Kiwassa Lake is right below Lake Saranac, which was my original destination, but I wanted a cabin right next to a lake. The location was a 5 hour fun and beautiful scenic drive. The first two days were rained out, but the third and final day cleared up. I woke up at 10am and literally had a 15 minute window to take the lake shots before the waves started. I used my Canon 16-35mm and Canon 70-200mm. The car photos were taken with my Sony W170.
These photos were taken last year, however I never got a chance to edit them until now. You might have seen the scenery photos from my old Xanga post.
The Maldives is definitely the furthest place I’ve traveled for a photo assignment. A Beijing couple was referred to me by an acquaintance and they wanted a “U.S. photographer” rather than the cheesy studio glamour photos. They found this island through a wedding convention in China. Kani is one of hundreds of tiny islands that form the Maldives in the middle of the Indian Ocean just south of India. You could consider this a “trash the dress” session, two years after they’ve been married.
All photos were taken with natural lighting, with a Canon 1D Mark IIN, 50mm, 24-70mm, and 70-200mm.
This was my first wedding in Aruba, and definitely not the last. I am heading over there again in two weeks. The one thing I remember the most was how good their surf and turf was. When it comes to outdoor evening receptions, I actually wish for a videographer’s tungsten lamp. It adds a dynamic light that can be offset from the camera. Sure you could bring your own flash and stand, but that’s kinda hard with a destination wedding.
There have been a good amount of weddings nowadays that don’t follow the tradition of bride and groom separated until the ceremony. There are a few reasons why this happens, and there are also advantages and disadvantages. The first and most practical reason is scheduling. When you have a tight schedule between the ceremony and reception, it leaves little time for formal portraits sometimes, so you are forced to take them while there is still day light, before the ceremony. The second reason is sometimes the couples just don’t care about certain traditions, and they don’t want to go through more trouble trying to hide from each other than not. The practical advantage of having formal sessions before the ceremony is to “get it over with.” I also like that feeling because for me, the formal session may be the most stressful part of the day. It feels great to know after all that posing, I can continue my photo journalistic style. The disadvantage I see that might occur during such early formal sessions is the lack of “fun factor” to the photos. You can’t trash your attire before the ceremony, so you have to be extra careful. It is also too early during the day to take high-energy photos, and you don’t carry over that “woohoo! the ceremony is over!” feeling/energy/vibe-instead you might still have butterflies. Fortunately with this crowd, there was no problem with them getting wild and dangerous during the “formal” session before the late afternoon ceremony. Not to mention, we were in Aruba. It was like shooting monkeys in their natural habitats.
While I stayed at the Rockhouse in Negril, Jamaica. Tanya stayed at Idle Awhile, also in Negril. We met up after the wedding for a day of shooting. When you’ve been working together for over 3 years, nothing really stands in your way in terms of conflicts in style, ideas, or even clothes. I can only hope for many more years to come. She is like wine, only gets better with age. Tanya is afraid of the deep dark ocean, and on the day of the shoot, it was overcast and no sun came through even the shallow waters. She was brave enough to take a ride out on Famous Vincent’s glass bottom snorkeling boat, as well as standing a few feet away from a rocky ledge over the cliff, all for pictures’ sake.
The day started at Tanya’s balcony while it thunderstormed. We went back to the Rockhouse and for about $35USD each, we took Famous Vincent’s boat out to shallow waters in the middle of nowhere to shoot. Vincent was nice enough to maneuver the boat around based on what lighting I wanted. Afterwards we took a few shots on cliffs at the Rockhouse and then back to my outdoor shower.
I was impressed how we covered three locations on an island while it’s nearly impossible to cover two even back at home. I just think we are a very efficient and experienced team together.
I feel like most kids nowadays think you can just buy a few actions, use a few filters, and get any result you want. For purist photographers, they refuse to use any post processing at all, which is good for them, but they better produce great quality photos to begin with, instead of using the purist attitude as an excuse for their mediocre images. I rely heavily on post processing, but I am also a visual artist and designer, I like to, and can, create images. Being experienced at Photoshop doesn’t just mean you’re able to apply a random combination of filters to an image to create a cool effect. It means you have a goal, an image or visualization in your mind and you know exactly what combination of tools in the software to get you there. To be successful in digital art, you need a solid background and knowledge in visual arts, computer graphics, 3D modeling or sculting, anatomy, and lighting. I’m not purely a photographer, nor am I purely an illustrator, I am a relatively new breed of digital artist that combines both skills into one medium.
If you would like to see some of my before and after post processed photos, click on the link below.
