How to shoot a bride in a Walmart parking lot

  As promised, here's the behind-the-scene photos from the bridals and formals I posted the other day.  This was an experiment/demonstration I did for my intern Abby, and is something I've been working on in my head for a long time.  So here it is, how to shoot a bride in a Wal-mart parking lot.

Photographers: Myself and Abby (my lovely intern), with Thomas shooting "behind-the-scene"

Models: Lybie and Ravi

Location: Wal-Mart Parking Lot

Purpose: To prove that there is ALWAYS a beautiful photo to be found, even in unsuspecting locations.

First, here's me :)

I have learned many principles from many people through my photography years, and I have been grateful for all these lessons.  I found a couple of these principles were most applicable to this kind of location shooting and would like to share them with y'all.

Principle #1 - The best photos are taken from below 3 feet and above 6 feet (while most photos you see are taken from between 3ft and 6ft, general standing/crouching height.) Here we shot from low to crop out the parking lot and other distractions to show the sky, with the tree, bush, and light post (love having the light posts in parking lots to work with!) framing her.  3 lights, fill light on the camera, main light from left, backlight from right.  Sometimes I would put a fourth light below the tree to help light it up, but the main light was doing a good job already.

...and this is what we had to work with for that shot, and the next...

Principle #2: Bokeh.  Leaving the bride and lights in the same place, I stood up and actually used the cars and parking lot as a background, but zoomed in as far as possible and dropped the f/stop for a shallow depth of field.  Now instead of obviously being cars and parking lot, it's just a lot of texture. Lybie really wanted an edgy look, and I feel like this complimented the messy-hair and unique bouquet.

Principle #3: Empty space is ok!  And wide open sky shots do not have to include the subject's feet.  This is a simple thing, but one I've been working on recently.  I feel that this photo would not have been pretty if we included the asphalt!  Also played with white balance - warm vs. cold plays an important role in the atmosphere of the photo.  Fill light on camera, main light from the right, car headlights as back light from the left.

Principle #4: Who cares what the background is when the subject fills the frame?

Principle #5: Lighting is everything!!!   This is the photo I'm most proud of.  Yes, she is standing in front of a dumpster.  It might not have smelled fantastic, but we don't have to see the smell on camera!  And with the shadow from the tree on the dumpster, the car lights shooting across it, and backlight on the bride, it makes a great textured background.

...and this is what we had to work with.  Beautiful bride, but an interesting scene indeed.

And again, 200mm, shallow depth of field.  This could be a cool classy downtown night scene, but if you look really closely, you can almost read the Wal-mart "Always" sign behind them.  :)

So here's the deal:  I love shooting at places like Thanksgiving Point Gardens or La Caille, but at the end of the day, it's not the location that determines the quality of the photos, it's the angles, the composition, the depth of field, the lighting, and having awesome subjects to work with.  We can take a location as ordinary as a Wal-Mart parking lot and without walking more than 20 steps in any direction get a wide variety of photos.  I was so excited to have this opportunity and hope to do many more of these experiments in the near future.

If you'd like to see more photos (and behind the scene photos) from the session, take a look at the full gallery here.

Risk & Reward: 3 Questions to Ask Yourself

With signs in every retail store reminding me that Father's day is approaching, I've been thinking a lot about my Dad recently.  I've mentioned that he was my introduction to the world of photography, but I haven't said how important his advice has been along the way.  So I wanted to share the experience of deciding to do our first bridal fair.  

I shot my first wedding in February of 2009, worked full time for most of that year in photography, and I took a class with Kenneth Linge called "The Wedding School."  We reviewed photography techniques as well as business practices, and I felt ready to take my business to the next level - the world of bridal fairs.  It was scary.  Thomas and I calculated a $3000 budget to fund our first fair, and I didn't actually have that money at the time...  but you can make money by spending money, right?  I believe that the answer is yes, but only IF you spend it correctly.

This is where my Dad came in.  Thomas and I were considering the possibility of a business loan, knowing that if I booked at least 3 weddings at the fair it would be paid.  I talked with my dad about my fears, my concerns, but the exciting possibility of moving forward.  And he gave me the best advice I've received about making a decision with this kind of risk.

He told me to ask myself three questions:

1. What is the best possible outcome?
2. What is the worst possible outcome?
3. What is the most probable outcome?

The best possible outcome?  Oh, that's easy.  I'll book 25 weddings that day and become rich and famous soon after.  The worst possible outcome?  Well, that's the scary part of risk.  I don't book a thing, I have to pay back the $3000 from our emergency savings, and I lose all self esteem.   And the most probable outcome?  I took a guess:  2-4 weddings from that fair.  But who knows!

I realized from asking these three questions that I was comfortable with the risk involved, even with the worst possible outcome.  It wouldn't ruin us financially, and at the very least, 1000 brides would see my photos and people would start to recognize my name.  So we went for it.  And after all was said and done we booked close to 10 weddings as a result of doing the fair.

I was just thinking about this experience and all I learned, and I wanted to share the advice from my Dad.  In a decision evaluating risk, I feel much more comfortable moving forward when I can ask these questions and know that I'm ok with the answers.  To any other photographers that are starting out, or anybody else thinking about taking a risk, good luck as you are making your own decisions and watching your businesses progress!

Here's a look at the booth we managed to put together for our first fair...

... And we made a few improvements for the next year.

Behind the Scenes at Sleepy Ridge

  We had a fantastic formals shoot last night that finished up at Sleepy Ridge in Orem.  Sleepy Ridge is an AMAZING reception venue, and sunset on the green outside is begging for a photo.  I'll be posting the entire shoot in a couple weeks, but wanted to give y'all a peek behind the scenes for one of the evening shots.

First, the finished product:

Now,  the setup:

The photo above illustrates one of my favorite lighting setups, and shows how important it can be to have an assistant (or two!) for the session.  A big thanks to my husband Thomas and one of my interns, Amber!  This photo wouldn't be ANYTHING without the light.

Kenneth Linge- Photographing People Part 1

Kenneth Linge is the photography world’s equivalent of a Jedi master. He was a terrifically acclaimed photographer in Norway before he moved to Utah around 2000. After moving here, he promptly took over a lot of the top wedding gigs in venues like La Caille, Sundance, and Thanksgiving Point. He now works mostly with commercial photography, but still does the odd wedding now and then. He’s a genius when it comes to lighting, composition, and focus, so when he announced he was doing another Photographing People workshop I jumped at the chance to hear what he had to say. Not only is he incredibly talented, he is an extremely kind and open person and rocks a wicked awesome accent to boot. He teaches along with his wife Marylyn who is a superb photographer in her own right, and does amazing Photoshop magic in their editing for the studio. I already feel much smarter having attended this workshop. :D
A couple of highlights from the workshop:
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Lighting-

One of the biggest challenges for a wedding photographer is that you can’t really dictate when a wedding ceremony or reception should be to get the best natural light. You can do it a lot easier with engagement and bridal shoots, but clients aren’t usually up for scheduling their wedding day events for the first or last two hours of the daylight (generally considered the best natural light by photogs). Thus, wedding photography often takes place during harsh midday or early afternoon light.
Enter the Jedi. Kenneth actually says that around midday is one of his favorite times to shoot as it gives him a lot of options with lighting. He spent quite a while in the workshop explaining and demonstrating with a model different principles and techniques on how to manipulate bright sunlight to give spectacular results. The secret lies in manipulation of reflectors and diffusers (sometimes just one of each, sometimes more than one), along with a better understanding of where the primary light source is, how it will behave in the photo, and how shade will play a factor.


Quote of the day on lighting: “Good light and a crappy background always trumps crappy light and a good background. Make sure the light works, and then work within that to find the right background.”
Incidentally, the “right background” for Kenneth is sometimes just a blanket held up behind the model by an assistant. I loved the idea, especially as it can be a way to bring in more color to the photograph. I will definitely begin to keep an eye out for any awesome blankets that would work well.

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Leading Lines-

A key aspect of composition in photography has always been how you are directing the viewer’s eye to your subject. Framing and leading lines are primary ways to help the photographer accomplish this task. Kenneth touched on an interesting phenomenon that he has noticed and I thought it was something to definitely keep in mind in my own work. Historically, people from Europe and the US have always looked at or “read” photos from left to right, and so it was important to make sure any leading lines in the photo would take the eye from left to right directly into the focus of the subject. People from China and the rest of the orient would traditionally look the photo from right to left. What Kenneth has found is that recently, more and more people now are “reading” photos from top to bottom (an apparent effect of the internet with just scanning pages instead of reading them). The point is that it is important to make sure that now you have lines directing the eye to the subject no matter where you look. While this is a fairly subtle distinction in photography, he underscored that keeping in mind the way clients will view the photo and composing the shot accordingly will help produce shots that “just look better” and stand out from the crowd.
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Capturing “the Moment”-

Wedding photography, whether it’s in Utah or elsewhere, is all about recording moments and the memories they contain. The first time the groom sees the bride in her wedding dress, the bouquet toss, the bridal couple’s first dance…. All of these are examples of moments that must be captured in the exact instant and on the very first try. There are very few “do-overs” in wedding photography. Kenneth stressed the importance of knowing your camera. A professional photographer should know his or her equipment as intimately as a professional musician knows his or her instrument. Kenneth talked about how he would sit watching his cat and practice with his camera almost like a target shooter would practice his quick draw. As quick as he could he would bring up his camera and take one photo, focusing and adjusting as quickly as he could. “You must know every switch, every setting, and every dial by touch. When the moment comes you must be able to SHOOT. You can’t take 30 seconds or 2 minutes to make sure your camera is in the right setting before you are ready- by then the moment may have passed.”
While I LOVE my new D700, I definitely plan on taking some more time to practice my own “quick-draw”.
An additional point Kenneth made in "capturing the moment" that I thought I would pass along is to make sure to photograph everything and everyone as soon as you can; don't procrastinate the shot. If you arrive at a wedding reception and the cake is out, take a few shots of it immediately- you never know if it will melt, fall over, or be crushed by a guest later on. Get the shots as early as you can, even if the light is not ideal, and then if you have time go back and fiddle with it to make it perfect. You never know if "now" is really the only opportunity you will have, so make use of it. ---
After all is said and done, I thought this was a WONDERFUL experience. I highly recommend Kenneth’s workshops, whether you are a professional photog or only have some experience and want to learn some of the finer points of photographing people. The classes are small and intimate, and he’s a blast to listen to. And if you are a wedding photographer, I recommend you look into Kenneth’s Wedding School. It’s an intensive three-day workshop that focuses on technique, business strategy, marketing, and everything else that makes for a phenomenal wedding experience. He did one earlier this year, and it looks like he is doing another one this November.
You can bet I will be there, front and center!
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Look at me! Look at me!

I love taking pictures of children. I love their smiles, adorable outfits, and the amazing amount of vitality and life that shows up in their pictures. Taking pictures of children is one of the rewarding things that I do as a photographer. It is also one of the most difficult. The sheer amount of energy that little kids possess combined with all the fascinating distractions around them make it difficult for them to look at the camera when they are supposed to, especially in a posed setting. The more children in the shot, the more difficult it can be to get them all looking the right direction.

I love having parents around, as they often know what to say or do to make their children smile and look around. However, here is an important tip to make your children's pictures come out well-
If we are having trouble getting everyone to look in the right direction, before you starting waving your arms, making funny noises, and saying "look at the camera! look at the camera!" consider where YOU are standing. 99% of the time they are going to be looking at YOU, so in order to make sure they are looking in the camera's direction, you want to be standing directly BEHIND me. Otherwise they may smile, laugh, and open their eyes nice and wide, but the majority of the time they are going to look at the source of all this entertaining distraction, instead of at the boring camera lens pointed in their direction.
Thus, remember the rule- unless you are standing DIRECTLY BEHIND the photographer, it might be best to just let me be the entertaining distraction. Parents often are the best people to bring out an awesome smile, but unless you're standing in the right place, it doesn't quite work. If it's not practical to be directly behind me due to space constraints, let me do all the work. I am more than happy to make funny faces, weird noises, jump up and down, and generally make a complete fool of myself in order to get everyone to look at me. It's in the job description. The problem comes when I am just one of a crowd of people jumping up and down making funny noises. :)
Of course, this only applies if we're looking for shots where they ARE looking directly at the camera... sometimes it's great when they are not.

Why Wedding Photography Is So Expensive

I often have a bride and groom come to me grateful for my relatively low prices, but still amazed at how high photographers prices are! There are several reasons for it, one being the nature of weddings (can't be reshot or rescheduled, so you'd better have a dependable and talented photographer!)
I found this post and thought it might be interesting for some of you to read. Why is wedding photography so expensive? I'll summarize:
1. Time. The photographer's day does not end when the wedding is over. I usually spend 3 hours editing for every hour spent shooting.
2. Equipment. I currently have three digital slrs (one for backup, one for studio), two flashes, 3 lenses, a reflector, a tripod, and about 45gb in memory cards for weddings. I also have a car as weddings require travel (and cars require gas). I have two computers and some not-so-cheap editing software. For studio shoots, I pay for an extra room, props, light stands, backgrounds, and the above mentioned equipment. Reality hit really hard when I realized I had $7k worth of equipment in my bag at a wedding... it's a huge financial investment!!

3. Website and Advertising. To keep my business going, I need a high-quality hosting service and website. I also pay for business cards and magnets.
4. Other costs: DVDs and mailing costs, cell phone usage to talk to clients, TONS of hard drive space to store your photos... Wedding albums and reception display frames are much more expensive than I would have expected also (included in some packages).

5. Education. While I didn't study photography in college (my major is actually music!), I have invested a lot of time for online photography learning, free assistance to other photographers, free photoshoots for practice of new techniques, about 40 hours of workshops and classes, and I plan to continue to take classes as there is always more to learn.