Tuesday, March 16, 2010 Posted in Weddings
This is the full post from yesterdays sneak peek of this wonderful wedding at the Mandola Estate Winery just outside of Austin in the Texas Hill Country. Aaron and Christie picked a perfect day to have their wedding. The sun was beautiful and provided this very nice, warm light for the ceremony. Aside from the standard giving of rings, they had a wine mixing and toast as part of the ceremony which really tied it all together. There was laughter, tears of joy, happiness, and a palpable sense of love floating thru the air. Everyone was in great spirits and it was impossible to find people not smiling.
These two guys were the cutest ring bearers ever!!!
Hope you enjoyed it; I know I did. It’s always a great time when everything goes splendidly. I just love it when I can look at the couple I am photographing, so much in love, and tell that they really are in it for the long haul; true life partners. I’d like to thank these two for throwing such a grand party and letting me help to preserve the memories. And special thanks to Mary Sledd for bringing me along to help her capture such a wonderful wedding day. It was grand!
Ciao
Your friendly Austin Wedding Photographer
Monday, March 15, 2010 Posted in Weddings
I had the pleasure of working with two very wonderful people this weekend. This great looking and über friendly couple were married at the Mandola Estate Winery just west of Austin proper in Driftwood Texas. I will be posting a lot more work from this wedding soon but just wanted to share this one image with you all first as it was one of my favorites from the evening. During the first dance, once I had made a number of fully lit images, I turned off one of my flashes to have some fun. It seems like the moment, the angle, the timing and the light all came together to make something really wonderful. More to come from this great wedding tomorrow. Peace.
I wish I had made this image sooner to make it a part of my post on Silhouettes and Wedding Photography
Eric
Monday, March 8, 2010 Posted in Weddings
As with most art forms, there are always good times to break rules. Whether it be lighting, composition, focus, movement, etc., it is sometimes a good idea to do something out of the ordinary to produce a photograph that is extraordinary. One of the tools in my bag is the silhouette and when the lighting allows for it, I do my best to use it. Silhouette photographs are strongly backlit with very little front lighting. The irony here is that this situation is typically considered problematic for photographers. Indeed, I long considered it the same until I had a personal breakthrough and began to use this “apparent” disadvantage to make an image that proved far more engaging and appealing than had I otherwise tried to shoehorn the scene into something that didn’t fit. What comes out of this approach is generally very artistic and interesting; not to mention that I absolutely LOVE turning a problem into its own solution 
I don’t do it all the time as that would diminish the effect. But when given a strongly backlit environment that works in this manner, I find it to be icing on the cake of already enjoyable photography. Not to mention I love the “ooo’s” and “ahhh’s” I get from my clients when I show them a wonderfully artsy silhouette shot when they weren’t expecting it.
With this in mind I think brides should pay as much attention as possible to how their event location will be lit if they are able. By bringing in colored wall lighting, you can change the entire look of a room. In some cases we will even use gel colored flashes to create this effect if desired. This will let the photographer work with the walls rather than fight them (nobody likes ugly walls) and the effect is fabulous:
Thanks for looking everybody.
Ciao!
Your friendly Austin wedding photographer – Eric Kotara
by Eric
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