Epic in Shiner

Over the last year and half I’ve booked a lot of brides over the phone (a lot), I don’t know why it’s just worked out that way. Maybe I have some great phone voice that I never realized??? Anyway not to get off track, coming up in May two out five weddings will be of happy couples I never met before. Wow! The great thing is I get to trapes all across Texas... does that make me a destination wedding photographer?

So Carli and Claudio where a little bit different, Carli booked me a while back and I got the chance to meet both of them briefly about a month before the wedding so at least we weren’t total strangers.

The wedding was epic (they have the pose to prove it) and totally beat any expectation of a back yard wedding, wait until you see the “tent”.

I had a great time, the day and evening were perfect and hope to head back to Shiner real soon for yet another wedding.

Oh and did I mention this is one out of three Aggie weddings in a row? Don’t get me wrong I love my Aggies but for an Austin guy that’s pretty good! For the record my loyalties lie in East Tennessee.

Props to Barbara (http://www.barbaralegerephotography.com) our 2nd shooter for stopping to get this shot.

Getting ready with Summer.

The little blue hose rocked! We got a ton of great shots back there.

Summer's little girl rocked it out as the flower girl.

I really wonder if any bride and groom can actually hear what's being said during their ceremony? I recently celebrated my 10th wedding anniversary and watched our footage, it was a really good sermon!

This was the most fun wedding party I've seen in a long, long time. It was a lot of fun to shoot them.

In true backyard wedding fashion the bride and brides maids were barefoot.

The "Epic Pose".

Here's the tent from a far... it was enormous.

The best man was great, he was slaying the audience.

Claudio's dad during the speeches.

Oh and the brewmaster hooked Carli and Claudio up with their own special wedding day brew.

Kristen and Clayton Engagement

I've been looking forward to shooting Kristen and Clayton for a long time. Their wedding is fast approaching and it is always super-helpful for a photographer to build a personal connection with a couple prior to the wedding day. Kristen and Clayton were excited about shooting in the wildflowers! We don't have wildflowers in Northern Virginia so they are always fun for me to see and photograph even after being in Austin for 10 years (can't say as much for the 110 degree weather that comes every summer!).

I think this was my favorite out of the session.

Swing time with Colby!

http://www.mikereedphoto.com

Long Center Engagement

I am so psyched to work with Mary and Jamieson! From the first time we met they were so easy to get along with, we hit it off right away. Come wedding day something I am really looking forward to is the music! They are both deeply involved with all kinds music, and it’s my understanding so are their friends. Oh, and a bunch of them are performing the day of the wedding! I thought it was REALLY cool than they wanted to be photographed in front of the Long Center because it holds a lot of personal meaning to both of them. Stay tuned…. Mary has a bridal coming up soon.

www.mikereedphoto.com

Sunrise Over Lake Austin

Christinana and Pete are so perfect for each other, they are one of those couples that complement each other very well.

They meet over seas.

While stationed together.

In a Iraq!

What I thought was really interesting was our first meeting together talking about their wedding and I asked them from a photographic standpoint what was most important to them and Pete replied the “posed pictures...”.

Really?

No one has ever said that to me, now keep in mind almost every couple I’ve ever worked with wanted some kind of posed picture but without fail just about all of them were most interested in the candid images, you know more of the documentation of the day type of images. He wasn’t done “...because I come from a family of photographers who will all be hauling around their Canon 1Ds’ (it’s a $6000 camera) getting plenty of candid wedding day shots.”

Great.

A room full of veteran, seasoned photographers watching me, critiquing me... judging me. Their is a joke that goes:

“How many photographers does it take to change a lightbulb? 20. One to change it and 19 to tell you how they would do it differently.”

So that joke probably isn’t that funny if you don’t shoot for a living but it KILLS at photographer get-togethers. Oh and I am totally guilty of that myself, I’ll see an image somewhere and think to myself “Wow that lighting was weak.”, or “Boy if they had just moved a foot the right.” or my favorite “Who are they freaking kidding with that Photoshop job?!?”. Don’t get me wrong I see way more stuff that I think is really good but that still leaves me come wedding day in a room with what I’m guessing will be 3-5 REALLY good photographers and me. Then again who knows, I may pickup something new!

OK enough ranting onto the engagement pics!

This was one of our last shots and my favorite, we were right under the bridge.

I like the crop on this one.

http://www.mikereedphoto.com

Heather and Reagan's Wedding Day

Heather and Reagan’s wedding day was finally here! Heather (and her family) are from the same part of the county I am... Northern Virginia (it’s funny because people from Northern Virginia are VERY quick to make that distinction, so as not to be confused with the rest of the state of Virginia, it’s like it’s own little state or something. I never really noticed that until my native-Austinite wife pointed it out on a visit a few years back! I digress….

So, for the record, Heather and Reagan have been really good luck for me (or maybe it’s the other way around?!?). I have captured some of my all-time favorite wedding and engagement images with them. Their engagement pictures were great, we lucked out with this very groovy field at the end of that shoot and their wedding was no exception. Great location, the church was so cool,the time of day couldn’t have been better and we had such great light pouring in from the side windows!

As always click on the image to see the full size.

Amanda Pye is the "rock-star" of make-up artists! http://austinmakeupdesign.com/

We had dozens of great getting ready shots, but this shot I processed three different ways. This was a deviation from the standard color or black&white processing.

Very cool chapel!

All smiles on the ring exchange.

The chapel had tons of little nooks with great windows that let in very cool beams of natural light. PLUS that stone and plaster work was very, very groovy.

This is my favorite posed shot of the day, great light spilling in, great colors and expression. Heather you rocked it out!

I love this shot. The groom, best-man and I were stepping outside for some shots of them in front of the chapel, when I caught the bride and maid of honor in action.

These two were beaming all day, I never had to coax a smile out of them.

This is the first time I'd had ever seen this, they threw dried lavender!

Oh, and dried lavender smells really, really good.

www.mikereedphoto.com