One thing Ive learned is how powerful an image can become when you shoot from a different direction. Here are two photos to show you the extreme difference in what I am talking about. These images are from a recent “light & workflow workshop” that myself & Dan Fields put together. We had a few photographers and for 2 days taught the attendees the power of using off camera lighting and how to build a strong workflow! We’re hosting the next workshop on September 18th. For more information, click here.

While we were shooting, we had a 1 light AlienBee 800 setup with a softbox. The attendees kept shooting from one direction with the light to their right. Just for fun, I captured the same shot. The light was simple & beautiful and captured the essence of the incredible bride.

Some of us shoot from straight on. It looks fine but I believe it could look way cooler and way dramatic from another angle. See the image below.

Now we have the same time of day, light power, and straight from camera image. It looks way more dynamic and I would much more prefer this image over the first one.

One technique I try to use while shooting is before I shoot a frame, look at the scene from another angle. (Pre-visualize) & walk around your subject and see how many different shooting options you have in front of you. I do this now because before I used this technique, I had images that looked okay but I would kick myself for not taking advantage of the other shooting opportunities I had. It’s not up to the lighting or the model to make this look different. It’s up to YOU! Evaluate your surroundings and think “what could I do differently here?”. Once you start asking that question while you shoot, you will walk away with better images. At least that is in my opinion

Katie & Paul met at Point Loma Nazarene University during their years in college. Paul, raised in Fresno and Katie, from SoCal fell strongly for each other. Their love for each other is strong and they share an even stronger passion for ministry. Paul is a pastor of a local San Diego church and I met him through friends at PLNU. I was first given a glimpse of their strong chemistry during their engagement session in Del Mar. With how perfect their engagement session was, I knew walking into their wedding day that It would be a special day. I loved capturing all their moments.

Their Wedding & Reception were both held at the Shelter Island Sheraton hotel with a ceremony in a small, private garden and their reception overlooking all of downtown San Diego. It was breathtaking.

Here are some of my favorite images from the day!

I knew from the moment I arrived at Chelsey & Josh’s Wedding and saw all the a-mazing details that Chelsey had hand made that it was blog & print worthy. With so many options for publication, it’s tough to decide where it should go. I’ll be honest and say that I did submit their wedding to some of the “bigger” publications and they denied it. I let go of submitting it for a while until I found the right “home” for this wedding. Last evening, I found Two Bright Lights. I uploaded their wedding and went through their process of submitting. I loved this because I could upload to one place and submit to 20 blogs all at once!

I woke up this morning and approached my desk to find that their wedding had already been featured on a wedding inspiration blog! How exciting & super quick too!

If you are a photographer hoping to submit your wedding, two huge things I learned are that you need to make sure you capture tons of details on the wedding day. Chelsey made that easy for me with her incredible style choices!! Also, get a long written description from the bride. The blog I am featured on today mentioned to me that with 100 submissions she got this week, she chose mine because I had a long written story from the bride and assembled the detail shots in a creative way.

Today, Chelsey & Josh’s wedding was featured on Project Bride

Yesterday, I shot Katie & Paul’s intimate & beautiful wedding in San Diego. I had a wonderful time and I can’t wait to share more images! Here is teaser from their wedding!

Check out the video below for an annoucement about an amazing event for business owners!! It will be an amazing event. I hope to see you there!

Click here to register for the event!

Identity Conference 2010 from stephen knuth on Vimeo.

This week’s AAW is being posted on a Thursday and not a Wednesday. Just pretend its Wednesday. This week a question came in from a blog reader where she asked about posing ideas & getting clients to relax. I had a lot of fun making this video and I hope that you can learn something great from it!

Also, as mentioned in the video regarding Zach & Jody’s Workshops. Click Here for more info!

Ask away Wednesday :: Posing ideas? from stephen knuth on Vimeo.

If I were to say that this wedding is about two smart scientists who fell in love and are now getting married, I wouldn’t be kidding. That is the true story of Kay & Stephen. They were high school sweethearts in Orange County who met during school. Went to Sadies, Prom and even a class field trip to the desert together. (It just so happend that I shot their amazing engagement session in Joshua Tree as well.) Their love continued strong past college as they both started careers in Science. Now they are married!

I will say that when I first met with them and they revealed that their ceremony would be on the cliffs in Point Loma and their reception inside of the MOCA La Jolla, I got over excited. I love the cliffs and I love art (obviously) and I would love to shoot a couple who is in love & who loves art inside of a museum. The location of the cliffs was breathtaking. It was a clear day with a view that stretched over the ocean forever.  Waves crashing beneath us and a ceremony 200 feet above the water. Their reception was at the Museum of Contemporary Art – La Jolla. A paint splatter style floor, 100 foot tall ceiling with a metal design hanging above the dance floor. They even incorporated their love for dinosaurs & science into the reception details too!

It was such a fun day! Thank You to Kay & Stephen for trusting me to capture your lives.

The Details:

Dress: Davids Bridal

Shoes: Pelle Moda

Ceremony: Sunset Cliffs Natural Park

Reception: MOCA – La Jolla

DJ: Injoy Entertainment

Event Design: The Bride

Catering: Mosaic Catering

I thought it was so cool how they walked down to the alter together! So unique!!

Yesterday, I shot Kay & Stephen’s Wedding! I can’t wait to share more of their images that include a cliffside ceremony, pictures around a museum and lots & lots of great light! For now, here is a teaser image!

A few months ago I was honored with the opportunity to chat with showit users on their weekly webinar. During the conversation I talked about +sites & how facebook can be a huge piece of marketing for your business! These guys were super nice to record the webinar and now you can watch it on demand! If you are a showit user, there are a ton of other great videos on there that you should check out!!

Click here to watch the recorded webinar

This week on Ask away Wednesday is a question that I asked a lot when I was first starting out and it is still asked to this day from photographers.

Great question Pat! Thank You for opening up this question to Ask away Wednesday.

Here is a video with my thoughts!

PS- I know that the sound lags.. so what. Japanese game shows are cool.

Ask away Wednesday :: First meeting with Clients from stephen knuth on Vimeo.