Thursday, November 8, 2018

Surprise Wedding in Nice, France

This last month, I had the honor of photographing, videoing, and officiating the wedding of two of my favorite people. Now, pausing that and stepping back to the title, I'm sure some of you are confused. "Surprise wedding? WTF is that? How does that work?" Well, the groom didn't know he was going to be getting married until the day before the wedding. In fact, the whole thing was planned before the couple were engaged, though the groom had taken a previous couple swings at becoming engaged. So the groom was surprised when he got to the couple's Nice, France AirBnb with a letter about the ceremony, which would happen the next day. 

It's hard to really put the experience into words that do it justice. It was amazing and overwhelming and full of love and hope. It's always so special for me when I can photograph something like this for people I care about. In a way, it makes the experience feel more shared and intimate for myself. I'm a part of the day and trying to make parts of the day that they'll carry as reminders for the rest of their lives. It's a big honor and something that really means something to me.

I wish I could better wrangle my thoughts for this post, but my brain's been all over the place. It's been a busy fall and I think I've become a bit scramble in the head. I did my best to edit down the massive collection of photos from the wedding, but it's still a lot. That being said, I always enjoy letting the photos breath in a blog post. Who knows if they'll ever get the chance to be seen outside of this?

So, without further rambling, here's a selection of some of my favorite images from the time I photographed, filmed, and married two of the kindest people I know:





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Website: https://www.justinlstewart.com/

Monday, November 5, 2018

Time Out Skylent Disco in OUE Skyspace LA

I've been fortunate enough to make Time Out happy with each of the events I've covered for them over the past couple years, which means they've turned into a return customer. They've given me the opportunity to become somewhat familiar with the US Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles, what I believe is the tallest building in LA with 71 floors. I'm usually covering events for Time Out on the 70th floor where Skyspace, the glass slide affixed to the side of the tower, is. 

This is my second Skylent Disco I've photographed for Time Out. The fun thing about that is, after having photographed it for the first time and having photographed a few other events for Time Out, I'm familiar with what's going to be on the shot list and what I need to photograph to make them happy. With that comes some freedom from the usual stress of working for a client. Looking at this case in particular, I was able to put on the headphones at the silent disco dance party and enjoy the music. Not only did that put me in a better mood and headspace, but I think it made me blend in a little more and make better photographs. I got what I needed and then I just tried to find some fun moments and try out some things I hadn't previously. I even stayed longer than I needed to because I was enjoying myself and there were still a few pictures I knew could be made.




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