SGirimont Photography Blog: The Stories Behind the Images

Lest you think I’m spending all my time shooting and processing landscape photographs, I thought I’d scatter some of my recent wedding work in here too!

I’d never shot a wedding at the Elk River Touring Center in Slatyfork, West Virginia before, but I made the most of it! This place is wonderful and has it all: great grassy field for a terrific background to the wedding? Check. Fantastic food? Check. A stream to cool your heels (well, freeze your feet off) after a long bike ride through the woods? Check. Wonderful rustic barn and completely rusted wheelbarrow perfect for a quick portrait? Oh most definitely check.

This wall of the barn and the rusty wheelbarrow are the first things I noticed as I pulled up in my car the day before the wedding and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. Since the bride and groom were being traditional in that she didn’t want the groom to see the dress before the wedding, I knew I’d have to do this shot after the ceremony, but before the couple got too involved with the reception. I also knew that the sun was going to be behind the wall when I’d have the opportunity to shoot this image, so I also planned the lighting in advance. (It helps to know where to expect the sun at a given time of day!)

This was a simple shot to set up: I knew I wanted the bride looking at the groom. In my imagination, I pictured her more face-on to the camera, but with her head turned. When I suggested she look at her new husband, she turned her body and I knew I liked the reality I was seeing more than what I had pictured in my mind.

The light is coming from not from the sun but from a single flash unit mounted on a light stand off-camera to the right and triggered by a wireless remote.

Interesting tidbit about the making of this image. When I first saw this wall, the wheelbarrow was leaning against it exactly as you see it in the picture. It was so rusted, I thought it was really a prop set up by the location to enhance the look of the site. Turns out they really use this wheelbarrow and it was missing when it came time to do the shot! A quick search discovered it not too far away and I was able to put it back, but I have to admit, I got worried for a second! The thing’s so rusty, I couldn’t imagine anyone actually using it without breaking it!

Turns out it was sturdier than it looked. I even did a picture with the groom pushing the bride around in the thing later! (We put a towel under her to protect the dress).

Oh, and the picture has been processed using a modified black-and-white conversion technique I’ve been working on. I like it. Toned black-and-white with hints of color under it.

The second image from my Page, Arizona series is of the Horseshoe Bend canyon which is part of the Glen Canyon/Grand Canyon complex. That’s the Colorado River in the picture; upriver to the right takes you to Glen Canyon and Lake Powell, downstream to the left takes you to the Grand Canyon.

Horseshoe Bend is just three miles or so south of Page, just off the highway. It’s an easy half-mile walk from the parking area to the canyon. If you’re ever in the area, I highly suggest stopping to see it. 

For some reason, most images I see of Horseshoe Bend are taken later in the day, when the sun is high enough to shine directly in the canyon. I don’t think this is the best light in which to photograph practically anything, much less something as majestic as what you see in this image.

Dawn is really the time to be taking pictures here. Most people have previously avoided photographing here at dawn because the contrast difference between the sky and the bottom of the canyon is so high it is very difficult to keep detail in both highlights and shadows. Even though digital photography has pretty much made such high-contrast photography incredibly easy, the participants of the workshop I was attending were the only people present at the bend at sunrise. Others began to walk in by the time we were leaving, by which point the best light was already gone.

The image here is a composite of four images: one exposure for the sky (to keep some color in the sky), one for the sun-lit rocks in the background, one for what I call the “dark mid tones” and one for detail in the shadows. The final image was not assembled using high-dynamic-range software per se, but was instead the result of stacking the four images in Photoshop and using masking techniques to utilize the best parts of each separate exposure. Shot with a Canon 5D, 16-35mm f/2.8 lens and a tripod.

Oh, and if you do end up going to see Horseshoe Bend, please stay away from the edge! For this image, I’m not as close to the edge as you’d think: the tripod was fully extended and the camera was looking down from a high position. The sandstone cliffs around Horseshoe Bend wear away in such a way as to cause the surface rock to hang over the edge like a diving board hangs over a swimming pool. The weight of a person is all it takes to cause the rock to break off and it’s a long way down. I’ve seen pictures of people sitting on the edge; please don’t do this.