At my studio we have said good bye to the days of the stiff formal portrait of brides in front of the bland blue or grey backdrop and hello to the world around us. Bridal portraits today may reference the classic poses of the past yet they bring the flair for fun and brides desire for personality. That is not to say there won’t be the few traditional poses that mom is looking for; I always do some in keeping with our balance of styles. However the focus of the session is on letting the bride be herself, show off why she picked “her” dress and shine. I recently traveled four hours to Farmville VA to do a bridal portrait session with Katie and we had a blast. By her own admission Katie is not a wake up spend hours making sure her hair is perfectly coiffed, make-up expertly applied kind of girl. I can relate, I break out the makeup for the “professional look” when consulting with clients or photographing, other then that I work with what I was given.
Even though I had met with Katie somewhat recently had it not been for the veil trailing behind her as she approached the church where we were meeting I would have walked right by her. She looked amazing! I couldn’t wait to get her behind the camera and “expressing herself”. During our pre-portrait consultation she wanted to focus on the fun, creative contemporary photographs I love to take. She was willing to grab up her dress, splash in the fountain, run through the grass, lean on the brick wall etc… whatever it took to get the photographs. I loved her laid back approach.
An unexpected visitor had staked out the blue bench before we arrived.
We began the session with her personal entourage of assistants, mom, mom by proxy, grandma and her aunt. What a great crowd to have… Sometimes it takes a bit to warm up and we started with the more classic poses as I got a better feel for Katie and her family. Shortly the crowd was down to two personal assistants as we began walking to more locations that I had found in my drive around town. I arrived early to scout out potential locations and our next stop was this bright blue bench complete with visiting beautiful blue butterfly.
Following that we now had to find the two other locations that I had seen based solely on my description and vague directions. Those that have ever tried to pry directions out of an artist often find themselves frustrated. Who reads street signs? The turn is past the yellow & orange building or next to the store with the big mirror and red lettering. Mom who offered to drive that afternoon had a “run down white building with a bluish door” to find. It was “on the same street just past the PURE gas station” the other building I wanted to go to was on the same street (thank goodness this was a small town with really only one main street/ entrance to the town) “red brick, with a staircase on the side and a gravel spot where we could park”. I have to give her kudos she was patient and drove while I looked for visual clues to get me where I wanted to go. We found the spots and hit the last one just as the sun was making a beeline for the horizon. I love the dramatic light and how it played off the building. One of the best things from the day aside from the laughter and fun was Katie’s mom looking at the run down building with vines growing and saying “I’ve lived here for years and never “saw” this building. I would have never thought of it as a background but these are my favorite so far. ” This reminded me of why I do what I do, I like to see the beauty and fun in things that most people when taking portraits shy away from or never “see”. My job is to see differently and produce images with that vision. I hope you enjoy these and please stop Lux Photography to see more of my and my associate photographers visions.
Two different visions for this image. I couldn't decide which I liked best.
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