i’m going to quote from our own website here – our little writeup on using a wedding self-portrait studio:
“Ok. You finally get all of your family and friends together – dressed up and looking sharp. Everybody brings along a camera to take a group shot. Oh, just let me get one picture… wait, let’s get her in this too… wait one sec…. look this way…. wait, put down your drink…. wait…look this way…. smile… wait, which button is it? Did the flash go off? Oh, you blinked… wait let’s do one more. Oh wait, do one with my camera too. And you never see them anyway. Not that that’s such a bad thing because they looked like crap. Our self-portrait studio is manned by a photographer, real equipment, real lighting, real fun. Guests take their own pictures with a remote and see the results instantly on screen. They keep going until they get what they love. They want a nice family formal – we’ll make sure they get it. Want a group shot of school friends – have at it. And after a few drinks…. they get kinda fun. High resolution files can be used to make great big images – not some little rinky dink strip that one person runs off with. No better way to memorialize your friends.”
And here’s what you get (I’ll skip past the nice family pictures to the, “sure we’ve had a few drinks” fun stuff) :
brie and aaron had a stunning wedding at the metropolitan club in manhattan.
and i thought the raw silk runner was a great match for the room…
such a cute couple.
decor was done by the wonderful and fun to work with David Beahm. Check out the copper mirrored tabletops.
that image you see in the table above is the reflection from the ceiling’s trompe l’oil
clear glass chargers… brilliant.
the grand entrance
the first dance… soul street bringing everyone to the dance floor.
and then this amazing duo came out – Black Violin – wandering with wireless violins – cranking out some classical tunes until the hiphop dj joined in and the 3 of them rocked the house. awesome!
and the self portrait studio once again was a huge hit with everyone.
Many of my clients have been opting for the self-portrait studio setup that we make available at weddings so that guests can take their own pictures. It’s really a great time and you get pictures of people goofing around that you won’t get any other way. More on that a bit later… But first…
I am always refining our equipment and setups and had been testing out the self-portrait studio at home and left it on while I took a break to do something else. Well it’s summer time which means my kids are around a bit more and they happened upon the self portrait studio and managed to get it going.
As you can imagine, when a 5 year old and a 7 year old are left alone with a setup that will take pictures and instantly display them on a 19″ monitor you know you’re in for some trouble.
Case in point.
The funny thing is that unsupervised 5 and 7 year old behavior tends to degrade in the same way that adult behavior does (although we’re yet to see underwear on the head at a wedding).
Today seems like a good day to start on # 62 one of my 217 New Years Resolutions – “keep the blog up to date”.
So many wonderful things have gone on since my last post I don’t even know where to start. We’ve had some awesome events and really fantastic portrait sessions but before I bring you up to date on those (which will realistically take a few entries) I wanted to start with favorite subjects, my personal muses – my boys…
Like any kids, they don’t want to have their picture taken. But an occasional bribe of a new Pokemon can get them to sit for 2 seconds. The two seconds…
process – tilt-shift/sx70/cross processed
But most of the time they’re moving and there’s no sense in trying to stop them so you just adjust the technique to fit the subject.
Then Cole wants to be the photographer…
Here he is giving me instructions on what to do while he shoots….
And in exchange for 2 minutes behind the camera, he gave me another 2 seconds in front of the camera.
Cara Lynn and Mike are those kind of people. If you remember from the engagement session that we blogged awhile back, these guys are avid sailors and we got some awesome portraits of them at the South Street Seaport from which we put together a very cool signing album.
Mike and the boys wanted to work in the nautical theme into the day so they decided to take a ferry over to Manhattan for the wedding – DRESSED AS PIRATES! Ahoy Mateys!
Now, traffic usually stops for my brides and we can pretty much do anything we please in the city. In this case, these three park rangers OFFERED to hold traffic for us at the southeast corner of central park to let Cara and Mike grab a quick kiss. And when the hack honked the horn (we had been there all of 4 seconds) the rangers started yelling at the guy, “Now you just hold it there, mister – don’t you be honkin’ at me!” Nobody messes with a bride on her wedding day!
Want a big family shot with the Manhattan skyline on a 6 foot deck? No problem.
And here’s that signing book after guests have signed it.
Adding to the fun at their reception was our “Self-Portrait Studio” which allowed guests to set up and take their own pictures throughout the evening. It rocked and everyone had a great time with it. And the best part is, that unlike a traditional photobooth, these images were taken in high-resolution and the bride and groom get to keep the negatives and make whatever size prints they or their guests want. Check out some of the guests’ creativity.
And at the end of the night, Chris, Kim, Celeste and I couldn’t help but take one of ourselves too.
