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Real Life Wedding Moment Contest Winner


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<p>And the winner of <a name="photo_net_photographer_intervi" href="http://links.mkt691.com/ctt?kn=74&m=4620916&r=NjU1NzU1OTgyMgS2&b=0&j=MTY2OTMwMTk1S0&mt=1&rt=0">Marcus Bell’s</a> Real Life Wedding Moment Contest is…<a name="photo_net_photodb_user_us_1" href="http://links.mkt691.com/ctt?kn=22&m=4620916&r=NjU1NzU1OTgyMgS2&b=0&j=MTY2OTMwMTk1S0&mt=1&rt=0">Don Harper</a>! Don will receive the <a name="us_photographersresources_com_" href="http://links.mkt691.com/ctt?kn=9&m=4620916&r=NjU1NzU1OTgyMgS2&b=0&j=MTY2OTMwMTk1S0&mt=1&rt=0">Marcus Bell Master Collection (effects and actions), value $695USD</a>. Congrats!</p>

<p>“Don’s photograph captured a wonderful moment with some incredible expressions. The image has impact and tells a wonderful story of the ritual of throwing the garter. He has been able to use a mixture of lighting either by good fortune of timing or by remote triggering, which ever way it further enhances the impact of the image to the viewer.” -Marcus</p>

<p>More about Don: Don works in the Northern Virginia, Washington, DC area from his studio The Edge Photography Studio in Historic Leesburg. He sponsors photography and Photoshop workshops in his Leesburg studio on a regular basis. Don currently focuses on creative Portraits and Weddings. He’s had the privilege of having fashion photographer Richard Warren critique his portfolio and also attended workshops with Will Crocket and Bambi Cantrell.</p>

<p>Marcus also picked 3 honorable mentions:</p>

<ul>

<li><a name="photo_net_photodb_user_us_2" href="http://links.mkt691.com/ctt?kn=23&m=4620916&r=NjU1NzU1OTgyMgS2&b=0&j=MTY2OTMwMTk1S0&mt=1&rt=0">Melissa Papaj</a>: A Mothers Love Never Ends (Salt Lake City, Utah wedding photographer) </li>

<li><a name="photo_net_photodb_user_us_3" href="http://links.mkt691.com/ctt?kn=17&m=4620916&r=NjU1NzU1OTgyMgS2&b=0&j=MTY2OTMwMTk1S0&mt=1&rt=0">Jay Philbrick</a>: Departure (New Hampshire wedding photographer) </li>

<li><a name="photo_net_photodb_user_us_4" href="http://links.mkt691.com/ctt?kn=18&m=4620916&r=NjU1NzU1OTgyMgS2&b=0&j=MTY2OTMwMTk1S0&mt=1&rt=0">David Moses</a>: Shy Bridesmaid (Dumfries and Galloway UK wedding photographer) </li>

</ul>

<p>Thanks to everyone who participated!</p><div>00XcPP-297977684.jpg.59a7fb1149e9e4293e3ae57df02679e0.jpg</div>

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<p>Thanks Marcus, your photography is always an inspiration and I appreciate your agreeing to judge this competition.<br>

There are a number of good photos here and I was just fortunate to pick the one that made a connection this time. It's always hard to choose what to submit.<br>

More later, I'm in a bit of a time crunch but wanted to make a quick acknowlegement of the results.</p>

<p>Don</p>

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<p>Congratualtions Don! I knew when I saw yours it was definitely a winner. As for you Marcus, I have to tell you that last year I was at WPPI when you gave your presentation. I sat in the front row, crying and could not believe how simply amazing you were. I learned so much from you but more than that left feeling so inspired. Thank you, thank you, thank you!</p>
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Congratulations Don! Marcus must have had a tough job of it, but in the end all selected were worthy winners :) Jay, I especially loved your capture! Congrats too, to Melissa and David.

<p>Thanks Nadine for setting this up and for your superb work of moderating this forum.

<p>We should have themed competitions more often. Not necessarily involving prizes although those are always nice ;-) Perhaps have a "Photographers' Choice Award" every couple of months so PNetters can vote for their favourite wedding image every so often.

<p>Finally Nadine, have you archived the entries for posterity?

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<p>Thank you to everyone at Photo.net who was involved in putting this on and thanks also to Marcus for being willing to be the judge. There were a lot of terrific images entered and I loved Don's image. Great choice, Marcus! As far as specifics for my entry, I was excited to see this type of departure from the church. I don't see these much. It was also nice to see a lot of strong emotion and to have captured an image that to me seemed to capture the departure so well, everyone involved, happy, excited, and not taking photos but participating in the moment.</p>

<p>The scene was strongly backlit from camera left and and the people on the right were in shadow. I set an exposure that would allow plenty of shadow detail on the right while not letting the left side go too bright. I shot this with the camera in manual with just a puff of flash with the strobe in TTL. I did a couple quick test shots before the couple came out and then when they did just fired away. I was lucky to catch a great moment between the bride and groom and all the guests in the images participating and looking happy.</p>

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<p>Sorry for the delay in providing details but I've been traveling with very limited internet access.<br>

Regarding this photo, here are the specs:<br>

Shot with Nikon D3, 24-70mm lens at 24mm, f2.8 and ISO 800 1/60 second. Camera was mounted on custom bracket. Lighting is front from SB-800 on bracket with fong lightsphere. Auto white-balance.<br>

Backlighting is from Sunpack 122J on lightstand at chest height with pocket wizard to trigger.<br>

Luck was that somone was in front of the Sunpack to provide diffused backlighting. The custom bracket allows me to move the strobe a bit higher from the camera and also plug in pocket wizard for firing off camera strobe.<br>

The only real PS work done was a bit of high-pass filter to give the image more of an illustrative look while emphasis is placed on the personalities and expressions of the people.<br>

I attended a WPPI conference about 9 years ago with the intention of learning more about studio photography. Instead I was blown away by presentations from a number of Australian wedding photographers. I was hooked. What they brought to the US photography community since than has totally changed wedding photography in the this country and around the world. Marcus Bell is a member of that group that just blows me away. Each of these gentlemen has a unique style and a demand that we raise the bar on what a bride should expect from her wedding photographer. I owe a big time debt to people like Marcus, David Williams, Yervant and Jerry Ghonis for showing me the possiblities of creative wedding photography and knowing how to develop my own style. Although I've not spent time with Marcus as I have with several others I've seen him judge print competitions and love his critiques of people's work.</p>

<p>Thanks Marcus, this is very special, and thanks to others in this competition that made it a challenge to win, I saw some great images here.</p>

<p>Don Harper<br>

The Edge Photography Studio</p>

 

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<p>Just some background about my entry</p>

<p>Nikon D700 - 24-70 f2.8 @ 52mm - 1/80 sec - ISO 280</p>

<p>The scene - on a very dark, windy and wet day during bridal preparations. Large window to camera left and tungsten ambient room light for the rest. I was kneeling by the bed just to get a shot of the bride doing her makeup (from the same angle) when the bridesmaid stepped into the window light and gave a twirl (which also made a lovely shot). Then she took a fit of shyness/thoughtfulness, which allowed me to capture her beautiful expression.</p>

<p>Post Work - I had underexposed in my rush to get the shot, but that actually worked in my favour, keeping detail in her dress, although it left the rest of the scene quite muddy. A couple of curves layers (using the individual colour channels) followed by a hue/saturation layer in order to get the colour right. A dodge layer for skin on the shadow side. A levels layer altering the shadow output. Then a final curves layer (RGB channel this time) underneath the previous layers in order to bring the shadows up whilst maintaing highlight integrity. It sounds like a lot when I write it down but it isn't really (most of it's done by an action).</p>

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<p>Hi everyone - Sorry I haven't been on here since. Had my heart surgery on Monday and got home last night, so I now just checked my email. Thanks Nadine for your email :)<br>

I shot my entry with a Nikon D700, with my 24-70 2.8 lens. I always shoot the brides and grooms while hugging their parents and got kind of lucky with this one. It was a bright sunny September day but we were in the shade. Not really much else. It was our nanny's wedding so I knew the people a little more, but other than that, a typical Utah wedding :)</p>

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