On the job in cool and beautiful Sedona.  This was shot by Katrina Wallace from Sedona Bride who was helping me out for the day.  The images from this session will be in my next post.  Stay tuned…

Here are a few of our recent opening spreads for our albums which have been graced with the font skillz and design stylings of my dear friend and uber talented web designer Ryan Brannen from One Red Key….

Article from Professional Photographer Magazine

A national magazine for professional photographers recently published three of my images in their recent article about tips for brides.  Along with the images of my beautiful brides, Deanna Rene, a top AZ make up artist lists her bridal makeup tips for a picture-perfect face:

From Professional Photographer magazine, March 2010

1. BLEND, BLEND, BLEND. You can use your everyday makeup, but use more than you normally use every day. Many makeup professionals use airbrush makeup, the method of choice for high-definition TV, because it’s lightweight, waterproof and gives flawless coverage.

2. SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE. Use less makeup for a day wedding and more for evenings. You can get dramatic with eye makeup.

3. DON’T SKIMP ON CONCEALER. Use a moisturized concealer on the thin, sensitive skin under the eyes. If your concealer isn’t moisturizing, blend it with a skin cream. For blemishes, first treat them with a natural or over-the-counter anti-inflammatory, then cover with concealer.

4. DO A MAKEUP TRIAL RUN. It’s the only sure-fire, stress-free way to make certain your makeup will look beautiful.

5. NOT ALL MINERAL MAKEUP IS CREATED EQUAL. Titanium dioxide, a chemical used as sun block, can reflect flash, giving the bride a ghostly appearance. In 2009 makeup artist Annie May launched a line of mineral makeup especially formulated for photography called Advanced Mineral Makeup. May promises it won’t white-out the bride under a flash.

6. USE WATERPROOF MAKEUP WITH STAYING POWER. You don’t want to spend your reception in the bathroom reapplying your makeup. Foundation, eyeliner and mascara all should be waterproof. And in case you cry (and you probably will), have a tissue or handkerchief handy to gently blot your tears right at the eye.

7. KEEP YOUR LIPS MOISTURIZED AND COLORED. Dry lips look dreadful in photos. Have someone carry your lipstick for you and touch up often. Matte and gloss lipstick both photograph well, and be sure to use blended lip liner for enhanced definition.

8. DON’T FORGET THE GROOM. If the groom is red faced due to too much sun (or drinking), a little powder can help. That goes for shiny heads, too. And it’s a good idea to slip a tube of Chapstick in the groom’s pocket for his dry lips, as well as a handkerchief to dab well-wishers’ makeup smudges off his suit.

9. DON’T SPRINKLE ON GLITTER. In photographs, it tends to look like little white spots, as if there’s something wrong with the camera.

10. REMEMBER to apply foundation and powder to your neck, shoulders and décolletage—you want your head to look like it belongs to your body!

Emily and Matt were a dream to photograph.  They met before the wedding to photograph around the grounds of the Superstition Mountain Golf Club and budgeted ample time for me time to create some wonderful portraits both before and after the ceremony.  Between portraits and throughout the day, there was a flood of varying emotion, from nerves to tears and from the silence of prayer to raucous laughter during toasts.

There was visual drama as well.  The intense sun made it easy to take advantage of strong visual elements like shadow and back lighting my subjects.  After the sun had set, I pulled out my strobes to add an extra element of pop.  You’ll also notice that doorways were an ever present theme throughout the day as I used them to frame E&M in some of the candid moments.

At the end, I featured some of Julia bakers dessert details were were symbolic of Matt and Emily’s sweet tooth and as an added bonus, they were family recipes that Emily and Matt had asked Julia to bake for them.  Emily writes: “She did a FANTASTIC job and my dad was very happy to
have his favorite birthday cake (German Chocolate Cake) featured at the
wedding :)”

It was a mouth-watering, sugar feast that was torturous to photograph as I wanted to try everything.  Thankfully, they were kind enough to leave the recipes to share with guests.  I can’t say I’ll actually try to cook up one of the Chocolate German Cake concoctions (I’m not much of a baker), but it was an incredibly nice gesture and a special touch I’ve never seen at a wedding before.  The guests clearly appreciated it as they gobbled up the loose recipe cards as quickly as the desserts.

Thanks Emily and Matt for sharing such a wonderful day with me!

This was the first moment they saw each other before the ceremony.  Even though you can’t clearly see Emily’s face, you can sense the anticipation.

I love the framing element in this image, the diagonal lines of the roof, and the movement of wavelike folds in Emily’s dress.

This was one of my favorite images of the day.  It was photographed with my Infrared camera which creates a some-what surreal and etherial look.

I absolutely adore this shot taken by my second shooter, Courtney.  I wish I could claim credit, but she was the master mind behind this one…

It’s the hand on the back of the gentleman on the right which makes the shot for me.  I photogrphed it vertically and placed the heavier elements on the bottom of the image to help “weight” the image down allowing the trees to fill the negative space.  The image below was all about centering the bride between the two bridesmaids.  In a perfect world, the TV on the wall would be gone, but hey, it’s how the room looked, and cropping wouldn’t have done justice to the image.

There were a ton of images photographed from behind Matt and Emily during the ceremony that showcased the grandiose mountains and saturated sunset, however, it was the sun flare that won me over.  I always try to present an array of images which are a bit different than the norm.  In this case, the magic was shooting into the sun.

Oh, Heavenly shadows!  If you know me well, you understand how much I hate “hertical” shots.  Ie. a combination of the words Horizonal and Vertical, which is a camera angle that essentially makes the image look tilted.  It had to be done in this image to crop out unnecessary elements in the frame.  I think there are exceptions to every rule…this being one of them.

More fun with doorways…

The image of Emily tossing back her veil is another one of my absolute faves.  The whimsical nature of her gesture combined with the flowing movement of the veil makes this image come alive for me.

How lovely is this expression….

A few people have asked about this image, wondering if it was photoshopped, and I want to state for the record that it is 98% straight-out-of-camera.  The only extra touch was a slight vignette that I added around the frame to hold the image together and bring the viewers eye towards the subjects.  The magic in creating this image is the strobe behind the couple and using my shutter speed to underexpose the sky to create more drama.

Fun, side-lit, actions shots!!

Cakes and confections were provided by the fabulous Julia Baker

Location was at Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club

Catering was Vincent on Camelback

Flowers were White House

Hollye Schumacher Photography from Serendipity Videography on Vimeo.

This video was put together by Taryn and Bill at Serendipity Videography.  They were kind enough to put together some out-takes of me in action at an Indian wedding and piece them together with one of my favorite tunes.  It covers scenes from both the rehearsal dinner and the actual event.