In The Desert | Our First WPPI Experience | Las Vegas, Nevada

The time was 4:30 am. My alarm was going off after an hour and a half of sleep following the annual "Airplanes and Blazers" party at the Rio hotel; a traditional part of the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International experience. We had many opportunities at our first WPPI including a variety of extremely informative master classes taught by industry leading professionals and an overwhelming trade show that made us feel like kids in the world's largest Toys 'R Us. In the time that we have been home since our week long adventure in Sin City, we have been able to gather our thoughts and have so much to be thankful for as the experience has not only made us better business owners, but better photographers.

So, back to the early bird photographer. Of the 16,000 people who attended WPPI this year, only a handful seemed to be willing to meet at 5a.m. and drive 45 minutes into the desert for a lesson in lighting while their wives slept comfortably in their very nice Vegas hotel room. Well, not only do I feel that a good photographer never stops learning, but I wasn't about to turn down and opportunity to learn hands on from Zach and Jody Gray of Gray Photography, industry leaders and super cool people. The images below reflect my sunrise lesson in perfect lighting.

As soon as we arrived, I jumped out and grabbed the models that had been asked to join us. The scenery was irresistible and I shot as much as possible.




Our first lesson was a technique that helps to get perfect exposure for both your foreground and background- a feat not easily accomplished when the morning sun is beating down on both your subject from one very specific direction and on the mountains in the distance.



Next, we worked with diffusing the harsh light with no added artificial light. I was so thrilled with these shots that we ordered this very same diffuser (seen in use below) within days after getting home.






Our last set up was a little more commercial than we're used to, but one of my favorite things to do is learn techniques from another genre and find a way to bring them into the wedding industry.





The shoot ended with a long trip back to Vegas, crossing my legs the whole time. Apparently no one thought to install restrooms in the middle of the desert. A very special thank you to Zach and Jody who have not only changed the way I see light but have effectively helped us to provide a higher quality product to our clients.

The last time I blogged on here, we had just returned from Mud Wars. This time is was the desert. I'm thinking my next post has to be really out there; anybody want to get their bridals done in the Everglades?

-Evan

Get KISSed! | Introducing Kiss Wedding Albums

Waiting for the UPS man is always exciting, but this week I was a bit of a crazy-person counting down the days until our new sample albums arrived. My friend Ashley was fortunate enough to be in the studio to see me accept the package and proceed to act like said crazy-person while I tore through the packaging.

There are a lot of album companies out there. We've tried several but were still looking for "The One". We discovered KISS at WPPI this year and new immediately that these were the albums we wanted to offer our clients. Simple, modern, elegant. They show off our photography well and match our style. These are not your Grandmother's wedding albums. The simplicity is fabulous; they come in leather or linen covers, 4 sizes and 7 colors. And the colors all have fabulous names like Sultry Blue and Forbidden Green. For our studio samples we wanted to show the range of the product so we ordered a 10 x 10, leather in Virgin White and a 12 x 12 line album in Voluptuous Black. We also got a Little KISS- 4 x 4 album that is great to carry around with you.



The look and feel of these albums are impressive. The leather albums are made from 100% full grain natural leathers with thick durable pages- 2mm thick to be exact. The linen is equally gorgeous, with thinner and more flexible pages. I love the linen ones for engagement albums and guest books. Pages from both albums lay flat like traditional flush mounts but the pages are creased instead of cut so you have a whole print crossing the entire spread. The prints are made from Fugi Crystal Archival paper so you don't have to worry about fading over time. And every album (even the minis) come with a sexy dust cloth cover. I never thought I'd describe a dust cloth as sexy- but somehow these are.

The best part of working with KISS is their amazing customer service (Rachel "The Helpful Hottie" was quite helpful indeed) and quick turn around time- these albums shipped 8 days early. I could go on and on about these but I'd like to show you some more pictures. And I encourage all Brides considering an album to come by and feel these bad boys yourself.








You can really see here how lovely the creased print looks across a whole spread.


And here's the Linen Album




And here's the Little KISS!




Beautiful, no? I can't wait to start designing these simply stunning albums for our brides!

Ybor Engagement Session | Caitlin + Erik | Tampa Wedding Photography

Happy Friday! We are headed to shoot Sarah and John's wedding today but I wanted to post this gem before the week is officially over (although our week just began). I'll have a ton of posts next week including Ashley and Sean's wedding but for now, I'd like to share this session we did with Caitlin and Erik a few weeks back. I love the colors in these. I love the textures. We can't wait for their wedding at Sacred Heart Church and Centro Asturiano on April 1st- which shows you how much fun these two are ;)










Have a fabulous weekend all!

Selby Gardens Wedding | Candace + Matt | Sarasota Wedding Photography

Matt proposed to Candace at Selby Gardens under the banyan tree,so it was only appropriate to make it official here too. Here in Florida we have about a week of spring and these too were lucky enough to have their wedding during it. Candace loves orchids and has a very green thumb which flowed into the wedding details of natural centerpieces and basil favors. It was such a beautiful and sunny day with that perfect mixture of cool breeze and warmth from the sun. Some days everything works out just perfectly...
















Congrats again to Mr. and Mrs. Smith ;)

Amy + Justin Engagement Session | Tampa Wedding Photographers

We were so excited when Amy wanted us to be part of her and Justin's wedding day because she is an intern for one of our favorite vendors, Elan Event Studio. Amy and Justin have great smiles and didn't even need to practice them all that much for our session. Shooting with them at the University of Tampa campus was a lot of fun, and we enjoyed getting to know them. Amy and Justin will be tying the knot on the other side of the river from UT at the Tampa Museum of Art in October later this year. It's always such a huge compliment when other industry professionals hire you, because they know their stuff!












Amy & Justin totally rocked the engagement session and their modern wedding is going to be stunning!