As mentioned in the original blog post, Tammy and I really wanted our shoot to stand out. We wanted something unique that we hadn’t tried before.
After our initial decision to go underwater with the shoot, we began to conceptualize what the images may look like, and what it would take to make them.
We bought a Ewa Marine Housing from B&H Photo in New York after reading many, many reviews, rented the local pool, and off we went!

This shoot proved to be so much more challenging then we had anticipated for a few reasons. I had not thought at all about how damn hard it is to see through a plastic housing underwater while treading and trying to keep focus. Tammy had totally overlooked the fact that she wasn’t all that comfortable underwater for more then a couple seconds at a time. She also now had this thing(baby Cohen) in her belly that really wanted to float. On top of that, we had decided to drop in a black backdrop in the water. We totally overlooked the fact the jets would keep shooting the backdrop away from the wall. This required a lot of little weights to hold it down.

Our biggest challenge however was the lighting. We had planned and prepared to use pocket wizards(radio triggers) to fire the Alien Bee lights that were up on the deck down into the water. The wizards worked just fine until I brought the antenna underwater. As soon as they were submerged, they would not fire, thus, limiting me to only going underwater with the camera itself, but only far enough that the trigger stayed just above the water.

In the end, we were very happy with our first attempt at underwater photography, and we can’t wait to apply this to a destination wedding where we can photograph an underwater trash the dress session in the Ocean!

Daylia, the aspiring photographer and my assistant Gerald

Below is one of the “most voted” images from our original blog post. You can also see the entire underwater photo session HERE.

Camera Settings:

ISO: 200
Aperture: 8
Shutter: 1/125
White Balance: Flash

Beth and her now husband Glenn chose to do a “first look” on their wedding day. For those unfamiliar with the term, a “first look” is when the bride and groom see each other for the first time prior to the ceremony. I do realize this breaks what some consider a tradition on the wedding day, however, if you do your research, you’ll learn that the traditional of not seeing each other until the ceremony comes from the days of arranged marriages. It is said that the bride and groom didn’t see each other until the ceremony in the case that they didn’t find each other attractive, and ran!

Not only that, but choosing to do a first look will allow you to have ample time to do amazing bride and groom creative images and wedding party photos with your photographer. Quite simply, it allows the day to go smooth, and you have more time to enjoy it, and truly soak in your day!

Here’s what Beth has to say:

“After locking down our venue, our date, and Brent & Tammy as our photographers, the next thing we tried to sort out was the timing. How would we organize ourselves, our wedding party, our guests, our caterer, and be able to get everything done in one day?

A possible idea we found was to do what’s called a “first look” with our photographers. We didn’t know much about it, but soon learned that it was becoming an acceptable alternative to the traditional schedule. A first look would allow us to do all of our wedding party pictures before our ceremony, thus eliminating the hours of boredom and dead space for our guests between our vows and our reception.

We spoke with Brent about it, and he was completely on board, and highly recommends it to all his clients. He also mentioned a couple of things we hadn’t thought of. The first being that we didn’t have to do wedding photos near the ceremony, we would be able to do them wherever we wanted to and could take advantage of better light in a better location. The second thing being that we could enjoy cocktail hour with our guests, after having a private part of the day just for us. Thankfully we weren’t a hard sell, so we agreed to do a First Look. It was a bit harder to convince our parents, but we are very glad that we defended this choice whenever we had to.

On the Big Day, we met with each other and our wedding party at a local park. Brent arranged it so that Glenn waited amongst the branches of a willow tree, while our wedding party was off in the distance. I came around behind my husband, and he slowly turned to see me for the first time. The joyful and surprised reaction was amazing, and a moment he and I will share forever. It was important for me to have some moments just for us on our big day, and this was definitely one of those. It also let us express our emotions however we wanted, something you can’t really do while coming down the aisle.

The rest of the photos speak for themselves, as I’m sure you can see. We were so relaxed that we could really sink into each photo together on the biggest day of our lives. We didn’t have to worry about the finer points of our guests, caterers, the band, the cakes, etc as it all felt miles away.

While I can appreciate a bride’s wish to have her husband and all guests see her coming down the aisle in a grande reveal, I can assure you that doing a first look doesn’t lessen that moment at all. Maybe my husband would have teared up a bit more, but since he tends to be a vocal guy, he leaves the tears to me… and I assure you, I still teared up the moment I turned the corner and saw his smiling face awaiting my arrival at our alter.”

A huge thanks to Beth for writing this guest post for us. No one can say it better than a bride who has been there and done that!

Definitely check out Beth and Glenn’s wedding if if you haven’t already done so. It’s filled with amazingly detailed do it yourself decor.

Below you will see a short video Beth’s sister shot as we were doing the first look. Her sister took this on her point and shoot digital camera from where they were standing in the distance. Beth says she imagines she wouldn’t have gotten the same reaction if her husband had seen her at the end of an aisle

First Look from Beth W. on Vimeo.

We rented a pool, bought an underwater housing for our Canon 5d Mark II, set up lights, a backdrop in the water, and thought it would be a relatively easy but very unique shoot. Boy were we wrong.

We have a whole new respect for underwater photography. From a) not being able to see anything to b) not being sure if the housing will keep the 8 or so thousand dollars of equipment dry to c) trying to hold our breath long enough, lock in focus, get the lights set up properly, and last but not least, getting a woman who’s pregnant to sink:) All of that being said, we are totally happy with the way our first ever underwater shoot went. We learned a lot, and are really excited about the results. Not quite as excited as were are to meet baby Cohen late February/early March!

Enjoy the pics!

-Brent and Tammy

Amy and Lee celebrated their marriage with a New Year’s Eve wedding at the Caboto Club followed by a reception and dance party to ring in 2012 at the Serbian Centre in Windsor, Ontario. It was an awesome way to ring in the New Year. Thanks Amy and Lee for choosing us to tell the story of your day!

Enjoy the pics!

-Brent and Tammy

Dress: Bridal Couture
DJ: Party Mix Entertainment
Cake: Edith LeChien
Reception: Serbian Centre
Ceremony: Caboto Club
Ceremony Musician: Nino Palazollo
Decorating: Milestone Weddings

Welcome to our crazy family Gertrude. We couldn’t be more excited to have you join us.

We spent the day together photographing their engagement session at Point Pelee National Park. It was a cold but awesome day.
Thanks Brittany and Mike to choosing us as your wedding photographers. We can’t wait to photograph your wedding at Willistead Manor in the spring!

Enjoy the pics!

-Brent (and Tammy)

Have an awesome holiday!

-Brent and Tammy

We photographed Mrs. M as a surprise for her hubby on their wedding day. We met her at the amazing Retro Suites Hotel in Chatham, Ontario and spent a Sunday afternoon making images.

The results below were printed in a beautiful small leather album, and given as gift on her wedding day.

Enjoy!

-Brent and Tammy