Friday, February 5, 2010 Posted in Weddings
This was just a beautiful wedding from the beginning. The mix of emotions and friendship in the room was really refreshing. I just love the make-up process, it just builds the anticipation of great things to come.
The wedding ceremony took place at Brickell’s St. Jude Church a beautiful cathedral style church in the heart of Downtown Miami. I love this look between father and daughter moments before walking down the aisle as if saying, “this is it!”.
Some portraits of the bride and groom.
The reception took place at the J.W. Marriott and the event was coordinated perfectly by Carmen Becerra and her staff. www.carmenmbecerra.com.
Michael and Melissa sharing their first dance.
Father and daughter dance.
This party was just crazy fun! Masks were quickly passed around while the band played traditional Colombian music and stilt walkers cheered the crowd on. There are so many emotions at this point that it is easy to be overwhelmed by the crowd’s energy.
Here are some more pictures throughout the day. Click on the image to enlarge.
Melissa and Michael, I had a blast at your wedding. Enjoy the honeymoon and I can’t wait to show you the rest of the pictures!
Marcus proposed to Aurélia via one of his paintings. The one shown here on the left. Don’t cry.
This message was on the back. “Belle”, a nickname for his now fiance’, soon to be wife.
This was were they had their first date.
You see where I’m going with this? I didn’t just want to take some cool pictures. I wanted to take some cool pictures that meant something to Aurélia and Marcus. Something that would capture who they are. We started in Las Olas because that’s where they had their first date and that’s also where Marcus proposed to Aurélia. Its so easy to get sucked in to their love bubble since they are contagiously in love.
When speaking to couples, I often get asked, “where should we do our engagement pictures?” My answer is always, is there a place that is special to you? There are about a thousand photographers in Miami who will take your picture wearing white guayaberas and white linen pants. That is NOT me. Sorry. Unless you normally wear a white linen outfit to the beach, which that’s cool if you do, I don’t think you should do that for your engagement pictures. A place that is meaningful to the you, a place that has memories is ten times a better location than the beach or other overly photographed background. I challenged myself (and Aurélia and Marcus) to shoot in their house.
When I found out that these two are artists and that Marcus displays large format abstract paintings in galleries, I knew we had to get some pictures of that process. I want to show everyone how the background in pictures is totally secondary to emotion and lighting. This is the garage we were shooting in. Not typically the location you would first think of right?
Aurélia and Marcus started painting over one of his priceless works of art, yikes! I was really telling him not to do that, but he insisted on painting over an already in progress work of art.
Aurélia and Marcus you guys are amazing and I can’t wait for your wedding. I know its going to be so special.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 Posted in Weddings
This beautiful wedding started out at the bride’s parents house with mimosas and lots of activity. The house provided lots of natural light and charm that hotel rooms don’t always have.
Kristen’s sister assisting with the mirror.
Kristen and all the girls were ready with plenty of time before the limo came. It felt so weird for everyone to be so calm and ready to go with plenty of time. Everyone was relaxed and having a good time. Maybe it was the mimosas?
The groom and groomsmen hanging out before game time.
The ceremony took place at the beautiful St. Hugh’s Catholic church in Coconut Grove, Miami. I love the gorgeous stained glass window and light inside St. Hugh’s sanctuary.
Here is my competition. The paparazzi.
The reception took place at Fairchild Tropical Gardens, one of Miami’s beautiful outdoor locations for wedding celebrations. Fairchild Tropical Gardens were decorated impeccably by the talented Mayrelis Febles from A Joy Wallace Catering.
Kristen and Eric, enjoy the honeymoon and I can’t wait to hear from you when you get back.
Okay a lot to write on this one. This was a double engagement session, not sure if that is a real term, but what I mean is that we did two engagement sessions on two separate days. I first met Nadege and Smith about a year ago during a family portrait session I was doing at Matheson Hammocks park. As soon as I saw them I was blown away by their color coordination. I get asked all the time, “what should we wear for our engagement?” People from now on, I am going to tell you to call Nadege; She knows!
These are a few of the pictures at Matheson from April of last year. Check out how gorgeous her dress is!
I remember right away how comfortable they were in front of the camera.
I love this next shot.
For our most recent engagement shoot, we thought all odds were against us. We canceled one time due to rain and here we were on our second attempt and as soon as we get to the location it started to rain again, in December!!! Whacky weather. I was determined not to let the weather get the best of us and asked God for some help. After an hour of sitting in the car waiting the rain finally passed away, but now we only had 45 minutes left of sunlight. I knew we had to rock and roll fast if we were to get some good shots in before dark. Luckily I had two awesome models to work with.
For this session Nadege wanted something totally different from the beach shots. We decided to shoot in a more urban environment with train tracks, beat up cars and all kinds of industrial goodness. I love shooting in places that are out of the norm.
Nadege and Smith, I am really looking forward to your wedding. I can’t wait!
I am soooo looking forward to Adriana and Nathan’s wedding in Nicaragua later this year. When I met Adriana I knew my photography would be a good fit for her and her family. She is the kind of person that makes you feel instantly relaxed to be around. That is the person I strive to be as well since I think is one of the key aspects that sets me apart from other photographers. I was happy to meet Nathan the day of our engagement shoot and found him to be the perfect fit for Adriana. This couple is just happy and easy to hang out with so taking the pictures just came natural.
I love shooting portraits at night because it provides a challenge. Working in low light forces you to think creative.
Adriana and Nathan hope you enjoy the pictures and can’t wait to see you again in Nicaragua!
Saturday, December 26, 2009 Posted in Weddings
I met Marta at Coconut Grove’s Mayfair House hotel to get some getting ready pictures. This is also the hotel where Shaleen and I spent the night after our wedding. I love Marta’s shoes.
The ceremony took place at Matheson Hammock’s Red Fish Grill in Miami. The Red Fish Grill is a nice location for a small wedding and it has a great beach front view.
The sunset was just getting nice as Marta and Eric took a little stroll on the beach.
Sparklers went off as Marta and Eric entered the reception area. My awesome assistant, Robert, took this great shot.
A view of the night sky.
Marta and Eric, we had a wonderful time capturing your event. Thank you.
I had the pleasure of capturing Melissa and Michael’s engagement session at the exclusive Fisher Island beach, park and Vanderbilt Mansion. The location lent itself to so many shooting opportunities since there is a large variety of scenic areas in the island. Michael was nice enough to give me a tour of the Island so that we could find cool places to shoot. We started out at a park.
The private beaches of the island really make you feel the exclusivity of Fisher Island.
The interior of the Vanderbilt Mansion was gorgeous. I wanted to play with light and capture Melissa and Michael’s personality amidst the warmth of the mansion.
Thank you Michael and Melissa. We look forward to your wedding.
Manny, like myself, is a BIG film buff. When I first met with them, he told me that they wanted their engagement session to be “Film Noir-ish”. He cited Casa Blanca and other noir movies from the era. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself. I haven’t had an opportunity to do “movie lighting” since my filmschool days in FSU. I love dark cinematography and my favorite movies tend to be the moody, shadowy kinds. Manny and Natalie even sent me some pictures for inspiration.
These are the images Manny sent me. These were NOT taken by me. I would cite the artist except I don’t know who took them.
To find inspiration for the shoot, my good friend and fellow artist, Brian suggested a few locations downtown. I spent an afternoon walking around and found endless possibilities. I picked up Manny, dressed up in an ivory suit complete with hat, and Natalie, with black and white dress and feather boa. Manny also showed me a bag with his collection of hats. The game was on!
Film Noir photography is ALL about the lighting. I took my time studying the light on this shoot. It had just rained, which had us all kind of nervous, but the sky turned a beautiful pink hue as we started shooting.
Shooting at night has its challenges as well. For those of you who know photography, I was shooting at ISO 1600, F2 and 1/60th of a second exposures. I wanted to get in as much of the city lights as possible to add to the mood.
You have to love the Miami skyline.
This just looks like a scene from Scarface. I love it. Don’t be scared, folks, Manny is a really nice guy this is just his alter ego.
Natalie and Manny, thank you so much for letting me play with lights and taking me back to my “dark” days!
I love shooting in new locations. It challenges me to think differently. Whenever you shoot somewhere new, you can’t fall back in old thinking. It pushes you forward. Martha and Eric were cool enough to hop in my jeep and we just drove around looking for cool places to shoot. Like that song, “Driving around in my automobile…with no particular place to go.” No plan, no exact location in mind, just driving and talking. We saw this cool red warehouse door with a black grate and we quickly jumped out.
I love the contrast with their black outfits against this patterned wall.
And then a giant baby attacked them!!!
Martha loved this orange wall which didn’t initially attract me, but after seeing them interact in front of the wall, the colors just screamed out. Now its one of my favorite shots! Thanks Martha.
I love the shadows on the wall here. This may be my favorite from the session since I love the contrast against the steel gate and mood of this shot.
Thank you Martha and Eric for being so open minded with the shoot. Your big day is just around the corner!
Friday, December 4, 2009 Posted in Weddings
Lately I’m getting hired by all the techie people. Literally I just booked three weddings in the past few weeks where the bride and/or groom are photographers or really into photography. That’s a major compliment to me and I love it. Its also a challenge. During our initial meeting, Jorge asked me what kind of camera I shoot with, which is always a red flag for this groom is techie, watch out!!! I think I told him that I shoot with a Nikon D3 and D700 or whatever I was using at the time. There’s really only one right answer to that question anyways, which is, I shoot with my heart and my eye. That can sound cheesy though.
Jorge and Veronica were really kind and welcoming to me and my assistant, Robert, during the whole day. It was a real pleasure to be invited into their moments. Its always great to see the love between friends and family at their wedding day. This group of friends were really loving and the way the mother of the groom and mother of the bride glowed with anticipation really moved me.
Veronica got ready at her beautiful house in the Venetian Causeway overlooking the water.
The ceremony took place at the beautiful St. Francis De Sales Church in South Beach.
The wedding reception was held in the famous Eden Rock hotel at Miami’s South Beach. Veronica and Jorge created a jazzy vibe in the Eden Rock by dimming the lights and having a full on orchestra band for the party.
The tequila was flowing at this party! Jorge even invited me to a shot while Veronica took the pictures!
This was a ridiculously fun party and a great couple. Thank you Veronica and Jorge for allowing me into your day!
by Alex Fagundo
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