Beauty and the Beast

Several wedding vendors got together yesterday to do an all day promotional video and photo shoot to make an all-inclusive-one-stop-recession-buster-wedding package. We'll provide the venue, the caterer, the florist, the minister, the photographer and a DJ- any guesses? Anyone? Yes, me! Just sign on the dotted line and a wedding you shall have!

Models were hired, tables, chairs and linens rented, we set up a hotel banquet room for a ceremony, a formal dinner, a dance, everything. I set up my sound system and lighting rig. We photographed the spread of food, and then we stopped down for a break and we ate the spread. Ginny Solis from All About Catering is the best in this city.

I have mentioned Kym Ventola in this blog a couple of times regarding her brilliant work. This photo proves it again. I don't know if this one will even be used in the promo package but i love it. The lighting rig looks great, the texture and the balance and the composition is really cool too. It is clear that I am not the groom, I am the wedding entertainment. I love the spot of light on either side of us on the dance floor and the criss-crossing beams aimed at our heads. She is so beautiful and I am so beastly. Overall, the photo just speaks the celebration! It's very playful.

Rebecca, the model you see there, is great at what she does. I could never exude emotion so effortlessly to have it be captured on film- she does it. In an earlier shot, she was just leaning up against a plain wall in the back parking lot for a few shots and was able to take that and run with it and create something emotional with no music or stimulus to create what would be an otherwise natural emotional response.

It is interesting how music can change a moment from ordinary to extraordinary or from flat to three dimensional with sights, sounds, smells, memories etc. The hotel had a big grand piano in the lobby and Kym and Rebecca were noodling around with some shots at the piano as I was passing by with some equipment. I shouted, half jokingly, that Rebecca should sit on the piano and I would play it. The live music changed that moment to a little bit less work and a little bit more play.

I hadn't planned on actually plugging in my DJ sound system, it was a photo shoot for heaven's sake- it was set up just for show. I ended up plugging it in early in the preparations because all of the makeup artists and hotel staff and other workers that were helping with tables, chairs, moving lobby furnishings etc. wanted some music. I did fire it up rather loudly for this picture. You can almost hear the rock and roll. Listen for a minute... do you hear it too? There was nothing posed here- the music made that picture.