Joy and Floyd PreNup

Joy and Floyd at the Bench

Last Saturday, 21 March 2015, I did a video shoot and a short photo shoot for a couple.  Joy Cabides and Paul Floyd Padilla will have their wedding this 31 March, 2015.  It’s going to be held at The Grounds, Alexandria.  I haven’t shoot any event in this location so it’s kinda exciting.  I’ve look at photos via Google Images and it seems to be a busy place.  There are so many quirky things that you can shoot! 

Our initial location was Turimetta Beach at the borders or Narrabeen and Warriewood.  But since the weather is not cooperating that day, we were forced to go to a secluded area.  I’m particular with the wind.  The wind velocity that day as about 30-35kph.  These are strong winds that could mess your hair and clothing.  Since I’m going to shoot video, I don’t want them to be arranging their hair/clothing often.  So at the same day, I decided for an alternative location. 

The Look

Davidson Park under Roseville Bridge

The Pre Nuptial video shoot was held at Davidson Park.  This is a park under Roseville Bridge.  You have to be coming from Forestville going to Chatswood to access the entrance (left side before the bridge).  There is a payment of $7 for whole day stay.  But it’s worth it!  This place is huge, full of foliage, has a river and it’s under the bridge!  I can do landscape / nature photography here as well as event shooting.  Aside from nature, there are several good spots to shoot a portrait or couple.  The benches look old and gives texture.  There is a creek with a man made bridge.  There’s also a toilet with running water.  I’ve been here several times and had several events attended and it’s really magnificent.  Some of our friends are very surprised at the beauty if this place.

Surprise Hug

  

Pre Nuptial Photography

Although this is a video shoot, I got a chance to do a short pre-nuptial photo shoot.  I did this photo shoot as I was changing sets, arranging my equipment and having them relax a bit.  Since we’re short of time, we only did one locatin without changing attires.  Looking both at the photos and video, I should have insisted of a ‘change of costume’.  It just adds interest without the notion that everything was done in one single day.  But we managed to maximise the short time we had because we are able to pose and recompose shots to make them perfect.  I think I managed to grab 7 best ones.  Not a bad number after 8-10 minutes of photo shoot! 



The Gears

I only used the following:

• Nikon D800E
• Nikkor 70-200mm F/2.8 VR II
• Tripod (heavily used) with a slider (not used)

Yes, no lights!  It’s all ambient lighting.

Hugs and Smiles

  

The Photo Shoot

With the lack of time and fully concentrated on video, I decided not to use my Octa box.  It would be interesting but we’re now in a hurry.  This is where cloudy day comes in to the rescue.  The light is already diffused!  All the photos here are taken with ambient light.  But if you look at the photos closer they don’t seem to be flat lighting.   

Since the location is also limited, I took photos of them by the riverside.  The compression and amazing bokeh of the 70-200 took care of everything.  I was shooting at 200mm @ F/2.8 or F/4 to give that shallow DOF.  This eliminates any distracting background and blending them like butter!  All these shots were just taken with the bench and the background was the bridge and some bushes.  We’re so pressed in time that I only have 10 minutes to shoot everything (I think!).

I have a Posing App installed in my phone that drastically speed things up and go directly to shooting!  Instead of me thinking the poses, I just refer to my Posing App.  I chose from there the best poses for the couple and we just did it.  It pays off if you have quick resources on your fingertips.

A Walk Through Life

The Post Processing and Editng

I don’t want to spend much time in post process so I culled (selected) the photos intensely.  I deleted the bad and OK ones and only left with the better keepers.  Although I only got a few photos, I only deleted a few.  Most of these photos are just multiple shots of the same pose as sometimes the couple look awkward or they have their eyes closed.  I got more keepers!  So I immediately worked on these ones.  I think I only have 7 keepers that I’m going to share with the couple. 

I only did the basic editing like exposure correction, white balance, contast, saturation and skin touch up.  If I’m happy with the base image, I then move to the next image.  If I see an image that has potential for more editing, then I edit it.  There’s no hard rule, there’s only creativity in this step.

The Amazing Kiss

Final Thoughts

With time not on our side, it’s barely hard to move, can’t try different things nor do some experiments.  We need to make this work, even for that just one take.  We are able to move fast and make some quick decision on how we shoot and pose.  The couple is very cooperative and they already know what to do by showing them the reference posing. 

On my side, I need to quickly choose their pose and their background.  The decision to go ambient lighting is my decision.  Everything needs to be quick and precise.  We all did it for under 10 minutes.  But I believe we have very good results… and the couple can attest to this.

Flaring Love