Sunday, September 30, 2007

This bride is my niece, I am proud to say. She obviously is a good sport as well as a fine young woman. Her footwear in this image is her husband's boots. She wanted a shot of herself, adorned in her bridal finery and wearing the massive kickers.

The image was printed, framed, and became a centerpiece on the groom's table at their recent wedding. I shot several versions, but we mutually agreed that the one displayed above was the pick of the litter. The look, perhaps even the smirk, on her face says something to the effect of ". . . these are my husband's boots and if you don't like it, don't look. It's our deal."

The wedding went off without a hitch. Well, maybe one hitch. The hitch.

Better said, there were no untoward events to mar the process.

Everything went smoothly. Well, nearly everything. I used the services of a short-on-experience, but long-on-intelligence assistant. Seems he was experiencing some technical difficulties with his camera (my spare digital Nikon). We had mutually set our cell phones on vibrate before the wedding started and agreed that if he had any problems, to just give me a call.

Somehow, after being jostled around in my pocket, my phone decided to reset itself to the default "loud" setting. So when my young assistant notified me of his problems by calling, every soul in the church turned their eyes in my direction as Mr. Motorola announced the call to the top of its obnoxious capability. I felt like a guy who had just cut a world-class fart while being introduced to the queen of England. My thoughts at the moment were violently out of place in a house of worship.

Fortunately, doing things that are embarrassing comes naturally to me, so I am well practiced in a quick recovery from these untoward moments.

The wedding was a classic practice of American nuptial tradition. Everything you expected to happen did and in a well-ordered fashion.

Prayers a bit long. Members of the congregation giving others the eye as they recognized the face and drew a blank when adding a name . . . . and so-on.

My niece had originally wanted her bridal-dress photos to be in an outdoor environment. Unfortunately, the day before the shoot, central Arkansas experienced a gully washer (AKA turd-floater in less genteel circles). This condition turned potential locations into various levels of, shall we say, quagmire. Quagmires and long-tailed wedding dresses are the antithesis of each other, so we opted to do the shoot inside.

An empty choir loft with attendant electronic devices is a patently undesirable background for a bridal shot. And that is what was originally behind her. I found a stock photo of a stained glass window which was consistent with the colors in the church and added that to the photo behind her. This is not quite as easy as it sounds. Both photos are opaque . . . and the window needed to show through the gauze-like veil.

Electronic chicanery to the rescue. It worked and she loved the results.

Nothing else counts.

N O T E :  
Nikon D200 / Nikon 35-70 f3.5-4.5 G zoom / Quantum T5d flash with QTTL adapter and Quantum Turbo battery / hand-held / Messed with and color corrected — with Photoshop CS3

T H E    W E D D I N G

S T O I C    C L E O

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to see the previous Photo of the Week. . . .