What can I say? I was moved to tears while photographing Peter’s Proposal to Caitlin at Boston Public Garden. She was surprised, overjoyed, in disbelief. It was over the top incredible.
Danny and Diana met me with their two dogs at Arnold Arboretum in Boston for their engagement photos. It was early fall, but we were able to find a few places where the fall foliage had begun to blossom (blossom? do we say that about fall foliage?) They met in San Diego, California while Danny was stationed there with the Navy, but now they have returned to Danny’s childhood home, Boston. Their energy was electric, and it was delightful to find all the hidden gems amongst the forests, and gardens, and hills of Arnold Arboretum. They were smart to bring Danny’s dad along so that there was somebody to watch after the dogs while we made some photos of the two of them alone. Their dogs were remarkably well behaved, and were even willing to sit for a portrait, just the two of them. Doggie treats were, of course, our good friends when we were attempting to get them to sit still for a portrait. The light was incredible, the temperature was temperate, and we all had a lovely little romp through the arboretum.
Brenda & Philipp joined me for a lovely walk along the Charles River as the sun started to slip into the horizon. We found gorgeous light up and down the esplanade. As you can imagine, the Esplanade was full of joggers, and walkers and children, and cyclists, nonetheless we found nooks where we were able to make pictures without all that busyness. I’m particularly fond of the willow tree we found that was all lit up by the low sun.
Charles River Engagement photos hazelphoto
Does anybody still use film for wedding photography anymore? Never fear. The answer is yes! Hazel Photo is a San Francisco film wedding photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Does Hazel Photo use film for the whole wedding? No. That would be cost prohibitive, and frankly a bit scary for the fast paced parts of the day, and in low light settings. Hazel Photo uses the hybrid technique–Some film and some digital mixed together.
There aren’t many wedding photographers using film anymore in San Francisco. Why would anybody want to? For one thing it makes a photographer slow down and think. Many photographers who cover weddings with digital cameras take more than 5000 photographs over the course of an 8 hour wedding. With digital it doesn’t cost anymore to snap another picture, so the photographer takes another and another. Maybe one of them will be spot on, but there isn’t the same careful thought behind that spray and pray style. Digital photography can encourage a laziness about framing and timing. Film forces the photographer to think more precisely about those things. This can create the most important and lasting images from your wedding.
There are a great number of advantages to digital photography, especially in low light settings, and especially with flash. It is easy to see if the lighting is working by looking at the back of the camera. Clearly one cannot do this with film photography. But there are other reasons to make film wedding photographs, and thankfully there are still people doing so in the San Francisco Bay Area. The difference between film and digital photography is a bit like the difference between a record player and an mp3 player, or, if you must, a loss-less format like FLAC. Analog sound recording performs a natural clipping at the top of the range. Digital is unable to accomplish that natural clipping. The same is true with film, the chemical process of exposing film, and then processing in developer allows for an effortlessly natural color palette and a beautiful dynamic range.
