2011 A Year in Review

Goodbye to 2011...
Another busy and photo filled year with plenty of new friends.

We wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank all of our wonderful couples of 2011.

Additionally, we thought that it would be fun to show you some of our favorite images from the past year - enjoy!

Posh Bridal Lounge

Happy New Years to All!
We are looking forward to a fantastic 2012 with our new collaborative partners at the Posh Bridal Lounge. A concierge style wedding planning service for the discerning and busy brides of today. High Quality planners, florists, cakes, caterers, services of all kinds, and, of course, Everafter Images. Beautiful offices located in a central Austin location. Take a look and give us a call to "get your Posh On"!

Army, Italy - Angel Springs

We really got a kick out of this couple from a December 2011 Angel Springs wedding. Of course we had to add this pun - how could we not? Our groom traveled from his Army post in Italy to marry his high school sweetheart - after a short honeymoon/holiday he heads back to Italy with his new bride. Our couple and their guests rocked the halls of Angel Springs Event Center in Georgetown Texas. Their exit car was the groom's grandfather's vintage Ford Model A. Tyler's Dad did have a mint Chevy Corvette near just in case the Model A didn’t start. Beautiful falls colors, along with a break from the recent rain offered this happy couple the perfect weather for an outside ceremony. With Texas weather in the 60's - our couple was able to enjoy the night air without the need of winter wear.

Fun was the theme with a photo booth by “Lone Star Photo Booth” - S’mores kits on the receptions tables, a mock gangster bridal party photo session (gals) and writing the brides new last name in the air with sparklers - FUN !!

Shotgun Wedding

Up Lighting

We have been thinking of investing in “Up Lighting” to bring with us at select wedding events. There is just something magical about entering a large room with columns of light beaming. LED Uplighing is a relatively new trend to turn just about any room into a special gathering place for all night dancing or elegant affairs. Photographing rooms with up - lighting requires a tripod, cable release and a high ISO capable camera with superior optical lens, we used the Canon “L” glass 16mm / 35mm zoom lens for this shot. Each image was a 1/10 of a second exposure at a high aperture for best depth of field

This photo is 11 images stitched together for an incredible 280+ degree field of view. The wedding venue “Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa” also provided a projected city scape and other lighting effects for our bride and groom. The second photo with our bride and groom is just one small section of the room, using about ⅓ of the background on the right. (see the right side of the panoramic to see when we placed the happy couple). We positioned our couple in the light that was projecting their initials on the dance floor. We used a small zoom 28 mm / 70 mm “L” lens to help compress the background. This was also at a “long exposure aperture” with the camera mounted to a tripod and cable release.

Tradition, Texans & Boots

When Matt popped the question to wed his longtime girlfriend joining their two families, his Alma Mater at West Point was the perfect place for them to hold their long awaited joining. They have been together more than 6 years and have raised their respective sons as a family. A tradition with graduates of West Point, the Cadet Chapel and Thayer Hotel add an amazing intensity to this so special event. It's fall and in NY/CT the air is crisp and cool with hints of woodsmoke. The leaves on the trees are just starting to change. Rehearsal day and I checked into the historic Thayer Hotel on the bank of the Hudson River. Built in 1928 it has seen numerous presidents, dignitaries and proud parents...wedding guests too. Cadet Chapel on the West Point campus is an amazing site for a ceremony. The Chapel was built in 1910 from granite quarried right at West Point. Their wedding morning dawned bright and crisp with a promise of unseasonably warm temps (Forecast was for 83 degrees). The Texans in the group especially enjoyed the cool morning. With an 11 am ceremony time photos started bright and early while Jill got her hair done at the on site salon. Then it was up to the Eisenhower Suite for her to do her makeup and dress. Off we rushed for a stately, yet, intimate family ceremony. The walk up the aisle is 210 feet long and Jill was escorted up the aisle by her son, Grayson. We had brief minutes only to do a quick wedding party portrait on the front steps and then a quick couple of shots of Jill and Matt at the altar before our allotted Chapel time was up. With the frequency of weddings held at this location schedules are rigorously adhered to. Off went Jill, Matt and I to get a few photos of them at significant points around the campus. Trophy Point overlooking the Hudson, the green Plain in front of the Cadet Barracks and The Lusk Reservoir, too. Back at the Thayer we did family portraits before heading in to a wonderfully relaxed reception of family, dancing and lots and lots of fantastic food. Jill danced in her wedding gift from Matt of beautiful new boots. After the reception the party continued with drinks and dancing under the stars at the Thayer’s rooftop bar. It’s rumored that there was a bit of dancing on the bar…Go Grayson! What a wonderful trip and memorable wedding.

Red Mustang Wedding

I have wanted to capture an image like this for years! Last nights wedding at Texas Old Town with just the right combination of a fun (good looking) couple, a cool car, an isolated road, and good natural light... What bonus it was right after a much needed rain to saturate the fall colors background colors.

We have a Toyota Highlander 4-Dr. To accomplish the above photo, I moved to the rear seat behind the driver (to capture the brides expression(s) and to shoot out the window). Our able 2nd shooter Sylvia was driving the car as I snapped away photos. I dropped the shutter speed down to 1/25th of a second to “motion blur” the background. We drove alongside, and slightly ahead of the mustang couple. At this low shutter speed, I knew we would sacrifice many, many photos to get “the one” that was clear enough to preserve detail in the car, bride, groom - but blur the background. Because our couple was so willing, and the road was so very isolated I moved to the back of the Highland, lifted the tail gate door up and drove with the back side open... For the second series of photos - I moved the shutter up to 1/200th of a second.

We never went over 15 mph! That’s the beauty of this type of image - it looks like we are going so much faster. With the overcast light and cloud cover we had nice tones that would be brought out with photoshop. A polarized filter was added to the lens to cut the glare of the mustangs windshield.

Congratulations Darrel and Sarah on your special day - you helped make it even more special for me too.