Why I Like This Picture – Sara and Steph

Continuing in the Why I Like This Picture series, I’ll be going through the images on my website, commenting on what I like about each image along with some details of how the image came about.

And, why I like this picture is easy:  true emotion evolving in a real moment is impossible not to like.  You can’t fake this kind of stuff and you can’t tell someone to emote like this on cue.  This is where the wait for it, wait for it, waaaaaait for it comes in to play.

This image was from Sara and Steph’s wedding a couple years back.  The morning had a beautiful start – gorgeous sunshine falling down through the trees of Glen Echo Park in Clintonville.  And then, about five minutes before ceremony start time, the clouds opened up and it proceeded to rain for the duration.  Rain and rain and more rain.  I’m glad my cameras are built like tanks.  Waterproof tanks.  So, at the point in the ceremony where rings were to be exchanged, I spotted this image – Steph wiping a raindrop from Sara’s face.  It’s a beautiful, touching moment and the tenderness between them is palpable.

Why I Like This Picture (plus it won an award!)

I wanted to start up my series of Why I Like This Picture posts again.  I always liked doing that, but got too busy and it stopped.  Now, though, I have a theme with the series and that is to go through each of the images on my website and talk a bit about why I like the picture and what went into making it so you have an idea of my thought processes when it comes to not only shooting but selecting images for clients and for display.

So, today’s installment of Why I Like This Picture is brought to you by Jeni and Robbie’s wedding.  I not only like this image, I love it.  And for a number of reasons.  First, it’s kinda hilarious.  It’s not often that your garments are ironed after you’re wearing them, and that’s funny.  I love funny.  The ironer is a close friend of the bride and an accomplished seamstress who handcrafted all the bridesmaids’ dresses and was just an all-around tailor, etc., at Jeni’s wedding.  I made multiple images of this scene, from different angles, high/low, left/right, trying to get everything aligned just the way my obsessive compulsive brain likes things, and to also have just the perfect expression, etc.  That’s the thing about making pictures – it’s not just see, react, snap.  In fact, that’s rarely it.  It’s usually more like, oooh, I think something good is going to happen here, I’m going to figure out the best place to be and wait for it, wait for it, waaaaaait for it, then workitlikemad, snapsnapsnap from this side and that side, until all the elements are perfect.

Oh, and this image also won an award on Fearless Photographers.  For those who don’t know, Fearless Photographers is an amazing group of photographers who have no fear when it comes to making images.  Not ones to be beholden to cliches, but those who strive to create something unique for their clients.  I’m proud to be a member and even more proud to have had this image win one of their prestigious awards.  I say prestigious because each round has literally thousands of images submitted for consideration.  And, in the round this image won (and one other I won), only 171 were chosen for awards.  So, to have two images win out of 171 awards given from the 8000 images submitted this time is, well, pretty stinkin prestigious, even if I do say so myself.

Columbus Dance Theatre – Ten Cents a Dance – at the historic Lincoln Theatre

Ten Cents a Dance has become the Columbus Dance Theatre’s annual fundraiser, where guests are invited to enjoy cocktails and a fabulous dinner before seeing this delightful show sung by the amazing Kathryn Payne and danced by CDT’s talented troupe.  My favorite part of the evening was shooting in the wings before and during the performance, and these are some of the photos I made there.  Being that dramatic lighting is not only my favorite, but also my forte, and it was in abundance backstage, it was a dream come true.

F a c e b o o k