Lisa found me and my photography through Facebook of all places – and she is a student out in Chicago. Her boy toy, Noah, was living out in California so we were all over the country on this wedding. We photographed their engagements the day before the wedding.

I hope to get out to California more often – it puts Utah to shame

Lisa and Noah's wedding at the Newport Beach Temple

For most of the portraits I am using my portable softbox with a speedlight to create these photographs. That really helps the photographs look perfect right out of the camera – and little retouching is needed. In fact I can then get the photographs edited and posted on SmugMug for viewing and purchases faster. I also had rented a Canon 5D Mark II while mine is in the shop for repairs. I did use my Nikon cameras a little bit – but I can create some serious magic with that Canon 50mm f/1.2 lens.

Lisa and Noah's wedding at the Newport Beach Temple

We only had about an hour to photograph portraits before heading over to the reception at the Balboa Inn on Newport Beach. So we made good use of our time and we wanted to get a few photographs on the pier as well. I would recommend a much time as possible for the photographs – an hour is minimum! We can create some amazing photographs we a few hours if possible. And if we can avoid photographs at high noon – even better. So if you are getting married let’s talk and find out when the best time of day would be to take your wedding portraits.

Lisa and Noah's wedding reception at the Balboa Inn

Lisa and Noah's wedding at the Newport Beach Temple

Lisa and Noah's Wedding Portraits at the Newport Beach

Abstract wedding photograph

Lisa and Noah's wedding at the Newport Beach Temple

Strike a pose

Candid moments for photography

Heading to the wedding reception at Balboa Inn

And now for some photographs of the wedding reception and some of the wedding details. The cake cutting even had chanting – they really wanted a cake smash and they were not disappointed. Both the bride and the groom were able to score some frosting to the face. And then they had some creative clean up.

Wedding cake

Cutting the cake

Smashing the cake

Cleaning up the cake smash

Cheesecake

And to round out the night was dancing, dancing, dancing! A perfect activity for any wedding reception and much better than the Utah tradition of standing in a line to shake hands for 2 hours. (In my humble opinion)

Dancing the electric slide

break it down

Wedding bouquet

Seastars indicate the assigned tables

And here are a few photographs from earlier in the day as the couple prepared for the day. Always photograph the dress before hand and any details you can. This is fly on the wall photography and ninja photography – stay out of the way and capture some moments of photojournalism.

The wedding dress

Bride's luggage

Earlier that day - the groom gets ready

Earlier that day - the bride gets ready

In two years I have grown as a photographer – my skills have improved and developed – yet I always get nervous and excited about an upcoming wedding.

So it will be fun to compare the photographs from 2 years ago with the photos I will capture and create in March. And of course it’ll be fun to be back in California – I love California.

Angelina and Nghiep's wedding in January 2008

I will be driving down to California – I thought it would be fun to have a bit of a road trip. I can stop in Vegas for a few photographs and I can explore spring along the highway. I am sure that if I travel more and more to other states to photograph weddings I may save time and fly. But when driving I can enjoy the drive and I can also bring more camera gear.

It is going to rock!

Mini fruit tarts

And with raspberries – even better. I don’t know why the Christmas season always makes me think about food.

Mini fruit tarts with raspberries

It is pretty simple – you try to capture the wedding like a fly on the wall. Or a ninja on the wall – I think ninjas are much more cool than flies. And this photograph was taken at La Caille – the bride and groom were listening to the traditional wedding toasts and they were picture perfect.

A casual pose at a La Caille wedding

It is a lot of fun being a ninja wedding photographer – and it feels like I struck gold with this photograph. A little Photoshop to turn it into a classic black and white and yay!

The wedding bouquet was just laying there, ready to be photographed

As a wedding photographer I don’t put the camera away until I am in my car. You don’t want to miss a shot. You never know what you might encounter on the way to the car.

As the wedding ends people are still in a celebration mood. Or in the case of the bouquet it has been placed there by the bride and I just dropped to one knee and took a quick photograph. I bounched the light on the wall to the left of the camera and BAM! cool photo!

So don’t assume the photographs are over as soon as the wedding is over.

A ring bearer acts as a second shooter in this shot

Ok, ok the little guy in the suit wasn’t the second photographer – and who can blame him for taking some cool photos of the bride and the wedding party. I had the opportunity to photograph with Heidi from Retrospect Studios yesterday at Noah’s event center in South Jordon. I love second shooting.

Second photographers can shoot from other angels, you get twice the coverage, the second photographer can shoot the mundane and mandatory photos and free up the first photographer to be more creative. And for the bride you can get a heck of a lot more shots or options for shots.

For the photographers you can learn from each other and you can bounce ideas off of each other. And if you shoot with the same equipment sometimes you can try out a new lens.

A bride and groom after their wedding ceremony

Here is one photo from my first big wedding taken back in 2007 – two years ago in September. It was a beautiful summer day at the Salt Lake Temple and the next day was the wedding reception in Vernal, Utah.

I know I have improved as a photographer. It is almost painful to look at old photographs, however, at the time I was doing pretty well. I had helped assist other photographers and I learned how they photographed around the temple ground – and I imitated them almost to the nail. I didn’t want to take chances or risk making mistakes.

The couple and the family love the photos and they will cherish them for the memories I captured. To me I look at the photos then as to the photos I take now and I see the milestones I have achieved. I look forward to the photographs I create in the future and know that I will continue to get better.

Photo Details ISO 3200, f/4.8, 1/15 second

Talk about having the wrong lens at the wrong time. I was photographing the dancing at the reception – while my friend Heidi left the reception for some photography down by La Caille’s pond with just the bride and groom. And as you can see it was night and it was dark.

When I went to go find them I was carrying my Nikkor 18-200mm lens. Had I known that they were outside – in the dark I should have brought an f/2.8 lens along. And I didn’t have the time to run from the pond to the garden room and back with the right lens.

The lens I had was good for photographing dancing – not midnight lighting. Oh well, I was able to work with the photo and make something cool. I had to crank the ISO on the Nikon D300 to 3200 (unheard of in the days of film). And the lens has Vibration Reduction (to help photograph in low light situations).

If I had planned to take this photograph I would have my Nikkor f/2.8 wide angle lens and one of my tripods with a cable release. I will admit I make occasional mistakes. But I know how to avoid them and how to improve – which any photographer should be able to do.

Golden light is the best natural light - perfect for photographs

Talk to any professional photographer and they will usually agree the best time to photograph is as the sun is setting and the light becomes golden.

Depending on the time of year this light my be as late as 9pm in June or 4pm in December. In either case if I am photographing a wedding reception I am watching the sunlight and when it starts going golden I will try and grab the bride and groom and create a few photographs. Obviously we don’t want to rip you away from your party and celebration for to long – but it is so worth it.

With this ring...

It pays to have a long camera lens. The most important parts of the wedding ceremony are when the rings are exchanged and the first kiss. They are also the most tender and intimate moment and you don’t want a photographer 4 feet away and blocking people’s view. So I will have my longest lens ready and capture the moment like this where the bride and groom lock their gaze and share a moment.

A note to the bride and groom – you can rotate your hands a little bit so that the rings are more visible to the camera. It doesn’t feel natural but it looks great and the congregation or the audience will appreciate it.

Another thing I love is the light – for wedding ceremonies the photographer is at the hand of luck it seems. If I can photograph without flash I will. And for this photograph the sunlight was amazing. In the photography biz we call this rim light – the light creates a rim or halo on the head (and shines through the bride’s veil).

Your bride does not have cooties! Put your hand on her waist!

To the Groom,

Your wedding day is an important day – and for your new bride she has been dreaming of this day since she was dressing up as a princess and wearing her mom’s jewelry. Don’t ruin that day!

If you look at the photograph above that I took you will see a happy bride and groom. What is wrong with this picture? The bride has her arms around the groom – she is not letting him go. The groom, however, has his hand down by his side. I want your hands around her waist constantly. I will try to remind you – but to be honest – on this day you should be almost groping your wife. Be tasteful – grandma is here with us. But your wedding day of all days is going to be romantic and your chance to be Prince Charming to your bride. This is her day to be a princess.

So get it right. Show your emotions. Kiss her, hug her, whisper sweet nothings in her ear. These are the things that look natural, they show you are in love.

Thank you for listening to my rant,

dav.d daniels
wedding photographer

A bride and groom and their first dance

The first dance is a tender moment – a romantic moment that gives the stage to the bride and groom. They usually have their favorite song playing. And this is much more romantic than the cake cutting. Food versus dance? No question dancing wins out.

As a photographer I want to capture that moment – and it requires holding the camera still – staying out of the way of everyone. And you want to light the couple with flash – but still capture some of the ambient light from the candles and the decorative lights on the building. That can be a challenge and fortunately most digital SLR cameras will do it. You just have to crank the ISO and use rear sync flash settings. Fortunately, you don’t have to worry how to do that – I have it covered.

The Rehearsal Hall at Sundance is ready for dinner

It seems like a rare opportunity to photograph the wedding reception before guests arrive. So often people are setting up silverware and place settings as guests are arriving. But I was able to snap a few photographs at the Rehearsal Hall in Sundance, Utah before guests arrived. The place was gorgeous.

This room was very dark when I was photographing. What to do? I light up the room with one of my portable strobe lights shot through an umbrella. It pays to be prepared – I carry 3 strobes with me – so I can light up anything. And then I went wide angle with my lens.

And now that I am thinking about it – I should have created an HDR photograph. I had my tripod in the trunk and I should have used it. Well, next time.

Grooms sporting summer colors for the wedding

This past weekend I helped photograph a wedding in Sundance, Utah for Nick Sokoloff. The morning weather was ominous and grey and I was hoping that the weather would clear up – and it did.

As second photographer my job was to photograph the Groom and Groomsmen as they prepared for the wedding and then to get some awesome group shots. This wedding was following the tradition of bride and groom would not see each other before the ceremony. So we had to be uber aware of where the bride, bridesmaids and Nick were at all times so that me the groom and groomsmen would not bump into each other.

And I love this photo because of the symmetry. And the classic summer colors are just gorgeous.

And I know I shouldn’t comment but something needs to be done to help the groom stand out a little. It is easy to pick the bride out from the bridesmaids, but to pick the groom out from the groomsmen is a challenge. Like Jerry Seinfeld joked – the reason the men dress the same is so if there is anything that happens to the groom the men just take one step over and the best man becomes the groom. That is why the priest says “do you take this man?”