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

Sofia and Derrick Engagement

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Here’s an engagement we did right before Christmas (I know I am so lame for not posting sooner but I had gifts to wrap!). Sofia and Derrick were AWESOME! They were so creative and full of great ideas, we spent a ton of time shooting, it slipped away too quickly.

We started on on South Congress and slowing made our way north.

I thought the sky came out great in this one.

The firemen's tower on Lake Lady Bird (or is it Lady Bird Lake?)

This was cool, this one was actually a light test for a shot to be done in the middle of the intersection but I think this one turned out better.

This might be my favorite out of the shoot.

http://www.mikereedphoto.com

365 Project Update

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Long time readers may recall way back on the 1st of January (was that only 17 days ago???? seems a little longer) that I committed to doing a 365 project, one new picture a day for the next year and no five picks on Monday to cover the week, a legit new image everyday. So far so good! I’ve learned a lot in just a short time, it’s been a great excuse to try new light set ups, to push my natural light shooting creativity and here’s one that’s had a big impact as well... post production. Shooting weddings, bridals and engagements, when I come back from a shoot I process a ton of images, a wedding can yield 800-1300 frames. The goal of all good photographers is to get it right in the camera so post production (Photoshop and Lightroom) is a simple color tweak and sorting out the wheat from the shaft. Here’s the cool part about the 365 project, I’m shooting 2 to 12 images which has give me time to go into Photoshop and/or Lightroom to experiment with different processing techniques.

Here’s one of my favorites so far, I think it was from the 7th of January (January - duh), but this a windmill off of Palmer between McNeil and MoPac. I’ve passed it hundreds if not thousands of times and alway thought I’d like to shoot it. Well it was FREEZING that day, it was sooo cold the first frame I fired off was under exposed, a quick adjustment and I got this one (with a little Photoshop love). I had run back to the car before I could get a third on account I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore.

http://www.mikereedphoto.com

New Logo

After much thought and lots of versions I proud to unveil the new logo, hope you like it! Now if I can just figure out how to change it on www.mikereedphoto.com .

Erica and Justin

This was a great wedding I shot a couple of months ago BUT never blogged it which is ironic because it’s some of my favorite photojournalistic work of the year! Erica and Justin were a fun couple to work with, they both live in Dallas and were married in San Antonio. Funny they both went to elementary school together in San Antonio but didn’t start dating until they found each other in Dallas. The church they were married in was amazing and I’m not over stating that, if they film a movie in San Antonio and needed a church THIS would be that church... oh and the reception rocked as well!

***Click on any of the images to see a larger version***

I could start off by saying this is one of my favorites (which it is) but I really liked/loved all the ones on this post for different reasons. I liked this one because the lighting was great, the action, the way Erica's hair fell to one side and the people in it. It's mom and little sister/maid of honor helping the bride-to-be.

This is a little more "standard" shot, it's a great point of view to slide out into the middle of the isle during the ceremony but the composition and light were good.

Great light all over this church (serious it's movie quality!) and I like the fact I was able to get in front of the couple, which is tough to do regardless if the ceremony is inside or outside.

I liked the action and expression in this one.

OK you got me this one is posed but I'm a sucker for wood doors.

This one wasn't posed, I forgot what we were waiting for but it's funny how a random moment will produce some of the best images.

Little sister again, the reception was downtown and no where for the limo to park. This is our lovely maid of honor waiting on the street corner with snacks in hand for the newly married couple (they were starving).

Down on the dance floor.

No idea who this dude was and I pretty sure this is the only pic I got of him.

I'm guessing Justin was tired of me by the end of the night popping out from behind the potted plants and surprising him.

Sisters on the dance floor.

http://www.mikereedphoto.com

365 and Happy New Year

OK along with the slew of New Year resolutions comes yet another and although it’s not very original it’s been a great exercise so far. I’ve committed to do a 365 project which is a picture a day every day for an entire year. At first it doesn’t sound that, challenging a picture a day but I’m after a little personal growth so the image will be more than just a snap shot here and there (that being said I’m sure throughout the year a snap shot or two will sneak in there).

What brought this all on is my oldest son is in Kindergarten and he had a project due that required a picture of him. Easy enough considering his dad is a photographer but of course we waited until the night before it’s due. As I rummaged through some old portfolio work from school looking for a single piece of photo paper to make his print (I found two!) I realized when I was in school I was really pushed to make good compelling images. This isn’t to say I don’t think I take compelling images for weddings, I do (at least in my humble opinion... I really like what I shoot!), I just don’t get out and shoot like I used to (outside of weddings, bridals and engagements). I think is mostly because I’ve been shooting a wedding just about every weekend with engagements and bridals during the week, which is great! (Thanks to all the great couples in 2009.) Now it’s time to grow a little more and just after three days it’s paying off dividends. Here’s the first two days.

Oh and a side, these images are OK but they are not killer make a portfolio image and I had to (very) quickly come to terms to that an image a day there will be some so-so ones.

New Years night, this was one of our favorite bottles of wine and Elyse was savvy enough two years ago to stow away a few bottles for a special occasion (they don’t make it anymore). Only one more to go.

Little Buddy, this one was easy to shoot all natural light in a gym it was in post production (Photoshop in this case) is where the learning experience came.

http://www.mikereedphoto.com

Sun Shining Day

Here’s a little sunshine to brighten a cold wet winter’s day. Oh and they happen to be Heather and Reagan’s engagement pics as well! These first few were my favorite and we almost didn’t get them. It was one of those things we had just wrapped up and were heading home when this field and setting sun appeared out of nowhere, seriously neither the field or sun were there before... really!

This barn was great, it had a ton of cool stuff inside as well!

We shot at Pioneer Farms, tons of cool houses to shoot around and inside of.

Had to get the boots.

http://www.mikereedphoto.com