The little moments…

So this was later in the night on Maria and Jirka’s wedding day… The lovebirds actually spent much of the night off the dance floor talking to guests.  But for this quick candid moment, they both were passing by each other, through the dance floor, at the same time.  Everyone was busting a move (including both bridesmaids behind them and the mother of the bride, on the right… 🙂 ) – probably to something like “we are family” or some equally wed-tastic song – when Maria and Jirka caught each other and danced a quick 3-second romantic ‘slow song’ in the middle of the everyone else gettin’ down and going crazy…  I doubt anyone else there even knew it happened.

It’s the little moments like that that really get me about weddings.  Sure, the ‘first kiss’ is a great memory, but, for me, it doesn’t hold true emotion the way these little stolen moments do.

p.s.  I also like this image because it’s basically 100% straight from the camera…  Woot!.

3’s company

Spent the majority of the day traveling back to Minneapolis from Susan and Nates rockin’ wedding… (I made it safe; I know you were all worried… 😉 ).  Before sleep, I want to toss up one shot that kind of sums up much of the day:

During the first dance, this little guy decided he’d go run a quick lap out around the happy couple…  Lots of cake-fed kids made the entire day a blast and super unpredicatble; I love the fun kids bring to the party. 🙂

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Whirlwind Weekend.

My most fun engagement shoot of the year on Friday… Some more fun wedding photography on Saturday for a college friend… and I’m two minutes late leaving to canoe the boundary waters for a week.  Suffice it to say, only time for one picture… I’ll post more when I get back.

This was one of the first images from the engagement session, and from the moment the shutter tripped, I knew it was golden:

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Touching article…

In an e-mail exchange I had recently with another photographer (Rogier van Bakel) I was passed this article…   I wanted to share it with you all.

It’s written by a wedding photographer and contains some interesting, comical, sad, and loving moments. It kind of moseys from place to place over 4 pages…  but where it meanders is touching and thought provoking (at least for a wedding photographer like me, or anyone intersested in the business…).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/29/AR2007082902031.html

I really hooked because he starts by talking about the gripping fear of your cell phone going off — I’m so terrified of my cell going off, I don’t even bring it in the building with me when I’m photographing a wedding… so I could relate.    Here’s a couple quick snippets of the article:

“On average these days, one and a half guests will receive a phone call during a wedding, often smack during the vows, the inevitable tinny strains of Beethoven’s Ninth emanating, just as I’m sure Beethoven himself would have wanted, from the circuit board of a Motorola RAZR.”

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“…I received an e-mail from a photographer looking for an internship. His short note almost brought me to tears: “I come from Sarajevo, Bosnia, and my life has put me though many challenges. I am saying this because I have had the chance to see the worst in humans and was lucky enough to survive it. Since then, I have made it my goal to help people record their happiest moments, because those moments are rare and precious, and one never has too many of them.” “

That’s all…  no real point other than wanting to share a good article with you all..

Feelin’ freeeeee

My brother (and his wonderful wife) had his first child this week.  They are halfway across the country, or you know there would be photos.  Many congrats to them, and I can’t wait to see the happy family.

Another item of note: I had a Saturday with no photos.  But I was still at a wedding!  🙂   It was probably the first wedding I’ve attended without my camera in over 7 years.  Felt strange, leaving it home… It was also an odd feeling just watching moments, rather than capturing them.  Still fun.  Congrats to Cari and Alejandro – I wish them all the best.

Then this Sunday, we headed off to the fall festival and the Polka mass.  Good times… felt good to be…

I only tripped the shutter about 5 times during the festival before I decided to buy a bunch of nick-knacks… but I did catch this Polka man:

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Kimber and Tony

Tony and Kimber got married August 30.  Yes, we did ride a carousel (where I got yelled at for not holding on). Yes, we did line the boys up in front of the “Primates” sign (which seemed like the perfect place to line people up, even if it did mean I had to shoot into the sun). Yes, I did catch Kimber’s brother with an honest smile (even though he said I wouldn’t). And yes, this group knows how to par-tay. A solid Quad-fecta (is that a word?)… Score!

I’m trying a new blog image format… let me know what you all think of it vs the ‘old way’.

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