First solo wedding / formals

[Daniel Bates]

Hey all,

I shot my first solo ceremony and formals this week. It was a civil ceremony, so the actual wedding part was short and brutal (county courtrooms are not renowned for light or beautiful backgrounds). But we were able to visit the Capitol for some formals, and the late afternoon light was a pleasure to shoot with.

Here are most of the images I got... C&C would be much appreciated!

--Daniel

[AndrewCCM]

Daniel - You did real well my friend. Very nice.

[Michelle Allmon]

looks good, my main blunt-obvious-critique-type-thing would be you gave her ANTLERS in the last shot. yep you did. so now i have to punish you. in the chokie!! *points*

[ndsimm]

I agree man, good job and that sky really make a difference in the shots. I really like the BW shot. Just clone out the "antlers" and you're good to go

[LoungeLizard]

Overall a really nice job. One thing to be careful with is always using a low angle. I'm sure you got other angles, but your selection pretty much is "nostril shots." Be weary of abusing a good thing!

Great colors on the sky. Love the one in front of the building (B&W toned), but it seems a bit "glowy/soft" to me around the right column.

[photobykim]

awe, he's all grown up and shooting his first wedding.

ya did good! WAY better than my 1st wedding.

[Michael Lyons]

good work sir, i LOVE the ring shot!

[KeepsakeGirl]

my fave shot
you rocked this one!

[ngoduyviet]

Stunning pictures for your first solo gig.
Come on now, tell the truth, did you shoot weddings before? :)

[Michael Lyons]

what a perfect kind of wedding for it to be your 1st

[Daniel Bates]

I've second-shot three before this, so I've kind of done it before... but it's way different when it's just you and your camera.

Michelle--yeah, antlers, I kinda missed that. But luckily for me, I don't mind using PS...

Jesus--I do that a little too much. Thanks for the reminder... And that building one was saved through heavy PP, which is why there's soft glow on the pillar. I'll look into taking that down some.

Erica--Thanks! That was a pure snapshot--I didn't have my eye to the viewfinder at all. But it turned out pretty well for all that...

Thanks, guys! You have no idea how much this encouragement means to me.

--Daniel

[Michelle Allmon]

yeah, i missed it the first time you showed me... but i wasn't really looking it over then.

Thanks, guys! You have no idea how much this encouragement means to me.

i do, and all of you should know that poor daniel was talking to me very recently about hanging up his camera. YOU QUITTER!

[stargal01]

i think you did a great job, especially being your first solo and all.

[Liz]

You did a great job Daniel :) I also love the one Erykah pointed out :) Can't wait to see how you progress in a year's time :)

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Kid it was a stand up tripple just about 2 inches of clearing the fence for a home run.

I really like the B+W capitol (?) shot though it is a bit soft. Next time why not bring a couple down a couple steps which would bring them out a bit from the building itself and using some Brokah techniques to soften up the background-3ft more and a sub 2.8 f prime can give you a nice result, so what if you will have to lay on the ground to get the angle that is part of the JOB.

They should both be very happy with the results and I would give them a copy with and without the antlers-heck it's around Christmas time! Don't mention what you did and see how long it takes them to notice the difference or give them the unPS'd shot and see if they notice and then after a couple minutes say I have another version of the same shot and show them the deantlered shot and see which they like better.