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Our DC trip round 2 ...
In between the revolving door of monument hopping, we managed to work in a bit of personal travel photography. We heard there was some sort of famous house on Pennsylvania Ave.. so we decided to head in that direction straight away. |
| Fortunately, our hotel was located ON Pennsylvania Ave, so we didn't have to go too far. UNfortunately, we are directionally challenged and turned the wrong way right out of the gate. |
| On the way out of the hotel, we snagged a few shots of the cherry blossom trees. We actually missed the blooming period by about two weeks...but it was close enough that we were able to find a few stragglers still holding on. |
| This was the lobby of our hotel, The Willard. It is ranked as one of the top 5 hotels in all of Washington, DC. Oh yeah -- it's an Intercontinental hotel... so who thinks my hotel rewards points craze is funny now? Yeah. That's what I thought! :-) |
| When we were busily walking in the wrong direction, we came across the National Theatre. This led to some excited utterances about theatre tickets, which led to us seeing Chicago that same evening. I knew we should have gone the other direction! Although, I admit the show - starring John O'Hurley (Seinfeld, Dancing with the Stars) as Billy and Charlotte d’Amboise (Tony award winner, Chicago on Broadway) as Roxi - was superb. |
| We found that we got some of our favorite images by ignoring the tour guide and NOT going right to the "Kodak Picture Spot". I actually preferred our view walking to the designated picture spot. |
| The Lincoln Memorial. Meg's daytime shot - as she was wearing new, uncomfortable shoes (which I told her not to do, thank you very much) and we had been walking for hours... she sent me up to see the big guy. |
| Some serious looking statues. Neither of us can remember where this was - all we know for certain is that it was taken from a moving trolley car. |
| The US Supreme Court Building via trolley. |
| Meg wanted to see the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - which we agreed neither of us planned nearly enough time for. Next time.... |
| I get a little rough looking if I skip breakfast. |
| The Jefferson Memorial. We just so happened to visit on Jefferson's birthday which led to crazy over-crowding. LOTS of school groups. So again...we skipped the Kodak Picture Spot & created our own little vantage point. |
| Turns out, we had a great nighttime view of the Washington Monument when we spun around. The shot on the right was snagged during Jackie & Tom's engagement session. |
| Earlier in the post you'll remember I made the trek up to see President Lincoln in the afternoon. For the night time tour, it was Meg's turn to take the hike. I'll concede the point...she won this one, hands down. |
| The Iwo Jima monument was amazing to see as a photographer... the scene on the right is a 3d replica of what is arguably the most significant & famous wartime photograph of all time. |
| The nighttime images were all taken at night as part of the Monuments by Moonlight tour through On Board Tours, which we would highly recommend. (We did the Old Town Trolley Tours during the day and quickly forfeited our tickets for seeing the capitol by foot, as the waits were LONG and the buses overcrowded.) I will say that for us, the photo tours moved a little too slowly. We are accustomed to walking in to situations and having to 'get the shot' pretty quickly - so we tended to have lots of down time to walk around while we waited for the rest of the bus to catch up. |
| The Washington Memorial by Moonlight. |
| According to our tour guide, the World War Two Memorial is one of the newer monuments in the city that was just recently completed. |
| Wow...we REALLY turned the wrong way... there's that house we were looking for! It only took us 12 hours of find it. We actually had to settle for the rear view as the Easter Egg Roll had the front lawn on lock down. |
Things we didn't photograph but were major highlights during our trip:
- Private walking tour of The Pentagon with our groom/tour guide Tom (a very cool guy, indeed)
- Lunch with Tom & friends at Paparazzi - we thought the name was fitting for us, no?
- The Holocaust Museum (powerful stuff - but anything I might say here will just sound trite... check it out if you get the chance)
- Sushi with Jackie & Tom
- Cuban meets Mexican with my best friend Tim & his new bride Maria
- Meg falling on her face (and almost breaking her ankle) when she fell in a hole in the ground during the engagement session ...
and really, I'm not mean to want pictures or video of this - even Meg was laughing
- and the best bed I've ever slept in featuring crisp, cool, ironed sheets
And yes...this really is what we did in between monuments in all that down time. |
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Sorry for the delay on this post guys - we've had a difficult time finding any form of reliable internet access since we landed in Tortola - but as you can see, I've managed to outlast the spotty service and make it work just long enough to share this beautiful wedding. I'm debuting our new blog gallery/slideshow feature for you to enjoy even more of this picture perfect day. As we're featuring over 100 images here, I figured why not go ahead and treat this like our first 100 from 1 series on the new blog? For those not in the know, we started our 100:1 series back on our old blog a little over two years ago, with the idea that we would take a minute to offer some commentary about how we approach a wedding as photographers and give y'all a little insight into our minds as we shoot.
New gallery feature plus a 100:1 - all kinds of goodness for you today!
Jill + Ben - I hope you think it was worth the wait! |
Jill + Ben
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Wedding
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May 16, 2009
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Watercolor
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| Probably the most fun I've ever had photographing a dress - roaming all over a gorgeous home, looking for ways to incorporate the surroundings... a nice way to kick off the day. |
| Whenever I photograph details, I try to offer a backdrop that compliments the day - or at least that particular portion of the day. With a house so lovely, there were limitless opportunities for picture taking. The decision, then, became WHICH elements to incorporate. Since this was a destination beach wedding, I wanted to look for colors and textures that reflected that spirit. Blues, sea foam greens, sandy browns and tans... and a coral-shaped candlestick holder were all perfect pairings to compliment our theme. |
| Bridal prep coverage is often centered around showing the beauty (and almost ceremonial dressing) of the bride... |
| Groom prep coverage follows along the same lines, but somehow usually ends up just a little humorous... |
| I think the best portraits incorporate great light... |
| or if you get really lucky... |
| I could devote a whole post to their first sight - so sweet. Just be sure to watch it unfold in their blog gallery up top... |
| For me, the best part of being a wedding photographer is showing our clients all the things they didn't get to see on their wedding day; the little glances, the funny faces, the tear from an unexpected crier, or the overwhelming joy and love from two mothers - one gaining a daughter and the other so proud of the woman her daughter has become. |
| I adore this glance from Ben - realizing he was getting mobbed by fans/paparazzi from all sides :) |
| When we arrived at the beach about 15 minutes prior to the ceremony, the skies overhead were rather promising... |
| I've left these two as-shot, but the concept here was to isolate Jill and her father against a vast expanse of blue. In post when designing an album or fulfilling a print order, I would likely create more sky and 'erase' any of the distracting elements - such as the sliver of roof line you can see poking out. |
| Blogstalkers and past clients will notice that this is a shot I go for a lot. When photographing a processional we have to make decisions about where to stand and who to watch. I don't want to be running all over the place during your walk down the aisle, it's your moment - not mine. So Charles and I both try to look for angles that will give us the maximum amount of coverage. From my vantage point, I was able to capture Jill's entrance AND the groom's reaction. Charles shoots for the same multi-purpose angle, but we make sure to offer different perspectives of the same moment - BONUS for having two (or more) photographers! |
| Jill paused, struggling to hold back tears, and was able to get through their vows without any mascara mishaps... |
| Luckily her new father-in-law didn't have to worry about makeup ;) |
| I've said it before, but I'll say it again - I just adore the way a smitten man looks at his new bride... |
| Congratulations, Newlyweds! |
| Less than four minutes after recessing up the aisle the skies broke loose and everyone fled to escape the rain - but Jill + Ben were troopers and allowed us to snag a few shots like this, even as the rain came down. |
| We found cover under the front porch for a few more couple portraits... one of my favorite parts of the day - just knowing that these photographs will be cherished by future generations and hung on the walls of the home that our newly married friends will build together.... (I know, I'm a complete sap!) |
| These types of shots are about setting the scene ... so that someone who wasn't there can look at the pictures and feel like they were - because they have seen the 'big picture' plus the hundreds of little pictures that show the heart of the day. |
| I love formal dances and am always so disappointed when people forgo this tradition... pictures like these easily illustrate why the dances are another highlight of my day. |
| For our photographer friends out there, you might notice a shift in our work that takes place somewhere during the reception - typically right after dinner - where Charles and I both swap out our telephoto lenses for wide angles and get right in the mix of things. To me, wide angles offer a real sense of energy to the work - where you can get yourself right up against the moments. |
| Again just my opinion here, but I think this shot wouldn't have worked as well with a telephoto trained only on the bride - you would be seeing part of the story, sure - but this lens, thisclose to the action allows the viewer to feel like part of the circle. |
| And a note to my brides - beware of 'exits' where you don't offer your intoxicated friends something to toss - you just might get a few cups hurled in your direction! ;) |
| Thumbs up to a wonderful wedding! Thank you for inviting us to capture such a beautiful day. |
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