Jennie and I had an idea, shoot brides and grooms in controlled situations that showcase some of our fantastic local venues.  It’s a chance for us to work with vendors, models, and venues while creating some great images.  Here’s what we’ve learned, working with venues, not terribly difficult, all we had to do was ask.  Working with models, again not so difficult, all we had to do was ask.  Then it dawned on us…wedding dresses…where could we find wedding dresses for different models for the different shoots?  Before we started trying bridal vendors Jennie told me to let her try something.  I waited and by the time a few days had passed Jennie called me elated, “I think I’ve got eight dresses for us!”  Jennie had put a post up on facebook and the call was answered.  A bunch of generous friends offered up their nuptial accouterments, (i.e. beautiful gowns)  We got the idea that we wanted to shoot the gowns themselves, no models, just the gowns themselves.  That’s when the theme ‘A midsummer night’s dress,’ came to fruition…

This shoot was going to be big, an actual production.  The basic idea behind the shoot was to capture something surreal and make the dresses the stars.  This shoot is kicking off what we hope to be several shoots showcasing each dress somewhere different and unique.  That idea aside here is what we came up with:  Hang the dresses majestically over a flowing brook, pump smoke into the sky to catch rays of light and light accordingly.  The setup took two days.  Day one, my 3 year-old son and I went down to the brook to clear some paths to the water so we could maneuver for setup and shooting.  Later that day my assistant [read: friend] Erik showed up to help hang the rope…

We got the rope up pretty quickly and it was ready for an 8am start the next morning.  There were two main logistical dilemas with the shoot at this point.  First, how do we get the dresses on the rope and second, how do we keep them clean? The first question was answered pretty easily, a John Deere 2040 tractor!

So there are Jennie and Erik up in the tractor bucket getting ready to hang the dresses.  The image is so horrible because I was supposed to be operating the tractor as well as getting content for the blog, a lot of running back and forth!  Now if you look closely, you can see our remedy to the keep the dresses clean issue, that’s right, 55 gallon trash bags!

The bags stayed on the dresses until they were all securely hung on the rope.  Now, when you look at the next image, rest assured we had no intention of creating a disturbingly awkward image that would recall haunting memories of images from the 1930′s, but we did!

What followed was a harried rush to remove the bags before any wayward hiker come across this scene!  We methodically moved the tractor from dress to dress and removed the bags to leave the 5 beautiful dresses hanging in the still morning air above the carmel waters of Blackwell’s brook.  The next post will be a detailed outlay of how our vision was realized.  Interestingly enough, the images we got were nothing like what we had intended.  Our smoke machine was overwhelmed by the inconsistent and omni-directional 10mph breeze so the etherial idea had to be nixed, but we are quite pleased with what we did get.  So tune in to the next post for results.  In the mean time, I’ll leave you with your fearless author setting up a subsequent shot…

Oh, and here are some surprising statistics from the shoot:

Ticks: 0

Poison Ivy: 0

Injuries: 0

Camera equipment in water: 0

Tags: fun, rustic, Setup, wedding dresses, work
Posted in Miscellaneous, Shoots