Wedding

Hello everyone. So I wrote this blog a while ago and then I guess I never pressed the publish button. I am so sorry. I am in a Barnes and Nobel in Iowa on my way back from doing an “after the wedding” session for another couple in Chicago..

Anyway.. I love these guys and I want everyone to “meet them”. I was so excited to photograph their wedding. Brandi and Joshua are so sweet and their families are amazing and they are so welcoming. Brandi and Joshua got married in the cutest church at the UT campus and then their reception was at the Renaissance Hotel in the Glass Oaks Ballroom.

So, Brandi and Joshua have got to be two of the sweetest people on this planet and I wish they were not moving so far away. I had so much fun at their wedding and I am so pleased that they chose me to photograph their wedding.

Anyway, here are a few photos from their wedding-enjoy! YOU NEED FLASH TO SEE THIS

P.S. On a side note, I love the Austin Renaissance Hotel. Their Glass Oaks Ballroom is sooo gorgeous and I have this special place in my heart for it. I photographed the very first event in that ballroom a few years ago! If you are looking for a gorgeous hotel ballroom, the Renaissance is awesome-call Jenny Hernandez, she will take care of you-she is the best!!!

Hi everyone.

So…. I had the best time with Allison and Dusty for the “after the wedding” session!  I love those because we can go wherever we want and do whatever we want and we don’t care if the dress gets a little dirty or anything like that.  Allison and Dusty were married at the Hyatt Lost Pines, outside of Austin and the day before their wedding and it poured!  The ceremony was moved indoors and it was kind of late and by the time all the family photos were done, there was not much light and we didn’t really focus on doing individual photos of them on that day-why?? because we were going to have a fabulous time at an “after the wedding” session.  INDEED. 

They are such a joy to be around and I love every minute of it. I look forward to seeing them grow old together (even if that means I am growing old too..).  Allison and Dusty are from Dallas and so we did their session there. I loved it. The day was gorgeous, the light was gorgeous, they were gorgeous–you get my drift, right? AAAAnywho… I am using my blog to show my new product for the first time. I have decided to start adding little snippets of video into my photography I am not a videographer, but I personally love  the addition, I hope you like it too. Enjoy!

By the way, if you are one of my outlook subscribers, you will likely not see the video below in your outlook pane, you need to actually go to the internet to my blog site to see it. www.mariabernalphotography.com/blog

Did you like it?

So.. I’m behind on my blogging.  A couple of my faithful readers wrote to me and politely asked..why haven’t you blogged?  Well, here is the explanation-HOLY COW, I have had not time and I have forgotten to do it.  does it count if I thought about it? I dunno.  Well, here goes…

Jenny and Jordan both work at the Renaissance Hotel at the Arboretum. Jenny is the wedding coordinator there.  So…if you are looking for a pretty hotel to have your wedding or your reception or both…check them out.  Anyway, it is an honor to be the photographer selected for a wedding coordinator-I think. I mean, think about it. She sees tons of weddings and tons of photographers and she picked me. I think she is so sweet and I just loved being there. 

Ok, the wedding was held at Chapel Dulcinea. It was a cloudy day-THANK YOU MOTHER NATURE, I was so happy!  Also, how can you go wrong overlooking the hill country?  Anyway, lovely, intimate, quiet ceremony and then they spiced it up with a reception at Habana restaurant downtown. Let me just say right now..I.LOVE.CUBAN.FOOD.  Yummy, thank you Jenny and Jordan for inviting us to eat with you. mmmm…cuban bread. 

That night, Austin had a lovely huge storm and we were outside and all of a sudden, everyone is out to the side of the building to the what used to be a DRY canal and it is RAGING water. woh. We have been in such a drought that I forgot what falling water from the sky looked like.   The rain was good but the wind-I could have done without that. We were under a tent outdoors and the wind ws coming through causing a little mayhem but nothing that we could not handle.

Anyway, the cake was from Simon Lee Bakery and if you have read my blog before, you already know how I feel about Simon Lee Cakes. If you are new to my blog… I eat cake once a year (I don’t even eat cake at weddings..) and it is my birthday and Simon Lee makes my birthday cakes. We ordered mine a couple of weeks ago..mmmmmm.cake. fresh strawberries with cream cheese. omigosh, don’t get me started!!!

Okay okay…yes, I know there are many photographers who read this blog because they want to know some of the things I was using. Okay the lovely piece of equipment for the day is…LITE PANELS. I love those. Why?  Well, with color lighting, we know that if we use flash it tends to wash colored lighting out. I used LITE PANELS Led lights to do some continuous lighting. I shot on 1250 to 1600 ISO. the cake shot below was done with the lite panels too. I just think it can give some pretty lighting. Only thing that I must tell you, if you do not have an assistant holding them in the right place, might be difficult for you to shoot with those. I  like to use continuous light sources when I can.  The shot of them kissing is really put in here as an example of the continuous lighting. using flash may have washed out the green light behind them. With the Lite Panels, I could still aim the light right where I wanted it and keep the green behind them.

Enjoy some photos!

I love weddings. I love wedding ablums even more. WHY?  Because I love designing stuff! If you are coming to me as a client, you know this and that is why you come here. I love to design an image in the camera and I love to design the story book when the images are done.  I love designing the covers too. They say don’t judge a book by its cover but the cover can sure entice you to open it, doesn’t it?

So, last Friday I get a call from David from Leather Craftsmen who made that book for me and he says to me “Hi, guess what I have?” and I say ” I dunno” and he says “your newest album” and I squeal of excitement because I haven’t seen it yet and then he says “I bought one for myself because I love the way it looks and I want to photograph it and put it on our website AND I want to take it with me to tradeshows and show it off.  Cool.                                                                                                                                                                                                          I like that!  I mean, how cool is it when a vendor who does stuff for photographers all over the place and wants to use your stuff to show off their product?  I like that.

Anyway, here are a few of my latest albums. I love the damask one because I created that and had it imprinted. I love the glossy magazine pages and I love the way it feels when I look at it. I love the new pink and mahogany one too (that was custom made for me and the mahogany leather is sooooo soft!). By the way, the layout in the pink album won best wedding album layout this year at the Texas Professional Photographer’s Association yearly competition in Kerriville.

Hope you like the albums too.