We really enjoyed  shooting Amanda + Mark’s engagement photos at Heritage Acres in Fairmont, MN.   They both looked amazing, considering it was such a hot + humid evening.  Gotta love muggy Minnesota summers.  It was a blast getting to know these two and hearing Mark’s proposal story–which involved pulling an ice cream scoop out of his pocket.  (Just to fake her out?) We knew this meant one thing:  We needed to round out the photo shoot with a trip to the Dairy Freeze–the best local ice cream joint.  The line was so long we lost the last little bit of our precious sunlight, but it was so worth it.

Planning a wedding in Minnesota/Western Wisconsin?  We would be absolutely delighted to come–and  bring our cameras, of course!  We are now booking weddings for the 2011 season.  Please don’t hesitate to contact us for details/availability.

So far 2010 has been a wonderful year of learning & growing for us.   We’ve learned that we really, truly enjoy working together as a husband-wife photography team. While we love photographing people of all ages and stages, we’ve found that we especially have a heart for weddings.  We’ve been blessed by opportunities to shoot several weddings together this year and our experience has only fueled our passion.  We’ve discovered that there are remarkable opportunities to capture timeless moments in a day filled with sweet emotions, beautiful attire, and your elegant, personal details.  As a married couple who have been there before, together, we realize that wedding days can be so fleeting.  Allow us to help put you at ease and help you remember your day with gorgeous images!

What you can expect working with us on your wedding day:

Jeff: will arrive armed with equipment, ready to rock and roll and optimize lighting in any venue.  As the more seasoned photographer, he will direct both formal and informal shots of your family and wedding party.  He will capture all of the classic shots, like you walking down the aisle, exchanging rings, and cutting your cake.  He will chit chat with your mom and shake hands with your dad.  If it weren’t for the big black camera around his neck, he’d probably fit right in with your guests, because when it comes to mingling, he’s downright sparkling.

Jessica: will show up and gush about how amazing your flowers are and who designed your dress.  (She is obsessed with details.) Then she will get to work, snap detail shots of your shiny things and shoes, and stick close as you transform into a beautiful bride.  At times she may help direct you, but mostly she’ll blend into the background and capture candid shots–like that look you give your dad right before you’re about to walk down the aisle, or the elated grins of you and your (husband!) on the flip side.

Both: will help you enjoy the day as perfectly as you planned it.  We will laugh and cry with you.  We will work hard to get to know you and capture your personality and spark as a couple.  We will work together effortlessly and comfortably, because that’s how the happily married operate.

We may even have such a great time that you’ll catch us snitching samples of your cake.  Just be warned.

We were really blessed with the chance to photograph Brittany & Jordan’s wedding in Southern Minnesota. Maybe we are biased, but there are few things as charming as a sweet+simple country wedding.  Seeing Brittany walk down the aisle was like a stroll down memory lane for us, because the ceremony was at the same church where we got married 4 summers ago! One of the most fun parts of the day for us was the chance to split away with just the newlyweds for an hour between the ceremony and reception and get some great photos at a nearby family farm. We wish there could be an aqua shed handy for every photo shoot!

It was a huge treat to be able to photograph Katie + Ryan’s beautiful outdoor wedding at the Florian Gardens in Eau Claire, WI.  Extra special because I (Jeff) have known the bride and her family since she was a little girl!  These two are great young couple and I wish them a lifetime of happiness.

Site: Florian Gardens.  Flowers: Brent Douglas.  Music: Midwest Entertainment.

We had a blast photographing Amanda and Chad’s pretty church ceremony and picture-perfect outdoor reception.   They are a really fun, bubbly couple and infused so much personality into the elements of the day.   Amanda’s DIY details and vibrant pink & orange really packed a punch.  Get ready for some serious eye candy.

Last month we had the opportunity to shoot this sweet couple’s wedding in Lakeville, MN.  Maria & Dave have a pretty epic love story, and believe it or not, it all began in the checkout lane at Target, when Dave bought a pink toothbrush.  Their happiness just radiates through the pictures, don’t you think?

Last month’s photo giveaway feature on Living the Swell Life included a short q&a section, with questions from Jessica’s readers.  I (Jeff) had a ton of fun with this, so we thought it would be great to include a recurring q&a feature on this blog.  So if you’ve got any photography questions, shoot them our way.  First up, this great question from Bethany:

“How does one make the most of poor lighting situations (like when you’re stuck working with dreadful indoor lighting)? Are there any tips you can give that will help get that naturally-lit glow, despite a complete lack of sunshine?”

Ah, one of the age-old questions.  As old as photography itself.  In other words, Bethany, you’re trying to avoid this?:

Bleh.  Agreed.  Direct on-camera flash gets the job done, no doubt, but only if you don’t mind your subjects looking flat and pasty.  Don’t get me wrong, snapshots aren’t meant to be works of art, so there’s nothing wrong with direct flash for everyday quickies.  But if and when you’re trying to transcend the quick snapshot, stay away from direct flash.  Far, far away!

Now granted, if you’re using a compact point-and-shoot, there’s usually not a whole lot you can do other than just give in and use the on-camera flash.  But if you have access to SLR equipment (or are thinking of buying such equipment, which is getting more affordable by the day), your range of options opens up considerably.  SLR in hand, the single best investment you can make to improve your indoor photography is a mountable strobe unit:

The biggest advantage of a strobe (such as the Nikon SB-600 used here) is that it allows for indirect flash.  By pointing the head of the strobe toward a wall or ceiling, you get soft, warm bounce light.  The rough shadows are lifted, the harsh glare is eliminated, and your subject looks all around much more appealing.  Of course, though, it’s not perfect–or rather, maybe it’s a little too perfect.  Far preferable to direct flash, but it can still look a bit unnatural.  Oftentimes it’ll be your best bet, and there are tons of tricks (if you have the time to set up your shot) that can allow you to get a less homogeneous look.  My favorite plan of attack, though, is to seek out and take full advantage of soft, ambient, non-overhead light, such as from a small table lamp:

As you can see, however, oftentimes this ambient light is a little too soft (or dim, rather).  Or at least in this particular case, it was too dim for our “little” camera, the Nikon D80.  In order to get the exposure, I had to max out the camera’s ISO (light sensitivity setting).  This allowed for a bright enough exposure, but it also introduced a ton of digital noise into the picture, so much so that it becomes really distracting (at least in my opinion).

If you have a lens with great low-light capabilities (such as the relatively inexpensive Nikon 50mm f1.8 that Graham is playing with–don’t try this at home!), you can widen your aperture (the size of the lens opening, which allows more light to enter the camera, thus brightening your exposure) and reduce your ISO proportionately, thus reducing the amount of digital noise.

Or, for a glimpse at the future of photography, here’s the same photo taken with our “big” camera, the Nikon D700.  [I say "future" because although this new camera technology is clearly already available, it will be a little while yet before it's widely affordable]:

As you can see, I used the same high ISO setting as I did with the D80, but here the digital noise is much softer and less pronounced.  I even think soft noise such as this is a nice aesthetic touch–for this photo in particular, and for journalistic photography in general.

Comparing the quality of light of this last photo to that of the others, this one is infinitely preferable to the direct-flash photo, and it has way more life and dimension than the bounce-flash photo.  Here’s the side-by-side comparison:

Moral of the story: seek ye first soft ambient light!

PS – As always, thanks to Graham for being a willing model (not that he’s ever had a choice), and in this case, thanks also to Graham for not dismembering our lens.

In April, we had the opportunity to snap some 3rd Anniversary shots for Laura+Robert, the lucky winners of our free photo shoot!  We were delighted to meet such a fun couple–it’s so awesome to see their Cowboy meets Lady love story shine through in these photos.  And Robert, thanks for being such a good sport about the pinwheels…

Thought we’d take a minute to share a few photos of a wedding album we recently finished.  This album style–Upper Elements–is a gorgeous hand-constructed leatherbound album, with genuine photographic prints adhered to thick cardstock pages.  We offer it as our medium-range album and love that it comes with tons of options for customization: size, capacity, page color, cover material (many premium leathers and fabrics to choose from), and cover design (two-tone binding and image cutouts as add-ons).  No better way to remember your day!

We had a lot of fun a few Saturdays ago at the Enjoy photo workshop, hosted by amazing Minneapolis wedding photographer Erin Johnson.  We got to meet several other up-and-comers, and we soaked in tons of great info–from photo techniques to marketing ideas to branding strategies and everything else in between.  Best of all, we got to try our hand at a trash-the-dress style group photo shoot.  Tons of really fun images.  For all you aspiring photographers in the area, we can’t recommend Erin’s workshops highly enough!