Look, I Shot A Wedding!!

sm4him

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Well, no, not really. I just let temptation get the best of me and took a few pictures AT a wedding.

My oldest niece got married this past weekend; the ceremony was outdoors, at a beautiful, remote little spot called Max Patch near the TN/NC border. In fact, the cabin where they got married was in TN, but the road and other side of the street from the cabin is in NC. Oh, and when I say "remote" what I actually mean is that if you attempt to get there in a vehicle as mundane as say, a Dodge Caravan, you WILL begin to wonder if you'll survive the experience. We were, of course, in a Dodge Caravan. :D
The whole trip took not quite 2.5 hours; one hour to get into NC from Knoxville, and the other 1.5 hours to drive the remaining 7 miles or so. LOL. (That's an exaggeration, but not MUCH of one).

My niece had a "photographer," such as he was. He's a college student, a friend of my youngest son's, and I know he was trying hard. He had a D5100, the kit lens, and some sort of older 50mm lens, not sure what it was. No flash, and no plan. It was the second wedding he'd ever shot. He missed a LOT of shots, but on the other hand, my niece's wedding was small and EXTREMELY laid-back, and he was pretty much just what she wanted, so that was cool with me. I tried very, very hard not to interfere. In fact, I talked to Forest (the photog) beforehand before even deciding whether to get my camera out of the car or not. He was happy for my sister and I to take some pictures, so I did.

But, in order to defer to him as THE photographer, I stayed in one spot through the entire ceremony, didn't use flash or do anything that could even potentially have interfered with his shots--just grabbed a few things here and there that I knew he wasn't in position to get.

So, without further ado:
1. Here Comes The Bride
Here Comes The Bride by sm4him, on Flickr
My niece had two "dads" to escort her. The guy on the right, in the blue shirt is her father, the youngest of my three brothers. The guy on the left is her "Uncle Dad," my middle brother--my niece had some struggles in her early teen years related to living with her inattentive dad and bipolar mother, so she came to live with my middle brother and his wife (who was a social worker). She managed to grow into a beautiful young woman, both inside and out, largely due to their influence. My sister-in-law passed away two years ago. In her memory, my niece wore her wedding dress, and "Uncle Dad" wore the wedding shirt he'd worn when he married my sister-in-law.

2. Ring Exchange. The "preacher" (a family friend who is ordained) sort of forgot this part, and declared them married--then the maid of honor nudged him and reminded him about the little matter of the rings.
Ring Exchange by sm4him, on Flickr

3. Another good friend, who is a master dulcimer player. I really SHOULD have used flash on this, as it was before the ceremony and the real photographer was nowhere around at the time. Ah well.
Dulcimer Master by sm4him, on Flickr

4. Kiss The Bride!
Kiss The Bride by sm4him, on Flickr

5. Bridesmaid. This particular bridesmaid is also my youngest son's girlfriend.
Bridesmaid by sm4him, on Flickr

6. And just for fun: one of my other nieces and my 88-year-old mother. Yes, I know her white hair is pretty much completely blown out. So sue me. :D
Granny & Elena by sm4him, on Flickr

As always, C&C, general comments and witty banter serve to make me feel loved, or at least paid attention to.
 
Not too shabby! Pretty good background control, on these. I especially like the long focal length shots in which the background is just totally sublimated and has lotsa' bokeh discs!
 
I think you did very well Sharon; especially given your self-imposed constraints. A little blown hair or deep shadow is minor. After all, it's not like this are going on billboards or anything! :345: I really like the bride's maid shot, but I think it might worth touching up her arms where the sun's hitting the hair on them and making her look like a relative of Robbin's!
 
Thats the best way to get into wedding photography, either from a family wedding, or a extremely small laid back one. (hired one)

You did a nice job, for not being the main photog. I really like 6, you caught the emotion timelessly.
 
Did you notice that your grandma's hair was .. umm .. ummm .. well .. never mind. :)

I think you did a great job considered you stayed out of the way. And you probably filled in nicely on the shots the "photog" didn't get. Great Job :bouncingsmileys:
 
Thanks, all!

Did you notice that your grandma's hair was .. umm .. ummm .. well .. never mind. :)

I think you did a great job considered you stayed out of the way. And you probably filled in nicely on the shots the "photog" didn't get. Great Job :bouncingsmileys:

Is what??? Thinning? She's VERY sensitive about that you know…
Actually, THAT's why I blew it out, so it'd be less noticeable just how thin her hair is. Yeah, yeah, THAT's the ticket!! I did it on PURPOSE! :biglaugh:

I'll really be interested to see exactly what the "real" photographer did get. I really felt bad for him because he definitely did NOT know how to take control. There were WAY too many people snapping cell phone and iPad pictures beside him during the group photos.
 
I think you did very well Sharon; especially given your self-imposed constraints. A little blown hair or deep shadow is minor. After all, it's not like this are going on billboards or anything! :345: I really like the bride's maid shot, but I think it might worth touching up her arms where the sun's hitting the hair on them and making her look like a relative of Robbin's!

Thanks, John. Excellent point about the hairy arms; I thought about that while I was processing, but was also trying to get them done and posted in extremely short order the next morning, before heading to a bridal brunch, reception and after party, because I knew if I didn't, it would be this evening before I'd get to them. So I may go back now and work on a few of them a little more. However, I'll admit, since I don't do a lot of portrait work, I'm not entirely certain what the best method IS for touching that kind of thing up. Should I just try to clone them out? Seems like that would take forever!
 
Thats the best way to get into wedding photography, either from a family wedding, or a extremely small laid back one. (hired one)

You did a nice job, for not being the main photog. I really like 6, you caught the emotion timelessly.

Thanks, Sean! (nice name, by the way. My youngest (age 21) is named Sean!)
I really have very little interest in getting into wedding photography, but I'll admit I did kind of want to use this opportunity to just experiment with it a little. I could see myself, eventually, maybe doing a few extremely low-key, laid-back weddings, where there's not a whole lot of details to consider and the expectations are pretty low--but I would stress way, way too much about it to be a good wedding photographer!
 
These are very very nice Sharon. I *love* the preacher's face in the kiss the bride shot. I'm sure your niece and her husband will be extremely happy with these. Well done!
 
Thanks, John. Excellent point about the hairy arms; I thought about that while I was processing, but was also trying to get them done and posted in extremely short order the next morning, before heading to a bridal brunch, reception and after party, because I knew if I didn't, it would be this evening before I'd get to them. So I may go back now and work on a few of them a little more. However, I'll admit, since I don't do a lot of portrait work, I'm not entirely certain what the best method IS for touching that kind of thing up. Should I just try to clone them out? Seems like that would take forever!
That's probably all I would do; size a clone brush so that's 1-2 pixels "larger" than the hair, sample the area immediate beside that and just trace the arm; shouldn't take more than 1-2 minutes.
 
I think you did very well Sharon; especially given your self-imposed constraints. A little blown hair or deep shadow is minor. After all, it's not like this are going on billboards or anything! :345: I really like the bride's maid shot, but I think it might worth touching up her arms where the sun's hitting the hair on them and making her look like a relative of Robbin's!

Okay, how is this less hirsute version?
Bridesmaid, revised by sm4him, on Flickr

It did take me quite a while, mostly because I'm such a perfectionist that once I start nitpicking, I just can't stop. I started trying to get every stray hair no matter how small from her arms, then I started on the frayed edges of her dress--but I finally gave out before I started on the mohawk!
 
don't take me too seriously because this is not calibrated monitor, but her face looks too green to me, and look at her right armpit also
 
don't take me too seriously because this is not calibrated monitor, but her face looks too green to me, and look at her right armpit also

She could well be too green; I have trouble, with my vision, assessing wb correctly. I'll see what others say about that and then recheck it, maybe.

As far as her right armpit--that's tricky. It looks like that because she has very dark hair, and she doesn't shave her armpits. She's pretty outspoken about people who have a problem with the "unshaven woman" look, so I did not touch that area up, figuring she would be offended to think I tried to minimize the hairy armpit look.
 
As far as her right armpit--that's tricky. It looks like that because she has very dark hair, and she doesn't shave her armpits. She's pretty outspoken about people who have a problem with the "unshaven woman" look, so I did not touch that area up, figuring she would be offended to think I tried to minimize the hairy armpit look.
ok... what?

she's the first girl I've ever seen not doing that....
 

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