Ok, I will admit that I have been living in somewhat of a fantasy world where our weddings happen on the beach in beautiful locations and usually have very small turnout and are generally, easier to photograph.

I've been so spoiled with beach weddings that I actually went 6 WHOLE months without shooting a church ceremony!   Wow, how refreshing it is not to worry about the NAZI church coordinators and the organists who won't let you stand on the conductor platform (even though he ain't there) etc.    After starting my career in Atlanta and covering more than 100 weddings in churches, I empathize with all togs who are forced to do this week in after week out.   Not to mention, most churches are dungeons and back in the PRE D3 and 5d II days,  ISO 1250 and FAST GLASS was the only way.

Well, I wanted to send a shout out to all my Atlanta buddies who shoot the "normal" wedding environment on a more regular basis.  On May 9th, I was with a few members of the del Sol team and we delivered one seriously awesome folio.   I am so lucky that my first wedding back in the USA in 6 whole months was at the Swan House, at the Atlanta History Center.    This place is awesome... not to mention the serious budget behind this awesome wedding.

We used just about every technique in the book with our flash system to get very dynamic results.  Cathi & Vincent helped me make this wedding happen...thanks amigos.    Vincent was using off camera flash while also using an on camera flash for fill while I never use an on camera flash and try to go for the more edgy look with my frames.  Together, the folio I'm linking  here is totally worth watching.  Keep in mind I had 3 shooters (including myself) and each of them is capable of shooting their own wedding without me!  

I feel like we really connected with the client's expectations and am very very happy with the final results.   Check the slideshow out here!

We used Video lights (2 powerful ones that the videographers were using) and also lots of flash mix.  We even used lots of just straight ambient.   Lots of flashflavor used with a snoot, Sb-28 set to 1/64th power, and sometimes even using 1 stop Neutral Density filter to tone the down the 1/64th power to 1/128th or maybe even 1/256th power, all because of the higher ISO power of the 5d II.   Here are a few favs...

First dance shots:  I always time to pull out the stops and get as many different uses out of my lighting setup as possible.  In this instance,  we had 2 very powerful video lights being used by 2 different videographers.  My flash is directly behind the couple, set to low power.  The video light coming from my left hand side is my best friend in this case.   The other video light is behind the bride, adding another element of depth to the frame.  With the use of the 3 lights plus making sure that the ambient had a very strong presence, we are able to communicate mood and ambiance.

Video light only.  In this case, there are 2.  One to the camera left and the flare or backlight is giving me the warm glow.   I find this something I've only known with my fast primes.  Vincent shot this one with the 85 at 1.4.

quick off camera flash moment, definitely a little hot, but as soon as I did this, the person became aware of my action and tried to clean the shoes off... cool detail though.

How do you get that one photo that has B&G but also has a zillion guests but you dont see them because of how the image was framed and lit?    I dont really know how... I wandered around from the opposite side for this keylight.  I used the 85 at 1.8 at 1/160th to get this look, ISO IOOO.

Video light again saved the day with the front light seen here in the photo.  This is also the answer to isolate the client against the others, if the light has a barn door or a snoot, for sure the way to get this look.   The flash is added behind the couple for offset them even further from the background.

Flash with Red Gel under the car, LOTS of ambient ISO 5000 F1.6 at 1/30th

Hope you had fun looking at these....  let me know what you think of the slideshow :)

cheers!
matt