Let this be a lesson to never cancel just cuz of weather.
Just be prepared.
Know how to make it work.

It might mean you have to different stuff than on a more normal day.
But that’s how a good photographer and a good photo shoot goes… Roll With The Punches.

This was slated as an 8 hr formals shoot.
I didn’t realize it was a 2 and a half hour drive so it ended up being 6 and a half hours long.
I had several people asking me how in the world we’d be able to go for that long when most times it’s more like 2hrs.
Well I just told them several times to be prepared to work hard too… that’s 6-8hrs of modeling, it’s a two way road.

They were naturals and since they knew and picked how long it would last they never once complained and were totally into it.
What an awesome photo shoot.

By the end her hair was totally wet and nothing like when they started… but we adapted and adjusted just fine.
And we actually all stayed pretty warm.
We had a lot of traveling in between spots… abt 2hrs driving in the car… that was the saving grace.
Being able to warm up from time to time and to reset and find new places with new pictures.

Just cuz it’s snowing doesn’t mean you’re excused from not laying on the ground.
You better have prepared for what you’re wearing to get down and make the shot happen.
If she’s in a wedding dress in 6 inches of snow you can lay down once or twice.

Thank goodness for a lightstand so that the assistant can park the car while you take advantage of the last reminents of twilight.

On the left is a spot he was planning on for a while and very excited about.
On the right is a spot he’s probably past a hundred times and never even noticed… but I saw on the way down and new we’d need to stop there. Both winners!

I took 1400 pictures many reasons
They were really good looking
We shot for so long
I loved the locations
When snow is falling you have to take a bunch to avoid the snowflakes showing up in bad spots like in front of their eyes.

But the picture above was in the first minute of shooting and is amongst my favorites.

They did a great job at expressing emotions in their pictures… and that’s something you can’t really pose.

Backlighting… my new play around thing.

There’s tons more pictures from the day as you can guess check out a small highlights gallery here
View the rest of the blog post to see more too.

i’ll be editing a couple hundred more for them when I get back from my travels.
If there’s interest I’ll share more.

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Continue reading about Snow Formals – Extended Preview

My blog posts hope to reach the following people in the following ways. (No particular order)

1. The client

By showing them their pictures in a short succinct recap, and giving them a quick method to show their pictures to their friends and family.

2. The clients friends and family.

By offering them a short recap of their friend or family member.
And also provide a link to the full gallery so they can see more if desired

3. Potential clients

By showing them what kind of work I’ve been doing recently.
After 4-5 years I keep on getting better every shoot.
It’s great to see many pictures from one shoot and know that I don’t just take a small handful of good pictures at each shoot.
Thus the longer posts

4. Friends and Family

Because they say they like to see what I’m up to.
They like to look at pictures. Or so they say

5. Other photographers

-I think that’s a huge bulk of my audience.

I write many posts of photographers interest only.
Posts with tips and tricks directly mainly to photographers, specially the aspiring and learning types.

I also try to include teaching moments through almost all of my posts.
Like for instance, this post.

That being said.

Here’s the link to the FULL GALLERY

This couple has yet to be married.

I’ll be in Hawaii when they get married.

They opted to do their wedding pictures on a previous day.

Why do people do their pictures on a previous day?

• They’ll thus have these pictures in time for their wedding reception or dinner.
• They’ll also have lots more time on their wedding day.
• They won’t freeze as much on their wedding day. (popular for winter weddings)
• We can pick any location.
• We can shoot at any time.
• It’s tons cheaper.
• They can even get another photographer to do group shots if I’m not available.

Why do I like formals?

• For many of the same reasons:
• We can shoot at any time. (not just smack dab in the middle of the harshest light)
• We can take our time and focus on better quality. (Wedding days are often very rushed)
• We have more fun.
• I can do more weddings this way.
• They can show off the prints at the reception.

This one is the product of Spencer … he decided he wanted to pick her up.
I welcome ideas, I don’t know what all a couple is wanting or willing to do.

Any when it comes from the couple themselves, it’s bound to be the favorite… because it was their own idea, their own moment.

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Continue reading about 2 for 1 : Why a Blog? – Why Formals?

Hurray for my first ever in the corn fields picture. haha

It’s funny how we often go somewhere to take pictures where the look is iconic and yet you take pictures with a background that you didn’t even think about.
A background that looked like it could have been from anywhere.

It’s as if you go to the Beach to take pictures and yet it doesn’t look like the beach at all… no water, no sand, no glorious sunset or surfers. haha

I often go to a shopping center called Riverwoods and walk away with mostly nature pictures of a pond and a bunch of trees with no shops or buildings in site.

(Thought I’d add the picture in color too)

Seems like most of the time we go out of our way to go to some amazing place and our favorite pics are of the person in front of a wall… or maybe even with just the sky.
I could have shot this corn picture in any number of locations closer to me in tons of corn fields in my city.

Well on one hand it seems funny we put so much emphasis on location to the couples and even sometimes pay lots of money.
But there’s a lot of reason behind it and some of that is perception.

I really didn’t mean to write a schpeil on locations and even though I and many others have lots to say… I thought I’d mention that this time I took a picture that totally matched the name.

I went to wheeler farm and took pictures of the couple in the corn fields… never mind the fields were relitively tiny and a small portion of the location… but it was the first time for me and I thought their glamorous and stylish look would be a perfect juxtposition.

Here are a couple other pictures that did fit them very well.

I suppose going to a city park in the farm format and taking pictures of a old truck could be an example of my previous discussion.
On that note I was happy that my assistant pointed out the existence of the truck.

This was definetly part of wheeler farm and the look… so this does prove why a nice place with lots of options and well maintained is a good fit.
Think about the dress too… a nicely kept lawn is a good thing to keep a white dress clean… but if not… have them hold the dress. Could be fun.

This picture really could have been any any clump of trees

This following picture is a great example of a “this could have been anywhere shot”
We were taking pictures of the truck and there was a bridge i was being pointed to but I just loved how the light was hitting this little section of trees.
Trees that could have been anywhere but I just felt like it would have matched them and their look and the way I was feeling. So …. bammm

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Continue reading about Corn fields : A first time for everything