Ben Vigil Photographers » Portraits

Baby Rosemary: 9-month Session

Ben Vigil — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 09:12:12 +0000

There’s nothing that strikes fear and trepidation in the heart of a photographer more than when another photographer asks them to take their pictures. It’s worse when they’re a really good photographer. It’s even more worserer when there are two of them.

So let’s just say that prepping these images for the blog has been an adventure…

I’ve known Chris and Katie Torres of 6 of Four for 4 or 5 years now (say that 3 times in a row!) and in the last year I’ve watched them tread boldly into that crazy thing called parenthood. I really was honored when they asked me to shoot little Rosemary’s 9-month baby session. We met at Grant Park and found some really nice areas to shoot in with some really nice light. Rosemary was a trooper and being later in the day, she was a little more calm and we managed to catch a more, uhm… reflective side of her.

So take a look and tell me what you think!

I loved both of these images. Which do you like better?

I mentioned the nice light…

I managed to grab this as they were prepping little Rosemary. I just love the tenderness of this shot.

Okay, I saw these images and I just. couldn’t. help. myself!

Oh my gosh, I just adore these swing shots. Such a cutie!

Chris and Katie, thank you for trusting me to document this beautiful time in the life of your little angel!

Sarah’s Timeless Bridal Portrait

Ben Vigil — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:17:02 +0000

As Sarah and I began discussing her bridal portrait the one word that kept coming up was “timeless.” First, there is a family legacy of beautiful family portraits that I wanted to respect as I planned the creation of her portrait. In fact, at the wedding, one if these images was going to be displayed alongside past family and bridal portraits. And second, if there is one word I strive to live up to in the wedding imagery that I produce it is just 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…

Cover Shoot: The Bachelor’s Corrie Adamson

Ben Vigil — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 18:35:15 +0000

I’ve been quite the pathetic blogger that past month or two, so much so that I have a huge backlog of blog items to get to. They run the gamut of topics from my personal life, to weddings, to commercial photoshoots, to my [high school] senior business, to industry events, to magazine covers… which brings us to the topic of this post.

I was excited to shoot the cover for the May issue of Date Night Magazine featuring 24 year old Corrie Adamson, one of the women on the most recent season of The Bachelor on ABC. We shot the cover in the swank bar of the fabulous new Loews Hotel in Atlanta which had just opened a couple weeks earlier. You can read the interview with Corrie on the online magazine’s website.

Here’s the cover:

Here are two more of my favorite images… this one was used in the article:

After meeting and getting to know Corrie just a little bit, I have to conclude that Jake isn’t so bright. Corrie (twitter) owns her own wardrobe consulting and personal shopper business called Dandy, and became known as the only contestant on Bachelor that wanted to save herself for marriage, which is always a commendable endeavor in face of an increasingly incredulous society. Props for that!

I’ve started to get in the habit of capturing (or having my assistants capture) behind the scenes imagery, not just for myself, but we often get some really great images. Here’s the rather small crew of folks onsite to make the shoot happen. Getting ready to roll…

Here is Corrie hamming it up as our two stylists, Kelli Cunningham and Meghan “Riley” Baumann from Bob Steele Salon, put some final touches on her while we were shooting at the bar.

The illustrious me pretending to know what I’m doing as I explain the “look” we are going after…

I just HAD to include this image of Jaime Luckey, the Editor of Date Night Magazine (follow on twitter). Given the subject of our shoot, and that she was recently in the running for Jezebel Magazine’s Most Eligible Atlantans for 2010, I thought this image was particularly appropriate. Hope she doesn’t kill me.

The whole gang:

(L-R) Meghan “Riley” Baumann and Kelli Cunningham from Bob Steele Salon, me, Corrie Adamson, Kelly Ducray, Jaime Luckey, Matthew Thomas our “Bachelor”.

Not pictured above is the fabulous Raney O’Keefe, who did Corrie’s makeup before I arrived on site. As you can tell from the images above she did an amazing job as she always does!!

What is Sarah staring at?

Ben Vigil — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:52:42 +0000

Apparently there’s been a little bit of discussion about the very first image that I posted of Sarah and Christopher in my last post. It seems some people were wondering if Sarah was looking at Christopher or at the camera. It does look a little odd in the first picture but the Photoshop resizing and sharpening algorithms are playing tricks. I think this [rather extreme] crop of the original image will settle the matter.

Heather Vreeland, meet Anne Barge

Ben Vigil — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:00:22 +0000

So the other day, my friend and publisher of Atlanta Occasions Magazine was so excited to be wearing a stunning Anne Barge dress to a benefit event that she asked if I’d take a few quick pictures of it.

Big. Mistake.

Being a HUGE fan of Anne Barge, I thought it was a great idea and Heather got more than she bargained for. I enlisted the help of my friend and future groom, Will Darragh, to handle styling Heather’s hair. Will is a top stylist at Van Michael Salon in Virginia Highlands. He also happens to be engaged to the co-owner of Blanqi, which was the subject of my last post. It’s sorely understating it to say that Will is good at what he does. In the words of Katie Torres: “Ahh, best hair cut of my life….”

Also, a big thanks to Steve Bales and his staff at Bold American Catering who took care of us while we shot at the beautiful Studio 887.

Heather, being the happy-smiley-people-person-plus-sunshine, she likes the last one the best. Or maybe the first one. It’s just that this is one of the few times you’ll ever see her not smiling in front the camera (or otherwise). I was going for that classic Anne Barge “look” in the first couple images.

Which one do you like the best?

It was fun playing with the visual effect of a curved AND slanted wall.

Tricia & Phil

Ben Vigil — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:29:22 +0000

Tricia contacted me on Facebook and asked if I wanted to do some engagement pictures for her and Phil. She was a bridesmaid at a wedding I shot in NC last year, but even before that, I knew her family and we have lots of friends in common.

What was different about her request was that he was getting ready to deploy to Iraq for a year and they wanted a few photos before he left. I was more than happy to oblige and I’m honored that I had the opportunity to do this for one of the men that give so much to serve our country.

They have not set a wedding date and won’t until he returns, so say a prayer for him and all our military that they return safely to the ones that love them.

Ben Vigil, honored

The Atlantan Brides, 1st Anniversary

Ben Vigil — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:25:46 +0000

You may have noticed that the 1st anniversary issue of The Atlantan Brides hit the shelves…

I have a few images and quotes splashed throughout the issue but here’s my ad this time around:

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: this is the best magazine in Atlanta for the modern bride. It’s classy, it’s elegant, it’s modern, it’s haute, and it’s chic. I’m proud to be associated with Modern Luxury and Celeste and Elizabeth have done a stellar job putting this one together.

Speaking of Celeste, I was happy to shoot her headshot for the latest issue. This is the one they choose to run:

Congratulations on a stellar first year!

Ben Vigil, Atlantan Brides/Modern Luxury headshots

The Atlantan Brides

Ben Vigil — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:46:06 +0000

I was flattered when The Atlantan Brides approached me a few months ago to shoot new headshots for Elizabeth and Celeste. I was jazzed because they are honestly two of my favorite people in the industry. We had a great time shooting some great images and chatting over lunch. These certainly are two women to watch in Atlanta.

I wasn’t sure what images they were going to use, but these are the ones the magazine ran with.

Elizabeth Ralls, Editor-In-Chief

Celeste Couvillon, Associate Publisher

And speaking of The Atlantan Brides, the Fall/Winter issue just hit the newstands and it looks A-MA-ZING!

Seriously, it’s the best wedding magazine in Atlanta for sure. Nevermind that I have a full-page ad up front in the magazine and a few weddings in the hitched section…

If you’re a bride and looking for some great ideas and great imagery, definitely pick one of these up. You can even thumb through the entire digital version of the magazine here.

Ben Vigil, blessed.

Laura’s Bridals

Ben Vigil — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:15:07 +0000

These images have been “embargoed” for a little bit so David didn’t see his bride-to-be before the time was right — so I’ve been waiting to post these! I’m resting a bit after Laura and David’s amazing wedding yesterday but I wanted to take a moment to post these images.

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.

The Tropea Family

Ben Vigil — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 05:50:23 +0000

I think we spent about 45 minutes total. With as busy as families are these days, we had been juggling a few dates but carved out a few minutes over the weekend to grab some beautiful images of the family.
My friend Huy Cat came along for lighting support (the truth is, I told him if he came and held a reflector for me, I’d let him hold my new Canon 1D Mark III camera for a few seconds) and we had a great time. It’s quite the challenge getting 6 kids and two adults to all look the same way at the same time, much less take a picture of it.

Ahhh… such is the life I lead. But I love it. I love it because I can’t wait for them to see all their images!

We tried to do a family pyramid, which quickly turned into this:

But 27 seconds later we were here:

I don’t want to spoil the surprise too much, but here’s one more of mom and dad…

Ben Vigil, photographing saints