Well, not proper hippies, but it was very laid back and relaxed. And barefoot.

Thankfully I was not the official photographer, but I told the bride and groom, both good friends of mine, that I would bring along my gear and shoot some for them. I hardly moved around at all during the ceremony, but now I wish I had. The photographer they found had agreed to do it for free because he wanted the experience. As it turns out, they were very disappointed with every shot he took, so they were ecstatic when they saw my shots.

It's true what everyone says: wedding photography is extremely difficult! And this was about as easy as they come. I was under no pressure and the atmosphere was completely opposite of what you might see in Bridezillas. I made a lot of mistakes and it shows in some of the shots. But there are a few shots I'm proud of, and I think I caught a few genuine 'moments'.

But what really matters is the emails I got from the bride and groom after they saw the gallery. I post them mainly to brag.

Originally Posted by Groom

Wow Ted, thank you sooo much. You are incredibly talented and the pictures look 1000x better that ‘other photographer’. Would it be too difficult to get copies of them that so we can print some out?

-mike

Originally Posted by Bride

Ted,

Thank you so much!!! Your pictures are great! I am absolutely thrilled that you took these. AWESOME!!

Jaime

Anyway, here's some shots:
















And the gallery: http://tardypizza.com/Images/Mike&Jamie/

C&C welcome!!

I learned a lot in a short time about wedding photography. If I ever do another I wouldn't have any fear about being all over the place, in everyone's faces.

I have yet to process the shots after the fire dancing because that's when the alcohol set in and now I can't find that mem card (go figure). From my vague memories, after the keg stands and jello shots, we all ended up on the dance floor break dance fighting. My best guess is this was around 3am. The ceremony was at 7:30. Use your imagination...

The walking photo is soft, mainly due to what appears to be motion blur - did light start failing, with the camera compensating by lowering the shutter speed? The dance photo is a little whacky, but should be easy enough to fix if the original is RAW - just need to correct the white balance.

Out of what you posted up, the fire shot is by far my favorite, nice!

Way to save the day

Originally Posted by mkfotos

The walking photo is soft, mainly due to what appears to be motion blur - did light start failing, with the camera compensating by lowering the shutter speed? The dance photo is a little whacky, but should be easy enough to fix if the original is RAW - just need to correct the white balance.

Out of what you posted up, the fire shot is by far my favorite, nice!

Way to save the day

Like I said, I made a lot of mistakes. Like a dumbass, I didn't have the camera set on AI servo as the wedding party ingressed and egressed.

How is the dance photo whacky? The colors look fine to me. I know it's off kilter but the bride and groom are upright. I shot mostly in RAW so if it's a color issue that's easily fixed.

Originally Posted by mkfotos

Out of what you posted up, the fire shot is by far my favorite, nice!

Did you see the rest of my fire shots?

Originally Posted by tardypizza

Originally Posted by mkfotos

The dance photo is a little whacky, but should be easy enough to fix if the original is RAW - just need to correct the white balance.

How is the dance photo whacky? The colors look fine to me. I know it's off kilter but the bride and groom are upright. I shot mostly in RAW so if it's a color issue that's easily fixed.

Did you see the rest of my fire shots?

That's exactly what I meant, it's just that their skin tones look off. Try playing around with the WB.

Yeah, I just checked them out after you posted the question. Very cool.

Do you have a link to the official photog's site?

I'd like to see how bad they were...

I'll have to get it from the bride and groom. It's something like mikeandjamie.com but not exactly.

Originally Posted by jblaze5779

I'd like to see how bad they were...

I know! Because I don't even think mine are that good.

Dude, those fire shots are awesome.

Since I can't right click -> view exif I can't offer too much help with issues, but your compositions are excellent, especially for a n00b... When I look at the shots in the gallery they all look awesome because they're small enough, I'm just looking at the composition and nothing else. When I see them a bit larger here I see some technical flaws, but nothing enough to distract me, and I'm sure non photographers would even notice. Great job! What's the story with the cone on the dog? Just to keep it from chewing on it's flowers?

Gotta love kegs stands at a wedding. Looks like a great time.

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

Dude, those fire shots are awesome.

What's the story with the cone on the dog? Just to keep it from chewing on it's flowers?

Gotta love kegs stands at a wedding. Looks like a great time.

Thanks! And the dog had just had a $1500 eye surgery so the cone was not coming off, even for pictures.

And if you really want to see the exif, the images are here: http://tardypizza.com/Images/Mike&Jamie/images/

Eye surgery, what kind? (My wife is a vet tech for an animal ophthalmologist...)

Scratched cornea. They don't know what the dog did, one minute it was fine, the next it was whimpering. They took it to the vet and the vet convinced them it needed surgery immediately or it could lose the eye. Pretty serious ordeal for the maid of honor.

dogs can lose an eye and be hardly effected...
I wonder what the vet did anyway, as the whole pet eye thing is a very specialized world...

Originally Posted by jacobsen1

dogs can lose an eye and be hardly effected...
I wonder what the vet did anyway, as the whole pet eye thing is a very specialized world...

Yeah, the surgeon was a doggie eye surgeon only, that's all he does. Very pricy

ah, ok, then he's one of the like 250 in the world...
and yeah, when my wife got the job, I wondered how they could stay in business doing JUST that, but I guess there are pet owners out there with buko bucks.

That, and apparently doggie eyes tend to have dangerous run-ins with stationary objects quite often.

yeah, but they also don't need both eyes as much as humans do.
For people with $$$ they have all sorts of surgical options. For people w/o the $$$ losing one eye is an easy solution that happens often enough.

The bride kind of looks like (a young) Sarah Jessica Parker.

I like the fire dancing shots!

Originally Posted by banman

The bride kind of looks like (a young) Sarah Jessica Parker.

I like the fire dancing shots!

Yeah, she's awesome. She is a brilliant RN that is funny as hell and can drink you under the table.

And thanks for the compliment!

Thanks man!

Here's some more fire pics, I can't remember if I posted them anywhere.