Laura and Obed's Big Day

Saturday found me camera in hand, photographing the wedding of a good friend, Laura. Laura used to come to our place with a block or two of Dairy Milk, a DVD and make herself at home on our couch. That is, until she met Obed. Ah, true love. It has to be if it can replace Laura's penchant for a quarter kilo of Cadbury's, our couch and a chick flick!

You never know how its going to be - photographing a friend's wedding. Would they feel more comfortable with someone they don't know, or are they going to respond to you better? I suppose it is different for each person. All I know is that they both loved being photographed and we all enjoyed the day very much.

Its winter here in Melbourne, Oz, and June is not known for being a great time to get married. But Laura and Obed weren't going to let something as small as the weather get in their way. It was a little cold at The Briars in Mount Martha, but they were warm enough. They were in each other's company and they were married. They were warm enough. Mind you, my Argentinian leather jacket helped a bit as well, it appeared.

Because of a distinct lack of actual sunlight, I decided I would use the ole sunshine-on-a-stick method of rim lighting our couple. Old...but not to me. I never used it before. It was a lighting method I was hoping to find reason to use somewhere, sometime, soon. Why not at a wedding? It seemed the perfect day for it.

So I put my Nikon SB800 on the end of an extendable painters pole with an old Manfrotto joystick head attached. I used Nikon's trusty CLS flash system and Voila! I had sunshine! Thanks to Walter, their driver and our friend, who was my very reliable portable sunshine machine and to Joedy Bowden of FotoLanguage who also came along for the fun and helped me out. Mind you, she did find my gadget bag a little heavy. That's ok Joedy. So do I sometimes.

The same thing happened at Mt Martha. It was freezing, but Laura and Obed were keen to have some photographs. It was a typically beautiful winter sunset but the light on Laura and Obed was fairly average. This time, Walter just needed to stand camera left with my SB800 in his hand for me to achieve these results. Thanks again Walter! You were a lifesaver. Laura braved the icy winter winds long enough for me to achieve some images from the day that I am very pleased with. While I lay in the cold sand looking up at her, Joedy kept a watchful eye on the approaching tide to ensure that Laura's wedding day didn't become a Trash the Dress Session. As it was, Laura jumped out of the way of a wave just a split second after her photo was taken, thanks to Joedy's rather vocal warning.

Following that we headed for the Mt Eliza Safeway.

Why? Milk? Bread? A kilo of Dairy Milk and a DVD? No. Actually, Obed had come up with the concept of shopping for a bride...and so we walked in (after having previous approval of course) and started having a real laugh. taking these conceptual photographs. The shoppers were wondering what level of lunacy had suddenly struck Mt Eliza. I think most of them thought they were on candid camera. But their quizzical looks did not phase Laura, Obed or me. We just got in and got on with the photography.

I had too much fun. I really did!

It was a few years ago now but I remember telling Laura that I would not permit anyone else to photograph her wedding. That's a fairly arrogant demand really, isn't it? Nonetheless, Laura respected my wishes and allowed me the distinguished honour of being there for her and her husband. Thanks Laura and Obed for not going anywhere else...and allowing me the honour of photographing your wedding.

Incidentally, the exposure techniques for these off camera flash images can be found explained at my digital photography tutorials website, The Five Minute Photographer