He wonders why I haven’t blogged about his wedding yet. I wonder if I will ever be able to organize my thoughts about his wedding to do a blog post that does him justice.  You see, he’s a wedding photographer too, and quite the writer on his own blog.  I wish I could just sit at my computer and type away The story of Jared and Heather’s wedding day….but words escape me. I gave him the photos I was originally going to blog with, so  he could write his wedding story for his own followers (check it out here).  I’ve had draft after draft of this post just sitting and waiting for me to finish it…….so finally, I am. It’s after 11pm, two days before Christmas and here it goes…………..finally..

I got a call from Jared a few weeks after I had Layla. He was a guy getting married who liked my work and wondered if I would photograph his wedding, Oh, and he photographs weddings himself.  Gullllppp…I remember thinking, Ohhh, this could be a total nightmare or this could be something great.   Fast forward ten months and I can say, YES their wedding was great.  What I liked about Jared, and what I still do, is his open-mindedness and willingness to just be  honest about his work.   I’m a pretty honest girl, so we blended perfectly. It’s refreshing to have a colleague who is young and ambitious and wants to further his business like I want to further mine.  He’ll probably be faster at it than me. As he would tell you – I’m an old lady : ) There’s only so much I can get done in a day with two kids hanging from my desk wanting attention..not to mention I’m rounding the corner to the big 30 .  We old people need naps. 🙂

Heather was a total doll when I met her.  She’s beautiful and sweet and totally has a camera presence.  She is about the easiest person I’ve ever photographed.  Jared is a lucky guy and he knows it.  You would think that their wedding was the easiest day of photography for me….well, no. I’m being honest, it wasn’t.  The sun was bright and the leaves had mostly fallen so we struggled in the morning to find even shade to work with.   Their church was nice, but not one that you would want a lot as a background, so we were left with the parking lot and the sidewalk with I think the last tree that was holding onto its leaves before winter. I love that tree.  It gave me a beautiful backdrop and it’s shade to work under. I seriously could have hugged it!  Here’s Jared taking a walk with his boys, thinking about the biggest day of his life…

Here’s Jared on the phone booking another wedding.  J/k. Well maybe he is, I don’t know!

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Oh I love this tree.  Soooo much.

Heather received a very special necklace for her wedding day.  I love capturing moments of real emotion.

After  the ceremony, we hopped on a bus and went to the apple orchard.  I was still concerned with the sun, but Jared didn’t have a care in the world. Any time I would ask him what he thought, he’d say “It’s up to you…I’m just here to get married and eat chicken.”  Brent and I scouted this apple orchard the morning of the wedding.  The sun was in a different spot then, but somehow it worked when we returned at around 4:30 p.m.  I love this first shot of Heather.

She really wanted a picture with a tractor too. We couldn’t move this one, the engine had started on fire the day before and it was parked by a shed. Luckily, by the time we reached it, the sun was at a good angle.

 

I think this is one of my top 5 favorite spots of the year.  I love the crates. I wish we had more time there, but even with the few minutes we had, I love all these shots.

I really wanted to get a shot of Jared photographing Heather.  Can you believe he doesn’t photograph her a lot? 

Jared really enjoys photographing receptions. He uses a backlit flash for a lot of dance pictures. It looks great. I usually approach my dances using the existing light and popping a low fill-flash if needed. I really try to always use the available light.  I really like Jared’s approach and this year when we head to Vegas, I am going to make him teach me.  I will still use existing light  for 90% but it is great to have some backlit.  Below is an example. There was nothing special done for this shot. I just had Brent hold a flash on slave mode and just got lucky with one picture.

This image below is using existing light. I just shot at a higher iso.I really want to thank Jared for contacting me.  I have enjoyed his friendship and look forward to my first trip to Vegas in February. Jared is going to show me the ropes at the big Photography Convention.  Stay-tuned then as I’m sure he’ll grace my blog again! Congratulations Jared and Heather!! Wishing you both many many years of happiness!!