Bride's Choice Award Winner!

Hi Folks! Great news. I just won Wedding Wire's 2010 Bride's Choice Award. Isn't that cool? It's totally based on all the love they've been putting out there for me, so thanks to all my great couples for spreading the good news!

White House Chapel Wedding Photographer for Katie & Shane

Sometimes it's obvious why a bride and a groom are made for each other!


Katie's changing her facebook status as we pull out from Comerica Park.



For a complete review of my experiences at the White House Wedding Chapel in Warren, Michigan, please visit my other blog at www.marcicurtis.blogspot.com. Katie and Shane introduced me to a great spot where I can take my Michigan winter wedding couples; out to the Belle Isle Botanical Gardens or the Belle Isle Conservatory. It's bright, has plenty of room to shoot in, is warm enough that nobody will freeze, is open to the public (but not too crowded) and best of all, it's free! It's open every day until 5 pm, so I'll definitely be back to take more wedding photos there in the future. Thanks, Katie and Shane for having so much fun with me. If you'd like to see more photos from the Belle Isle Conservatory, the White House Wedding Chapel photography and photos of us freezing in sub zero temperatures in downtown Detroit, pop over to my other blog!

Henry Ford Museum Wedding Photos - Rebecca & Mark

Can you spot Mark stalking the women? I saw him, but didn't think it would actually show up in the photos!









This day blended a bunch of elements from many of my weddings over the previous month, so it was a mash up wedding in some ways, yet still was completely independent and unique. That’s what I love about my job. Certainly some elements of surprise, yet there is a predictability in the rhythm of the unpredictability. Other wedding photographers will know what I mean by this. You anticipate derailing moments (and defuse them quickly before anything gets out of hand) and you move through and around them. Mark and Rebecca were getting ready in adjoining rooms at the Dearborn Inn in Dearborn, Michigan which made it easy for me and I was pleased they weren’t freaked out by the close vicinity. Maybe that was because they were planning on seeing each other before the wedding anyway. We got lots of nice, cold, outdoors photos. We headed off the their wedding at the Henry Ford Museum where we were able to take photos beforehand in the diminishing daylight. I love the venue and it was perfect for the several dozen children running from exhibit to exhibit. Loved the family oriented vibe at this wedding. If you’d like to see more wedding photography from the Henry Ford Museum, please check out my other blog at www.marcicurtis.blogspot.com

Marty & Becky's Detroit Institue of Art Wedding Photos

I thought you all would enjoy seeing these. I couldn't find any other DIA wedding photography online, and even though I don't think this is something just anybody can do, I thought you'd enjoy seeing some of them. While this would be a great place to go for wedding photos since you can count on it being dry and climate controlled during Michigan's hard winters, Becky was able to secure this spot through her great connections. They are both wonderfully warm people who love life and have surrounded themselves with great, wonderful people. If you'd like to see more photographs from this Detroit Art Institute wedding, please check out my other blog at; www.marcicurtis.blogspot.com.

Julie & Jason's Candlelight Wedding Ceremony

Here are side by side examples of the "lit" ceremony versus available light. No comparison... the available light is much prettier and more like the actual mood of the ceremony. Keep scrolling down to see the limits of this technique though.
You can see from these side by side examples that on the left is available light which, while accurate, would make it impossible to capture any actual great moments that happen during the ceremony.
Dragging the shutter a bit captured movement, but still let me capture crucial moments.



Jason & Julie’s Royal Park Hotel Wedding in Rochester

Okay, so I’m starting to think it really might be me! What is it with beautiful Saturdays in November? We’re talking about the time of year when all couples are pretty much guaranteed crummy, cold, or both. I’ve shot at the Royal Park Hotel before where brides have been getting ready and several times I’ve had couple stop into the hotel’s bar for a drink between their ceremony and the reception, but I’d never done a wedding there. They have several spots where the Royal Park sets up to have weddings. Julie and Jason chose to have theirs in the conservatory. Apparently it had been decorated completely for Christmas, but since this was Thanksgiving weekend and most decidedly NOT a Christmas wedding, they took down all the decorations and had their team of family members de-christmasfy the entire joint. They passed out votive candles to everyone who attended and that’s when it occured to me they were probably planning on this being a candlelight ceremony. These are really tough cookies to light in any room, but when that room is a glass box... it’s just this side of impossible. Thank God for digital! Throughout the ceremony the lights would come up a bit, then go off almost completely, then back up, then down. It was very dramatic and just what they wanted, but a really, really technically difficult shoot! You’ll see available light shots on the blog as well as the ones I added off camera lighting to. You feel about two inches tall when you have no choice but to master blast light into a candlelight service, but what we were seeing was silouettes of a couple who were swaying a bit with nerves and emotion, so long exposures weren’t exactly viable either. I know, I’m getting all technical, but shooting with the absence of light makes photography really difficult, so for all you moonlight and candlelight ceremony lovers out there (and yes, I had a candlelight ceremony too and didn’t give a hoot whether or not we had a single useable image from the actual ceremony... which we didn’t and that’s something that wouldn’t exactly fly with my couples!)... shooting without light is damn near impossible. As fantastic as cameras have gotten in recent years, no camera can touch the color adjustment and the bright versus dark adjustments our eyes make for us. No piece of equipment can touch what our eyes do all the time. With low light photography, you have a choice; grainy photos, blurry photos, master blasted photos or poorly lit photos. None of those are great options, so I try to blend the first three options until I can mimic what I’m seeing in the room as best I can. If you are planning a ceremony or service with really low light, give your photographer a BIG head’s up that this is part of your day so they can do some of the mental gymnastics they’ll need to do in order to pull out some good quality images. Having the wedding ceremony in the dark is one thing, keeping your photographer in the dark is something else altogether! That being said, the entire day was completely fantastic. Both Jason and Julie were a blast and SO much fun to hang out with. I loved both their families. There was very much a “we’re all in this together” feeling coming from both sides. Maybe that’s because Jason’s family who own a greenhouse, The Greenery at Brainers in Wixom, MI, www.brainersgreenhouse.com. did all the flowers. They completely knocked themselves out with a floral display that would put most Rose Bowl parade floats to shame. They really knocked it out of the ball park. Everybody just really thoroughly enjoyed themselves and to top it all off, we were able to go outside for a good long while to shoot all of Julie and Jason’s photos outside on location, which I never thought we’d be able to do at the end of November! If you’d like to learn about my experience with brides and grooms seeing each other before a wedding, please check out my other blog at www.marcicurtis.blogspot.com.

Dawn and Reza's Dearborn Inn Wedding in Michigan

The Dearborn Inn hosted this wonderful mid November wedding for Reza and Dawn. I knew that even though it turned out to be a beautiful day, we wouldn’t be able to take many photos outside since it gets dark out so early. We did try to get Dawn and the ladies outside before the sun set, but even then, it was pretty dark by the time we got outside for photos. The wedding provided a moment of fun. Turns out the wedding rings got left in the hotel suite. Close by, to be sure, but too far to send someone to find them and return to the ceremony since their absence wasn’t discovered until after the ceremony started. I’m not sure who notice they were missing, but both sides had a case of the giggles and the were whispering quite a bit. I couldn’t figure out what exactly was going on, but eventually the very last groomsman started handing his ring down the line until Reza got it. Dawn’s shoulders were heaving so much, I thought she was crying. Turns out she was laughing so hard, her shoulders were shaking! The reception went off without a hitch and my daughter ran the photo booth complete with hats and frames. It got a lot of use and was a great way to get lots of people covered. I’ve got lots more wedding photos from the Dearborn Inn wedding posted on my other blog at www.marcicurtis.blogspot.com.

Dan & Pam's Grosse Pointe Wedding & Reception

First of all, you’ve got to love how well connected Pam & Dan are... anybody who can deliver the nicest weather we’ve had in three months must have a pretty good in with God! They were married at Grosse Pointe’s Star of the Sea Church. I hadn’t been there in a few years, but their priest (a guest at the church) was very gracious to the wedding couple AND to me. Anytime I’m told to do my very best to light the wedding ceremony at a Catholic church, I’m very thankful. We had lots of time to get outdoor photos done, which was a real treat that none of us had counted on. Only the setting sun did us in, otherwise I think we could have shot all night as an excuse to hang out outside! We shot wedding photos at one of Grosse Pointe's parks as well as all over the grounds at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial (which I keep typing in Goose Pointe!). The reception, of course, was at the War Memorial in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and we were in the large ballroom. This is a bit of a tough place to shoot since 180 degrees are windows and very reflective AND you’re shooting into the windows the entire time. So trying to keep not only myself and the videographer out of the frame, but also my lights, was an interesting technical feat! I always love working with Sara Gharacheh from Platinum Mix (http://www.platinummix.com) and this was the first time I’ve worked with Kate McClellan from Purple Clover (http://www.purpleclover.net). I heard through the grapevine that I missed some pretty major drama later that night. Everybody was fine thankfully, but you never like it when emergency vehicles are called to your wedding. So glad both Dan and Pam really seemed to be enjoying their party, their guests and their wonderful, warm day. If you’d like to see more images from this wedding, please check out my other blog at www.marcicurtis.blogspot.com.