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!

But let me back up a little bit. When I think of the beautiful, historic Swan House, this is what I see in my head:

I think of the rich history and all the stories this building could tell if it could talk.

Remember what I said above about photo shoots? The image above and the next two didn’t even make the first round of cuts. Yet, fast forward a couple months and there it sits… a big, beautiful two-page spread to open up the fashion feature. This is quite easily my favorite image from the entire shoot.

And now I’m going show you something to make your jaw drop. I say that in complete humility because it really has nothing to do with me, but everything to do with our stunning model Madison Olson and the fabulous makeup by Raney O’Keefe. This image is basically straight out of the camera. No photoshop actions. No retouching. No fixing. No nothing.

I took the image out of the camera in RAW format, adjusted my color and exposure in Lightroom, and exported it. In fact, I didn’t retouch Madison in a single image in the entire magazine feature. Just amazing.

Remember what I said above about photo shoots? We had a little bit of free time (by “free time” I mean that we had 7 minutes and 35 seconds) and I said “Madison, let’s play.” So I grabbed Heather Vreeland’s new 50mm f/1.4 lens because I was really curious how the lens would perform and I wanted to play with it. In fact, a number of the images in the magazine were shot with that little 50mm lens she carries around with her in the camera bag she got from Target. So Madison and I ran around in the grass and came up with Heather’s favorite series of images from the shoot. This is just two of them…

Have you been paying attention to the beautiful floral headpieces Danny created for us?

Yes, she is IN the fountain. By this time, it was pretty much dark and we had to get creative with the lighting sources.

Here’s Danny with one of the props he brought along for the shoot — ya know, just in case — and Raney doing a little touch up work.

One more behind the scene’s shot, complete with my assistant hard at work in the background. He was probably tweeting about how hard I was working him.

Let’s face it, I’m a photographer because I love being the outsider looking in and experiencing the lives of others through the lens. I adore the idea that I can immortalize a moment and at the same time create a work of art. It’s just amazing that I can do that and at the same time remain relatively invisible. I like being invisible. I like it when people to look at me and see my work. Not me.

And that, my friends, is the problem. I don’t much like promoting “me” because I’m afraid I’ll come off like an attention grabbing narcissist. See, marketing in the photographic industry, with the help of the social media sphere, has rather swiftly morphed into the race to be the most liked, have the most fans and create the most buzz… and relatively little of that has anything to do with your work. In fact, a few of the photographer rockstars (the term “rockstar” is used in a derogatory way as much as it’s used in a complimentary way these days) have been to more workshops than they have shot weddings. Unfortunately the average bride would never know that.

So all that blabbering above is the reason I sometimes don’t like posting about my personal life and how great I am for shooting Usher, or Brian Littrell from the Back Street Boys and his wife, or this or that photoshoot. I love doing what I do and in the end I just want you to see the work. But I promise that I’ll try to do a little better in 2011.

All that said, this falls into the “stuff I never blogged” category…

Back in November we were featured on the Elizabeth Anne Designs blog for a photoshoot we did with a number of other vendors, all coordinated by Jeannine Kennedy with FAVOR Events. The shoot was at a private residence north of Atlanta and the blog featured a bunch of the images from the shoot…

In addition to a few larger images of ones that she featured on the blog, here are a number of my favorites they didn’t blog:

Here is a list of vendors that participated in the shoot:

Event design/styling: FAVOR Events
Florals: Tulip
Venue: Privately owned farm in North Georgia
Linens: BBJ Linens
Rentals: Classic Party Rentals
Invitations: Southern Fete
Jewelry: Anthropologie
Gowns: Chaviano Couture
Model: Angela Wolff with CLICK Models

I’ll be posting a bunch of images from the shoot in a few days, but for now take a look at the images Heather Vreeland chose for the magazine:

While you’re at it, check out the Catering spread starting on page 26 and Hayden’s birthday party photos they featured on page 130. Oh… and check out our back cover advertisement for Ben Vigil Photographers featuring Erika & Leroy atop the one an only Ventana’s rooftop venue styled/coordinated by Eliana from ellyB Events…

How cool is that!!!

A couple weeks ago she posted a quick behind the scene’s post followed by a preview of the covers she selected for the next issue of the magazine. Here they are…

I can’t wait to show off the images we published as well as many more from the shoot and from behind the scenes over the next few weeks.

Today she posted a sneak peak from my friends Danny and David over at Optimum Productions, a quick behind the scenes video teaser… I can’t wait to see the entire behind the scene’s video!

Last summer Atlanta Occasions approached me about shooting the cover of their second issue. PWP Studio shot the beautiful cover image for the first issue so I had a lot to live up to. As Heather and I were scouting locations for the cover shoot I happened to learn about Ventanas, a beautiful rooftop venue to in the midst of downtown overlooking the Luckie Marietta District and Centennial Olympic Park. The best part was it was brand new event facility that hadn’t even opened yet.

In addition to the amazing patio view (the image on the cover) they also have a helipad on the rooftop for when you want to arrive in style. Once the team had our first meeting there, we were all hooked… here’s an image I took point-n-shoot style during our first walk-thru. I mean, WOW!

Inspiraton Station: Sherbet Chic

There was a dedicated team of professionals to make the shoot happen.

Location: Ventanas Atlanta
Coordination: ellyB Events
Florals & Decor: Amy Osaba
Linens: I Do Linens
Cake/cupcakes: Sugarplum Visions
Tableware: Owen Lawrence / Bloomingdales
Hair & Makeup: Scoobie West, H.S. West Hair & Makeup
Invitations: Sandi Spells Designs
Wedding Dress(es): Priscilla of Boston
Rentals: Event Rentals Unlimited
Venue lighting: Active Production & Design
Photo assistant: John Ellis

Rooftop Venues: Bird’s Eye View

In addition to the cover shoot I photographed the Ventanas Grand Opening for the feature story on Atlanta rooftop venues.

We went back to Ventanas a few times to get the right weather (mother nature wasn’t cooperating!) to shoot the cover image. Between the photo shoot, the Grand Opening, the cover shoot and all our meetings, I felt like I was living at Ventanas for half of November. Of course, I never complained about the view…

** CLICK HERE to view the entire issue online.

My good friend and amazing commercial and wedding photographer David Christensen happened to be busy and was kind enough to refer Grace Manor to me. Grace Manor is a beautiful new property managed by Lease Luxury Properties and they were looking for some imagery to kick off their media campaign.

So this is what you get when you combine a beautiful setting, a dress from the incomparable Anne Barge, gorgeous light and a stunning model…

This is the image they are using for the ad in The Atlantan Brides magazine. You can view the ad on page 21 of the online digital edition.

I included this last one because she has such a bubbly personality and fantastic smile that I wanted you to see it.

Atlanta Occasions Magazine Cover Release & Venue Showcase Party

Let’s just say that if you want Ben Vigil Photographers to cover your wedding, you will definitely want what’s in the swag bag! Here are a few more reasons to come…

• I haven’t been this excited about an event in a long time, so that’s reason enough!
• It’s FREE!
• You get to see the cover location in person, shot by yours truly.
• You get to see which of my brides made the back cover. Maybe she’ll autograph it for you!
• There’s a helipad!
• SWAG Bag for every bride and giveaways.
• You get to meet the TOP wedding pros in the industry.
• Every bride who attends gets a free ticket to The Not Wedding ($25 value).

** CLICK HERE TO REGISTER **

Brought to you by Atlanta Occasions Magazine and ellyB Events.

One of my commercial clients just put up their teaser site using some of the imagery that I shot earlier this year. They aren’t giving away much on the site, so I’m not going to say anything else except that I can’t wait to show you more! Here’s a screen grab from their web site. Go check it out!

The other is the cover of a book. My first actually. I just got a few of them in the mail and I told Vicky when I saw her the other day that I’d send her a copy. She’ll get a kick out of it and I’m sure her friends will harass her about it.

And I can’t even read it… It’s a german translation of a book by Christopher West, “The Love That Satisfies.” They contacted me last year after seeing Vicky and Jason’s engagement images on my blog. I mean, they are both stunning, passionate, and madly in love so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that someone would want to use them on the cover of a book about… uhm… “marital love”.

, destination Germany