Rebekah is getting married in Grand Haven and wanted to do some bridal portraits to display on her wedding day. I got some new lighting gear (a beauty dish) delivered recently and I was looking forward to trying it out on a shoot, so I decided to lug it (along with a bunch of other gear) to my bridal shoot in Grand Haven. I bought the beauty dish to give a different look to my portrait/wedding images. Here is a (crappy) iPhone pic of “big momma” as I affectionately call it
Sharmila calls it a Martian – she keeps saying “There is a Martian spaceship in our living room!”.
With gear in tow, I drove up to Grand Haven and we decided to shoot by the light house on the beach. Here is (another crappy) iPhone pic of the beach with the light house in the background. I loved the rocks in the foreground and wanted to use them to create some images.
Driving up to Grand Haven, I told myself that I wanted to create something different than the traditional bridal portraits that you see of a bride in a park or on the street. Not that those arent’s pretty and if all we had was a park to shoot in, that’s what I would take, but we had a beach, we had beautiful sunsets and we had “big momma”In fact, that is why Rebekah told me she wanted to work with me for her bridal shoot, because she wanted something different. So the pressure was on to create something unique – both for Rebekah and for my portfolio.
While we waited for the sun to set, we shot some black and white images indoors. Rebekah looked very pretty and I wanted to take some old Hollywood style glamor infused images – here’s one of many that we took.
Once the sun started to set, we stepped outside for some beach images. Time to put “big momma” to use.Grand Haven being on the west side of Michigan, I knew we’d get an amazing sunset. The sky was turning all sorts of amazing colors, so I asked Rebekah to stand really still and thanks to her steady nerves, my tripod (so that I could blur the water), gelled flashes, a custom white balance on my camera (to get the cooler blue tones), some lens filters (to get the deep blue skies) and some Photoshop work (to bring back some of the original orange in the sky, add some blue and purple in to mix and enhance the overall colors and get them to pop), I ended up with this image.
Yes, sometimes, a lot can go in to creating just one image, but when it all comes together and matches the image I see in my head, it’s worth it for me. Rebekah, thanks for holding that pose for my 3-4 second camera shutter shot
The next image is my favorite image from the session. We used the rocks by the lighthouse for the shot. I love the tones in the image and the overall moody, dramatic feel of the dark clouds and the dark rocks contrasted by the misty waves and the white gown. I saw these elements and thought of how marriage is paved with moments of pure joy and happiness and moments of struggle and that as she begins this journey, she is embracing that duality of marriage. That’s what I wanted to project as I was planning this shot.
Rebekah, you were so awesome throughout the shoot and thank you for patiently trying shot after shot with me. Hope that you like the images. Lots more images to come!
It was a long day of driving and shooting, but we managed to get some nice pics out of the session. I got the chance to try out a bunch of things on this shoot – new location, new gear, camera tricks, new Photoshop techniques, and best of all, Rebekah’s complete trust in me and her patience and willingness to try things made it such a great experience.
I’d love to try my hands at a stylized Indian bridal portrait someday – maybe on a desert in Vegas – how cool would that be – a beautiful bride and the color of her red dress against the harshness of the cacti and the dry desert sand, combined with miles of sand and bright blue skies. Or a decked out Indian bride dancing on the sand while a poor old man and a young boy sit on the sand, playing instruments. Contrasting elements make for interesting shots. Lots of ideas in my head folks – anyone want to do a bridal session in the desert heat?
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by Suman
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