A Wedding In Pleasanton

Here are some pictures from a wedding I shot, a few weeks ago, in Pleasanton. I'm showing them kind of small, since I'm showing about 20 pictures. I hope you can see them, acceptably, at this smaller size.

I hope you enjoy them. Any comments are welcome.

The Bride's fantastic dress:



The Bride getting help putting her dress on:



The wedding ceremony:



A spontaneous moment of them breathless, excited, and relieved, just after the ceremony ended:

A few shots of them under her veil:

A couple of the family shots:





A quick dress adjustment:

Some portraits of the couple:

The first dance:



The Mother and Father of the Groom dance, while their children watch:



Another shot of the Groom's Parents dancing:

The Mother of the Bride dancing with a Belly Dancer:



The Bride and Groom belly dancing together:



Of course, there are lots of other pictures of speeches and toasts, cake cutting, people socializing, and so on, but this should should be enough.

Thanks for taking a look.

A Metamorphosis from Nature to Weddings: Naturephore to Omniphore!

Mike,

So this is what happens in metamorphosis from nature photographer wandering through the plants, (barefoot to feel mother earth), to a wedding photographer; naturephore to omniphore!




© 2007 Mike Spinak “Passiflora” “Tendril and leaf tip”.




© 2007 Mike Spinak “Sea-Lions”.




© 2007 Mike Spinak “Brushing Her Teeth”.


Going from pictures of passiflora and seals and even a young child to weddings is a major transformation of vision. The technique of the “bare feet” approach, of coming on one’s subject gently, being thoughtful and having purpose translates well.

This is a California (Vineyard?) Wedding and you delivered! No one has ever posted so many pictures in one go! However, this is one special wedding and it shows. What a fun bride! Now where is she? I love that dress!

You managed to make that dress pay for itself in your pictures. The first, with the dress hanging on the wall is amazing. I find the lighting on the cloth, showing the dress folds, to be something like a bride’s bed in the morning with maybe underclothes and pillows scattered among the crumpled sheets.

Then, in the next picture, the dress frames our vibrant bride!

In the middle of all your series, the dress and the bride make a gorgeous white butterfly.

After that it holds this happy bride, with her husband so happy, beyond any dream.

You have made for the bride memories (and a record of her joy) and that is the job of the wedding photographer.

Congratulations my friend! I'm sure you spent 12 hours on this job.

Now you need to learn to get rich doing so, LOL!

Asher

Mike - beautiful images. Thank you for sharing them here and giving us inspiration.

Asher, you have a beautiful gift of eloquence. I love the comparison. Is a bride not a beautiful creation of nature?

Thank you, Asher. Thank you, Kathy.

I'm finding that, in one sense, the artistic vision with wedding photography is completely different than with nature photography: the specific kind of subject matter one works with is very different, and the intentions of how one depicts the subject matter, and the means to do so, are completely different. In another, deeper, sense, the artistic vision remains basically the same: look for significance, make the expression life affirming, etc.

The bride in this wedding was a wedding photographer's dream: happy, friendly, easygoing, cooperative, expressive, humorous, lively, smart, emotional... she was radiant. Since she lives fairly close, I am hoping to do more work for her, when she has children.

The dress was also splendid, and I tried to use it to good effect.

The newlyweds were thrilled with the pictures. I have mixed feelings about them. I think I performed competently; even modestly well. However, when you look at my pictures of the Passiflora Tendril and Leaf Tip, Sleeping Seal Lions, and so on, I think it's clear that my shots from this wedding do not compare. That's the level I aim to accomplish. And I'm heading there; it'll just take more experience.

Indeed, it was ~12 hour shoot.

As far as capitalizing on the wedding photography: It's happening; I'm heading on that path.

Hi Mike,

I can only say that I find these images beatiful, like Kathy before me. All there is to say has already been said by Asher so I can only add; great job and thanks for sharing!

PS: Was the bride's family from the Middle-East or the Black Sea region (due to the presence of a belly dancer)?

Cheers,

Thanks, Cem.

The bride's Persian.

Weddings are a whole ballgame unto themselves

Since I too am heading towards the wedding and event area, I've joined WPPI and some other organizations specific to Wedding and Portrait photographers.

I find that the photography part is not so different - point-n-click! (ha ha) but the business structure and marketing of the product has many more components. It is much more end product intensive. Not that all business is not people oriented, but the dynamics and some of the legalities are very intricate. There is massive competition, and it is very webdriven as well.

Pleasanton, California?

It's a really nice job. I grew up in Livermore and Pleasanton and the tohought of a Persian Wedding there in the 70's was un-heard of.

You've done a really nice job balancing the day light and strobe both inside and out. What kind of system are you using and what is your price point?

JACK

Kathy,

I expect I'll be joining WPPI and WPJA, shortly.

So, far, I find the business structure and marketing for wedding photography more straightforward, more sensible, and overall easier, than with nature photography. That is not meant to imply that it is easy, but, by comparison to where I'm coming from, it's not putting me off.
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Jack,

Thank you.

Yes, Pleasanton, California. Coincidentally, I will be shooting a wedding in Livermore, at the end of this month.

The kind of system I'm using: My main camera is a Canon 1Ds Mark II. I have a variety of lenses. For this wedding, I mostly used the 24-70 f/2.8 L and the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS lenses. For flash, I used a Canon 550 EX, on camera, diffused with a Gary Fong Lightsphere II PJ. I'm looking to get some flash equipment (580 EX II, Alien Bees strobe, Pocket Wizard, etc.), as soon as I can. I tend to shoot all manual.

The price for my next wedding, in Livermore, on the 29th, is $950 (since I am early in this business). I am raising my prices by $50 per wedding, as I gain experience, until I achieve consistent excellence, and am priced commensurately.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions about my system and/or pricing, I'd love to hear.

Jack,

Great to see you here always! Hope you are having a great summer!

If there were laws for this, Mike would get locked up by the wedding photographer's police for low prices as this is pretty low. That's just for now! That is in part because he sets the highest standard for himself using his nature photography as his measuring stick and he feels he can do better. Still he is firm in his plan to increase the price of each wedding until his prices are in the highest bracket of the market, since he'll be worth it! We have to talk about this more!

His work is worth 3-4 times what he charges right now, today! So his lucky brides benefit. The competition are not really competiing since Mike will make his own special niche. I'm going to watch his career climb.

Your perspective is appreciated Jack and any insights you might have.

Asher

$100-150 an hour - min!

The shoot and burn people are charging that on craigslist here. I've researched pricing and even my first Bas Mitzvah was not a problem at $2000 (including a portrait session) and I have NO portfolio. That's only shooting time. The research I've done locally indicates some one with your skill and equipment starting price at $100-$150 per hour or MORE.

There are several workshops down here on Wedding portraiture as well as up in SF (Hanson Fong has one in October). I am taking a 4 day intensive with Brides and locations shoot in Sept. Another OPF member is also going down to San Diego.