Wedding at an Opera House (Aug. 2, 2008)

Shima

My "big sister" in my sorority from undergrad got married on August 2nd, so it was really exciting to be able to photograph her wedding. I swore at some times she looked like a fashion model or something, I'm really happy w/ the way her shots turned out

1. My favorite shot of her


2. My wedding photography mentor had this date open so she tagged along and threw them in this cool positioning:


3. She also saw the floor of the stage and knew we had to put the bride on it for some neat shots (I left the odd color cast on purpose):


4. From their first dance:


5. Running out of the opera house to a bunch of bubbles awaiting them


6. I like how she's pulling him into her in this shot:


7. This was just hilarious, the wind caught her super long veil and threw it straight up!


8. Mmm strawberry cake


9. This is actually a shot of one of the bridesmaids getting her nails done pre-ceremony, I really like it:


10. The bride and her mother:


11. Everyone getting ready in the mirror:


12. And lastly, just before the kiss:

heatherfeather

These are great, Shima. I love the first one! And great catch on the veil shot! #12 is one of those winners too!
Actually I liked all of them! Way to go!
I bet the B & G are quite happy!
This is a set to be proud of!

(can you tell I like them? 6 out of 7 sentances end with "!" ! )

Scott_Quier

These are some really wonderful shots! My faves:

#1 - no question this is very nice. Do you have one where the eyes are looking in the direction of the camera?

#4 - There's a calmness, serenity going on here that I can almost feel. Nice capture of that feeling.

#7 - Just because it's fun. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good - there's no way you could have planned that!

#10 - This touches me, maybe because I'm just an old romantic.

Something to think about - the shadows in #6 - not so flattering. If you are going to shoot with on-camera flash, I would recommend you think about a camera rotating bracket to help avoid this kind of shadow.

All in all - this is a very well executed effort.

jung

Great shots!

jeffreaux2

These are awesome! I really am digging the style of her dress. Overall, I like the warmth and contrast of these. Bet they are super pleased with them!

nicoleshilliday

Wow. What a stunning bride! I love her style.

Now...on to the pictures...

Love #1 and 2. I agree with Scott and would have liked to see her eyes looking at the camera, but it works either way.

#7 is great! what a veil!

#6- i'm not a color wiz, actually am learning much more from reading posts on this site, but they seem a little off in this one. Maybe its a green wall behind them that is tricking my eye. IMO.

And yes, that cake looks super yummy (says the 8 month pregnant girl!)

Great Job!

bham

I love #1. I actually try and do a few at every wedding with the bride purposely not looking at the camera. Gives it more of a fashion photo feel, maybe something you would see in a magazine. Not usually something the bride is going to put in her wedding album, but something that I usually will add to my example gallery. With so many photos of the bride looking at the camera its nice to break up that with something different.

#2 Nice idea and pose, but watch the reflections. You have a groomsmen in door just to the right of the groom. You could actually probably getting away with just making the windows dark like they all had no reflection. Probably easier than trying to just remove him.

Really nice work. Its always fun doing a wedding of people you know, but there also is the addition pressure that you don't want to mess up, because then everybody you know will surely find out. I have done many weddings of fraternity brothers and luckily (knock on wood) all of them went well.

Agnieszka

Oh! Neat shots Shima!!! Boy, my favorites would be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - haha!

I LOOOOOVE #2, #3 is also very cool. I almost get a feeling it wants to have a vignette, so the eye focuses even more on her ...

Very cool shots!

Swartzy

#2 Rocks rocks rocks rocks.......Love it! Nice series....whoohoo..fun stuff!

urbanaries

Boy I am LOVING all these great wedding posts!!! I absolutely love the bride's style and how you interpreted it. #2 is great, the curved brick she's leaning on made me think for a minute it was shot with a fisheye! Bham made a good suggestion about blacking out the reflections...I did that in a shot last week and it really made the image pop.

I love the light and her eyes in #1. did you use some sort of softbox or off camera flash above her head in that one?

These are all SO great, and work wonderfully together as a series. Not a one is the least bit "flat" when it comes to emotion or energy. The exit shot is my absolute fave. I don't know how you lit this but it has such a high end quality to it....just gorgeous. The only thing that could improve it is maybe a lower shooting angle and/or a horizontal orientation to get more of the scene in the shot. But that's just me thinking out loud. It's amazing. I bet it looks great BIG!!!!

The veil shot is wonderful....I know it was probably spur of the moment, but getting a different angle so you could a. get the whole veil in and b. maybe against a less cluttered background (the brick wall maybe?) would turn this from a great pj snapshot in a work of art. Just a thought!

I would be thrilled to have these in my portfolio. Well done, Shima!!!

Shima

Thanks for all the awesome comments everyone!

To answer a few questions - no I don't have a version of #1 with her looking at the camera, we (my photographer friend / mentor who shot with me that day) and I were purposely going for the more "fashion" look of the shot in that one.
EDIT to answer last post that appeared as I was writing this one --- no flash used, the beauty of the shot is she's looking into the lighting in the room, hence the awesome sparkle in her eye. It's funny, when I watch America's Next Top Model on TV they always talk about how great it is when a model knows how to work w/ the light... and this shot made me think of that

About the groomsmen in the reflection of #2 - WOW I hadn't even noticed that until it was pointed out. I felt like I was playing where's waldo when I was told to look for it.

Anyhoo, thanks again, I'm loving the awesome feedback because I really enjoyed shooting this wedding and have been quite happy w/ the results myself!