Weddings : the setup, the shot, the image.

So, I'm not sure if this would fall into a 'tutorial' type Blogpost, but I've been wanting to do something like this for a while, and never had the shots to do it.  Well, Dave was a shooter at a recent wedding and happened to get a bunch of shots of me shooting... At first I was annoyed, and kept deleting them, until I realized that I could do a really fun post about the prep and the shot.  So, here it goes.... 

My first, prep-2-shot thingy.

Dress : Always a favorite of mine to photograph... it's always as pretty on the hanger as on the bride.  I was limited with locations inside, so I took the dress outdoors, and loved the glowing light from the leaves.

Rings : To an owner of a rock'in Macro lens, how could I not like photographing the ROCK!?  I use a 105mm Nikkor 2.8 Macro lens and get the coolest shots with it.... found out it makes a great portrait lens too :)  I'd almost look cool if I didn't have the look of distaste on my face.... I guess that's how I look when I concentrate, and focus... good thing I'm always behind a camera to block as much as I can from the client!!!

Bridal Party : Who doesn't like to Vogue...?  I mean, seriously... does everyone like the traditional setups, and smiles....?  Of course they do!  But this adds character, sass, and makes everyone look cool, hot, sexy, whatever.  I shoot these with a 70-200mm 2.8 Nikkor lens from a distance, and zoom as far in as I can.  It provides a better 'fall-off' of the detail in the background.  I also like shooting into the sun for several reasons.  No squinting eyes, (for them.... I'm blinded, but that's not important :) LOL!) and a better exposed image with no harsh shadows on the faces... if manually exposed.  

 Odd Angles : Again, 70-200mm from below, using foreground, middle ground and background to keep it interesting :)

 Flowers : This is using a 24-70mm Nikkor 2.8 lens... however, I prefer to shoot this with a wider lens like the 14-24mm Nikkor 2.8...  I go as wide as possible, in this case 24mm, and get as close as I can to the flowers.  It gets the flowers in focus and artistically puts the bridesmaids as some 'background candy'.

 More Groomsmen, because David caught me shooting them.....

This is simply me arranging the party and explaining flattering poses briefly.  I didn't have the option to pick the location, so the sunlight is slightly harsh on the left side, but was high enough (and with a small exposure boost) it turned out swell :) 

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