semillerimages.com - Image of the Week 3/26/05 The Wedding and the Bridge
Steve
A little bit late this week as I have been a bit lazy. I have found
over the years, that when I work five days a week at the castle, even a
short day of three tours wipes out my creative potential for the rest
of the day. This is not always the case, but it is often enough that I
have begun to recognize it. One of these days, I will be able to cut
back my hours at that job to concentrate on this job... the time is
coming soon.
I was asked a few months ago to shoot a friend's wedding. In the years
past I was very affable to shooting weddings as they paid ok and it was
relatively easy... as time progressed, I realized I was not really fit
for the job because there were so many other photographers in the area
that I would have to bow to because of their superior talent. These
days, I am very reticent about shooting weddings, unless the person is
very insistent or I know them well. The last two that I have
photographed were for friends that I have known for some time. For
whatever reason, the referrals I have gotten for weddings have been for
people who do not want to spend any money on the photography. I have no
idea why this is. Photographing such an important event in a persons
life seems like one would spend an appropriate amount to cover it. Alas
it is the case where people think that ten bucks an hour is good enough
to pay someone to record the most special moment of their life. For
friends though, it is a different prospect.
The friend who asked me to shoot his wedding, I have great respect for.
He is a fellow artist, a fellow taurus, and quite simply I admire him
and his now wife for their relationship which from my perspective is
just about perfect as it gets. I hope they have a relationship like my
parents, whom I have never told (but now they will know), I admire so
much also since they have been married for over thirty eight years and
are still together. I have in fact, never seen nor recall my father
yell at my mother. He did yell at me though :) So did she... but then
again I was kind of bad sometimes. Still am. Regardless, I admire their
relationship as I do my friends that I photographed this last week.
Leif is featured on my website currently, you can see him in the people
section. His wife's name is Sarah. Strong contrast between the two
really. Leif is sorta like me, except he says less which I probably
should emulate. Sarah is a talker, but a fun one. She can go on and on
about any ole thing, but especially about plants. Yin and Yang they
are.
Anyway, Leif and Sarah asked me to photograph their wedding which was
to be a secret. I was one of very few that knew that it was going to
even happnen. I found out after the fact that the father was thrilled
and the mother was less than thrilled. Either way, I was the only
witness to the true wedding, laws and regulations aside. To be quite
honest, I was touched... to be asked to document their most special day
without anyone else present. It was difficult though, as they were
having a day of something so exceptional and I was quite jealous and a
bit sad really, as the same has not happened for me. I was nervous days
in advance as I had to capture something that was going to happen only
once. Excitement and nervousness is a bad mixture, but fortunately
experience overcame the problems. I met them at their apartment and
drove up to what is called 'Dream Point' by some, or as the map calls
it 'Sierra Nevada Point'. It's right below Ragged Point and it is quite
a gorgeous location. Leif and Sarah exchanged their own vows while
standing on the cliff overlooking the ocean. Three surfers were below,
riding a fantastic set of waves. I photographed the exchange, then
their dance on the grass. We walked back toward the cars, stopping for
a few minutes to take more images of them together beneath the trees.
The image selected of them is my favorite, with Leif kissing his new
wife under the canopy of old overgrown trees. Half an hour, two hundred
some odd images.
I was going to go back to SLO at the end of the ceremony, but it was
almost noon so I suggest we have lunch at Nepenthe. We drove up the
coast, stopping only at Julia Pfeiffer state park to see the waterfall
from the highway. The sun was shining into the water at an angle that
made the color quite unreal looking, I dashed back to the car to grab
my camera and I saw this beautiful blonde walking toward me... it was
kinda crazy actually, almost like a dream... I woke up when I saw her
big Danish boyfriend getting out of their car. I ended up taking
pictures of them with the ocean and waterfall behind them. Drat. It was
only to be a threesome at Nepenthe.
We arrived at the restaurant and I bought us a bottle of single
vineyard Champange to celebrate the nuptials. We had lunch on the deck
overlooking the ocean, watching gray whale spouts on the ocean surface
a thousand feet below. After lunch, Leif and Sarah went off on their
honeymoon and I drove up to Carmel to see a gallery of a photographer
that I had read about a few times. As I drove up to the town, I noticed
a side road on the north end on Bixby Bridge that would give a vantage
point of the full bridge with the ocean in the background. A mental
note was written.
I got to Carmel, wandered around looking for the gallery I wanted to
see. Not finding it, I stopped off at the Chamber of Commerce where the
nice lady at the front desk looked up the photographer's website and we
found out his gallery was in Pacifica, not Carmel. How I made that
mistake I have no idea. There were a couple of other galleries to see
though, and I went to one and had the supreme pleasure of seeing a
Brett Weston print which is on the cover of a book I own. It was
amazing. Canals in Holland I think the name is.
The sky was hazy, without much photographic potential as I drove back
down HWY 1. I stopped off at Pt Lobos state reserve anyway, using my
parks ID to get in free and check the place out. It's too bad that the
sky was being uncooperative, as the park is quite full of potential. I
shot a frame of 4x5 film anyway, it came back as blah as the weather
was.
Recalling my mental note of the side road next to the Bixby Bridge, I
took the turn off and got myself in position a half hour before sunset
with plans of getting a good silhouette of the bridge against the ocean
with the sky as the topping. The sunset of course, was much more
interesting to the north leaving me with not much but scaps not worthy
of bringing out the 4x5 camera. I did get some cool shots, and then it
got a bit more interesting so I set up the big camera quickly, metered
the scene with my 35mm and snapped one frame of 4x5 film. A good shot,
not exceptional, but interesting nonetheless - mainly because of the
silhouette of the hills and the bridge.
I give to you two images, one of Leif and Sarah's wedding, one of the
bridge. If you would like a print of the Bixby Bridge sunset, drop me
an email... If you know a wedding that needs to be photographed... I am
expensive :)
http://www.semillerimages.com/iow-link/iow-3-26-05-weddingandbridge.html
Thanks for your support!