I’m not sure why I can get away with doing these things and it works so well sometimes.

It’s really so simple and cheasy and yet it works.

I just have them look at me and say “serious, now smile and now look at eachother and giggle like girls or whatever.”

I do it all really quickly to capture the first real emotions and the spontaneity.

I don’t give them time to think of the request and try to make it posed and stale… usually they’ll do it as a reaction to the request and then when they find themselves looking at eachother smiling and laughing it usually sets off a trigger to make them do it more and more when they realize what they’re doing… so I’m ready to capture the whole sequence.

Obviously sometimes it’s better than others.

People so often look at pictures and comment on faces… they love such and such person’s face in this picture. Well this is one way to make this happen more often

I love when i find good locations to photograph from above.

Remember we go through life seeing things at the 5′2″-6′ angle… change that up and you automatically add a unique quality to your pictures.

Dresses often look really good from this angle as well. These two didn’t need it but certain body types will appreciate it as well.

70mm f/2.8 if you’re wondering… I bet if I had my 50mm f/1.4 it would have a more dramatic effect but I would have had to work really hard to make sure his head was the same distance away as hers.

We were staying at the beach house of next week’s bride (last week) I thought it’d be fun to do some pictures for her (spontaneous) prior to leaving back for Utah. So we talked down to the beach and took some pictures in a short 40-60 minute block of time she had open.

I love that she’s picking something different for her wedding dress and it matches her personality and looks.

I look forward to the wedding this Saturday.

See many more here

The above was taken by student-assistant Megan Newhouse

So I think  a lot of people would love to have their pictures taken on a Hawaiian beach. This bride wanted it and that’s what she got.

Even as a very subtle sunset it was still good enough for some pretty cool pictures and perhaps because it was more subtle we were able to focus on some other locations and poses.

More pictures here

I had a ton of fun photographing for this couple, both of their families were awesome and their love of photography made it a wonderful experience for me.

That makes 2 terrifically awesome weddings in a row in Hawaii! Let’s not slow down or break the streak yet!

This is a little teaser of the long engagement session I did yesterday… this was the end of a long day. I didn’t mind because I don’t get to shoot in the bay area very often so why not take a little extra time and take a bunch of pictures all over the place. Now next time I am asked to come back and shoot around here I’ll know what to expect and have some great ideas.

There’s a reason why the end of the photo shoot is always the best pictures… often because the lighting is the most dynamic and also because when you take your best pictures you decide then that you’re about done and therefore the best pictures were at the end.

But as for all the other hundreds of pictures all throughout San Fransisco you’ll have to wait to see those I’m sure.

As well as all the travel pictures and the wedding I did on Friday.

So we got up at the point and there were a whole slew of photographers taking pictures… everyone had a tripod and one of the guys asked what I was shooting at. 1/13th at 1.4 and he wondered where my tripod was… um yeah my tripod were the two flashes sitting on the posts.

In fact to exagerate the point I litterally shook and moved my camera As I took the pictures.

Let’s start with the ending. Those are always lots of fun

They got married at the Draper temple.

The reception was at Thanksgiving Point

When we all figured out after like 20 minutes of shooting that they didn’t want to be told what to do, like it seems everyone else expects of me.
We started to really have fun and just do some crazy and fun stuff and I was just there to document it and tell them when something wasn’t working.

For instance on the last two they just posed differently after every shot. Believe it or not they had no idea of what the other was doing.

It was only the second time I’ve been to a hair styling appointment.
As you might guess I was using the Lensbaby in this shot

I actually primarily communicated with the mother on this wedding. She called, she booked and told me when and where to be.
She herself did the engagement pictures which were most excelent.
And so I’m proud to say that she was very happy with the pictures which put a big smile on her face.

Thanks Sheila!

FULL GALLERY

I realized I don’t share my detail shots in there half as much as I should… or that I see other sites do.

I suppose this is kind of My shot for rings and flowers. Not sure when and where I came up with it… but I’m open to other ring shots that are good and worthwhile to set up.
Or maybe I should just keep going with something that works.

This is a statement against posing people all the time.
Or it’s a statement to be ready for when they let their guard down at all times.

It’s always fun to pick on the fun grandma … and of course get your fair share of the little kids.
Everyone will love you for it!

This was the videographers’ idea… I just roll with it!

Seriously real… I didn’t quite understand the idea when he originally told me.

But it worked eh?
This was right before the reception was going to begin.

Search enough and there are nice places to be found almost anywhere, even ones in the shade.

Most of the time I don’t tell my subjects what to do… but for this one I decided to tell them all to look up.

I do pay attention and work the RECPTIONS! haha

In this one I’ll show a series of pictures taken in a 90 second span.

And Normal

This technique involves the following:

Tell them each click they need to do a different face.
They can’t coordinate. (Because it’s funnier that way and it goes faster that way… they’re more spontaneous)

This is a good exercise to loosen them up for the rest of the photoshoot
or a good way to finish up a night on a really fun note.

This year I upped the goal by 15 to 40 weddings.

Happy to announce

I am very happy to announce that I went to the mailbox a minute ago… and saw I had complete confirmation on booking wedding #40

Commence balloon drop and other types of fanfare!!

Might I add the strange part that only 1 wedding is booked for after august 22nd

Yes Utah is a bit crazy with bookings… but I did go to 10 different states to do weddings.

Don’t try this at home! haha

I know many of you are photographers

And if you do try to do that many… have assistants, or at least don’t have a family or another job and expect consistent 12-15hr days.

Plan for future

Well while i’m young single 40!! and up to the task It’s all good.

But I have plans to slow things down and do a more manageble amount of weddings… in part to have a bit more of a life, not get burned out and to be able to work on other projects.

It was a bit chilly and she wasn’t into the outdoors thing.

So we switched locations to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown SLC right next to Temple Square.

SPOTLIGHTING

Charles Uibel joined me and we tested out my new Costco special spotlight
BTW the spotlight lasted about twice as long as the previous Costco spotlight.

Probably about 15 minutes instead of like 7 minutes. (This is consistent on time)
The shoot was more like 1 hour long and it was handy to have both lights there.
Don’t forget to have some filters… we used up to 4 filters at a time because her eyes were very sensitive.
Just so you know… that’s about normal for a handheld spotlight.
These are just guesses on the time.

Montage Beach in Laguna Beach area.

Note that most of the bridal pictures that day were taken at Soka University. 
But the title of the post is beach bridals so I just added those (just the horizontal ones)

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Engagements
They liked the first set I did so much they wanted more. And she was sick for the first one so she wanted some while she was feeling better.
She also figured since I was doing a book for their reception and she was making a slideshow that some extra pictures for it all would be nice.
I think it went quite well
Thanks to Allyson for assisting on this photo shoot.

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Bridals
The next day we went to thanksgiving point and took pictures for her bridals.
I get to post them because I know he’s seen her in the dress… because he came along.
I’d like to thank Dawnee who assisted on this photo shoot.
Thanksgiving point has lots of spots all over the park it always makes sense to get a golf cart and be nice to the people at the desk so they can let you stay after the front desk is already closed so you can get great lighting.
We kinda went overboard this evening and took Tons of pictures… but she loves them a ton so I suppose it works.

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Example Bridals

Examples Engagement

Others: