Photographing A Beach Wedding!

Portrait photography is not my first love.  I am happiest above the tree-line knowing I got there by my own steam.
So why did I shoot a beach wedding?  Many photographers support themselves with portrait photography.  It pays the bills.  It's a challenge, it's fun and people are endlessly interesting.  Luckily, I'm retired and I don't need to do portraits.  But... I'm finding out about the fun.  And I'm learning a lot about photography as I do it!

The photographs are my wedding gift to the bride and groom.

How did I prepare myself?  What are the major things a photographer needs to think about when shooting a wedding?  Here's the short list:
~ Know the sequence of events of the ceremony.
~Who is in the wedding party?  Who is family?
~Familiarize yourself with the location and plan your shots.
~If it's a large wedding you will need two people with cameras.
~Pray for overcast skies or at least lots of clouds, no sun (white dresses and sun don't get along)
~Indoors? Learn to use your flash well!
~Ask the bride what she wants and how close to them you can get.
~Look at lots of photos online for inspiration.

It was great and I had a wonderful time capturing their special moments.  The best part is that they love the photos!

Sheep - They Do Look Like Old Ladies in Night Caps!

In a little country town in New England lives a woman who tends her sheep with love.  The sheep, in turn, give her soft, albeit dirty, wool in spring, which she trades for wool yarn.  

I am invited to photograph her and the sheep.  I'll give her thanks and pictures.

I came the first time when the snow was deep and the sky overcast.  No pretty nature or travel photos here!  This is an environmental portrait of my friend and her pet sheep. 

It is time for the sheep to be fed out in their shed behind the barn where they live.  No green grass this time of year but plenty of light green grassy hay to eat.
They can hear us coming and poke their heads out.  Dinner time!

They can hardly wait for her to put the hay in the shed and start grabbing it out of her arms.
I found the sheep to be gentle and afraid of me.  They are very used to her and are like pets.  One of the white sheep is more curious and posed for portraits.

    

Eventually, they all settled down to chewing while my friend pet them and talked to them.

Spring came and the snow slowly disappeared from meadows and parking lots.  The sheep were shorn.  One early morning I came by to see how they looked minus their winter coats.
I realized that they really do look like little old ladies in night caps!

The Marsh - November and December - Vote for your favorite month!

East Meadow River Marsh: Haverhill, Massachusetts.  A beautiful, unspoiled and undeveloped piece of nature that became my photographic project for the entire year of 2014.  Busy Rt. 110 literally crosses over it on its way from Rt. 1 in Salisbury west through Haverhill and on.  

Every week (I missed a few, I admit) I stopped by the marsh with my camera.  As the year went on I felt a growing sense of propriety.  "My marsh" I would say to friends. 

Here it is!  My last blog post for the year - November and December.  Look back at the other marsh posts and vote for your favorite by leaving a comment!

Reflection of exploding, brown cattails. Nov. 4

Yellow leaves and berries almost gone from the oft photographed bush. Nov. 4

A foggy day, my favorite! Golden browns with a hint of green. Nov. 12

A dusting of snow and ice changes the scene entirely. Winter on the way. Nov. 26

The marsh becomes monochromatic in late fall and winter. Nov. 26 

December - will there be snow or a deep freeze?  Wish I could string holiday lights from branch to branch!  Or tie glitzy bows around the trunks.  What am I saying?  I love this marsh exactly as it is!

2 weeks later there is not much difference.  December looks like November! Dec. 12

A different perspective - all reflection. Dec. 12

Only the evergreens look alive.  Animals burrow under. Dec. 15

Dec. 15

The decay of fall is incased in ice.  Dec. 30

I will cast the first vote.  I vote for May!  I loved the changes that happened so rapidly in that month.  What do you think?  Vote!  What was your favorite month at the marsh?

The Marsh - September and October

September 16

Autumn months arrive and the marsh colors are slowly desaturating.  Colors are a little browner and the cattails explode in fluffy beige seeds.  The foliage starts to fade away as birds fly southward maybe pausing at the marsh for a day or two.  The trees are beginning to turn to their fall colors and I am anticipating some bright fall photographs.

September 16

The red berries have popped out on the bush that I usually put in the foreground.  This shot at sunset shows how much of the grasses are starting to die away.  

In October I ventured into the woods that are off to the left of the shot above.  It's a little easier now to make my way off the path and explore what the marsh looks like farther away from the road.

October 3

This is fun!  A new perspective!  Yet I am within 5 yards of the water.  I wonder what it will look like back here in December.  I will have to wait.  

October 3

Here come the reds and yellows in the trees.  A nice contrast to the blue water.  It's amazing how different this shot looks from just 2 months ago.  

October 10

A week later the marsh looks almost exactly the same in the shot above but now look down to the foggy day five days later and the trees have lost many more leaves.  Fall colors are rampant!  The berry bush in the foreground turned to yellow and red.  I wonder why the birds haven't eaten the berries?

October 15

October 15

When it's a foggy day just grab the camera and go!  Easier said than done!  I have gone to work or appointments many times rather than shoot.  But I love to shoot on foggy days!

These are my last photographs for October.  I planned a trip to Acadia National Park to hike with the family.  We viewed the Milky Way from the top of Cadillac Mountain.  Fabulous!  I need a lesson in how to photograph stars! 

Senior Portraits at the Beach - Plum Island, MA

Ever been asked for pro bono photography work?  It's worth doing if it's not your normal thing as a photographer.  Portraits are way out of my comfort zone.  But natural light is not.
I had a blast with my friend's granddaughter planning what kinds of shots she wanted.
We didn't know where to start until I found a great webpage that gave us 47 Amazing Senior Portrait Ideas at Buzz Feed by a Buzz Feed staffer!  She picked the ones she liked.  We planned shoots around those ideas.
This is our version of the beach idea we found in the 47 Ideas article:

I picked her up at 6am and drove to the beach as the sunrise was just beginning.  It was cold so we brought blankets and warm clothes for in between shots in and out of the water.

Did I mention it was cold?!  She thought so too!

We ended the morning with breakfast at Friendly's.  I had fun doing this with her and she loves her photos.  It was an opportunity for me to grow as a photographer.