Event Design: Ebb & Flow
Floral Design: Ariel Dearie Flowers
Wedding Dress: Kleinfeld Bridal
Rings: Claire Pettibone For Trumpet And Horn
Catering: On The Marc Events
Makeup: Anjeh Bourne
Hair: Shavaughn Byrd
Invitations And Calligraphy: Written Word Calligraphy
Venue: Eolia Mansion | Chairs: Lillian August
Crystal Candelabra: Connecticut Rental Center
Horse And Carriage: Cedar Knoll Farm
Photography Assistance: Rachel Watkinson
Rentals: Ebb & Flow
Ribbon And Runner: Silk And Willow
Ring Boxes: The Mrs. Box
Wedding Dress #1: Gabriela Cadena
Wedding Dress #2: Rivini
Wedding Dress #3: Zuhair Murad
Wedding Dress #4: Tony Ward
As a film shooter it is no secret that I am a lover of grain. I still remember the first photograph I ever developed myself in the darkroom, a photo of my dog of course, and watching in awe as the grains started to appear like magic on my photo paper in the chemicals. I was so excited I actually yanked the photo out of the developer and rushed it out of the darkroom to get a better look at it, and it quickly turned purple than black since I hadn’t fixed it yet in the chemical bath- whoops! I was 11, you live you learn! Now I have a wonderful lab in California who develops and scans my negatives for me, but I still have that same excitement when I’m downloading scans waiting to see my photos. For my particular aesthetic, color film really shines in natural light. Film loves natural light and my color photos are all very fine grained images shot at 400 ISO. The larger the number on the ISO the more grainy the film will be. During the evening portion I like to shoot some dancing and cake cutting on ilford 3200, which creates this beautiful grain. There’s something wonderfully timeless about shooting ilford 3200 because it easily looks like it could have been shot yesterday or 50+ years ago. The ISO determines how sensitive a film is to light, the lower the ISO the finer the grain and the less sensitive it is, the higher the ISO the more sensitive it is and the rougher the grain. I shot this with a video light at box speed, meaning I metered for the correct ISO, which was 3200 at F2 at 1/60th of a second. If I had been shooting 400 speed film I would have needed to shoot around 1/8 of a second, which would have been too slow and the photo would be blurry. One of the advantages to digital is being able to shoot at higher ISO’s without getting all the grain and that’s why I do shoot more digital at receptions, but I always take at least a few rolls of Ilford 3200 to create these timeless grainy photos.
Is there anything greater than a puppy at a wedding? It combines my two most favorite things to photograph! Including dogs in the wedding day can be tough. Dogs don’t always do what we want them to and seem to always do exactly what we don’t want them to do, like pee on a dress, poop in the aisle or munch on a bouquet. However it can be totally worth it to get a shot like this and include your fur babies in your wedding day. When photographing dogs and babies my number one rule is to get down to their level. I have a few other photos taken from above that I do love too because you can see more of the Frenchie’s tutu, but the “hero” shot for me is this one, where I was laying down on the ground right at face level making kissy sounds and holding a treat above the camera. As I’ve mentioned before, I took a few shots and this one was the winner for me because I loved the soulful look in the Frenchie’s eyes- as if she is reaching out through the photo and making eye contact. The bride and groom are behind them so there is a hint of context even in the detail shot that these are the bride and groom’s dogs and I posed the female dog in front of the bride and the male in front of the groom. Also a little tip to give to you clients- buy a cute leash/collar or use a ribbon as the leash on the wedding day. Nothing ruins a beautiful composition like a bright red frayed rope leash in the background!