Adelaide wedding photographer capturing stories, not just taking pictures
Katie & Damian held their wedding in McLaren Vale – the ceremony was in the Uniting Church and the reception at Maxwell’s Winery just down Chalk-Hill Rd. Despite the rain they had a great day – a sweet couple with loving family and friends.
Katie and Damian met at a Poker game – Damian knocked Katie out. Despite this, Katie took a liking to Damian and the rest is history.
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Jeff had originally planned to propose a couple of times. Once he was thwarted by weather and another time by nerves. But finally he built up the courage to ask one night in their kitchen. Romantic!
Jeff and Jenny wrote their own vows. A few of Jeff’s words stuck in my head. He said until he met Jenny he thought marriage was only for the young and the romantic. But when he’s with Jenny he feels both young and romantic. So sweet. Even he shed a tear at his own words [or maybe it was beacause Jenny had her beautiful eyes fixed on him bubbling with love and emotion.
Jeff & Jenny had planned their surprise wedding (guests were invited to an engagement party) to be held on Glenelg Beach. The diffused light was perfect for wedding photography but the wind and cold made it impractical. So the wedding ceremony was held inside the Seawall Apartments on the Esplanade at Glenelg. We later took photos around the apartments and with Glenelg Beach and the jetty in the background.
Jenny made her own dress – up until the day of the wedding! And as Jeff is really into photography the “engagement party” had lots of great photos of the two of them. My personal favourite was the two of them lying tummy down on a couch on an Ikea catalogue cover.
This was also the first wedding [in the world??] where the groom’s parents attended via skype on an iPad (from the UK); ingenious!
I’ve written this article in response to a couple of people asking me how I shoot wedding cakes. Like nearly everything in photography there are many ways to skin a cat; this is my way.
Equipment: I use a dlsr with off camera flash (OCF) – some point and shoot cameras are able to use OCF, but most can’t. If you have only a P&S to work with, if possible I recommended placing the cake near a large light source, like a large window. Flash should be turned off, and especially in low light, place the camera on something to stabilise it to reduce chance of blur and so the camera can use a lower ISO, reducing noise and increasing the quality of colours.
Scene: If I can decide where the cake is – or the angle to shoot it from – I make sure the background is uncomplicated and not bright (a dark scene can be controlled easier). An old stone wall works well as its uniform throughout the scene and has a bit of texture. The ambient light I shoot at minus 0.7 to 2 stops of light. I use the camera and flashes in manual mode for consistency. And I prefer shallow depth of field in most cases – usually my aperture is set somewhere between 2.2 and 5.6.
Lighting: I place a larger light source (eg. shoot through umbrella) to the front and side of the cake. Placing the umbrella to the side of the cake casts a soft shadow on the opposite side of the cake adding dimension. An easy starting point to guestimate the exposure when using a shoot through umbrella is if the ISO is 200, the light is about 1-1.5m from the cake then aperture will need to be about f3.2, if you have one speedlight set to 1/8 power.
The last light I add is a “kicker”. I place this pretty much in line with the front light – facing the rear of the cake, and fairly far away (within reason). I leave it bare-bulb – so the transitions from the highlight to the shadows is abrupt. I try to hide this light behind a corner so the light isn’t spilling into the field of view of the camera causing flare/ghosting. When corners aren’t accessible a gobo is necessary.
Recap – nice background, ambient about 1 stop underexposed, soft light front , hard light back, fairly shallow DOF. Different angles/details. Voila.
Ambient light and 2 OCF’s introduced (slightly overexposed and distracting chairs and cross in background). This cake made by Sam’s Cupcakery:
Lighting set up – Marcus is holding my gobo (a cardboard box):
Three of the final wedding cake images delivered to Steevie & Shaz:
Example of using corner/wall as gobo:
Final wedding cake images delivered to Claire & Dan. Image on right shows Ayers House table settings in background:
All that’s left is to cut the cake – Dan’s cheering after battling to cut through the hard icing:
Please feel free to share your own tips/comments/critiques in the comments section below (“,)
I met Des & Yen at Lily and Aaron’s Beaumont House wedding. They left a lasting impression on me – genuine and down to earth. So when Yen called asking for a family photo session a couple of months later, I was all-too-happy to help make some photographs for them.
The adorable and slightly shy Emma was the star of the show; but apparently wont be in a few short months time – congratulations again, Des & Yen. They are also keen badminton players and administrators – keen to promote the game.
Wedding albums designed in Adelaide by me and hand-made in the US using Japanese fabric; it’s a global economy. The album maker uses America’s best professional printing service – ProDPI.
Flush-mount means edge-to-edge printing for brilliant panoramas and flexible designs. The smaller album pictured is a parent (mini) album.
They truly need to be seen/felt to appreciate their true quality, and definitely deserve a much better coffee table than mine to lay on! The swatches at the bottom are of all the colours available in Japanese fabric an leather. Albums can also be ordered with a cameo photo or text embossed onto the front cover.
Some photographs from the Clare Rodeo in Clare Valley, South Australia (about 2 hours north of Adelaide). This was the last rodeo event for this season. My first rodeo – wet my appetite. Fort Knox next, perhaps? 🙂
I’m not sure where to find the results from the night, but if you find out, flick us an email and I’ll post a link for other people looking.
