A Wedding in Williamsburg: Marc and Marlana

Some weeks ago, I received a call from my friend Marc.  He asked me if I would be willing to take photographs at his wedding rehearsal and ceremony, as I would already be attending.  I welcomed the opportunity and told him I would.  The Friday before last, I made the drive down to Williamsburg, pleasant enough considering the traffic nightmare that often plagues at least 10 miles of I-95.  Somehow, I arrived on time for the rehearsal, hungry after a lunch consisting of several handfuls of trail mix.

Three of the groomsmen were already good friends of mine from Virginia Tech, so I was happy to spend the evening with them.  The others, Marc's brother and friend from high school, are great guys as well, and it was hilarious to see all five of them together, enjoying the whole event.  They'd already had a great time at the bachelor party, continually laughing at whatever memories the phrases "But what if I don't have any pants?" and "It tastes so good!" inspired.

The rehearsal went well, so it was off to a wonderful neighborhood club for the rehearsal dinner.   By this time, I was considered part of the bridal party - something I hadn't expected!  We all sat together at dinner with a few of the bridesmaids, catching up with old friends and getting to know new ones.  Marc's father gave a wonderful welcome as we gathered and finished our meal.  Soon it was time for dancing, into which Marc's Italian relatives threw themselves passionately, as did most of us in the bridal party.

The next morning brought a quick breakfast with friends who would be attending the ceremony, and then I was off to the church at 11:00 for preparation and documentary-style photography.  I met the main wedding photographer, who, upon my asking if I could help at all, said, "Just make sure you stay behind me."  I suppose I could have been offended by what seemed to be a dismissal, but the man knew what he was doing.  So instead, I figured amusement was a better reaction!

The groomsmen got ready, making sure to play with Duplo blocks and dinosaurs before it became time to greet the wedding guests as they arrived.  I stood in the lobby, greeting friends I hadn't seen in some time, taking a few photos of the proceedings.

The ceremony itself was beautiful.  We sang Come Thou Fount and Be Thou my Vision, Marc and Marlana exchanged their vows, the pastor spoke well of marriage and the picture it paints of Christ's love for His church through a  husband's love for his wife.  I could sense the presence of God in that room - nearly hear Him smile and say this is good.

A reception afterwards, in the lobby.  Delicious cupcakes for all.  Wonderful conversations and many photographs.  The bride and groom cut the smallest wedding cake I had ever seen and were soon off to a second, more intimate reception.

I joined the groomsmen as we drove to New Town, a recent mixed commercial and residential development in Williamsburg.  The reception was held in the wonderful Legacy Hall.  Seeing as we somehow managed to arrive early, we decided to quickly run to Target to get supplies for decorating the newly-married couple's car.  After several conversations with elderly female shoppers commenting on our rugged handsomeness, we obtained some balloons, streamers, and beef jerky (why have breath mints when you can have beef jerky?), and returned to Legacy Hall.

After a delicious dinner, Austin gave a wonderful speech as best man; the bride's father spoke as well.  Marc and Marlana had their first dance together, and then the floor was opened up to the rest of the guests, at which point the groomsmen suspiciously disappeared to decorate the getaway vehicle.

Soon after returning to the hall, the dancing came to an end and it was time to see the bride and groom off.  We gathered outside, armed with small bubble-making devices.  Marc and Marlana exited the hall to our cheers and drove off to whatever secret location they were headed to.

***

It was a joy to spend the weekend with close friends of mine, and see Marc and Marlana get married.  I've been to several weddings over my lifetime, and every so often of these ceremonies is not simply special, but also holy.  This was one such ceremony, with such a focus on the God who created marriage, such a picture of sacrificial love between two people.  It was clear that Marc and Marlana desire to put Christ at the center of their marriage, to honor Him in the way they will live together.  They are blessed and will continue to be so!

I am so thankful for the opportunity to take photos during the course of the wedding events.  Congratulations to Marc and Marlana!

Polarizing Filters

SLR cameras and some of the higher-end point-and-shoot cameras have filters that screw onto the front of their lenses.  There are a wide variety of filters, and one of the most useful ones is the polarizing filter (such as those in this non-affiliate link).

Oftentimes, light will reflect off surfaces and create a glare.  This often happens with bodies of water, and even in the sky on a hazy day.  Polarizing filters only allow light to enter the camera from one direction, thus negating the off-angle incident light and giving more vibrancy to the scene.

In the image below, sunlight creates a glare by reflecting off the leaves on the branch.  Using a polarizing filter, this glare is removed.  This technique has often improved the images I've taken, whether portrait or landscape shots.  Try one out yourself!

A Separation of Degrees

There's the six degrees of Kevin Bacon, or whatever it was that loads of people were talking about a couple of years ago.  Then there's the six degrees of photography.

Lighting is one of the most critical aspects of a photograph.  You can take a picture of a scene and everyone in the world will say, "This is garbage!"  But, come back at a time when the lighting is just right, capture the same scene, and those same people just might be clamoring to buy a massive print of your image to hang in the family room, over the gerbil cage.

When it comes to outdoor photography, changing the orientation of your camera by just a few degrees can make a big difference in the result - all because of the lighting.  The contrast between the two images in this post is, I think, good evidence of this.

The first image is of a Tulip Poplar leaf.  I am holding it at arms length, the sun behind it, located off-frame, up and to the left.  I liked the photograph for all the detail you can see in the leaf veins (but I digress!).

This second image required only a tilt of the camera a few degrees upward (you see the treeline is lower in this shot).  However, the sun now casts a reflection in the lens assembly, resulting not only in a bunch of bluish orbs, but also a loss of color saturation in the overall image.  It becomes quite a different photograph, simply by changing the position of the camera relative to the available light.

I am curious - which image do you like better? Why?


And so, in your own photographic endeavors - think about the lighting!  A quick change of camera position just might yield incredible images.

How Not to Photograph Lightning

Someone reading this post is probably sincerely hoping for a story about how I, through sheer stupidity, got myself electrocuted.  To this I say two things.  One, you will be sincerely disappointed and Two, really? Either you have an unhealthy fascination with unlucky situations, or you have a personal vendetta against me - in which case it would be best if we just sorted it out.

Moving on.

We had a terrific thunderstorm this past weekend down in Blacksburg, VA.  As it was rolling in, I thought, excellent, I can get a bunch of awesome lightning photographs and put them on the internet and everyone will want to buy them and I'll be able to afford more expensive sandwich bread.

So, sitting on a bench underneath a shelter at the wonderful Heritage Park, I began trying to time my photographs to the lightning flashes.  Having set my shutter speed to 1/13th of a second to optimize my chances of capturing a flash without having a blurry image, I took approximately 60 photographs.  The best of these, seen above, has a small lightning bolt in the top right corner, which looks less like the stereotypical mental image of lightning most of us have and more like whatever I drew on the wall the first time I ever held a pen.

My friends and I then left Heritage Park and returned to our apartment complex.  At this point, oddly, the rain had stopped, while the lightning increased in frequency - once every ten seconds or so.  Aha! thought I, now in possession of my tripod.  Pleased with this development, I lengthened my shutter speed to 4 seconds, pointed the camera at the sky in some arbitrary direction where the lighting was striking, and began firing away.

Most of the resulting images looked like this nonsense, at right.  Who likes this photograph?  Does it evoke strong emotion?  Is it a powerful display of the forces of nature? Nobody, no, and absolutely not.  If I did have the shutter open when lighting struck, it was generally out-of-frame, yielding only a surreal purple glow among the clouds.  Not all that exciting.  If there had been a flying Delorean in the picture, then we'd have something to go with.

Finally, however, after 60 more photos (for a total of roughly 120), the lighting happened to strike in frame:

Now, this is not going to be in National Geographic, but considering I really had no idea what I was doing, I decided I was satisfied, put my camera away, and called it a night.  Next thunderstorm, I hope to be a little more prepared and able to get something truly spectacular.