dav.d wedding photography

Ok, these photographs are not of a newly engaged couple. Jaala and Harrison have been married for 5 years. Five years! And they are an awesome couple. In fact right after this photoshoot they drove to Las Vegas to start a new chapter in their lives. I guess Salt Lake City was too boring, lol.

Their last set of photos were taken for their wedding – that was 5 years ago. Remember, you should get photographs taken regularly. The day you get married should not be the last day you are married. And I am more than happy to photograph you for years afterwards!

These photographs were taken in the spirit of an engagement session. We started off in Salt Lake City’s Exchange Place – which is very popular among photographers. We finished the photoshoot out by the Great Salt Lake – because I love to photograph there while the sun is setting. I brought along my large softbox to act as a key light for the photographs. I think this may become a signature look for me.

And to be honest a good photographer can photograph anywhere and anytime. We make it work. However, there are some locations that are just cool. Some textures such as brick, columns and such that make photographs just look cool. And Exchange Place has all of those textures in one place.

And the golden doors – I don’t know how often these have been photographed by other Utah photographers. But I will be hunting other locations cause variety is the spice of life.

Jaala and Harrison are also aspiring photographers. They photograph with a Nikon D40 and they are learning, a lot. At times I even get to play a mentor – which is awesome. I love sharing everything I know about photography. So when Jaala asked me to take their photographs I felt the bar was raised for me and that I had the extra challenge to really step it up and create some amazing works of art. I even gave them the original RAW files so they could experiment and edit the photographs themselves. And perhaps there is no better way to learn photography than to imitate and learn from others.

And for this photoshoot I used several lighting systems. I used the small Nikon speedlights at Exchange place because I wanted to have the wide open apertures. When we went out to the Great Salt Lake I switched over to the Alien Bee softbox. The softbox gives me so much power – I could light up a lot more than with simple speedlights.

The challenge always comes down to balancing the natural light we are given and the artificial light that I can add.

I think that for most of the black and white photographs I create I will be creating them in Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro. Instead of running an action I am taking more time into customizing each black and white photograph so they are unique. It is a little more time consuming but I think it is something that will make my black and white photography stand out. I can control the grain, the type of film that is being emulated, tone, vignette and more. And it helps to be selective in which photographs are turned into black and white.

And for every black and white photograph that is created I am sure there are 10 people wondering what happened to the color. In the “old” days of photography – when black and white was the ONLY option people would always ask what happened to the color. People expect color. And so when you find a bright red door – you are going to photograph it in color.

And I am going to guess the mother’s out there are going to wonder why I cut off the upper torsos of the husband and wife. Why? To be artsy. And of course I take photographs where I do show their heads. The nice thing with digital is a I can show both photographs.

And to quote Joe McNalley, “Light is the language of photography.” And photographers should learn to speak it well. I love to mix natural light with artificial light. And sometimes I will use just natural light or just artifical light. There are so many tools and techniques. It is fun to create something new and unique.

And this trolley is famous. And when we are in the area we might as well use the trolley for a photograph or two.

For photographers – one rule is to get close and then get closer. That works for the couple as well – get close and get closer! Hold on to her like she might get away – it makes the photos better.

Jumping. It isn’t for everyone. I helped photograph a wedding and the groom was not about to jump. And that is totally cool. Jaala and Harrison on the other hand loved the idea. In fact they jumped at the chance. Ha ha ha, ugh. Ok, sorry about that aweful pun. But ultimately photographs have to reflect the couple. If you like the idea or don’t let me know.

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Tags: engagement, great salt lake, Photography, salt lake city, salt lake engagement photographers, utah portrait photographers, utah wedding photographers

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Engagements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.