Wedding Favors

Couples put so much planning into their wedding, that sometimes it just amazes me! One thing that some couples do is provide wedding favors for their guests. They are not required of course, but some couples choose to have them. Often they're just fun treats, like custom printed M&M's or custom wrapped Altoids or something like that. Occasionally however, the couple goes a little above and beyond. I wanted to share a few examples of some of the more unique favors I've seen over the years.

Steven and Jennifer chose to have custom wrapped Jones soda's for their guests. To get your own custom Jones soda's all you have to do is go to their website. They had a variety of flavors on each table, which were a colorful addition.



Theo and Suzanne had some custom labeled salsa for each guest. They had a light southwest theme to their reception and these were an attractive addition to the tables. As a bonus, you could have used it right then if you chose, to go along with some of the fabulous food they had.



Erin and Brandon had some of my favorite favors of all time! Erin's mom had recently finished training as a chef and just got her licensing for her own catering business. As a labor of love, she prepared custom chocolate dipped caramel apples for each guest. You should know that there was not an apple left when the guests departed! They were very well received.

This first one is a white chocolate dipped caramel apple that had white chocolate piping to represent the bridal gown.



If you didn't get a "bride" apple, you got a chocolate dipped caramel apple "groom" in his tuxedo. If you know anything about caramel apples you know that they're fairly perishable, so they can't be prepared two weeks in advance. Erin's mom is a treasure - not only did she make about 175 apples the week of the wedding, but she also made the wedding cake. Now, that is love.

DC Weddings

One of the challenges of being a wedding photographer in the Washington, D.C. area is the Federal Government. It's not uncommon to get a bride or groom who works for the Secret Service or works in security software for the government or is employed in some other similar line of work. These are clients who have security clearances and rules and regulations in their lives, in addition to those the rest of us live with on a regular basis.

The challenge for me is the limitations the government employee places on me due to his or her work. I cannot use their image in any promotional or public display. I cannot post their images on my blog, or on my website, in my printed portfolio, in a DVD to show to potential clients or enter it in any photography competition.

So, sometimes, it might look as though my portfolios are heavy on the females - it's because I can't show the males (so far my personal experience has only been restricted males, but I'm sure some women will come along)! I've had to get creative in showing the "couple" when this situation arises.

Here we have Mr. & Mrs. X during their first dance. They are such a lovely couple, I wish I could show you something besides his back!

Next we have an intimate image of a couple looking at their rings right after the ceremony, in a private room for a private moment.

Finally, a detail shot of a groom's wedding band. He's a handsome man, but this is all I can share...

Now, those that know me know that I love detail images. The bride and groom spend so much time planning their wedding celebration. I want to capture all those difficult decisions they made to create a day that reflects all they love. So, while I might wish I could show you more of the couples, at least I can share a few details from their wedding.

Hand Colored Prints

Back in the days of the darkroom, and especially before color film came into existence, if you wanted an image in color, it had to be hand-tinted. This was a special process - you had to use fiber paper and special transparent paints. The transparent paints would allow the details below to show through. Also, darker or shadowed areas would be darker underneath the paint, giving depth to the image. This process is still in existence, though fewer and fewer people do it. You actually have to have a film negative and a darkroom to do it. The print had to be prepared with a special solution prior to painting, which enabled you to remove the paint if you made a mistake. Mixing colors was also part of the process, trying to get the look you wanted. Below is an example of an actual hand-tinted print I've made. I enlarged the original negative (from 1942!), printed it on fiber paper and hand-tinted it. This is actually my mother on her honeymoon. I love how you can see the reflection of the mountains on the side of the car. The car was not originally that color red either! That's the beauty of hand-tinting, you can pick whatever color you want.



These days, most hand-tinting is done on the computer. I'm sure you could use several programs, but I use Photoshop to do this. The beauty of Photoshop is that you can play with colors all the day long - even after you paint, you can alter them. The print below is for a friend - she asked me to hand-tint this image of her grandmother from an unknown decade - probably the 20's or 30's. It's still a work in progress, but you can sense that old-time feel. The challenge of this image is all the greenery. If hand-tinting is something that interests you, I would suggest you chose images that have simple backgrounds. The original photograph was taken in Florida and is a little soft or unfocused. Because I do not have the original negative to print, I scanned the copy my friend had and went from there. The trickiest part of hand-tinting, whether with paint or Photoshop, is skin tones. Generally, you'll find that most artists will keep the skin tones very low-key, as shown here. The one big disadvantage to scanning prints is quality. With a negative, you can enlarge it quite a bit. When you scan an image, the image is the same size as the item you scanned. So, while you can enlarge it a bit, you are limited because it will start pixelating if you try and make it too much larger than the print you're scanning. Of course, the higher the resolution of your scan, the better the print quality will be and the more options you'll have for enlarging.



It's funny, even though technology has raced forward, we still love and appreciate some of the older arts - we just find new ways to create them!

Wedding Albums

I got a call today from a gentleman asking me if I could create a wedding album for him and his wife from their wedding 25 years ago. The answer is Yes! He mentioned that he didn't see any albums on my website and I realized that I didn't have any examples of album pages on my website. So I thought I'd post a couple of random pages from wedding albums to give an idea of what wedding albums are like today.

Gone are the matted wedding albums from 20 years ago. Actually, you can still get them, but not very many people do. The wedding albums of today are known as "storybook" albums and they're a digital layout of sometimes multiple images created and laid out to tell the story of the day.

I use albums from two different companies - AsukaBook and GraphiStudio. AsukaBook is based in Oregon and is a high-end coffee-table style book. GraphiStudio is located in Italy and has more of the feel of a traditional album, but the covers and insides are not what you expect from a traditional album. Both books are high quality and beautiful to hold and look at.

Here are a few pages from different albums. When you look at these you have to remember that there is a page break between them - they're two pages, like you're looking at an open book and this is a two page spread.

This is Karen and Brian during their first dance.

This is Kate getting ready for the wedding in Baltimore at the Inner Harbor.

This is Carole Ann and Jon during a shoot before the reception at the Kentlands.

This is Susan and Harry. They got married in California, but had a beautiful family reception at their lovely home in Potomac, MD.

Not everyone wants an album and I don't require my clients to purchase one. Some people say they will make their own, and some of them do. But, if you're not the creative graphic type, then you might want to consider having one professionally prepared for you. It will last a lifetime and is wonderful to look through and share with others. It's not that easy to share your wedding images when you're shuffling through hundreds of prints. I also offer parent albums, so your family can have a copy of your album as well, in a smaller version!

This is Art & Bev. I shot their portrait a couple of years ago and they're just such nice people and I love this image. This is the second image I have on display in the Monuments of Faith Photography exhibit at the Visitor's Center (see previous post for more info on that).

Our photo shoot was for a Christmas card image and they wanted their dog, Buddy, in the shot too. Buddy was less than cooperative, especially when they put him in the Santa outfit. You see, Buddy hadn't been neutered yet, and all that sitting still was just too much, ever for just 2 seconds - he had an entire new yard and house to investigate and smell.




Things got a little better once Art put on the Santa hat, but I never was able to get Buddy to actually look at the camera. I guess I needed a dog treat on my camera. The next time I shot a dog, I did it at the dog's house, and it went much better!

The Beginning

Welcome to Hollyhocks Photography, the Blog. I am new to blogging but look forward to keeping you posted with my happenings.

Currently, I have two images on display in a photography exhibit at the Washington DC Temple Visitors Center in Kensington, MD. This is a juried show and I'm pleased to have two images chosen for this limited engagement display. The show runs through Sept. 7, 2008.

This is Hillary and Rick at St. John's College in Annapolis, MD. This is one of the images on display currently at the Visitor's Center. They are a fun couple who appreciate photography and built time into their wedding day for a long photo session before their reception. The campus is lovely and we had a wonderful time moving around to different locations for some great portraits. Rick had attended college at St. John's and it was a lovely location for a reception. Hillary and Rick moved to New York City after the wedding.