What Makes A Princess: Turlock Wedding Photography

Posted by Melody

They say that every girl dreams of feeling like a princess on her wedding day – from the fairy-tale gown all the way to the breathless prince waiting for them at the end of the aisle. While that may be true, I've always been one of the outliers. This is one gal who never had such dreams. I was too busy building a Huckleberry Finn raft out of my mom's prized dresser drawers, or traipsing along hillsides lost in imaginary worlds while other girls dreamt of these wedding fantasies. Frankly, I didn’t get it. 

It wasn’t until this last wedding that I finally “got” it.

When I came in, Darlene was having her hair done. The transformation was underway, but it was the same external changes that I see on most weekends. I still just saw a smiling bride.

When her makeup was done, she looked amazing, but she still looked like a lovely woman on her wedding day.

It wasn't until she donned her gown that the real transformation began. 

She pulled the dress on, shimmied it in the right places, and looked herself over in the mirror. That's when I caught the reflection of her eyes. Something welled up inside of her. Anticipation rippled over everyone in the room. Even a passerby, a female member of the country club, stopped to gush over how radiant Darlene was. Then Brandi, Blake's sister, started to cry, then Blake's mom, and that in turn sparked a memory of my own wedding day and I was reliving it all over again too. 

From that moment on the transformation was complete. She was a princess, not just in appearance, but also in presence. She stole Blake's breath away when she emerged from the car at the end of the aisle. Whispers of her beauty floated through the audience. And I knew what she was feeling because I'd felt it myself.

Suddenly it made sense to me: it is that feeling of being that special to someone else that makes you a princess. It's not the pomp and faire; it's the feeling inside. I may not have dreamt about it when I was young, but that was probably because I'd never seen any elaborate weddings. In the end, though, I now recognize that we all have that dream within us to be so loved, so special to someone for whom you feel the same.

 Congratulations, Darlene and Blake, for sharing that dream and making it a reality.

Darlene's escort was her mother, and she made quite the lovely escort at that.

The last pair down the eisle before Darlene made her entrance.

Sometimes you have to sneak up on the moms.

We love the tension in this shot.

Then it was off in some golf carts to find some scenery.

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Next up: Engagement in Old Sac.

Calm in the Eye of the Storm: Tahoe Wedding Photography

Posted by David

A couple of weeks back I was rushing around town trying to get snow chains, picking up dry cleaning, and prepping gear because the next day we were going to make the trek to Lake Tahoe for Julia and Crit's wedding. While the snow storm that had been forecasted all week didn't blow in, a storm of sorts blew into Julia's room as she got ready for the ceremony. 

The out of town wedding brought in friends and family from all over, and those without a place to stay made their way up to Julia's room. People shuffled in and out. Some changed into their wedding attire, the elders rested, some just stopped by to say hi. It was the perfect recipe for a bridezilla moment (heck, I almost had one myself). 

Julia embodied serenity. 

I note this because the photographs you're about to see don't tell the story of shifting groups of people stopping by; instead, they reflect Julia as she was on the day of her wedding. In this age of ambient light, literalism, where so many are selling "photo-journalism" and showing the day "as it happened," I think we've lost sight of photography in its truest of forms: art. As artists, it's our duty to interpret a scene, not record it.

Maybe her shoes had something to do with why she stayed so calm.

No, I did not break into the adjacent room to capture this frame. This is a double reflection. The room across the way is reflecting Lake Tahoe and the inside of the window we're looking out of is reflecting Julia.

Window light is amazing at enhancing beauty.

Yes, folks, that's right. Sis did the makeup and hair, and then turned around to be a beautiful maid of honor.

Melody always catches the best skipped over details. I think that at the time of this shot a guest was trying to get a shot of them walking together. I can picture the other shot in my head, but this one, I feel, conveys so much more.

A reflection in the elevator ceiling.

This was yet another wedding where we had very little time to get portraits. I also wasn't carrying my normal portrait arsenal. Instead we made due with a small softbox that I had tucked away in my bag of tricks and the seat out in front of the elevator.

Nikki and Greg: Linden CA Wedding Photography

Posted by David
On February 26th, of 2011 the clouds stopped their unending downpour much to the chagrin of weathermen across the state who were calling for more and more rain. If you were wondering why, it was because of the beautiful wedding of Nikki and Greg.

We started out in Linden, my home town, where the clouds dipped in and out of sunlight. They filtered the light just enough to balance the church with the sky above. No photoshop or lighting trickery here, just a pure moment. On any other day the sun would have been so harsh that the sky would have gone practically white in the background due to overexposure.

As I always do during the hair and makeup portion of the day, I stole away the dress for some detail shots out in the family orchard which also just happened to be blossoming.

Then it was off to the church where the rest of the preparations were done. Greg, being the sneaky guy that he is, changed getting ready locations on me at the last minute so that he could avoid having me take his getting ready pictures. Maybe it was because he felt that all of the attention should be on his beautiful bride, or maybe he just didn't want pictures of himself looking scrubby.

We paused Nikki just long enough to get a few shots in front of a window. To everyone else it probably looked rather plain, but when you set your camera just right and let that light come streaming in, its stature adds immensely to the scene.

While we definitely got shots of the first kiss, I felt that this shot carried with it so much more power. The first kiss is usually done on cue, this is a real moment.

The rest of the wedding was very low key. No dancing, just friends and family all sitting around, having a bite to eat, a good laugh and maybe a drink or two. It followed suit with the sense of family that these two foster. As such we used very little flash during this time. Sometimes you want colors to pop, other times you want expressions to reign supreme.

A photographer of great inspiration to me, Joe Mc Nally, often talks about the pressure involved with corporate headshots when he does speaking engagements. You have 10 minutes with your subject. They come in, rushed with the work that Fortune 500 CEOs often deal with, begrudgingly pose and and then they're gone. In that brief window you better have gotten THE shot. At this wedding I couldn't help feeling a bit like a photographer working with a corporate CEO. Greg, in the same way he didn't want his getting ready pictures done, didn't want to take time from the day to go out and take a few bridal portraits of just the two of them. I think we had less than 10 minutes with these two. It was freezing, and we were only able to get two poses in. Still, in that time Melody was able to work up an ambient light solution in front of the light pole and I was able to produce a two light solution in front of the fountain. All in all, I'm very happy with what we got.

And we close with Wayne giving his son Greg some parting wisdom. I'm sure that those who were at the wedding will look on this last frame and chuckle. Congratulations to you, Nikki and Greg. You were already a family going into this, but now we've got the pictures to prove it.

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Next up: A last minute Tahoe wedding!