Unique Children…

Last weekend I had the honor of photographing a very unique wedding.  Not that most of the weddings I photograph aren’t unique as I only shoot about 6 a year; but the location and mentality of this wedding is really what made it unique.  I don’t always write about the weddings that I shoot on my blog, because I’m not primarily a wedding photographer, but sometimes after something like this the story just has to be told.  The wedding itself was at St. Jude’s here in Greenwood (suburb of Indianapolis), and the reception was at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum; which as you can see below was potentially an environment filled with awesomeness.  Renee Volunteered at the Dinosphere inside of the Indianapolis Children’s museum during her employment and during a lul of employment after being let go from the Indianapolis Star.  I say let go, really she was layed off and her release had nothing to do with performance as much as it did have to do with extra money was needed in the budget.  That’s all besides the point though, as Renee knew exactly where she wanted her reception to take place, and gosh I’ll tell you;  it was a big hit.

(Nikon D4, 6400ISO, Nikon 300F2.8DII with a Nikon TC14eII to make 420mm.  1/200th@F5)

Renee now works for the DOD teaching journalism after working at the Indianapolis Star, and at Ball State doing/teaching the same thing.  Adam studied journalism at ball state, and then worked there after that on his Masters; which is where he met Renee.  In this new age world they actually met over Skype for the first time, and soon fell in love after that. These two are kids at heart, and they show it.  I’m pretty sure Adam’s eyes were the size of poolballs the entire night for two reasons; the first being his beautiful bride, and the second being all the toys in the museum…

(Nikon D3, 2500ISO, Nikon 28-70F2.8@56mm. 1/80th@F2.8.  Nikon SB-800 to camera left held by Shannon set to remote iTTL -0.7, fired by Nikon SU-800 Commander unit in the camera’s hotshoe).

The two are kids at heart.  When I’m around Adam he’s always asking about random little exciting things, like a 5 year old would.  That’s not bad either, as the 4 year old in me gets even more excited to the point where I might as well be a small dog spinning in circles, not only because I don’t know what’s going on but because it’s exciting!  This is also why the couple was completely ok with me telling (not asking mind you) them that they had to postpone their first dance for 2 minutes for the photo with Bumblebee.  I literally grabbed them minutes before it was going to happen and told them no, it had to wait.  Luckily the stars aligned and in that two minutes I got the shot above, and they now have that shot to remember the day for eternity; among a few other frames to help them remember the day.

(Nikon D3, 2500ISO, Nikon 28-70F2.8D@40mm 1/80th@F3.2.  Nikon SB-900 Zoomed to 200mm on a stand on the second level of the Museum aimed at the dance floor set to 1/8th power fired by a Pocket Wizard Flex TT5 from a Flex TT1 on the camera.)

I wasn’t the only photographer at the wedding, as Renee had an internship with a heckuva shooter out of New Jersey named Julio who now works for the Associated Press.  Holy Cow was the pressure on.  He got there and he was the man.  He knows he’s the man as his next stop is the Olympics.  So yea.  Here I am, Advertising guy at a newspaper put in the same wedding at the same task as an AP Olympic guy.  His day job is to react to the world around him as things go, things like tiny details to tell the story and I shoot food, Diamonds, and portraits.  All Custom Stuff.  Ouch. I shoot details too, don’t get me wrong; just not like he does.  Good news for me is that he showed me a few things, and I always find it wonderful seeing how another shooter sees the world.  Check out the stuff he’s put up on Facebook here.  On a side note, no I don’t have all mine edited yet and I’ve got another wedding to edit on top of this one to go; so mine will probably  be a couple weeks before we see them all…  I considered putting up a preview gallery on my Facebook Photo Page, but I then I wouldn’t be able to tell the stories like I do here, which I do really enjoy.

(Nikon D3, 2000ISO, Nikon 70-200F2.8VR2@135mm.  1/160th@F2.8)

It was a beautiful day for Renee and Adam; and Shannon and I are both very happy for them.  I was honored to be there to help capture the memories of their magical day.  I’d never been to a wedding at the Children’s Museum, and honestly I’m surprised there aren’t more there as the scenery is pretty naturally awesome.  There were a lot of things we didn’t do that would have been equally as cool as the shots above.  They left the HotWheels Exhibit open for us, but we didn’t make it up there for pictures though.  Here’s a photo of her and Adam under the Chihuly sculpture.

(Nikon D4, 1600ISO, Nikon 18-35F3.5-4.5@23mm. 1/50th@F6.3.  Single SB-900 Speedlight on a stand to camera light set to iTTL +0.7 bounced from a 42″umbrella to about 15′ to camera left.  Speedlight fired by Pocketwizard Flex TT5, from a Pocket Wizard TT1 on the camera.)

It was a beautiful wedding, and the reception was one of the most fun I think most of the attendees have been too in a long time.  The museum was open for everyone to play around in, and the cake was cut in Dinosphere underneath a Tyrannosaurs Rex skeleton named Stan.  Everybody’s dreams are different, and everybody’s wedding day is perfect for them.  Like I tell lots of brides and grooms, the day is perfect no matter what because no matter how it goes; it can only go that way.  You can’t relive it.  I’m happy that Renee and Adams dreams came true at the Children’s Museum, and as I said before I was honored to have been there to document their special day.  More soon.

(Nikon D4, 1000ISO, Nikon 60mmF2.8N Macro, 1/60th@F13.  Nikon SB-900 Speedlight zoomed to 200mm shot across the floor into a wooden pew to reflect slightly orange light back on the rings and program.  Speedlight set to 1/4th and fired by a Nikon SU-800 Speedlight commander.)