This is one of my favorite images of the year.

Ashley got married to Jimmy in June of this year and this is just a photo of a peak moment in the getting ready.   This image shows what wedding photojournalism is.  When someone photographs in the photojournalism style, we don’t pose people and most importantly, we have to gain access to people, just like a photojournalist would have to do in the field.  We have to gain the clients’ trust and the photography part is really, in the end, secondary (i.e. shutterspeed, framing, etc. has to be secondary in order to capture moments).  If you can’t gain access, you can’t get the moment.

I also get asked about this image when I posted the blog back in June from prospective clients about whether we photograph moments like this all the time – we don’t.  Actually, this is completely up to our clients.  If they want us to be in the room when they’re putting on the dress, then moments like these can be captured.  Access, in the end, is the key to interesting, fun, emotionally filled wedding photos.

Image by Austin wedding photographer Tony Ku, Ku Photography LLC

Ceremony and Reception:  Mansion at Judges’ Hill, Austin, TX

Fun.  Perky. Sweet.  Exciting.   These are the words that immediately come to my mind when I look back at Ashley and Jimmy’s wedding in June 13th of this year at Mansion at the Judge’s Hill in Austin, Texas.

We met Ashley and Jimmy through a referral from Nathalie, her college close friend who is the sister at Katie and Nate’s wedding in Fort Worth Texas last March and I did their engagement session earlier this year.     Through another referral client from Ashley, I found out that she was/is an aerobics instructor at UT – this no doubt explains the energy at the wedding!

I’m getting a lot of questions nowadays on how I approach a wedding from the clients perspective and “what is your style?”  type of questions.  I’ll take the advantage of this blog post and just explain the pictures featured here and maybe a few words about what I am thinking when I am taking the picture.

The image above is Ashley getting ready with makeup by Jennifer West .  She also did the makeup for Thao in Thao + Michael’s Wedding.  This is a very “standard” picture that you’ll see.

A much better image however, is the one that was photographed by Hazel below – she used the nice spot light that Jennifer brought and did a double profile image of Ashley and Jennifer’s shadow.

Ashley with her sister Chloe, her friend Nathalie and her mom Elaine, getting into the dress.

If you notice the position of the image changes between the two – I went up high to get her expression above from a different angle – then her sister is on the left side getting her dress and her bridesmaids lift up her veil.  So, the choices are I can either photograph her with her mom and her maid of honor Cathy but blocking Chloe, or I can move to left and get her mom and her sister/MOH Chloe.  It’s a decision that I have to make in a split second while moving and photographing at the same time. The time frame for this image lasts about 3-4 seconds.  In the end I chose to move to left so that I can get a better expression of Ashley as well as her mom and her sister.

Technically speaking this is a tough image to get properly because the sun when it hits the top of stairs is a lot brighter than the rest of the scene.  If  I had use the default camera exposure settings, it’ll expose for the majority of the scene which means Ashley and her dad would be completely blown out of the picture – add to that the clouds change, so sometimes it’s totally shaded, some times there is a bright spot when they first walk down make the picture a very last minute decision.   I just like this image because the shade for the majority of the picture, and only Ashley and her dad is lit, and the stairs automatically leads up to them.

I always try to get the groom’s expression when he looks at the bride for the first time – no, it’s not because I watched 27 Dresses –  I like grooms too.

Also the bride too when she looks at Jimmy

I like it when guests bring out their cameras on the left and right side of the aisle  Again, it helps leading the viewer directly at the couple.

Ashley’s dad Perry gets emotional over the toasts.

Grandma dancing with Chloe – you know the party is going to be good when grandparents danced EARLY in the reception.

One of the hazards of the job – flying digicams!!!  (It came pretty close to hitting me )

Jimmy’s dad  Jim tells Jimmy to keep drinking…

This image sequences below illustrates why I photograph a lot.  I’ll admit, I have browsed some photographers’ site which they claim they won’t photograph multiple frames of the same “thing”.   Well, this is multiple frames of the same event, cake cutting but provides a much better variety of images.    Jimmy brought a huge chunk of the cake and hits Ashley’s face/nose – almost knocking her down – and I like to think her aerobics training enables her to leap up high and fought back.  Then the happy couple at the end of the sequence   And frankly, even though I anticipate that they’ll smash the cake, I still photograph a lot because I know there will be little moments in between that will make a picture different than the previous frame.  If you photograph 2 pictures here, you’ll be missing a lot of moments in between.

Champaign toast – I shot one frame from below where I noticed that Ashley was being blocked by Jimmy’s arm.  Then I am thinking “wait, there is no way Ashley can reach the glass” as there is a height difference between them.  Raise the camera and caught this one frame (yes, only one frame) of her struggling to go up and Jimmy’s expression says it all.

Didn’t expect this myself – we saw a bunch of cookies around the cake and I thought it’ll just be passed to the guests along with the cake but Jimmy starts to toss the cookies.

The guests were getting into it like a bouquet/garter catch!

I try to photograph a lot of guests in the wedding especially when they’re dancing.  Noticed a group of guests were strumming away (AC/DC or Def Leppard as I recall).

Congratulations Ashley and Jimmy!   After I have sent her the wedding slideshow she posted on her facebook wall:  ”My photographer is a badass” and linked the slideshow   Definitely one of the best compliments I have had this year!!!

In that honor, I’ll end the post with:  Badass Austin wedding photography by Tony Ku, Ku Photography LLC