Balloons (big ones)

About 98 percent of the photos on my hard drive are of weddings. My mid-year resolution was to change that. I want to take more photos for myself. Enter the Great Texas Balloon Race. Friday afternoon Adrienne dragged me out to Longview look at the balloons light up and stuff. She said "bring your camera and some good shoes."

Well, we forgot the good shoes, but I did drag along my camera. The only rule I had was that I could only use my tilt-shift lenses.

MMMMMM. Corndogs.

My girlfriend is so pretty, but I have to sneak pictures of her because she hates it.

I turned into caveman-Allen when I saw turkey legs. MMMM. 7 dollars of pure meat.

BEST. SIGN. EVER.

Now we're talkin'. Bring on the fire and destruction!

This balloon almost fell on us. True story.

This balloon almost ate us. Also a true story.

Amanda and Wesley

Saturday I drove to the edge of East Texas: Sulphur Springs. To shoot Amanda and Wesley's wedding at a tiny church near Cooper. As much as I love the excess of pine trees East Texas offers, it's always nice to see rolling hills and open country.

Amanda booked me about a month ago and I'm always nervous meeting a client for the first time on the wedding day. She was so great and so relaxed that it made the day that much better.

I love moments like this right after the ceremony. "OMG we're married!"

Amanda and Wesley did the "unity sand" thing at their ceremony. I used some leftover sand for the ringshot.

The getaway truck.

My weakness

OK, popcorn IS one of my weaknesses, but that's not what I'm writing about. My weakness is off-camera lighting. It's hard, it's frustrating, and many times off-camera lighting can ruin a photo.

The problem is so many people do it so well. The solution: get better.

As much as I work on my blog, my brand, my website, my image...whatever. The first thing I think about when I wake up is taking better pictures. That's numero uno. The holy grail. The big cheese.

To fix my off-camera lighting phobia (strobophobia) I'm participating in the strobist.com boot camp. Each week, strobist author David Hobby creates an assignment. Readers submit their photos and he chooses the tops for a photography related prize of some kind. Strobist has like 4 million readers from all over the world.

The second assignment (OK, I'm a little late to the party) is food photography. Click here if you're a photographer. If you're not, be prepared to fall asleep with technical stuff.

Here's my first foray into the strobist boot camp food photography: "Movie night"

MMMMM. Doesn't it look yummy!

For photographers:

I lit this with 2 Canon 430EXII speedlights. The back one was gelled CTB to emulate the blue cast of a Television, and the main light was gelled 1/4 CTO with a photoflex 16" softbox to warm up and light the popcorn. They were both triggered with PocketWizard FlexTT5 and MiniTT1.

I also used two TRA actions: Pool party and highlight separator.

For brides/couples:

The popcorn was yummy. Practically, the principals in this assignment can be used throughout the wedding day. From lighting cakes to rings to bouquets.

Wish me luck!

WEDGREEN debuts!

Click on the image to learn more!

Lindsey and Scott

You might remember this super awesome couple from their engagement session way back when. Thier wedding at the Belgium House in Longview was nothing but spectacular. Lindsey's coordinator, Hollie Wells, hired a lighting engineer to decorate the reception hall. It look so good even the BH people were impressed. Scroll down to see a pic.

Don't overlook lighting. It can transform a room from boring to awesome in about 2 nanoseconds.

(warning: Philosophical lovey stuff ahead)

I most often post photos in chronological order, but this post differs from that due to the first picture. As a photographer, I'm pretty limited to what I can show in a photo. 99 percent of my photos are of people's faces – people making expressions to show their love or whatnot. However, it's much more difficult to show what love actually looks like in a photo. Sometimes, you have to frame the photo so what's important is out of the picture. You never see their faces or their expressions, but photos like the one below sum up everything without seeing anybody's eyes. It's like a scary movie. Sometimes its scarier when you don't get to see the evil monster (like in Signs). Not that love is an evil monster, but it's the only one I could come up with.

OK, on to the pics.

This next picture (By request from the groom) is of the front of the Belgium House with the bride, groom and party up on the balcony. Squit so you can see them. This was before the ceremony.

Scott delivered a flower to this grandmother before the ceremony started.

Without question, at every wedding the bride sneaks a peek at her fiance during a prayer at the ceremony. I was just waiting for it.

A few awesome reception details.

Bling-ity Bling Bling.

Lindsey and Scott had an impromptu dance under the gazebo after dark. It was the most romantic first dance I've ever seen. Completely unplanned.