i've been sooo wanting to blog these from last week's trash the dress session up in evergreen .... and i've given myself tons of responsible reasons not to (complete taxes... check, work hard on nearing launch of our new blogsite... check. book weddings and design albums and run with dash... check, check, and check. i had way too much fun editing them and just can't contain myself to post them.

ashley and clay were perfect clients. they asked for little and they gave a lot in return including the willingness to be creative and different, flexible and brave.

i brought along some of the big guns, including a 74-inch elinchrom octabank and a photographer that really knows how to use it, christina dooley. the idea for the first shot came from a recent annie leibovitz shoot of sean connery featured discussed by the strobist here.



here's a concept of featuring a spooky barn using the SFMF technique (single flash multiple frame) technique taught to me by john michael cooper. think of it as a daylight version of painting with light using a tripod and some photoshop compositing magic.


even with all the abilities of flash, nothing can beat the harshness of mid-day sun (shot at f/16 at 1/1500 sec):


and the natural sensuality of barn door light:


some anti-bridal portraits taken in the barn stall:


this horse loves to smile for the camera:


and then we were off to greener pastures:


as the sun started sinking into the mountains, we ran up to find this some mountain scenery near our home in green mountain. christina shot this one with no flash:


and i shot this one with a small flash for a kicker. i think they are both such refined shots.


and a few moments after sunset.


and click HERE to check out more images in the slideshow.

a few more favorites from last week’s trash the dress session with andi & brett:

view the radtastic slideshow HERE.




featuring a homemade psuedo-macguyver 60-inch umbrella-turned-octabank fired at full power for fill light at sunset with denver’s front range in the background.


last, but not least.... one of my favoritemost shots from our session.

just to show you things get better with time... one year later + a fresh burned mountain at 6300 feet + and kern-photo light...

thank you for such a wonderful evening tonight you two!

nicole & mark loved their wedding images so much (and had so much fun making them in the first place) they did not hesitate to join in when i recommended to do an urban photo session. they were super trouper models and had tons of fun alongside more than two dozen other mile high photographers that participated in a trash-the-dress meet-up at the denver art museum including paige elizabeth, erin cady, zack ware, gena mcmillan, among many others. andrew schaefer helped to spearhead the effort. there were numerous other brides and models that also participated in the event (sorry, i didn't make it around to work with everyone).

if you want to learn why a bride would want to trash her dress in style, you might want to read this. we love to venture beyond our comfort zone and explore new ideas, lighting, and locations with our clients. extended portrait session like a trash the dress session allow just that. and clients in return get fun images that will be super special to share with their grandchildren in 50 years (and that's what really matters :)

click HERE to watch their slideshow and here are a few favs:


i totally don't remember what was so funny, but the photo made the final cut :)


staircases and ivy are not typical wedding backdrops... but we love them for that same reason!


here's mark:


and nicole:


the idea from the shot below came from an old sopranos ad mixed in with this strobist article.
photographers photo geek note: the above image was shot f/19 at 1/250 sec at ISO 280 with two 400 w/s strobes homemade snoot at full power positioned off camera at 30 degrees from nicole and a overhead sb-800 in a softbox mounted on a voice-activated boom lightstick using a nikon d-300 with a nikkor 28-70 f/2.8 lens. whew. i can't wait to use our new set of radiopoppers to pull off more shots like these with a bit more ease in gauging subject exposure :)





straight out of camera with a tad of warmth added (including the halo around mark :)

'trash the dress, 'the day after session,' and 'hitched to haute' are all terms that have surfaced to describe the experience of a bride / groom putting wedding attire back on after the wedding. while the trend continues to grow here are now websites dedicated and may fade, the intent is to create beautiful photographs that will stand the test of time and will also be fun to look back in 50 years :)

sara & eric's trash the dress session rocked! they both had a wonderful experience and wanted to share their experience with other brides considering doing the same. here's what she wrote:

Before my wedding I don’t think I would have considered a “trash the dress” photo session. I thought of my bridal dress as a pristine object to be cherished. At our wedding we danced hard and truly enjoyed ourselves. My dress ended up soaked in sweat. The underneath was filthy from being drug around the reception all night. Tidbits of food and drink had been spilt on it, and there were footprints on the train left behind by guests. It still looked great, but I was definitely going to have to get it cleaned. When R. J. suggested a “trash the dress” photo shoot, I figured “Why not get it a bit dirtier before I get it cleaned?” He also explained to me that the name isn’t truly fitting of the essence of the photo shoot. It’s not about destroying a dress. It is about capturing the bride and groom in a unique and natural situation doing something different and perhaps wild. If the dress gets a little dirty along the way, don’t worry about it! I loved the idea of being more free for some photos and figured despite what R. J. said that my dress would end up truly filthy. Surprisingly it didn’t get much worse than it already looked. The sand from the beach brushed right off.

Looking back I am so grateful that my husband and I did this extra photo session after our wedding. Our pictures from the wedding day are beautiful (different photographer) but they are also very stiff. On our wedding day, as the bride and groom, we were preoccupied with the stress and emotions of the “big day.” Our time was very restricted with all of the events, the guests, and the celebration. Our focus wasn’t on capturing quality photos with everything else going on. A “trash the dress” photo session was a chance for us to relax, just to focus on each other, to feel beautiful and to have fun getting our photos taken. We weren’t thinking about anything else. My husband and I chose a six hour package. We are so glad we went with such a large package because the time flew by so quickly. We ended up with a great variety of shots even after the sun went down.

R. J. is very friendly and really comfortable to work with. He’s the kind of guy you feel like you’ve known for years. He is full of energy and extremely enthusiastic about his work. He made my husband and I feel very pampered and appreciated. The photo shoot is a whole experience and not just about the end product. He truly made us feel like models, and I have never felt more beautiful. We have wonderful memories from the day of our shoot, along with all the gorgeous photos.
________

want to learn more? contact us to learn about pricing and availability. also, be sure to check out trash the dress, a website dedicated to sharing some of the great work in this growing niche of progressive wedding photography & portraiture.

we met sara & eric at elyse & corey's wedding a few weeks back. they loved our work so much after seeing our reception slideshow, they opted to trash her dress in style at larrabee state park located on the shores of bellingham, washington. the park serves as eric's former stomping grounds for rock climbing and they both have fond memories of the scenic locale. the weekend prior, they drove up from seattle to scout the location and it was raining and windy.... not exactly the perfect stage for a bridal portrait session.

so when the big day came, we were super boy scout prepared... i'm talking about a pop-up shelter, blankets, and a gas-powered space heater they packed in. when we left the parking lot, we looked more like we were going overnight backpacking :)

sara and eric were 100% up for anything. the goal of the shoot wasn't necessarily to 'trash' the dress, but photograph them in a beautiful setting without concern of keeping the dress pristine. most brides cringe at the idea of doing something like this on the day of the wedding. sara and eric embraced it. sara even commented how dirty her dress looked after dancing at their reception and figured it couldn't get much worse.

i say if you are gonna make the effort of putting a wedding dress back on (which can be an emotional experience for some brides), either go big or go home!

and we went big HUGE. view their slideshow by clicking HERE.


part of their modern platinum package included a 'summer salsa' bridal bouquet and a vintage bottle of dom perignon.



the moment of just letting go...



after sunset, we busted out the strobes for some high-end lighting. the champagne didn't last long.


then went back to playing in the sand :)



... and then wrapped things up with some edgy lightpainting using mini-softboxes and halogen flashlights lightsabers.

i ended up in the doghouse with my wife nicole for staying past my due on this shoot.... so, sweetie, I am really sorry. this was my first 'trash the dress' session and i was over-the-top excited. i felt like a kid in the candy store on this wonderful shoot organized by the talented andrew & jessica schaefer. with all the positive vibe of such a wonderful group of OSP photographers, great models, flowers, and lighting, time flew. the models, moises and crystal, were so patient and displayed unique personality, making everyone's job so easy to get great shots. here are a few of my favorites.


the lensbaby 2.0 came through in this shot:





crystal in vogue:


moises kicked up a little water with his toes to add great effect.