Light Walk

This past Saturday, Hannah and I photographed Halei and Austyn at the Hamilton Twelve venue in South Austin. We had a wonderful time, especially just being around all the great family and friends as they celebrated the bride and groom. The venue is a wonderful outdoor spot with a great setup for a distinctly circular wedding. The awesome thing was, we were allowed to photograph from wherever we wanted, so we walked around the ceremony as needed to get all the right shots. What fun!

Dancing in the Dark

In the Round

Dad Knows His Stuff!

Chillin' in the Freezer

Checking Out the Bar

Dancing Like You Mean It

As a photographer, I’ve learned to go with the flow, and go prepared! This wedding provided a little test for me; before we even made it to the ceremony my main lens figured out how to detach itself from the front of the camera and completely shattered the front and bent it so it would not function at all… Man was I glad we carry several lenses for different perspectives and views! I just had to modify my shooting style a little. Of course, the fact that we always shoot with two cameras brings overlap that gives great photographic coverage even when something goes a little wrong; generally one of us shoots with a long lens and one shoots with a shorter lens to get both wide and narrow views. So even with a hampered equipment set, we have what we need to make beautiful images.

Gravity is NOT your friend

A quick call to my insurance agent confirmed that I indeed have this lens fully covered, so it’s just a matter of the down time without the lens while it is repaired or replaced. Whew!

If it weren’t for light, we’d have no photographs… Aside from that, it’s important where the light comes from and where the light doesn’t come from; light directionality brings shape and interest to a photograph. One of the distinctive features of a beautiful portrait is the difference between light and shadow and where the light falls on the subject. In the case of people, it is generally more realistic and natural for light to fall on the person from a different direction than the camera. If the light comes from the camera direction it’s usually very “flat”; there is no shape to the face and we don’t see something that looks like reality. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much where all light comes from when you use a simple point-and-shoot camera; the flash is right there on the camera!

When we photograph people, we shape the light so that the portrait has a natural look to it. Here are some examples:

Light is coming from a large flash on the ground to the left of Cindy. Note the shadow on the left side of her face.

The light is coming from a small flash to camera right, creating a nice glow on Adam's left side.

Light for the floor is coming from camera left, creating a nice shape on her face.

We have light coming from directly behind Halei as well as from the general direction of the camera, creating a nice hair glow and sunset burst.

We've hidden a small flash in one of the windows to cast light directly on Halei's face.

Well, I have to confess, sometimes I get a little confused. I was recharging some of my flash and camera batteries today and needed to move my camera bag to accommodate all the other bags to be worked with. So, after moving it around I was surprised (actually, quite surprised) to hear a constant “clunk – clunk – clunk – clunk …” sound of a rather ominous nature coming from somewhere behind the camera bag. At least, that’s what I though I heard. I listened, thinking it was some odd piece of household machinery I had forgotten about, buried deep in the wall, or perhaps in the bathroom on the other side of the wall.

Still the noise.

After a moment of punctuated slience, I realized it was my camera, making the muted thud of a shutter released inside the bag. I had left it on and when I shifted the bag the padding pressed one of the shutter release buttons. It had proceeded to dutifully take 30 frames or so of inky blackness The bag’s padding had muted the sound sufficiently to make it not really sound like what I’m familiar with since I’ve never actually taken pictures with the camera still in the bag…