Photographing Jennifer and John’s Big Day

I met Jennifer several years ago, during our Texas Renaissance Festival days; I have a couple of fun photos of her elaborately costumed as a zombie wench during the Halloween-themed weekend. I also remember her telling me once she didn’t like jam because she used to work in a jam factory. Jennifer is from the UK so she has that wonderful British accent. Oh, and she’s the horror hostess of the Edwina Rigormuerte Houston Horror Chamber Review (being a photographer has allowed me to meet all sorts of interesting, cool people).

I was so pleased when Jennifer asked me to photograph her and John’s (she calls him by his middle name, Avery) wedding. I knew this was going to be an interesting wedding, given the couple’s love of old horror movies and her own very unique fashion style. What made it even more special is that, in addition to being hired as their official photographer, I was also a guest! That meant I could have a slice of wedding cake (it’s a thing with me – I always try to get a piece of cake); for once, I could photograph the cake and eat it too!

Ever heard of the Las Velas? It’s a hidden gem in Houston located between Hwys 59 and 610. It’s not obvious from the road, and I saw no large sign pointing the way to this venue. I asked Jennifer how she found it and she laughed, saying she was searching online for “inexpensive wedding venues”. The Las Velas’ exterior is filled with lots of flowers and greenery, fountains, and mosaic-inlaid stone. The interior hosts large, airy spaces, lots of natural lighting, elaborate molding and polished stone floors inlaid with mosaic butterflies and curly-cues.

As I wrote in a previous post, every wedding is different. This particular event was quite laid back and kinda funky (the bridesmaids wore combat boots with their dresses).

Both ceremony and reception were interior events (with the exception of a few posed outdoor photos), so I made use not only of the natural light coming through the large windows, but my flash as well. As with the previous wedding about which I wrote, I used the same three cameras (Canon 1DX, Canon 5D Mk III, and a rented Canon 6D) and the same Canon L-lenses (85mm f1.2, 70-200 f2.8, 24-70 f2.8, and 16-35 f2.8). I photographed the same scenes with all three cameras, with and without flash. For exterior shots, I used ISOs of 200-400 and interior shots had ISOs of 1600-2500 even with the flash. As with the photos from the wedding of the previous post, I used Imagenomic’s Noiseware to reduce the high ISO grain as well as Imagenomic’s Portraiture and OnOne’s Perfect Effects for certain photos.