Wedding: Glenn and Charise

WEDDING: Glenn & Charise

Photography has been my passion for the past three years. I have done baby portraits, an engagement shoot, photographed an All Blacks rugby game, photographed Heineken tennis open and done landscape and streets photography. I have always wanted to shoot a wedding.  I have done an informal one some two years ago but as a guest at a friend's wedding, not as the official photographer. My wish came true when a friend and budding wedding photographer Jasmine Maclean asked me to be her second shooter at a wedding.

Glenn and Charise have been together for 16 years and have raised three beautiful kids together. They were 19 and 16 when they first met, on Wellesley street when Glenn's V8 Ute broke down, right in front of Charise.  They met again in town some weeks later and the chemistry started.  They had their first date on an Auckland anniversary weekend, watching fireworks and having long chats on the summit of Mount Eden.  Sixteen years later, they wanted to affirm their love for each other in front of family and friends. And here we are, at Waipuna hotel in Auckland on 19.5.2012.

I started my shoot at the groom's place where all the boys were getting ready.  The weather was playing nice and everyone in the house were relax with the boys chatting away while sipping on their Woodcock Bourbon. It was not until it was time for them to put on their suits and ties that things started sinking in. I could then see the excitement in Glenn's eyes while he was doing up his tie and helping his two boys with their suits.

There was a little of panic when Jesse couldn't do up his top button around the collar. They realised Jesse has grown and the collar was a little tight.  But things turned out fine in the end and all the boys looked really smart in their suits.

 

 After everybody was done, we went out for a short posed photo session.  

Then the boys came out with a rather unusual idea, posing with their hunting rifles. I thought, if using rifles to hunt is part of their life stories, why not. We managed to make some cool looking shots from there.  I have decided to posterize some of the shots to produce a Manga-like mood.

The sky turned a little gloomy when we arrived at the wedding venue. The outdoor chairs were covered up with plastic in case it rain, but it didn't.

The bride arrived in a funky car, electric blue in colour with the registration plate spelling "Hulk".

The food at the reception was pretty good. Two guest didn't make it to the dinner. Glenn and Charis kindly offered the two seats to me and Jasmine. Lucky.

After the speeches and dessert, it was time for the dance of their lifetime.

End of summer

Hot sunny summer. Who doesn't like it? I love the heat. You can't blame me. I grew up in Malaysia. I am used to the heat and the constant sweat on the back. Kiwis are summer creatures. Local beaches are always packed during summer. Parks too. Like many good things in life, summer doesn't last forever. Before i knew it, the day has became shorter. The lilies in my front yard started perishing, Pukekos stopped feeding on the field near my house, the Pohutukawas lost their crimson red flowers and the trees in Auckland Domain started shedding leaves.

I was holding the on call phone over the weekend for my lab. That means i had to have the phone turned on at all times. I couldn't leave town or go for a movie. I decided not to stay home facing the four walls all weekend. I went for a walk in Auckland Domain, to embrace the last bit of summer in the park before the chill moves in. I had my 1.4kg new lens with me.

Soon, the green field will be carpeted by clumps of red leaves. Some call that melancholy, while others call it romantic.

These photos of kids playing cricket had to be taken with the highest resolution possible on my camera and cropped in post processing. That was because from where i was standing, my 70-200mm lens was simply too short.

Ice cream after a game of cricket...priceless.

Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR test run

Few weeks ago i gave in to temptation and bought a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR. Since then i have been sick with a upper respiratory tract infection, hence bed ridden.  Then came the rainy days.  Fortunately, the weather wasn't bad this weekend. I brought my new toy out to the park for a test run.  I have chosen rugby players as subjects.  The last time i tried shooting a rugby game i was using Nikon 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 VR. The reach of the 300mm on my crop sensor body was reasonable but that lens was simply too slow for the fast pace of rugby players. 

Comparatively, the 70-200mm f2.8 VR is a lot faster. I shot in shutter priority with shutter speed varying between 1/1250 to 1/2000 of a second, auto ISO. I was quite happy with the outcome. The lens autofocus locks focus on the person a lot faster than my 70-300mm.  This is an expected result considering the price difference between the two lens. But i must say 200mm is still a bit short to cover a big field. 

The photos here were all shot as JPEG, not RAW. Picture control set to vivid mode with 2+ saturation and 1+ sharpening.  These photos were then lightly managed in Aperture 3 with mostly just cropping and slight level adjustment to boost contrast. 

Arriving home, i spotted a few ducks by the creek in front of my house.  I fetched the bag of expired bread from my fridge and fed them to the ducks, with my camera on standby of course.  The ducks were a lot faster than i expected when they fought for the bread. In a few of the shots i had trouble locking focus on their eyes.  Some of these were corrected with Aperture's sharpening brush.