09 Mar Movie Lovers
Sorry, couldn’t help myself with the cheesy title, but you have to give me credit, it is fitting. When I sat down with Crista and asked her to tell me a bit about herself and fiancé Grady, she described a clear common shared love (aside from each other), and that was movies. She also informed me of a fantastic detail – her father is the proud owner of an old, yet very well-maintained Chevrolet Biscayne. A classic car with resemblance to the old bat mobile, it was a great prop if we wanted to utilized it. I’m not going to not use it if you give me the option. Not tough creative math here, people… movies + car. How about a private, self-made drive-in theater for the engaged couple to enjoy? The couple had hired me to photograph their Fall wedding (excellent season choice, btw), so we decided to shoot their engagement photos the Fall prior, with the plan to integrate the Fall colors where we could. But as we all know, plans (especially photographic plans) are just plans, rarely perfect and often rewritten.
Alice and I made the trip down to Longview, where the couple (and the car) reside, and coincidently where I was born and semi-raised. The town has grown a bit since my middle school days of rollerblading all over the place, but still pretty much the same place which I knew inside and out. Upon arriving, thankfully via car rather than blades, we found a surprising lack of Fall-ness. It was mid-October, it was chilly, but the Longview trees apparently didn’t get the memo, and were refusing to let go of their leaves. Hmmm. Not a deal breaker, we still shot a few frames at the lake, but quickly moved on to the movie idea which didn’t hinge on Fall’s cooperation.
Cue the Chevy, a laptop and projector, a blank wall and the setting sun. The couple even stopped at the local theater and snagged a large popcorn to complete the visuals. It was a cute scene, that after photographing, had me wanting to do this some time down the road. We started the movie and I simply shot around the couple as they enjoyed the flick. The real chill set in the second the sun went down. We shot for about 15 minutes before dew started to form on everything and we had to shut the operation down. So if you do plan on doing something like this, make sure it is a summer evening where dew won’t be an issue! I’m looking forward to this coming October when I get to photograph Crista and Grady’s Fall wedding, hopefully with more fall color next time around!
