”Springtime Melody”

”Springtime Melody”
©David A. Ziser

This image is a kick for me to post today.  I photographed Grace’s wedding about two years ago.  Grace worked for me years ago as one of our digital techs while she was a student at one of our local colleges.  She loved the images I produced for our clients and said if she ever got married that she would be calling me.

As time went by, she graduated, moved to Dallas, and I hadn’t heard from her for about 7 years then out of the clear blue, I get a call from her – she’s getting married!  And, you guessed it, she wanted me to photograph her wedding as she had promised years earlier.

I was honored and thrilled – this is one of the images from her wedding and was one of her favorites. We were working outdoors and I wanted to separate her from the background.  Of course the only way to do that is with a larger aperture and long lens.  I selected my “weapon of choice”, set the camera, and shot away.

Lighting, my strobe coming in from camera left through my Zumbrella, supplied the necessary illumination.  I positioned her in the composition so that the curved lines of the trellises would lead the viewers’ eye right back to my subject. I underexposed the background slightly to add color richness to the Spring foliage.  The wider aperture softened the focus on the foliage just the right amount to have Grace “pop” from the scene.

Grace just had a baby a few weeks ago – congratulations to she and her husband.  Before she found out she was pregnant, I asked her to be my model for my Fall Master Class last year.  She had to pass that last time, but I made the same request again a few days ago and she said “Yes”. So, you should see one of my favorite brides “gracing” the pages of DigitalProTalk once again in the near future ;~)

Camera specs: Canon 5D Mark II fitted with 70-300mm IS lens at 265mm, F5.6 @ 1/250 second, ISO 200.  Enjoy!  -David