Original subtitles

Welcome to the Bride Prep.

We're gonna give you a little snapshot here

of the morning I spent documenting the bride

and her bridesmaids and her family getting ready

in their suite.

So I showed up at about 9.15

in the morning and I was there till

2.15-ish.

So I was there for a good five

hours.

And this is just sort of a 20

-minute review of that.

Here I am first thing in the morning,

just setting up my base camp, getting my

lights set up on this light stand, making

sure my gear is accessible and easy to

access when I need to access it.

Now I'm just exploring the space, seeing where

the potential lies, and more importantly, seeing where

the potential doesn't lie, eliminating a lot of

possibilities.

But even as I'm scouting, I'm looking for

opportunities and shooting opportunities.

For instance, here I saw this great reflected

highlight on the wall and it was moving.

I knew it wouldn't be there long.

And of course, the lady that's getting her

hair done is perfectly silhouetted on that and

I could shoot it through this lady getting

her makeup done.

Jenna, the bride, is actually still asleep in

the bedroom.

Getting a few little detail shots while I'm

at it, but not pouring a lot of

creative energy into those.

And really getting people comfortable with my presence.

I mean, getting close with my camera, getting

in their space, but not too much because

it's COVID.

And also keeping my eye open for moments

and interactions and layering those together.

And you'll notice me coming back to this

spot often because the hair is being done

there and the makeup's being done there.

So I'm trying to figure out how I

can layer those two stories in the same

frame.

Because Jenna will be coming out eventually to

get her hair and makeup done.

So I'm scouting out where the best place

for me to be with my camera is.

Looking at potentials of reflecting maybe one of

them in a mirror in order to layer

those two stories together.

Mostly just warming up here and still experimenting.

Just figuring out what I'm gonna be doing.

And you'll notice here, what I'm trying to

do is, again, you'll see me come back

here several times during this video.

So I'm trying to layer what's happening here

with what's happening here.

So I'm reflecting this silhouette in the window.

And of course, the silhouette in the window

is gonna be way brighter than what's over

here.

So I've got a flash on this lady

who's getting her hair done.

Trying to layer those two stories together.

And I was really drawn to this lady

because she had a super expressive face and

she was really fun to photograph.

So you'll see me come back to her

quite often.

She was only there for about an hour

though.

Closing these sheer curtains to soften the light

a little bit and remove distractions from the

background.

And what I'm noticing here is that this

bridesman here is standing right in front of

this highlight, which is perfect because I can

silhouette him on it.

And he's very expressive and he's interacting with

this woman here.

So maybe I could silhouette him, create a

great expression with his laugh and also in

the same frame get this woman, right?

Because they're interacting together.

But in order to get them in the

same frame, I've got a flash on this

woman.

So using those highlights to my advantage.

Trying to layer these moments and stories together.

Got great short light coming from the window

light there and a nice dark background.

And this was actually completely accidental.

I'd forgotten to turn my flash on, off,

sorry.

Forgot to turn my flash off that was

on the lady on the couch.

But it's casting a little bit of light

on him and it's projecting a shadow onto

the wall, which I actually kind of like.

Oh, and here's the first time we see

Jenna.

She's just got out of the shower.

You'll notice I have my camera up this

entire five hours.

Even though you're only seeing 20 minutes, this

is what I'm like for the entire five

hours.

I'm not necessarily getting, well, I'm not.

I'm not getting great shots all the time.

I'm doing a lot of experimenting.

I'm trying different things.

Here I'm playing around with the reflection.

Didn't really like it that much.

But I know as long as I keep

looking, keep stalking moments, keep searching, keep trying

new things, I'm gonna get some workable stuff.

Even though in the moment right now, I'm

just like thinking I'm failing.

So now Jenna's in the makeup chair.

I'm going back to that layering again.

Now that Jenna's in the makeup chair, I'm

gonna try that layering again.

So I'm flashing the girl that's getting her

hair done and I'm gonna reflect Jenna here

in the mirror, a silhouette of her.

And of course, I'm trying to line that

reflection up with a moment where there's negative

space in between the brush and her face

to get a good, clean silhouette with lots

of negative space.

Just testing out my light here before I

get in the position I wanna get in.

I always test out my lighting when I'm

close to the light so I can make

the micro adjustments I need before I get

into the position I want.

Here I'm going to the other side of

Jenna.

I'm thinking of trying to layer her getting

her makeup done in the foreground with the

flower girl in the background using window light

and Jenna and a flash on the flower

girl.

And here I am just getting some safe

shots, some safe detail shots of the makeup

being done.

I usually use a big lens for this

because it's flattering and I always make sure

I get a couple of these.

Just tight in on the face with the

hands and the makeup being done.

I'll often go up quite high for these

as well, especially with eyelashes because you can

really see the volume and the length of

the eyelashes from that elevated perspective.

And if I shoot from here, I've got

that great highlight on Jenna's face and then

I've got darkness in the background.

Nice dramatic lighting.

Getting my camera high.

I'm getting my camera low.

Probably telling myself I'm gonna have to refund

the couple at this point.

Now here what I noticed was going on

was the flower girl was here getting her

makeup done and I was shooting it in

a similar way to the way I was

shooting Jenna there.

But this is her mother sitting right behind

her and I noticed that her mother would

turn back and look at her quite often.

And I wanted to get that reaction but

of course her mother's in the darkness and

she's in this beautiful window light here.

So I very quickly just grabbed my flash

and pointed at the mother behind her.

And this happened to be one of the

times where it lined up for me.

It didn't line up with a great moment

of the little girl getting her makeup done.

I liked some of the other frames better

but this is the one that lined up

with her mom looking.

Here I'm just trying to get the chaos

of the room and show all the different

layers and things happening.

But I'm putting a flash on Jenna here

within that chaos just so that she pops

a little bit more than everybody else.

I still wanna include quite a bright ambient

exposure but I want Jenna just to pop

a tad more.

So hard looking at this after the fact

because of course watching the video footage and

you always see other places I could have

gone with my camera.

Now we've got Jenna and her mother in

the hair chair and makeup chair.

So now I'm really working my butt off

to try and layer these two stories together

because we've got two primary people in these

chairs now.

And it never quite lined up the way

I'd hoped but I'm placing the flashback here

because Jenna's getting her hair done and the

hair artist is often bringing out the hairspray

and spraying her hair.

So I'm hoping to line up a moment

where Jenna's getting hairspray put in her hair,

taking off the grid so that it back

flashes that hairspray really nicely in the aerosol

and lining it up with a nice silhouette

of her mom getting her makeup done.

Didn't quite line up with the silhouette I

was hoping for but I tried.

Now I'm trying to focus on the reflection

of the reflection in the mirror, getting some

depth.

And you can see all those tiny little

micro adjustments I'm making to get the composition

that I'm looking for.

Shooting through this entire time.

Oh, this is a moment I completely missed.

Oh, I was so bummed afterwards because this

little girl was standing right here in this

beautiful reflected light and she got this flower

crown put on her head.

And she's still in the light but we

don't have those hands coming in, putting the

crown on.

And I still got an okay photo of

her but it would have just been so

much better if I'd got it with the

actual crown being put on.

But I missed it, I was in the

wrong place.

This is where I know she's gonna be

getting her dress on.

So I'm taking some shots just to see

what my settings would be like when that

action starts to happen.

Photographing through this entire moment of them getting

the dress down because that's actually more interesting

than the dress just there on its own.

It's got some human elements to it plus

it's got some important people in it.

She's handing out some letters.

So now I'm gonna be getting in close

here to get people reading these letters.

I'm getting down low as well because I

know when people are reading their eyes are

gonna be cast downwards.

So it cleans up my background and also

allows me to get their eyes.

So what you see in this 20 minute

video is basically what it's like all morning.

I don't sit down, I barely drink any

water.

I should, I'm not saying you guys should

do what I'm doing but I'm working constantly

the whole time.

Obviously there's a lot of action going on

right now but even when there's not a

lot of action going on, I'm looking, I'm

searching, I'm figuring out where the best place

for my camera is.

Here I noticed these hands, right?

Beautiful moment with the hands there.

So I'm getting low to put those hands

in the foreground of the photo.

I also know this ring that she's wearing

is really important to her because she put

it in the questionnaire, it's an heirloom.

So I know that I wanna get that

in a few of the shots.

And she holds a lot of tension in

her hands as well.

All right, so this moment here is, I'm

not proud of these photos but this is

where her dad came in to see her

and I wish I had been in a

different spot.

I actually wish I had been where Brett,

the videographer where he's filming from is right

now.

I decided to go behind the bride because

I knew her dad would come in for

a hug and I wanted to get his

facial expression.

But where Brett is, he can layer in

all these other people's reactions as well.

So I've made that decision.

Unfortunately, the dad's face as you'll see is

mostly hidden by the bride's veil.

It was also like a three second long

moment.

And I was in the wrong side.

I thought he might hug on the other

side but he hugged on this side.

So I totally missed the composition on that.

This is where I should have been.

But of course now the moment's gone.

Packing up, getting ready to go to the

ceremony now.

And normally I'd love an assistant.

I usually have an assistant to help me

with this part because there's so much that

goes on at the end here.

There's so much energy and so much interactions

and moments that happen in these moments right

before they're about to leave to go to

the ceremony.

And I wanna be able to move and

maneuver and layer stories together.

There's so much crowding in this one hallway

that I'm sure I could have layered something

awesome in there.

But it's really hard to maneuver when I'm

carrying a bag and a light stand and

trying to balance it all.

So this would have been a great time

for an assistant.

Plus we didn't have one that day because

of COVID.

So that's bride prep in a nutshell.

The key thing to keep in mind is

that I'm there for the whole time.

I started at 9.15 in the morning.

I went right till two o'clock and

I was looking and searching and working that

entire time.

I wasn't taking breaks.

And often those really special photos came from

the downtime.

The moments where we didn't think anything was

gonna happen or the moments where there wasn't

anything scripted happening like makeup or dress putting

on and stuff like that.

So hopefully that was helpful and we'll go

on to groom prep next.