We are moving towards doing 100% destination weddings, BUT, we are still contracted here and there to shoot in a big church or cathedral, where you can expect DARK dungeon type lighting. I always find it a challenge when the ceremony starts at 7:30 pm in the summer, Catholic service, so you are easy looking at 1 hour ceremony and 15 minutes of formals... Basically, there is NO natural light outside for any bride & groom shots... oh well. Pull out the homemade snoot and make some magic, or at least try to :) We use pocket wizards to trigger our remote slaves. However, have you ever have a night where things just didnt work? I can recall one wedding where I was convinced that ALL my pocket wizards were broken, or cables jacked up, who knows as nothing worked. In hindsight, I think there must have been some type of interference that caused total shutdown. Technical problem nights like that aren't fun. I do find that sometimes, the pocket wizards become tricky as the PC cables tend to get bent, or just dont work. Often, I share the same slave as my 2nd photographer and we steal each others flash when we trigger the slave during a recycle and end up with a frame with NO flash. I have spoken previously about Happy Accidents before in this post...however, today is all about a totally different type of happy accident! Sometimes a non-working flash can be a happy accident! In this old church, Sol Tamargo stole my flash recycle, and we ended up with this happy accident. This is Sol's image, not the happy accident.

 

Don't ask me how or why the flash didnt go off, I'm assuming I fired during her recycle. We had the slave set to 1/32 power. I called it a HAPPY ACCIDENT :) I was pleasantly surprised to see this shot. My intentions were to see a flash on the couple, 100%....something about the grand background behind the couple that works well against their silhouetted outline. I needed to open my mind and not worry about needing that stupid slave. The lesson here is to think about your resources available, at all times. Ask yourself the question, to light or not to light? Then, try the frame both ways.

 

Anybody have any happy accidents? If you want to submit them to the Flash Flavor Flickr group, please feel free to do so. Cheers! matt

I have written about Epic Photography in a past FF post, and after seeing this week's submission, I'm happy to suggest another photo that I feel defines the subject perfectly! Today's image comes from an awesome photographer in Atlanta, Andrew Niesen from the LaCour Studio, a group of several photographers... Mark Adams from the LaCour studio submitted this GEM a while back showcasing how one photographs a beach ceremony with NO available light.

 

Strictly Ballroom First Dance at the Historic Biltmore By Andrew Niesen, LaCour The iconic Georgian Ballroom at Atlanta Biltmore was the centerpiece of Robin Best and Brian Gage's wedding. They scheduled their wedding based on the ballroom's availability, and they described its beauty during every conversation we had with them. The Biltmore was the hub of Atlanta's social scene in the 1920s. With lavish marble floors, sparkling crystal chandeliers and handcrafted plaster ceilings, the Georgian ballroom exudes the dramatic elegance of the “Roaring 20s As Robin and Brian's wedding approached, I thought about how to create a striking photograph that would serve as the climax of their wedding story. To be meaningful, the photograph had to communicate on multiple levels. It had to reveal the personalities of the main characters, the context of the story and the mood of the event. This communicative aspect of photography is especially important because I believe that our work becomes the foundation for family legacy.

 

The story we tell through our photographs will be shared with several generations. Robin and Brian's children will learn about their parents personalities and values through the wedding photographs. By selecting the Biltmores Georgian Ballroom, Robin and Brian were making a statement about their style, personalities and values. The grandeur, classicism and history of the ballroom were consistent with other details they had carefully planned for their wedding. Since the intricately textured ceiling is the hallmark of the ballroom, I chose to accentuate it by skimming light across the ceiling by backlighting it with a single White Lighting monolight. The monolight was triggered by a Pocket Wizard radio remote. My assistant set up the strobe on a stand in the rear corner of the ballroom about 10 minutes before the first dance began, and I shot several test images, adjusting my ISO and aperture until the histogram showed data across the entire spectrum, from solid black to small areas of pure white. I used a 17mm lens on a Canon EOS 1D Mark II to emphasize the magnificence of the space. Then, I waited until the couple moved to the center of the dance floor and were positioned in a way that a silhouette was visually legible.  The resulting photograph appears as a 12x18 photograph in the center spread of Robin and Brian's wedding album. Its their favorite photograph from the wedding. 

I've shot in this ballroom numerous times...Haven't tried this.... I like to see other photographers interpretations of a wedding venue and how it all comes down to ONE defining photography. Andrew tells a wonderful story here and just imagine yourself in his shoes... "This communicative aspect of photography is especially important because I believe that our work becomes the foundation for family legacy"..... Don't you think your photography would take on a new meaning if you used this motivation to photograph your next epic image?

 

The LaCour team have produced some studio management software that I have recently purchased. Although I don't have it customized and working with my system, I have seen a live demo by Mark Adams. ShootQ is innovative studio management platform that almost mimics a studio manager.   I would also recommend that you take a look at their blog, as they take a different angle to blogging than the typical wedding photographer.

 

Comments? Are you inspired by this photo? If you have any photos that you would like to reflect the "epic ballroom" type shot, please send them to the Flash Flavor Flickr group

 

Thanks again Andrew and LaCour.

I was looking at one of our recent weddings where Sol Tamargo had spent some time with the bride who was getting ready at the Buckhead ATL Ritz Carrolton Hotel, who was heading downstairs for a ballroom wedding and reception, all at the hotel. For those of you who have been to similar city hotels, you may find that there inst too many places you can go for awesome setup shots.... Often enough, on the fly is the way you need to work. In this case, Sol's bride was headed downstairs for the ceremony, not "time for pictures" if you know what I mean. Sol made these quick portraits happen while walking down the dungeon like dimly lit hallway, on the way too the elevator. One of her bridesmaids was carrying the cathedral veil off the ground, sol just squeaked in there for this one :) I was impressed with her quick thinking to gel the flash here, mixing the tungsten ambient with her red gelled slave plus a little on-camera fill. The slave is operated by her assistant, just behind the bride, ducking down. I believe you can see the arm of the assistant on the edge of the dress (Sol just pointed that out to me). She had the flash on 1/32 power, with the Canon 5d set to ISO 250, 1/30th at 2.8. Pretty simple moment, kinda sexy. She finished it off in PS with a little cross processing.

 

I'm really looking for some color from other photographers, so lets see it! In the past, I've mentioned color HERE & HERE & HERE. If you have experimented with gels, please send them to the Flash Flavor Flickr group or email them to me :) I'd love to see what is happening out there!

 

Cheers! matt