Wedding, Ruiz style

Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. Ruiz. Shot their wedding a few weeks back. (yes, I know, I am always slow in updating) It was a fantastic time, if not a bit cold.


For this first shot, i had to pull a stranger to stand in the spot of light so i could meter off their face so i was ready for when she came by. Window light + happy bride = Happy photo.



Andrea's multitasking skills are second to none. Two phones? Are you serious? Some days i have problems with just one phone.



Yep, there are over 5 people attending to her at one time. Pretty much every wedding I spend most of my time with the bride, while i have my assistant shooting with the groom. It is always weird to see the photos of the groom getting ready, because he is by himself for the most of it. Don't get me wrong, tuxes are complicated things, but the groom and his groomsmen have nothing on what the bride has to go through.




If i see a small kid trying to climb up stairs to little effect, you know i am going to shoot a photo of it.



Panoramic of the ceremony. If you want to see a much bigger version, just click on the photo, and be whisked away to the magic land of giant photos.



As with the kid going up the stairs, if there is fire, im gonna shoot it.



I had the best man hold my flash so i could trigger it remotely from the other end of the limo for this shot. Soon after, he looked directly into the flash when i had fired it at full power. Flash tip: do not look directly into the flash.



As always, i need to bring out the stick cam. Slap a camera with a really wide lens on the end of a fully extended monopod and trigger it with a flash attached. The song was Shout, which is always great for the stick cam. You get people jumping up, shouting, with hands in the air. How can you go wrong?



And finally, the Mother/Son dance. I really hate on-camera flash, it is just no fun. I have a lot more fun throwing it behind people or to the side, and that is why i can get happy backlight like in this photo.

All in all, a fantastic day. Thanks to Clay Lomneth for assisting, and congrats to Chris and Andrea Ruiz on a great wedding.

Some corn!

Met up with Clay Lomneth today to go over some plans for the wedding he is assisting me with this weekend. And because we had such a great sunset, we decided to head just out of town to shoot some photos. The light was fantastic, when the sun was not peaking behind the clouds.

State

Shot some state football last saturday. While it started off with decent temperatures, it dropped about 15 to 20 degrees by the end of the game. Hooray for gloves and a stocking cap! Here is Aurora celebrating after their win.




Getting a decent shot of players busting through a paper barrier can be tough. You pretty much have to just jam on the shutter button and hope you catch the moment when the hit.

Late in updating

Happy Birthday to my Grandma. I went down a week or so back for her party and had a lot of fun.


Here is one of the two dogs who call the nursing home their home. Pictures cannot capture just how fat this dog is. The funniest part? His name is Flash. Here Flash is trying to beg for cake from my mom.


And of course, here is Polka's Greatest Hits, Volume Eight. Sadly, I did not get to listen to those great songs that everyone knows, such as Ping Pong Polka, Wooden Heart Polka, and the crowd favorite Too Fat Polka.

Ryan and Erin

Shot Ryan and Erin's engagement photos a week or so back. It was a great time, and they were fantastic to capture images with. When you get a couple together who have so much fun together, my job is just too easy some times. I'm really looking forward to their wedding in May.

Lee and Candace

So, this weekend I went to a wedding. For the first time in over a year and a half I did not shoot it. Let me tell you, it was a weird feeling. But, it was a really great time. Congrats to Lee and Candace. It was a great ceremony at Pioneers Park with a rather drunken reception in Denton.

I hate squirrels.

I carved a pumpkin a week or two back. The resident terrorist squirrels at my apartment complex have taken it upon themselves to slowly eat my pumpkin masterpiece. I had to throw it away because of the damage they caused.

Alyssa Garcia

Shot some senior portraits last week.

Killigans/4020

Shot a Killigans and 4020 show a week or so back. While it was rather dark, the lighting was really cool. However, not the same could be said for the acoustics. The place (the state theatre) is built like a cave, with sound bouncing off of everything.

Family time, ready for fall

Two family shots. First off, congrats to my little brother Jesse. He just graduated from SCC Milford and has a good job lined up in omaha. for now, however, he is bumming on my couch until he can move into his apartment.



Second, my uncle and cousin came into town for the vtech game. I met up with them beforehand. hooray!


That all said, who here is ready for fall? I know i am. Trees turning, temp dropping, the smell of leaves, pumpkin seeds, these are a few of my favorite things.

Last of the summer

Last weekend marked the end of a long and busy wedding season. I was very happy to end on the wedding of two friends, Eric and Emily. I've waxed poetic about outdoor weddings before, and I will do it again. Outdoor weddings are fantastic because you have great light, plenty of room for movement, and normally very nice weather. This wedding had all of those and more. I was also able to try out a new assistant, the ever talented and just downright cool Clay Lomneth. He did a fantastic job, and once I get done processing the images and have time to give his shots back, you more than likely will have a chance to check out his stuff at his blog, claylomneth.blogspot.com.



This is probably my favorite shot from the whole wedding. The look on her face as she peeks around the corner to look her future husband was perfect, and fantastic late afternoon light is always good.



Stick cam! Another fun thing with outdoor weddings is that you can slap a camera and wide angle lens on top of a mono pod, stick it up in the air, and shoot some really cool shots from way up high.



This is Eric and his kid getting ready before the ceremony.



Now, I don't know if this one is that great, but it has started to grow on me. Yeah, they are not in focus, but i really like the feel of it.



Cake!!!



This is one from the rehearsal, with the groomsmen. I loves me some layering.



Here is Clay wearing a suit coat that is far, far too large for him as one of the bridesmaids de-fuzzes it for the groomsman.



Eric and Em getting in an amazing 67 Firebird Convertible. That is one cool way to leave the wedding in style.

All in all, a great day. I still have hours and hours of post processing ahead of me, with a total of more than 7000 images from the day to sort through. Congrats to both of them.

Scrumpy Jacks

It always makes me sad to see a local bar go out of business. Scrumpy Jacks was a fun bar in south lincoln that i frequented, and i will miss it.

Fun with flash

The fun thing with a small flash is that there are many options as to what you want it to do. This photo would be completely different if it was shot with an on-camera standard flash. however, i placed it at a right angle to me, zoomed the flash head as far as it would go, and popped it at about 1/8th power. the good thing with zooming the flash head is that you get a much more focused beam of light. If it was shot with just a wide flash, it would not look nearly as cool.

Monkeys!

I went to the zoo up in omaha with my mother a few days ago. I love that zoo. This was the fifth year in a row that I have gone with my mom to the zoo. I have to say that looking at apes or monkeys is the best part.








This is a photo of my mom complaining that i never put up a good photo of her.

the ghost kid

Here is a photo from a wedding reception a little while back. i have had to do some heavy post-processing to get this to close to what i would like it to be, but i still think it is not that strong of an image. i just really liked the ghosted kid passing by.

shooting receptions down at the train depot in the haymarket can be a bit of a challenge. it is dark, very dark, and there are not many good backgrounds. but, i love a challenge. is this a great image? i would argue not, but i do not feel that it is a bad image.

Sports

Hooray for sports!