Photography Workshop

There are so many things that I love about my job.  Above all ~ it is meeting and being with new people!  It always amazes me how different every family is, how unique each wedding is, and incredible family dynamics are!  I’m serious!  I love watching as  a husband (whom would rather be fishing) and a wife (whom has coordinated each outfit down to the socks) try to work together get their children (whom just want to run and play) in line for the “perfect family picture.”  Or waching a bride and her mother in law decide on last minute wedding details while the groom stands back longing for the reception!  Family interactions between new parents and their sweet tiny baby are priceless; and of course that moment when a bride an groom see eachother for the first time and everything else in the world stands still – – – those are moments that I live for – parts of my job that inspire me and keep me behind the lens. 

Today, though, I wanted to tell you about two other parts of my job that I absolutely love.  One is that I am ALWAYS learning.  There are always new techniques to get a partiular look in an image.  There are new skills to be mastered with lighting and my camera.  There are new, different, and/or better ways to process an image after I’ve taken it to give it just the feel I am looking for.  White balance, tones, highlights, exposure, posing, color, apeture, ISO, shutter speed, natural reflectors, etc., etc., etc., and the list goes on and on.  Well, this past weekend, my husband and I had a great opportunity to get away and travel down to Salt Lake City, Utah to take part in a photography workshop by Dustin Izatt.   Dustin is a man that, not too many years ago, was taking pictures of animals.  Now, he spends his time caputuring some of the most incredible wedding images.  You can check out his work here.  Throughout the years, he has worked and learned and learned and worked and now has perfected his workflow so much so  that other photographers are flocking to him wanting to know how to make it happen.   

Over the course of the day, I was able to soak in a lot of information, but some of the most valuable lessons I walked away with were in reference to lighting.  Photography is lighting – capturing the right light in the right place at the right time.  As a natural light photographer, someone whom prefers to work with the sun and the natural reflectors that God or man created in trees or buildings, I sometimes shy away from the dynamics that on and off camera lighting can provide.  Below you will see some during and after images using some new lighting techniques that I was super-excited to learn about.  Here is a picture that Stefan took of what the lighting set up looked like, and below is the image I took of how wonderful light can be.The next thing that I knew, but was reminded of over and over this weekend, is how wonderful it is to be working with my husband.  It started out as needing him to carry my bags, get me water, and remind me when there was a tree poking out of the back of someones head.  He was a second set of eyes – a steadier and more cautious set, I might add.  And now, he is someone whom I can trust to get the other side of things.  He and I very rarely see things the same (and I am not just talking about images)!  I see the moment, and he often times sees the whole picture.  He sees the gesture, and I see the emotion.  Take the two images below.  When I looked at these two individuals, all I could see was the soft and lovely moment that they were sharing.  Stefan on the other hand saw the incredible beauty of the city behind them and wanted to make sure that it was shown to share how these two were alone and “above” everything else in the world.  It is the same moment, but two very different sets of eyes saw two very different ways of showing the love between these two people, and how it allowed them to be in a world of their own.   So, below, are many more of our images taken throughout the course of the day.  Some of them,  I can tell which ones were mine and which ones were his, because I knew where each of us was standing, but on others, our style and our technique have melded together so much so that I don’t know whose is whose anymore.  I only know that when I  put them together, they tell a story.  It would be hard for me to work a wedding without him, because I have grown dependent on his set of eyes – his side of the story.  So, if you are considering Patchwork Photography for your wedding, know that there are always two sides of your love story, and we want to get both of them!