M & J - Estes Park Wedding Photography

I've had the pleasure of photographing many weddings with Karina Heneghan this year, but M & J's wedding at Della Terra Mountain Chateau in Estes Park, CO was one of our favorites.  The location and light were beautiful, the details were simple but elegant and the evening was perfect.  Here's what I saw:

M & J - Estes Park Wedding Photography

I was fortunate enough to escape the Denver heat in July and head up into the mountains to help Karina Heneghan photograph a wedding at Wild Basin Lodge in Estes Park, CO.

Sneak Peek Week - M & J's Wedding

Here's a photo from M & J's wedding in Estes Park, CO.  Not the same M & J as yesterday, but just as beautiful!

Sneak Peek Week - M &J's Wedding

Here's a teaser from M & J's wedding in Estes Park, CO.  More to come...

Jill and Mike's Wedding - Estes Park, CO

I remember sitting over at a friend's house on a warm summer evening in 2009.  Jill was engaged and was starting to plan her wedding.  Wine was discussed and plans were made to go dress shopping.  Then she turned to me and asked if I'd photograph her wedding.  When I told her I had never photographed a wedding and wasn't sure if it was something I wanted to do, she reassured me by telling me that it would be a very laid back wedding, that it was going to take place in a big field and the guests would all be sitting on blankets.  She also said that she had a few other friends who were going to be taking photos as well, so I wouldn't be the only photographer.  To me, that sounded like a pretty good deal, so I said I'd do it.  Might as well get the experience, right?

Fast forward to a week before the wedding.  Jill and I meet in a coffee shop to go over the wedding and finalize everything.  Unfortunately, Jill has a broken foot, there's a forest fire near Estes Park where she's getting married and her reception site is currently occupied by an army of firefighters.  Still, her spirits are high and I promise to do everything I can do to make sure her wedding day goes smoothly.

Fast forward to the day of the wedding.  Belinda and I show up in Estes Park early Saturday morning to help decorate the reception site.  Thankfully, the army of firefighters has been replaced with an army of guests who are helping to decorate the pavilion for a fabulous reception.  Although I love decorating as much as the next person, I'm there to do a job, so I pull out my camera and get down to business.

It doesn't take long before I spot the other photographer (it turned out to just be the two of us).  Bart is a family friend from Michigan who also does some photography.  We chat and make a plan for the day and then go back to doing our own thing.

After decorating we head up to the cabin to photograph Jill and Mike getting ready for the wedding.  Since all of the bridesmaids knew Bart, Jill thought it would be best if he took the photos of her getting ready while I photographed Mike and his brothers getting ready.  I really enjoyed my time just hanging out with the guys.  It was good to have them on my side.

From there, it was on to the wedding and reception.  Guests were transported to the site of the ceremony in school buses.  It was wonderful seeing big school buses pulling up and all of these guests piling out in their suits and dresses.  The wedding took place in a big field and, as promised, almost everyone was sitting on blankets.  Although Jill and Mike might have been laid back about the wedding, there was nothing lacking in the ceremony.  It was put together beautifully and they couldn't have asked for better weather.

Jill looked absolutely amazing when she appeared out of the shade of the aspen grove into the sun-drenched meadow.  There was a slight breeze that helped to flutter dresses but not enough to blow off hats.  The guests looked on as Jill and Mike made their vows and there was a lot of laughter when Jill gave Mike a good squeeze during the first kiss, which made Mike's foot kick out behind him like he was in a '50s movie.

After the ceremony everyone got back on the buses and headed back down the mountain to the site of the reception.  The music started playing, the beer started flowing and everyone enjoyed a beautiful sunset and the beginning of Jill and Mike's life together.  Congratulations Jill and Mike!  Thank you for giving me a chance and allowing me to photograph your wedding.  You turned what could have been a very stressful experience into one that was quite enjoyable, educational and something that I won't ever forget.

Here's a slideshow of a few photos from Jill and Mike's wedding. Enjoy!

Tech Tuesdays - Wedding Photographers: Total Respect

I've always considered myself a reasonable guy when it comes to gear. Sure, there's gear out there that makes me drool and think inappropriate thoughts, but for the most part I'm happy with what I have. I don't ever want something new just because it's new and cool. If I'm going to spend my money on something, it had better fill a gap in my current lineup.

A few weekends ago I shot my first wedding. I had always said that I wasn't going to shoot weddings (at least until I had some experience assisting someone else), but that didn't stop my friend Jill. She insisted that it would be fine and that it was going to be a very laid-back wedding, so no extreme photography was needed. Finally, I agreed to shoot it. Although I walked away with some great experience and wonderful images, I also walked away with a lot more respect for wedding photographers.

I know that since it was my first wedding I was a little overwhelmed, but I was amazed at how quickly things happened! When you're sitting with the rest of the guests watching a wedding it all seems to go pretty smoothly (even a little slow at times). Let me tell you, when you're trying to capture the moments as they happen, things seem to move a lot faster! I almost missed certain moments when I was like, "Oh, flower girls! I'd better get a lot of pictures because they're so cute... click, click, click... hey, you're not a flower girl. You're a bridesmaid! Uh oh." I'm sure after a few weddings you get the flow down, but it probably doesn't get a lot easier, simply because every wedding is just a little different.

So what's this have to do with technology? Like I said at the beginning of this post, I've never wanted gear just because. Sometimes I see the gear that wedding photographers use and think to myself, "That seems like overkill. Do you really need $10,000 worth of gear to shoot a wedding?" After shooting my first wedding, I could confidently say that you might not need it, but it sure would help!

Let me start with the lenses. I use primes with the exception of my 12-24mm wide-angle. They're fast and they're sharp, but there were many times when I really could have used a different focal length but didn't have time to swap lenses. Additionally, they have to be fast zooms. You can't get a zoom as fast as my 135mm/f2, but I think I'd take a 70-200 f/2.8 at a wedding just for the ability to zoom. Same with my 50mm f/1.4... it's probably my favorite lens, and I'd still use it a lot at a wedding, but it would be nice to have a 24-70mm f/2.8 as well. Even my wide 12-24mm f/4 is nice, but the f/2.8 would sure be nicer so I don't get motion blur when people are dancing!

Now let's talk camera bodies. I shoot with a D90 and love it. I rarely get envious of other people's cameras because I know I can get amazing images with my D90 as long as I've got good glass on it. If I started shooting weddings on a regular basis, though, I'd definitely upgrade to a better body. The two big limitations I ran into were low-light autofocusing and ISO performance. With ISO, the D90 is pretty awesome, but I would have loved to have been able to crank it up and get another few stops of light during the reception (which, by the way, was outdoors in Estes Park and was only lit by strings of Christmas lights... probably the most challenging light I could have asked for). It would have also been nice to have a body that autofocuses better in low light. The D90 does a good job, but I found it hunting a little too often once it got completely dark and we were partying in the glow of Christmas lights. Of course, I could have switched to manual focus, but then a bigger viewfinder would have helped quite a bit.

As for all the other gear, I felt pretty good. My flash was great, spare batteries were helpful, lots of fast memory cards kept me shooting and my camera bag... well, there will be a post on that bad boy soon! As long as I keep shooting portraits, I think I'm doing pretty good on gear, but if I get into weddings the credit card will get quite a workout!