While the shell of the site is complete, much of the information that will be getting loaded into the resources section is missing.  In the coming months and ongoing I will be adding in vendor listings and details about locations, florists, musicians, officiants, dress designers, etc.  Basically anyone having anything to do with wedding planning in Southern California as well as vendors specializing in destination weddings will be coming up on the resources page.  I also look forward to sitting down with vendors and including informal interviews about their businesses, and tips that they can provide to couples planning their wedding.  If you’re a wedding professional in San Diego or Southern California and would like to chat with me about your experiences, knowledge and love of weddings, drop me an email or give me a call.

Something I’ve always wanted included on my site, but just never posted was the incredible emails, voicemails and letters I’ve received from my couples.  You can see those now over on the Raves page.

I’ve also added a Press page which includes all the publications I’ve been featured in and awards I’ve received for my work.

Again, I’m really excited about the new look for my site, and hope everyone enjoys it! Since we’ve just rolled it out, we’ve tried to troubleshoot it every way possible, but by all means, if anyone comes across any bugs on the site, please let me know.

Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to sharing lots more fun posts with you as well as resources to help plan your wedding!

This time we all got together at the San Diego Heritage Museum in Encinitas with the theme of ‘Rockabilly Pin-up’.  I got lucky with my set and was stationed at the old Texaco gas station that used to be a movie set backdrop (I never found out what movie it was in, so if anyone knows I’m really curious).  We also had cars brought in by the awesome people at Hire Old Cars and this just totally finished the look for the gas station.

Because this was the third opportunity I have had at being a group leader, I decided I would try to share some of my experience, and knowledge of lighting and light modification.  It couldn’t have been a better day for this topic since after nearly a week of pouring down rain the sky was crystaline blue without a cloud to be seen all day.  Bring out the scrims and cutters! I also had the luck of my station being right next to a power source, and brought my studio strobes … just in case.

As I said, I had lots of luck this day … the weather was perfect for the shoot and talking about light modification and controlling light, I had an awesome set and … Lindsey and JK.  I had met Lindsey at the first shoot-out in San Diego, and love the way she models. She’s great with direction and is able to provide direction and ideas of her own.  JK I met at the second shootout, and I didn’t get as much time to work with him then, but there was an immediate chemistry between he and Lindsey.  I couldn’t have asked for a better couple of models for the day!

Here’s a few of the images I made throughout the day my goal was to use the lighting, and light modifiers to create scenes that accentuated the natural light, but controlled the harsh shadows that midday sun causes.  I’ll provide some descriptions of the light setups I used for each image.

The first setup of the day. Look at that sky!!!! Two panel reflectors on stands were used to camera left to block out the direct sun from the models faces. 800WS strobe with 40° honeycomb set high and camera left as fill to to replicate direct light. The combination allows balance between the foreground and background exposure.

This series of three images share the same lighting setup. One panel diffuser used in addition to natural shade provided by the trailer that was onsite to control the direct sunlight from camera left. One gold reflector to camera right used to bounce and warm natural light back into the scene, and one large studio softbox camera left for fill light.

One of my favorite setups from the day this is inside the old Chevy Bel Air. One light setup. With 60 photographers wandering around, I had to constantly be watching the background in the images. In most of my images, my lighting design was to add detail to the background while retaining balanced exposures on the models. In this image, I intended to blow out the background to get rid of any distractions. In order to blowout the background, and create interesting wrap around lighting, I dropped one Nikon SB strobe connected by a Pocket Wizard in the trunk aimed at the ceiling to bounce off the roof of the car, and allow the light to wrap around the models. One strip of daylight was coming in through the right side window, so again, a panel reflector was used as a cutter to create even light throughout the car interior.

One reflector panel camera right to block unwanted direct sun. Gold reflector panel low right to reflect natural light back up into models faces. The use of the reflector allows the foreground and background exposure to come together and allow some of the blue sky instead of a blown out white sky.

Open shade under the awning of the Texaco station. One panel reflector used again as a cutter at camera left, and softbox strobe used to create slight sense of directional light as opposed to the flat light created by open shade. (are you starting to get the chemistry between these two? they met in the parking lot 10 minutes before we started shooting!)

The sun is starting to come down and give us nice rim lighting, but controlling unwanted flare from such a low angle is the job of my trusty reflector again! Cutter high above model to block out lens flare. Softbox camera right to give direction and shape to backlit model.

As the sun continues to lower, and get softer, balancing foreground and background exposures gets easier. I still want to control the light though. Here, a diffusion panel is used behind camera to soften the direct light and maintain attractive catchlight in models eyes. Gold reflector slightly behind and to the left of the models to bounce warm light back onto their faces.

At this point, we've lost the awesome rim light that we were getting from the sun behind the models. No worry, one strobe behind the models to camera right creates the same effect. Strobe zoomed to 105mm in order to create very direct light and less flare in camera. Could also use a reflector panel here as a cutter between the light and camera to reduce flare further. (note small amount of flare in right portion of frame)

At this point the sun has totally dropped behind the hills in the background. Lighting gets considerably easier when dealing with non-directional light. I get to create my own shadows instead of trying to eliminate the ones I don't want! One softbox used to camera left to create directional light, and eliminate background distractions.

OK, I'll admit it, I don't usually bring this much equipment to an engagement or wedding shoot, and sometimes, natural light is the best light. It makes you be creative with what you've got and here's one of my favorite images from the day, without the use of any lights, gobos, cutters, flags, scrims. strobes, honeycombs, softboxes, etc. Natural warm sunlit flare just before the sun dropped behind the hills for the day.

Thanks so much to everyone for coming out.  Even if you didn’t get to shoot as much at my location as at others, I hope I was able to give some insight into creative lighting for portraits, as well as how to think about light critically.  Below is a list of the equipment I brought for the shoot in case anyone’s curious, or looking to pick up some new toys!

White Lightning 800WS strobe

Photoflex Q39 Medium Softbox

Photoflex HalfDome strip softbox with Nylon Fabric Grid

Honeycomb Grid Set

Panel Reflector with Stand

Nikon SB-28 … Ok I’m 100% Canon except for these guys.  I picked them up on ebay for under $100.00 they work great with pocket wizards compared to the difficulties I was having with my $500.00 Canon 580EX IIs with Pocket Wizard.  For the price they do a great job as a small secondary off camera light.  I still keep my 580s on camera … where they’re great, so don’t kick me out of the Canon club ok!?

That’s it! I hope everyone had a great time and can’t wait to see you again at the next shootout or maybe WPPI!

Oh! I forgot my sandbag you can pick one of these up virtually anywhere!

Every year brides on the Knot.com vote for their favorite local wedding vendors.  I’m proud to have just received notice that I was awarded the ‘Best of Weddings’ for my photography.  It’s always nice to get recognition and awards, but particularly when it comes from the clients, the brides and grooms who’s weddings I have already photographed.  I take it to mean, ‘If we had to do it all over again, we would still hire you to photograph our wedding!’

I want to thank all the brides and grooms that chose to hire me for their wedding in 2009.  Trusted me with their most intimate, private and joyful moments, and then voted to make me one of the ‘Best Wedding Photographers’ in Baltimore, DC and San Diego! I’m thrilled, honored and humbled.

Let’s do it again in 2010!

So for the past 16 years now Kristy has been throwing a holiday party and inviting friends, family members and co-workers to her home.  She’s an awesome host, and really knows how to throw a party! I have been lucky enough to be involved in the past three years of party happenin’ and this year we had the added bonus of being invited to host the Pictage PUG holiday party at our home as well!  Jeff and Erin Youngren are the awesome PUG leaders in San Diego, and they helped organize the event on their end including providing most of the libations for everyone to enjoy throughout the evening.

For the past two years we have set up a photobooth and provided props (and alchohol) … after that sit back and watch the magic happen! We had a blast and couldn’t have been happier to have everyone come out! All in all we filled the house with well over 50 people including Kristy’s co-workers, a bunch of awesome San Diego photographers, neighbors and even some of my upcoming 2010 brides came out!

Check out a few images from the night below … these are the ‘fit for general release’ images!

Now, I know you want more … I couldn’t possibly post all the images we shot throughout the night on the blog, so check out the slideshow of images below.

]]> http://www.evanbishopphotography.com/san-diego-pug-holiday-party/2009/12/21/feed/ 7 http://www.evanbishopphotography.com/destination-i-do-magazine-publishes-kim-bens-bahamas-wedding/2009/12/10/ http://www.evanbishopphotography.com/destination-i-do-magazine-publishes-kim-bens-bahamas-wedding/2009/12/10/#comments Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:58:49 +0000 Evan Bishop http://www.bishophoto.com/blog/?p=760

I’m thrilled to announce that Destination I Do Magazine recently posted Kim and Ben’s Bahamas wedding on their blog for their featured Real Wedding Wednesday article!  If you remember, Kim and Ben had an awesome wedding, but had to deal with not only the stress of organizing a destination wedding, but once in Nassau, the added stress of the iffy weather.  Showers rained down on and off through the morning, and were forecast to continue throughout the day.  Undaunted, Kim pressed on and chose hours ahead of time to have her dream destination wedding on the beach at Compass Point Resort.  The weather held, and we have amazing images to prove it.  You can see the blog post over on Destination I Do’s Blog.

Now, Melissa and Bryce were stars on their wedding day, there’s no doubt about that. That being said all the phenomenal portraits we shot with Melissa and Bryce were jammed into 15 minutes at Balboa Park and like 10 minutes at Diamond View Tower before their guests started to arrive.  Having the opportunity to get together again the day after gave us two hours of perfect light together.  We strolled through Balboa Park again, finding out of the way spots and taking our time together.  We then went over to Coronado Island, and shot on the beach just in front of the Hotel Del Coronado as the sun was setting over the Pacific.  Melissa didn’t ‘trash the dress’ per se, however she didn’t mind getting it dirty … and a bit wet too!

Check out just a few of the awesome pictures we made together.

Melissa and Bryce were one of the first San Diego wedding couples that I met with after moving to Southern California from Maryland and even though Melissa grew up in San Diego, she and Bryce met in college in Arizona and now live there so their wedding effectively became a destination wedding for many of their friends and family members.  Planning from a distance, I met with Melissa and her mother on one of her many trips to San Diego while planning her wedding.  I instantly felt like Melissa and I clicked on both a personal level as well as with regards to my images.  I always love it when I feel that connection to my couples.  I know that they trust my vision and the images I’m going to create for them.

Kristy and I met Melissa and her girls at the Marriott in the Gaslamp district then headed straight to the church for family portraits before the wedding.  They held their ceremony at the Grace Lutheran Church in San Diego which is a beautiful old church.  After the ceremony we went to Balboa Park to photograph portraits with just the bridal party and Melissa and Bryce before the reception.  We had amazing light, and a lot of fun (near accidents and crazy drivers aside!) Melissa and Bryce as well as the whole bridal party had a blast shooting the portraits.  At one point Melissa and Bryce started ‘fake laughing’ and the whole bridal party joined in, before long they were all laughing for real.

Finally before the reception, we went to Diamond View Tower for a few last minute portraits overlooking Petco Park and downtown San Diego.  After introductions, and a video specially produced by the guys, the rest of the night opened up to dancing and EVERYONE hit the dance floor.  Brandon got the music going and didn’t stop.  There were several dance offs throughout the night including a couple between Melissa and Bryce.

Kristy and I had a great time, and couldn’t believe the night was over so quickly.  It felt like we had just started photographing the dancing when it was time to go.  Check out a few of the images below and a slideshow will be posted on the podcast soon!  I’ll be posting more soon because we met Melissa and Bryce the next day for a day after session so check back soon for that!

"No time to bustle, I've gotta dance!"

Vendors:

Wedding Planning: Creative Affairs By Amanda

Catering: Peartrees Catering

Cake: Sweet Cakes

Florist: Untamed Florals

DJ: Brandon Weisman

Catherine and Jeff were the last couple I met with and signed before Kristy and I decided to pack up our things and head across the country to restart our lives on the West Coast.  Since that time I have traveled back to the East Coast to document many weddings, and continue to get new couples in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia.  I absolutely love traveling back East to photograph weddings since it gives me the opportunity to experience the seasons that I don’t otherwise get now that I’m living in San Diego.

Catherine and her girls got ready at Catherine’s parent’s house and she and her father took a vintage car to the church where a bag piper was playing to Catherine’s arrival.  After the ceremony we drove to a nearby park where Catherine and Jeff had spent many dates, and was the site of Jeff’s proposal as well! Even though they got married on the 31st of October, it was far from a theme wedding, other than perhaps Fall themed, however Jeff’s guys decided they had to incorporate Halloween into the day and broke out sunglasses, fake mustaches and squeeky clown noses while we were shooting portraits.

The weather gods were not with me on this day however, and after raining on and off for most of the morning, the clouds finally opened up as Catherine and Jeff walked to the spot where Jeff proposed.  They were great sports though and even though it continued to rain we still stopped to grab some beautiful shots at the street leading to the park where we saw the most beautiful display of yellow leaves carpeting the road and still hanging from the trees.

The reception was held at The Mendenhall Inn and it was awesome! They incorporated a nod to the day by having candy jars for their guests to go trick-or-treating from.  The band ‘The Midnight Hour‘ rocked the reception from the introductions to the last dance!  These guys were amazing … Frank Sinatra, Etta James, Barry White, Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake … really!? Yes, they pulled all of them off and got everyone on the dance floor! If you’re getting married in Delaware or Pennsylvania, I highly recommend checking them out! I seriously had a great time with Catherine and Jeff and all their friends! Check out a few of the images below, and the slideshow on the podcast as well!

I recently traveled back to Maryland again for one of my last East Coast weddings of the year which was actually held in Deleware … more about that later.  But before I left for Maryland, I had been exchanging emails with Megan about her wedding plans for next fall.  During our discussions Megan and I talked about doing engagement portraits and how much she would like to have photos taken of her and her fiance Chris while there was still some beautiful colors on the trees.  The great thing about traveling from San Diego to Maryland during the Spring and Fall is that I get to experience those most beautiful of seasons on the East Coast.  Fall this year in Maryland was beautiful, and I’m so glad I got to travel back at the peak of the Fall colors.

Since I was going to be in town anyway, we set up a shoot on Friday afternoon at the beautiful Ladew Gardens.  Ladew is known primarily as a topiary garden, so I didn’t think we would find a lot of beautiful fall colors.  Our initial plan was to meet at Ladew, get some shots, then travel around the beautiful farm country in Baltimore County to find some nice rolling hills with the brilliant yellows and reds; split rail fences, farmhouses, perhaps even a horse or two … too much to ask for?

Well the point is Ladew is absolutely beautiful, and there were a lot of trees in full fall display, so while we did get out and find a nice farm, with a split rail fence and even some horses, we spent the majority of the shoot at Ladew and had a great time!

Chris and Megan were great and I’m really excited to keep talking with them as their wedding plans develop!  Check out a few of the images from our shoot below.