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For the group photos we went to the nearby Glass Museum, with a quick stop on the way at Hello, Cupcake, which turned out awesome.  Everyone ate cupcakes and had some nice down time after the ceremony and before all the photos.  We were also really lucky to have amazing weather, especially since the 3 weeks after were almost completely filled with rain.

We hope everyone enjoys these as much as we do.

Congrats and thank you Karina and Avery!

Also, a special thank you to Karina’s brother Karlo for insisting they check us out last year.

Just CLICK PLAY!

]]> http://www.mkippen.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1927 0 http://www.mkippen.com/blog/?p=1906 http://www.mkippen.com/blog/?p=1906#comments Fri, 14 May 2010 04:54:52 +0000 Mike http://www.mkippen.com/blog/?p=1906 After several months of downtime, our first wedding of 2010 has come and gone. We would like to extend our congratulations to Kaitlyn and Dan Bradley for getting married on April 25 2010. This wedding was beautiful and Kaitlyn and Dan are really great people. We ended up with so many photos that we love that we had a really hard time deciding which photos to pull together for posting up on the blog. The wedding was at the University of Washington Christian Church, which is a few blocks up the street from UW. We had the opportunity to shoot the portraits and formal photos at UW which ended up really perfect.

This first shot is from the street at the entrance off of 45th street. I really loved these shots with the huge trees above.

UW has some really awesome architecture to use.

The cake and the Rings – we utilized our 90mm TS-E with extension tubes for the first time to take these macro shots.

The reception was at the Lake Union Cafe which is really a great spot. We had the opportunity to shoot at the Lake Union Cafe last year, and this year we had lots of great ideas. In the end we had tons of awesome photos from this location, but these were some of the favorites.

This is the first of many to come this year – we are very excited for the season. We hope that you like this set of photos to kick things off!

For those who know me as a photographer – you will know that i’m a total location nut. I have spent tanks of gas, and hours and hours of driving around aimlessly trying to find good locations. This is one of the few locations that you come upon as a photographer that gets you so excited you want to jump up and down (infact i did). To cut a long story short – I was in Portland over a year before to shoot Mark Mannings stunning mk2 VR6. It is very difficult planning a magazine shoot for a location you are not familiar with, and I had a really hard time finding a spot to shoot Mark’s car in Portland.

While driving around for hours before Mark’s shoot – we found this spot which is totally incredible – the giant sign “MONTGOMERY PARK” led me to this old like 1960′s garage situation which was so awesome. Well, 15 minutes into the shoot, we got kicked out by the security and the cops (happens all the time unfortunately). But i was so stoked about this place and wanted to use it so bad, that when Dean Futrell called me about shooting the MK6, i immediately started thinking about how we could use this place (legitimately). Anyways, its amazing what you can accomplish with asking and planning – in the end we had the spot for 3 hours and we even had a security guard watching our backs the whole time!!! SO AWESOME…. my only problem is that i felt like a kid in a candy store – “lets shoot this here, and here and here” and before i knew it, we were already running out of light.

It was such a good time, one of my favorite shoots – just because it was chill – not having to worry about cops or problems, and just focusing on some cool shots. There are many more angles and different shots i wanted to get – but just didn’t have time, as i needed to focus on getting the necessary stuff and also Dean wanted some good rollers in the evening.

Dean hooked the shoot up with Eurotuner, and its featured this month – check it out here http://www.eurotuner.com/featuredvehicles/eurp_1004_2010_vw_gti/index.html

The car is hot, and the Futrell team really know what they are doing with these new volkswagens. Check out Dean Futrell and the team at http://www.futrellautowerks.com

Okay, i know most of you already know, but its been over a month since we got back from the Big Island, and I have finally gone through the photos – i figured it was time to share the news and even better – some photos from our trip!! We took some of our favorite camera equipment with us, and we got tons of great photos. After going through the lot, i found a bunch that were not too family-personal that I am excited to share.

1. Meet Isabella (my 1yr old neice) and my sister Mandy. This is on the plane ride over to Hawaii

2. Random shot through some sunglasses that i liked… we really miss this view.

3. Isabell hanging out | my nephew Christopher with his dad Tony – the pool was really cold, and he instantly regretted getting in.

4. My Mom with Isabella – i really loved this set.

5. A beautiful Macro shot that Sarah caught.

6. A random snapshot of Sarah that i loved.

7. Kids playing the waves

8. Me messing around | pretty tree.

9. the Waipio valley (jurassic park scene) – and my brother Jaco on a really steep road.

10. I really loved this shot of Isabella

I proposed to Sarah at the top of Mauna Kea, which is the tallest mountain the pacific (13,890 feet) which is only just a few hundred feed less than Mt. Rainer. It was freezing up there – in the high 20′s. We did a trip to the summit for the Sunrise, which was really incredible. It was so perfect and Sarah was really surprised – she had no idea that i was going to propose. I was incredibly nervous, but still managed to get a few shots from the top.

11. Here is a look from the summit with one of the Telescopes.

12. “Will you Marry Me… please?”

13. Another shot i really loved from the summit.

14. On the way home from Kona one night, i saw what looked like a rainbow in the sky – at night?? yeah, this is a Lunar rainbow (moonbow).

15. Mandy caught this awesome shot of Sarah and I under a banyon tree.

16. Some shots of us at the lava fields.

17. a 30 second exposure looking at the lava flow from 2 miles away.

18. Caught this interesting shot of people walking back to their cars from watching the lava.

19. A shot of the Caldera glowing and burning at night.

20. Last sunset of the trip – and another snap of Isabella that i liked!

To my family – thanks so much for the wonderful memories, and for letting me capture some photos of it all. To Sarah – i LOVE you babe, and I CANT WAIT to marry you.
I hope you all liked the shots, thanks for looking

So, taking yet another chance on my new pocket wizard setup, we shot the car between buildings in the shadows where the car could be lit by consistent lighting. After about 40 minutes into the shoot, finishing the interior first, then the front /side – my camera stopped working. At the time i only had 1 5d Mark II, and my pocket wizards and lighting has been configured for that camera. The stressful part is that the ambient lighting was fading fast – the sun had just set and i was literally working with minutes of good light. Well, luckily i had my backup 40d, and my Canon STE-2 infrared transmitter. I had to setup all the lighting over again, configure everything to get the rear and rear 3/4 shots – that was crazy.

In the end i found this car really challenging to shoot – the paint really reflects the warmth of the light directly – so shooting in sun it really looks like it has a yellow hue, shooting in shadows looks like it has a blue hue. Most of my time in post was editing to make the shots look consistently of the same color, which was pretty difficult. I really like how this turned out – i wish i could have had more time to scope locations and get more light with the car, but you learn to deal with what you have.

Congrats Alex on your feature – Performance VW 162 – “Got No Style”

This shoot was the first time I took a chance to shoot at noon into the sun. given the time frame that i flew into Sacramento and the flight out of Sacramento – this was the only time that i was able to shoot this Jetta. pushing my strobes to the maximum output possible, i used the sun to my advantage to create a different look and feel to this shoot.

In the end i think it turned out nicely, i’m happy i had the opportunity to capture this dub in its prime.

Here is what we are on  about – a demo clip we have made from Jen and Nick’s beautiful wedding at Rosario Resort. Just CLICK PLAY!

Just imagine showing that to all of your friends and family as the first preview of the photography and events from your wedding day – we feel that the video really adds another dimension. The slideshows are done to music, and will not include sound from the video clips, although we will provide you with the raw clips that were shot which includes audio.

What are we charging for this? – $100 per hour to shoot video. We feel that you would only want a few hours of video – an hour before the ceremony, the ceremony and an hour or two of the reception. Best scenario – this would only cost an extra $200-$400 and you will have lots of nice clips to keep and to be presented in your slideshow.

Let us know what you think – contact weddings@MKippen.com if you are interested in booking video for your event.