The "BIG HONKING CAKE" Wedding

elsaspet · Sep 22, 2007

I couldn't get over the bride's cake. When the Country Club People went to remove the top, and cut the rest for guests, they had to get a ladder. NO kidding!!!! LOL.

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elsaspet · Sep 22, 2007

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elsaspet · Sep 22, 2007

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elsaspet · Sep 22, 2007

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elsaspet · Sep 22, 2007

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AprilRamone · Sep 22, 2007

You're right! That cake was gorgeous though

I ADORE #14! You always get such great dancing shots. Any tips on how you get them? Do you get right in there with the dancers?
At my last wedding I tried this a bit more rather than just taking them from the sides of the dance floor and I think they turned out better than usual (we'll see, I haven't actually gotten a chance to edit them yet).
But, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how you get your dance shots.
Your exterior building shots are gorgeous as well

elsaspet · Sep 22, 2007

Hi April,
Thanks for the kind words!

Yeah, I always get right in there when they are dancing.
When it's first/last or father-daughter/mother-son, I circle the parimiter, staying to the side they are facing. When I see something about to happen, a sweet look, a dip, or something, I'll pop in close (about 2-4 ft), get the shot, and then get back to the parimetar and start circling again.
It's sounds obtrusive, but it's really not. They tell me later that they never even saw me doing it.

When everyone is dancing, I go ight into the center of the whole glob of them, and start turning in tight circles. That way I can shoot everyone from pretty much one spot.

You know how the girls like to get into little huddles you can't get into? This is where the #14 shot technique comes from. It takes some practices, but makes for funny photos:
Hold you camera up as far as your arm can reach out (I even stand on my tip toes) and pre meter your flash on a subject. You can't see through the viewfinder obviously, so just watch for that red preflash to hit their face, and fire off your shot.
Does that make sense? It's a hard one to explain.

Oh, and one more thing. I shoot dancing (and most of my shots) with my flash at full power but turned ALL THE WAY AROUND BACKWARDS. That's how I get that light.

Thanks Again!
Cindy

Sideburns · Sep 22, 2007

On number 17....I have a picture just like that from a wedding I just came back from. It's not as good quality, but it seems all little boys want to be little b-boys at weddings...lol

cupidcutie4u · Sep 22, 2007

I love love 10! beautiful, perfect sky and the grass is so pretty. And the grandma dancing! great job. I also love the bridesmaid dresses. Looks like they were rich! What kind of car were they driving at the end?? I would love to see some of your posed shots! great job!!!

cupidcutie4u · Sep 22, 2007

I know its gonna be some tough narrowing them down ! That cake looks yummy. did you get any of it??? Anyway I see that yall put that black vignette around the pictures, I would love to do that. All i have is photoshop elements 4.

elsaspet · Sep 22, 2007

cupidcutie4u said:
I love love 10! beautiful, perfect sky and the grass is so pretty. And the grandma dancing! great job. I also love the bridesmaid dresses. Looks like they were rich! What kind of car were they driving at the end?? I would love to see some of your posed shots! great job!!!

Hi Cupidcutie! Thank you so much for the kind words! Yeah, I think they had a few bucks. The car they drove was a Porshe Convertable. (not sure what model).
I don't always do a ton of posed shots unfortunately as I'm mainly a pj shooter at weddings. However, I had them pose for #10.
Thank you again, and good to see you in our group here!

elsaspet · Sep 22, 2007

cupidcutie4u said:
I know its gonna be some tough narrowing them down ! That cake looks yummy. did you get any of it??? Anyway I see that yall put that black vignette around the pictures, I would love to do that. All i have is photoshop elements 4.

Hi Again.
The original take on this was 32Gig (not sure how many photos, but thousands). I cut it down to 800 fully reworked photos.

I think you should be able to do that with your version of photoshop. All a vignette really is, is a "burn". Do you have a burn tool? It looks like a little hand scratching something. If you have that, I can walk you through how to do it.

No, unfortunately we were too busy for the yummy cakes, but we have it in our contracts that they have to feed us what they eat, so I did get some great food! It's almost worth going to these things just for the food!

wolfepakt · Sep 22, 2007

I about fell out of my chair with #14 ! I love happy older people!

JimmyJaceyMom · Sep 22, 2007

Once again, very nice job! I also have to go with everyone else and comment on number 14 but I LOVE number 18. And I love in 17 not only the moment you caught but the hand pointing at the kid. Great shot.