This is one of those images I could see coming a mile away. As soon as I saw the way the sun was positioned and she pulled the parasol out, I knew this was the image I was going for.

In the weeks before the wedding Peggy and Susan (the coordinator) and I had discussed these parasols and Peggy had wondered about what color to get. I suggested a white one, at least for hers, and this is why.

This is one of my favorites and I’m going to get a big 20″x30″ canvas of this for the studio.

Ben Vigil, International Wedding Photographer

Today’s favorite is actually a series, a few moments in time. These are the moments that you trust us to capture on your wedding day.

As I was looking over this series trying to pick the one I liked most, I realized that I was having a hard time because as a whole they tell a story much better than any one image can. This little story in time takes place over a period of about 15 seconds. I totally love the amazing transformation that goes on.

What do you think?

Ben Vigil Photography, photographing moments

With wedding season getting ready to ramp up, things are supposed to be slow, right? Wrong.

I’ve been wanting to start posting a bunch of pictures from the last year that particularly struck me for whatever reason. And it would also give me a little time to talk about the photo and the background of it. But it doesn’t seem that I’ve had much time as of late.

So here I’ll start with one of my favorite images from last year but I am not entirely sure why. When I think of all the images, this one keeps bubbling to the top.

I mean obviously Brenda is just stunning and I purposely cut half her face off. But I think it’s the relaxed joy she has going on…

We were sitting in the bridal room at Holy Cross Catholic Church and everything was running late because of audio problems in the sanctuary. So we were chatting away and Brenda was just as relaxed as can be. So I climbed up on the chair and started shooting. One of the things that I honestly like about it the most is that Brenda loves this shot and it makes her feel like a super model.

That’s because she is!

Ben Vigil, super model photographer

One of the cool little features of the stats software that I use for tracking usage on my site is this cool little map that shows where all my visitors are coming from in the last week. I can zoom in and out and drag the map all around the world like any other Google map and I often wonder what people in SPAIN, London, or Dubai, or Brussels are thinking as they browse my site. Or maybe those visitors from Italy are wondering if they should book me to shoot their wedding at the Vatican. Hmmm…

So which one of the little orange drops below are you?

Ben Vigil, International Wedding Photographer

** CLICK HERE ** to view the slideshow!

The day after they got married we all hung out at the hotel, had late breakfast/early lunch (or maybe it was a late lunch, I can’t remember), Tom wanted to get some video at the market across from the historic part of Campeche where we were staying. So we headed over to the market and BOY was that an experience! I got a bunch of shots of dead chicken’s feet and meat market guys covered in blood but I’ll spare you those

Imagine an “open air” market, the size of a football field perhaps, but everything is so close together that a lot of the aisles were too skinny for two people to walk past each other and most of the shops had enough footroom for two chairs — and half of that space was occupied by the owner sitting in a chair. I used “open air” in quotes because if you looked up, you couldn’t see anything because the shops were so close together that the tops were touching. Being a tall guy I pretty much walked around crouched over so I didn’t wack my head.

I spent some time walking around soaking in the colors in historic Campeche, I have tons of images of doors and walls…

By mid-day we all decided to head back over to Hacienda Uayamon where the ceremony was the day before and where Susan and Sean were going to be staying for a few days. When we got there, just like at Hacienda Puerta Campeche, there was a hacienda employee there to greet us with fresh juice and cool moist towels

We spent a little time wandering around the area getting images like this one.

Here’s an alternate version of one of the images in the slideshow. I can see a huge print of this hanging on a wall…

Talk to you soon!

Ben

This post has been a long time in coming. The embargo has ended.

I was quite flattered a few months back when Susan Graham (a local wedding coordinator who I have blogged about many times) asked if I could do her a favor — but I had to keep it a secret. Her and Sean were going to elope and get married in Mexico and they wanted me to come along and photograph it. As the mid-January date got closer they did end up telling their close friends and family but it was still a surprise to most people. But that meant that I couldn’t show the images until they had their big reception party this past weekend. I thought I’d wait a few more days so I could incorporate the reception images into the slideshow.

I had a blast in Mexico pal’ing around with Tom from SCG Productions (definitely one of the better video houses in Atlanta). It was quite an experience having Susan and Sean to ourselves for the better part of a week with some incredible scenery to play with, incredible hospitality everywhere we went and summer weather in January.

If you’re impatient ** CLICK HERE ** to view the slideshow! There’s just too many images to share so I think I am going to break them up into a few posts but here are a few to start with. I’m telling ya.. it’s tough when you have scenery like this everywhere you go…

We got started at the Hacienda Puerta Campeche in Campeche, Mexico which is about 2 hours south of Merida on the east side of the Yucatan peninsula. A few details…can you really go wrong when it says Tiffany’s on the box?

For the ceremony Susan and Sean had chosen Hacienda Uayamon, which is a collection of Haciendas situated among anchient Mayan ruins. The staff had lit the area with torches and candles we all joked that we had accidentally walked onto the set of Survivor. You’ll see more images from Uayamon tomorrow…back to the ceremony. By mid-way through the ceremony it was basically dark and the glow from the candlelight was the perfect ambiance…

(for you photogs out there, the last half of the ceremony was shot at ISO 3200, f/2.8 @ 1/20 sec.)

The next day we got more shots and even went back to the place where the ceremony was the day before. I’ll post those next time…

Katie Torres and Matt Yung were on hand to help me out at the reception and they got some stellar images. They had it rough eating some of the finest Mexican food Bold American can offer and sipping margaritas.

Check out these images from Matt…

Katie rocked too, even if she still shoots Nikons (sorry, dorky photographer humor there)…

Isn’t that mariachi just amazing???

Oh yeah… I took pictures at the reception too. Did I mention that it was at the tré cool King Plow Arts Center?

Cheers!

Ben