To get back to the packaging. I really like the movie The Sound of Music. In that movie is a song that contains the line “brown paper packages, tied up with strings”. Well, those packages would look something like this.

So, the first photo is taken by one of the guests at the wedding. In this photo you can see what most people would have seen if they had been there. A good camera in automatic-mode is very capable of capturing a moment like this.

The following photo shows you what I saw. No, I’m not color blind. But this photo does portray the vision that I had before I took this photo. When I was there I saw “hard light”, or in other words very defined transitions between shadow and light. By setting the camera up the right way I made sure that the photo would show relevant details in the right places, for example on the dress. In addition to that I made sure that the background was out of focus so you wouldn’t be distracted by all sorts of unimportant things in the background. Later, behind my computer, I finished that vision by, among other things, making certain parts of the photo lighter or darker. The photo below depicts what I had in mind, what I imagined, when I saw that tree on that lawn and asked Jeroen and Shuxia to sit down in front of the tree.

So, what did I want to show in this blog. That having a DSLR camera is not enough to make a good photo. Both these photos were taken with one of those fancy cameras. Vision, technique and the right skills are much more important than the camera that was used to capture the moment.

So why was this one of my favorite weddings of the year? Well, mainly because we just had lots of fun.

I want to talk a about a certain photo shoot location. Now of course we had lots of fun and made a lot of good photos at a lot of great locations in 2011. But, of all the locations that I’ve done photo shoots at this past year, one location really stands out in my mind. The reason for this is that initially I didn’t think this location was going to produce very good photos. OK, let me back up a little bit. The location I’m talking about is an antique shop. To be precise La Folie Antiek in ‘s Hertogenbosch. Now for some reaseon, when my clients suggested an antique store as the photo shoot location I was thinking about some old dark store with low ceilings and little windows. So naturally I was a bit apprehensive about it to say the least.

But, when I walked into the store, my attitude changed. This place was great! It has high ceilings, lots of light, and great features all over the place. Totally not what I expected, but definitely something we could work with. And it did work out really nice. Even more so because the location was also a very fitting extension of the personality of the couple.

Here are a couple of photos taken at this awesome location.

A while ago I got to photograph the wedding of a couple that made their own wedding cake. I thought that was pretty special. On top of their cake they printed a poem with edable letters. That was one of the most special cakes of this year for sure. But, I chose another wedding cake as the highlight of the year.

When I first saw this wedding cake I was really impressed. I had heard before from the bride and groom that the cake would be made by his grandma and aunt. So, I made sure that taking photos of the cake before it was cut, was pretty high on my mental todo list of the day. So, when I first saw the cake I really loved the look of it. It actually is a quite simple, as far as any wedding cake can ever be called simple, three layer cake. But the fresh fruit that is draped on and around the cake, and the fruit juice that is coming down, it just looks really good. Truly one of those cakes that you just want to eat a piece of right away. Really very creative. Simple yet very special, and it tasted just as good as it looks!

All wedding cereomonies are filled with emotion. Sometimes humor is the most prevelant emotion. Sometimes tears are flowing. Every ceremony is different and unique. The photo below was taken during the wedding ceremony of a couple that is a little bit older than most people that are getting married. The wedding was a very intimate affair. There were only five guests! The ceremony took place in the beautiful snug basement of the old city hall of Oirschot, in Brabant in the Netherlands. The couple was married by a good friend. Because the group was so small I did not feel like I was someone who merely was looking in from the side line to take photos. I felt like I was one of the guests. It might sound a bit strange but I really felt privileged to be part of this select group of people that were allowed to be present on the day that was so very special for this couple.

The embrace in the photo took place right after the groom read a self made poem his bride to be. During the reading of the poem they both had to really strain to keep their tears from flowing uncontrollably. When he was done with his recitation, this beautiful embrace followed. When I look at it I can just feel the emotion that erupted at this moment. I am very happy that I was allowed to be there to capture this precious moment.

Here are some photos from the first week of November when we took our little ones out for a walk through our, then still colorful, neighbourhood park.

Before we get to the photos I want to give a shout-out to Starlight Licht & Geluid, who did a great job DJing the party. These guys rock! And now for the photos.

[Edit:] I almost forgot (OK, I completely forgot. Thanks Hermine) the cake was made by Il Pasticcino in Bladel.