The First Thing… on a wedding day I look at when entering a room or outdoor space is how natural light and ambient light from wedding venues is going to affect the images. Even walking through the beautiful historic streets of St Augustine, produces new lighting conditions around every corner.
Natural light on the beach differs greatly from the shaded courtyards, hotel suites, grand ballrooms, and indoor reception dance spaces. Being versatile to master each in your manual settings is important as quite often on a wedding day, I’ll be photographing multiple different spaces starting in a hotel suite, venture outside, drive to a church or outdoor ceremony, then capture a venue’s reception space.
Every single one of them has different lighting.
Every single outdoor location has different natural lighting provided by nature.
Every day lighting outdoors is different.
I have practiced and perfected my artistic style professionally to understand how to read and shape light—indoors and outdoors in just about every lighting condition on a wedding day to enhance mood and detail for my couples I photograph.
Wedding days are dynamic and unpredictable. A seasoned photographer stays calm, flexible, and prepared for every twist, ensuring nothing is missed. Remaining flexible is also a valuable skillset, when things don’t quite go as expected. Also have a Plan B and C in mind for different key moments in a wedding day is vital. I always make sure I have extra batteries to last the entire day for quick swap out In addition to carrying multiples cameras, flashes, and memory cards for each wedding I photograph.
From changing lenses quickly to working with flash and ambient lighting, my goal is to always produce consistently sharp, beautifully exposed images no matter the setting or experience my couple is planning. During the wedding day, I do try to keep the day stress free and most importantly fun for couples. This means keeping gear setup and what you carry from space to space a minimal for what a photographer only needs to “get the shot” beautifully.
I also have a degree in Computer Science & computer networking(routers) combined with being a creative with Apple for many years. Just thought I’d share back history in case you were wondering.
GEAR Nerd
For photography, I adore my two Canon R5 Mirrorless cameras, with many Canon RF lenses including primes and zoom lenses. Reliable and consistent produce amazing images. Add on my led light bars and wireless off Godox pro camera flash system, and it completes what most couples should expect a professional photographer has at a wedding.
For wedding videography, I primarily shoot with multiple Sony A7siii mirrorless cameras that I rigged with DJI Ronin RS4 Pro Gimbal and about 10 different wireless audio recorders for the largest of weddings. All those mics being onsite are great for catholic weddings or when there is a lot of speeches and toasts.
What Gear I also have can be called an obsession with photography and videography
- 5 Different Drones for different flying scenarios including a DJI Mavic 3 Pro
- 4 Ace Pro 2 Action Cameras by Insta360
- 3 360 Cameras by Insta360
- 50+ Vintage film cameras
- Multiple Fuji & Polaroid Instant cameras
- 50+ Photo Booth backdrops
- 6 Unique Photo Booths- All for different looks & Experiences
- Multiple Mac Studios, MB Pros, & Studio displays for editing and working.
- Plus the different livestream gear.
- Plus the countless batteries & backups for every system or scenario.
- Probably 10 different tripods and 20 different lighting stands. Some for photography, others for videographers on my team.
Artistic Photo Editing
I lovvvvveeee playing with lighting during the post production process when editing using Lightroom. If I see that special signature moment during a sunset, funky dance move, or light rays beaming through a window jaw dropping outdoor backdrops, I’m my mind I’m already planning how to artistically edit them later for that Signature style, I strive to create daily. At the time of this article, I personally primarily edit in Lightroom using the newer Apple Mac Ultra M2 Studio computer connected to Dual Apple Studio Displays for color accuracy and incredible speeds.