Shooting this wedding came up out of the blue for us. I got a call less than a month out asking if I could shoot this weekday evening wedding. I didn’t have anything else scheduled so I booked it.

I’m so glad I did.

There was one terrifying factor to this wedding — the ceremony was going to be a candle-lit outdoor wedding . . . at night. Not sunset. Pitch black + candles. I’m not typically one to shy away from a challenge so I decided James and I would make it work.

I had talked to the bride and groom, Elena and Steven, to see how they’d like their wedding photographed — with or without flash and they said their hope was for mostly atmospheric shooting that didn’t detract from the ceremony. So James and I sloooooooowwwwwwwed our shutter speeds and shot with available light and I very much enjoy how the images turned out so true to the atmosphere of the ceremony.

Directly after the kiss, Steven prepared to stomped on a glass in the Jewish tradition. Right as this was about to happen I hear James hit the ground with a soft thud. I think I remember guffawing behind my camera while shooting the breaking of the glass because I honestly thought that James had tripped on a tree root because it was seriously SODARK. BUT when I saw the image that James got by hitting the ground so fast I wanted to hug him and throw him a party.

After the ceremony we took family portraits followed by some moody off-camera flash bride-groom portraits.

The above image is still one of my favorite bride-groom portraits of all time. And that’s coming from a photographer who would choose shooting with natural light instead of flash 10 times out of 10.

 I loved this wedding that popped into my life so unexpectedly with its last minute booking because it turned into hitting the ground for a shot of breaking glass, using flash photography to photograph a newlywed couple running through the woods at night and getting to work with one of the nicest group of people we have had the pleasure of meeting.

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