Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Derek & Lauren's Wedding

     On Saturday we made a quick trip down to Frisco, Texas for my cousin Lauren's wedding. Originally the whole family was planning to go (minus two who had a swim meet that day in OKC) but so many came down sick with colds, coughing, fever, etc. that only 4 of us ended up making the trip. Megan, Laura, Aaron & I left early Saturday - making it to Gainesville and renting a room for the night. After getting dressed & ready, we then drove the last hour to the wedding - arriving there a little after 3:00pm.  I brought along my camera, and since the ceremony didn't start 'til 4:00, I used the time by taking pictures of the beautiful setting. They did a great job with the decorations & everything was lovely.


     Shortly after 4:00, the ceremony got underway:












One of my favorites of the whole night

     The happy couple - Congratulations Derek & Lauren!



     They had these dresses set up there and it was so neat! They had pictures of Derek & Lauren's mothers & grandmothers on their wedding days & then had the dress on display as well. My Grandma Stewart's dress is furthest from the camera.


     Took these various candid portraits of the guests & others visiting, having fun, & looking cute!




Loved being able to see Uncle Charlie again - he is my Grandma Stewart's brother


Everyone from the Stewart side of the family that came: Aaron, Megan, Aunt Kitty, Me, Derek & Lauren, Laura, Danielle, Brad, & Aunt Sherrie 
     Time to cut the cake.  Loved the backdrop for this....
 





     And they had a few dances before we left for the evening.

Not the best lighting on this picture - but I loved the expression on their faces
Took these pictures from the balcony



Really love the action in this picture - I think it's my favorite of the night!

     We had an hour's drive back to our motel & then were up early next morning to make it home in time for our church worship service.  It was a flying trip, but it was good to see everyone again - we had a good time.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

High Key Lighting

When I first started taking courses in photography, I wanted to know as much as possible so that I could take good pictures. I was blessed to have a teacher who knew a lot & knew how to teach it well.  I took four courses from him (Basic Photography - Advanced Photography - Portrait Photography - and another Advanced Photography, focusing on assignments in Studio Lighting) and enjoyed every minute. From the moment he started teaching High-Key lighting, I fell in love. It's hard to create, but the results are so stunning. The basic idea is that the background is over-exposed to make extremely bright pictures, but it's often easy to under-expose the face in this type of lighting. Finding the right balance between background & foreground is the key. I don't have time to work on it often, but love these that I shot a few years ago:



 
 
 
 
 

     When I started editing these, I found that I love High-Key in Black & White. Of course, there's not many types of lighting that I don't like in B&W. I'm pretty biased towards B&W.  Anyway.... a few more: