With Spring only a few months away, mates’ thoughts are definitely turning to warm weather wedding plans. Come April and beyond, travel to fascinating destination wedding sites will increase. Steve Stevanovich find the natural beauty in immaculate North American countries just right for observing weddings and other significant life events. The varied locales available for a wedding holiday make the planning half the fun.
For Steve Stevanovich a benefit of a island getaway, as applies to weddings, are the peaceful memories that last a lifetime. Beyond the beautiful seaside brilliance, exotic culinary delights, and attractions specific to a area, is the serenity of living in wonderful accommodations. Destination weddings, although all about exuberant celebrations with family friends, are also about serene times of contemplation in one’s own room.
They also consider opportunities for sporting activities, especially outdoor activities like golf and tennis in a area. In addition, they debate museums, theme parks, spas, and other amenities. Steve Stevanovich, and others, know that all these things compounded work in concert to make a good wedding holiday package.
Couples often look back on a wedding leisure and see that the optimum part of it was the fact they stuck to no schedule. Relishing their lovely accommodations, they went with the flow. This implied lazy mornings over coffee and fresh fruit in their room. It also entailed long beach days with nary a look at a watch. Steve Stevanovich and all who treasure quality R & R, certainly relate to this way of vacationing.
Steve Stevanovich can see how those preparing for destination weddings look to regions that offer quality amenities with spectacular natural splendor. It can definitely be worth the time and effort to explore the multitude of chances accessible in this regard. Steve Stevanovich and others who consider the variety of places accessible for destination weddings know that affordable wedding vacations in abundance in the world’s most breath-taking regions.
Yellow daisy, oh yellow daisy - please tell me about fills and flags! How does one use them effectively?
Good question sighs my daisy. An answer or two…
One can shoot anything straight without flash in good daylight and get okay results. I’ve read a load of articles in the last few months saying that bright sunshine is bad, bad, really bad, for color saturation when shooting flowers or anything for that matter - true often, but not always so.
One needs to consider all sorts of things - purpose, time of day, result required, etc! Dawn and dusk produce warm, shadowy light and if one wants to take a landscape photograph of note, this would be the ideal time to do it…using a tripod of course! Shutter speeds slow down in order to get the depth of field required, f16 or even f22, so one is often shooting at or a second. I’ve met a few people who can handhold shutter speeds that slow but most of us…never in a million years! In the landscape world tripods rule okay!
I know, I know, ironic considering that I spent a bit of Mild Obsession #2 justifying my desire to shoot unfettered by a three legged monster. I did say in my defence, though, be consistent. Part of that consistency is recognition of the tools needed in each particular situation. Life is a balancing act, no more so than in the world of photography.
Another natural lighting situation to consider is sunlight mid-morning to mid-afternoon (harsh front light, but often awesome backlight), tricky at the best of times but even this light can be used well and effectively if one knows how to control it.
A really good way to learn lighting in controlled circumstances is to use angle poise lamps and a small subject on a plain background. For my subject I chose a yellow daisy…not the same one plucked from a faraway field, no, a yellow painted tin daisy, beautiful nonetheless, which I stood up on a piece of white A3 card!
What about color balance you cry? At the risk of being boringly repetitive…digital technology…white balance (WB)… All hail the little tiny green men inside one’s camera, running around changing the color gels so that we can shoot color corrected images no matter what the light source. Incredible stuff!
Try this…
Grab a plain backdrop, a cotton sheet, piece of white card or anything that detracts as little from the subject as possible. Take your subject, place it on your backdrop not too close to the background, set up an angle poise lamp to the left side of the subject and point the light directly at the subject (preferably slightly above). You should be producing huge, harsh shadows. Interrogation time!
Now grab a piece of white card and line it up side on to your subject on the other side from the lamp and move it around until the shadows on the subject are softened to some degree .i.e. fill…The more one can soften the light on subject the better, so next step is to soften the source.
Turn the angle poise around pointing away from the subject angled 45 degrees up, then place a piece of white card in front of it reflecting the light back toward the subject - hey presto softer light -much softer. Soften things even more by playing with more fills on the other side of the subject too. A good soft result, not so dramatic perhaps, but eminently flattering.
I hasten to add at this point that I have done fashion shoots in the past using just harsh direct light, emulating movie-lighting of the 30’s, and achieved gorgeous results. It all comes down to control i.e. positive decision making rather than negative.
Play with this studio lighting setup in miniature until you get a feel for it. There are so many possibilities…
Try this too…
Shine two lamps at the center of your background, one each side, angled at 45 degrees to the plane of the background. Make sure that your subject is flagged to stop any light falling directly onto it. How? Place black card (flags) on each side of the subject (slightly back of the subject) showing the background clearly but not allowing light from the lamps to spill onto the sides of the subject. Now place two pieces of white card in front of the subject facing the background. Leave a small gap to shoot through.
Result?
A subject only lit by backlight and reflected light from the card in front. It’s a really good way to produce a backlit daylight feel. I use it all the time with studio shots of people. It can be fantastically flattering, if done well.
Play! Play lots. Light control is very satisfying when you get the hang of it.
To learn how to translate this lighting control to daylight conditions and to find out more about flags, scrims and other goodies, keep a lookout for Flower Pictures - A Mild Obsession #4.
Remember always - good lighting is good lighting period. Sounds obvious, I know, but real easy to forget.
See the beauty!
Copyright 2005 Patrick Heathcock
Sometime commercial photographer London, fulltime flower art photographer and web designer living in the southern semisphere, soaking up the sun. Visit A Flower Gallery to view the yellow daisy and more!
Worldwide communication is now available from our households - and so this is mirrored in the huge amount of blogs from individual travellers around the globe reporting from the nation they are currently residing in.
From tales about novice monks in Thailand to the gadgets found in Tokyo, there seems to be no topic that isn’t written about by these hardy travellers.
Such websites- often referred to as “travelblogs” - are popular with other travelers and people who have been to the country they’re reporting from. Also, travelblogs provide an inside view of the country for the people thinking of travelling in the near future, and so give them a preview of what to expect if they do choose to journey there.
These days it’s common to discover these travelblogs, and so it’s frequently not adequate to merely provide your views on the nation you’re presently residing in. Now there’s a need for blogs that pinpoint particular niches within the nation they reside. For instance, a blog about park photos from Thailand, or maybe a travelblog about the wedding ceremonies in Laos.
The majority write such travelblogs for fun, and a bit of attention, however there are others who earn money from blogging. Be it money through advertising on their travelblog, or for writing articles for other sites and receiving money for such work as they are travelling. If you’re travelling in nations that have low living costs, this can pay your way - although you ought to have a some savings and not completely rely on earning money from your website.
In summary, it’s a good idea to write a journal of what you’re doing when on your travels - as something to relate back to, and at the same time giving other people a unique glimpse at a corner of the planet they may know little about.
Experience Level - Has this individual snapped other weddings? Do they take photos for a living or as an amateur?
Photographic stylistics - Are the photos that you are shown, what you would like to see? There are “buzz” words flying about all over about photojournalism, conventional, classic candid, and so on. Do you like a mixture of black and white or entirely colour photos?
Truth in Adverts - Is this the lensman that will be photographing your wedding or will they outsource it to a assistant. Don’t be outraged, this passes off more frequently than you can think. Be certain that you know which lensman is actually going to be there and that you see HIS/HER work and get together WITH with that individual face to face.
Personality - Is the lensman that you see someone that you can get along with? Does it work?
Appearance - Ask the photographer how he/she intends to dress. Is this individual well groomed?
Cost - Although, the last thing you want to do is shop by cost, is this person within your budget? If not, are they worth the price difference? Make sure that you comprehend what all the hidden extras costs, including reprints and albums.
Delivery - When would they intend to get your trial impressions back, thank you cards, your final album, your bridal portraiture, etc.?
Offering - Whether it’s a la carte or a package, do you comprehend what you are getting? Is there any room for changes and will it cost to do so? Sometimes the packages are fixed, sometimes they can be customized, in any case, ask. How much time will he/she use? What if you ask for more time? Ensure that you know what’s coming.
Contract - Do you comprehend the contract. Is it fair? Is everything spelled out? When it comes down going to court, only what is WRITTEN really counts, not what was promised. Make sure that you have no doubts before ordering. Read it ALL.
What about deposits and payments? What does it state about cancellations and the photographer not being there? If the photographer protests, ask him why? This is one area you mustn’t take lightly. You may be upset for a long time.
References - Word of mouth is always the best and other brides love to talk. Get a list of references from the lensman and research them out personally. A lensman who doesn’t have references or is scared to give them to you may not be the person that you need to hire.
Go to Diane Frances website for more information on a Hampshire photographer
