While COVID had the rest of the world shut down and all my weddings were postponed, I was busy working on the back end of my business. Things that I hadn’t been able to get done or put off doing for more fun projects. I completely redesigned my website and refreshed my brand. I know some coding, but I am not a web designer by any stretch of the word, so it took months to complete.
Never Stop Learning
Another aspect I worked on was how to make my photography better. I truly believe that you can never stop learning so I always want to push myself to grow. Countless hours I spent researching new techniques and watching videos from other photographers. My college degree is in photography, but I graduated 10 years ago at this point and obviously technology has grown leaps and bounds in that time. Lots of the information was a good refresher, however I definitely picked up a few new things along the way. So I started planning a boho wedding styled shoot to try out all the things I had learned.
Putting Things in Motion
A few years ago I had bought wireless light triggers (remember Brandon and Claire?), but they were never really reliable so they didn’t get used much. I decided to take the plunge and upgrade my entire lighting system. Holy cow has it made a difference! So naturally I wanted to experiment more before I needed to use them for a paid couple. What better way than to use them at the boho wedding styled shoot! I rented a beautiful, handmade, boho style lace dress and posted a model call on social media for couples. The response was great! I had a really difficult time narrowing down which couple to work with, so I chose two.
Boho Wedding Couple Selection
The first couple, Ali and Nikhat, were married in India. However they still really wanted to have some traditional Western wedding photos as well. The second couple I chose were Alyssa and Enoch. They had hiked to the top of a mountain at sunrise. That’s when Enoch got down on one knee and proposed. Unfortunately they did not have any formal photos celebrating their engagement though. I was so excited to work with all of them and give them the memories that they deserved!
Summer Boho Wedding
All the details of the session continued to come together the closer we got to the date. I made a bouquet from fake flowers in orange and purple. Also I contacted a videographer to work with for the day. She did an amazing job, you can see the video on my experience page. The day of the boho wedding styled shoot was really hot and humid. I was a little nervous at first because the dress has so many layers. I didn’t want Nikhat or Alyssa to be too hot. Both of them were champs though! We laughed so hard capturing their photos.
At the end of the night we even had a guest appearance from a herd of deer. By the time we called it the sun was fully set and we were using our cell phones as flashlights. All the same, we made some beautiful photos that each couple could remember this time in their lives.
Ali & Nikhat
Alyssa & Enoch
These are awesome– styled shoots are a great way to try out different shooting techniques. You did an amazing job! <3