Shooting with Becker in Rhode Island :: Best Halloween Ever

Imagine you're a chef and you get the chance to spend the day at the French Laundry with Thomas Keller... or maybe you're in fashion and you have the opportunity to watch Kate Spade in action...do you see where I'm going with this?

I'm a proud member of the [b] school, a place for professional photographers to hang out, share their images and and connect, all inspired and founded by Becker, an absolutely brilliant wedding photographer from the OC. So imagine my excitement level on Saturday when I got the chance to shoot with Becker when he flew in for a fabulous wedding in Newport, RI. Inku, a fellow [b] schooler from New Jersey was also there - such a great guy.

After I wondered about dropping either my first or last name as a photographer :-) we started shooting:



That's Becker. It's was somewhat surreal watching him in action, I've watched many of the classroom videos and study hall session at the [b] school but the day was kind of like seeing U2 live at the Garden compared to listening to them on your ipod. I really need to stop with the analogies now and get back to the pictures.

Kelley had impeccable taste in shoes - who doesn't love a pair of bright pink Louboutins:



Kelley's younger sister helped her on the way to a relaxed portrait session for the girls:



Stunning!



The ceremony was held at St Augustin's in Newport, RI. Kelley & Larry totally have the "yay! we did it!" look going on:



Loving the large group on the rocks and the perfectly timed bird in the shot:



Did you ever love someone so much that when you kiss them you get butterflies and your toes twitch? The butterflies don't show up in photographs but check out Kelley's toes:



Liking this one:



As we walked back to the trolley from the rocks....



The reception was held at Belle Mer and the attention to detail was amazing,





Yes. That's a spun sugar "G" atop Larry's cake and a "B" on Kelley's:



Becker was incredibly generous to both Inku and me, and one of my favorite parts of shooting alongside someone is that you get to try out a bunch of different things - manual pretty much all day, black and white in camera and lots more.

Midway through the reception Becker looked at the 25lbs or so of equipment I had slung round my neck and shoulders - one camera with a wide angle lens and one with telephoto zoom, both with flash - and kindly asked me if I wasn't killing myself with all the weight around my neck. So for the last hour of so I shot with just my D700 and 85 1.4 lens. Had the ISO at 5000, no flash, and color set to monchromatic. The two images below are pretty much straight out of the camera with a little light noise reduction and subtle sepia tone and I love them.



A truly amazing experience at a beautiful wedding with a superstar photographer!

11 comments

  1. so awesome! thank you so much! that keep off the rocks shot is the bomb. it'll probably be the album cover! thank you, thank you!

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  2. Becker's cufflinks are crackin' me up. Great images!

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  3. Amazing story and outstanding photos! I love the eighth shot - so elegant.

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  4. I love that first one with the [ b ] cufflinks. so awesome. beautiful images!!

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  5. What an incredible experience! I love that last black and white picture= priceless!

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  6. BEAUTIFUL work Leah! What a wonderful experience and thank you for taking us with you with the fab blog post. It must have been a thrill working with [b] and shooting along side with Inku too. The couple look happy, relaxed and gorgeous on their day. I think it's extra special that you had an opportunity to learn while shooting -- it's usually the other way around for you as you bring the rest of us up to speed. [b]ravo!!!

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  7. Beautiful work Leah! So awesome that you had the opportunity to shoot with [b]. I had a similar experience with shooting the reception with him. Not the slinging of equipment, but shooting B&W in camera and a 1.2 lens. Love all of your images!

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  8. Wonderful work! Love the last two shots... way to go on pushing your outer limits!

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  9. hi you guys are perfect together haha best of luck love you both

    your sister
    claire browning

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  10. Excellent post.Thank you........

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