Have you ever been in a tiny room that made you feel like it was impossible to capture a frame that seemed romantic enough to reflect the mood of the delicate speech of the father of the Bride? Lets face it, every once in a while we are all put in a position to shoot a room or in a location that is just NOT built for making beautiful photos. If we use our lenses and lighting skills to compose and light our subjects with finesse, the results will be show stoppers! My friend Ben Chrisman was visiting this weekend and introduced me to the Apertura photo blog. These So-Cal photographers have some hot frames in their portfolio. There very first blog post stopped me in my tracks. I immediately wrote to Ray & Erwin of Apertura photo and asked if they would give me a a write-up on this rockin photo.

 

Ray writes: It was a wonderful intimate wedding held in a small room in an Italian restaurant in Westwood. However, the room was pretty crowded with not much space to roam about and it also had a low ceiling to boot. The available light was candle light and it was very, very dim. To add a bit more drama, I decided to put an off-camera Canon 580EX II flash with a Pocket Wizard on the fireplace mantle behind the headtable for some backlighting. During the best men toast, I positioned myself to get the shot and kept moving around until I found this angle. I turned off the on camera flash and relied completely on the backlight for extreme drama. As much as I'd like to say that the flare on the glasses were intentional, it mas more of a happy accident. :-) Canon 5D - f/4.5 1/80 sec ISO 640 Flash 580EX II -1/32 power

 

I think happy accidents are a blessing and sometimes, these accidents are the difference in the excellent photojournalist and the average wedding photographer. Timing is instinctive and the quality of light used here is excellent. I love your balance of ambient and the use of the flash as it gives a sparkle of light through the glasses is exceptionally dramatic. You got an award winner here! Check out some more Happy Accidents here: Happy Accidents 1 Happy Accidents 2 Happy Accidents 3 And be sure to spend some time on Apertura's photo blog for a little wedding imagery motivation. These cats work pretty hard to frame up some magical compisitions and will inspire you for sure! Any comment love for these guys?

 

Cheers & thanks Ray & Erwin, Mateo