But let me back up a little bit. When I think of the beautiful, historic Swan House, this is what I see in my head:

I think of the rich history and all the stories this building could tell if it could talk.

Remember what I said above about photo shoots? The image above and the next two didn’t even make the first round of cuts. Yet, fast forward a couple months and there it sits… a big, beautiful two-page spread to open up the fashion feature. This is quite easily my favorite image from the entire shoot.

And now I’m going show you something to make your jaw drop. I say that in complete humility because it really has nothing to do with me, but everything to do with our stunning model Madison Olson and the fabulous makeup by Raney O’Keefe. This image is basically straight out of the camera. No photoshop actions. No retouching. No fixing. No nothing.

I took the image out of the camera in RAW format, adjusted my color and exposure in Lightroom, and exported it. In fact, I didn’t retouch Madison in a single image in the entire magazine feature. Just amazing.

Remember what I said above about photo shoots? We had a little bit of free time (by “free time” I mean that we had 7 minutes and 35 seconds) and I said “Madison, let’s play.” So I grabbed Heather Vreeland’s new 50mm f/1.4 lens because I was really curious how the lens would perform and I wanted to play with it. In fact, a number of the images in the magazine were shot with that little 50mm lens she carries around with her in the camera bag she got from Target. So Madison and I ran around in the grass and came up with Heather’s favorite series of images from the shoot. This is just two of them…

Have you been paying attention to the beautiful floral headpieces Danny created for us?

Yes, she is IN the fountain. By this time, it was pretty much dark and we had to get creative with the lighting sources.

Here’s Danny with one of the props he brought along for the shoot — ya know, just in case — and Raney doing a little touch up work.

One more behind the scene’s shot, complete with my assistant hard at work in the background. He was probably tweeting about how hard I was working him.

Let’s face it, I’m a photographer because I love being the outsider looking in and experiencing the lives of others through the lens. I adore the idea that I can immortalize a moment and at the same time create a work of art. It’s just amazing that I can do that and at the same time remain relatively invisible. I like being invisible. I like it when people to look at me and see my work. Not me.

And that, my friends, is the problem. I don’t much like promoting “me” because I’m afraid I’ll come off like an attention grabbing narcissist. See, marketing in the photographic industry, with the help of the social media sphere, has rather swiftly morphed into the race to be the most liked, have the most fans and create the most buzz… and relatively little of that has anything to do with your work. In fact, a few of the photographer rockstars (the term “rockstar” is used in a derogatory way as much as it’s used in a complimentary way these days) have been to more workshops than they have shot weddings. Unfortunately the average bride would never know that.

So all that blabbering above is the reason I sometimes don’t like posting about my personal life and how great I am for shooting Usher, or Brian Littrell from the Back Street Boys and his wife, or this or that photoshoot. I love doing what I do and in the end I just want you to see the work. But I promise that I’ll try to do a little better in 2011.

All that said, this falls into the “stuff I never blogged” category…

Back in November we were featured on the Elizabeth Anne Designs blog for a photoshoot we did with a number of other vendors, all coordinated by Jeannine Kennedy with FAVOR Events. The shoot was at a private residence north of Atlanta and the blog featured a bunch of the images from the shoot…

In addition to a few larger images of ones that she featured on the blog, here are a number of my favorites they didn’t blog:

Here is a list of vendors that participated in the shoot:

Event design/styling: FAVOR Events
Florals: Tulip
Venue: Privately owned farm in North Georgia
Linens: BBJ Linens
Rentals: Classic Party Rentals
Invitations: Southern Fete
Jewelry: Anthropologie
Gowns: Chaviano Couture
Model: Angela Wolff with CLICK Models

I’ll be posting a bunch of images from the shoot in a few days, but for now take a look at the images Heather Vreeland chose for the magazine:

While you’re at it, check out the Catering spread starting on page 26 and Hayden’s birthday party photos they featured on page 130. Oh… and check out our back cover advertisement for Ben Vigil Photographers featuring Erika & Leroy atop the one an only Ventana’s rooftop venue styled/coordinated by Eliana from ellyB Events…

How cool is that!!!

Timeless.

When I use the word timeless, I do not mean vintage. What I do mean is this: a timeless image will look just as powerful in 2 years (when the current photography trends have passed us by) as it will when they display it at their 50th wedding anniversary celebration. So before I ruin it running my mouth…

These are my two personal favorites that we captured at the beautiful Capital City Country Club in her stunning Lazaro wedding dress.

The image below is the image that Sarah ordered as a canvas to display at the reception.

Now, knowing Sarah the above two images are quite a change from the rather joyful and exuberant Sarah we all know. Here is an image that really captures that…

My good friend and amazing commercial and wedding photographer David Christensen happened to be busy and was kind enough to refer Grace Manor to me. Grace Manor is a beautiful new property managed by Lease Luxury Properties and they were looking for some imagery to kick off their media campaign.

So this is what you get when you combine a beautiful setting, a dress from the incomparable Anne Barge, gorgeous light and a stunning model…

This is the image they are using for the ad in The Atlantan Brides magazine. You can view the ad on page 21 of the online digital edition.

I included this last one because she has such a bubbly personality and fantastic smile that I wanted you to see it.

The message began:

I don’t know if you remember me or not [...]

Of course, I did remember her as soon as I saw the name. I remembered her like yesterday.

I met you a few years ago [...] to maybe do my wedding photos…I will say that even today when people ask me the one thing I would change about my wedding, I always tell them I would have had a different photographer. The one regret from my wedding was not having you do my pictures…I hated my pictures and I’ll never get over it…just wanted to tell you I love your work

I very much wanted to shoot that wedding and at the time was a bit disappointed that she didn’t choose to book. I wrote back that I hated that she’ll always look back on that part of her day with regret. It’s hard to convey to people how important the imagery from their wedding day will be to them down the road, and you can’t do it over.

Looking back on our meeting (like I always do) I had wondered how I could have made a better presentation and how I can tweak things in the future to help my business. Well, we messaged back and forth and she conveyed the pressures she had to choose her photographer, how rude and overbearing he was, how he tried to control her every move, and how her husband had to eventually step in and put a stop to it. But this sums it up,

[...] it was NOTHING to do with you or your presentation. I LOVED your work from day one. i LOVED the creative candid pictures you took. That’s exactly what I wanted and exactly what I didn’t get. [The photographer] took very traditional almost “prom-like” pictures. It was horrible. [...] You’re totally right about not getting to do it over.

So why am I blogging this? To pump myself up? Well, maybe just a little.

But much more than that, brides need to realize that many “traditional” photographers grew up being in charge of the wedding. Or at least they thought they were. That’s just how it was back then. Of course, that’s a pretty broad stroke I just painted, but I’m trying to point out that the wedding photography genre has changed a lot in the last decade and not everyone has kept up.

Today’s bride doesn’t want to ordered around on her wedding day. Today’s bride doesn’t want to be a spectator on her special day. She wants to enjoy the company of her family and friends and, with them, celebrate the love she declares for her husband. Did you notice that the word “photographer” doesn’t appear in that sentence?

We try to be as unobtrusive and as simply helpful as possible on your wedding day. This is why I’m so pleased when we get emails and voicemails like the ones below, from real brides…

“So many people commented to me about how awesome you guys were….as photographers and just as people. Your willingness to help out all throughout the wedding day….even when it wasn’t about the photos really meant a lot to me and everyone noticed.”

“you all aren’t just photographers, but great people too and we all enjoyed having you around.”

“I cannot say enough about the quality of your work, the professionalism of your staff, and the magnificent quality of the photography.”

“You three did an awesome job (a special thanks to Christina for zipping me into my dress, 30 minutes after we had first met!) The photos are great, and the three of you were so kind and helpful all day long!”

“What impressed me most was how much fun we had working with you on the day of the wedding, and how natural the whole process was. We hardly knew you were there, yet you captured some of the most intimate moments of the day.”

Ben Vigil — unobtrusive, intrigued, impressed, and honored to share your wedding day.

Isn’t Laura just stunning!

Since this is my blog I get to start with my favorites first

If you’ve been to more than one or two weddings in Atlanta, you’ll recognize the setting immediately. This is the Imperial Ballroom at the Biltmore Ballrooms in Atlanta where their wedding reception was held yesterday.

Ben Vigil, honored.