Who:

Lauren + MacKay

What:

Wedding [100:1 series]

When:

September 8, 2007

Where:

Tampa, FL | Tampa Marriott Waterside

This post concludes our first [100:1 series] featuring Lauren & MacKay’s beautiful Tampa wedding! We thank you for visiting and taking the time to read up on our shooting style and thumb through so many images! We’ve enjoyed sharing with you along the way and hope to make this series a repeat feature on the blog! - M + C

The guests were entertained elsewhere during cocktail hour, which gave us a few minutes to photograph the reception details without interruption:

The cake table had this intense spotlight shining down, so we didn’t even have to break out a flash for any of the cake or cake cutting series!

Welcoming the newlyweds to their reception

At the beginning of their CHOREOGRAPHED first dance, these two were full of nervous giggles - it was precious.

And the smiles kept coming

Sister gave a tearful speech - the napkin over her shoulder was handed to her by dad (also pictured) to dry her tears

MacKay gave a lovely speech during dinner - methinks he might have a future in politics!

I wasn’t kidding about that spotlight!

I love this moment - that’s MacKay with his mom in the back left - and then MacKay’s little sister with her dad in the center - watching Lauren dance with her dad. You can just tell that they are embracing each other thinking about the day *they* will be dancing together like that at *her* wedding…

MacKay & mom

Bouquet

Garter

Sorority song

An ode to FSU

100!!!!

Thanks to Lauren & MacKay for inviting us to spend their weekend in Tampa with them - we really enjoyed our time together. And an extra ‘thank you’ for allowing us to share your beautiful wedding with our readers! - M

Who:

Lauren + MacKay

What:

Wedding [100:1 series]

When:

September 8, 2007

Where:

Tampa, FL | Tampa Marriott Waterside

It’s not every weekend where we are allowed a good bit of time to create wonderful portraits for our newlyweds. Unfortunately, this is often the most rushed and overlooked part of the wedding day - we’ve actaully shot entire weddings before where we were given absolutely no time (not an exaggeration) to photograph the bride and groom together in a more formal fashion. While we love photographing the day as it happens and that is a very significant part of what we do, I truly enjoy the opportunity to photograph our couples post-ceremony (or pre-ceremony, even!) while you are all smiles and so very in love - it’s the two of you at your very best - together.

During this very special time, our job becomes less about posing and more about getting out of your way and letting your energy and emotion fill the frame.

I’m sharing a good handful of the shots we captured with Lauren & MacKay from the half hour** we had with them in hopes that you will allow us time to record this happy time for you, as well.

** Guests were being entertained during a cocktail hour, so sneaking off for some portraits was a no-brainer. If you want more camera-time as a couple, consider pre-reception drinks and entertainment for your guests.

Next up, the RECEPTION!

- M

Who:

Lauren + MacKay

What:

Wedding [100:1 series]

When:

September 8, 2007

Where:

Tampa, FL | Tampa Marriott Waterside

Charles is wrapped up in pre-Thanksgiving hysteria right now - so you get me for this update.

On to the ceremony!

Ceremony coverage is fairly straightforward, but I did want to point out a few things. As Charles mentioned in earlier posts, we try to work with natural/existing light as much as possible and the ceremony is no exception. We try to blend into the scenery during this very intimate time, so shooting without a flash of any sort goes hand in hand with our shooting philosophy. It enables us to capture the tender moments without taking our subjects ‘out of the moment’ by drawing attention to ourselves.

Another note: quite often, church ceremonies are accompanied by strict rules that we must abide by - such as ‘no moving’, ‘no flash photography’, or ‘picture taking only permitted from the balcony or the very back of the church.’ We actually had ALL of those rules for this wedding - so you’ll notice where having two photographers enabled us to offer the client more variety in coverage - such as images from the balcony and images from the ground level. We also used a variety of lenses to offer more varied perspectives.

Before the ceremony begins, we always take a moment to reset our gear and take note of the little things this new space has to offer…

Charles was in the balcony:

I was at the back of the church for this tender moment:

A different perspective that really shows off the architecture.

Luckily, being ‘banished’ to the back of the church doesn’t necessarily mean the photographs will look like they were taken from a football field away - even if they practically were!

NEWLYWEDS!!

So, that’s the 411 on ceremony coverage - thanks for tuning in (again)!

- M

Who:

Lauren + MacKay

What:

Wedding [100:1 series]

When:

September 8, 2007

Where:

Tampa, FL | Tampa Marriott Waterside

The following set of images from Lauren + MacKay’s wedding were all shot using 100% natural light. Whenever possible, we enjoy working outside utilizing natural light and the beauty of your location(s) to create casual portraits of you with loved ones. Working against an ever changing backdrop often inspires us while shooting to keep seeing things in a new way and our ‘no huge studio lights’ mantra enables us to stay flexible and create stunning portraits in a variety of backdrops, while moving things along quickly and effeciently. We’ve yet to meet with a bride and groom who asked us to take our time and spend hours on formals - it’s quite the opposite, really, so we try to always keep events moving by shooting rather quickly and keeping the mood light and casual.

~ Charles

Like Meg, I often look for opporunities for that quick ‘head and shoulders’ shot of the groom during the preparation process. Here I used window light to capture the following two shots in MacKay’s hotel room:

It was overcast when it was time for Meg to photograph Lauren’s pre-ceremony formals - which we actually prefer because the clouds act like a giant softbox for the sun and offer us nice, even light for formals. (bonus!) Meg was under some time constraints, however, and had to move quickly to capture portraits of Lauren, Lauren with her family (both as a group and individually), and Lauren with her bridesmaids (as a group and seperately, as well) - all while racing against Mother Nature - as dark clouds began to move in!

Lauren with her sister. This is a good example of how we like to photograph the bride and groom with their attendants - we keep it casual and light and always welcome your relationship to show:

Multitasking is key in this line of work, so often while Meg is shooting ‘formals’ we both steal little moments, expressions, or details - like these flowers - from the set-ups.

Meg especially loves color and texture - so you’ll find her work often incorporates bold backgrounds. A nice shot of Dad with his little girl:

Meg typically takes the ‘must-haves’:

Which leaves me open to see things in a different way:

We chose this series to illustrate how we can work one minute (in this case - much less!), one basic ‘pose’, one location and offer more than just one ‘look’ - Meg knew she wanted to capture a nice full-length shot of Lauren that showcased her dress and hinted at location, so she set-up this first shot before Lauren had to be whisked into hiding before the guests arrived:

I was able to simultaneously shoot a more dynamic image with tilted frame:

And Meg shot this image within seconds of the first, offering a closer look at Lauren’s great smile:

When the guys arrived at the church, it was raining outside (bummer!) and there was little cover where the groom wouldn’t be seen by all of the guests arriving for the ceremony. Since the inside of the church wasn’t an option (not usually my first choice, but sometimes a rain backup) we found an overhang that got great natural light and offered us a completely clean backdrop for some quick family & groomsmen shots pre-ceremony.

So there you have it! Quick, casual formals without too much hassle that show the beauty of your surroundings and focus your relationships with loved ones.

Who:

Lauren + Mackay

What:

Wedding [100:1 series]

When:

September 8, 2007

Where:

Tampa, FL | Tampa Marriott Waterside

Lauren + MacKay are the first couple to be selected for our [100:1 series]! We’re going to show you one-hundred images from one wedding…here goes!

~ Charles

The principle behind our [100:1 series] is that its not good enough for a wedding photographer to be able to hit a home run during certain parts of the day, and drop the ball in other places. This is YOUR wedding…and as professional wedding photographers, we only get one chance to create the stunning artwork that you hire us for. We take our responsibility incredibly seriously (as you might expect). We wanted to give you a taste of what each part of the day looks like.

Because we focus on documenting your entire wedding wedding day, all of our couples start off with preparation (prep) images. Meg & I are also a husband & wife team — in our humble opinions, this creates a consistency in our work that single shooter studios might or might not be able to acheive. Be sure to ask ANY photographer you might consider hiring if they shoot with the same second shooter every week, or if this person changes depending on where the assignment is taking place. When you work with us, you know you’re stuck with Meg & Charles!

Meg works with girls! For us, prep photos are all about observation, not direction. We want you to EXPERIENCE your wedding day, exactly as you wanted to, without a lot of interferrence from us.

We look for moments & expressions that reflect the mood of the day… but more than that, we put a heavy emphasis on relationships - this next series focuses on Lauren’s very close relationship with her little sister:

A sideways glance towards sis.

Lauren’s sister helping her with finishing touches - there is also a cute series with them laughing over this fish face being photographed

Lauren reading in the foreground with sister in the background makes for a nicer and more thoughtful composition…

And of course, we also want to beautifully document the details that illustrate the story of your wedding day.

Meg will usually snap a few portraits during this process as well… this first shot below was taken as a nice portrait, but the second was a request from the makeup artist and Lauren - so they might view how Lauren’s makeup ‘photographed’ by veiwing the camera’s LCD screen — Meg liked the image so much, it made it all the way to the blog: BONUS!

Sister with Mom - again focusing on relationships… And another note here - both Meg and I try to rely on natural light when photographing these processes. Light is the very first thing we notice when walking into any new space and we do our best to try and let the existing light set the tone for our work in the space.

Cousin, sister, mom - again, it’s all about relationships in our work and this ‘train’ of women in the preparation process is simply nice seeing and storytelling. Another note here, the room was fairly dark in the center, but brightly lit near the windows - so for this shot, Meg used window light to wrap the subjects in nice light and, as the background view from the window was only a distraction and of little importance to this shot, she chose to ‘blow out’ the background resulting in a totally white window.

This is a great example of observing the action & anticipating the moment. In this image, you can see four distinct expressions that give you a feeling about what was happening in this moment. This is Lauren’s sister again, having a little snaffu with a stuck zipper!

Meg is really keyed in to wedding fashions and is good about recognizing why a certain dresses were chosen for the bride and bridesmaids and she tries to showcase those details in her coverage as well. The bridesmaids all had these laced up backs:

These next two are shown to illustrate simple layering within an image - again to show relationships and make for a more dynamic image than a simple headshot - it’s all about telling the story of the day.

Mom & Lauren.

I like this image because it illustrates how we use the space around us to document your wedding day. As wedding photojournalists, we don’t enter a room and immediately alter the environment… we work with it! This is a nice shot Meg captured using the reflection of Lauren in the mirror.

The following three images were all taken within a sixty second window where Lauren opened her wedding gift from MacKay - and I wanted to show this to illustrate how we look for different angles and opportunities within a moment.

The gift itself.

All too often, the guys are simply overlooked in the preparation process and are not photographed during this time. Brides: we can create stunning images of your man getting ready too! And as a two photographer, husband & wife, team - we truly can be in two places at once! As you can see, I look for the same things that Meg does… details, relationships, & emotions that tell the story.

This was one of my favorites of MacKay getting ready. This is an ordinary event captured in an interesting & beautiful way, if I do say so myself.

While I’m working with guys, I’m tuned in the little things that they do…cuff links, buttons, collars, ties. We want to document all the little details ya’ll have picked out & worked so hard to pull together!

This was a quieter and more somber group overall (I think MacKay had some normal pre-wedding jitters!) so I tried to make the coverage reflect a more thoughtful group.

MacKay received a card from Lauren - we like being able to record the emotion of that moment for both the bride & the groom simultaneously.

I loved these next few shots of MacKay because they really depict the pre-wedding nerves that all guys feel while they are cooped up in their ‘holding cell’ - I tried to show a little more space overall to create a different mood than the tighter shots shown earlier during preparation.

OK — that’s prep! To recap — prep is all about observation…we want to document the emotions that all brides & grooms are experiencing before the ceremony, and do so without changing your wedding day experience. As a two-shooter husband & wife team, we can be in two places at once- BONUS - and work with both the bride & the groom at the same time! We look for details & realtionships that tell the story of the day, and work with the existing light and surroundings to authentically preserve the mood and setting of the preparation process.

In our next post from our [100:1 series], we’ll move into formals, and show you how we photograph our family groups in a timeless & beautiful way. Stay tuned!