So here’s the cover we shot for the Occasions Magazine Fall 2001 Issue, shot at Foxhall Resort & Sporting Club with Bold American providing florals and decor. There’s more design goodness inside the magazine but we can only show the cover for now…

Looks simple huh?

So this where we started…

There were two big problems with Plan A: the SCREAMING late afternoon sunlight streaming in from the right side; and the general busy-ness of the background.

Solution to problem #1

I call it the wall of light. If you have lights already it costs you next to nothing: it’s just a big white sheet. It does two things… first, it serves as a huge scrim to block the sun (plus, it saves my assistants arms) and second, it becomes a 9 foot softbox when you light it from the other side, i.e. a wall of light. The reason I like the wall of light is because it preserves contrast in the scene (provided your wall of light is bright enough compared to whatever is on the other side) while leaving almost no shadows. In other words, it doesn’t look like you lit it at all. And that is pretty much always my goal.

So here it is: two Alien Bee 400s at roughly 1/4 power each, both firing off a Vagabond Mini Lithium battery, and a big white sheet I stole out of the laundry room at home. Impressive huh?

You’ve seen the wall of light before, here…

…and here…

…and a few other places I’m sure.

Solution to problem #2

So while I was setting up the wall of light, Heather was busy find a new vantage point with a better background, and here it is. What do you notice about these two images below?

The only difference between the two images above is the focal point: the left image is focused on the foreground plate/flower and the right image is focused on the chair. Look at the background. See how big a difference 3 feet can make on the overall “look” of the background?

I’m shooting at f/5 because I know that even at f/16 or f/22 I probably can’t get the entire table in focus (plus, shooting that stopped down will change the entire character of the image in a lot of ways) and at f/2 or f/2.8 my depth of field is so razor thin that it would be a pain to work with in post… so f/5 is a nice compromise.

30 or 40 images later we had the table decor exactly how we wanted it. So I got my tripod set up and took 5 images, each focusing on different elements of the table: the front of the foreground plate, the back of the foreground plate, the wine glass and flowers, the background plate, and the chair. Here they are laid out in Photoshop.

Here’s a little fun fact. Somewhere in the shuffle somebody moved the forks and forgot to put them back. Luckily, I had an earlier image of the forks and I managed to insert them. That is the only difference between the image above and the one below.

Here are images 2, 3, 4 and 5 with the background removed so you can see the pieces I took from each image.

And here’s the final image with a few touchups to the table cloth.

Whew!

Here are a few of the details…

A little glimpse into the preparations before the guests arrived…

Here are just a few images from a wedding reception at the Piedmont Driving Club put together by Susan Graham Signature Events. In fact, this first image shows a few of the letter press RSVP’s that Susan put together for the bride and groom…

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.

They were both so calm, cool and collect on their wedding day. Okay, Dan was bit nervous but he wasn’t letting anybody know. One thing that’s nice about Jewish weddings is they tend to be much more relaxed by the time the ceremony rolls around because the signing of the Ketubah has already taken place, the jitters are gone and everybody’s ready to celebrate!

They got married at the Event Gallery at the King Plow Arts Center (the “Plow”), home of Bold American Catering, who handled the catering and decor. Like they always do, they did a amazing job. It been too long since I’ve worked with Susan Graham but it was just like old times. She was fantastic keeping everything orderly and on cue. It’s so relaxing when a good coordinator is on board.

My trusty associate, Huy, was along for this wedding and this is one of those shots that he is so good at:

I love this moment. It’s not the usual view of the cermony but…

Floral were handled by Eva Behrendt and her team at by Tulip. I’m always in awe of their work! You’ll see their work above and below and throughout the slideshow.

And a quick mention to my new friends with Atlanta Beat who provided great music for the evening. This same image is in the slideshow in b&w.

For the slideshow music, I chose to use the song that Joanne and her father danced to for the father/daughter dance. It’s the song “Sunrise, sunset”, which I was surprised to find in over 120 different versions on iTunes going back to the 1950’s. Don’t forget to watch it full-screen with the icon in the bottom right corner.

Enjoy!

Ben Vigil, photography at the King Plow Fine Arts Center, Atlanta

That’s all I can say.

Okay, maybe not…. I can’t tell you how much fun it was to hang out with Monica and Rich all day. They are such a blast (you’ll see it in the images) and obviously just love life and live it to the fullest. When I met with Monica and Rich we hit it off right away and it turns out that we know a lot of the same people and walk in the same circles, so to speak. Rich is a youth minister at the church were I grew up (some of my family still goes there) and Monica works at a Catholic high school on the other side of Atlanta. Rich’s job explains all the young folk you’ll see in the slideshow.

Monica and Rich’s wedding was #3 in a row with the AMAZING Susan Graham of Susan Graham Signature Events and everybody at Bold American Catering. There’s a lot of eye candy in this show so sit back and relax while you watch the show — the music is a lot different than my usual wedding music but it fits Monica and Rich perfectly. Jason Spruill, a.k.a. Weddings by Jason, another amazing Atlanta photographer, came out to help me cover all the bases and did an amazing job. And again, my trusty assistant Brian Steele made anything possible.

This slideshow has a TON of images so unless you’re on a decent DSL/Cable connection I’d suggest that you click once below to start the slideshow downloading and then click again to pause it and wait a little bit (maybe 15 or 30 seconds) before pressing play again. Same goes for the full-screen version, which you can view by clicking the last icon on the bottom right.

Enjoy!

Here are the event details:

Ceremony: Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Reception: Foundry at Puritan Mill
Coordination: Susan Graham Signature Events
Catering/Event Design/Linens: Bold American
Videography: SCG Productions
Cake: Caryn’s Cakes
Florals: Tulip
Hair/Makeup:Josie La Bara, Maria Hekscher Salon / Michael Lynch, Blue Med Spa

Ben Vigil — Photographer, having a blast

I must say, Alice and Adam take the award for the most relaxed and calm bride and groom of the year. It reminds me of that line in Pride and Prejudice toward the end, the father speaking to his just-engaged daughter, “You’re each of you so complying that nothing will ever be resolved on.” The entire day was such a pleasure.

Of course, Huy Cat was on hand to shoot with me and Susan Graham did another stellar job.

This is a new way that I will be posting these slideshows: right here in the blog so you don’t have to open a new window to view the show. You can also click through the images one by one and see a ton of them, not just a few that I chose for the blog. Of course, there’s also a FULL SCREEN option if you prefer — just click the little button at the bottom right of the slideshow and you’ll get to see bigger images.

Enjoy!

Here are the event details:

Location: King Plow Event Gallery
Coordination: Susan Graham Signature Events
Catering/Event Design/Linens: Bold American
Cake: Frosted Pumpkin
Florals: Tulip
Hair/Makeup: The Moore Agency, Steve Moore

Ben Vigil — Photographer, King Plow, Jewish Wedding

*** CLICK HERE *** to view the slideshow

Congratulations to Laura and David who were the most gracious hosts! Wow, what a wedding. Susan Graham and her team along with Bold American and everybody else from the stylists to the band pulled out all the stops and made it a weekend to remember for Laura and David. Chris and Katie from 6ofFour were on hand to help as well as my trusty assistant Brian — they all captured some stellar images and I want to thank them personally.

Congratulations again to Laura and David!

There’s not much explaining I need to do here… I’ll let the images speak for themselves. These are just a quick few. You REALLY need to watch the slideshow — there’s even an option to view the slideshow full screen now.

Ben Vigil

Remember that attention to detail that I mentioned? Here’s the front of the program, hand made on real fabric, next to Steve’s (the Creative Director) tie, which he picked out especially to match the motif used throughout the wedding on the custom made runners (see above), the china, the programs, etc.. Okay, so he’s a little embarrassed now.

Ben Vigil, High-end Boutique Weddings