Federer Photography – Minnesota Wedding Photographers (and babies too!)

Eric and Emily : Rainy Wedding on Minnetonka

It was supposed to rain all day on Emily and Eric’s wedding. Not that I’d ever wish rain on someone’s wedding day, but when that happens I certainly get a chance to get unique shots… and you really just have to make the best of it. And Eric and Emily really did… Their willingness to spend a few minutes out in the rain (some of which was umbrella-less in a deluge) was awesome. It’s not often I basically get told “whatever, I don’t care if we get wet” by a bride on her wedding day…. I’ll post more some other time, but for now this image makes me happy.

It’s better larger. Click for a bigger version.

Minnetonka Minnesota Wedding Photograph

For you photo nerds out there: The image was taken with a D800 on a tripod, f/3.2, 70-200 f/2.8 @ 70mm and a 1/13th shutter with a remote SB800 at full power* with a wide angle diffuser on a stand behind them (triggered with a radio popper PX signal from my SB900 on camera), this got me the majority of the image which was then composited with a few other frames/images taken at longer (1 second) shutters and deeper DoF (f/11) to fill out the scene and give it some depth. Mix (screen mode FTW) in PS to taste… obviously.
*the flash duration of the SB800 at 1:1 is 1/1050th … I think this is why the rain is slightly ‘comet-looking’. I think a higher ISO and resulting lower flash power would get a much shorter flash duration (getting to 1:4 power gets you down to 1/2700th duration) and really get the rain to ‘freeze’ better..

Justin and Richard: Wedding Photographs

Richard was a roommate of mine about a decade ago in college; this alone would have made it a special honor to be selected to photograph his and Justin’s wedding. The fact he was instrumental in the legalization of gay marriage in Minnesota was just the cherry on top. The fact Justin rocks and has a laugh that can make the whole room smile was like the extra dollop of whip cream. 😉 These two are absolutely perfect together: Schrambom!
These two had a beautiful wedding, with, no joke, the best musical experience (Justin’s specialty) I’ve ever heard at a wedding ceremony. The outpouring of support and appreciation was truly a humbling site to behold. I’m not ashamed to admit, I took a few of these photographs while looking through tears.

St. Paul Minnesota Wedding Photograph St. Paul Minnesota Gay Wedding Photograph Minneapolis Minnesota Gay Wedding Photographer .

New Baby Photography Portfolio

We finally are getting around to re-doing our portfolios – after almost 3 years! *hangs head in shame*

We actually plan an entire website revamp for mid-December (yeah, we are still using Flash… sadface), but it’s the images that matter so we did that first.

Colleen and I figured the baby ‘side’ of Federer Photography was the most out-of-date, so with the help of some voting friends (it’s so hard to be impartial with cute kids!), we can now happily say we’ve updated our baby, newborn, and maternity portfolio. Score. Here is a quick preview of the new images — head over to our baby photography site to see them bigger!

Unique newborn photographs in Minnesota Creative Baby Photography in Minneapolis .

Minneapolis Wedding Photograph

No, for real… it’s not just an SEO term. It’s really just a Wedding Photograph… and a photograph of Minneapolis. What… google? Naw….

Karin and Kris got married this past weekend at the St. Anthony Main Event Center. I’ll post more later, but I I wanted to get something on the blog sooner and I really wanted to share this image.

Non-photographers might not realize this but the 10 minute period right before the sky goes black is a magical time for getting some really striking images; particularly with the style I like to create in. Unfortunately, during summer, this small window of time almost invariably falls during speeches or the first dances or is when the bride and groom are inextricably buried in a pile of well wishes. (as they should be!) So I was really happy when speeches ended at just the right time and there was a brief lull before the first dance. I suggested to Karin, “Hey, if we go outside right now for 30 seconds we can create something really cool”. She was trusting and willing (which is a feat in-and-of-itself given it was a billion degrees outside) and said, “If you think it’s worth it – let’s do it!”. Having previously scouted the place I wanted to make this photo and already having a lightstand set up, I responded with, “Give me 2 minutes…. it’ll be worth it. 😉 ”

And it was.

St. Anthony Main Minneapolis Wedding Photograph

Guthrie Engagement Photographs : “It’s been too long” edition

So I must admit to having put my blog and website on the back burner over the past 10 months or so. The primary reason is this little guy. We are also trying to plan to build a new house/studio as well as a host of other big projects that should make some big differences in the upcoming years.

I hope to fix the lack of blogness by coming back with a vengeance this year — I’ve been spending a good chunk of the past few weeks on redoing the website (HTML5) and I’ve got a plethora of images I want to share. We also have had a few engagement sessions already this winter that has kept the ‘off season’ uncharacteristically busy. (that’s a good thing!)

Here is one we did with Chris and Katie at the Guthrie. The original plan was to pop around St. Paul (they are getting married at the Science Museum — how cool, right??) — but with winter carnival happening and a blizzard pounding any outside locations we decided to hit up the Guthrie theater as backup plan. I’m really glad everyone was flexible enough to make it happen because we got some killer photographs (and it actually stopped being horribly windy for a bit so we got a couple on the Stone Arch Bridge after sundown!).

5 Years!!

5 years ago today Colleen and I celebrated our own wedding. It was the single best day of my life.

In an attempt to let you know what it was like to be there — This is the wedding ‘slideshow’ I made and we played out our wedding… If you are at work watching this, it is acceptable if you don’t sing along. 😉

Kristina and Aaron : Minneapolis Wedding Photographs – take 3

Kristina and Aaron have now been married 3 times. I was lucky enough to be there for the second and third times.

An Indian Canadian meets Wisconsin girl, live in Shanghai, China, marry in Wisconsin move back to the US, marry 2 more times (this time on the top floor of the IDS Tower at Windows on Minnesota), donate wedding money to Jakarta Schools, and watch a video of wedding #1 during wedding #3. The whole thing is confusing enough that I think it’s best if I just stop typing and let the images speak for this wonderful, laughing, and emotional* couple. 😉

*You know how wives laugh when their husbands cry? Yeah, Kristina is all about that. 🙂

Wedding Photographs .

Pat and Jeff : Minnesota Wedding Photographs

After the wiener-mobile sighting during their engagement session last fall, I thought nothing could top the strange ‘new experience’ excitement of that . I was wrong. This was my first time shooting at the Varsity Theater; all I had previously heard about it was that it was darker than photographing a black cat in a coal mine. Well, it was dark, but the Varsity is sick — concert lighting, informal yet classy and quirky ambiance, chance for moody and finessed images, etc… it was just perfect for Pat and Jeff’s musicly-mighty wedding (they picked Heavenly Day, my own first dance song, to walk down the aisle to… stood and listened to Home after the ceremony… and had a rockin’ band roll the party strong, including some cameos from guests. 😉 ) and also provided me with a lot of room to let me creative juices flow…

Pat and Jeff were great — and their family and friends extremely loving, authentic, and kind. It was a pleasure to work with them and get to be a part of their day … and seeing quite a few people from previous weddings (if you remember, Pat was the maid of honor at Anna and Mark’s wedding) is always a blast.

I also want to thank Preston Palmer, from Brovado weddings, for helping me on this day — it was the last wedding before Colleen returned to full duty. Minneapolis has such a great photographic community, it’s wonderful to be able to lean on such great professionals when you need a little assistance…

Pat and Jeff's Best Wedding Pat and Jeff's Best Wedding Photographers .