We had a busy weekend over Labor Day weekend. I had both an engagement shoot and a wedding scheduled for the weekend. With all the new information I have been learning from Jasmine Star and the creativeLIVE team, I was super excited to start using some of it for the wedding on Sunday. So what did I apply to shooting Jennifer & Chris’s wedding?

Well I decided to take control this time. Ryan and I arrived at the site and I found the location I wanted to use for the First Look. Then I scoped out the outdoor environment for the best spot for the group photos. The church was very dark inside and I know I am my most confident when I’m allowed to do outdoor photos. So I took control of that situation by suggesting that we do as many group photos outside as possible.

I also heeded the idea of doing everything possible to create the best photo in camera. I removed clutter. I grabbed things I wanted pictures of and took them to an ideal location. I fixed hair and dresses and collars. And flipping through the pictures later – I can already tell I have significantly decreased my post processing time.

I initiated conversations with both the preacher and the dj (at the reception) to make sure we were all on the same page and keeping on schedule. This is something I normally do anyway, but it was something that Jasmine reiterated during her lectures and so I made extra sure to do so on Sunday. The DJ, Mr. Troy Armstrong from Jacksonville IL, was fabulous! He is hands-down one of the best DJ’s I have had the pleasure of working with to date.

Now lighting. I meant to get a pin light to bring with me, but in the chaos that was my weekend forgot to bring it. Thankfully – the groom’s boss had a nice little LED light in his car and let me use it to take some detail shots. He was a life saver. It was just too dark to get a great macro lens shot of the rings without it. Here’s one example:

As for the rest of the reception – I think I pulled it off pretty well. It was a very dark venue and I was having some issues with the mirrors on the walls. They would pick up my flash in the image and leave the pictures very dark. I did find a way to work around them though and did great for only having my on-camera flash to use. In the future I would like to have a secondary light source like Jasmine talks about. All things in time.

All in all – it was another wedding full of learning experiences for me. I’m so happy for Jen and Chris and I hope they are having a blast on their honeymoon.

Check in tomorrow to see pictures from Gina & Jason’s Engagement session.

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