(above) Everyone loves those candid, photojournalistic images, but there are times that a little staging is necessary, and a good photographer will know when the time is right. Jasmine Photography owner Alexis Turk knew that getting Deneal and Tim Schmidt in focus while the bystanders whizzed by would be a challenge in the blazing mid-afternoon light, so she tucked them into a shaded parking garage nearby their July 10, 2010 wedding at Portland City Grill and chose a wide-angle lens to fit in as many people as possible. Since the Portland photographer would be dragging the shutter at a slow speed to blur the crowd, the newlyweds had to freeze in their embrace (which was probably not such a challenge) while the image slowly processed, revealing a moment of peace in their own little world.
(above) Oregon is a scenic playground for our photographers, and Redmond-based Stott Shots Photography knows a thing or two about capturing the beauty of a bride and groom amid the grandeur of our state. Wandering the expansive Pronghorn Golf Club in Bend with Kristina and John Wrobel at their August 7, 2010, wedding, shooter Kyle Stott knew immediately when he saw it—the couple surrounded by dramatic rocks and a brilliant sky. He underexposed the image to keep the details in the highlights like the clouds and her dress, then took simple steps to increase the contrast in post production, sticking to their “less is more” philosophy.
(above) Portland’s Evrim Icoz has a way of turning real life into an epic fairy tale with his camera. Here, Sarah Israelit and Nathan Roe’s quiet walk after their July 10, 2010, vows at Garden Vineyards takes on an ethereal aura thanks to a wide-angle lens and deep depth of field, which expands the detailed surroundings; a soft off-camera flash to balance the shadows from the strong sun; and some post production finesse. The digital tricks are surprisingly old-fashioned, though—in addition to playing with the hues for a vintage feel, Evrim did extensive dodging (lightening) and burning (darkening), which are traditional darkroom techniques. The result is dramatic yet soft, real yet transcendent.
(above) Sometimes wedding photographers have to embed themselves to capture just the right moment. The energetic Eric Holland of Holland Studios in Portland threw himself right into dancing at Brooke Raila and Mike Finan’s August 28, 2010, celebration at The Viewpoint Inn in Corbett so he could snap photos at their most loose and lively. “This was not a fly-on-the-wall moment but a get-in-there-and-feel-the-beat moment,” explains Eric’s wife and assistant Tami. While the colored light illuminated the scene, Eric used a sensitive setting to capture fast movements and a fish-eye lens to make the dance floor look larger, distilling the fun into one singular moment.
(left) It takes a creative eye to see the typical twirl of the first dance in a whole new light. Boone Rodriguez, one of the two brothers behind Portland-Seattle-based Gabriel Boone Photography, chose to underexpose the evening twilight at Libba and Walker Templeton’s August 20, 2010, wedding on Lake Oswego to enrich the fading blue summer sky. The sensitive lens and shallow depth of field sharpened the couple’s silhouette against the soft background, and the lines of glowing bulbs frame the couple and draw the viewer into the intimate moment.
(right) “I’m always looking for something creative, unique, or different to do with portraits,” says Fritz Liedtke, owner of Portland- based Fritz Photography. So when he spotted tree stumps all around Mandi and Dayn Arnold’s wedding site at Camp Wilkerson in Rainier, he didn’t have to do much convincing to get the fun-loving couple to climb on up. With the August 22, 2010 sun shining directly on the groom, Fritz had his assistant light Mandi with a flash to even out the light, and used a very wide-angle lens to accentuate the grandeur of the towering fir trees. “And voila!" he enthuses. "A couple of forest nymphs on their wedding day.”
(above) Knowing what’s most important to the bride, Alicia Dickerson treats the dress picture like a work of art. “Finding the dress can take months, so I figure I owe it to her to…capture a photo she truly loves,” says the Portland wedding photographer. In this case, the bride, Caley Crowder, grew up going to The Madeleine Parish in Northeast Portland, so Dickerson worked in the tricky shadows of dark church light to capture the sense of place on her July 10, 2010 wedding day. With no room for a tripod in the tiny choir loft, she used a fast wide-angle lens to get a crisp image and slightly overexposed to let extra light glow through the stained glass and lace. Some delicate post production enhancements in contrast and saturation complete a photo that glows as much as the bride surely did.