In Knots...

Here I sit at almost 2AM on a Friday morning knowing that I've got about a hundred things to do before I go to sleep, and yet I decide to write myself a blog. I'm thinking about my girlfriend, the computer sitting on the floor next to me, some paperwork I need to fill out and send back out, photos that need to be taken, eggs that need to be eaten, my cat running wind sprints up and down the flights of stairs in my house, my parents 30th wedding anniversary this weekend, and lots of other stuff too. There comes a time in any photographers career when things are just overwhelming. Some of them find it at a shoot, some of them find it between shoots, some of them find it while editing. Honestly, I find editing one of the hardest things to do as a photographer.

(Nikon D3s, 200ISO, Nikkor AF-D 85mm F1.4. 1/2500th@F1.4)

Last weekend I was asked to be the second shooter at a wedding by my buddy Matt Stoltz. That's him arranging the bride and groom for some posed photos for the album. Great group of people, the bride was an absolute hoot. She was such a ham that even during the ceremony she caught me taking a photo of her...

(Nikon D3s, 1000ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2 with TC20eIII@370mm, 1/500th@F5.6)

My assignment for Matt was mostly the details even though he encouraged me to shoot it as I normally would have shot it. Honestly shooting a wedding with 2 people is about a thousand times easier than shooting it with 1 person. The shot above was from about 30 feet above, and the time it took me to get up there was enough that I'd have missed some important shots during the ceremony. Even though Matt told me to get mostly details, I still ended up shooting a few things just for the ambiance of the day.

(Nikon D700, 200ISO, Nikon 18-35F3.5-4.5@18mm, 1/250th@F5.6)

Despite my inevitable disregard for instruction; either because of ADD, or just my quest to take a memorable frame, I did end up taking quite a few detail photos that I liked.

(Nikon D3s, 2200ISO, Nikon 60mmNano Macro, 1/80th@F3)


(Nikon D3s, 200ISO, Nikon 60mmNano Macro, 1/80th@F10. Single SB900 Speedlight shot hard light over the straw hat and rings towards the camera set to iTTL +1, fired by SU-800 Speedlight commander attached to the camera)


(Nikon D700, 1400ISO, Nikon AF-S 50mmF1.4. 1/80th@F1.4)

These photos are all unedited. That's what I was asked for, and honestly I wouldn't feel right editing them just for the blog. Is this how the bride and groom will get them? I don't know, that's up to Matt. Either way, I was pleased with my shooting of the day.

(Nikon D700, 640ISO, Nikon 18-35mmF3.5-4.5. 1/6th@F6.3. Single SB-900 Speedlight with a full CTO held by my left hand to camera right set to iTTL -1.7 zoomed to 105mm fired by SU-800 Speedlight commander attached to the top of the camera)

It was a great warmup for Justin and Lori's wedding in a few weeks. Greatly looking forward to their wedding, some old friends of mine. I'm very happy for them finding each other. Really until then I'm going to be super busy too. Until then though, I'm going to go back to watching my cat run wind sprints up and down the stairs, and thinking about how lucky my mom and dad were to have found each other, for what now seems like will be forever. 30 years this weekend. Epic in today's society. More Soon.