The Art of Blending In

I often see and hear the word "unobtrusive" used by wedding photographers. In fact, I'm guilty of using it myself. But, let's be honest - there is nothing unobtrusive about two people, four cameras, waist belts full of gear, and flashes going off. People know we're there, we can't hide it. But, what we can do is blend into the crowd. Steve and I have found a way to take any situation and work within it. That means sometimes, when all the guests are madly taking pictures, we join in and capture not only the subject of all their interest, but also them as well. Or sometimes, I'll put the long lens on the camera and shoot close-ups from a distance. We adapt to each situation as it arises.

But most importantly, Steve and I have tons of fun at each and every wedding we photograph. And to illustrate that point, our good friends at Cloud Nine Creative sent us this little clip of our May 20th wedding. I am sure that our other videographer friends are sitting on a plethora of material that demonstrates what I mean, but we'll get started with this one...enjoy!

I'm planning to add many more images of the two of us at work - both to show our professional side and to show how we keep things upbeat. We're hoping a few more of our videographer friends will contribute to this post, but we have a number of images that we made while working this year. My favorites are all of Steve, of course, but he has some great ones of me too! Keep watching! And don't forget to let us know what you think - we invite and welcome comments on any of our posts. We want to know what you all think!

Tying the Knot Baby Boom

What an amazing year this has been! We photographed 55 weddings in 2005, and we are now finalizing all the editing. We often chat about how fortunate we are to be able to spend a little bit of time with so many amazing people. We witness so many different religious and cultural traditions that we would not otherwise be exposed to. How lucky to have some insight into the traditions of other cultures...everyone should have the opportunity to see that love and marriage are, at their core, universally beautiful. Our children reap the benefits of what Steve and I are able to see as we have a rich understanding that we can pass on to them. Knowledge breeds acceptance and tolerance and we are so blessed to have gained some of that knowledge.

One of the most amazing aspects of what we do is that it never ends with the wedding. So many of our couples go on to have children and we get to see their families grow. It has been a relatively slow process with most of our couples choosing to wait a little before starting their families. 2005 seems to be the exception to that. I think at last count, 7 or 8 of our couples are already pregnant and 2 have already had their babies!! And I just found out about one more couple that is expecting! Having my own kids makes the news of our expanding Tying the Knot family even more exciting. I can't wait for all these new babies to arrive to we can make more pictures with our extended family.

Congratulations to each of you !

Tracey & Mike

What a wedding! These guys are so incredible - they have such amazing energy and are so full of life! From the minute I walked into Tracey's room at the Opus I was captivated by her. She has such spirit! She was so excited about marrying Mike and that energy was shared by everyone in the room with her. Priscilla, aka "DG" (one of our brides for next year) was with Tracey and her happiness for her friend was so incredible to see. Aurora did a fantastic job on Tracey's make-up and Tracey just shone. Tracey could not wait to see Mike:


And Mike? Well, I didn't see Mike until the walk down the aisle, but he's not so bad either. The first thing I thought when I saw him was "shaken, not stirred" as he looked just like James Bond. He could not have had a bigger smile on his face as Tracey walked towards him. And that smile did not falter once through the evening.


After the final rose petals fell on the ceremony at Brix, it was off to make pictures. And what incredible pictures we made! Mike & Tracey put complete trust in Steve and myself and I can't thank them enough for that. Anything we asked, they did and the result is simply amazing. These two are the perfect example of what putting complete faith in your photograper can lead to. I could fill the blog with images of just these two - they're that good!

The session with us was just a very small part of their day...the reception continued at Brix and was full of family and friends. The sense of excitement and happiness that I had first felt the Opus carried into the reception and everyone was having a fantastic time. The emotional slide show was followed by even more emotional speecches. It was amazing to watch the effect that these two have had on the people in their lives. We felt incredibly special to have been included as part of their celebration.

"DG" and the girls got on the dance floor early and by the time Steve and I left the party was in full swing.

I can't say enough how much I enjoyed the time I spent with Tracey and Mike. In truth, I'm still smiling about it days later. These guys reminded us again why we love what we do! Congratulations to you both!



Steve and I had a really tough time narrowing it down, so we decided to post more than usual...it's just that good!

Priscilla, aka "DG"

At Tracey and Mike's wedding this past weekend we had the pleasure of getting to know Priscilla a little bit better. Personally, I adore her. She has a quirky personality and she is so much fun just to chat with. She also got a little bit tipsy (just a little tiny bit) and promised to send an apology email the next day - which she did.

The thing is, Priscilla is a beautiful girl and although we tried very hard, we couldn't make a bad picture of her. Not during her impromptu fashion shoot, not during the ceremony, not at the bar, and definitely not while she was dancing. I know that her fiance tried as well, but I'm willing to bet that he also failed at his attempts to make a less-than-flattering picture.

So, we are expecting great things from her at her own wedding next year. I fully expect to see the energy and spirit that I saw at Tracey & Mike's wedding...in fact, I am expecting more. This girl can work the camera (and it doesn't hurt that she's gorgeous) and I know that we will make incredible images with her as well. And Tracey will get her chance to be "DG" at Priscilla's wedding, as she is in the bridal party.

Priscilla, we adore you and can't wait!

David Williams - Day 1

Steve and I were so excited to throw open the doors of our studio today and welcome David Williams, as well as twenty other photographers, inside! We knew that this Master of Photography was going to have a lot to offer us. We started the day with some AV's and were able to get a sense of the work David produces. The first thing I noticed was the simplicity of his composition and the warmth of light in his images. He emphasized over and over again the importance of keeping it simple and exploring your creativity. Photojournalism has been such a buzz word in wedding photography for so long and David had this to say on the subject: photojournalism is about telling the story...you can still interact and direct your subjects and tell that story. Of course, I'm paraphrasing what he said, but I really appreciate the truth to his approach - it's not about labeling yourself and sticking to only what that label is, it's about finding the key elements to further the story and using your skills, talent and creativity to tell the story.

We spent much of the afternoon making images that David calls "Detail Miniatures". It's something that Steve and I do, but not to the same extent as David. His reasoning for these images is simple: the details provide the context in which the story is being told. How very true that statement is. A wedding is a cultural ritual and to understand the ritual, you must first understand the context in which it is taking place - details do that. So, he let twenty photographers loose on our studio in an effort to demonstrate that beautiful details can be found anywhere. I am very curious to see what each person found and made images of. I know that I looked at the studio with a new eye and I was able to create some artisitic, some graphic, and some architectural details that I had not neccesarily seen before. It was also kind of creepy to have that number of people with cameras crawling around the place - it felt a little like we were being stripped naked in front of an audience!

I am going to add images as the seminar continues, but right now I am exhausted and need to head to bed. David has certainly made me think and for that I am so grateful and excited to hear what's coming next. Now if only Evrim would keep his damn camera out of my face!