Photo Station, Wedding
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When we arrived at Willow Lake Farm in Windom, Minnesota for Anna and Mark’s wedding, the photo station was to be set up in a small ‘milking station’ in the barn. The room had a structural post right in the middle of the shooting area and a board running over a trough in the ground. I knew this would be crazy-different than the first photo station I ran in a near-brand-new reception hall – but of course, it was still going to be a blast.
I knew from working with Anna and Mark over the past 9 months how important the farm was to them. It came up numerous times in our conversations while planning, from their awesome custom wedding website, to their engagement session photographs, the ‘Willow Lake Farm’ was a constant topic of discussion.
Walking around a bit, it became clear to me that even the photo station pictures needed to have a sense of ‘place’; an anonymous backdrop just wouldn’t be right. So I moved a few tables and some tools, and decided to use this gnarly wall instead. Everyone dug that idea, and I agree that it worked out amazingly well.
I love how the photo station really gets everyone’s personality front and center. And man, Anna and Mark had some ‘personalities’ at their wedding, for sure. Great times. :-)
Photo Station, Wedding
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Paul and I studied Computer Science together at the greatest university in the world (As a member of the Rat Pak, I also rooted Paul on as he played on the National Champion Football team in 2003 — Go Johnnies!). Ellen went to the sister school of St. John’s, St. Bens – the same school my wife went to. I knew Ellen would make a fabulously beautiful bride (training for a marathon the week of her wedding – uhm, wow!), and, of course, Paul is cut from marble. 
So when I got the chance to photograph their wedding up in St. Joe, MN (home of CSB) and the plans included a jaunt to SJU for some photos – I was more than pumped. And you already know all about the photo station.
The day was cloudless and sunny, and there were quite a few setbacks (94, the main route from the Twin Cities, got shut down for a bit; the flowers showed up late; there was another wedding at SJU when we arrived for photographs; construction up the wazzoo, etc…) but the day ended up being a complete blast. “Out of Control” doesn’t even begin to describe some of what went on. And, man, we got some astounding images:
Photo Station
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2 weeks before their wedding Ellen and Paul wrote me saying they wanted something a little different at their wedding. Not a photobooth – that’s been done; they asked me to come up with something a bit different. I said, “I’d see what I could do”; and then proceeded to do a giddy little happy dance because knew I just got license to do something really cool.
After reading the entire internet (yes, the whole thing), crazy scrambling, lots of time at internet stores, talking to other photographer friends, more internet stores, testing, trips to brick-and-mortar stores after I realized I didn’t buy everything I needed from the web, and even more testing… we came out with a photo station.
Here’s how it works. You walk up, a real life photographer holds a camera (and helps you look your cutest if needed) and clicks off 2-5 frames. Then, before your eyes have even gotten over the flashbulbs, the images quick pop up on a screen (already all cool looking – in this case, Ellen wanted a sepia-old-school type look – they looked just like this on the night-of), we pick one to print, and 8 seconds later you’ve got an actual photographic print in hand (yeah, a physical 4×6 print – how quaint, right?)… later, all the images are online for you look at, grab, share and mock one another with. It’s a lot like heaven in photographic form.
The bar, the photo station, and the dance floor were hoppin’ all night. Paul and Ellen – you’ve got some absolutely insane friends! I’m really glad you guys had me do this for you.
Seriously, how fun is this?!?! Check it out:
… and some of the really crazy stuff isn’t even here (my small effort to help keep the internet ”family-friendly”… hehe).
Photo Station, Wedding
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Just wanted to toss up a quick photograph from Ellen and Paul’s amazing wedding this past weekend before they head out on their suprise-location honeymoon. Their wedding day kept throwing us curve balls… remember though, sometimes curve balls are blessings in disguise. Case in point:
Not to mention, I set up (and then my assistant ran) my first photo station at this wedding. What a blast — Talk about adding fun to a wedding! Here’s one ‘sweet’ shot … more images from that in an upcoming post in the next week or so.
