Kelly + Bill’s Dewey Beach Wedding at the Hyatt Place

I had been looking forward to Kelly + Bill’s wedding since we met in my studio over a year ago, and with good reason: they’re amazing people, their venue choice was fantastic and meaningful to them, and a number of my former wedding clients were in attendance (shout out to Melissa + Rob and Carina + Rob!).

I also had the pleasure of joining up with an incredible photographer, Chuck Anerino, to help capture the day. Not only was his work remarkable, but his professionalism and attitude was truly outstanding. In addition, my command center administrator (aka the DP swiss army knife), Kelly, joined me at a wedding for the first time. She seriously made everything possibly by doing so much behind the scenes stuff with lighting and gear that she’s the unsung hero of a lot of the technical beauty in our imagery. Notice the backlight in many of the reception images? That wasn’t a lucky accident – she was a human light stand playing a real game of ninja, trying to keep the subject between her and the camera.

First, soak in their Cinema Highlight film here: https://vimeo.com/171966807. Photography and film nerds: the slow motion (and all of the 70-200 shots) were filmed with the new Canon 1Dx Mark II at 120fps at 1080p. I’d preordered it when it was announced in January 2016, and it finally shipped out the first week in May – just in time for this wedding. I know a camera doesn’t take anything without a photographer – it is just a tool – but this proved to be a particularly valuable tool that I began leveraging right away, using the servo video tracking, high frame rate video, high ISO capabilities, low-light autofocus, 14 frames per second burst mode, and even the weather sealing when it started to rain.

Ok, nerd goggles off. We got ready in adjacent rooms on the balcony of the Hyatt Place in Dewey Beach, Delaware. Kelly and Bill had their first look on the pier outside the Rusty Rudder, and Chuck went all ninja to get to a perfectly perpendicular vantage point on a separate dock. Incredibly, a flock of geese passed overhead right as they turned towards each other, and Chuck captured it with his Leica monochrome. The rain made an appearance just as we got to the beach for the ceremony, hung around for a while to lend some character to our wedding (and provide us with a few of our favorite frames of the day), then settled down, leaving clouds overhead but bright light on the horizon opposite the water, providing beautiful, diffused, yet directional light (sorry, I said I wouldn’t nerd it up but I can’t help myself). Seriously, it’s like we called in a favor to the big Guy – we captured some silhouettes and portraits that don’t look real… but indeed, they’re real. And they’re spectacular. (Get the reference? Anyone? Buhler?)

The rest of the night was non-stop action. All the toasts made everyone laugh, then cry, then laugh again. The dances were emotional and beautiful. They had an artist hand-painting a picture of their first dance. There were cake pops. Then we saw the sunset. We promptly stole Kelly and Bill and went outside for a photo romp. Taco Toss (you’ll get it below) was a fun one. Then we ventured to the beach. And naturally, I decided that I needed to be in the water. So off came my shoes and socks and up went my pants and into the water went Daniel.

While I was in the water, I also enjoyed a friendly encounter with a horseshoe crab! And by “enjoyed” I mean “was traumatized by” and by “friendly” I mean “terrifying” and by “a horseshoe crab” I mean “a not-immediately-identified sea creature that just bumped into my foot”. I simply yelled, “some poo’s come out!”, and kept shooting. It was a lovely opportunity to help the portraits not feel posed.

By the end of the night, everyone was still there – seriously, look at the dance floor in the final images. Unreal. They exited the venue to a bicycle cart thing, piloted by Carrot Top himself! (I later discovered the disappointing truth that the bike fellow was named Jonathan. I then cried a single tear and curled up in bed). Jonathan drove them to the afterparty and I believe everyone is just wrapping up there now.

Enjoy:

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