Wedding Photography: Shannon & Jason

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Late summer wedding photography.  Photography session was scheduled at 2:30 but things got little delayed as usual wedding day.   I loved the inside of the academy chapel located in downtown Vancouver, Wa.   We used just one Elinchrom Quadra with an white shoot though umbrella and head was plugged in B socket.  It was plenty of power and recycle time was just immediate.  

I wanted to shoot quick outside the church shot.  Here, as you can see, it was shot bright sunny day.  It was really hard to over power the sun with 400w Elinchrom Quadra.  I just wanted to fill any shadow on the good looking subjects.  Lighting was on full power on camera right.  
I wasn't able to shoot without flash because of harsh shadow (it was very bright sunny day).  Quadra on camera right on almost full power.  A gold reflector would have been nice as long as they could see me without closing eyes  .
some candid shots before the ceremony


and after the ceremony
on the way to the reception, we decided to stop by waterfront.  I shot this with natural light.  My original shot was backlit pretty bad and I wasn't able to see subject.  I shot the image so that background was little over exposed yet the subject was underexposed.  I post processed the raw image in Lightroom and it was easy to do since I shoot everything Raw.  

I shot this with Elinchrom Quadra on camera left.  Little harsh but I think be able to shoot at F16 for small to medium size group on a very sunny day is pretty impressive.  I've never seen any wedding photographer bring studio lighting gear to shoot outdoor portrait on a busy wedding day.  Elinchrom Quadra is small and light enough to bring all day and my assistant, David is so much happier as well.

Dance with father picture.  I used a fisheye lens to capture dramatic moment.  Back of the stage, I placed two Nikon SB 26s and triggered via pocket wizard.  They are gelled (CTO) to match with ambient light. 

Inside the ball room was just totally dark.  
David backlighted using Quadra and I bounced the light using the back wall.  
We used a LED modeling light of Elinchrom Quadra with 1/2 CTO gel. White balance was tricky since the office building on the back was fluorescent and mixed with incandescent light. 
 Fisheye, ISO 3200, shutter speed at 1/20.  I love 5D Mark II 

Wedding Photography: Jamie & Larry

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Jamie and Larry wanted to do formal portrait session at high noon. David (my assistant) and I knew that we had to bring high power strobes to overpower the bright sun. With new pocket wizard, my 5D Mark II can now sync at 1/400 sec no problem. A 1600 Alienbee strobed was powered by Vegabond. My strobe was at F16 and camera left. Stones, trees, water, railway, bridge and four good looking guys.
We found old building and it was in shade. It was a lot easier to do and I used 70-200 2.8 and shot wide open.
Group portrait was done in shade as well. This time, we used an umbrella to soften the light. Umbrella is great for large groups and it's small and inexpensive as well. I used telephoto lens to compress the background. Camera was 1D Mark III and sync speed was 1/320 sec. With 1D Mark III, I can sync at 1/500 sec.
Last image was shot under the gazebo. I started with natural lighting. Very soft lighting but little flat on my opinion. I added a background light behind the couple. Background light was 580 EXII and triggered by pocket wizard mini. I like to use background light for bride portrait since it lid up the veil and hair nicely. It also separates the background.

I still have to edit 600 + pictures for Jamie and Larry those are just some of my picks (August is busiest month for me).
I will be photographing Portland Winterhawks player headshots and I will post some of their pictures.

Pocket Wizard MiniTT1 & FlexTT5

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We just got Pocket Wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT5 today. Mini TT1 is a lot smaller than I thought. I can sync at 1/500 with Mini TT1 and Plus II (I am using MK3 with this). I thought I had to buy Mini TT1 & Flex TT5 to get hyper sync. This is big for me since I am planning to shoot strobed indoor sports as well as group shots this summer. Flex TT5 is bigger and heavier. With MiniTT1 & Flex TT5, I now can use shutter speed up to 1/8000 sec. Both Mini & Flex are compatible with Plus IIs.
This shot, I used Pocket wizard Mini TT1 & Flex TT5 (my shutter speed was at 1/640 sec at F2.8). 580 EXII was on my left. Being able to shoot at high shutter speed is cool and I will be using this a lot this summer weddings / seniors etc.

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