Sara and Nathan's (CT) Wedding 5/12/12

      I have to say I feel truly honored to have been involved in Sara and Nathan's Connecticut portion of their wedding (which I will explain in a little bit).  I have known Sara since our days at UConn, and there was never any question that she was going to be a part of my life for years to come because of my husband, TJ.  Of course, I view having Sara in my life as a blessing.  I actually met Sara through TJ, and they have always been close friends and refer to each other as "sister and brother from another mother".  So another added bonus was that my husband was a guest at this wedding!

     Now when I said that this was the Connecticut portion of the wedding, what I meant was that this was mainly a reception being held for the friends and family who could not be at the first wedding.  Obviously, that made this wedding a bit different for Anne and me.  The reason for this was that Sara and Nathan had been living in Iowa as Sara attended Veterinary School, and wanted to have a wedding there with the people she knew from that area.  It also happened to fall on the weekend of her graduation, so that was a whole weekend of celebrating!

       Our day began at Sara's mother's house, where we were able to shoot the accessories from her wedding and also got to take some photos of the girls getting their hair done.  Since this was not a traditional wedding, the groom even popped in for a little while to see how things were going. 

     Once the girls were done getting their hair done, we headed over to a hotel near the venue.  Typically, the bridal party would assist the bride with the final stages of getting ready, but in this case the couple decided that since they were already married, they would help each other.  This was a first for us and we had no idea what to expect.  It really was hilarious and touching all at the same time; I mean women who know how to work dresses struggle at times trying to figure out how a wedding dress works, but Nathan was up for the challenge.  And I have to say, he did a great job after a few hiccups here and there!

     Once the CT wedding reception started, it was obvious that these people take partying and dancing very seriously!  There was such an insane amount of energy buzzing through the room.  You could not only see how happy everyone was for the newly married couple, but you could feel it!

Of course, we had to get an obligatory shot of all the UConn alumni at the event.. and I got to sneak into this one!  Wow, Sara and I look so short compared to the rest of the gang!

Congratulations again to the beautiful couple!  Both Anne and I wish you a lifetime of happiness!

-Stefanie

“Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow." – Imogen Cunningham

Size Matters.

All jokes aside, yes size really does matter when it comes to lenses.  Lens sizes vary significantly, and they all serve their own purposes.  My go-to lens now is my fixed 50mm.  It allows so much light in and has such a narrow depth of field that I can now shoot handheld indoors with natural light, instead of relying on my flash to fill in the light.  (It also helps that my 5D Mark II has a high ISO allowance.)  My other favorite types of lenses to work with are wide angle pushing towards fisheye.  These ones are around 14mm to 24 mm.  These lenses can help to fit a large group of people into a single image.  Personally, I love the blur and the curves of the lines that are created with these lenses.  But alas I digress, what I really want to talk to you about here are telephoto lenses.  I had the opportunity to "play" with a 400 mm lens the other weekend, and play I did.

I would say that this branch (in the above photo) was at least 20 feet away from me, but with the zoom you get up close and personal.  That is the typical use for a telephoto lens; it cuts out the distance between you and your subject.  But do not let that fool you, just because that is what a telephoto lens is typically used for does not mean you have to use it that way.

With this image, I was definitely not trying to get in close to a subject that I could otherwise not reach.  Instead I was trying to play with the depth of field of this particular zoom lens.  I laid on the ground about 10 feet away, and shot slightly angled up at the flowers.  Because of the angle I chose and the lens that I was using, I produced this image with a very strong focus on the flowers so that they become the absolute focal point of the image.

I like flowers so I figured I may as well throw in another shot! :)

Now with the shot above of the swingset, I was again trying to play with the depth of field.  I have to say that I love the detail in the swing of this image, and that most of the focus is there.  My one issue with this shot is that if I shot it again, I would try and work around the pole crossing the right half of the image.  I am not sure what I would have done with it, but I do find it distracting (clearly not distracting enough that I wouldn't share it though).

For my last image, I used the telephoto lens for it's typical use shooting a bird at the top of a tree at a significant distance.  I changed the feel of this image significantly in post, considering this was shot on a bright sunny day with blue skies.  I love how creepy it turned out!

Anyways, send us any images you had the opportunity to shoot with a telephoto lens!  We would love to take a look and see what other people are up to shooting at lengths!

Anne

"When I have a camera in my hand, I know no fear"-  Alfred Eisenstaedt

I Love Love!

Sorry for the delay in posting this... this month has become quite busy

for many reasons, but I knew I could not just skip writing about Caroline and Mike's engagement session.

Engagement sessions are obviously very different from weddings. The focus is on the couple and how much in love they are, which you would think would be the same for weddings but it is much different. Weddings are riddled with distractions for our couples and their guests; engagement sessions let us see who they are as a couple without those distractions.  And during this engagement session, we were definitely in for a treat with two individuals who love to let their personalities shine!

I have known Caroline pretty much since I was born, and I have always known what a fun and wonderful person she is. I have also known Caroline and Mike as a couple for a few years now. Based on my experiences with them previously, I knew we were in for an interesting photo shoot. They are not your typical couple by any means. Both are artistic, visually and musically, and they love to have fun. And my favorite part was how well their love translated to the images. I love love!

Caroline and Mike chose Yale University in New Haven, CT as the location of their shoot. I, of course, was thrilled about this choice because of the architecture of the campus. We used the architecture to frame various poses, usually starting out with simple poses that somehow always became wonderfully hilarious photographs. Caroline and Mike played off each other perfectly, giving us the simple serious moments while also conspiring with one another to surprise us with their goofy personalities. For example, we asked our couple to just walk along the sidewalk casually holding hands and laughing together. Then we see them whisper something to one another, and all of a sudden they jump up in the air and click their heels. And this scenario happened multiple times! Adorable!

Toward the end of the shoot, the images kept getting more and more hysterical! Especially when Mike spied a wagon on the campus... and decided to pull Caroline around for a few shots... and he may or may not have accidentally tipped the wagon over with Caroline still in it leading to even more hilarious images. After we put away our cameras, we went to go grab coffee and found a tiny alley along the way that lead to another hysterical moment and luckily Stef had her point and shoot with her so that we were able to capture this final image!  Now to prepare to shoot their wedding in November... so excited!!

Do you have any images that clearly show how in love a couple is? Or do you have any hysterical moments captured that you would like to share? Send them to us, we would love to laugh with you!

-Anne

"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything." - Aaron Siskind

Wilson-Bishel Engagement Shoot

Jackie and John will be getting married in December at Woodwinds in Branford CT.  So what better way to celebrate their engagement then to take a few engagement pictures.  I left my little island this past weekend and after a short plane ride, and a two and a half hour drive I finally arrived.  The chosen location for the engagement shoot was at Gillette's Castle in East Haddam, Connecticut.  It was here that I met up with my good friend Jackie and her fiance John.  It was great to see Jackie, because it has been awhile since we have been able to get together.  We went to UCONN together, and I have missed her.  When I arrived at Gillette's Castle, I was quickly enchanted by my surroundings.  There was just something about the feel of the park and the old castle that felt familiar to me.   I have always loved old buildings and abandoned places, so this location was definitely a treat for me.

The park was beautiful, it had lots of stone walls, wooden bridges, and a beautiful patio that overlooks the Connecticut River.  Just getting to spend time with this couple for their engagement session showed me how comfortable and in love they are with each other.  From the way that they look at each other, to the way that they make each other laugh.  It was just beautiful.

We walked all over the outside of the castle and down by the woods, discovering new places along the way. It's a fantastic place to shoot with so many beautiful textures.

Jackie and John, your engagement session was so much fun and I just know your wedding day is going to be even better! We cannot wait to share that special day with you!! 

Stef

"In my view you cannot claim to have seen something until you have photographed it." - Emile Zola

For the Love of Instagram!

    The more I use it, the more I love it!! I finally switched from my b-berry to my IPhone and I love, love, love it!  Then when I started using Instagram... I knew it was meant to be! (It also helps that the quality of the images on the IPhone are phenomenal compared to my last phone, but that's irrelevant!)  I love the square dimension of the images, and the editing capabilities.  The filters and the blur can make a mundane, everyday image just that much more interesting.  I mean how interesting can images be of snacks for a night in watching movies and of zucchini soup boiling away on the stove?:

Movie Night & Zucchini Soup

   The blur tool gives you so much control.  Not only can you choose how the blur functions in the image after you shoot, but you can also select the blur before you shoot so you already know how the image will look.  And after shooting, you still have the flexibility to change the blur again.  There are two blur shapes that Instagram uses one is a circular blur and the other is more linear.  The circular blur you can change the size of and move around the screen to pinpoint exactly what you want.  The linear blur can also be expanded  so only the edges are blurred or can be reduced so only a thin sliver is in focus.  The angle of the line can be changed, as well as moved anywhere in the image.  If you want a certain element in focus, you can also just tap the screen so that that part is included.  In the images below, you can see the two different types of blur.  The image of the landscape on the left uses the linear blur along the coastline, and the right image uses the circular blur around the skunk:

Old Saybrook & Backyard Visitor

     And on top of how the blur works, the filters work the same way.  They can be added before shooting the image or after, and with or without frame.  I do wish some of the filters were a little more editable, maybe with more contrast controls.  But that really is being picky... I can always re-edit the image in another editing ap, or load it to my computer and edit it in Photoshop.  By loading these into my computer, I found out something else that makes me very happy.  All of these images are at a quality that I can enlarge them and print them!  I sized the image all the way up to a 30 in x 30 in and there really was not too much damage to the image.  I see some new images being printed for my walls soon!  Especially the bridge on the right of the image below, which I snapped while coming home from Nantucket.  The one on the left was on the way to Nantucket because I had to show people that we did get snow in CT this December.

Snowy Drive & Bridge

    So who else out there loves Instagram?!  Send us some of your images, and we will post our favorites!  And follow me on Instagram... my handle is agattphoto!  (Stef's handle is sburnsphoto.)

Anne

"You don't take a photograph, you make it." - Ansel Adams

Tilting the Horizon

First of all, I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season... Happy Holidays from Elegant Edge Photography to each and every one of you!  During my holiday weekend, I played around with my camera a bit, and I was thinking about my style of shooting.  I shoot many different types of images for many different types of situations, but one thing is prevalent in the images that I shoot: I LOVE to tilt the horizon.  (Do not get this confused with tilt-shifting, another love of mine, which I will discuss at some point for sure!) This can be seen in many of my wedding photos:

LI Wedding

To me, the tilt adds an element of interest because it breaks away from the typical rectangular space that straight horizontal lines create.  Not to say, that images shot straight on lack anything, just that adding the tilt to some images adds variety for our couples to choose from.  I view landscapes in much the same way.  I do appreciate a beautiful landscape that is setup horizontally, and I have shot many successful images that way.  But I have also shot many tilted, and it creates an entirely different feel to the image.  It can add interest to an image that you would otherwise find mundane.  As an example, this weekend I was shooting cattails in Old Saybrook, CT with my friend, who is not a photographer but appreciates a nice photograph.  I shot a bunch as straight images and then I threw in a few tilted options.  As we were looking through them later, her eye was drawn more to the tilted ones than the straight on shots.  Here is my favorite image from the bunch:

Cattails, Old Saybrook CT

So come on, break from traditional landscapes and tilt the horizon.  You never know how it can affect the reception of your image.  Play around with the degree that you tilt the camera, and as always send us what you come back with and we will tell you what we think!

Anne

"Composition is the strongest way of seeing."- Edward Weston