JarvieDigital Photography Blog » utah wedding photography

Like a Princess : The Royal Treatment for the First Intern

ScottJarvie — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:43:02 +0000

How we met

So this is Carissa many people have her to thank that I actually started doing internships and training and teaching people on a more one on one sorta way.

She contacted me about 18 or so months ago asking to be an intern (for last summer) and I was like “What?!” you’re kidding right?! Well it happened and I’ve learned a ton since then, specially on the realms of how to share what I know, how to teach and mentor.
I’m happy to have gotten to know her, spent a bunch of last summer at shoots with her and in the office. Never got sick of her and I don’t suppose her of me.
She was always thirsty for knowledge and never a prima donna or felt that she knew it all, and it was that passion for learning and zeal for photography and her eye for a good picture that led me to tell her I didn’t have any qualms believing she’d become an amazing successful photographer.

Well back a year ago she already knew she was getting married, just had to return to Indiana (from Utah) and finish her last year of college (BA in Photography) and now she’s back.
Getting married next month and her bridal pictures are now done… and here they are.

The pics

Me and another good friend of ours David Terry were asked to shoot and since David is an over achiever he already blogged his pictures (which we took YESTERDAY) and so now I had to follow suit. Also because most of my pictures right now are weddings which aren’t as time sensative as a bridal session for an upcoming wedding.

Carissa informed David that Jake doesn’t check the internet a ton… so it’s alright to post these. So hope it’s all good for me too.

Here’s a gallery of the first set of 70 pictures

Royal Treatment

So she had two amazing photographers… and two assistants two those photographers.
Her mother was there.
We were shooting at a beautiful location (La Caille in Sandy Utah)

It all worked out swimmingly and I’m sure she felt like a princess, because she looked beautiful of course!

Trying out some fun back lighting to make the Bride stand out!

(above) Far right is probably one of my favorite pics

having two photographers makes it fun because I get to photograph different poses I wouldn’t have done before. In different ways and different angles of course.

Many of my favorite pics were actually asides that I said… let’s try this out for a moment and we ended up staying there for a bit, because my moment lasted many moments.

This spot turned out to be one of the more dynamic spots for me… I don’t know why I only posted two when there are a whole bunch of others I liked… guess you’ll need to check out the smugmug gallery.

There were vineyards.

Who doesn’t Love a good Swan picture? (Oh and Peacocks)
I really wasn’t even planning the swan picture quite this much… but he decided to float on by.

Spin Spin Spin

Snow Formals – Extended Preview

scott — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:33:54 +0000

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.

On the right is outside of his house. I sometimes worry if they think I’m crazy where I choose to put them.
Whether they think… why in the world are we doing our photos in my own front yard. haha

We found a place where we could be out of the snow for a little while and show off those shoes.

Can’t really put a finger on why I like this one so much.
And it’s more than the flare.

Figuring it’d be hard to fill 6hrs of shooting, well we ran out of time.
They were so good with pictures, so good looking and so many great spots we could have kept going.

But now we all suffer the consequences… Which pictures are they going to print and use for their reception.
That’ll be tough on them I suppose.

I’ve been using my car headlights for light on the last couple of shoots.
Now I need a good big difuser so that it’s not so pointed or strong.

When you think of something get it done then.
The plan was to do the thank you at the temple… well that was my thinking.
But I thought to myself when they mentioned the sign… might as well get it done then so that way if something happens and we can’t do it at the temple at least it will be done.
And well… that happened and this was the only spot we got them done… and they all turned out great and a lot of fun. (This is just one example)

He had the hat on just to stay warm, and these were meant as pictures to test out the location before we had the bride get out of the warm car.
But each person that has seen it has commented on how much they like the pictures of him with the cap on.

I love going through the pictures and seeing things I hadn’t even planned… like the reflection of the two of them kissing in the glass.

Getting the camera to focus is hard when it’s this dark.
Plus it was snowing so much I couldn’t hardly look through the viewfinder it was so wet.
I aimed for the edges of their head and hope it got them in focus.

Then one time I shot so fast the flash didn’t go off… Silhouette that’d be cool. Tadah!!

Just that good … hehehe ;)

scott — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:36:43 +0000

Ladies and gentlemen…

Props to the bride for not only being willing but more than happy to go out to the stinky gnat infested waters of the Great Salt Lake.

And to her Mom and two sisters and niece that came to help.

And to my wonderful Intern Heidi who braved the swarms of mosquitoes that came out about 5 minutes prior to this shot

Annika (the bride) had no problem going out into this little area in her beautiful wedding dress and in between being sucked dry by mosquitoes she even posed and smiled.

Now for the exciting part…

Usually I spend a good 10-20 seconds editing pictures… but I was happy to see with the great lighting and flash assistance from Two directions

There was NO Editing on this picture.

(It makes me happy to be able to say that)

I didn’t have time to really even review pictures because we had overstayed our welcome with the blood suckers. So I was just hoping things would be in focus.

And to top it all off it was pretty much the very last picture of the night. Huzzah

I kinda wonder what we could do to it if i do decide to edit it…
what a beautiful sunset and what a beautiful bride.

I will post the rest when i get to them i suppose… but for now back to the weddings from a few weeks ago.

Engagements in the Garden (park ward)

scott — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:42:56 +0000

These pictures were taken at the Garden park ward in SLC, Utah

I actually went assistentless for this one and did the whole thing with a light stand.
It’s kind of funny because for years I did everything without assistants or lightstands.

I hope I’m not chained to lights forevermore.

Anyway I thought it was funny.

See the Full Gallery

So many of you know the trick but for the rest of you… go high f/stop for the star effect.

More pictures after the Jump

Or just go to the full gallery

giggle giggle … heee hee heee

Red Butte Wedding Ceremony

scott — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:48:05 +0000

Wedding and Reception were both held at the Red Butte garden.

We didn’t have a lot of time for setup portraits between the ceremony and reception.
But that was just as well as they asked me to document and not be in their face too much.

I like that style anyway capture the emotions of the day.

The Engagements and Bridals were more about creation, this one was about capturing the feelings of the day.

To see the full post.

To see the full gallery of ALL the wedding pictures.
(Warning… there’s a lot. The first 150 should give you a good run down)

I sure made that place look like a forrest!

All prepped and ready to get married.

Still hasn’t seen her. But I’m sure he’s excited.

Some Details

Tried something new with the rind.
They had beautiful toasting glasses.
I don’t have a macro lens so I couldn’t get super close anyway.

The ring shots might have been forgotten if the best man hadn’t brought it to me before the ceremony.
Props to him.

When everyone is super excited about the flowers It’s time to start taking a bunch of pictures of flowers.
Probably would have done it anyway while I waited. But I more and more I see how much the setting of their reception means to brides.

What wedding event would be complete without a picture of the cake.

There weren’t too many posed shots that evening.

There’s a bunch of shots of them standing there as they listened to the pre-ceremony speaker.
This is just on of the ones i liked the framing of.
They’ll probably like the other pictures with more expression.

Bridesmaids watching the ceremony.

Exits are always a lot of fun.

Whoever told the mom that white pedals would be better… well they were right.

Setup of ceremony was simple. The setting was beautiful.

Last touches of getting ready.

A lot of other people had to get ready as well as the bride.

The Orangerie at Red Butte holds 3 small orange plants.
I find that amusing.
Still a very nice place.

I think they were mostly wondering what I was doing taking them to this unimportant no-where corner of the gardens. Instead of the fountain or something. But I liked this spot a bunch. Guess I’m getting a little tired of simple lined up shots.

Best man seemed like he liked photography a bit.
Seemed to know what he was talking about with ideas too!
It’s nice to have around.

I’m sure this will make for a happy mother.

Fun having a small group playing the wedding march music.

You may kiss the bride. But next time have the bishop move out of the background. Gosh!

Making it official

The whole group

They seem to almost always want pictures of the food.
Not exactly sure why.
Good thing I usually love taking those kinds of pictures.

Little kids are always a must for pictures.

Dozens of dancing pictures. Not sure which one to put up.

Daddy Daughter Dance.

First time there’s been cigars at any weddings I’ve done.
I bet it actually happens at most other weddings.
It’s pretty cool to take pictures of, Coming from a non-smoker.

Tried to find one of the silliest dance pictures.

Red Butte gardens is getting ready for the season.

Red Butte Gardens has flowers… just in case you wondered.

This guy was dancing more than almost anyone else that night.
They’ve been married over 50 years btw.