As a wedding photographer, I get to shoot big and small weddings alike. This week, Friday Photography Blog is about a small, intimate wedding that took place in The Little Corona Del Mar Beach, in Newport Beach, CA.
Andrea and Eric asked me to shoot tons of candid shots. We had only a few posed shots and I have to tell you, I had a lot of fun being a fly on the wall. First a few from the hotel room where the bride, the maid of honor, the groom and the best man got ready together...
Eric rocking some serious purple argyle socks...
The dress and Eric's daughters' dresses, and of course the rings.
As I mentioned, the ceremony was at the beautiful Little Corona Del Mar Beach.
Leave the high heels by the shore... It is so much easier to walk on sand barefoot anyways! Not that I would know the difference...
These guys were just passing by and they were in a hurry for some reason! I asked them to lift Andrea up and she is a cool enough chick to be game!
A couple from the portrait session. Fish-eye obsession.
As opposed to the traditional big weddings, the reception was at a wine house called Wine Cellar in Seal Beach. There were no dancing, no toasts, no speeches, no tosses... It was just a lovely, intimate gathering of people who love this couple. The request for candid shots made total sense in this environment.
The challenge of this location was the lighting. Have you ever been in a wine bar? It is dark... I mean, it really is dark! I had several options:
- I could lower my shutter speed in order to get the ambient light and the atmosphere behind, while risking having blurry shots
- I could just worry about my immediate subjects and end up with shots you would usually get at the nightlife sites
- Or I could actually reap the fruits of my investment and bump my camera's ISO settings up (1600-3200) and leave shutter speed and aperture settings as if I was shooting a regular wedding (usually between 400-800 ISO). Normally, this would increase the "grain" on the photographs, and while I love grainy, artful pictures; they are not particularly preferable for wedding photographs. Thankfully, I have one of the few cameras available in the market that handle low light extremely well (Nikon D3s) and that's where the smart investment pays off.
Please join me wishing Andrea and Eric a very happy life together.
Speaking of happiness...
Sunday is my daughter Vivienne's second birthday.
Guess what the blog will be about next week?
See you then!