Then and Now: The Wedding Cake

The Then

 
Back sometime ago in a place far away from North Carolina, there was a wedding that involved one Uncle Denny.  In this wedding, a young ring bearer decided that he should be the first one to taste the wedding cake.  He was not too familiar with the wedding cake traditions and rules.  It just happened that this precise moment was immortalized with one click of shutter, and has been talked about for many many years. This photo was taken by Dennis Jackle who was the father of two sons – Dave (the ring bearer and oldest son) and Steve (the owner of this blog).

The Now

Fast forward many years later to the year 2003,  this same ring bearer was captured again with his finger in Uncle Denny’s wedding cake. You would think that some thirty-plus years later that he would know better. I guess that it not the case.  You apparently can not teach older dogs new tricks.  These images were taken by his younger brother Steve.

Here is the happy couple from the 2003 wedding getting their turn with the cake.

Caroline and Jeff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recently, I experienced my first opportunity to be a second shooter for a wedding held at the Benson Memorial United Methodist church with the reception at the Raleigh Marriott Crabtree Valley Hotel.  Congratulations to Caroline and Jeff !  You and your families and friends are a great bunch of people!  Your wedding was a blast!

I would like to thank Brian Mullins from Brian Mullins Photography for my providing me this great opportunity.  As I progress in my photography, one of my goals is to do some wedding work.  Recently, I joined the wedding photographic society to network and share experiences with other wedding photographers in the Raleigh area.  I was hopeful to work with and learn from experienced and well respected wedding photographers.  One of the first steps of my plan is to work as a second shooter with these types of photographers.  Well,  besides being one of the founders of the wedding photographic society and his work is amazing, Brian definitely fits the bill.   I really appreciated the direction, useful suggestions, and valuable information he provided all night long. 
Check out Brian’s  work and let him or me know what you think.  

Here are some of my shots from my first wedding plunge.

  

The newly married couple takes a moment from the wedding formals.

The bride and grooms  first dance with paparazzi in the background.

 

Sharing a laugh with with the bridal party during the first dance with Brian in the background.

 

The father of groom provided a wonderful and humorous best man toast to the couple.

 

A moment with Jeff and Caroline on the dance floor later in the evening.

 

Doing the “electric slide” with the bride….

 

The  bride making her escape with the groom at the end of the night.

As continue to go through the images,  you will probably see more of Jeff and Caroline and their guest in the future on this blog. 

Take care and see ya soon!!

WPS Photo Shoot - Amber

 

Recently,  my friend and extraordinary photographer Frank Myers mentioned a local wedding photographers group called the wedding photographic society(WPS).  This group was founded by some the best wedding photographers on the east coast.  

According to the  WPS website, “We're a network of professional photographers who come together to collaborate on photographic ideas, thoughts, and information in an attempts to elevate the artistic, technical, and business standards of the wedding photographic community.” 

Recently,  one of the founders of the WPS, Brian Mullins arranged an photo shoot that involved 21 photographers and 5 models with 8 wedding dresses.  Four other photographers and I were assigned to a wonderful model named Amber.  We walked the streets in downtown Raleigh sharing ideas and getting some great shots. 

Here are some of my shots, I took of Amber:

I love the mixture of the ambient light and flash in this one.

 

One of the photographers Kevin Seifert in my group scouted and setup this location. It was a curved glass block wall in front of a local  business.  I love the reflection of her face in the glass block.

 

Kevin and I each pulled out our pocket wizards and speedlites and lit up the curved glass block wall  through two side entry doors on its side. 

 

 

  Ed from Dark Lighting Imaging  scored this 50s style thunderbird by stopping  a driver that was about to leave in this gem.

 

 

If interested, you can find the rest of the gallery here.

James “Jason” Lee Photography

Over the summer,  I attended a wedding of one of my wife’s best friends in Charlotte, NC.   My wife was one of the bridesmaids.  I found I had some time to kill while some of the “bridesmaid/wedding party only” activities took place.  

Since I am always looking for reasons to shoot, I did bring my camera for the festivities.  

Since I was not the hired photographer for the wedding, I took pictures during the reception and during  bridesmaid  “getting ready” session before the wedding.   The last thing I wanted to do was to step on the wedding photographers toes.  Covering the “getting ready” session was not part of his arrangement. 

 

As I was standing outside in a 6 feet concrete fenced in area in the back of the hotel when part of the reception was going to take place,  I met this easy going person decided to ask him what he did for the living.    He said his name was Jason(James “Jason” Lee) and he was a photographer.  He told me he had to get used to not glancing over concrete wells looking for snipers.  He was a photo journalistic photographer that was embedded with the American troops in Iraq.  

I explained that I had recently started my own  photography business and was always interested in other photographer’s input to help improve my craft.  Jason was more than willingly to discuss all aspects of photography.  He even corrected the way I used my camera strap to prevent me for looking  like a tourist and more like a photographer.

He showed me this technique where  I set the camera a very slow shutter speed like 1/8 or 1/4 with a high ISO to allow as much ambient light in the image as possible for a dark scene.   Also, we  set just a “wink” of flash to freeze the main subject  but not over power the ambient light.  These settings allowed the sparklers to show their “trails” and  the flash froze the couple keeping them relatively in focus.  

Interesting enough as I was trying this technique during the “sparkler” bride-groom departure , Jason was standing in the background of the picture.   I love this image not only for the couple(guests at the wedding)  sharing a kiss  but also for the fact the “mentor” was in the frame.

 

Be sure to check out Jason’s photography for truly eye-opening experience. Every picture tells a story.  He is truly a unique talent.