Candid Sunset Beach Florida Wedding - Teri & Aaron

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Bride & Groom backlit by an amazing Florida sunset on their wedding day

Photographing a beach sunset wedding is literally a race against the clock.  For Teri & Aaron's wedding on Sunset Beach, Treasure Island in St. Petersburg, we were extremely lucky to have about as perfect a cloudless sunset as you could have.  The weather prior to that day had been cold, windy and not entirely that sunny.  We had a warm evening, no wind and a perfectly sunny sky.

You may kiss the bride! After the wedding ceremony there was time for some fun candid portraits with the wedding party

The wedding ceremony itself was brief, but emotional.  This allowed time to for a few candid portraits in addition to standard wedding formals.  The mother and mother-in-law of the bride were open to my suggestion of a double kiss.  I framed this shot so that the pole blocked the sun allowing me to get an acceptable exposure of the ladies while still having a water background.  

A closing wedding custom of pouring actual beach sand into one glass

Challenges abound when holding a wedding on a public beach.  I cannot tell you how many onlookers wondered/ambled into the shots.  Then there are the random blue trash cans all over the place.  In the above sand ceremony shot, I had to make one of those blue trash cans "disappear" as it was very distracting in the background.  

Getting the bride and groom intimate with the Florida sunset

The clock in the case of a sunset beach wedding, is of course the setting sun.  It provides the great colors, but also a very finite amount of time to work with.  It is key to have your camera and strobe settings dialed in with only a few tweaks needed as the sun dips further in the sky.  That way you can focus on composition.  

I prefer this "golden fusion" shot to the typical all black silhouette style shot

I had a lot of fun photographing Aaron and Teri as I had them jump in the air, run down the beach and sit semi-perilously on some jetties.  Everything came together to allow as nearly ideal sunset wedding photography conditions as one could ask for.  Thanks Teri & Aaron!