All the details from this wonderful Bali Hai Golf Club wedding can be found in my post earlier this month. Here is a slide show of highlights from the days coverage:
Posts Tagged ‘Las Vegas wedding photography’
Brianne and Robert’s wedding was held at the plush Bali Hai Golf Club. Getting there in the afternoon, I was a bit nervous for them because it was a windy day in Las Vegas, and the wedding ceremony was going to be outdoors. As always though, even the wind couldn’t hinder what became a beautiful ceremony. Brianne and Robert’s nuptials were witnessed by family and friends who traveled from out of state to be with them. After the ceremony, the reception celebration immediately followed in Bali Hai’s first class Cili Restaurant. After dinner, the romantic couple gave me an opportunity to capture a few fun and romantic photos back outside around sunset. Below are some of my favorites of the day!
03.06.10 – Einav and Joshua – Aria Hotel, Las Vegas
March 12, 2010I had the opportunity to spend about an hour with Einav and Joshua getting ready at the Aria Hotel just before their wedding at a chapel on the Las Vegas strip. Even though our time together was short, there were wonderful moments to be found, including a display of a variety of emotions from their beautiful son, Roy!
Reflective Moments
February 3, 2010
I love finding moments from a different point of view. When you were a kid, did you ever find yourself fascinated with looking at reflections through windows, or maybe in a pond, and seeing two worlds at once? You could see through the window inside the house or through the pond and the life underneath, but you could also see the outside world that was being reflected when the light was perfect. I loved finding those realities as a kid and I love finding them as a wedding photographer!!!
Recently, I had the opportunity to pop in on a wedding my Las Vegas associate, Rudy Ortega, was photographing at Canyon Gate Country Club in Las Vegas. Having camera in hand, I was ready to find a few artistic moments. The scene above is of the bride and her father walking to the door inside the club house to the patio outside where the guests are seated and wedding party waiting for her arrival. Standing outside on the patio, I am shooting into the window, looking inside. You are looking at a reflection off the window of the scene outside, the bride and her father are not a reflection. I was able to catch this moment as Alexis and her dad happened to be walking into a pool of light from the sun shining through the window, allowing both the inside world and out side world to be seen simultaneously.
Do you like the photo? I would love to hear your comments.
Three days before their wedding, I get a call from this cute sounding gal with a southern accent. She tells me that she and her fiance, Nick, are flying into Vegas in a couple of days, and was I available to photograph their elopement? Not only that, but they are wanting to take some photos out at Valley of Fire, wanting to walk around the strip after the ceremony, and “oh yah, we want to get married on a helicopter, do you have a problem with that?” All I could do was laugh! I am thinking to myself: I’ve had such a fun year with great weddings in Michigan, Chicago, Florida, California, Boston and Las Vegas, a wedding in a helicopter over the Strip is one heck of a way to end 2009!!!!
My only criteria to the couple was that they better know how to have fun! Well, that was the last requirement I needed to make with Lori and Nick! Talk about fun? They must have invented the word!!! This couple, who flew in from Mobile, Alabama, were soooo much fun, that my job was as easy as it gets! I started with them at their suite on the 57th floor of Trump Towers where I photographed them getting ready. From there, we jumped in an Expedition Limo and headed out to Valley of Fire for some cool portraits just as the sun was hitting the horizon! We literally had about 20 minutes to climb up the rocks before heading back to Vegas to catch the helicopter. The nuptials took place somewhere between the Stratosphere and Bellagio, and the couple – who met sky diving (go figure) – were hitched! We circled back over Mandalay Bay and headed for the landing pad. After a few more photos in front of the helicopter, we drove over to the new City Center to see what we could find for some fun post-ceremony photos. We found a few backdrops in the City Center mall and caught the tram to capture a final portrait in front of the fountains at Bellagio.
Enjoy the photos below! This was a first for me! I hope its not the last, I was in photo Heaven!
Reasons Why I love E-Sessions
June 5, 2009As a photographer focused and passionate with a creative approach to documentary style wedding photography, I approach an engagement shoot a little differently than just a standard portrait session. Rather than trying to create a series of posed photographs 
(not that I think that is wrong), I hope to create an environment that allows the couple to forget about me (even if its only momentary). Usually, we find an urban setting or some location where we can walk and discover interesting backgrounds. The goal is to treat the shoot as if I were following them around on a date. If necessary, I will offer suggestions along the way to cuddle, kiss, embrace, etc, but as time goes on, my clients start to relax and enjoy themselves. I try not to approach a shoot with preconceived ideas. I avoid trying to re-create something that I’ve done with another couple (but often I am asked can we do a photo like the one we saw on your website). I don’t ever come prepared with a list of “standard” poses. For me, a perfect e-session would be completely spontaneous, fresh with new ideas.
If you’re a new client of mine and wondering if you should schedule an engagement shoot with me, my answer to you is: YES! I love shooting e-sessions! Not just because I love every opportunity I get to photograph people in love…Sure, I admit it. I am addicted to love and I am addicted to finding unique and real moments, brought to life by the unique personalities of each of my couples. What can I say: I am an artist and my camera is my paint brush! There is so much good that results from the photo shoot, let me count the ways:
1) It gives me a chance to get to know you and for you to get a chance to know me and see me in action. It’s like a dress rehearsal before the wedding! I have found that this is so helpful. Especially if your groom had zero participation in choosing me as your photographer. He might have looked at my website and that’s about it. The e-session will be an eye opener for him! And this will pay big dividends come wedding day. For those who are seeing me in action for the first time, there is always a twenty to thirty minute period of getting use to having a camera follow them around. The opposite is true for my e-session clients. On the wedding day, they are much more relaxed. They seem better prepared, find it easy to tune me out and enjoy themselves. This allows me to capture the natural, documentary style moments that I thrive on.
2) It is energizing and fun! I will make you feel like Rock stars! The shoot is all about you, your relationship, your dreams, your hopes, your lives! I give you my very, very best to find great moments that encapsulate your love for each other. I can guarantee you that if you let loose on this shoot, we will see fireworks!
3) You will get so many great images from the shoot, you will be overwhelmed and so will your family and friends! I love to make slideshows from the 90 minute shoot and set it to music. I promise you, you will shed tears!
4] We can use those images in a variety of ways, not to mention, creating great canvass art to put on display in your home. My clients have had us make custom guest signing books filled with their e-session images, place a favorite image in a frame with an extra large matte for their guests to sign, and had us make a DVD slideshow of the images to display during dinner at the reception.
5) The e-session will help your family and friends to understand and appreciate my style of photography before the wedding day. Why is that important? First of all, I am certain that my style is nothing like the photographer your parents had at their wedding! You would be surprised how often I show up at at wedding and the bridal party or the parents are clueless about my approach to photographing the event. For whatever reasons, these VIP’s are the last to know and are often shocked that I am not directing and posing people along the way. When they see the results from the engagement shoot slideshow that we put online months or even a year before the wedding, they become educated and ready come wedding day.
6) Lastly, there is a trust factor that develops from doing an e-session because we invested time together preparing for it, spent time together shooting it and hanging out with each other apart from the wedding day. As a result, the shoot gives us an opportunity to become friends before the wedding day. It might seem trivial, but having a friendship in advance helps us both to feel at ease on the wedding day. It could be the difference in making your wedding day photos from great to being a masterpiece.
Below are samples of one of my favorite E-sessions last fall in downtown Royal Oak, MI of a super terrific couple, Rose & Sam. Also, you can check out their slideshow by clicking here.
