Congratulations to David and Julie! Yesterday, we traveled to Melbourne Beach, Florida for their wedding at the Radisson Hotel.
Please enjoy this sneak peek and please check back later for more images!
Archive for September, 2010
David and Julie – a Melbourne Beach, Florida Wedding – Sneak Peek
September 26, 2010WPPI Road Trip 2010 – Orlando
September 24, 2010Yesterday, I attended the WPPI Road Trip at the fantastic Sheraton Hotel in downtown Orlando. I’m a proud member of the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International, and was glad that Orlando was chosen as one of the host sites for this year’s road trip shows.
Liana Lehman Hall, a wedding and portrait photographer, out of Atlanta, Georgia was the host for the event. After a brief presentation, Liana introduced each of the many fantastic presenters.
Doug Gordon, a wedding photographer from New York, was the first speaker. Impressively, he was able to get the crowd of over 200 up on their feet dancing to Y-M-C-A at 8:30 in the morning. His presentation was half motivational / half posing, and jam packed with great humor and energy. There were two model participants who were on hand as Doug worked through his posing work-flow.
Following Doug was Bruce Dorn, a Canon explorer of light (essentially a legend in the industry as selected by Canon). His presentation was on HD Video Capture using the DSLR camera. Even though I have the capabilities of shooting video, it’s something I have only dabbled with. He showed some fabulous examples of how he has embraced the video capabilities of today’s cameras to create amazing portrait sessions, particularly with high school seniors.
One thing WPPI was great at, was feeding us. Between each break there was another assortment of food. And, lunch was no exception. Personally, my favorites were the soft pretzels they had. Those went quick!
After lunch, Amber Holritz, a lifestyle baby photographer from Chattanooga, Tennessee did a presentation on the philosophy and practice of lifestyle baby photography. She told many fantastic stories from over her years, and explained lifestyle photography in more detail. I think in the coming years, lifestyle photography as it applied to children will grow tremendously, similar to how photojournalism changed wedding photography. Although a picture of a baby in a funny hat next to some fake props in a studio are very “cute”. These pictures can become very generic and don’t reflect who we are. Almost all of her photographs are taken at the baby’s home, in areas where the family gathers.
Following Amber was Garrett Nudd, a wedding and portrait photographer based out of Chattanooga. Garrett started out as an Orlando wedding photographer, and still has some roots to the city. His presentation was more on the business side of wedding and portrait photography with many inspirational messages mixed in. We were also fortunate that he brought with him Rebecca Grinnals, founder of Disney’s Fairy Tale weddings, and founder and owner of Engaging Concepts, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in the wedding industry. Some of her clients include Disney, Sandals, Harley-Davidson, Graceland, and the Kessler Collection. She spoke about the state of the wedding industry and particularly how it pertains to wedding photographers. She discussed a lot of statistics. But, one that stood out to me was, that on average, 43 different businesses are involved in every wedding (bakeries, florists, caterers, planners, etc.). And who says that planning a wedding isn’t stressful?
The final presenter of the day was Bambi Cantrell. She is a wedding and portrait photographer from San Francisco. She is one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the world, and has been for some time. She’s known for creating the most beautiful portraits of brides. Having the opportunity to see her present was the highlight of the day. Even though her presentation was on boudoir photography, many of the posing and lighting techniques translate directly to wedding photography. My only complaint about the day was that Bambi’s presentation started 50 minutes late, and thus, she was rushed for time, and wasn’t able to do her full presentation.
I’ve attached a collage of some of my quick takes from the day (Top Left: Bruce Dorn; Bottom Left: Bambi Cantrell; Center: Doug Gordon; Top Right: Garrett Nudd; Bottom Right: Rebecca Grinnals)
Dominique and Sam – A Gainesville, Florida Engagement
September 19, 2010Dominique and Sam were referred to us from Josh and LaTasha, whose wedding we photographed back in June. It always make me feel good when our clients refer us to their friends and family. Dominique is originally from Miami, but has since moved to Gainesville to be with Sam. We will be photographing their wedding ceremony in Gainesville this February.
We met at Veterans Memorial Park in Gainesville for an engagement session. The fire ants, giant spiders, bees, and venomous snake and gator warnings were no match for this couple – they were full of smiles and laughs the entire time! I had a great time with them and look forward to their winter wedding ceremony.
On the way back from this road trip, I stopped in Ocala to visit with another bride (whose wedding we’ll be shooting in November) and to tour her ceremony and reception locations.
As a wrap up to the eventful day, I stopped in The Villages, Florida to have some Hungarian sausage from Tony Packo’s – a Toledo, Ohio landmark that oddly also has one other location – a bowling alley in Sumter County, Florida.
Operation Love Reunited – Orlando Homecoming
September 10, 2010A year ago, I began thinking about how I could use my business to give back to the community. I came across an article about Operation Love Reunited, an organization of photographers that volunteer their products and services prior to the departure and after the homecoming of millitary tours of duty. After going through the application process and a long wait, I was finally accepted as a participating photographer. I posted about this back in May. Last week was my first chance to participate in this program.
I was contacted by a wife of a member of the Air Force. Her husband – and several other military servicemen – would be coming home from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. This would be the first time that wives, children, friends and families would be seeing their loved ones in over six months. After meeting with officials at the Orlando International Airport, we were escorted to the gate where their flight would be arriving.
The men left Afghanistan four days earlier, and this was the final leg of a very long trip home. Intermixed with passengers excited to go to Disney World, these men were just looking forward to sleeping in their own beds again.
After waiting for a few minutes as theme park-bound guests got off the plane, I felt this crazy rush of adrenaline as all of these mini reunions were occurring around me. I was snapping my camera as fast as I could, not knowing what to shoot next. It was crazy and exciting at the same time. I said to one of the other wives that at a wedding, the main focus is usually the love between the bride and groom, but this time, all around me were couples reuniting for the first time in a long time.
I had a chance to step back a second and observe what was going on, and realized that all of the outbound passengers were now on their feet applauding these brave young men.
The families were very appreciative that I was there to capture the moment because, as one military wife said, “It’s much easier to give hugs without a camera in your hand”. As I got on the monorail headed back to the terminal , I felt very emotional about the amazing event I had just witnessed, and am so glad that I could do a little bit to help.
Out of respect to the families, I have decided to keep their emotional private celebration just that – private. They will be given the images from the day, but I will not be sharing any of the images publicly.