Austin Wedding Photographer | Maria Bernal

Wedding: Congratulations Esosa and Marcus

Posted on: June 28, 2009

Hi everyone,

June was crazy busy for the studio and for my weekends. I had a wedding every week this mont and we ended June with a bang! This past weekend, Marcus and Esosa got married on Friday in a traditional Nigerian wedding and then on Saturday in traditional western ceremony. It was a lot of fun. Esosa tells me this was the first traditional Nigerian wedding ever held in Austin. Wow, no pressure Anyway, the Nigerian wedding ceremony is super fun and super long. The ceremony itself is about 2.5 hours. It begins with the introduction of the parents and they dance their way to the stage. LOVE IT! Then the introduction of the other parents and they dance their way to the stage….and so on and so forth. LOTS OF DANCNG! so cool to see. The traditional wedding attire was so pretty! The food was great and the music was upbeat and it was all around a fun day.

Here are some photos of Marcus and Esosa with their traditional wedding attire. HOLY COW, doesn’t Esosa look stunning? Sorry Marcus but with a bride like that, what did you expect me to say? FYI, I am so torn on the first image because it was shot for black and white and DANG, it looks awesome in B&W but the outfit is so colorful. ARGH!

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Okay…so on to the next day! well, I have to tell you…Not only do these two look great in their traditional outfits but in Western outfits? Just as good. They were married at the Renaissance Hotel (at the Arboretum). The Renaissance did a great job for them. The day was filled with Nigerian outfits, western outfits and it was so awesome to see both cultures meet –in my lens! Ha ha, it is all about me after all Guess who did the makeup? Maris, of course! Necole did the hair and guess who made the veil? Dorene, from unveiled bridal designs-she does them for almost all my brides. The ceremony was lovely and I enjoyed that day as well. The bridesmaids wore cute little silver dresses and the colors for the wedding were silver, green and white.

The father daughter dance was particularly cool. They boogied to an african beat and it was awesome. Made me miss my Dad.

sneaking a kiss? I'm always watching

Esosa and Marcus are off to Australia for two weeks of fun down under! Congratulations Esosa and Marcus, see you when you get back for your “after the wedding” session!!

Posted in Weddings 3 Comments

Personal Blog: Introducing “HUSH”, a portrait collection

Posted on: June 24, 2009

Hi everyone!

I am introducing my new portrait collection today. Here are the first few women in the collection, there are more to come. I call this collection “HUSH”. I wanted a new collection that actually reflected my true innerself. I really felt like having something quiet, non fashion, non traditional portrait-something that would make me feel happy and at peace when I looked at them. This collection is about the inner peace that we all have and the connection to the earth that I think we should have. I know, I know…how can this be? Maria, quiet and reserved and at peace-with her attitude and schedule?? Yes, actually, these images represent what I am and what I feel when the lights are gone and no one is around.

Anyway.. I hope you like these and if you want to see more of the collection–they will be coming to my new fine art site which I will be launching in a month or so. Thank you to Caitline, Jamie, Lindsey, Taylor, and Maris for being the first five in this collection and the first five for my launch. The ladies are all beautiful to me for many reasons, I love them all for who they are.

I love that each lady is holding an item. Each item represents something-a type of charcter strength or weakness.. what do think they mean? caitlin

jamie

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taylor

Posted in Portraiture 4 Comments

For Photographers: HONL equipment, ExpoImaging

Posted on: June 23, 2009

Hi everyone.

This blog is specifically for photographers or people who want to learn a thing or two about photography. I have had multiple people that have written to me about using the HONL equipment as well as the Ray Flash, both products carried by ExpoImaging. This blog today is to talk about the HONL products and then tell you a little about how I used them. I had one person in particular write to me and he said–>

“Maria, one of your photographs is featured on the expoimaging.net site — it’s supposed to be showing the effects of using the Honl portable snoot. It’s a beautiful photograph. That photograph does not appear to be lit using that snoot! Though there is a sort of snoot like effect, it seems that the lighting is too even.Is there any way you could share with me what lighting arrangement you used for the effect? Was it really a single strobe with snoot??…Well, the three portraits of the models, and the lighting looks really superb. If you accomplished that using only one strobe with the Honl, I’m very impressed”

Steve, thanks for giving me the inspiration for this blog.

First, here are the photos that Steve was referring to:

Yes, all three of these photos were taken with ONE single strobe a Nikon SB-800. My tipod is as high as it can go and the flash is set up on the tripod like a studio strobe on a boom arm. All three of these photos have the model sitting on the ground and I am on a ladder. The modifier used for this is the HONL large snoot. Now, just because it hat can make a full tube does not mean that you need to make it a full tube. The snoot is actually open and at an angle in order to produce a soft box-type of effect. In the second photo, this is also a large snoot and it is pointed mostly at the ceiling and so the light hitting her is the bounce off of the ceiling. In the third photo, I used a HONL grid. I put a HONL grid on the flash and used it just like I would a honeycomb grid in the studio. Here are some images of the HONL products and note how the snoot is shown as open or closed into a tube.

SNOOT

GRID

GELS

GOBOS and BOUNCES

The HONL products are truly some of my favorite products. If you are a photographer, get some and play with them. They range from $9.99 to $29.99. Unlike all the other equipment that I am always talking to you guys about-these are NOT EXPENSIVE. Yes, they work on Canon flashes too for you non-Nikonians.

You really can do a lot of cool stuff with them and I promise all three of those photos were produced with just one SB800, one model, one tripod, one ladder, one HONL flash modifier and one me Thanks to those of you that have written to me to compliment me on these images. Next time, I will talk about the RAY FLASH–oouuhhh, it’s pretty!

Posted in For Photographers Leave a comment

Maria takes home trophies from Annual Texas Regional PPA print competition!

Posted on: June 17, 2009

I AM SO EXCITED, here is why:

Over the last four days, the Texas Professional Photographers Association has been holding their annual seminar and print competition. I didn’t get to go to it because I could not get away from the studio for that many days during prime wedding season. I have never entered any of my prints to this annual competition but I am in Texas and I am a member of the PPA and the TPPA and why not enter? So.. off my prints went without me on Saturday morning.

Yesterday, I am on the freeway driving home from having lunch with my buddy John when I get a text from a “a little birdie” and it says to me.. “you might want to come to the dinner tonight in Kerrville (TX)”. That was the text. Just so you know, Kerrville is a 2.5 hour drive from me and I was thinking. “wow that’s far considering I was not prepared to go spend the night elsewhere tonight and then…I thought to myself–>holy cow, I look like hell!”. I texted back and said…”why?” I got nothing back. So I texted back again and said I would re-arrange my schedule and I would go ahead and come and the reply was ”good.”. Really helpful I dropped everything I was doing and going to do and drove down to Kerrville, Texas. I want everyone to know that before I left, Maris Malone Calderon airbrushed my face! Thank you Maris,I needed it-my makeup was so pretty! I love it when someone else puts makeup up my face!!!

So, anyway. I am so excited because I took away a ribbon for “DISTINGUISHED PRINT AWARD” and a trophy for “BEST ENTRY” in the first time entrants category and a trophy for “BEST WEDDING ALBUM”. I am so excited. Oh yah and I merited on prints as well but, not as big of a deal as to win trophies.

For the professional photographers that are reading this blog, BWC printed my print case and I walked away with several merits so I am so excited because they did a great job printing my competition prints.

Next on the map for me is the SOUTHWEST conference (several states compete in that one) and then the final one is international print competition so..wish me luck!

If you want to see the wedding album that won , click here

Here is the image that I won with last night. This won the distinguished print award I was mentioning and also the Trophy for Best Image in the fist time entrants category.

Distinguished Print Award

Posted in Studio News Leave a comment

Wedding: Congratulations Michael & J’me!

Posted on: June 15, 2009

I love weddings. They are so awesome! I met Michael and J’me last July (I think it was last July when they hired me) and they have become a big part of my life. On top of photographing their family for their family portrait last August, their engagement session, her bridal session, his groom’s session, and their wedding (we still have an “after the wedding” session to do)-we also talked all the time about this or that so I really got to know them really well. They have been together for eight years, starting out as high school sweethearts and they are so in love!

The bridal session and the groom’s session were both done at Star Hill Ranch (you may have heard me talk about it before-I love it there!). Here are a couple of photos of J’me and Michael from their individual sessions there..

We started our day at the Driskill hotel. I would like to give props to the Driskill Hotel. When the manager on staff found out that J’me was getting married and was going to have 4 bridesmaids, two moms, one flower girl, one makeup artist (Maris Malone Calderon) and one hair artist (Necole Marlow), one photographer (me) and one photographer’s assistant (my right hand girl: Natalie) in that room getting ready, she upgraded the room to a larger one at no additional cost! Well done Driskill hotel! Their service there was impeccable as well. I was very impressed, as I am new to Texas, this was my first time to experience the Driskill, they lived up to their reputation. The staff was awesome, the rooms were gorgeous.. Here is a little view from her gorgeous balcony at the Driskill.

Jme's shoes

Okay, so you all know I love fashion. So, let’s talk details. The theme for the wedding was: 1940s with an infusion of dragonflies. Her dress had a beautiful dragonfly on the back in the rose, all the bridesmaids had them and dragonflies were all over the flowers GORGEOUS. The dress from Alexia Gaveila Bridal. The veil: Unveiled Bridal Designs-of course! Dorene makes veils for almost all of my brides, why? Because she is awesome. She had lovely crystals and flowing white feathers on her veil. Each of the bridesmaids had custom 1940s inspired headpieces as well (also Unveiled Bridal Designs). Their headpieces were made out of black veiling material with white feathers and they each had a gorgeous jewel on them. The dress-beautiful. The flowers were done by Visual Lyrics. Check them out as well, they did a fabulous job.

The wedding was at Villa Antonia (I have a lot of weddings there, which is great because it is soo pretty and in fact I have another wedding there next Friday as well). If you are reading this and you are getting married…check it out!!! I truly love it there. The venue is gorgeous, no one can deny that. Here is a photo of Villa Antonia, I would like to move in

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Anyway…the wedding was pretty and the day was super fun. Here are some photos of J’me and Michael as husaband and wife. Hope you liked this blog.

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Congratulations J'me and Michael!!!!!

Posted in Weddings 1 Comment