My little crush on lace wedding dresses

Hi everyone, it's Kate :)

I wanted to let you all in on a little secret. I'm a wedding nerd. I still spend a little too much time pouring over wedding ideas, dresses, jewellery, shoes, bouquets.... Especially since I discovered Pinterest (seriously addicting!). Actually if you think about it I spend way too much time doing this, considering I've been married for 7 months. Tee hee. But what can I say, I like looking at pretty things :)

Lately I have been giving into my obsession over lace dresses. They are so delicate and feminine, and they flatter almost every body type. I'm especially partial to square necklines and little cap sleeves, and am totally starting to love the boat neckline (or bateau if you are so inclined...) too, it's really coming back in style. I think a lot of women are realizing that it is much sexier to leave a little to the imagination than end up embarrassing the heck out of your guests by wearing something like this. Here are some of the ones I've found lately...ending with one that is seriously one of the prettiest I've ever seen, even though I'm sure it costs more than any of us will make in our lives, a girl can dream can't she?

Dress by http://www.enzoani.com/ the style is 'Diana'

 

 

 

 

 

You really can't go wrong with anything from www.watters.com

  

I wish I could source this absolutely fantastic 1950's dress for you guys, if anyone knows...let me know!

amazing details on this one! right down to the petals in the straps...so pretty!

  

how subtly sexy is this? very subtly sexy, thats what! :)

 

 

I'm thinking beach wedding, cocktail wedding, reception dress...so fun!

Okay and now...for the super grand finale of amazing lace (ok ok it's not lace but I have to put it in here) dresses...get ready girls...you'll want to make all your guests eat pizza and sit on the floor just so you can afford this one...

yeah, thats right. it says christian dior  haute couture in the little bitty fine print on there.

A. Mazing. AND it's 'something blue' too. I will leave you all drooling on your keyboards now. :)

The importance of the editing process

 The majority of a wedding is an uncontrolled event for a photographer, the slightest movement can change a multitude of things that affect a picture. Things like lighting, composition, the emotion portrayed, the story  the picture is telling - all are affected moment by moment in every move the photographer makes. The subjects are in their own environment doing what is natural to them as we are looking in without controlling what they do. We do not have the option of interrupting the ceremony to ask for the bride to shift to the right a bit, or the groomsmen to loosen up, so we have to work to create the picture from what we have in front of us to communicate the beauty of the moment. This is the part that I enjoy the most, it's exciting for me and why I love the challenge of wedding photography.

At every moment we have to anticipate not only the picture in mind but what the camera is doing, just a few minor adjustments can change the picture dramatically and just moments later, if adjustments are not made again, the next picture can be a total failure. Picture the sun shining through a window onto a brides face. It's a nice warm light so I do not want spoil it with a flash. I will see this and know the light is on her face and expose properly, a second later I hear laughter building up behind me, I turn and now the people I am taking a picture of are back lit, or the sun is behind them. This is a different setting now. So I must adjust and take a picture without losing the moment. This sort of thing happens fast and all day long in the candid moments.

So what happens to the pictures once the day is over? Do they move from camera to CD or album and nothing more? Probably not. Some pictures may be suitable for print right out of camera, however it is more often that most of the pictures need a subtle (and sometimes drastic) edit to bring out their fullest potential and intent.  Much of the magic happens on the wedding day, but only begins there. That's why I spend hours editing every wedding that I shoot.

Below I am going to post some examples of some of the things I do to my clients pictures. Kate likes to say, "I want our clients to feel like they have gotten a gift when we present our work to them". The work that goes into that presentation in extensive and as important to what we do as our camera is to the wedding day.

Here is a before and after of a beautiful bride, I was shooting available light, (no Flash) to communicate the ambience of the sun lit room she was in. This situation can change, if a cloud happens to pass by the sun the lighting changes, if she turns her head it may enter the shadowy area. This picture was candid, I was not communicating with her at all.

In the before picture, the bride is dark, the window behind her is a bright spot distracting the eye from her beauty. Her fascinator is flat and blended into the picture.

 In the after photo, I have lightened her up. I sharpened her head piece and put a light vignette around her to bring the eye onto her face, I put extra local sharpening on her eyes and hair to pop her out of the picture and give it depth. The image is no longer flat and dull, she has become the centre of attention.


The next picture is one of my faves from this summer. The adjustments I made are very subtle, but as I often say, I'm pretty picky when it comes to my art. These two had decided to forgo the 'glass tapping' reception game to have the bride and groom kiss, instead someone had to sing a song, Greg is a musician (Listen Here) so it worked for them and was a lot less annoying than clinking glasses all night. :) Anyways, I had known that they were going to kiss as a little boy had just finished singing 'twinkle twinkle little star'. So I set up in front to compose the shot and noticed two young boys spying on them in the window - very cute!

The before is a good picture, I had ample opportunity to get ready for it, however, it is a little flat the mid tones need some pop and I think the subjects could be more dominant.

I cropped the image down a little to make the subjects more pronounced. Added to the natural vignette that was in the picture and sharpened the bride and groom up a bit. I also removed the steel vase from the lower right that I found distracting. Not much, but it certainly communicates the moment more.

The next picture I took was another moment shot, the bride had just gotten out of the limo, she was running late and I was on my way in to get ready for the ceremony. I turned and saw her maid of honour fluffing up her dress. I set up my camera fast and took a shot. Later I felt the picture really communicated the majesty of her dress. I spent a lot of time on her dress in post production editing to bring out its beauty.

 The bride is back-lit, meaning the sun was behind her, you can see the loss of detail in her dress in the bright spot. Her face is turned from the sun and is dark (no flash). And the image has high contrast from the harsh sun with dark shadows and harsh transitions into bright spots. I thought her dress was outstanding and the look of quiet beauty on her face made for a decent picture worth editing.

You will see that I brought back the detail in the bright part of the dress. I have to say, something that annoys me is wedding pictures where the dress is blown out, or way to bright. A bride takes so much time and spends good money on a dress, I don't want her looking like a lit-up lamp in her pictures.  So you will see I spent the time to pull the texture of the dress out of the picture. I lightened her face to bring attention to it and removed the harsh shadows in the faces of the people around her. I did a light blur and lowered the contrast a bit over the rest of the image to make her the centre of attention. She is now a princess in a moment of commotion before her vows. A dull picture turned into a story and will compliment the rest of the album nicely.

Here is another example of how an edit helps tell the story of your dress.

Without the edit, the dramatic beauty of the dress gets lost in a flat looking picture.The tiny crystals edging the veil, the jewels and detail of the bodice, the pickups and ostrich feather rosettes that were sewn into the gown, are made as pronounced and dramatic as I saw them that day.

The last thing I want to talk about is something called a colour cast. In my opinion, it is the most common problem with pictures, it frustrates me to see a good picture that lacks proper colour correction. Everywhere you look there are casts of colours. For example during a sunset you will notice the warm light, everything you look at seems an orangey-yellow. It is a beautiful winter day out today, cold and blue tinted but just beautiful. The colours that you see, the camera picks up as well. Only the human eye has the ability to filter most of it out so when you look at your fiancee's face in the sunlight it looks warm, but not overly warm. Your eye knows how to remove some of the colour. If it didn't,  when you went to work at the office everyone would be green, florescent lights have a green colour cast. That is unless you work with with Shrek, and then we can't help you.  The camera, however, tends to put a colour cast on everything, like fog but in colour. We counter this problem by adjusting the white balance, or using a grey card. However the colour may still persist and the over all picture becomes lost in this dominating colour. There are times where this cast can be useful but there are times when it is not. It can make an image look very flat, or overly 'retro' (which is not going to be in style forever) and frankly I find it unattractive. However, the image below has a colour cast that works (after the edit) and I will show you why.

The shot was taken at The Scottish Rite in Hamilton, Ontario. The colour cast is absolutely despicable, and we needed the grey card to help fix the colour problem.  Behind me there was a massive brass elevator door reflecting the light making it even more yellow, not to mention the tiles on the floor were a red colour adding to the problem. I wanted to maintain the warmth in the image so I was adjusting my white balance manually, this picture was taken before I had it where I would have liked it however the shot worked out nice for composition so I would use it.

In the after you will see that I pull the image back to its natural colour, I wanted to keep the warm feeling so I left some yellow color cast in, but the overall image is much better. Now it is what the eye would see, her hair still holds the golden light of the setting sun, but her face is not taken over by it and the whites of her eyes are just that - white. And lastly, her tiara and earrings don't look like a smoker was blowing on them for a year.

Well I hope these few examples help give you an idea of the work that takes place after your day, these are only a few techniques we utilize to create your story. The flow of the images must work like a story line for success, if they are flat and not properly cared for you will end up with a lacklustre feeling at the end of the album. Our gift to our clients is the extra care and we put into their work. We want to ensure that they know their pictures are in good hands, that nothing  that can be brought out in an edit will end up on the cutting floor simply that is important to the client, we are not a production line wedding business. We want to make every wedding an adventure in art, and care for it with the same passion brides and grooms do in their planning. The biggest part of this is the post production ethic we bring to the table. Your pictures will be cared for and brought to their fullest potential.

For more blog posts on who we are and what what to look for in hiring a wedding photographer, click here.

Thanks for reading!

Mike :)

So you say an expensive camera does not make photography better, well my guitar disagrees!

A short story by Mike, and a eulogy to Becky my beauty

I like to make points with stories, so I am going to tell a story to make my point. So here is a short story to address an even shorter point! It’s about cameras, sure, but more about Becky, my guitar! (If you don’t want to read it you can meander to the last paragraph and see my opinion on expensive cameras and how they relate to photographers.)

As of late, I have had to have a plastic bag handy to cover my keyboard- as I study the new camera bodies being released by camera companies, I tend to drool. This month we saw the release of the Nikon D4, and shortly before that the announcement by Canon on the upcoming release of the EOS-1D X. So I have been talking online and watching people discuss these new beauties. This is not a blog about their abilities; as I said it’s a story for people who like to read stories, and a little point I want to make to those who like to come down on other photographers for desiring to have these new cameras. As I partake in the discourse concerning them I get the occasional response like, “the camera does not matter”, or “I don’t understand why you would consider buying these expensive tools, you can get great pictures with any camera”…. and so on. Sometimes these people will even get upset at me for suggesting the camera has a part in the end. Recently Nikon had to retract the statement they made, “A photographer is only as good as their camera” because of the barking they got from their audience. How a camera relates to the artist is sensitive. There is a fine line between who takes the picture and what takes it. Here is how I see it.

I started out in the arts composing music and playing guitar. I recall my first guitar. An acoustic Gibson full body, it was a true thing of beauty for me. I worked hard feeding cows in Flamborough to earn the money to buy it. I grew and expanded my music on Becky (her name). Years later I was at a May 24 long weekend party at Cayuga Speed Way. I had left Becky with some friends I met that weekend to go to the washroom. (*Gag* Cayuga washrooms, that brings back unnecessary memories..) Anyways, when I returned, they told me a guy with a white hat had ran off with my guitar. I flipped out and asked in what direction. I knew I could recognize Becky, for I had bitten the head of the guitar years before to make evidence that it was mine. My teeth would fit the mold; I was determined to get my beauty back. A while later I found her, I recall the scene…

There they were. A bunch of guys, drunk as can be, laughing and shoving each other. A gloomy spirit was in the air despite their fun, I looked for the guy in the white hat for a few moments before I was going to move on to the next site. Suddenly there he was walking out of the most expensive motor home I had ever seen, he was feeding the beast inside himself with a fresh drink. He was pointing and laughing, I looked in the direction he was pointing with that filthy finger, as my eyes set on the spot my heart sank deep. Becky had been placed in a fire pit and all that was left was a portion of the neck and head that I had bitten, strings curled up from the pain of fire. An ironic and sad reminder of all the good times we had composing by candle light with a glass of wine. I am not one for violence, and anyone willing to burn a person’s guitar for a fleeting moment of caustic laughter in my mind, is not right in the head, so I moved on.

Earlier that weekend I had been playing guitar for some biker looking dudes, and they had asked me to come back for more jamming. I met up with them later with my friends guitar in hand. I told my sad story in a love song I wrote for Becky, my beautiful Gibson! One of them spoke up and mentioned how the group that took my guitar was bothering a few other people with their antics. It seemed there was a stream of people telling these big dudes about their morally nebulous neighbours. Probably, like me, others were hoping to get the ugliest beast of a gang together to kick them out! The next night as I grieved by my fire for Becky, I saw a hoard of people moving in one direction, I looked and what did I see? Mr. Filthy Finger White Hat’s motor home up in a blaze. It was either an accident or someone had taken revenge for other antics him and his henchmen sprung on their victims. I thought to myself, either way its revenge for me! Becky had come back to teach me the sweet sound of music in a lyric now in my mind for good. "Do nothing in response and letting karma take its toll" da dee da da da! The main point in my story is this. In my opinion we learn and gain more by watching from a distance the path fools walk on, than jumping on it ourselves for a short jog to get back at them!

So how does the story make my point concerning cameras? Well later that week I bought another guitar, to replace the tragic loss in my heart for Becky, this time it was a cutaway. For those of you who don’t know that is a portion of the body that is removed to allow for the players fingers to reach additional frets, one can play more notes this way. I was so excited I started writing, and sure enough those notes lead to a new song. Later that song would help the band I was in win some local music contests. So here is the point of the story (for real), it is the difference between capability, and ability. I can tell you this, in the few weeks I had the new guitar I didn’t get much better when it came to my composing capability. However, I now had the ability to explore something I did not before with more frets to work with. It is the same with cameras I believe. So to those who like to harp a little on us who appreciate the new equipment, I will say this. I agree with you, a camera does not make a photographer better, in capability that is. Yet it does make us better by giving us the ability to go places and do things we have not done before. The new equipment does just that, it is better in low light, provides video capabilities never seen before, and so many other little things that will expand our art. And unfortunately it comes at a steep financial cost for most of us. I do believe a camera does make us better when it comes to ability, so let’s stop blurring the lines between artistic vision and the tools we use to capture it. I know you can get a good picture with your cheaper camera; you just can’t do it in some situations because the camera won’t allow you to. There are crappy photographers with good cameras and good photographers with cheap cameras. It’s the good photographers with good cameras that are lucky! And I don’t doubt they work exceptionally hard to both become good and afford the tool that shows it in new ways.

thanks for reading!
Mike

Cloudy Day Engagement Photos in Hamilton - Ashleigh & Aaron

Although we all had hopes of a snowy winter wonderland backdrop for this shoot, Ashleigh & Aaron didn’t let this drab day in January dampen their mood. Mike & I met them at the waterfront of Pier 8 in Hamilton, Ontario, where there were so many cool places to get great engagement pictures in a small area. Lucky for us there was a barge docked at the pier, so we took advantage of the rich texture and colour of the rusted anchors and water worn sides of the boat – which happened to be black and red, the same colours as Ashleigh and Aaron's wedding theme.

 These two are self proclaimed “not smoochy”, but from our experience every couple gets caught up in the magic and excitement of having their engagement portraits done, and we brought out the “smoochiness” we knew was there all along! When it got too cold, we popped into Williams Coffee Pub and had them share a milkshake, a la Lady & The Tramp, and we just love the warmth and intimacy that shines off these two in the photos.

To top off the day, they made their way out onto the ice rink and let the crowds speed by them while they were in their own little world, just the two of them. A lot of couples wait to get their photos done in the fall, for the gorgeous colours, or the spring, for the freshness and blooms, but there is a lot of magic in just about any situation and Ashley & Aaron had a perfect day.

I just had to add this one in - it's pretty cheesy, but when we saw this great painting done by some local middleschoolers, we couldn't pass it up!