Whenever I am shooting with my off-camera flash set up, I kind of get a feel for where my settings should be by taking a few images of the sky.  I want to obtain that really dark blue sky that will set the background for my image.  I took a series of three pictures, in manual, and here is what I came up with:

Now, I know I wanted to be at 1/200th, because I wanted to cut out a lot of my ambient light, since it was SO bright outside.  When using your flash, remember these two things:  Aperture controls your flash and shutter controls your ambient.  So, once I had a general idea of where I liked my settings, I set up my flash unit, as pictured below:

I am actually bouncing my flash BACK INTO my umbrella and then onto the subject.  Next, I had Ryland stand in that general area that is circled above and these are my results:

As you can see, the flash eliminates a lot of harsh shadows that are caused by the sun and also lets a lot more light into your subjects eyes.  If I were to add or do anything different to this shoot, I would have added a reflector, camera-left, and reflected a little more light onto the subject.  But, with no one around to hold my reflector except for a few 3 year olds playing on the swings, I made do with what I had.  :-)  Would love to hear any feedback below!

I am so excited to share this news!!  I recently found out that I am a finalist in the Stiletto Woman in Business Awards.  Out of nearly 300 submissions I am honored to be recognized in three categories…Artistic Entrepreneur of the Year, Blogger of the Year and Photography Business of the Year.  Here is a link to all the finalists (congrats to all!):  SWIBA Finalists.  The winners in each category will be announced at the SWIBA conference on March 17th in Atlanta, GA.  The conference is open for all to attend and it has some amazing guest speakers, so take a look.

To give you a brief background, Stiletto Woman Magazine was founded by Karlena Wallace in 2009 as a new media portal to empower everyday women.  StilletoWoman.com launched a series of affiliate blogs designed to support our mission and the diverse lives of these women in business (Stiletto Business, Stiletto Money, Stiletto Health are just to name a few).

I am extremely honored to have been nominated and will keep you all posted with the outcome on March 17th!!!

The reflector that I use is called a “5 in 1 collapsible reflector“, which takes a little practice collapsing.  :-)

So, I decided to take out my best 5-year old model and show you the difference between reflected and non-reflected images.  All of the images below are SOOC (straight-out-of-camera, no editing done) and were taken at 12:30 PM on a bright and sunny day here in beautiful Denver, CO.

When looking at the images below, make sure to look at the eyes and shadows.  Using the reflector simply eliminates big shadows under the eyes and helps the whites of the eyes “pop” a little more, saving me a TON of time in post-editing.  Colors seem to be a bit more vibrant, too.  The two comparisons below are using the SILVER side of the reflector.

The next two examples are using the GOLD side of the reflector, which helps warm up the image a bit.  One thing I wanted to point out in these images was Ryland in the very last photo…when you are using your reflector, you can TOTALLY blind your subject by reflecting light back into their faces, so make sure you feather the light…either step back further (which I couldn’t do, since I was both shooting and holding) or don’t shine it directly at their faces, maybe shine it a little lower.  This will eliminate them from squinting so much.  In the last comparison, I really eliminated some hot-spots (look at the snow and his jacket), which also will help in post-processing.

The next step in shooting during harsh hours of the day is using your OFF CAMERA FLASH!!!  You will LOVE the before and after shots of this test, which will be posted SOON!!!  :-)

To add to the weekend, Happy Cakes Bakeshop supplied the yummy cupcakes and Garter Glitz was on-hand to display their lovely hand-made garters.

Thanks to Cate and all the staff at Little White Dress for inviting me to come photograph this weekend, I had a GREAT time!!

NOTE:  If the blog looks slightly different, I moved my blog over to a WordPress blog rather than my old Moveable Type Blog.  I used my tech-savvy skills and completed the transfer all by myself, so proud!  :-)  For those of you who subscribe to my RSS feed, you may have to update the URL to get the new feed, so just click on the SUBSCRIBE link on the menu above to get the new feed on your Google Reader.

I thought I would I start my blogging off by offering some tips for wedding-day photography that will help your day go as smoothly as possible.

1.  The Golden Hour…the Golden Hour is defined as the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset.  This is when we get some BEAUTIFUL light for portraits.  To find out when sunset is on your wedding day, I like to use this SUNSET LINK.  This will allow your photographer to work with the best possible lighting conditions…here is an example of an image taken during The Golden Hour:

2.  Professional Hair and Make-up.  I think it is very important to hire a make-up artist (MUA) on the day of your wedding.  They are very professional and knowledgeable about what looks good on camera.  They know how much is too much!  It is also very important for your MUA to apply your make-up in the best natural light possible because your make-up can look completely different under the florescent lighting of a bathroom compared to outside.  I always like to position my bride close to a large window or sliding glass door when they are applying make-up to get the best possible “getting-ready” shots.

3.  Organized Timeline and The First Look.  I stress to all my brides and grooms how important it is to have a solid wedding day timeline confirmed with all vendors involved.  If you have a wedding planner (also highly encouraged), then he/she will be able to coordinate your day with all wedding vendors.  When meeting my brides and grooms for the first time, I always encourage doing a “First Look”.  Having a First Look before walking down the aisle will allow the bride and groom to have an intimate moment, by themselves, to talk and compliment each other on how fantastic they look and maybe to shed a tear or two.  It alleviates stress and also frees up a ton of time after the ceremony for the bride and groom to enjoy cocktail hour with guests they haven’t seen in a long time.

4.  Relax and HAVE FUN!!  I have had some AMAZING brides and grooms over the past 5 years (wow, 5 years, that is crazy) and I adore each and every one of them.  Take time to pamper yourself, go to the spa, delegate items on your “to-do” list and have some wine.  Fellas, go and get a professional shave, play some Wii and enjoy chillin’ with your buddies.  This will be one of the best days of your lives and I am happy to document everything that you have worked so hard to plan!

DJ: Brian Martinez (MC Johnny Cruz)
Wedding Planner: Lindsey with One Fine Day Productions
Cake: Life is Sweet
Dress: Allure
Flowers: One Fine Day Productions
Candy Bar: DIY by mother of bride, bride and sister of bride
Videographer: Cascade Wedding Films
Linen: FLEXX
Chairs: Colorado Event Rentals