Whitney Lewis Photography » Bridal

Late Fall Wedding: Engagements and a Sneak Peek

Whitney — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 05:33:46 +0000

Silvina and Josh were married yesterday! We did their engagement photos a couple weeks ago up Big Cottonwood Canyon before most of the fall colors disappeared, and as yesterday was the day they officially started their new lives together, I figured it was the right time to share them. :)

Josh is a full-time manager for a security sales company based in Utah, and spends 4 months out of the year working basically around the clock managing an office in different parts of the country. He met Silvina on a company trip down to Cancun, where she was visiting with her family from her native Argentina. Out of all the places to meet the love of your life, Cancun definitely sounds like one of the most awesome.

It’s interesting how Josh doesn’t speak any Spanish at all, but they manage to communicate so well. The best thing about being around them was how easily Josh was able to make Silvina laugh.

Yesterday was a special day- it was 11/11/11, and while Silvina and Josh’s wedding at the South Jordan Courthouse was actually at 11am, the funny thing was that ALL of the weddings that day were “at 11.” The judge ordered that the official clock be stopped at 11, so he was able to perform all three of the ceremonies from the day at 11/11/11 at 11. Pretty cool.

Saltair Formal Wedding Photography with Andrea & Danielle

Whitney — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:26:47 +0000

This shoot was a fun mix of casual and dressy, elegant and fun. Andrea and Danielle were married a couple of months ago, but I was booked for their wedding date and so couldn’t be there for the photos on the day of. We scheduled this formals shoot after the wedding, and it was really nice and relaxed. While this wasn’t a trash-the-dress shoot like Brittany did recently, Danielle didn’t have to worry quite as much as we would have if her dress got a bit dirty or where we was needing to walk. She wanted a more casual feeling so she wore flip flops for the session, and Andrea went without a tie. These two are some of the sweetest people you will ever meet, and we had a good time walking around the Great Salt Lake getting different bridals and different shots featuring both the bride and the groom.

One of my favorite angles/locations at Saltair is this area where you can get the same clean, almost sterile landscape that you can get at the Salt Flats- without having to drive an extra two hours! :)

This is another favorite area of Saltair. It’s called Sunset Beach, and it’s AMAAAAAZING. Perfect angles to get backlit by sweet sweet sunset colors, foot-friendly rocks to stand on, and convenient access to parking. It’s got it all.

Utah Bridal Photography- Trash the Drash Shoot at Great Salt Lake

Whitney — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 06:34:02 +0000

Any long-term blog stalkers I have will most certainly remember Brittany and Jordan. I shot their engagements and their wedding last winter, but we put off bridals until after the wedding. Brittany wanted warmer weather for the shoot showing off her dress, and doing it this way we also got to take some shots you can’t really pull off before the wedding. Mooostly because more often than not the gown isn’t really all that wearable afterwards. Since Brittany and Jordan live in Wyoming now, it took a while before we could coordinate the session. I was especially excited for this shoot for a couple of reasons- first, I wasn’t took sure it was going to happen (most brides and grooms that schedule after-the-wedding bridals/formals/whatever don’t usually end up going through with it because by then the LAST thing they want to do is get dressed up again). Secondly, and most importantly, Brittany is the type of gal who is willing and eager to do absolutely and everything I possibly suggest. It’s fantastic!

We got several traditional style bridals at Saltair showing off how gorgeous she is and how awesome the dress was before we got to trashing it.

What’s that hint of purple under her dress you say? Why, her trusty purple galoshes of course! I thought they were super cute, and they definitely came in handy a bit later…

Ok, now we start having a bit of fun. Where can we go that we normally wouldn’t be able to?

Whether it was wading out into the Great Salt Lake, sitting in the mud, or climbing up on a rickety gate, Brittany knocked it out of the park. Look at how fantastic she looks!

Of course, it goes without saying that we took plenty of opportunities for Brittany to twirl around and stomp as hard as she could. It kind of brought to mind the sheer joy you could have as a little kid playing around in puddles and mud. That never really goes away… :D

Be sure and check out the full gallery from the shoot here (more to come as they get finished). At the end of the day, we decided that Brittany’s dress still looked a little too good, so stay tuned for a future post. Brittany and I are both excited about the possibility of doing a another shoot sometime where we light it on fire!

It might be a while before that shoot though. Brittany is insanely busy starting her own salon in Laramie, Wyoming. It looks like it’s going to be fantastic though, so if you happen to be passing through and need an awesome stylist, you should definitely check out Studio220.

How to shoot a bride in a Walmart parking lot

Whitney — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 05:43:07 +0000

As promised, here’s the behind-the-scene photos from the bridals and formals I posted the other day. This was an experiment/demonstration I did for my intern Abby, and is something I’ve been working on in my head for a long time. So here it is, how to shoot a bride in a Wal-mart parking lot.

Photographers: Myself and Abby (my lovely intern), with Thomas shooting “behind-the-scene”

Models: Lybie and Ravi

Location: Wal-Mart Parking Lot

Purpose: To prove that there is ALWAYS a beautiful photo to be found, even in unsuspecting locations.

First, here’s me :)

I have learned many principles from many people through my photography years, and I have been grateful for all these lessons. I found a couple of these principles were most applicable to this kind of location shooting and would like to share them with y’all.

Principle #1 – The best photos are taken from below 3 feet and above 6 feet (while most photos you see are taken from between 3ft and 6ft, general standing/crouching height.) Here we shot from low to crop out the parking lot and other distractions to show the sky, with the tree, bush, and light post (love having the light posts in parking lots to work with!) framing her. 3 lights, fill light on the camera, main light from left, backlight from right. Sometimes I would put a fourth light below the tree to help light it up, but the main light was doing a good job already.

…and this is what we had to work with for that shot, and the next…

Principle #2: Bokeh. Leaving the bride and lights in the same place, I stood up and actually used the cars and parking lot as a background, but zoomed in as far as possible and dropped the f/stop for a shallow depth of field. Now instead of obviously being cars and parking lot, it’s just a lot of texture. Lybie really wanted an edgy look, and I feel like this complimented the messy-hair and unique bouquet.

Principle #3: Empty space is ok! And wide open sky shots do not have to include the subject’s feet. This is a simple thing, but one I’ve been working on recently. I feel that this photo would not have been pretty if we included the asphalt! Also played with white balance – warm vs. cold plays an important role in the atmosphere of the photo. Fill light on camera, main light from the right, car headlights as back light from the left.

Principle #4: Who cares what the background is when the subject fills the frame?

Principle #5: Lighting is everything!!! This is the photo I’m most proud of. Yes, she is standing in front of a dumpster. It might not have smelled fantastic, but we don’t have to see the smell on camera! And with the shadow from the tree on the dumpster, the car lights shooting across it, and backlight on the bride, it makes a great textured background.

…and this is what we had to work with. Beautiful bride, but an interesting scene indeed.

And again, 200mm, shallow depth of field. This could be a cool classy downtown night scene, but if you look really closely, you can almost read the Wal-mart “Always” sign behind them. :)

So here’s the deal: I love shooting at places like Thanksgiving Point Gardens or La Caille, but at the end of the day, it’s not the location that determines the quality of the photos, it’s the angles, the composition, the depth of field, the lighting, and having awesome subjects to work with. We can take a location as ordinary as a Wal-Mart parking lot and without walking more than 20 steps in any direction get a wide variety of photos. I was so excited to have this opportunity and hope to do many more of these experiments in the near future.

If you’d like to see more photos (and behind the scene photos) from the session, take a look at the full gallery here.

Katherine & Matt: Formal Wedding Photos at Zilker Botanical Gardens

Whitney — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:02:55 +0000

Now some of these photos might seem familiar from the wedding highlight slideshow I posted recently. Katherine and Matthew (or “Kat” and “Matt”) are both friends that I have known for a loooong long time. Coincidentally, they have also been dating a loooong long time. How long you say? How does since middle school strike you?

It’s been a wild ride as they’ve dated on and off, and throughout the whole remained the best of friends. Though if I had a nickel for every time someone said “I am so excited y’all are finally getting married”… well I would have a lot of nickels.

Thomas and I flew down Thursday before the wedding, which was a grand two-day affair on Friday and Saturday. We managed to catch a flight early enough in the day that we were able to do this bride and groom pre-shoot at the Zilker Botanical Gardens. We got some individual bridals as well as some photos of the two of them. After the shoot we headed on over to Katherine’s home for some pre-wedding day barbeque and some music, where I sorted and edited like a madwoman on my laptop so that we could order some enlargements for the reception on Saturday. (On a side-note, anybody going to Austin that wants great bbq MUST go to Rudy’s. It’s not optional. But I digress…)

Matt and Katherine both looked fabulous, and had that glow that only those on the brink of the best day of their life really can show.

Having moved out of Texas before I really started shooting professionally, I had never taken photographs at the Botanical Gardens quite the same way before. I used to come here all the time, but I never realized the wealth of photo locations this place has. It’s chock full of beautiful spots like this one below…

I’ve known Katherine forever, and she’s one of the sweetest, most outrageous, talented, and “out there” people you will ever meet.

Katherine is a playwright, and has directed many a play (she and I even ran a theater camp once-upon-a-time, but that’s another story). So of course, we had to show off her very official director’s chair.

There will be more to come of these two as I finish up the photos from the wedding day in San Antonio and the reception in Austin. We’ll probably have to break it up over several days, because a LOT happened, and there was so many cool things that I wanted to share with y’all.

Sneak Peek: Austin Texas LDS Wedding Photography

Whitney — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:41:07 +0000

As I mentioned the other day, we were back in my hometown in Austin TX shooting a wedding over the weekend. Here is a sneak peek of some of the photos from the formals shoot that we did on Thursday at the Zilker Botanical Gardens before the wedding, and some photos from the wedding day itself on Friday at the LDS Temple in San Antonio. They had their reception on Saturday at the Vineyards at Chappell Lodge, so I had some time to quickly go through and get a few of my favorites from the two shoots for this slideshow. We ran it for the wedding, and one of the coolest things about it (aside from the awesome photos, of course)? The song is actually the bride singing!!!

It’s a song she wrote for her (now)husband a year ago about their relationship. You can actually buy the song on itunes- her name is Katherine Gee and the song’s title is Sunshine and Rain. She is fabulously talented! In fact, her entire family is unbelievable as well… the whole wedding process was like a big broadway musical, with spontaneous poems, musical performances, and some really awesome dancing.

I’ll definitely be posting more pictures from the wedding later on in future posts, but I just had to share a couple now so y’all can see what I was up to. I had so much fun, and was so honored to be a part of it.

Joelle and Brett- Formals at Salt Lake Temple

Whitney — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 04:50:29 +0000

Call them what you will, bridals, groomals, or formals… pre-wedding day shoots are where it is at. Joelle and Brett were great to work with, and we ended up with some photos that they were super excited to enlarge for the reception. Here are a few favorites…

Joelle did some photography back in high school, where she focused on black and white photography. So we had to get a couple b&w’s to show them off as well…

Joelle and Brett will be married at the end of this month in the LDS Salt Lake Temple and will have their reception at Magnolia Grove, so check back later for more pictures!

Heidi and Steve- Sleepy Ridge Wedding Preshoot

Whitney — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:39:31 +0000

So this last part of the formals shoot is proof positive that when you don’t cancel the shoot because of massive impending thunderstorms, that good things can happen. We got some gorgeous sunlit shots at the Sleepy Ridge Golf Course and the Reception Center there, and then it was time for the sunset.

As a photographer, I am so happy Heidi and Steve decided to go with Sleepy Ridge for their wedding, because the place is so dang elegant. The building is absolutely gorgeous, and for bridal shoots and formal pre-wedding photos you can get some amazing skies in the evening. The golf course and the grounds are so open and well done that you can really go crazy with pictures.

When I got the prints that we ordered for their reception last week, I felt like it was Christmas. We did 20X30 metal print of this one above, and a 30×40 of the one below. It went on the massive mantlepiece in the Garden Room there at Sleepy Ridge, right behind where they had the receiving line. So awesome to have something like that, and in a size to do it justice. Heidi’s mom had to keep pointing it out to all the guests saying “do you see this amazing photo?” Gotta say, it’s one of the best feelings in the world as a wedding photographer to hear something like that over and over. Thanks guys for an awesome shoot, and a fantastic wedding day!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Whitney — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:10:19 +0000

Heidi and Steve are the type of people don’t don’t let a rainy day get them down! When we met Heidi and Steve outside of Tahitian Noni the storm clouds were already rolling in. By the time we got to the gardens its was trickling and soon it was pouring. We were able to get a few shots in before we had to run for cover for fear of ruining Heidi’s gorgeous hair and dress.

This awesome couple decided to not let the storm scare them away and decided to wait for it to blow over. While we waited for the storm to pass we stayed busy photographing detail shots and getting to know the couple better. It turns out that the intern, Abby, knew Steve from their home state! (Don’t make me start singing “its a small world”.) Eventually the rain let up and we got some amazing photographs!!! But don’t take my word for granted – check them out for yourselves!!

It’s awesome how Heidi’s shorter hair works with the high collar. So cute!!!

I love the Morinda Gardens… they pack a lot of variety and gorgeous landscaping into a relatively small area.

Heidi and Steve were married yesterday; it was such an awesome day, and a beautiful reception. We did the second half of the formals shoot at the Sleepy Ridge Golf Course in Orem, where their reception was to be. I’ll post those photos on Monday!

Kara & Chris: Formals at La Caille and Temple Square

Whitney — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 21:46:20 +0000

Kara and Chris were married today! What a fun couple to work with.

Chris hadn’t seen Kara in her dress, so we arranged a first look for the first part of the formals session at La Caille. I love doing formals, and LOVE getting to capture moments and expressions like this. This little footbridge was perfect for the occasion.

La Caille has this awesome private drive going up to the main buildings paved with these stones and lined with these gorgeous trees. The whole place is full of locations that just scream out “take a photo here! take a photo here!”

We also got a couple of night shots at Temple Square to finish out the day.

And since they were married today, here’s a sneak peek from the big day itself!