2nd Shooting with Emerald England

7/20/10 – Rebecca Getsfrid – Environmental Portrait Photographer in Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon

Emerald England, wife of a friend of mine, had a 2nd shooter that she had lined up for a wedding this Monday cancel at the last minute for a family emergency. Her husband, knowing a bit about my work and that the wedding was being held less than an hour from where I live, hooked us up, and I got the gig having never actually met Emerald before.

I showed up early to the venue and started dealing with detail shots.

Natural Light

When working with natural light, the fact that the Pentax K20d’s sensor is one of the best crop sensors out there helps a ton. In this case, I was shooting at ISO 1100 with very little noise problem.

The groom and groomsmen were ready far earlier than the bride was, so Emerald and I took them to a nearby hill to get their photos out of the way. I snapped a quick portrait of the groom:

AB800 CTOd and blended with Natural Light

And Emerald set them up for something a bit crazier, which I made full use of:


AB800, CTOd and blended with Natural Light

After letting the guys get back to their business, we happened upon a couple of the flower girls swinging. The image below is one of my favorites from the day.


AB800 CTOd and blended with Natural Light

Emerald was shooting the same girls from just to my left using a whole lot more of the natural light. I haven’t seen her image from this spot yet, but she’s able to manipulate natural light in a way that – while gorgeous – is completely foreign to me. The combination of skillsets between her natural light work and my portable high-power flash work will hopefully give the client a much more diverse collection of images from which to enjoy the memories of their wedding day.

After the ceremony and dinner, it was time to hit the dance floor; and despite the fact that the DJs from MDM pulled out every trick I’ve ever seen – and a few I hadn’t – no one was there to join me. Seriously, no offense to the client, but their family is a pretty substantial group of party-poopers. Thankfully, because of the traditional events (garter and bouquet tossing, first dance, father dance), I had a few opportunities to make some good photos.

Cross lit with Two AB800s, Full CTO gels

On the last of those three, you can really see the color shift in the distant trees that comes from correcting the white balance for the full CTO gels. It makes for a very magical, technicolor-esque, background when the 3300k WB blends with the natural greens of forest shade and the oranges of the almost-setting sun.