by Utah Wedding Photographers JamesErickPhotographyUtah.com
The Winter Silver Lake Bride & Groom Session with Rachel & Brett started a little late, but in the end, we got a lot of amazing pictures!
One of the biggest problems with shooting high in the mountains later in the day is that the sun sets earlier in the mountains than in wider open areas. Ok, I know, the sun sets the same time on any given day, as noted by the sunrise/sunset charts I use for every photo shoot I do. But in the mountains, the peaks and trees are so high that they obscure the sun so that it gets darker earlier than in you were somewhere like Antelope Island where the sun sets on the horizon exactly on time. (I hope that makes sense).
So, the groom showed up about 15 minutes later than our start time, and the bride was late and could not find us right away, so we ended up starting about 40 minutes later than we intended to. That means 40 minutes less time to shoot.
I always tell couples when scheduling sessions that its not my time I’m worried about. But since I cannot control when the sun will go down behind the mountains and therefore the amount of light we have to shoot in, its important to be on time to a photoshoot.
Why does this matter you ask? Ok, technically speaking, I can shoot in the dark if necessary. I have two amazing Mirrorless cameras that do very well in low light. I can even use a flash if necessary. But all the great pictures you see online were taken at the golden hour, about 1 hour prior to sunset, depending on where you are doing the shoot. That when the “Glow’ of the sun is best for skin tones, and for lighting your subjects. Do it earlier than that and your pictures will be very bright and hazy. Do it after that and your pictures will be dark and grainy. That is why if you show up to Tibble Fork on a Saturday at about 1.5 hours prior to sunset, you will see a hundred photographers out there taking pictures. Or any other popular place for that matter.
We can always shoot at any time of the day or night, but there is a small window where the lighting looks the best. Ok, enough about the light lesson. On to the shoot.
When we finally got started, the light was really nice, just at the tree line. Brett was adjusting his tie as Rachel walked up right behind him. It was so beautiful!
I love great first looks. You know, the ones that do not look corny like where the groom falls down or covers his mouth in fake admiration. Real guys just don’t do that in real life. They smile and kiss their bride. Brett is a real guy, and I could tell he absolutely loved the way Rachel looked.
With that said I had extremely limited time to shoot as we also had a great videographer on the shoot, and he needed to get his shots as well. This means that I would shoot, then he would shoot, and so forth. And to make matters worse, we had a lot of ground to cover as Rachel wanted to take pictures in the aspens which were about a 15 minute walk to the other side of the lake.
I like variety in a photo shoot. I have seen photographers stand in one place for 30 minutes and I think to myself, “why did you bother coming all the way up here to get a hundred shots in the exact same spot?” At the same time, I could cover ten different shoot spots, with lots of variety in poses. I think anybody that is professional wants the same thing.
So, yes, I rushed them a little so that we could get lots of amazing shots in lots of different backgrounds with lots of different poses. And so we could get to the Aspens before it was dark.
I loved working with Rachel & Brett. They were very nice and laid back, and we go some amazing pictures in a limited amount of time from the shoot.
The pictures above are just a very few of my favorites from the Winter Silverlake Bride & groom session with Rachel & Brett. Enjoy!
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For more information about James Erick Photography Utah, please visit my website at JamesErickPhotographyUtah.com.