Wedding: Graham and Lauren

Graham and Lauren are one of those couples that the second you meet them, you feel you’ve known them for ages. Wonderfully warm, genuine, and downright gorgeous to boot, they were a joy to work with. For them, it began with a crush on each other in High School, going to college, and eventually living together in France. The couple was wonderful enough to accept my offer to shoot an engagement video that you can see here. Through both the video and the wedding they were so accepting and trusting; it made my entire experience a wonderful, exciting shoot.

Lighting And Set:

As you would expect, most of the outdoor shots were shot in natural lighting; it was a beautiful day. Again, I feel that while strobes can be a great asset, they really detract from the environment and interrupt the ceremony for those attending. Therefore during ceremonies I rely quite a bit on natural light and my f/1.8 and f/1.4 lenses. In the church for the family portraits I used a 4 light set up with a strong backlight to provide a dynamic set up, spicing up otherwise typical shots. Finally for the reception, I set up two lights on each side of the dance floor, one with a beauty dish, and 2 more at the back of the hall directed towards the dance floor.

Photo Notes:

This wedding was shot nearly 80% on the 35mm f/1.4 L lens. I absolutely loved it. Mixing this lens with the 85mm f/1.8 and my tilt-shifts made it so easy to play with focus throughout my entire focal length set up.

Gear Used:

Canon 5D MKII

Canon 24mm TS-E f/3.5 L lens

Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens

Canon 35mm f/1.4 L lens

Canon 45mm f/2.8 TS-E lens

Canon 24mm f/3.5 TS-E lens

Edit:

Swapped out photographs for larger resolution. I think I may keep this format for future posts.

Graham and Lauren: Engagement Video

Graham and Lauren Engagement Video from Adam Arcus on Vimeo.

Lighting And Set:

This video was done all in natural light on a perfectly cloudy day.

Video Notes:

I have been dying to use my 5D’s video capabilities more. Seriously. I have been burning more to do this than I imagine the basis of Kings of Leon’s Sex on Fire does. Film is truly where my heart has always lied and photography has been a great way to slowly get into it. I approached Graham and Lauren – as I am doing their wedding and they were opting out of engagement photographs due to their being engaged for a while – and presented the idea. I asked if, as a favor, they would like to star in a video shoot free of charge as long as I got to use it on my website to promote my future endeavors with Engagement videos. Luckily for me, they concurred and here we are (to take a line from Lauren).

Graham and Lauren were an absolute joy to work with. They obeyed every awkward virgin directorial command I had, with no questions. It was as perfect, other than a slightly gloomy Saturday, as you could get. The two of them obviously love each other very much and showed it with such enthusiasm it made my job quite simple.

Perhaps a mic that possessed a large windmuff and if I had the braincells to utilize the low pass filter on the mic would have been more beneficial . And that damned airplane was barely audible when we were there from my memory so I’m flabbergasted at how loud it is when Lauren talks. Other than those small gripes, it was sublimely ideal.

This was edited on Windows Live Movie Maker, which to say the least is not exactly the most powerful film editor out there. However, at the moment it is what I have. Honestly? If you do enough right on camera, there’s not much need for tweaking later. Much like photography. Sure eventually I’d like to be able to edit the colors and visual style of the film but at the moment it’s a decent tool just to piece together the clips in a pleasing way. I assure you, the future holds much more advanced editing software and a computer capable of handling it.

All in all I am very happy and proud with the result. I think it showed Lauren and Graham’s love in a very positive fun way and I think that it was a great jumping place for me to get more into shooting in motion.

Gear Used:

Canon 5D MKII

Canon 24mm TS-E f/3.5 L lens

Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens

Canon 45mm TS-E f/2.8 Lens

Redrockmicro eyeSPY camera rig

DIY glide dolly

Behind the Scenes:

All the following photographs are taken by and copyrighted to Karen Benda. A ginormous thank you to her for documenting the event!

The Arrival of the 45mm TS-E

Introducing the Canon 45mm f/2.8 TS-E Lens for all your tilting and shifting needs!

The first shot from the Canon 45mm f/2.8

The obligatory ”first shot of Arwen with a new lens” photograph.

Photo Notes:

I am in serious love with this lens. Major. Despite it apparently scaring Arwen (see above photo). It arrived beautifully packed in it’s box from BHPhotoVideo. Despite not being listed with a lens hood and case, they were there. These were just a few really quick snap shots before I go and clean for my birthday girl’s (Elena turned 25 yesterday!) party. Interesting tidbit: despite off and on rumors there is no clear update for this lens coming soon and it is actually not part of the Canon L series despite it’s amazing glass and wonderful colors. I am looking forward to a last, loving relationship with this one and you can expect a full on review soon!

Gear Used:

Canon 5D MKII

Canon 45mm TS-E f/2.8 lens

Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens

Irish Adventure: II

I know it has been a while but apparently Wedding Planning and traveling for business take more time than I thought they had! Anyways, I am back on the game just in time for the holidays. Here is another post of Ireland, this time day two!

The second day in Ireland consisted a lot of walking the streets of Dublin, going into stores, and some street performer photography. The latter of all will have it’s own post as it was an interesting experience there, very different from what I had expected. Elena and I went and saw Dublin Castle, ate a fantastic sandwich outside a Georges Street Arcade’s market, went to dinner at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, and visited plenty of shops on Dublin’s pedestrian friendly streets. As it turns out the Castle barely stands in any original form as it was. Many parts have been rebuilt, remodeled, and altogether destroyed. It made for some interesting stories (which we secretly listened to via proximity to a tour group). The Church, Records Tower, and Library Garden were of the more particularly interesting places to shoot as they offered a bit more of that archaic, medieval feeling than the newer areas where people worked.

As you will see in the first few photographs, the sun was just absolutely blinding on O’Connell street walking towards the River Liffey. It made it very challenging to shoot but produced some of my favorite photographs from that day; particularly the one of the Christmas Tree and Spire. We first ventured into Temple Bar this day as well and were quite excited to go back and devote some time to it. After that it was a lot of good food, beers, espressos and window shopping!

My main lens for the travels was the Canon TS-E 45mm. I know I have pushed that lens a whole bunch but it is truly extremely versatile. Really unbelievable. Occasionally I broke out the 17-40mm for the super wide shots. Fortunately, I believe, that lens was only on in a limited fashion. I wish I spent a bit more time in the actual country side of Ireland, then perhaps I would have used it a bit more. The beautiful thing about that though is there is always something for “next time”.

The light was beautiful after the harshness of the morning died down a bit. I think I got some cool effects with the strong natural light but it made it rather difficult to shoot mostly though over the cold that was there I welcomed it with open arms.

Now for the main event: the photographs!

Let me know what you think in the “Comments” section below!

I Was Moved (B&W)

I had rented the Canon TS-E 45mm f/2.8 lens for my cousin’s engagement session (we have some pretty awesome ideas for it) but unfortunately it was delayed last minute. This being my favorite lens I have ever used I was not going to just hang around without shooting though. Elena suggested a photoshoot for the fall and I agreed that it would be a fantastic idea. We ventured out to the 5th Ward/Walker’s Point industrial park where there was plenty of urban decay abound.

These are the results in grayscale. Color is coming shortly. Notice the crisp tones and focus. This lens is truly a joy. The major thing in Tilt-Shift Photography is to determine where the focus is leading you. Why are you looking in a certain direction on the page? What aspects are bringing these photographs together? What truly makes a sequence?