Katie and Tom had several of songs on their song list by the legendary Van Morrison, so I chose a track off of the 1970 album His Band and The Street Choir.  I think the mood and feel of the song match the wedding nicely :)

Enjoy!

Michael

Katie and Tom got married on Jan 2 at The Ritz Carlton in Marina del Rey.  Eric Czerlonka made sure everything ran smoothly.

The first few shots are from their "first look," meaning they elected to see each other before the ceremony.

Last updated 1/12/09.

I got a short note from Tom via email that they love the pictures so far. They are on their honeymoon in Japan :)

Every wedding is unique, so one of the things that I'm always looking for are ways to tell the story that are particular to your wedding at your venue on your day. An obvious example is a beach: if I was shooting a beach wedding, the beach plays an important role. But what about less obvious things? Weather is another example--was it really hot? snowing?

Katie and Tom's wedding had less obvious choices, so I wanted to share a little more about my creative process and how I work.

I had a chance to do a walk through at The Ritz. Even though the venue is on the Marina, there were surprisinly few elemants that were "marina" like. However, the reception room has floor to ceiling glass windows that run the length of the room on two sides. I knew that this feature might make for some interesting--but very tricky-- situations. Why tricky? Shooting with glass is difficult. Water and metal fall into the same category. Reflections make focusing difficult (more so with an autofocus camera); you get all kinds of unwanted mirrored reflections in the image; because of the reflections, using any type of on camera flash is almost always out of the question--you must use available light; shooting in low light has it's own whole set of challenges; exposure is difficult because in addition to fooling your camera's focus, it can also fool the meter reading, thereby completely ruining your shot.

With that in mind, there were 2 shots that I posted in this thread where the windows come into play. The first is the cupcake cutting (see details in the captions below). I briefly shot what was happening inside, saw what was happening, and literally ran outside to make some pictures from outside, and ran back in. I think the picture I posted is much more interesting than the "usual," cake-cutting type of picture.

The other picture is of one of the flower girls looking out the window. I was shooting the sign in table when she came up and started gazing out the window. When I shot it, I was hoping that the flower girl migh be related to someone in the framed photograph in the foreground. The shot works by itself, and weddings are about families coming together, so whether or not there was an actual relationship or not wasn't critical. But here's where it gets even cooler: I was contacted by Curt, the father of the flower girls, and besides having some kind words for my work, he informed me of the following: "By the way, the picture of Chelsea, the 7 year old, where she's looking out the window and there is an old picture in front of her...In the picture is her Grandfather on the right and the young lady is Katie's Grandmother who couldn't make the wedding and to the left is my Uncle Sonnny."  Is that awesome or what?!? That's just the cherry on top frosting on the cupcake, isn't it?

Man I love what I do! :)

Michael

Katie's Dad.

No Photoshop or "effects" on this one were used. The dreamy background blur is often referred to as "bokeh." The softness at the left in the foreground is from the crystals that were hanging.

Pete Goslow was on guitar the whole night and took care of emcee duties, too.

Katie wanted cupcakes instead of a wedding cake. There were five different kinds. Beneath the sliver of white chocolate with their names was a different type of frosting. Actually, the carrot cake had a cream cheese frosting. The others had this delightful mouse. It was airy, yet rich, but not overly so. The cupcakes themselves were moist, very flavorful, and had great mouth feel. The two that I had (double chocolate and red velvet) were unbelievable. Seriously. Hands down some of the best cupcakes--or cake of any kind--I have ever had anywhere. They were done in-house at The Ritz. Major props to the pastry chef and bakery dept. (Yes, I'm a foody.)

The cake cupcake cutting, shot from the outside looking in.

One of the flying flower girls.