I wanted to give a BIG HUGE CONGRATULATIONS and a little blog love to Matt Adcock and Sol Tamargo who got married this past weekend.

Well, kinda.

It’s all legal now in the states but they are doing the big wedding bash down in Mexico later this year. Matt and Sol are both amazing award winning photographers who have become good friends. Matt has been one of the biggest influences on my development as a photographer (whether he knows it or not) — it was very refreshing to meet a photographer with his passion and who was eager to share information with the dork that kept bugging him with silly questions.

I know Sol is going get him all cleaned up and respectable.

Congratulations!

Ben

I just wanted to post a quick message to Yahoo! users. I often have a difficult time with my emails getting through to people with Yahoo email addresses. It seems that any email that is sent from me is automatically dropped into the Junk Mail folder unless you have me in your Yahoo address book already.

So if you are a Yahoo user, I’m not ignoring you, honest!

Ben Vigil, photographic yahoo

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

Recently I had the awesome opportunity to spend a few hours getting to know a family that were relative strangers to me despite the fact that we probably know 50-100 of the same people. They’ve been going through a lot lately and the love between the husband and wife was just so palpable. I got a ton of great images but there were even better images between the images!! Every time I looked away, they’d steal these moments (and I do mean moments, like 2.1 seconds) in between camera clicks to cuddle or look at each other. I should have taken two more photographers.

But we have to start somewhere… of course the kid is alway going to be a hit!

I couldn’t decide if I like this one with all the fall color or as a B&W (technically it’s a sepia/blue split tone). What do you think?

I think this is my favorite shot of the two to them. It just feels like a super special moment.

Ben

One day that will be the title of one of my blog posts.

Recently, two things reminded me of this little personal goal of mine. First, a fellow Orange County, CA wedding photographer, Becker, posted a few images from a wedding he shot at the Vatican a few years ago. And second, a recent bride and groom of mine are honeymooning in Italy and if I know them, they will be in line to receive a nuptual blessing from the Pope.

So why am I posting this?

Because by some fluke of a chance you might be that one bride reading this (or maybe you know her) that is getting married in the Vatican or maybe wants to or maybe dreams of it. I mean, how amazing would that be!!!

So if that’s your dream, I want to be there to photograph it! CONTACT ME.

Ben

I got the great news today that I was accepted into the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA)!

Over the past year a few brides have asked me if I was a member and the honest truth is that I had never applied. There are a lot of advantages of membership so during the busy wedding season I had set a goal of applying to the WPJA before the end of year. Now, you don’t just join the WPJA. You apply and then they decide if you join or not, so I was really happy to get an acceptance email from them this morning. The WPJA is notoriously strict in it’s membership and strives to represent the “elite” of wedding photographers from all over the photojournalism world.

This is how the WPJA describes itself:

Leading the way in Wedding Photojournalism, WPJA represents the most discriminating talent around the world technically, creatively and visually. Qualified members hold industry-leading standards, skills and business integrity.

The Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA), an International, membership-based organization, represents professional photographers skilled in the documentation of weddings and events in a candid, unobtrusive style. The WPJA was founded to uphold excellence in the area of wedding photojournalism.

Candid. Unobtrusive.

If there’s anything we get complimented about, it’s how laid back and easy we are to work with. That’s because, as much as possible, we try to capture the candid shots in the most unobtrusive way possible. The moment your photographer starts bossing you around it’s no longer your day. I can’t tell you how many times people have accidentally walked in front of the camera and then apologized. Or they wait until they think it’s safe to pass. But I always smile and tell them, “Don’t worry! Just ignore us. Pretent we’re not there.” And every time I say it, I truly mean it! It doesn’t take but a few minutes for us to blend into the scenery. And people get it, and they appreciate it.

But my favorite is when I’m capturing a pensive moment or a serene scene and the person you’re shooting sees you and tries to “get out of the way” saying, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to ruin the shot.” I look them all funny and say, “But you were the shot!” They usually let out a chuckle, and now they get it too.

Your wedding day is not about your photographer, it’s about you!

Ben

…but when I was little, my toothbrush never had batteries!

Grandma gave them these cool little toothbrushes and can you tell they like them?

Now come on, admit it! He’s about the cutest kid ever.

From these photos you’d think we live in a bedtime utopia… uh, not. It’s like when a bride sees her photos for the very first time and she’s like “I don’t remember that! That’s awesome!” That’s how I want to remember bedtimes in my photos

“I’m not tired. I’m Super Guy!!!”

Take care…

Ben