Flower Girl at the Palace of Gold Ceremony, images for wedding photography

www.destinationweddingphotographerneeded.com

This image was taken of the Flower Girl Brontae at the Palace of Gold destination wedding for Ryan and Janette at my REAL wedding workshop.  I had to set up the entire wedding procession because this was the first non-Hare Krishna wedding ever to be shot there...and it was amazing!

www.palaceofgoldwedding.com

Camera settings: Nikon D800, 1/250 sec at f/10, 14mm at ISO 50, flash fired.  Taken at 3:03pm.

Rotolight RL 48 Interview Kit at a REAL Wedding Workshop by Jason Lanier

www.funphotoworkshops.com

This production image shot by my second photographer Vanden King was taken of me using my two Rotolights from my RL 48 Interview Kit.  This was taken while I was shooting a macro shot of the rings with my Nikon 105mm macro lens at the Palace of Gold in Moundsville, WV.  It was an amazing day and I just love using these lights.  We are currently working out an affiliate deal with Rotolight so we can make these lights more accessible to all of you!

www.destinationweddingphotographerneeded.com

Bridals at the Mosteller Mansion Destination Wedding

www.destinationweddingphotographerneeded.com

This image was taken at my destination wedding at the Mosteller Mansion in Hickory, North Carolina.  It is truly an amazing venue with a multitude of opportunities for creating beautiful imagery.  This image was taken of my bride Daryl as she walked down the staircase towards her way to the ceremony.  

www.jasonlanierweddingphotography.com

Camera settings: Nikon D800, 1/160 sec at f/5.6, 16mm at ISO 800, flash fired.  Taken at 5:02pm.

Major League Love, Destination Wedding in Cleveland Indians Baseball Stadium

www.destinationweddingphotographerneeded.com

This image was taken at my wedding for Matt and Jenna inside the Cleveland Indians Baseball Stadium at my destination wedding in Cleveland, Ohio.  I had never had the opportunity to shoot a wedding shoot on the actual field, so this was a real thrill for both me and the couple.  We shot inside of the dugout, the outfield, played baseball etc.  It was a BLAST!  One of the main reasons why I love destination weddings is because of all the unique places I get to shoot!!

www.jasonlanierweddingphotography.com

Camera settings: Nikon D2XS, 1/250 sec at f/7.1, 11mm at ISO 250, flash did not fire.  Taken at 4:24pm.

Bride Getting Ready at the Mosteller Mansion Hickory North Carolina

www.mostellermansionweddings.com

www.jasonlanierweddingphotography.com

This image was taken at my wedding for Aaron and Daryl at the Mosteller Mansion in Hickory North Carolina where I shot one of my destination weddings.  They have a beautiful bridal room and I was so honored to shoot the wedding there for Aaron and Daryl...I just love that couple.  For this image I stood on top of a chair to get the higher perspective which I think really worked for this shot.  Hope you like it!

Camera settings: Nikon D800, 1/80 sc at f/4.0, 17mm at ISO 1600, flash fired.  Taken at 4:51pm.

Bracing for impact, Garter Toss at the Mosteller Mansion

www.mostellermansionweddings.com

I just love this image taken at the Mosteller Mansion for my wedding there with Aaron and Daryl.  This was during the Garter Toss, and as you can see the bride (Daryl) had to brace herself because Aaron was very vigorous in his search for the garter...:)  What an amazing and fun couple...one of my true faves ever.

Camera settings: Nikon D800, 1/80 sec at f/4.0, 16mm at ISO 3200, flash fired.  Taken at 9:11pm.

Spain day 2- Segovia part 1

So we woke up late, Ryan found these chocolate donuts and bought and ate a ton. We left the hotel and Ryan was still hungry so he grabbed some sandwich baguette thing while I really went out on a limb and stopped off at Burger King. We went to the parking structure where I paid $45 for overnight parking (car was only there 12 hours)....you have to love the value of the dollar compared to the Euro!

We started off on the hour long drive from Madrid to Segovia. While driving on their highways I noticed two things...(1) they have those stupid automatic traffic ticket things like Australia. So if you speed you automatically get nailed for a ticket. I have a fond recollection of this because when I returned form Australia I found three tickets mailed to me. One cool thing is the Tom Tom GPS actually alerted me of some of the speed traps by blinking and beeping anytime I went into one of these speed traps....I'm kind of scared to see how many tickets I ended up getting.

The second thing I noticed is that road rage knows no borders. Ryan and I witnessed one of the most violent and aggressive road rage incidents I've ever seen. These two cars were purposely swerving and trying to hit each other and eventually pulled off the road to fight. We were just glad they got off the road because they were risking the lives of others to fuel their rage.

We got off the road after paying the appropriate tolls and drove into the beautiful city of Segovia. This is exactly what you think of when you imagine old world Europe. Small, narrow streets, medieval architecture, and a beautiful cathedral and castle. We drove around the city wall (yes, it has a very old city wall just like you'd imagine) to survey all of the town. We turned around and I found myself on the wrong side of a one-way road. I honestly have no idea how we made it...but through very creative driving, pulling off onto the sides of the road, getting the funniest looks I've ever seen from Spaniards we made it through it. Ryan was so embarrassed he turned and said, "These people are going to kill us." I replied, "That's why I keep looking straight ahead, if you don't make eye contact with them you don't feel any guilt."

We worked our way around and found this old Monastery that Ryan said was straight out of an Indiana Jones movie...and I agreed. Ryan caught this shot of me just taking in the moment and enjoying the view of this beautiful historic place.

The coolest thing about doing what I do is the opportunity to sometimes just sit down and talk about what you're seeing...not to do the tourist thing to come and see, snap a few shots and get back on the tour bus. Ryan and I just sat there and spoke about the place and took 30 minutes to enjoy the surroundings...it was awesome.

We left the Monastery and headed to the hills to shoot the castle from high atop the city....but this post is long enough and that story will be saved for part 2....

Taking time to cool off-using a fast shutter camera

I figured since the last post was about the California wildfires...I might as well show some shots that can cool us all off a little. The shots below can only be captured with a fast shutter camera like the D3. Canon has a very fast 10mp camera as well that could do this. The D3 and comparable cameras that should around 10fps (frames per second) are instrumental in capturing the vivid details you see in the shots below. Many times I feel the speed of the camera is overlooked when photographers choose their camera...and so many focus on the mp only.

I believe of course the best cameras have both high quality and fast speed. There are Nikon's and Canon's that have cameras that shoot at 20mp or higher but you lose the speed. The fast cameras are mostly used by sports photographers but I couldn't do without the speed for my wedding business. I utilize the speed for bracketing, HDR, and for capturing the fast never to repeat moments like a crazy bouquet toss. Brides always get a kick out of seeing the trajectory of their bouquet in flight when they see their wedding images. I love high resolution...my only recommendation is to also place a lot of emphasis on speed...it does matter and makes a huge difference.

California on Fire- life changes quickly

It's amazing how fast things can change in life. This shoot that I did two weeks ago in the Angeles Crest forest is now engulfed in flames in the annual wildfire disasters we have here in California. As I drove yesterday on the 10 freeway through downtown LA I looked over to the mountains and couldn't help but wonder how much of this will be left after the fires have had their way.

It's surreal to work on these pictures while I'm doing the editing and to imagine this whole place of peace and water filled with flames and fire. Thanks to California's conservation efforts we are pretty much a sitting tinder box...so much forestation that hasn't burned for 30-50 years so when it does get lit it burns and creates the disasters we have today. Being a nature lover I can't help but think that anyone who commits arson should have some serious consequences....say like...dangling them over the fire with a helicopter to teach them a lesson? I hope you enjoy the shots and that I'll have the chance to shoot here again if it isn't all gone...

Bathing Bride-Part 2

So we continued our shoot in the water and Jamie did a fantastic job. The key I've found to getting great shots is having brides or models that can go with your imagination. If they can follow your train of thought and imagine with you...you just need to be ready to snap the picture when the magic happens. As I mentioned in an earlier post if I had tried to pose these with Jamie and just told her to stop and stand still...the pictures wouldn't have turned out. I gave her direction and then waited to take the shots. I hope you enjoy!

The Bathing Bride

One of my favorite things to do is make brides do things that make no sense. Why would a bride be bathing in a wedding gown and veil in a creek? Truth is she wouldn't. Any person wouldn't bathe with clothes on...but where's the fun in shooting that?

I find things are much more seductive and beautiful when there is a lot left to the imagination. I asked Jamie to get into the water and pretend to bathe. Again, while it makes no sense that a bride would be doing that....I thought it made for some pretty cool shots. I'm still editing some more shots of this shoot that I really love but that's for sharing tomorrow!

Gotta Be Somebody- Justin and Aliya's Wedding Testimonial

We had the great opportunity to do an interview with Justin and Aliya Rinaldi earlier this year in their home in Washington DC. We love doing interviews because it allows our future clients to see what our former clients thought of their experience with us. It's always fun for me to hear what my clients perspective was on all of our adventures together.

I loved the experience with Justin and Aliya so much because even though they were in Washington DC we still did an engagement session together and spent two full days together for the wedding. It's also fun for me because I always leave the area where the interview takes place and I have one of my team members ask the questions...so it's really fun to see what they said after the video is completed by my team. I hope you enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO!!

Drowning in Sugar Cane

Ever wonder how tall the sugar cane is in Hawaii? You might drive past it and think, "That looks big.." but you never realize how tall or big it is until you put a bride in the middle of it to give you some perspective. These shots below were the first time I ever took a bride into the middle of the sugar cane....and I love the feeling of capturing her walking through this world of huge plants....it's almost like a Jurassic Park moment in that everything is so much larger than the bride.

The other thing we immediately noticed was the temperature change. It was literally about 15 degrees hotter inside the sugar cane than it was when we were shooting on the road. Part of it was the wind but a big part was just being enveloped by these plants. It was awesome!

Composition and shooting in thirds- making a great shot

We continued our shoot on Sugar Cane Road and it was so picturesque I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. We had blue skies, plenty of wind, great cloud cover, and sunlight piercing through the clouds to give me all the ingredients to create the images and art that I wanted.

One of the most important things when shooting is creating the composition for your shot. I spend the most deciding where to shoot and what to shoot. I had a bride recently say about me, "Jason finds the shot he wants, and then puts you in it." I think that's key so you don't get distracted with the beauty of the bride and forget the surrounding area.

As you can see with the shots below there are vanishing points, highlights, lowlights, etc. But I wanted to focus on the rule of thirds being applied here. The rule of thirds is simple in that you cut the picture into three parts and make sure each is represented within your image. In the images below the three parts would be the sky, sugar cane, and the road....like three significant parts to your picture in one image. This makes for much better images...much more interesting and more beautiful. Let me know if you have any questions and I hope you enjoy!

Trashing the dress- resting after a long shoot....

So we worked hard...and then took a rest. It was so relaxing just there on the beach in Maui watching the sunset go down...it was hard to leave. But we were both very wet from being in the ocean so that feeling kind of wore off and it was time to get back to the car. This was the second of three shoots that I was in Hawaii to do....and I can't wait to show you the next shoot which was smoking...literally...but that's for another day. Thanks Jackie for everything and for such a great shoot!!!

Old Maui Church Bridal Shoot on the ocean

These images were taken from my second bridal shoot with the beautiful Jacqueline Linn. This church is located on Maui and is virtually the hardest place on the entire island to reach....you aren't even allowed to go their in your rental car. It's in a tiny village that can't have more than 100 people living there...and you find an old church with an unbelievable view of the ocean in the background. It is a wonderful place to shoot and we have a great time. I hope you enjoy!

Gone With the Wind-using wind in photography

There are a few things I look for when starting a shoot. Light, clouds, and wind. Light is obviously very important, and while there are some times during the day where light can be harsh (during the middle of the afternoon like noon-2pm) it can also provide very dramatic effects. The shoot I did with Camlyn was actually done from 12-3pm. You can tell because if you look at the pictures you can tell the light source is directly above by looking at her shoulders and the shadows that fall under her head. This same light though is what makes the veil glow and provides the contrast and highlights that can make your pictures look fantastic.

Wind is also an amazing tool to utilize. Wind makes it more difficult to shoot...there's no disputing that. But without it you can't get these kind of results. I prefer too much wind compared to too little wind because you can typically find a way to block wind you don't want...but it's very difficult to manufacture wind if you don't have it. The best thing to do on a shoot is to set your subject in the location you want and start firing away. The first shot I love because the veil is so playful...and it matches Camlyn's face. The bottom shot is more dramatic and also fits her facial expression...and I love the effect it puts on her face.

The middle shot is more of a movie scene kind of an image and the wind was just slamming through the door which gave us the effect we were looking for. I really do like photoshop...but the more you create through the camera the better your images will be. You can try to create lighting, wind, and clouds in photoshop and they will look good...but nothing is as great as the real thing....

Camlyn Part 3- Here Comes the Sun

After spending the first half of the shoot in the dark we decided to find some sun. The most difficult thing about shooting in an area like a door frame as you see below is the fact that you are dealing with vastly different exposure areas from the inside to the outside. The best thing to do in these situations are to set the camera on a tripod (or hold it very still...I held it for these shots), and bracket the image exposure. Most cameras these days have bracketing available....check your user's manual.

The shot below is actually two shots, one exposed for the inside, her skin, etc, while the other is exposed for the sky....which is why I was able to get both shots. While learning and applying photoshop is very important....there is an art to capturing the image. I always tell people in my workshops that photoshop can't make a good shoot great....it can only make a great shot better. Getting the right shot in the camera is the way to ensure you get the images you want. Think of it as a cake. Photoshop is the decorative icing...but everything else is the shot. If you make a beautiful decorative icing but the cake is under/overcooked....it will taste nasty. The same is true for photography. First learn how to get it in the camera...and then move onto the icing to make it special......

Camlyn part 1- Mokulele Bridal Shoot

These are the first shots I'm releasing from the bridal shoot I did on the Mokulele Highway in Maui with the beautiful Camlyn Stoeberl. As you know by now I just love shooting brides in places you normally don't see them...I love the contrast of putting a beautiful bride in a white dress in a darker, dirty setting where it's almost like the bride's glow fights through everything around her.

Add some light, wind, and some fun photography techniques and you can create some real unique shots. I just love these and I hope you do too. I'll be releasing more pics later...and I have to thank Camlyn for doing such a great job!!

CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO VIEW LARGER!

Chances Are- the wedding story of Joe and Lidia

I am pleased to present the wedding story of Joe and Lidia Lopez! One of the benefits of getting married on the 4th of July is that you have a great fireworks show at night to be able to capture something neat. I can't thank Joe and Lidia enough for allowing me the opportunity to capture their day for them. I have to thank Cameron Lanier, Kari McBeth, and Chris Cahoon for joining me on the shoot! We had a great time. Click below to view their slideshow....I hope you enjoy!

CLICK TO VIEW SLIDESHOW!!!