Here is the link.

I really enjoyed shooting Abe and Beulah’s wedding. Beulah picked a wonderful location, a old Georgia plantation that was converted into a charming bed and breakfast. It was fantabulous. Brides-to-be, be kind to yourselves and your photographers and choose a nice location for the wedding photography. A good photographer can do a lot, but a lackluster location will give even the best shooter trouble in producing the exceptional images you hope for.

The weather was a bit unexpected. Snow accumulated in the area for the first time in about seven years. That weekend seven years ago was when Beulah’s older sister was married. If you ever want to see snow in Georgia, Beulah has three younger sisters; visit the state on the weekend of their weddings.

We shot in snow during the morning. It was frigid, about 25-30. Everyone was really brave and you can hardly tell that it’s so cold. It warmed up and the snow melted during the ceremony and reception. So we shot at the same location sans snow and in much nicer temperatures.

Heidi shot alongside, and did much of the posing.

The handsome groom

The shots insides were taken with off-camera flash. The one immediately below was lit with two lights, one bounced into the ceiling, over my left shoulder and the other was bounced off the wall/ceiling to Abe’s left. All the others were lit with a single light, bouncing off the ceiling over my left shoulder. I have umbrellas but I’ve really liked bouncing off a ceiling, about 45 degrees off the axis of the camera. It easier to set up, tends to be softer, and doesn’t contaminate the background nearly as much as umbrellas tend to. Off-camera light can definitely overdone, but if you’re a wedding shooter and haven’t learned to use it yet, you need to.

This is the very spot of their engagement

This was my sister, Heidi’s, idea. These sweet old school desks worked perfectly.

Gage and Amy were truly delightful to shoot. I really enjoyed myself. We had some great locations to shoot at. First we went down to this epic railroad bridge, then we moved up to a park in town, and finally grabbed some shots at a sweet coffee shop.

Update: Miriam, Joel’s mother, has this to say about the first picture.

“The very first picture shows the Iwashige family crest on the Japanese lantern that hung to the side of the arch through which all the guests walked into the reception hall.

I wrote earlier about how I found the lantern at an estate sale in Hutchinson. While there are many family crest designs similar to this, this is exactly the version that belongs to Hiromi’s family. The coincidence of having found this one in Hutchinson, Kansas is just too amazing. I’m sure the family that first owned the lantern thought of it only as an interesting Asian-looking design. (The wife had spent part of her childhood in China.)”

Heidi patiently served as a voice-activated light stand. One flash through umbrella, camera right.

A bit more tech info on the light here… I simply used an umbrella at around 1/2 power for the main light camera left, and a bare flash at 1/16 or so from the back, as a hair light. The hair light didn’t work exactly the way I was intending, as it clearly doesn’t reach everyone’s hair.

As always, random comments and observations are very welcome. Thanks.