"Moments Of Fantasy "

"Moments Of Fantasy "
© David A. Ziser

This is one of my favorite images from the wedding I photographed in Phoenix a few weekends ago.  The bride and groom absolutely loved the Royal Palms Resort and asked I'd I could get a few photographs of them in front of the main entrance.  I was glad to oblige.  After the wedding, just moments before the reception was scheduled to begin, we broke away from the guests to capture the requested images.

The entrance was quite busy with guests arriving for the weekend.  We worked around the arriving traffic situation, even a limo driver obliged our needs by pulling his 30 foot limo around the parking circle far enough for us to get a clear photo of the main entrance.

I always take a series of images when this kind of photo opportunity is requested.  The first few images are always of the couple looking back into the camera in the very traditional wedding pose - call it the photograph for posterity.  Next it's time to shift gears and work to get some dramatic backlit images of the couple.

I asked LaDawn to position herself behind the couple about 12 feet, power the Quantum flash to full power because of the very bright ambient light, and point at their shoulder blades (which keeps the flash from "burning" up the area behind the couple.  I began with a tight shot of the couple, but continued to make several more images as I pulled back on the scene to include more of the front entrance and eventually Camelback Mountain in the distance.

After downloading the images from the wedding, I couldn't wait to see what I had gotten from this part of the wedding day shoot.  There it was, I had it - a great image of both Bev and Jon in front of the entrance.  I preferred the image in which I pulled back to include Camelback Mountain.  Now take a closer look.  My timing was perfect as I captured a large bird flying over the Royal Palms entrance.  This really completed the composition and resulted in a great image for the bride and groom.  Hey, sometimes you get lucky and the birds drop by just at the right time ;~)

Camera specs:  Canon 7D fitted with 24-105mm IS lens at 28mm, F5.6 @ 1/320 second, ISO 800.  Enjoy!  -David

(p.s. Quick Hit Monday will be up this afternoon. Thx, David)