Bradenton Wedding Photography in Calvary Baptist Church - the bride, KieraI photographed my first wedding in Bradenton, Florida, which was held at the Calvary Baptist Church and then on to the nearby Renaissance banquet hall for the reception. However, I first met Kiera in her family home that she grew up in. As I walked up the staircase to the second floor the wall was lined with childhood photos of her and her siblings. It was really nice to get to see some of her family history before taking one photograph that day. Hopefully I will have produced a photograph worthy of placement on that wall.
The Bradenton bride getting ready - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/5.6 ISO 400 1/100th strobist: SB-800 on light stand to frame left & SB-600 on chair to frame rightOften, just by watching people I find shots I would not have thought of myself. The mirror was on the far side of the bedroom and was not being used. As I was getting ready to setup for a staircase shot, I saw Kiera go over and look into it. I always like to get a reflection shot of some kind and after working a bit on the lighting logistics was able to get my second strobe placed so that I could both back and front light Kiera without producing any glare in the mirror.
Entire wedding party in Calvary Baptist Church Bradenton FloridaThe wedding party was rather large and included four energetic kids and one very long wedding dress train. This was perhaps the most difficult shot all day to get right as on top of the tech stuff for producing this kind of shot (off camera flash, correct exposure in a large dim room, etc) I had to make sure eighteen people all lined up without significantly blocking anyone and keep them all from trodding on the bride's beautiful, but expansive, wedding dress.
A riverfront location picked by the bride in Bradenton Florida after the wedding ceremonyThe bride had mentioned going to a riverfront location after the ceremony, which I thought sounded good. The more environments I can photograph the bride and groom in the better. However, after the ceremony the bride was not so sure of making the effort to go out there and perhaps we would all just head to the reception. I highly recommended that we make the effort to go out to the riverfront because ten years from now I am sure she will be glad that we had. This is also part of the professional wedding photographer's job.
Bride & Groom action shot after their Bradenton Florida wedding by the limoThe above shot was my idea as I always want to try and include some action shots if possible, even during a wedding. Kiera & Ricardo would good about following my suggestions for shot ideas despite both of them wearing far more restrictive clothing than myself. This was a spontaneous shot I did not have preplanned, just thought we could do something on our way to the riverfront.
Wedding Bliss under the bride's veil in Bradenton Florida - natural lightThis shot, however, was preplanned as soon as I saw Kiera putting on the veil in her grandmother's bedroom. It is always great when the bride wears a large veil. With the wind it took a bit of finagling to get the veil as good as we could and keep it from blowing all over the place. I think this was the time Kiera & Ricardo enjoyed the most while I was photographing them that day.
