Monthly Archives: October 2009

The deadliest Wedding Photography ever!

Posted by admin on 7 Oct ’09 No comments

One question that I’m asked quite often is “what was your favorite wedding?” In actuality, I don’t have a favorite, per se. We’re easy to get along with people and nearly every client that we take on is one that we feel matches our personalities and style of photography, so we end up with great pictures and good times.

One aspect that I try to stress upon everyone that we work with is that successful photography has little to do with the photographer and far more to do with how much trust a client imparts in a photographer and how well we all work together.

A client that likes and trusts their photographer and a photographer that likes their client will make beautiful art together. If your brow is furrowed with concern, it’s going to show and that’s not how any of us wish to remember our special day.

Get to know your photographer. That increase in comfort and that trust and respect is going to show in every picture.

But I digress. I don’t have a favorite wedding or a favorite client and probably couldn’t even narrow the list down to a hundred with a gun to my head (ooh a pun!), but I have ones that stick out in my mind as being incredibly exceptional or unique.

Jessie and Merrylee are two beautiful clients that we worked with recently and we shot (no pun intended) a good portion of their wedding photography at *gasp* a GUN RANGE.

Yes, this is one of the most extraordinary wedding sessions I have ever had the pleasure of photographing.

Prior to this day, I had never seen a gun fired in my life, let alone a machine gun, a shotgun, a silenced pistol and a very, very tiny pistol. The first time Jessie fired the machine gun, I jumped more out of surprise than fear. And when I saw ‘jumped’ I mean ‘lept three inches in the air and fired off 18 rapid shots of the ceiling….with my camera, not a gun! It was more funny than embarrassing and my partner had a good laugh at me

The newly married couple (and the bride’s mother!) all took turns firing weapons of minor destruction at paper targets, while wearing adorable rainbow colored socks and protection goggles and earmuffs. I love the randomness of it all!

But it goes to show how being fun and creative and coming into a shoot with unique ideas instead of canned poses goes a long way in terms of creating photographic art.

We took so many amazing shots that day, but below is one of my favorites, with a faux bleach bypass effect with saturated red tones (a la the movie Sin City):

Wedding reception photography and baby’s first words

Posted by admin on 6 Oct ’09 No comments

wedding reception photos DTyler The other night my partner and I photographed a wedding reception in our clients’ beautiful home here in Las Vegas and it turned out to be one of my favorite shoots of the week.
There’s a certain magic that comes from a large family getting together and showing their love for a newly married couple that cannot be duplicated.

Having photographed somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 to 1,000 weddings over the years, I’ve always loved receptions like this, where there’s an energy and a love coursing through the room that’s palpable.

I should have known from the start that great things were about to happen. The bride and groom had two tiny twin babies, under a year old. My partner and I arrived a short bit before the wedding party, but were having a great time taking pictures of the different family members interacting with these two adorable children, having no idea at all that they were the wedding couple’s kids!

After a prayer session, the bride’s father said “I’d like to thank you all for being here”. Several guests said ‘Thank you!’ ecstatically in reply and suddenly a tiny voice said “Thank you” as well and the room went dead silent – everyone had this look of shock and excitement. It was one of the babies’ first words!

As the family crowded around at this amazing moment, I snuck in and snapped this shot. When I look at it, it reminds me that a great photograph isn’t just the trendiest style with the most Photoshop special effects tacked on – if anything my composition was poor – a great photograph is simply being there at the right place and the right time and taking the shot.

wedding reception photographer

I also learned a very important lesson at that day; throwing a bouquet from a second story balcony is a very very neat idea….but first make sure to turn off the ceiling fan. Uh oh! :p

planning a wedding reception in las vegas

wedding photographers in Nevada