Shooting (in a Good Way)

To see more info about Chris and Jill, see:

Jill and Chris Sneak Peek!
Jill and Chris are Engaged!

I finally finished editing photos from Jill and Chris’ wedding and it has been a joy.  The event was fantastic and I think the photos turned out really well.  Let’s start from the beginning…

Chris and Jill chose Cranky Al’s in Wauwatosa for their rehearsal dinner.  Cranky Al’s is an amazing little place.  In the morning it’s a bakery and coffee shop and in the evening it adds fantastic pizza to the menu.  Nothing like topping off a pizza dinner with and awesome donut or cupcake!  I can’t say enough about Cranky Al’s, although Al himself was in a pretty good mood that night.

The bulk of the wedding party stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel Milwaukee in downtown Milwaukee. It was an extremely nice hotel with some of the most interesting modern design and decoration I’ve seen. I did some scouting for locations for photos on Saturday morning and determined that I could shoot in that location for hours and not get bored. Unfortunately Saturday morning was pretty tight, but the family formal photos went off without a hitch and the couple had a lovely and quiet place to meet each other.

The wedding ceremony and reception was held at the Lake Park Bistro right on the shore of Lake Michigan. The Bistro is a wonderful little French restaurant with beautiful light fixtures, copper accents and a knockout dining room overlooking the lake.

The Ceremony was highlighted by a beautiful wedding party, a string trio that accompanied Jill’s niece in singing Ave Maria, some very funny and heart-felt vows and a unity candle that just wouldn’t cooperate.

The Lake Park Bistro really showed their stuff with the reception lunch.  Wild mushroom soup, coq au vin, beef tenderloin and pasta, followed by an apple tart…Sacrebleu!

Toward the end of the afternoon, I was able to steal Chris and Jill away and  I dragged them out into the 20 degree day for some portraits in the snow.  It was totally worth it!

Again, it was a fantastic event and I am so pleased that Jill and Chris chose me to document their day. Everything about it, from start to finish, showed their personalities and their lives together. The food was delicious, the settings were beautiful and people were delightful! Congratulations!

Rehearsal Dinner – Cranky Al’s Bakery Cafe and Pizza
Host Hotel – Intercontinental Milwaukee Hotel
Wedding Venue - Lake Park Bistro

I was watching a video from Jasmine Star’s blog (http://www.jasminestarblog.com) where she discusses using off camera and on camera light at wedding receptions. In the video she showed how she has her on camera flash and a pocket wizard in use at the same time. Her solution definitely works, but I thought I would share mine as well. I use a ‘Camcorder Cold Shoe Adapter’. You can find one at:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/179985-REG/Sony_VCTS30L_VCT_S30L_Cold_Shoe_Adapter.html

This adapter gets the remote trigger out of the way and has a passthrough to allow use of a tripod or my usual Black Rapid strap.  Check it out!

Hope this helps!

This weekend I was in Milwaukee to attend and photograph the wedding of my good friend Jill to Chris.  It was an absolutely beautiful wedding and I am so honored that they chose me to document it.

There will be a much longer post discussing the entire event coming up soon, but I wanted to put a few sneak peeks up as soon as possible!  Like I said the wedding was beautiful and I’m going to have a very tough time narrowing down the images.  It’s a good problem to have, though!

Much more to come!

Coming up next week is an event that I’m really excited about.  My good friend and co-worker Jill is getting married!  That would be pretty cool all by itself, but on top of that they’ve asked me photograph their big day!  Like I said, I’m pretty excited!  I’ve known Jill for many years now (time does fly) and was really happy to hear that she had been dating someone.  When I met Chris one night at Leff’s (love that place) I thought he was pretty cool and seemed to fit in really well.  Then one day while in Milwaukee I was talking to Jill and noticed a ring on her finger! 

The only problem with their relationship is one of small mammals, mainly badgers and gophers.  You see, Chris is from Minnesota and is a Gopher, while Jill is a Badger from UW.  That may seem like the end of the relationship, but they make it work

For their engagement session a few months ago, which was really just an excuse to hang out with them and have dinner and some drinks, we went to where they met:  the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.  It’s a great place with grounds that are really beautiful, and we took full advantage of it.  We made a big circle of the place and took photos until it was too dark to see through the viewfinder!

Jill and Chris were very good sports about all of the situations and poses I put them in, and I think the photos turned out really well.  On to the pictures!

Even though the wedding is in Wisconsin in January, I am really looking forward to it!  It promises to be a really wonderful event with lots of really fun people.  More to come next week!