Huge wedding blog and the "Thunderstorm Street Session"!

Over the years of shooting weddings, I never really had a strong desire to bring on a second photographer - but that definitely changed recently when a couple of very good (photographer) friends joined in the fun! Part of my issue in the past was finding others that "made sense" both in style and how you interact with each other. I've known plenty of photographers over the years that just "hire on" someone who can shoot competently...but that wasn't enough for me.

First up was me second shooting for Deanna Keeton. The results worked out extremely well - so much so that we ended up deciding to help each other out for the rest of the year whenever our booked dates didn't conflict. Right behind that weekend was Chris Mathews second shooting for me at Kate & Jason's wedding. Both of those experiences just made perfect sense given not only their talent in shooting, but also how each of us worked together as a team. Our agreement between us has been to just let the second shooter "shoot away" - just look for the cool stuff! Of course the having two people in two different places comes in handy too! Here's one example that Chris shot from the balcony at Kate & Jason's wedding while I was down front capturing the processional...

In addition to capturing the bride and groom - we're capturing each other a little bit too - and also doing some experimenting with little video clips we can incorporate into some slide shows later (in all of my lack of free time!). I'll be uploading some of the results to YouTube a little later this summer. That being said - here's a nice little update of some recent images! Here's a couple of shots Chris took of me while shooting.... It's good to give a little direction every now and then! Especially to the guys!

Next up was me second shooting for Deanna again for a couple more weddings...first was Mandy & Chad - and they were phenomenal! we could have just kept shooting the two of them all day long!...and they were up for it too....let's face it - Mandy is gorgeous - and can handle the tight close-ups with ease - so I took advantage of that quite a bit!

We worked this small stairwell pretty good that had some great light coming in - Deanna grabbed this one of me doing some solo shots of Mandy - I remember at one point nearly climbing the wall to try and get the angle I wanted...

Here was one result....

We kept Mandy working for quite awhile - and Deanna took this killer shot of her...

Another quick grab shot...

Right after the ceremony we followed them into their little hideaway room - I got there just after Deanna and saw this little opportunity as she shot away...



With things in bloom...we worked them a little more.... :)

Sensing just how open these two were to ideas...Deanna turned to me and asked if I thought they might be up for some shots in the old cemetery next to the church...I must admit I hesitated a bit! But before I knew it she was asking Mandy and her eyes lit up! "Sure!, let's go!" Here's one of Deanna's....

Then it was my turn as we went back into the church to gather our stuff and head to the reception..."..one more idea!" The room the guys got ready in had christmas lights hung up in it - I couldn't resist the temptation!



Well, a little later I was helping Deanna again at the "cute" little Willow Tree Inn bed & breakfast north of Dayton in Tipp City. Lots of opportunity all over the place! Brick and wood...cute grounds, a bridge..and killer light in the barn where the reception was! The cake shot really captured the feeling of the reception light...

Once again...handling two places at once...while Deanna handled the front view of the processional - I followed Erin and her dad as they neared the center aisle...

Great moment with Erin's mom....



...some good goofing off too!

Here's Deanna showing her talent of smiling and joking while trying to herd family members and bridal party!!!

Erin dancing with her father...(the tough part for us dad's with girls..)

Of course you've got to make good use of any tree lined entrance way!

I LOVE to break rules and take chances....so when I saw not only one set of windows I could shoot the two of them through - but TWO - I had to try it.... :)

There was also this killer red barn that had it's wood slats sagging big time!

The reception just had this incredible light to it....it helped to make for a memorable boquet toss too...this bridesmaid literally nearly jumped right out of her dress to get the boquet! I loved the other looks and background action on this one - a true HCB "decisive moment"!

I really love "rough" b&w shots like this one of Erin dancing....again - the light really lent itself to that kind of style....



Then a couple weekends ago I had a nice little "Street Session" with Misty & Jeremy here in Dayton. The cool thing was I finally got to have a Street Session end in the rain too...short lived but still cool. Here's a few samples.....

Just a couple days before the shoot - I had heard that our "Riverscape Fountains" were up and running again (they've had issues since they were built). They are actually five fountains (literally fire boat nozzles) that combine in the middle of the rivers at downtown Dayton to form what is considered to be the world's largest outdoor fountain (last I heard anyway). We were around when they went off - so I was able to play around a little bit....I didn't have quite the angle I wanted to really showcase the fountain the way I wanted too - that will take some special planning some other time....

Weather held together for us pretty well...even though we were supposed to get some rain moving in. As it got dark storm clouds were building pretty good...but I really wanted to end our session in the historic Oregon District...we saw a little bit of lightning in the distance - but headed the few blocks over there to see if we could squeeze it in. Right after we got out of our cars - the wind blew up BIG TIME! Apparently 50 mph gusts as I learned later...I gave them the option to call it a night - but they said "whatever you think"....I said "let's shoot!" It was potentially getting pretty nasty fast - so we did a few shots under a train trestle next to where we parked - a good safe spot to start with until we could read the weather a little better!

After a few shots it looked "reasonably" safe... :) So we went on our merry way down the street...I had to hit the good ol' Bonnett's Books and their cool little doorway....

At this point it was obvious we were going to have a bit more of a storm...so we started heading the couple blocks back to the cars as the lightning increased...

Then I saw a little more "cool light" so I had them stop one more time..even though I got a couple decent "straightforward" cool shots - I also got a couple ultra low detail shots that I absolutely love...

I also got their reaction as the lightning intensified.... :)

(you know I'm loving this by now, right?)

Earlier in the night (when the weather was fine) I told them how badly I would love to do a Street Session in the rain - I just thought that would be so cool! As we headed back to the cars - it started to very lightly rain and I turned to them and said: "You realize that if it starts pouring before we reach the cars I'm going to ask you to stand out in it while I shoot away don't you?"....Jeremy said "We'd do it..." No sooner did he say that as we were a few feet from the cars and it started to pour....and away we went! We shot for maybe 5 minutes was all - rattling off a couple dozen or so frames...it was great practice...for the next time.. :)