Clint and Heather Langreck

Weddings are sometimes filled with pressure, anxiety, excitement and fun...for the photographer.  I've photographed a few, mostly for friends.  I'm not so sure I want my photography to become work-something I have to do, but I have to admit, some of these have turned out well and I've been happy with the images and sometimes can be creative.  Clint and Heather are former students and outstanding track athletes I had the privilege of coaching years ago here in Neillsville.  They are just two of the best people I've come to know, so when they asked me to be their photographer, it was easy to say yes.
Knowing I'd be shooting this wedding long ago, it kind of gave me a good reason too upgrade equipment- a Canon 50D, a 80mm lens, a 10-22mm,  bags etc.  I found out quickly how important having two cameras along can be.  Just as the bride is about to be led down the aisle by her father, my camera stops shooting!-"CF Card Full!" in about two seconds, I tossed the backup camera down-ripped out it's card-slammed it into my shooting camera...just in time to fire off some nice shots of them finishing their walk to the groom.  Lesson learned-watch the display of images remaining.  It worked well to carry the 80mm on my main camera, and a 17-55mm on the other.  I wanted to shoot it documentary style as much as I could, but also had a "required picture" list from the couple.  That's expected and they gave me freedom to try locations wherever I wanted.  The wedding was at the High Ground, one of the nicest outdoor places around.  Partly cloudy day, so light was very good and it was later in the afternoon.  I shot around 700 images, so the past 2 mornings I've been editing them down.  Next on the work flow is a slide show which I'll get onto a dvd for them.  As always, you miss some shots, focus might be off by a tick, but more often than not, there are nice surprises when I downloaded and viewed them.
What follows are some of my favorites.

Heather and the flowergirl before the wedding.

Heather commented about how nervous she was and how slowly the clock moved as she waited for the guests to arrive.  Window light can be so great sometimes.

I find the lighting at wedding dances is so difficult to deal with.  The 50D has better low light control, but still it's dark in those halls.  I like the "slow sync" flash for dances-gives a lot of feeling of action-and all artsy-like.  Clint and Heather slipped out for a slow dance, and I noticed the candles behind them.  A couple quick shots with the lens stopped down worked well-I love this shot.

I loved their expressions-they were a couple that truly enjoyed the reception and this day.

The family and wedding party pictures were finished at the High Ground and we were all walking to depart, when Clint needed to catch his father-I quick shot this and it reminded me of some kind of stock wedding photo you find in those picture frames. ;)  It was hard to not take a great shot of these two.  Congratulations!