Ashley & Josh Wedding - Henderson, NC

On June 16th, I had the opportunity to work as a second shooter for someone I have worked with for a while, Emily Rearick. Originally, I thought the wedding was in HendersonVILLE, NC and was excited because that's practically in my back yard. Only a little while before, I found out it was in Henderson, NC. I had never even heard of Henderson and then I found out it was nearly in Virginia. It would be the farthest I've had to drive to a wedding than I ever have before and, if I have to be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to the 11 hour round trip.

Things changed the minute I showed up to meet the groom who was planning on getting ready at his parents home which was also to be the location for both the ceremony and the reception. Their farm was a charming place with a great old farmhouse and a dozen or so working out buildings including several old tobacco cure houses. All this was surrounded by wheat fields and horse pastures. It was picturesque and honest. I was greeted at the house by Josh's mom who made me feel welcome right away and informed me that Josh and his friends were in the back field relaxing by doing some target shooting. Rather than have her call him to return to the house, what a more genuine moment to capture than to join them and capture it.

I was even encouraged to join in and I took advantage of the opportunity and took three shots and got three targets... so there. We established a rapport straight away, which is key when you will be hovering around these people the entire time of one of the most important days of their life.

They did a remarkable job of transforming the property into a genuine and personal venue. The amount of details throughout the grounds was amazing from baby's breath in tin cans hanging from twine on the front porch to the "gift truck" where guests would leave gifts to the new couple. Some of these details probably didn't cost much but it never came across as "cheap".

Ashley and Josh were smart enough to plan for plenty of time prior to the ceremony for some photo sessions. They didn't want to see each other before the ceremony but that is totally doable with a little coordination.

After the men's session, we sequestered them to the house and then had some fun with the ladies. The grounds of the farm was like a playland for photographers, every corner you turned was a new setting with different textures and colors. Because it was early afternoon, we had to retreat mainly to shaded areas but we still had a blast.

Soon the guests arrive and things kicked off.

With the ceremony and the reception on the same grounds, all everyone had to do is stroll around to the back yard.

After the party settled a little bit we snuck the happy couple off when the light was just right for a nice little session.

When it was all said and done, I'd be happy to come back to Henderson, NC again if it meant spending time with people like this.

Technical Stuff

This was the first full wedding I've had a chance to use my new Paul C Buff PLM umbrella. I have the 64" white model and purchased the optional black outer cover fabric (which I removed and used the umbrella as a shoot-through). I can't say how much I like this umbrella. While it is really big in terms of a portable umbrella, when folded, it is about the length of my 11' lightstands collapsed. It comes with a carrying case that has a shoulder strap. When I bungee my stands and umbrella together, it makes it so much easier than my old setup. 

The best thing I can say about the PLM is the construction. It has so many spokes that are made out of fiberglass instead of the traditional u-shaped metal tines. I have gone through so many of the old type umbrellas after they take a tumble. This umbrella took two falls during the day due to the wind and despite the fact that I had the stand weighted down with my camera bag. The only casualty was that it fell over in a barn and got some hydraulic fluid on the outer edge of the fabric, something I can hardly blame Paul C Buff for. It fell and bounced right back up due to the extra number and material of the spokes.

I only brought one Nikon SB-800 flash on this trip so shooting through the PLM in strong daylight was not going to even come close to competing with the sun. But in the shade (which is a good idea for portraits anyway) it performed marvelously. 

On the gun shooting images, I used the SB-800 at full power and zoomed to 70mm to get some light on them since the sun was so harsh.

Since I only had the one flash with me, as the sun went down and the fun started under the tent, I decided to bungee the flash to the structure of the tent pointed up to the interior of the white roof of the tent which provided some nice, soft, bounced light with an even exposure from one end of the dance floor to the other. It was set at 1/4 power and an aperture of f4 worked out just fine at an ISO of 800.

I shot the entire day with my Nikon D700, my trusted workhorse. I'm finding more and more that I prefer shooting with the Nikon 70-200 f2.8 nearly all the time. When shooting an outdoor event like this with plenty of room to move around, it allows me to stay back and draw less attention capturing more candid moments than right up in people's faces. My next most used lens is the old Nikon 35-70 f2.8 that I purchased used. I love this lens and I use it for portraits and group shots. I only used my superwide Nikon 17-35 f2.8 for wide venue shots.

Crystal and Nick Engagement Session

This past Saturday I set out with a great couple Crystal and Nick to capture some images celebrating their engagement. The location they decided on was Falls Park in beautiful downtown Greenville. Being a photographer wanting to control light as much as possible, I wanted to shoot as late as possible. The best they could do was at 5pm. Experience tells me that trying to shoot in the late afternoon in June here in the south is asking for trouble with both heat and humidity, nothing could be further from the truth. It was a perfect day which brought its own challenges. The fantastic weather couldn't be kept a secret so we would be competing with everyone else wanting to enjoy the park that day.

Falls Park is a photographer's dream with a wide range of settings in a relatively small, and walkable, area from dark wooded secreted places, urban backdrops and, of course, the falls and the trademark bridge. We intended on taking advantage of as much of it as we could in the short amount of time we had available to us.

We first started in shaded areas of the common area surrounded by beautiful flora with stone paths and stairs carving through them.

Next we moved to one of the bench swings under the bridge and snuck a few nice shots. This was a high-traffic area but people coming through were very accommodating and Crystal and Nick never missed a beat.

After several winning shots here, we strolled away from the crowds and crossed the river to a spot I have wanted to shoot against for some time. Near the Governor's School, there is a tree on a bank with a vast array of exposed roots. I thought we could shoot here unimpeded but traffic on this road turned out to be more than I anticipated. I ended up shooting from across the street with a telephoto and I'm glad I did.

We proceeded further away from the main part of the park into the woods. There are great little paths and bridges along a creek that flows into the Reedy River including a small waterfall.

We finally got that hat off of Nick.

We decided to brave the crowds for a shot of them on the bridge.

Lastly we wanted to get some detail shots of Crystal's ring so we looked for some local plants that mirrored their selected colors.

This last shot is one of my personal favorites. Crystal and Nick were easy to work with and were up for anything I suggested and even had some ideas of their own (as Nick will brag that this last shot was actually his idea).