tim willoughby

tim willoughby is a handsome photographer hailing from south carolina. i used to say that i really didn't care for photoshop, and with the exception of a few inappropriate light flares and other random effects, i think tim's post-processing is the best i've seen, especially when applied to unexpected images like prep shots. i say a warm hello to "noise" and to the speckling of images to make them look like they're out of a 1970's self-adhesive/magnetic(?)/cellophane-paged photo albums. his use of wide angles and fish eyes is sometimes awkward in the people shots from entire galleries i've seen, but his blog is droolworthy, and he shoots some really great landscapes. i would actually recommend him as the best guy i've seen for a day after shoot. because he is so skilled at editing, he can deliver any sort of images you like - i've selected a handful of photos that show his versatility in the photoshop department, including several with a really vintage feel, as tiara had said of another photographer.

sean flanigan

here is another one of my favorite photographers, sean flanigan, based out of a nearby city to seattle, wa. he uses textures in a minimal kind of way, and his photos have a sort of stark, vintage kind of feel with a lot of the buzzword, photojournalism.

leigh miller

here's the work of leigh miller, based out of
southern california. this image in the car isn't particularly striking, but i like the concept. something about this wedding stood out to me; perhaps it was the fact that the bride wasn't blonde and a size 2, perhaps it was because things, perhaps the people themselves seemed different....it was set in england, perhaps it was just the shoes in the first image.

i realize that all but two of the images i have picked are black and white! oh color, how i miss thee. but the point here is composition i guess. photos that my parents might disapprove of because "their heads and feet have been chopped off."




but i love the energy in these candids. i couldn't put my finger on how to describe it until tonight. perhaps that's why i like candids so much.

jeremy lawson

i stumbled across don't box us in dot com today and came across some fantastically ethereal images from this photographer, Jeremy Lawson, from Ozark, Missouri.

photography

so here is the work of michele m waite, based out of bellingham, wa (?) i could be wrong but that's what her phone number looks like. i love her composition and attention to color. while you could certainly nitpick and say her whites are often washed out, and the horizon is sometimes 2 degrees off from being parallel with the edge of the frame, i do love her work!



as a side note, i added a statcounter to my blog, and i'm slightly terrified to say that i get almost as many hits on my blog as i do on st*tchpixie (and i pay for advertising for st*tchpixie!!!). i can see what people are googling to find me - and quite a few of the search strings are for that bridal shop in north van run by the terribly snooty woman. hah!

the search for a new photographer

due to the craziness of the move and the lack of internet i have had for over a month, i lost out on my vancouver photographer! but i still adore her photos so here's an array of my favorites, and a little something to the right to show how great her low light photos can be without a flash totally flattening out the image. here are some great shots from melia at lucida photography. i adore candids:


i had been so against photoshop, coming from a film background, developing my own negs and prints since i was 10. i think it stemmed from an instructor that had disapproved of cropping my images when i developed my prints, saying all the cropping should be done from behind the camera. but these effects create such a great sense of movement into the image:


her love of industrial settings!


and composition that i adore:

trash the dress

my dad was somewhat shocked when i told him i really didn't care for a videographer, and i'm sure some guest will have some sort of video camera to get the ceremony at the very least. if anything i wanted someone like dan's brother or blair - someone that is either a little techie or would at least be somewhat excited to operate a super8 camera for all the big moments. but a post at weddingbee featuring a canadian trash the dress video shoot had me absolutely floored. here's a link to the post at still-motion.ca's blog. this photo doesn't do the filming justice, and i love how her dress billows in the wind (do they secretly bring around big fans to their locations or was the weather just fantasticly perfect...?). did i mention yay for feist and not kelly clarkson's latest song?

seriously. watch. this. video.

at any rate, this ontario based company even offers the super8 camera option! hah.

to get a feel of some super8 weddings in general, check out what youtube has to offer.

photographers

lucida
digital
10 hours
700 photos
digital photo book
dvd slideshow
$2400

cj scott
10 hours
unlimited images
Digital negative archival CD/DVD with high res. image files
Sneak Peek slideshow for online viewing
online gallery
Four 8x12 prints
Engagement photo session (CD/DVD and online slideshow also included)
$3200
or
8 hours
An unlimited number of images
Digital negative archival CD/DVD with high res. image files
Sneak Peek slideshow for online viewing
Password protected online gallery
Three 8x12 prints
$2600

reine or jana
8 hours
10 rolls of film
800 prints
"digital coverage"
2 proof albums
engagement photo shoot
all digital files
$5800

chris and lynn
8 hours
unlimited photos
2 photogrphers
digital dvd
12x12 art print
$4799
or 10 hours with a 20x20 print for $5399

sean flanigan
$3000 US
8 hours
digital cd
digital editing
online display
200 4x6 prints
1 Kolo photo box
overtime 200.00/hr

wedding photojournalists for vancouver weddings

via wpja.com, BC's wedding photojournalists:

Jeanie Ow BC $3100+

Jonetsu Photography
Camille Fortin Bensler BC $4000+

Blue Olive Photography$2900+

Tying the Knot Photography
$3495+

HEE creations Photography
Kumiko and Masaki Leung BC $2195+

Daniel Lao BC $1600+

Chris+Lynn Photographers
Chris Jaksa BC $3999+

****** Lucida Photography
Melia Sorenson BC $2400+

Rebecca Blissett BC $1700+

Rick Collins BC $2800+

"I Do" Wedding Photography
Barbara Casey BC $1725+

Andrews Fine Photography
Jeff Andrews BC $1700+

Hubbard Photography
Angela Hubbard BC $3495+

C.J. Scott BC $2000+

Wallflower Photography
Laura Schoeggl WA $3150+

Sean Flanigan and blog WA USA $2000+

Carmen Chan WA $1500+

Serena Davidson OR $4000+

Whitley Goodman Photography: Buffy Goodman AB $3500+

blue olive photography

here are reilly and miranda, the husband and wife photojournalistic force behind blue olive. $2900+, digital only, vancouver

here are three awesome shots that i think the weather played a big part in creating.


i can see they know the rule of thirds..............


and here is what i could find of their indoor skills....

the idea of disposable cameras at every table was swiftly abandoned at the advice of several people and at the realization that 90% of the people will have digital cameras and i'd rather them email me their 2 best photos than have to foot the bill for developing 495 crappy photos that are all very much alike. so then i read about taking portraits of couples/families which were then framed and given out at the end of the night as the "party favors." if i made it black tie (and even if it wasn't), it would be a wonderful opportunity to take portraits, which most people don't have and deserve to have. and it sure beats pricey candies, and the fact that anything unedible is probably cheesy and serves little to no function outside the wedding. i didn't even begin to look into this as i thought it would be muy costoso.

so along came the idea of a polaroid guestbook.

i could position one or two beloved photo savvy friends at the entrance to grab shots of all the guests. and i could even save $60.95 by buying a nice sketchbook and inserting photo corners.

then jenn found something brilliant last night on theknot. some couple had rented a photobooth for their wedding. that way each guest got a keepsake, and with the unlimited photos, it doubled as a guestbook addition.

redmond, wa - $1400 for 4 hours, and $100 per hour after, ontario $1800, texas, from denver to des moines, calgary, alberta, quebec, winnipeg, and......finally! after much searching, i found vancouver, and another one here! here's the one from texas:
the canadian ones look a little 1970's to me and at two thousand some odd dollars, i'm just that much closer to a canon EOS 5D or a nikon d2xs. letterpress invitations...or a photo booth. now, spending $1 a shot on polaroid film sounds like money better spent. or even the little sticky polaroids......and then again, at $2000, maybe i should reconsider that professional portrait idea.....

as a side note, i could do the portraits-on-a-budget with a decent camera, a plug 'n play printer, and some photo paper for an affordable price provided that would be right up the alley of an on-the-guestlist shutterbug

vancouver photographers reine and jana

reine and jana weddings. these vancouver based photographers definitely in the running. the first compilation of photos are like they're right out of a magazine. AND the links section of their website will hopefully help me out with other vancouver-specific particulars. ie hycroft manor (to be blogged about later), which put a serious dent in my let's-keep-the-wedding-outside-the-big-city notion.

searching for the perfect photographer

via miss bell pepper at weddingbee. after a google search yielded nothing of interest for photographers in vancouver, i found a potential dream photographer, nicole polk. she's in pennsylvania, but she does travel. i love the high contrast, i am in awe of her ability to take awesomely lit photos in dark rooms, and is that something bordering on a fisheye lens?! love it.