I’ll post a more wedding spread kind of post in a few weeks but here’s a few.

The very first shot was this little spot of sun like a hollywood spotlight coming through the window just begging for a beautiful bride to stand there.

I gotta be honest with you…a lot of time I’ll walk around a wedding for 10 minutes with the rings in my hand trying to find something ‘different’ to do with them. The crushing pressure of creativity was no match this time. cake. rings. chair. lightpost.

To be honest with you, I think Trash the Dress is kind of a bad name but its certainly started a lot of discussion. For me it’s just a chance to shoot without any concern for the dress getting wet or dirty or makeup running or seaweed getting in your hair or...little toes almost falling off. It’s a great change of pace from wedding photography where everything happens on timelines and with such spontaneity. This is a bit slower and more methodical and starts only with an idea. It doesn’t get much more fun than this but when you shoot for clients who don’t take themselves seriously and just want to have a good time…its all just perfect.

This was yet another collaborative shoot w Jeff Cooke and I will tell you that he helped settle the question, “Should I buy some Prophoto lights?” as I watched his flash and pocket wizard slowly catch a little wind, a little current and nosedive into the warm, salt water. It brought back some memories and, since we’re being honest, made me chuckle as I realized I’m not the only one who likes to ruin perfectly good gear. (check out Jeff’s images here)

Never would I call myself a fashion photographer but its’ been where my inspiration has been creeping lately so I sent Sarah one sample image and said, “Let’s do something like this.”  Thanks for going along with it all Sarah + Adam.

ok, now back to other people in love…

Every year there’s one date that seems to have some sort of built in chaos when it comes to being confirmed to shoot a wedding that day. August 21, 2010 was that date this year.

The payoff was that I got to shoot for Adam + Sarah. This was such a great shoot…the perfect mix of ‘do anything you want Liam’ and stand back let it all unfold around me. The wedding party numbered 16 and while sometimes that can be a little chaotic…these guys were like water in a bucket. They just flowed well together and they had a lot of fun no matter how hot, sandy or windy it was.

I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head for about 2 years now. I’ve got a sketch in an old book from 2008 and the opportunity has never presented itself. On Saturday I realzed that Jeff Cooke was shooting another wedding down the street and the possibilities of ‘arm wrestling brides’ may actually work out. It didnt.

So I had Adam and Sarah in the bar, the wedding party was there and I had nothing but a 50/1.2 and some really really really low light…so I just thought we’d try a test shot. In my head this was always going to be two brides but its just one of those things.

My buddy “G” just posted a comment that he could possibly be stuck in a creative funk and I know exactly how he feels sometimes. All these ideas yet the struggle w execution gets you down. Just get out and shoot it G. You never know what you’re going to get. I love this image of Sarah and Adam and its the wedding party that makes it even better…and it was a shot I didn’t really want to do. Im glad I did.

Thanks Sarah and Adam (and the 14 members of the wedding party). See you tomorrow for the Trash the Dress session.

Wedding Dress: Felicity Bridal

The down side to shooting boudoir is all the secrets. Its seems like every shoot is a gift for a husband or boyfriend and so I can’t post any images. I sent Dawn an email this morning to ask her if it was ok to post her boudoir images and she replied within minutes with a big yes!

So, here ya go…

If you’re thinking about boudoir as a christmas gift…a nice little black book under the tree…stay tuned for Christmas Boudoir sessions coming soon. I promise not to use cheesy boudoir terms like ‘naughty or nice’ and HoHoHo.

Last week, before the sun came up and the rain subsided, Jeff and I hit the road for Chester. Holie’s family owns an old 100+ year old sawmill on their property and she wanted to do a kind of boudoir bikini shoot instead of an engagement shoot. The weather was perfect. Low lying fog that was burning off. Sun creeping through the clouds and trees and a beautiful bride in a brand new location.

Check out Jeff’s blog post here…Jeff Cooke Photography

I remember the minute Deb + Kevin walked into Uncommon Grounds to meet with me I thought, “I need to shoot this wedding.”

Spiffy. Thats how I would best describe then. Classy and sophisticated yet they still like to rock. The engagement shoot was incredible. My new friend Hollie from RCR saw the images and the next thing you know Deb and Kevin’s engagement photos are 50 feet high over Barrington St.

The wedding ceremony was at St. Mary’s Basilica in downtown Halifax and the reception and dance was down the street at the Westin Nova Scotian. It was fun to be back downtown shooting for a wedding. We kind of ran short on time for shooting, this is why Deb is holding a cell phone and talking to her wedding planner…with time ticking away I was making the most of anything I could get. The reward for getting back a few minutes early was a chance to shoot the room before anyone came in. Avril Mulholland from Update Events did the decor. I’m telling you, every time I see a bride walk into the room that Avril does, she cries. It’s crazy.

Enough rambling. Here are a few images from an incredible wedding that I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to shoot.

City Girl Cakes.

This image of Heidi and Jack kills me. I love it.

To say that these guys were a ton of fun would be an understatement. I love it when the entire wedding party is into the photo shoot…they had no problem screaming and yelling on the side of the road or tangling with the police or drinking schooner on the side of the road as Sarah careened down a hill in a shopping cart.

Sarah + Ryan are one of those couples where you just know they’re gonna be the old 70 year olds on Live at Five celebrating a milestone anniversary. They’re just perfect for each other and you can tell. So laid back and go with the flow…I was in heaven shooting for these guys and the setup at the Holiday Inn Halifax Harbourview was beautiful. There are a few venues around the city that have this incredible ambient light and with the addition of a few ‘up lights’ (ask your DJ about them!) and some colour….mmmm, it’s just amazing. I dont often get too excited about reception speech shots but the light was just oh so good I had to post a few…it helped that they were chalk full of emotion too.

So this is where the story takes a little twist.

I set up the Crazy Booth around 10pm and it was going great. Sarah was chuggin beer, the crowd was gathering and there was some serious fun being had.

…and then this happend.

For the record I don’t recommend mixing a crazy booth, alcohol, shoulder climbing and hysterical laughter. It’s a long fall from someone’s shoulders onto a cement floor and yes, that floor may pop your collarbone out of place and almost through the skin. It happened.

By fluke chance, Jeff Cooke stopped by just minutes before the fall as he was on his way home from another wedding. He lent a little moral support as I mentally drafted a letter to Candee, my lawyer (I’m kidding). His attempt to diffuse the situation went something like this: “Dude, I can’t believe there’s a woman lying on the floor at your crazy booth. She looks like she might be kinda messed up”. Anyway, it was a horrible scene and after some IV drugs, a few laughs and an ambulance ride we put the booth away and headed outside just to blow off some steam and see how many bridesmaids we could cram into a phone booth.

Thank you so much for all the fun Sarah + Ryan. Looking forward to out September Trash the Dress shoot already!

]]> http://appleheadstudio.com/2010/07/last-night-w-godfrey-elenna/feed/ 4 http://appleheadstudio.com/2010/07/under-the-bridge-downtown-vii/ http://appleheadstudio.com/2010/07/under-the-bridge-downtown-vii/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:13:32 +0000 applehead studio http://appleheadstudio.com/?p=1710 Tony + Mireille got married in Digby this time last year. It was a shoot I’ll never forget, taking photos on a rotten train bridge 100 feet over a river. Mireille was pregnant at the time. Since then they’ve had Nathan and Tony delivered his own son on the stairway in his house as they waited for the ambulance.

About 4 months ago I got an email from both of them within a few days. Tony wanted to surprise Mireille w a canvas and Mireille wanted to surprise Tony with a family shoot. I’m the worst secret keeper in the world and they dropped 2 on me.

This was one of those let’s just meet and make a plan kind of shoot. I was tryin to find the way under the bridge and kept ending up on dead end streets so we looked for the shadiest dude in the neighborhood and figured he’d know. he did.

I absolutely love shooting w these guys. I also had all kinds of pent up photography from not shooting the last week and a half…and I had all my gear back from repairs…and a spankin new 4th flash…and Jessica, of course. As we lugged gear out of the woods she said, “we should get a donkey”).

At the end of the night Mireille handed me her wedding dress and said, “Here, Trash the Dress”. I never thought I’d be the proprietor of 3 wedding dresses. That’s 2 more wedding dresses than Marcia.

So speaking of wedding dresses…

I’m currently working on a gargantuan bridal boudoir shoot with the insane and talented Jeff Cooke and Jason LeFrense near the end of August. As far as we know it’s never been done before…but we need your help. If you’re a bride and have your dress and you kind of feel like being involved in something that surely you will tell people at every wedding you ever go to from here on in…send me a message and we’ll send you the facebook group with the death defying details. There will be no dresses harmed in this project.