A lot of people ask me about my age. I think for some reason I look younger. Just to show you my real age and experience I will showcase a few images from a wedding I photographed right after I turned 28. It was about 500 years ago and times were rough.
Back then there were no white dresses or 3-piece suits. Brides wore beautiful gowns and grooms wore their victory armor and weapons. Because of all the “bling”, wedding party often would get attacked by thieves. This wedding was no exception as his highness was attacked by a red knight. After a long heroic battle, groom ended the fight with a straight kick to the…lower part of the body,ending the fight. His magesty was in a good mood and he let the knight go.
**History Lesson** After the red knight lost,he spent 3 months in a hospital and got a new name “The Black Knight”.
The celebration ended at the beautiful castle of Pavilion Royale in the magical little village of Toronto, where bride and groom spent all evening and all night with 700 people who lived in that tiny town.
It all happened so long ago it is possible I mixed up a few things(not likely!). Back in the days I used to have an amazing photographic memory,but now I often forget to put a memory card…
Last month was extremely busy and I am running about 3 days behind my schedule(should fix that by next week). It’s been over a month since my last post and I had to find some time to post. I’ve also been getting a lot of inquiries for 2010,but it’s been fully booked for quite some time now. Some 2011 weekends are still available so please get in touch asap to make sure your date is available!
Back to the wedding!!
Here are a few pictures from an amazing wedding that took place in New Liskeard, Ontario. It was my first time being that far north and apart from the wedding itself, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and people in this small town. Even got a chance to attend a local horse show/tournament!!
The day started at a hotel,where Jason was getting ready with the boys. Cynthia was getting ready at her parent’s farm. I felt like I could just photograph there forever! The surrounding area was just beautiful. It did rain a bit in the morning,but the rest of the day was dry,with awesome “angry clouds”.
After the church we went to a local park, followed by more shots at the farm and nearby fields.
A few months ago I had a chance to photograph another great wedding in Toronto. With Egyptian background Phoebe and Peter got married at The Virgin Mary and St. Athanasius orthodox church, and their reception took place at The Jewel Banquet Centre.
This couple wanted some edgy pictures so we went to The Brickworks, which turned out to be a great location. As I’ve shot their engagement session at The Distillery last year, I knew they would OWN this location too
It was a great day with lots of laughs and a few happy tears.
Recently I had a chance to be a part of an amazing wedding in Rome. Stunning architecture definitely puts Italy in one of the top places to get married in.
Bellow are about 50 images from 2 days of shooting. While 1st day was more about the wedding and traditions(Chinese tea ceremony,games,family,friends,reception, dances,etc), the second day was all about the couple and the gorgeous city of Rome.
There’s so much more I could write,but because pictures can tell you 1000x more, I will let you all experience a TINY portion of those 2 days.
Yesterday I was happy to find one of my images on the main site of National Geographic as Photo Of The Day.
It’s a photograph of Jen, whose wedding I photographed earlier this year in Varadero, Cuba. This particular image was taken during the Trash The Dress session, a day after the wedding in the beautiful city of Havana.
I was going to post this on Thursday,but looked at the date and it was April 1st. I figured some would think it’s a joke and I decided just wait a day
April-May issue of Photo life and Photo Solution magazines are out and it’s a feature on 5 wedding studios in Canada. It definitely felt good to represent Ontario and be among 4 other great wedding studios from all parts of Canada.
I am also happy to mention that one of my images is on the cover of Photo Solution Magazine.
Thanks to Valérie Racine & Véronica Gill from Photo Life and all my clients who always inspire me!
Very recently I came back from Cuba where I was documenting a fabulous destination wedding. This wedding took place at Iberostar Laguna Azul resort in Varadero. This resort is so new that many locals don’t know about its existence yet(including taxi drivers).
It rained a bit on the day and the ceremony location had to be changed. However, everyone kept laughing the whole day and enjoying the warm weather.
A day after, we took a taxi to Havana for the TTD session. Upon return to the resort a few more shots were taken on the beach at sunset and in the water.
My goal for this wedding was to try and capture a part of the history,culture,beautiful landscapes and architecture; to make sure it’s all well incorporated into the images.
Often I was taking an image of just the scenery and then trying to figure out where to put the bride and the groom. Also, with some luck we were allowed to take pictures in a number of forbidden places where no one is allowed. YaY!
As always, thank you so much for sharing your day with me and allowing me to capture all the great moments.
They will be forever and ever with you in the pictures.
Can’t believe it’s been so long since my last post. March was unusually busy. Weddings, engagements, 2 trips, acquisition of a studio and no internet(other than “free” slow wifi from a neighbour).
This couple got married on Valentine’s Day!! Next Valentine’s day weekend will happen in 2015.
Their ceremony and reception were held at the beautiful Atlantis Pavilion Hall. It was a real joy photographing this fun wedding.
Another winter wedding from earlier of this year. It was a cold day, but we were still able to spend some time outside and get a number of great shots. The day finished at the Paradise Banquet Hall in Toronto, which has a very European look. That really worked great with this couple and their Polish heritage.
It was hard to choose my favorites,but here are a few from that day
I was about to post a wedding, but I am in the mood for something different.
I get emails from students/sport photographers asking for settings and the cameras I am using. Settings don’t mean much. They always depend on your camera,lenses,lighting,distance to the subjects and effect you want to achieve. There’s no magic setting that works for every condition!
The best way to do it is to take that camera out of your bag and go out and shoot. Come home,evaluate your images and then go out again and re shoot, until you get what you want. These days cameras are pretty advanced and can give you a good number or keepers. Back when I was with 10D/20D, 30% was the maximum numbers I could keep(I love sharp photos!). I wasn’t playing it safe though and always pushing myself to try something new every day. Your basic setting would be to shoot in Servo mode as you would be dealing with moving subjects. If your camera can do 5-10 frames per second then set it in that range. Learn smooth panning. Get a monopod or a tripod if you have/need to. If you are new to the sport you will be shooting, it’s always a good idea to learn as much as you can. Learn to anticipate before anything happens as at 100-260km/h things do happen pretty fast.
Here’s 100% crop of a Canon 20D 8mp file :: f4, 1/500, ISO200, taken while being about 12 feet away. 1/500 helped to put some motion into the wheels.
Anything over 1/1000(as in the example bellow) would probably freeze any motion. While it “may” result in fewer number of blurry images, motorcycle(motard) in this case appears to be standing still. f2.8, 1/1000, 180mm,ISO100
Some more images:
And it can only help you if you have some interest in the sport you are shooting. Although I wasn’t that good at it, I loved!!!
On January 24th I held my first wedding photography seminar of 2010 at King Edward hotel in Toronto. Although it was a bit last minute, I was happy to see all the spots gone within hours. Thank you all who’ve attended!!
We had 2 gorgeous models on the day and 6 amazing wedding gowns from Adele Wechsler’s new Eco Couture IV collection. I think it is really cool how some of the dresses are made of 2 pieces and within seconds it is possible to transform a formal gown into a mini skirt, suitable for the evening cocktail reception.
It is always a challenge to photograph a wedding in the winter. It’s cold and it’s hard to stay outside for long. Last December I beat my own record though,and shot an engagement session at -26C. It was kind of funny because they expected me to cancel and I expected them to call. Neither of us did and it was really great session in the end. Maybe I’ll tell you all about it some other time.
This wedding took place in Milton, Ontario in some cool locations. I was really impressed with Diana and Mark and how they handled the weather(-11C). It was also great getting some ideas from them too. In return, I think we got truly great photographs and lots of memories to keep.
Later that day we drove to the Grand Chalet Banquet Hall in Milton, where all fun continued through the night.
This gorgeous winter wedding was planned completely over the phone and email as Kenny is a professional soccer player and currently lives in Norway.
We were blessed with a warm winter weather(-2c ) and the whole day was full of excitement and smiles. Reception was held at the Crystal Fountain Banquet hall in Toronto.
A few photographers recently mentioned this to me and I think it would be a good idea to post it here on my blog. I was named as one of top 10 wedding photographers in Canada. It is a great honor and there are some amazing photographers on that list. The cool part is how different we all are in our styles and visions.
