New Year's Day Wedding

Congratulations goes out to Christie and John Cox, Jr. who were married on New Year's Day at the Beachcomber Resort in Pompano Beach. This was the first wedding of the year for me and Dana, and we could not have asked for a more perfect couple to kick out the 2009 year for Portrait Corner Studio.

The amazing story behind Christie and John's breakfast wedding is that I never met them in person until the morning of the wedding (8:30am). Christie discovered me on the Internet, checked out my website, liked what she saw, and booked us. She and John live in Virginia and our South Florida weather was PERFECT (except for a little "dress blowing" breeze) for their wedding day. Dress attire was casual for their beach ceremony and surprisingly not many folks were up and out on the beach. Check out the panorama image below that I created during the ceremony.

The wedding party consisted of Christie, John, and Hope (Christie's 7-year old daughter). The event was quite intimate, with mostly family as guests, and that allowed Dana and I the opportunity to get to know Christie, John, and Hope better. I want to thank Christie for recognizing the quality of our work and trusting our integrity to cover her wedding day. I know she will be pleased with the images we created for her.

Hope is the cutiest flower girl I've meet.

Christie and Hope are best of friends.

Grandparents with Hope.Christie's parents give her kissing
lessons before the ceremony.

This is what 7-year olds do when
on the beach and they're bored.

Panorama of the ceremony...minus people!

Christie's family.

John's family.

Normally, I shoot this shot with just the bride & groom's

ring hands, but I couldn't omit adding Hope's little hand this time.

Location: Beachcomber Resort

More of Jaime...

Several blogs back I posted images of Jaime. Once as she was performing at a concert in Miami and the second time on a green sofa in a next door neighbor's business. Since then we've had the opportunity to work together again on another brief photo shoot. This time we chose two local venues that were just around the corner from the studio: The front porch of the Dania Chamber of Commerce and an Italian bistro restaurant (Tuscany Caffe) just across the street from the Chamber. Both facilities are located at W. Dania Beach Blvd. and SW 1st Avenue.

I asked Jaime to bring along two outfits and she made some great choices that worked well with both locations. For the first set of images in the chair and laying against the wall I used both a small strobe and a silver reflector to add fill light into Jaime's face. She was back lit and this was the best way to illuminate her face which was virtually in shadows. The other set of Chamber images were created with available light and a silver reflector held by Dana off to the side.

Finally, the images at the restaurant were created entirely with available light and a small silver reflector that Dana used outside the restaurant to bounce light back into Jaime's eyes. The owner of Tuscany,(Amedeo Paparoni), gave us free use of his restaurant (in between customers) and invited us to come back again for a future photo session. I think his staff and customers enjoyed the session more than Jaime; she did draw a crowd. I wonder why?

A small flash mounted on the camera provided fill light.

Post-production enhancements
gave a glow to this image.

A good knowledge of sun and flash synchro techniques
are paramount when shooting in bright sunlight.

I LOVE tight face shots that
draw you into the subject's eyes.

I used the front door of the restaurant as a simple backdrop.

An opened front door, a chair, and soft
lighting provided an awesome shot.

This image and the remaining images were
all created by sunlight coming in
through the opened front door.

This outfit worked well in the warm colors
of the restaurant's interior.

There were tons of great shots of Jaime
on this shoot, but this is my favorite.I told Jaime just to chill....

A great ole fashion look!

To see how the restaurant images were made,
click on this youtube link: PAW6110

Don't forget to give a good rating or and a comment if you like the video.

Jaime gets better with each photo session we have, so I'm hoping to use her often as we practice lighting, posing, and camera techniques. Then I'll share them with my clients and fellow photographers. There's nothing like having a model who works well with you and your ideas.

Enjoy!

Willie


Location: Dania Beach Chamber of Commerce & Tuscany Caffe
Camera: Canon 30D with 70-200mm IS lens
Flash: Canon 580EX II
Pizza: Tuscany Caffe