Ben Vigil Photographers » eSessions

Shelly & Sam at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park

Ben Vigil — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:00:04 +0000

One thing that’s nice about this blog, my portfolio and the world of communications we live in, is that when I meet a couple for their engagement session or their wedding day they have a pretty high level of confidence that I’m going to make them look their best. They’ve seen the imagery we create wedding after wedding and session after session here on the blog. But what DOES always surprise me is when a couple has the same confidence in themselves. Most people aren’t used to having photos taken of themselves and have enough stress built up that they have to climb that wall and get over that mental hurdle at least enough to relax and enjoy the time they have with the love of their life.

Not so with Shelly and Sam! They were relaxed and confident the moment we arrived at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park last month. The main lawn of the park was closed for an event that day but we had a great time and there are plenty of places all around the park and next door at the World of Coke.

I can’t wait for their wedding next July with Lindsay Pitt from Toast Signature Celebrations coordinating everything.

Don’t they look like they’re having so much fun just hanging out together?!!

Kaylan & Steve – Zombie Killers (intro)

Ben Vigil — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:09:56 +0000

They look nice and innocent. But they’re not. They’re killing machines.

So I was a little reticent about posting the full blog post on the front page of my wedding blog since some people are sensitive about those things and don’t want to see images of blood and guts when they came to see happy, pretty people in love and passionate about the love of their life.

But if you came to see blood and guts just click the link below. You know you want to. The curiosity is killing you…

View the full ZOMBIE KILLERS blog post complete with violence, blood and gore.
[You were warned]

Kaylan & Steve – Zombie Killers

Ben Vigil — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 08:57:34 +0000

A while back Kaylan wrote me with the idea of doing a zombie inspired photoshoot as part of their engagement session. Obviously, this is a little outside of what I normally do but the more I thought about it the more excited I became about the possibilities and the challenge. She had seen a similar session on a wedding blog but wanted to take things a step further. We bantered around a few ideas, including maybe having Kaylan be the zombie but having her getting in and out of makeup would be a little too time consuming for what we wanted to achieve. In the end, their friend Lacee jumped at the chance to play the zombie and the session was born.

We actually did two different “scenes” but I’ll do my best to string them together for you…

Things start out innocent enough. Don’t they always!

Lurking Zombie Chick…

After the initial shock… Kaylan goes into jealous girlfriend mode. There’s no messing with her man!

With Zombie Chick left behind whimpering in the bushes, all is right with the world.

Okay, seriously?!? Can’t Zombie Chick take a hint…

[production note: ignore the fact that Zombie Chick lost her right arm already but has clearly grown it back in the photo above. Cut me some slack, this is my first time dealing with zombies.]

Zombie Chick hasn’t learned not to mess with Kaylan!

And then there’s Steve, nerves of steele. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do…

Awwwwe, such a lovely couple!

With Zombie Chick disposed of we decided to head over the Old Roswell Mill for a few slightly less adventurous photos.

I LOVE the image below!

Huge thank you to Lacee for being willing to have her arm and head severed off!

I can’t wait for the wedding!

Anatomy of an Image – Angel & The Fretz

Ben Vigil — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:07:16 +0000

It’s been years since I decided to pull back the curtain a little bit and let you see what goes into making some of the images you see here on my blog. I decided to do this today simply because I’ve posted a few images recently that are perfect examples of the kind of work that goes unnoticed (hopefully) but can sometimes take hours to compose and composite. So without further blabbering from me, let’s jump right into the first image.

A few blog posts ago I posted Angel & The Fretz’s engagement session where we pulled off our take on the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World imagery… The Most Interesting Groom in the World…

A number of you didn’t catch on immediately that both of the girls in the shot above are, in fact, Angel: Black Angel and Turquoise Angel. And that my friends, is what this post is all about.

Once I decided on a pose, we grabbed the first shot. I originally intended this to be a landscape shot, hence the angle of view, and I also needed to give myself a little room to crop and move things around so I shot a little wider than I needed to.

RAW Shot #1

While Angel ran off to change, I told Fretz to just sit still and chill… and when she returned we captured the second image.

RAW Shot #2

Now the astute among you will notice that the bottle in his hand above is a Bud, not a Dos Equis. Who would have thunk that there wasn’t a Dos Equis in sight at the 5 Paces? The bar staff searched high and low and eventually went out to find a Dos Equis for us. They actually LEFT to go and find one for us! How cool is that?!

So they returned with the right brew and I grabbed a third shot solely for the purpose of swapping out the beer bottle later.

RAW Shot #3

This is where the fun begins… I needed to decide which Fretz I wanted to keep. I chose the Fretz from RAW Shot #1 above which meant the only thing I need from RAW Shot#2 below is Turquoise Angel, and here she is.

Then I layered RAW Shot #2 above it…

… and proceeded to “paint in” the Turquoise Angel using a layer mask to “reveal” the layer below it (i.e. the Turquoise Angel). Here is what the mask looks like when it is complete.

Now it was time to deal with the beer bottle. The first thing I did was take the Dos Equis bottle and match the size and angle to the master shot. Here is a shot of the [rather sloppily cut out] bottle side by side with the first bottle so you can see where it’s going to be placed.

And here it is in place. Keep in mind that we are zoomed in over 200% so the artifacting and edges you see (a) will not show up at normal size and (b) are exaggerated by the sharpening that is part of my blog posting process.

By far, the hardest part of this image was getting the beer bottle to NOT look like it was floating out there in space. One thing that I know from old Mickey Mouse bits was that one of the primary visual clues the brain uses to determine spacial placement is the presence of shadows. So the answer was adding a near-black shadow right below and to the left of the bottle.

So I put it all together, add a little more photoshop magic to give it the overall emotion and feel I want, and we have…

If you have any comments or questions, please let me know in the comments below!

Jennifer & Brandon at Summerour/Atlantic Station

Ben Vigil — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:17:47 +0000

It’s a small world. As you would expect, as time goes by, I keep meeting brides who knew past brides or maybe they were even in the bridal party… but as it turns out, wrapping up my first meeting with Jennifer and her mother, we discovered that many years ago I worked with Jennifer’s brother, Chris, when I worked for the Archdiocese of Atlanta. I keep wondering what Chris is going to think of all these images of his sister and some upstart guy named Brandon.

So Jennifer and Brandon were a bit nervous… having never been there before, I went around the back of Summerour to see what I had to work with, scenery-wise, and when I returned this is what I find!

They are such naturals in front of the camera but I don’t think they believed me when I told them how awesome they were doing.

After a while I just let them play…

As the sun fell behind the tree line we decided to head over to the bridge by Atlantic Station in midtown.

I left them on one of the overlooks and crawled into the bushes to find the vantage point I wanted… I’m glad nobody mistook me for some unsavory, creepy guy with a big camera and called the police!

I love how Jennifer admires her ring all subtle-like…

I can’t wait for their wedding next month at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and the Piedmont Driving Club.

Engagement Session: Angel & The Fretz

Ben Vigil — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:11:18 +0000

I first met Angel & Jason (a.k.a. The Fretz) at Hilary & Brian’s wedding in Athens, GA last year. With Angel, it goes back quite a bit farther. As it turns out, her mother and I worked at the same company back when she was in her early teens (maybe younger) and we probably met at least once back then… but fast forward all these years and you realize how small the world is sometimes.

They wanted to do their engagement session where they first met. So off we went to the dive bar of dive bars, the 5 Paces Bar which is a block from the St Regis right in the heart of Buckhead. They let us have the run of the entire bar since they weren’t open just yet. We had this idea to pull off their take on the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World and this is what we came up with. As you know, the Most Interesting Groom in the World can’t have just one Angel, he has to have two. I posted this sneak peak photo a few weeks ago (I’ll probably make another blog post about exactly how we did this shot):

If there’s one thing I try to do, it’s capture images that look natural and compelling as if you just stumbled into a moment. To do that, as a photographer, you have to work with or against the lighting available to you, and in some cases create the scene entirely on your own. This was all three! Now shooting in a dark bar has it’s own set of challenges, but when you have afternoon sun streaming in both entrances it’s even harder to make it look like a dimly lit bar.

This is the spot, right in between the back door and the bathrooms where they met for the first time…

So here we go… enjoy a few more images!

Sneak Peek: The Most Interesting Groom In The World

Ben Vigil — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:29:29 +0000

Check out The Fretz with his Dos Angeles:

Engagement Session: Laney & Ty at Reynolds Plantation

Ben Vigil — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 12:00:09 +0000

The first time I met Laney and her mother, we hit it off right away. She is the type of person who makes you feel immediately at home… like you’ve known each other for years. Laney is the very definition of class and as it turns out, Ty isn’t far behind.

As we were discussing a location for their engagement photos, they asked if I would be willing to make the short jaunt out to Lake Oconee one Friday evening. See, Ty popped the big question at the Creek Club in Reynolds Plantation at Lake Oconee, so the club has a special meaning for them. I knew that the grounds pretty much anywhere on Reynolds Plantation would be absolutely fabulous, so we decided to do their engagement photos there. Did I mention that I LOVE Reynolds Plantation? Shooting there is effortless when beauty is everywhere you look.

This is one of Ty’s favorite courses and we had almost the entire course all to ourselves.

As our golf cart passed along stretch of green butting up against this tiny creek and I saw the sun jutting through the treeline, I think my heart skipped a beat…

I’m posting this on the morning of their wedding. Later this afternoon at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church they will pledge themselves to each other and we’ll finish it off with a celebration at the Capital City Country Club. There’s a whole cast of amazing vendors coming together to make their wedding simply outstanding. I can’t wait…

Congratulations Laney & Ty!

Engagement Session: Nichole & David in Roswell, GA

Ben Vigil — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:31:23 +0000

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing a fabulous couple who is getting married this fall. Nichole & David decided they wanted to meet in downtown Roswell and take in a little of the quaint, small town feel the city has managed to preserve.

I have to say, their care and attentiveness to each other was really inspiring and it shows in the images. I’m looking forward to working with Gail Johnson and Hester Parks from Wedding Soirée this fall when Nichole & David tie the knot in Atlanta.

Enjoy the images…

I just love this look she is giving him! They are going to be SUCH a fun couple to shoot on their wedding day!

Engagement Session: Cheri & Tommy in Blue Ridge

Ben Vigil — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:34:25 +0000

I met Cheri & Tommy last year through Ashley Baber, one of Atlanta’s top wedding planners. Everything that I had experienced when we met for their first consultation was confirmed when I met them at a log cabin in the Blue Ridge mountains for their engagement session: they are two of the most genuine and down to earth people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

I knew I was at home when they offered me a whole selection of cheeses, crackers and wine as soon as I arrived. Some of their family were there at the cabin with them and they invited me to stay the evening for an amazing dinner of grilled steaks, twice-baked potatoes, and all the fixin’s. I honestly had a wonderfully fabulous time. Thank you!

Meet Cheri & Tommy!

It had been raining most of the morning but had cleared up beautifully by afternoon, as you can see.

By the time we were sitting down for dinner, we all just watched in childlike wonder as the clouds rolled over the mountains and into the valley. You could literally watch the clouds fold over the mountaintops in the distance. It really was stellar to watch.

Not a bad view in my opinion!

For you photogs reading, that last image above was taken about 9:45pm with a Nikon D3, f/5.6 at ISO 1000 for 20 seconds.