Two-In-One

I shot other work in August but I decided to focus solely on Surfers Healing because it impacts so many lives and it is an important event to me. For this post I've covered all of the work (and some play) from August and September.

August started off with surf rolling in from Tropical Storm Bertha. It passed well off the coast of Virginia and I took full advantage of the opportunity Bertha provided. For some reason blogger.com likes to create color banding, artifacts, gets goofy with white balance, and even lightens shadows in my GoPro images. I felt the need to mention that in advance.

Water passes around the housing of my GoPro and for a split second it created a tunnel.

A few days later it was time to photograph Emily and Kyle's wedding day. They live in Illinois but were married at Langley Air Force Base here in Hampton Roads. As you will see they were fun to work with!

The Langley Chapel is a beautiful church on the base.

 

Kyle gave is groomsmen small axes as gifts and I just had to incorporate them!

I'm always looking for moments. During the reception, one of the guests was outside walking on the rocks with his daughter.

A few days later we had strong onshore winds and once the wind backed off I was back in the water for a couple of hours.

Later that week I had an engagement session with Andrew and Brittney. They both love fishing and wanted to incorporate their favorite hobby and location into the shoot. I was off to Como, NC to meet up with them at their favorite fishing spot.

The following two days I photographed the Surfers Healing event in Virginia Beach. August's blog post Passions Come Together was dedicated solely to that event.

Sunday I was back in Virginia Beach to photograph Christina and Ralph's wedding at the Lessner Inn. Typically this time of year it is hot and muggy but not this day, it was in the low 80's with a little breeze making for perfect wedding day weather. They were another great couple to work with.

The groomsmen were getting ready at separate location so I brought in photographer Jose of De La Lastra Photography to photograph the guys.

 

A few days later Hurricane Cristobal was out in the Atlantic kicking up some fun surf. I took a little break from editing to grab a few waves at sunrise.

Toward the end of the month I started a personal project which I will be working on over the next year. I take a selfie after each shoot. 

Labor Day weekend was now upon us. It was the unofficial end of summer so I took my nephew down to the Oregon Inlet, NC to meet up a buddy and his kids, camp, play in the ocean, and shoot some photos. 

 We drove down the beach and found a spot with fun waves.

After a fun weekend it was back home for a senior portrait shoot with Allison the day before school started. As we made our way out to the beach location in Hampton, VA a thunderstorm popped up out in the bay. It was a little sketchy for a few moments but as the storm moved further across the bay it gave way to some pretty dramatic skies, a rainbow, and an incredibly vibrant sunset.

The first day of school is one of my favorite days. The beaches all clear out and if there is the slightest bit of a wave, a good friend and I make it a point to go surf. There was a little swell in the water and we were the only two people out there.

The weekend that followed, I photographed Monika and Tommy's wedding. They live in Texas but since they have family in here in Hampton Roads, they were married at the Hellenic Center in Williamsburg, VA. They were another easy going couple that I enjoyed working with!

We had several days of onshore winds and once the wind switched, it was time to get in the ocean and enjoy a few waves at sunrise.

Eric, my fraternity pledge brother and long-time friend, came down from Harrisburg, Pa with his fiancée for an engagement session. I look forward to shooting their wedding in Harrisburg next summer.

The next day was a senior portrait shoot with Lucas. He was one of the groomsmen in Kyle and Emily's wedding and also Kyle's younger brother.

The next weekend I was off to Mineral, VA to photograph the Mudderella event as part of the Gameface Media photography team. Mudderella is a muddy 5-mile obstacle race that is held in various locations across the country. My assignment was the "I Got Your Back" station where participants carry their partner a distance and then they switched.

After the last participant crossed my station and I'd finished my assignment, I went over to the last obstacle, "The Hat Trick," to take some shots. This obstacle was a towering slide that dumped participants into a muddy pit.

The last weekend of September was now here and it was off to New York City to photograph my last wedding of the month. Anthony and Kandace both live in the city and were married at the beautiful Central Presbyterian Church on Park Avenue. Although churches conduct weddings on a regular basis and couples pay churches for their wedding, most churches have terrible lighting for weddings. Not this one! They have two spotlights in the balcony at the back of the church to light the altar area. I loved shooting in here!

After the ceremony, all of the guests loaded onto buses to head down to the Chelsea Piers where we were to board a yacht that would cruise the river during their reception. The car the couple reserved to pick them up after the ceremony didn't show up so they decided to catch a cab. Surprisingly, dozens of cabs passed by the couple that was all decked out in their wedding attire. Finally one picked them up and it was off to cruise the river for their reception.

The yacht stopped in front of the Statue of Liberty for a photo op.

Since the boarding time for the reception was so close to the end of the ceremony and they wanted to do photos around the city, we'd planned a "day after shoot." The next day they got dressed again and we went to several locations throughout the city.

Bethesda Terrace in Central Park

A behind the scenes shot. Originally there was a pretty big crowd here watching a group of musicians perform while we were shooting and then thinned out by the time I took this.

After Central Park, Times Square, and a couple of other places, our last stop was a place at High Line Park. On the side of a building at 10th Avenue and 25th Street there is a mural painted by Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra. Kobra's mural was inspired by the iconic August 1945 Alfred Eisenstaedt image "V-J Day" published in Life magazine. This is Anthony's favorite piece of art in the entire city. The location we were going to in High Line Park overlooked this mural and was the place where he proposed to Kandace. As we made our way to the location we noticed a guy on a ladder doing some touch-up work on the mural. It turned out to be Eduardo Kobra.

I managed to get a few shots of them on the busy walkway while Kobra worked in the background. It was mid-afternoon and the walkway was full of people and spectators. Just like the Bethesda Terrace photos, I wanted to make it look as if no one else was there.

 

We were gushing about how cool it was that this is Anthony's favorite piece of art, this where he proposed, and how the day after their wedding we had shots of them with Kobra working in the background. Then a camera crew from TV Brazil came up to Kandace and Anthony. They did an interview with them and shot some footage of me photographing the couple for a piece they were doing on Eduardo Kobra.

We noticed Kobra was no longer on the roof so we hustled down the street in hopes of catching up with him. We walked over to the open door of a garage and there he was. The couple had a chance to meet him, TV Brazil was there rolling video, and I was shooting away. The three of us agreed that the great day we had shooting just couldn't get any better so we wrapped things up.

Anthony and Kandace were funny, laid back, and I had an absolute blast working with them over those two days! Well, that was the last shoot for September and I still have a ton of editing and shooting to do so I'm going to end this post. See you next month!