Wedding • What One Roll of Film Looks Like

A lost art in digital photography is the need for a film photographer to time his or her shots so that one doesn't have to change film rolls in the middle of the action. I knew this event was about to happen, so I ensured my Leica had a fresh roll of 36 exposure Tri-x ready to go. I really enjoyed seeing this roll after I developed it as it tells the whole story in 36 frames. The first two and the last two shots could have been done with one shot, but hindsight is 20/20. Out of all of these I could narrow it down to four or five shots in the final presentation, but it's nice to see them all in sequence. The roll was shot with a Leica MP with a motor winder and a fixed 21.mm lens. I especially enjoyed this couple, by the way, and maybe made some new friends. Click here to see one roll or Tri-x.

Engagement • Claire & Graham • The Silver Room, Woman's Athletic Club • Chicago

I'll be photographing Claire and Graham's wedding late September at Chicago registered landmark Woman's Athletic Club. We met there recently to do a walk through and I ended up photographing them in various rooms throughout the building. It's a beautiful place, designed with a Persian theme. My favorite room is titled The Silver Room and is decorated with beautiful silver wall paper, as pictured in the first photos above.

Kids • Dora & Dan • Maternity

I photographed Dan and Dora's wedding about a year ago and wouldn't you know it, they are expecting their first baby any day now. They asked if I would document the baby over the next year and I was honored. My wife and I shot these last week and Dora ended up having the baby a few days later. I'm excited to shoot the newborn over the next week or so. Click here to see what we've done so far... Update: Dan and Dora had a beautiful baby girl. Click here to see the shots I took a few weeks later.

Barry Phipps, International Wedding Photographer

Wow. I was really excited to shoot my first overseas wedding a few weeks ago. The wedding was in the countryside of Sweden in the very small town of Osaby. It was an amazingly beautiful location and the light was incredible. The wedding was in an old mansion that the bride and groom rented for three days and all of the guests stayed there. It was nice to have a room and be part of the family for three days. The ceremony was in a 16th century church a few miles down the road. My wife came along as my second photographer and we had more fun photographing the wedding than we did when we went to Stockholm and Copenhagen a few days later. Thanks to Dora and Dan for choosing us to photograph this amazing event. Click here to view a slideshow of the wedding.

Jose Villa Workshop

If you don’t know of Jose Villa’s work then you should stop reading this and take a look at his work right now. He’s an amazing talented photographer who shoots mostly weddings and kids. I think that the challenge of weddings for a photographer is to make images that appeal to people beyond the couple, their family and guests. Jose’s images are so stunning that they transcend their original use, like Richard Avedon, Irving Penn or Annie Leibovitz’s commercial work. In terms of technique, Jose shoots all film, mostly with a medium format Contax 645. He tends to overexpose his images by at least one stop to add a bit of pastel like softness to the images. Anyway, if you are not a photographer then I’ll not bore you with more technical stuff and if you are a photographer then you should take one of his workshops, as I just did one month ago today. Jose lives in the wine country near Santa Barbara, where the light and the scenery is beautiful. The workshop was about six hours of discussion on everything from technique to marketing, followed by a photo shoot where all photographers were treated to shooting side by side with Jose in a beautiful location during the “magic hour”. All the photographers at the workshop took turns shooting very photogenic models in a perfect situation. Click here to see some of the photos I took. If you like the look of the photos it’s mostly because I shot them at the right time of the day. A big part of Jose’s success is that he fights hard to insure that the timing of the day is centered around photographing during the best light. The other part of his success is that he is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. The make up was done by Mar at TEAM and Flowers by Renae's Bouquet