight on our subjects which created that very strong and dramatic vignette to the photos.

On to the show, and I let the herd of photographers capture the catwalk as I hung backstage can shot a few pics. Hope you enjoyed the inside look into this event. Stay tuned for lots more photos from this past busy week!

Still hearing inspiring stories from the first group of beginner workshop students, which is so great to know the benefits of the workshop are still coming for them. For more details on the past workshops, visit the workshop website by clicking on “workshops” at the top of the page.

Here’s a couple pics showing the scene.

I have a scheduled shoot with the theatre on Sunday, but I came to the performance to get some live shots, and I’m SO glad that I did. I stayed and captured both the 8 and 10pm shows, both providing plenty of laughs. The first show, an ensemble of the whole gang split into three groups. The second show, presented by The Project, a format hosted by Morgan Grobe and Stephen Edwards, “General Tso’s Comedy Show.” I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking, and stay tuned for more photos from B-ham!

The 8pm show…

On to the 10pm show…

The shots below were the first two of the evening, and probably my favorite. Richard’s father, who lives in another part of the country, was not supposed to be in attendance, however, he made the trip and was there to surprise his son. Here are two consecutive frames – Richard walking in like he owns the place , and then when his father walks around the corner. Love the second shot and how it is framed, father with arms out. It tells a great story.

The family put on a fabulous party, really went all out on this one. The Pacific Grill is a very nice space.

Most of the night’s photos took place in the photo booth or on the dance floor.

Towards the end of the night I had to stand on a speaker just to get shots. Like I said, everyone was having a great time. There’s the man below, double-fisting drinks, naturally. There’s a guy who knows how to have a good time.

I setup a photo booth for anyone to come in and get there photo taken in a space where I had lights and another camera setup. Computer tethered directly to the camera, and shots streamed in live. Photos were then sent off to the person’s email address instantly. Photos could then be viewed while at the party on their phones, it was a big hit.

Thanks to the Welch family for asking me to cover this fun event! You threw a great party!

For those who attended, all photos can be viewed below, and are available for high-resolution purchase (use the contact page for purchase requests).

CLICK HERE FOR THE GALLERY

The scene was pretty funny. We roll up, girl in wedding dress, guy with big camera, and Alice (my assistant) walking around to a good-sized mobile softbox. Toss girl with big white dress into the surf and everyone walking the beach stops to watch. There were actually other groups down there taking pics of family and friends. Before you know it, they have turned their cameras on us, taking pics of us doing our thing. Before you knew it, a crowd had gathered, with probably 30 sets of eyes on the shoot.

Before we got to the trashing, I shot Leeann for a bit with just her feet in the water.

Then we brought Daymeon in for a few smootchin’ shots (kids, cover your eyes).

The sun was dippin’ lower, so for our last set we laid Leeann down in the surf. Colors started to pop, nice warm tones.

Love the foot sticking out for balance on this one.

Couple fun pics here. One of Leeann getting a little overwhelmed by a wave, almost going under. Then one of her showing off her “trashed” dress. When we were done, you can bet that dress was FULL of sand. Thanks for the fun shoot, Leeann!

That officially wraps the wedding photographic adventure. Phew! Well, I hope you guys enjoy the VERY in-depth look into this destination wedding. It was an absolute blast! I already have the itch to go back…

The only thing left is for you photographers out there. Video coming soon on how this was all photographically executed, what equipment was selected for the trip, etc.