Tag Archives: groom

November 10, 2014 · 6:50 pm

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.

The end of Jennifer and John’s wedding signaled the end of my wedding photo shoots for 2014. We’ll see what transpires in 2015.

To see more images from Jennifer and John’s wedding, click on this link to go to that gallery.

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Filed under Canon, Canon Lens, Events, Houston, low light photography, Photography, wedding

Tagged as bride, Canon, groom, Houston, Las Velas, newlyweds, photography, Rebecca Latson Photography, wedding

November 9, 2014 · 1:46 pm

Photographing Kevin and Amber’s Big Day

Gads! I know! It’s been forever since I last posted to this site. So sorry! I’ve had two weddings, a trip to Hawaii, and two airshows that I’ve photographed since my last post. Oh yeah, and a day job in addition to all of this photography stuff. I’d come home from work, eat a little dinner, try to watch the national news, then sit down to process anywhere from 4 – 10 images each weeknight before going to bed around 10PM and then getting up at 4AM to start my day over again. Sometimes, I’d even take my small travel laptop to work with me so that I could sit at my desk and edit photos during my lunch time. Weekends after each event have been spent at home, making the big push to get as many photos processed as possible, from the time I wake up around 5AM to the time I go to bed around 10-11PM. My home is a pig sty because I haven’t had time to pick anything up and clean, and I still have luggage opened up with stuff strewn about on my floor because I haven’t had time to really unpack.

But now, I’m done! And to prove it, I am posting here the results of the wedding I photographed September 27^th, for Kevin and Amber.

Some of you have asked what my wedding workflow entails. One of the tasks I try to do for each wedding is to Google the wedding venue and then personally drive (if in-state) to the venue to scope it out for photo ops as well as just the general lay of the land. I also introduce myself to the venue staff so they know who I am, why I am there, and what I look like in order that they recognize me on the wedding day.

Kevin and Amber’s wedding was held at the Northwest Forest Conference Center, Cypress, Texas. The conference center is a large area of acreage with several venues as well as hotel rooms on site. The venue Kevin and Amber chose was The Alamo (a replica thereof, where the ceremony was conducted outside the building and the reception held inside). You’d need to have met the couple but this venue was absolutely perfect for them. Soooo very Texan.

Every wedding is different. While there are certain shots that are de rigueur (ceremony, bride and groom kissing, posed shots, cake cutting, etc.), each wedding also opens itself up to numerous photo ops singular to that couple’s day and event.

Amber was the first bride ever who told me up front that it was all about the photos. She acknowledged that the ceremony would be over in minutes, but the pictures would last a lifetime. With that mindset, she had a number of images she definitely wanted me to capture, and she even had examples for me to use as go-by.

While the venue differed (of course) from the example images Amber showed to me, the idea regarding what she wanted remained unchanged. Plus, I now have these ideas in my photo op repertoire for future nuptials.

I used my Canon 1DX and 5D Mk III bodies along with a rented Canon 6D (really cute little camera easy for my little hands, but not so great with low-light, I freely admit). I used all L lenses (except for the 40mm pancake lens to which I affixed the Canon close-up lens filter): 85mm f1.2, 24-70 f2.8 (since destroyed during my Hawaii trip, blast it), 16-35 f2.8 (also destroyed during the Hawaii trip), and 70-200 f2.8. I also used my Canon Speedlite 600 EX/RT flash.

For outdoor shots, I used an ISO of 640 and for indoor shots, I used an ISO (in general) of 3200. I captured indoor and outdoor images both with and without flash.

I’ve never much cared for using a flash, but that dislike has lessened as my experience wielding it improves. That, plus a flash is an absolute MUST for reception / indoor images because of the low light. No way around that.

Everything was hand-held and with the exception of the 70-200mm lens, none of the others had image stabilization (IS, VR, whatever your camera brand calls it). This meant I used the “spray and pray” method (holding down on that shutter button and letting the camera click away). With this particular wedding, time was really tight and a tripod setup would have taken too long. I was constantly on the move, changing between cameras. Actually, I used each camera for the same scene just so there would be at least 1 good image between the 3 cameras – sometimes there were 2-3 good images of the same scene, so I processed them all because I like the newlyweds to have a choice – especially since each camera sported a different lens.

I made certain I whitened and brightened the smiles and I used Imagenomic’s Portraiture plug-in for Photoshop to smooth out skin creases and blemishes. I also utilized OnOne’s Perfect Effects to add a little variation to the standard color images. Some poses just begged for sepia or other interesting effect.

While I am always a little tired after spending 3-5 weeks on wedding photos (I cull through thousands to get anywhere between 150 to almost 400 really good shots, depending upon the length of time I am photographing), I also feel a huge sense of satisfaction with my work; that satisfaction grows in proportion to how pleased the newlyweds are with the images. I must ALWAYS keep in mind the desires and expectations of the clients, so I am always a little nervous as to how they receive my work.

To see more images taken during Kevin and Amber’s wedding, click on this link to be taken to my photo website. And feel free to browse around the other galleries and folders as well. My site continues to be a work in progress.

Next post: Jennifer and John’s wedding.

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Filed under Canon, Canon Lens, Equipment, Events, Life, Photography, wedding

Tagged as bride, Canon, Canon 1-DX, Canon 1DX, Canon 5D Mk III, event, groom, Kevin and Amber, Northwest Forest Conference Center, photography, Rebecca Latson Photography, Texas, TX, wedding

July 18, 2014 · 4:01 pm

Getting The Shots for Kyle and Adrienne

I’m not a full-time wedding photographer so I don’t have a wedding scheduled every week like some photographers with whom I am acquainted. I’m happy with the three weddings I have booked for this year (I *do* have a day job, ya know).

The first wedding in the books for 2014 was Kyle & Adrienne’s nuptials on June 21st, located at La Tranquila Ranch in Tomball, Texas. Adrienne’s parents attended a wedding I’d photographed in early 2013, and her father liked my work enough that he convinced his daughter to use me.

A couple of months prior to the wedding, they hired me for their engagement photos. Bonus!

The ceremony was set to be conducted beneath the sheltering, shady branches of a stately, 85-year old oak tree stationed at the end of a long, wide swath of soft, summer-green grass.

I’d arrived early, as is my wont, and scouted the area for locations in which to place myself and my small step-ladder during the ceremony and afterwards for posed shots.

Hot and sweaty from the humid environment, I finally entered the villa, site of the reception. Ahh, AC.

Cameras and I awaited the arrival of the bride and her entourage…and the flowers…and the cake…..and the guests.

As I was photographing the bride beside the windows of the reception room, the sky dumped a flood of rain upon the area. The outdoor wedding was switched to an indoor wedding. Although the bride was disappointed, the precipitation did nothing to dampen her excitement and happiness for the day.

Despite the quick change in ceremony venue, everything – to my eye – went off without a hitch.

Here’s the thing with wedding photography: it’s more than just a matter of taking pretty pictures. There are a *ton* of “required” images every photographer must capture, and you’d better get them because weddings are one of those situations where there are NO do-overs. You’d better have the professional equipment with which to capture those images (and you’d better know how to use said equipment). You’d better get the couple exchanging rings during the ceremony; you’d better get the couple kissing at ceremony’s end; you’d better get the couple’s first dance; you’d better get the father-daughter and mother-son dances; you’d better get the toasts and speeches; you’d better get the couple cutting the cake; you’d better get the couple in their get-away car; you’d better get all those little extras like the bride getting ready and the groom and groomsmen and the reception set up and etc. etc. etc. And then, you sure as hell had better know how to process those images after all is said and done. You’d better know how to capture the mood, lighting and emotion of the players on that day. So much to do for a wedding photo shoot!

Here’s the skinny on how I got the shots.

Cameras: Canon 5D Mk III and 2 Canon 1DX bodies (my own and one rented from Lensrentals.com

Lenses – all Canon:

Note: these are all considered “fast” lenses because of their ability to open up at a wide aperture to allow in the maximum amount of light – perfect for low-light situations.

Flash: Canon 600 EX-RT with a mini softbox attached with velcro to the flash head.

Because the wedding and reception were inside, I knew I would be using a relatively high ISO – anywhere from 1000 to 3200+. I made as much use as possible of the beautiful natural light streaming through the glassed-in reception area windows because I dislike using flash unless/until I absolutely must. I *did* use a flash, though, for the reception party and dances as the sun set and it grew dark outside.

The posed images were all taken within the villa. The rain had ceased after the ceremony, but because it was so hot and steamy outside (hello, it was Texas on the Summer Solstice), the difference in temperature between the air-conditioned building and the area outdoors not only steamed up my camera lenses but my glasses as well. It would have taken too long to acclimate the cameras and there were too many requisite shots to get in too short of a time span before the reception party began in earnest.

Ultimately, the only outside shots I got were the ones of Kyle and Adrienne in the “get away” car. I had to stand outside by myself for about 30 minutes to free the camera lens of condensation. In hindsight (and that’s always 20-20), I should have put a camera and lens in a bag and just left it sitting outside for an hour or so while I stayed within the villa capturing other shots; after all, I *did* have three camera bodies. Ah well, every wedding I work provides some new lesson/insight for me to use for the next occasion.

Everything was hand-held. No tripod. No timed shots. Only one lens possessed image stabilization (IS). So, I applied what I jokingly (and other photographers disparagingly) refer to as the “spray and pray” method of capturing an image. The method is simple: hold down on the shutter button and click away for about 4-5 shots. Rule of thumb is that, out of all of those shots, at least one of them will be nice and sharp. The downside is that it uses up a lot of memory card space and adds to your post-process time as you go through each image to find the sharpest one. The upside (for me) is that I have *a lot* of memory cards (48 cards varying from 4GB to 16 GB).

By the time the party ended at 10PM and the bride & groom were ensconced in the car and down the road, I had captured over 3000 images (remember, “spray and pray”). Ultimately, those images were culled down to 360 “keepers” (took me 3 weeks of post-process work).

I use Lightroom *and* Photoshop on my PC when editing photos. I find some tools easier to use in Lightroom than in Photoshop and vice versa. I also work with Layers in Photoshop. A layer is a non-destructive way to edit a photo without changing the original. Layers, however, make for a much larger file, which is why I save my images to either a 500GB or 1TB portable hard drive (actually, I save to two different portable HDs because redundancy is a photographer’s saving grace in case something happens to one of the drives).

Noise reduction software, either stand-alone or as a plug-in, is de rigueur when shooting within low-light environments. I use Imagenomic’s Noiseware and there are other, equally good, noise reduction applications on the market.

I also applied a number of special effects presets from OnOne Software’s Perfect Effects program. I used this particularly for the groom, his groomsmen, and some of the bride & groom shots.

It was a fun wedding, everybody was really photogenic, and I captured some great moments for the bride, groom, their families and friends.

Next wedding: late September, here in Texas.

To see more images from Kyle and Adrienne’s wedding, click on this link.

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Filed under Canon, Equipment, Life, Photography, wedding

Tagged as bride, Canon, groom, husband, Kyle & Adrienne, low light, photography, Rebecca Latson Photography, Texas, TX, wedding, wife

May 28, 2013 · 5:51 pm

A Wedding In Galveston–Thoughts And Hindsight

No matter how much you *think* you know about photographing a wedding, there is always something new to learn and take back for use at a future wedding. Since hindsight is 20-20, here are a few lessons I learned and things I will (try to) do for future jobs.

For the reception – particularly the dancing – I’ll get closer to the action and use the flash more – without the diffuser dome. I’ll just make sure the flash is not at it’s highest setting since a little bit of non-diffused flash goes a long way.
I’ll make sure to have a step stool or a free table handy onto which I can stand. Actually, I’d requested a ladder and the resort staff said they would provide one for me, but never did and I didn’t have time to go search for one – I managed to find a chair that worked well enough for my shots.

In addition to the step-stool thing above, I’m going to try and procure something that allows me to stand above the action and use a tripod so I can request of the bride and groom that they go out to the dance floor and just stand there, looking like they are slow dancing while gazing at each other, while the rest of the dancers move about them. I’ll use a slow shutter speed on the camera so that only the newlyweds would be sharp in contrast to all the blurred movement around them. I’ve seen similar wedding images to which this idea was applied and they are totally cool shots.
I will pack less gear (famous last words, I know, but I really do mean it). Go back to my first post regarding this wedding to see all the gear I brought with me.
I will continue to remain ever-vigilant regarding subject placement against a background of lamps, lamp posts, or tree trunks so nothing looks like it is sprouting out of someone’s head. Luckily for me, those issues were minimal and could be discarded because I took the same shots at numerous different angles.

Finally, here’s some advice for those of you embarking on a part- or full-time career in wedding photography. If you have a contract (and you should), make sure there is a clause stipulating that the bride & groom agree YOU are the only photographer who will take the official images of the ceremony as well as all the posed shots of the bridal party and their families (I’ve got that clause in my contract). Hard to avoid smartphones during the processional, but YOU should be the only one standing in the aisle with your camera catching the bridal processional.

Thankfully, I had no real issues about that with this wedding. So, why am I even mentioning this? Awhile back, I read a blog post about a professional wedding photographer who had a number of key shots ruined because the guests were either elbowing the highly-paid photographer out of the way to get their own smartphone shots, or guests were getting *in* the way of a key shot, or because a guest’s flash went off at the same time the photographer’s flash went off, thus totally over-exposing (blowing out) the bride & groom or their families to the point that there was no way to recover any detail at all in the photo. I looked at each of this photographer’s photos and literally cringed over the shots ruined by rude people, both guests and non-guests. One of my Facebook friends who is a successful wedding photographer told me he simply refuses to take any posed photos as long as some of the guests are trying to take the same shots with their own cameras. He just puts down his camera and waits.

While I’ve been extremely lucky with the weddings I have photographed, that blog post and those Facebook comments highlight this problem that all wedding photographers face at some point in time. Because of the bride & groom for this wedding prepared a very handy schedule of events for the key players, I had no problems at all during the ceremony or with the posed shots, and very minimal issues at the reception (like this photographer photo bomb during the father-daughter dance).

Naturally everybody is going to pull out their smartphone or point & shoot to capture images during the reception, which tends to be a much less-structured event than the ceremony and far more relaxed. Sometimes, one even runs across those guests who have toted along their fully-loaded SLRs to the wedding because they either think they are doing *everybody* a favor (including the wedding photographer), or else they don’t think the paid photographer can do his/her job as well as they might have. My ego would like to think that these guys (yeah, it’s usually guys) see the wedding photos and then realize (but would *never* admit) that I did a pretty damned good job after all!

Here’s my rule of thumb: If I am invited to a wedding and I am not the wedding photographer, then I leave my camera gear at home. Period.

I am exceptionally proud of the images I captured for this couple on their special day. If you would like to see more photos from this wedding, then wander on over to my Facebook page Rebecca Latson Photography, click on the Photos box on my timeline, select Albums, then click on the link to the Maegan and Josh album. And, if you like what you see, then please “Like” me while you are on my page.

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Filed under Equipment, Life, low light photography, Photography, wedding

Tagged as bride, bride & groom, bride and groom, Canon, couple, event, groom, low light, newlywed, newlyweds, photography, Rebecca Latson Photography, wedding

May 27, 2013 · 5:54 pm

A Wedding In Galveston – Après Ceremony And The Reception

Immediately after the ceremony, the bridal party ensconced themselves in an empty room within of the gazebo and waited for the guests to head for the reception. Next on the schedule were family photos. While we waited, I captured a few images of the Newlyweds.

For this image, I used only the ambient side light coming from the window because of the warm, intimate feel the light bestowed.

I used my Gary Fong dome diffuser over the flash for this quick shot of Maegan and the Boyz.

Family photos done, the bridal party remained for a few more photos.

I stayed glued to the bride and groom and photographed them as they took the stairs down to the reception area.

This is one of my favorite images. For this photo, I used only the ambient light and bumped up the camera’s ISO to 1000. Shutter was 1/40 and the aperture was f4 on my 5D Mark III. I then used a vignette-spotlight preset from OnOne’s Perfect Effects plug in to brighten the area around the couple. No, that preset did not create that yellow spotlight – the yellow light was already there. The preset simply created a brighter area around Josh & Megan while lightly vignetting the rest of the image.

For the remainder of the reception, I focused mainly on getting candid shots and those little accents (like the table setting) that flesh out the character of the reception.

Fixing the bride’s bustle so she could dance and move around with a little more ease.

The bride and groom dancing in the bokeh’d background with focus on the table setting.

The awesome band.

The next dance after the First Dance was especially for the bride’s daughter. The song was “Aint No Mountain High Enough”.

Hava Nagila!

While I of course captured the prerequisite images of the First Dance, the father-daughter dance, the mother-son dance, the toasts, and the cake (and cake cutting), I knew the bride and groom would want lots of photos of their guests having fun and the two of them having fun alongside their guests, as you can see from the photos above.

Reception photos can be problematic because receptions – as a rule – are low-light affairs. Flash is usually called for. I, on the other hand, don’t like using flash as much as using the available light. For the reception, though, the only real light came from the candles and lit lanterns on the tables and a large, drape of material embedded with lights. So, I used both flash and ambient light, with ISOs anywhere from 2000 to 6400. Yes, I had to use a noise reduction plug-in (although at times I used Lightroom’s noise reduction sliders instead of my plug-in software – Lightroom’s noise reduction is not too bad, actually).

My feet were hurting (damned those beautiful patent leather shoes) so I was sitting at one of the tables, happily snapping away at the bride’s daughter who was happily swirling about the dance floor with her dress billowing around her. She turned to me and blew me a kiss.

I am guilty of taking quite a few photos of the bride’s 6-year old daughter. She was a fun (and funny) little girl who enjoyed herself every bit as much as the adults.

Next Post: Thoughts and Hindsight

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Filed under Life, low light photography, Photography, wedding

Tagged as bride, bridesmaids, candids, dancing, fun, groom, happiness, low light, party, photography, Rebecca Latson Photography, reception, wedding

May 25, 2013 · 6:00 pm

A Wedding In Galveston – The Bridal Party Posed Shots

Josh and Maegan did one of the smartest things I think any bride and groom can do: they opted to get all of the posed shots (sans families) out of the way *before* the ceremony. That way, only the family posed shots remained post-ceremony and people were able to get to the reception and have fun faster and earlier. Plus, I didn’t have to worry about corralling everybody together. Thanks to that handy schedule Maegan emailed to all the key players, everybody knew their time and part to be played.

Now, I’ve heard this argument from a number of people regarding the groom seeing his bride for the first time: shouldn’t this be done *during* the ceremony? Folks, just because all of the bride and groom images were taken before the ceremony did NOT mean that there were not any photos taken of Josh as he saw his bride for the first time. It’s not a mandatory thing for a crowd of guests to be present for this event. Images of the groom seeing his bride for the first time are special, with the focus on the groom and nobody else.

Here’s what I had Josh do: He came out to the gazebo first and I told him to stand facing the Gulf of Mexico view so his peripheral vision wouldn’t see Maegan coming out of the resort and down the side walkway toward the gazebo.

I told Maegan to go stand about 2 rows away from the gazebo. We then *both* had to call out loudly to Josh that it was ok for him to turn and look.

From there, it was a series of bride & groom shots, bride & groom & bride’s daughter shots, and bride & bridesmaid shots. Everything was outside, the lighting was great, the background venue was great, and the resulting photos turned out really well. I used both my Canon 5D Mk III and Canon 1-DX with the 24-70mm lens and the 70-200mm lens. For the images of Josh’s reaction to Maegan as she approached him in her bridal gown, I set the focus mode on the 1-DX on servo because I knew Maegan was moving toward Josh and Josh kept turning toward Maegan with his smile growing ever wider.

Showing off the foot jewelry. Instead of slippers, the bride and bridesmaids all wore delicate foot jewelry to walk down the grass aisle.

After the posed shots, there was about a an hour or more during which we could all relax (well, except for the photographer) prior to returning for the ceremony. The guys went one direction and we ladies headed back up to the 16^th floor to find ourselves locked out of Josh & Maegan’s penthouse suite. Some of the room card keys had been left in the room and the card keys available to us did not work. While waiting for the resort’s security to come up and unlock the door, I asked Maegan to pose in front of the long, curving bank of hallway windows. The rear architecture of the San Luis Resort is completely made up of those neat curving floor-to-ceiling windows from one end of the hallway to the other (except for the part where the elevator banks are) and they make for great photo ops.

Oh, and don’t forget to get some silly shots, too.

Next post: The Ceremony

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Filed under Life, Photography, wedding

Tagged as bridal party, bride, bride and groom, bridesmaids, groom, group photography, groups, man, outdoor photography, outside photography, photography, posed, Rebecca Latson Photography, wedding, woman

May 23, 2013 · 7:51 pm

A Wedding In Galveston – The Groom and His Men

The Groom and His Men. The groom, Josh, is second from the left, sitting down beside his Best Man.

Let’s face it: the groomsmen tend to get short shrift when it comes to wedding photography. The bride gets soooo many more photos; I admit to having captured far more images of the bride than of the groom. That being said, I did my utmost to get great shots of the guys.

After my hair and makeup photo op session with the bride, her mother, her daughter and the bridesmaids, I grabbed my lighting equipment and hot-footed it down to one of the lower levels of the resort where the guys were getting ready in a small, private club / gameroom.

The entire scene was infused with old-fashioned gentlemen’s club masculinity: the subdued golden lighting, the pool tables, the poker tables, the (unstocked) bar, the leather couches. All that was missing was the blue cloud of cigar smoke hanging in the air.

All of the images here were taken with the ISO set to between 640 and 2000, even when I used flash. Two of the scenes I photographed were taken with only the ambient light and no flash. In hindsight, I was near a number of electrical outlets, so I should have used my 500-watt continuous light with the umbrella instead of the flash, as I would have been able to see the light at all times instead of just after I’d taken the shot.

For the scene at the top of this post, I used my Gary Fong diffuser dome over the flash which was on my 5D Mk III. I set the ISO to 1250 with a shutter of 1/40 and an aperture of f4.

For the pool table scenes, I set up the umbrella and flash so the light went through the umbrella onto the guys. The off-camera flash setup was approximately 45 degrees to my right and at one end of the pool table so that the light was softer and covered the entirety of the groom and groomsmen. I used the 5D Mk III, set the ISO to 640, the shutter speed to 1/50 and the aperture to f4.

For this poker table scene, I turned the umbrella so that the open end faced the men. The flash bounced off of the umbrella rather than shot through. This produced a stronger light on the guys. I used the 5D Mk III and set the ISO at 640 with a shutter of 1/50 and an aperture of f4.

This scene was shot with just the ambient light. I used the 50mm prime on my Canon 1-DX, set the ISO to 1000 and the shutter at 1/40 with an aperture of f4.

For this toast scene, I again used only ambient light, setting the ISO on the 5D Mk III to 2000 with a shutter of 1/25 and an aperture of f4.

I used the Gary Fong dome diffuser over my flash for this image, setting the ISO at 1250, shutter at 1/40 and aperture at f4.

The only issue I really needed to watch was getting reflections of all of the guys in the polished coffee table as they toasted the groom. Maybe I didn’t get all of their faces in the reflections, but I at least got their arms with the drinks. Oh, btw, that liquid was *not* whiskey. The guys mixed coke and a little water to make it look like whiskey.

Despite the best efforts of my flash, I still worked with Photoshop CS6 to lighten some of the faces. The photo I most had to work with was the first photo in this post. The other photos were better in terms of the amount of light and shadow I wanted. Because of the low-light interior, it was necessary to use my Imagenomic Noiseware reduction software to get rid of that graininess inherent with low-light / high ISO imagery.

The bride and groom had created an extremely handy schedule, so I knew exactly where I had to be and when. And, by golly, that schedule worked like a charm for everything! So, after the groomsmen photographs, I checked the time then lugged myself, my cameras, and my lighting equipment up to Maegan and Josh’s 16^th floor penthouse suite.

Next post: Getting Ready

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Filed under Equipment, Flash Photography, Life, Photography, Studio Lights, wedding

Tagged as 1-DX, 1DX, 5D mark iii, 5D Mk III, Canon, flash, flash photography, groom, groomsmen, interior, low light, masculine, men, photography, Rebecca Latson Photography, wedding

May 20, 2013 · 6:09 pm

A Wedding In Galveston: The Gear

Originally, I had written a 2800-word blog post (give or take). Yikes! Way too long! I think the human attention span tends to get a nervous tic over anything past 1200 words (which is the length I try to stick to but oftentimes never successfully manage). I personally can’t stand reading uber-long posts, no matter how helpful they may be; I tend to skim over them and just look at the pictures. I’d forgotten about this, though, in my 2800-word zeal to get everything down about my experience photographing this wedding. Then, I started reading some short but neat blog posts by Scottseyephotos about his photographic trip to Hallo Bay, AK, and I realized I was far more interested reading his numerous, interesting short blog posts than I would have been had he combined all of his bear articles into a single post. So, I’ve separated this original post into several shorter ones.

Here’s the First Post, which I hope whets your photographic-blogospheric appetite for the next post:

I had the great fortune to photograph Josh & Maegan’s wedding in Galveston, Texas, back in late April (2013). The venue was the San Luis Resort. I reserved a room for the weekend and prepared for the event.

What I took with me:

Canon 1-DX body + 3 spare batteries
Canon 5D Mk III body + 4 spare batteries
A rented Canon 6D body (go read my previous blog for my take on this body)
Canon 85mm f1.2L lens (which I absolutely loved but never used for this event)
Canon 50mm f1.2L lens
Canon 24-70mm f2.8L II lens
Canon 70-200mm f2.8L II lens
A rented Canon 14mm f2.8L lens (go read my previous blog for my take on this lens)
A 7’ parabolic white umbrella
2 Canon 600 EX-RT flashes (one of them was a rental)
Canon ST-E3-RT transmitter
Gary Fong flash head diffuser dome
2 lightstands (of which I only used one of them)
One 500-watt studio light (which I did not use but now wish I had for the groomsmen shots instead of my flash – that way I could have seen right away how the lighting situation would look).
Induro 8X CT314 tripod legs and Induro BHD3 ballhead (I only used it for the HDR shots of my room interior and balcony view, believe it or not – all of the wedding shots were hand-held)
42 memory cards, both CF and SDHD in 4GB and 8GB capacities
15” Laptop
2 portable hard drives
2 memory card readers (in case something happened to one of them)
Battery charger for each type of battery
My portable MiFi (never used it since the resort had free WiFi)
All the assorted cords and connecters needed to power up the other items listed
My LowePro Slingshot AW 202 camera backpack
My Think Tank Airport Commuter camera backpack
My Photoflex Transpac to carry all my lighting equipment (it turned out to be rather large and exceedingly heavy, so I plan on ordering something smaller to take with me for my next gig)

I’ve written a TripAdvisor review including photos of my room and the resort. Suffice to say that I enjoyed my stay, liked my room, loved the view, but wished they had provided me with a different type of coffee maker . A small complaint, but coffee is a mainstay for me when traveling and working with photos on my laptop. I usually pack my own coffee and filters with the assumption the room has a 4-cup coffee maker. It didn’t work with this particular room.

Looking down at the wedding venue from Josh & Maegan’s 16th-floor penthouse suite.

Now you have the location and the venue. Next post: my first photo op with the bride and her crew.

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Filed under Equipment, Events, Photography, Portraits, wedding

Tagged as 1-DX, 14mm, 16-35mm, 1DX, 50mm, 5D mark iii, 5D Mk III, 6D, 70-200mm, bride, camera equipment, Canon, Canon lens, event, Galveston, groom, photography, prime lens, Rebecca Latson Photography, San Luis Resort, Texas, TX, wedding, wide angle

January 11, 2013 · 1:36 pm

Introducing Andrew and Juliana

If you read my previous post, then you know I spent my Christmas holiday in eastern Washington. This post photographically details the wedding I photographed in Tacoma, on December 28, while still in Washington.

I took the photographic equivalent of the kitchen sink with me:

1 Canon 5D Mk II camera body
1 Canon 5D Mk III camera body
1 Canon EOS 1D X camera body
1 Canon 24-70mm f2.8L USM II lens
1 Canon 16-35 f2.8L II USM lens
1 Canon 50mm f1.2L lens
1 Canon 85mm f1.2L II lens
1 Canon 70-200mm f2.8L II USM lens
1 rented Canon 600 EX RT Speedlite flash
1 rented Canon speedlite wireless flash transmitter
42 memory cards – 4GB & 8GB (I used about 20 for the wedding alone)
3 spare Canon 1 DX batteries
4 spare Canon batteries for the 5D Mk II & Mk III cameras
1 remote shutter release with a 33’ long cord
1 Induro CT213 carbon fiber tripod and Induro BHD3 ballhead (which I used during my time there but not at all for the wedding)
Assorted cords, chargers, lens hoods, filters and such for the cameras and also for my 15” laptop
1 500GB portable hard drive
1 1TB portable hard drive
1 Lastolite Hotshoe Ezybox soft box and separate stand, which I had mailed directly to my sister’s home rather than as checked luggage

Let’s see….did I forget anything here? Probably.

My brother-in-law was the officiator for the wedding, so on December 27, my sister, bro-in-law, and I piled ourselves and our stuff into their SUV and headed west over Snoqualmie Pass in fog, snow, slush, and rain to Tacoma.

Our hotel was the Silver Cloud Inn, Tacoma Waterfront, with great views of Commencement Bay. I was mightily impressed with the hotel and would stay there again in a heartbeat (this reminds me that I need to write a review of the hotel in Trip Advisor, to add to the other reviews I have written over the past couple of years).

The view of Commencement Bay and the full moon from my hotel window.

Sunrise on Commencement Bay the day of the wedding.

The wedding was held at Weyerhaeuser Mansion, in the Old Town portion of Tacoma, atop a hill overlooking Commencement Bay.

Had the bride and groom not been so entranced looking at each other, this is the view they would have seen from where they stood during the ceremony.

Prior to the wedding, Juliana dressed up in this adorable little movie-starlet outfit and with Andrew, welcomed guests to the mansion.

Andrew getting ready. I’m not sure how it happened, but his suit had been left back at their home, some 30 minutes and one ferry ride away. Luckily, the suit arrived and the wedding started on time.

Getting ready.

Wedding M&M’s with the date and their names printed on them.

Appetizers

Red suede shoes worn under the wedding gown.

Whenever you are photographing an event such as a wedding, you need to remember to capture images of the little things – the accessories, the decorations, the food/drink served. These help flesh out the event and add atmosphere.

After Juliana was all dressed in her bridal ensemble, I asked her to stand next to the window so I could capture a portrait of her with the side light, which is one of my favorite lighting techniques.

I took some of the photos and duplicated them, then used different special effects either directly from Photoshop CS6, or as one of the presets in OnOne’s Perfect Effects 4 plug in.

Juliana took my breath away as she stood at the top of the staircase, waiting for me to get my photos of her before she headed down to where her father awaited to escort her out to the groom and officiator. Her gown and hat matched the character of the mansion and she truly looked like the Lady of The Manor. In this photo, as well as a number of others, I made use of the vignette effect to focus the eye more on the subject.

Another preset from OnOne’s Perfect Effects 4.

Andrew’s look as he first beheld his bride walking toward him.

As I was earlier scoping out the mansion for possible photo ops for the bride & groom, I noticed this little room down the hallway from the changing room on the third floor of the building. The room’s balcony looked directly over the wedding ceremony site. So, after getting some ground-level images, I RAN up the three steep flights of stairs to get to the balcony so I could capture some overhead photos. Then, I RAN back down the three flights and managed to arrive just as the bride and groom were kissing.

After the kiss, there was a moment of laughter as the groom came away with lovely red lips of his own; the bride’s lipstick color was very bright indeed. I noticed later on a couple of male relatives with red lip marks on their cheeks.

Introducing Team HOCO (made up of the first two letters each of Juliana’s and Andrew’s last names).

And then it was on to the bride & groom photos, the reception, the toasts, and the cake cutting.

At the gazebo, Andrew turned to Juliana and told her he wanted to sweep her off her feet. I told him to go right ahead so I could get a photo of it.

Julian wanted a photo taken without the long black cape she was wearing. It was a bit “nippy” outside and you can tell in this image. Good thing she had Andrew’s warm arms around her.

A cake topper made by one of Juliana’s friends. I’m told she and Andrew first met at Petco.

I’m thinking about doing this same “posterized” special effect to copies of a number of other photos, and then creating a little comic book/graphic novel for Andrew and Juliana. I think any bride that wears red suede shoes with her wedding gown would appreciate something like that – don’t you?

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Photographer’s Note: I used every single one of those lenses at one point in time during the trip, but the three lenses I used most at the wedding were the 16-35mm for the wide-angle shots, and the 50mm prime and the 24-70mm zoom. I can’t say enough wonderful things about these lenses. Canon makes awesome glass in the form of their L-lenses.

While I used the flash occasionally, both with and without the Lastolite softbox, the majority of my images were taken without the flash (I don’t really like using flash much, to be honest, although I know flash has its place and is quite necessary in some instances). Instead, for my interior low-light images, I increased the ISO, and then used a noiseware reduction plug-in with CS6.

If you would like to see more photos from the wedding, please take a moment and go over to my Facebook Photography Page. And if you like what you see there, then please, feel free to Like me and follow me on my continuing photographic journeys.

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Filed under Equipment, Life, Photography, Washington State, wedding

Tagged as bride, camera gear, Canon, ceremony, event, groom, photography, Rebecca Latson Photography, Tacoma, WA, Washington, wedding, Weyerhaeuser Mansion