Thursday, August 26, 2010

Stephanie & Kevin - Crofton Country Club Wedding Photography

Stephanie and Kevin's wedding was awesome! And by awesome I mean: easy-going couple, great venue, cooperative wedding party, and fun party! I think this first picture says it all...



















Monday, August 23, 2010

When A Wedding Gives You Lemons...

Wedding photography is not always as easy as it looks.... I know it might seem like I always have beautiful locations to shoot, but what happens when that just isn't the case? Rukshana and Osman's wedding at the Hyatt in Crystal City is a good example.

It's not that the hotel wasn't nice, it was just that we couldn't use any of it! Rukshana and Osman had a large Afghan wedding (my first!) and part of the Afghan wedding tradition is to enter the site an hour or two after all your guests have arrived. So this hour or two was pretty much the only opportunity we had for photos, and we couldn't use any part of the hotel that guests might be in. Which eliminated the whole lobby and ballroom, and anything outside the hotel. We had only had the upper hotel floors (and did I mention the hallways and elevators were NOT air conditioned?) and the bridal suite to work with.

It was a tricky situation, but I tried to be thankful for the opportunity to think creatively and out-of-the-box.


Hotel hallway - backlit with my flash:

Yep, that's the hotel pool in the background:


The exercise room and gym area had a nice large mirror:


Back in the hotel room, I shot through the ceiling chandelier:

Used some existing window light:


And made use of the bedroom:


I'm not saying these are the best photos ever, or even really portfolio worthy, but sometimes it's an important exercise in photographic creativity to not have events unfold the way you want them to so you actually get something that's better than you originally planned.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Shannon & Dan - Bel Air Engagement Photography

I've been pretty busy lately with engagement sessions, which is awesome! I love love love doing engagement photos - it's such a great opportunity to get to know the couple in a relaxed, no-pressure setting, and I can also get a feeling for how they interact with one another, and with me! When the wedding day comes, it's like "been there, done that" with the photos - everything flows so much more smoothly.

Shannon and Dan are one of those couples who are so good together, being natural in front of the camera comes, well, naturally. (At least, if it wasn't, they did a great job of pretending!) I liked them from the moment we met back in April - I got the impression that they were easy-going, fun-spirited people, and their engagement session proved me right.

We used the beautiful Liriodendron Manson grounds in Bel Air for a backdrop, and then headed over to a nearby tunnel at Dan's suggestion. As a passing biker referred to it: "the tunnel of love." Haha.


























Monday, August 09, 2010

Jessica & Chris - Annapolis Engagement Photography

I shot Chris and Jessica's engagement photos in downtown Annapolis a few weeks ago. That's right, finally - a session in the city I live in! I've been dying to do portraits in Annapolis ever since I moved here a year ago, and Chris and Jessica said they'd willingly be my guinea pigs. I think Annapolis is incredibly beautiful with all the water, boats, and old buildings, so I definitely wanted some of that to shine through in the photos. It was a hot day for portraits (haven't they all been!) but we struggled through the heat and humidity and were finally rewarded with a little thunderstorm to cool things off. We jumped under a covered porch to wait it out, and sure enough, not 15 minutes later, the sun shone through and we were back in business! I love the photo I got from that - all the light is reflecting on the wet road and everything appears so warm and golden. Awesome!