"Capturing The Moment" A Beautiful Day Photography

On the beach at Golden Gardens last September on a blustery and rainy Sunday, Jason Parker + Darrah Barth were married with a good turnout of their friends and family despite the weather. It did rain, but as typical, the rain came and went and left many open sun breaks where it was beautiful to see dramatic clouds in the skies above the waves. I wanted to mention the flowers they had for their wedding. Their Seattle floral design and wedding bouquet were provided by Amoreena, at Midnight Blossom, floral design. She did amazing work.I especially loved the fall color palette in the wedding bouquet. Photograph by wedding photographer Daniel Sheehan, a Seattle photographer who specializes in people and portraits and travels to photograph weddings in an artistic and unobtrusive photojournalist style. Named best Seattle wedding photographers by the Wedding Photojournalists Association.

Amy Lowell Arnold and Jonathan White Keljo were married at DeLille Cellars in August and I have been wanting to showcase their wedding panorama for some time. Delille Cellars is a wonderful setting for an outdoor wedding and their pond makes for a great place to stage a larger group wedding panorama. This is everyone in attendance at their ceremony shortly after they made their vows at DeLille Cellars and their beautiful grounds in Woodinville, WA.  On a number of occasions, before this wedding I have seen sheep grazing in the pasture behind the wedding party. Here is a link DeLille Cellars Wedding to the rest of the photos from their wedding that I highlighted on this blog.

Photographs by wedding photographer Daniel Sheehan, a Seattle photographer who specializes in people and portraits and travels to photograph weddings in a photojournalist style that is real, artistic and unobtrusive. Named the best Seattle wedding photographers by the Wedding Photojournalists Association.

All photographs on this website are by Daniel Sheehan © 2010. All Rights Reserved. Please inquire for permission before using.

A projection on the ceiling of a room at Tibbetts Creek Manor

Monte Whitbeck  and Annette Barniville celebrated their wedding by throwing  a Black and White Masquerade Wedding  party on Halloween at the Tibbetts Creek Manor.  I just finished the final edit and I wish to present a selection of highlights here before we get into the total swing of  celebrating Christmas. It was a rocking good celebration of Monte and Annettes wedding which actually took place not long before in Fiji and they just wanted to celebrate it with all of their close family and friends and Halloween was a great time for a party. DJ Leslie of Seattle Parties was on hand to spin the music and everyone had a ball. Something about a masquerade ball that makes people feel free to express themselves on teh dance floor. This was one great party to photograph as the dance floor was full of pictures to be made. As wedding photography goes it was a very different and special celebration to photograph compared to shooting regular wedding photography.

Annette after sh first put on her mask.

In one room slides of the actual wedding were projected onto a wall for guests to see.

Annette and Monte in the studio we set up for all the guests to be photographed.

Wedding portrait of the bride and groom with their family in the studio.

The bride and her ladies in waiting.

Aside from a smally white cake on the top, the rest of the wedding cake consisted of cupcakes with fresh strawberries on top. The whole cake can be seen below.

Making toasts  and cutting the cake.

Annette and Monte were on the dance floor for a good part of the evening.

Getting ready to say goodnight.

Below is a more extensive  gallery of more highlights from the evening. Wedding photography by Seattle wedding photographer Daniel Sheehan. SEATTLE PHOTOGRAPHER Daniel Sheehan also specializes in people and portraits and shoots assignments in a photojournalistic style that is real, straightforward, subtle and unobtrusive.

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This was Jodi’s grandmother’s bracelet. She was getting ready to wear it to her wedding.

So here are the rest of Mike Zawacki + Jody Sanders wedding highlights. There are a lot more on the client page of the website but this is the place for a quick look see of how the wedding photo story unfolded.

The necklace goes on with help from mom.

It takes a wedding party to get a wedding party ready for a wedding.

The wedding ceremony took place at St. Benedict Church in Wallingford.

The wedding party together stopped on at Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park, on the way to the wedding reception at the Edgewater Hotel.  The light was very nice just before sunset. that day had been raining but we had the usual sun breaks at just the right time for pictures. I have always loved the sculptures of Richard Serra, and WAKE is one of my favorite pieces of his. Here are Jody and Mike with their wedding party with WAKE at SAM

And then the kiss.

As we walked on through the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park the sun went through some clouds and it looked so cool as the sun set.

Mike dipped  Jody at the end of their first dance together on the dance floor of the Edgewater Hotel.

And lord did everyone dance!

I met my match as a wedding photographer emerged from the ring bearer.

And Jody was feeling pretty good as the evening wore on. I have collected some more highlights form the wedding and put them together into a slide show just below. Enjoy the party.

I wish to thank Jody and Mike for asking me to witness and photograph their wedding . It was one of the best times I had this year. These guys know how to have serious fun.

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Stacie Huffman and John Lee were married on August 29th at the Mountain River Resort near Easton, Washington in a beautiful outdoor service under some towering trees on the banks of the river.

Below are some selected highlights of the day.

Here is a more complete selection of 40 pictures in a slideshow gallery for you to enjoy.

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The family and friends of Alyson Routt and Thomas Stachiw just after their wedding ceremony on the stern of the Skansonia Ferry on Lake Union. Another in a series of large group wedding panoramas I like to make whenever I can get the chance. This one was a breeze as the Skansonia is so easy to shoot from the bridge down on the group. I really love the water in the background.

Shortly after the wedding ceremony of Caroline Sarkis and Randy Najera on August 1st at the Georgetown Studios we got everyone outside for a large group wedding photograph. The Georgetown Studios are housed in an historic  Seattle landmark known as the Engine Room. It has  incredible 25’ ceilings, elegant light filled 15’ windows,  Romanesque arches and a history behind it. Here is a little of it from their web site:

“The Seattle Brewing and Malting Company was established in 1892 in the City of Georgetown, and by 1904 this building was the largest brewery west of the Mississippi River and with addition upon addition through 1912 it became the sixth largest in the world. For a time before Washington State introduced prohibition in 1916, the Georgetown brewery was the largest industrial establishment in the state of Washington. It was the job of the engine room to power the whole plant. Just the sheer size of the room you can picture massive turbines turning out enough electricity to produce the incredibly popular Rainier beer.

The plant was shut down in 1916 at the start of the Washington State prohibition laws and the building became a cold storage and ice facility. The Rainier Brewing Co. was moved to San Francisco as California didn’t have prohibition laws. Soon enough as prohibition went national the company was making soda and near beer. It wasn’t until 1935 and after prohibition laws were taken off the books when the Seattle Malting and Brewing Co. returned Rainier beer back to Seattle, albeit to a different brewing facility. This new building is now what we know as the “Tully’s Building” along I-5.
Today
Today the “Original” Rainier Brewery building is home to many small businesses including “Georgetown Brewery” who make Manny’s Ale, as well as many local artists. The Engine Room has been in sporadic use as a venue to many arts organizations as well as being used for photo and film/video shoots.”  Go to http://www.georgetownstudios.com/ to continue reading.

Jamie and Brian July 18th, 2009

Coming from a photographer you might expect this piece to be about having a great background to the photo like this one on top of Crystal Mountain, Washington, with Mt. Rainier in the distance. Or how to get people to smile with a witty joke. Instead it is about how to get the bride and groom relaxed enough that their natural smile emerges naturally.

Stressed out is how I would describe a lot of the brides and grooms that I meet at the start of their wedding day. Making a great set of photographs of a stressed out wedding couple is a real challenge. It is mostly impossible if they are stressed out over too many of the details of their wedding day. One solution to reducing the stress level is to get help from a wedding-day coordinator. This can be someone hired for the task or it can be someone recruited from the ranks of friends or family.
While the bride and groom may prefer to plan out all the events of the day, the coordinator is given the responsibility of all of the little details that can cause the bride and groom to get stressed out and prevent them from relaxing and enjoying their wedding day. Then they can be photographed looking their best, relaxed and not preoccupied with the goings on around them. They will smile more easily with the anxiety missing and in general the wedding photographs will be better for it.

As a photographer I have found the one detail to reliably improve the process of making the posed formal portraits of the wedding party and family members is to insist that the bride and groom prepare a shot list at least a week or two before the wedding.

This is simply a detailed list of everyone they want to include in the making of formal posed portraits. Listing the actual names of everyone makes it easier to work with. The shot list really eliminates all of the stress of having to decide on your wedding day who will be in which photos. It helps to think it through in advance and only spend time making the photos you want. It works best when you can get the list down to about 8-12 shots. If you try, think about who would want to have these photos and what they would do with them.

It should look something like this:

1. Bride and Groom

2. Bride & Groom with Bride’s parents – Rob and Cathy

3. Bride & Groom with Groom’s parents – Kate and George

4. Bride with Bridesmaids _ Cat, Rita, Sally and Blanch

5. Groom with Roger, Franz, Peter and George

6. Bride and Groom with Jason, Josh and Gail.

7. The entire wedding party

8. Etc…. but try to keep it from going past #12.

The shot list goes to either the wedding day coordinator or a good friend or relative who already knows the majority of these folks. (It helps if they have a drill sergeant attitude. It’s funny, but in my experience it seems everyone knows just the perfect person to give it to). It functions like this:

When the photographer is making the first photo on the shot list, they are rounding up the people in shot 2. and holding them in the on deck circle. Then when the first shot is done, he says next and they proceed to the location to be photographed in their turn. Then the folks in shot #3 are gathered up to stand by. This continues until the end of the list.

This allows the bride and groom to not have to make any stressful decisions on the day of the wedding. It also helps them to know exactly who to tell to come early if the photos will be taken before the ceremony. That is also a stress reducing factor in itself. Take the portraits before the wedding for for a more relaxed wedding day for sure.
Daniel Sheehan is a wedding photographer at A Beautiful Day Photography.