Posts Tagged ‘photography

10
May
11

SNEAK PEAK // Melvin + Katie’s Wedding

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Here’s a few of the photos from Melvin and Katie’s wedding –>

Michigan Wedding Photographer

I started the day out with Katie and the bridesmaids at their hotel. Evis and Eric were both with me as well to shoot video, but since we didn’t have a whole lot of time to get a little of Melvin too, then Evis stepped in and shot both video plus a few stills over at Melvin and Katie’s house.

wedding photography michigan

Michigan Photographer

Wedding Photography MI

Photographer Michigan

The ceremony was held at St. Clements of Rome in Romeo, Michigan.

St. Clements Wedding Photographer, Romeo, Michigan

St. Clements Wedding Photographer, Romeo, Michigan

St. Clements Wedding Photographer, Romeo, MI

Michigan Wedding Photography

Michigan Wedding Photography

After the ceremony, we headed out to the country to get some photos. I was following the party bus in my big white work van when I attempted to bust a U on a dirt road and found myself totally stuck in a muddy ditch. Oops. Number 1 priority was to get photos for Katie and Melvin, so I focused on taking the following photos, all the while thinking about how the heck I was gonna get my darn van outta that ditch.

Wedding Photography Romeo Michigan

Romeo Wedding Photographer

Romeo Michigan Wedding Photographer

Romeo Michigan Wedding Photography

Thankfully, the groomsmen took over the stuck van situation and called in the father of the groom who just happened to have a spare tractor around to pull me out. Crises adverted. Props to Katie and Melvin who remained remarkably calm during the whole ordeal. :) Eric, of course, took video while all this was going down:



So on we went to the reception. Held at Tina’s Country House in Macomb, Michigan.

Tina's Country House Wedding Photographer

Tina's Country House Wedding Photographer

Tina's Country House Wedding Photographer

Tina's Country House Wedding Photographer

24
Jan
11

Dan & Jenni’s preview wedding photos! [Fern Hill Golf Club, Clinton Township, MI]

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , , ,

Photo from Dan and Jenni's Wedding at the Fern Hill Golf Club

Here’s a few preview photos from Dan and Jenni’s wedding this past weekend at the Fern Hill Golf Club in Clinton Township, MI.

Dan and Jenni Wedding Photo

Photograph from Clinton Township Wedding

Clinton Twp Wedding Photography

Clinton Twp Wedding Photographer

clinton twp. wedding photographer

Michigan Wedding Photographer

Best Prices Wedding Photographer

best prices for wedding photographer

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michigan wedding studio

photos from Dan and Jenni's wedding

cake cutting

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Did lots of experimenting with different lighting setups at Dan and Jenni’s wedding. I’m still looking for that perfect reception lighting setup…..but I did learn what happens when you fire a flash directly at a disco ball!

michigan wedding fotografer

14
Oct
10

Juliana and David’s Wedding Photos – A Preview

By Sara Michele 4 Comments
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , , ,

So writing this blog has suddenly gotten harder for some reason. Maybe its because I’ve been blessed lately with AMAZING clients. For me at least, my editing workflow is: 1) Photograph wedding 2) Download, backup and import all photos into the computer 3) Go through and select a “few” favorites for blog/client preview. 4) Edit just those favorites and upload to blog 5) Process the rest of the photos. My problem? Stage 3. A “few” favorites, lately has become like 156. As was the case with David and Juliana’s wedding. They had both their Ceremony and Reception at the Grecian Center in Southgate, Michigan. The grounds hiding behind the Grecian center are incredibly PERFECT for photographs. Add to that, David and Juliana who are so cute together and great at posing for the camera, not to mention totally open to all of our crazy ideas, and the result – too many photos to choose from! This is a good problem to have. :) Here are just a few from their wedding day:

Admit it, David looks like a total bad ass in the following photo. I looooove this photo. Unfortunately, I can’t take complete credit for it. Platinum Mix did the photography and video, and Eric, the videographer set this shot up. I actually shot this kind of on a side angle while he did his thing with video. Can’t wait to see how his video version came out!

I don’t think the woman in the next photo spoke any english, but she was one of my favorite characters of the day. Every time I pointed the camera at her, she gave me the nicest smile. She just seemed like the sweetest woman of all time.

In retrospect, I wish I would have taken the following photo just a few feet further back so I could have gotten the whole car in the photo. Still, i love the church in the background with the classic car in front.

Congratulations David and Juliana!!!

21
Oct
09

Lisa and Mike’s Wedding

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , ,

Lots going on lately, been working at a ton of weddings, and I’ve also been working on designing and ordering wedding albums for a few of my past clients.   As soon as they get approved and finished I will post pics.   Can’t wait!

Almost finished with Lisa and Mike’s wedding photos, but while they wait, I thought they might like a little sneak peak:

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Mike and Lisa had their ceremony and reception at Crystal Gardens in Southgate.   Very convenient to have everything in one spot, and helped to make for a stress-free day.   Or maybe it was stress-free because Lisa and Mike were so laid back and easy-going.   It was such a pleasure working for them.  I especially enjoyed the “Scrub The Ground” track played at the reception….haven’t heard that one in YEARS! If I hadn’t had my brand new camera slung around my neck, I would have showed off my old skool booty dancing….haha ;)

Here are a few more photos =>

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13
Oct
09

justin and liz’s preview wedding pictures!

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , , ,

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Here’s a couple photos from Justin and Liz’s wedding.   The ceremony was at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church  and the reception at St. Mary’s, both in Livonia.   Special thanks to Garret Urbaniak for second shooting with me!

I started the day by getting a couple photos of the guys at the church.  After photographing them for a few minutes,  the girls showed up and I was able to get a couple photos of them getting ready.

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The church had some pretty tough photography restrictions, like we had to stand WAY back behind all the guests and no flash was allowed at all.   I was glad that Garret was with me, because it worked out well to have him take some photos from the balcony, while I worked from the ground floor and just tried to sneak around the church as best as I could.

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On the way to Hines Dr., the limo made a quick liquor store stop.  I thought it was a great opportunity to get a few photos =>

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The reception was so much fun!  DJ Mike Shea from Shea Sounds really kept the party rockin’!!

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Congratulations Justin and Elizabeth!!  Thank you so much for having me as your photographer!

07
Oct
09

ismail and ina’s wedding preview pics (and I got a new camera!!!)

By Sara Michele 2 Comments
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , ,

So I bought a new camera!!   Finally saved up enough benjamin’s for a Canon 5d Mk II (been saving for this darn thing for the past 10 months).  Ismail and Ina’s wedding was the first time I got to use it, and now I am completely in love.   The low light capabilities on this thing are fantastic, I’m thrilled that it has HD video built in, but the very first thing I noticed is how much wider everything looks.  That full frame sensor really is a big deal.  I’m not sure the technical specifics of it, but most digital cameras (even SLRs) have a cropped frame.  So a 24mm lens really isn’t 24mm.  With my fancy new full frame camera, I now get a full 24mm.   So that’s the exciting news going on in my world.  :)

On to Ismail and Ina’s wedding photos.  I’ll start it off with one of my favorites.  Ismail and Ina’s party was held in Windsor, Ontario so I got to shoot some of their photos on the river walk, right off the Detroit river.  I love the Detroit city skyline in the background =>

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The next photo is the very first shot I took when I showed up to Ismail’s brothers house where everybody was getting ready.  This photo almost got immediately deleted, because its totally under-exposed.  Way too dark.  But looking at in the computer, I decided that I love this image, and even though it is “technically” not perfect,  its art right?  Art doesn’t have to be perfect.  :)

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A couple photos of the handsome groom:

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I’m loving Muslim weddings…get ready, get in the limo, go take pictures, then go to the party and dance.  Skip the ceremony!  Woot!ismail_ina-106

Ina made a gorgeous bride, I love this candid I captured right before she got the limo.

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The next one is another mistake. But its also another mistake that I decided that I loved too much to delete.  Maybe I should start making more mistakes?  Or maybe I just have bad taste in photography…haha.

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Stopped at the river front for a photo session.  The rain held off just long enough to be able to get some nice outdoor photos.  It started pouring down while we were driving to the hall.  Very close call.   I’m pretty happy with the way these turned out.

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06
Oct
09

cody and sara’s preview wedding pics!

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , ,

Cody and Sara were married 9.09.09 in Charlevoix, Michigan at Castle Farms.  Castle Farms is an actual old castle, recently restored, and provides for a very unique place to have a wedding. Between the amazing location and all the unique touches Sara and Cody added to their wedding,  I got a ton of photos.  Choosing which ones to post was difficult.  :)

So to kick things off, the following sign was posted on a door inside the castle.   I really wanted to open that door, but unfortunately it was locked.  Its probably just a broom closet, but still,  I’m dying to know what’s behind the door.   Its driving me nuts……

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Both the bridesmaids and groomsmen got their own private suites in the castle, so I was able to snap a few photos during preparations -

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The ceremony was held outside in the courtyard =>

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After the ceremony concluded, we were able to have some fun taking photos for awhile before dinner.   I love the bridesmaids dresses, their fans, the swords…there were sooo many possibilities for pictures!

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Now that’s a proper cake cutting knife!

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We  moved outside for dancing, and they lit up the courtyard with candles.  Here’s one from Sara and Cody’s dance together:

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Congratulations Sara and Cody!  Thank you for a memorable and fun day!

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08
Feb
09

Maureen + Ryan

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , ,

I’ve been looking forward to Ryan and Maureen’s wedding because I had such a great time shooting their engagement photos back in March last year. They are so easy-going and seem so in love with each other that I think it might be impossible to take a bad photo of them.

They lucked out with the weather and got a relatively warm February day, so we got the chance to take a few pictures outside at Bishop Park in Wyandotte:

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I think I want to specialize in fun bridal party poses. Its terrible but sometimes I spend more time trying to get them to goof around then to actually just stand up straight and smile nice…oops…haha.

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This wedding was my very first experience with really tough church restrictions on photography. The church was gorgeous but the rules were really hard to work with. 1) no flash 2) photographer must stay in the back behind the very last guest row 3) no standing unless everybody else is standing up . I’m so used to moving around, getting different angles and trying to get as close as possible that I was REALLY tempted to break a few rules. I stayed on good behavior though because the church coordinator looked pretty serious when she said that she wasn’t afraid to throw a photographer out of the church. So honestly, I’m pretty disappointed with the ceremony photos. Here’s one from up top in the balcony:

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Maureen was all about business when it came time to sign that marriage license:

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A shot of the rings on top of a very cute guest book that they made:

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One from Ryan and Maureen’s dance:

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Next it was time to get the party started:

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Congratulations to Ryan and Maureen!

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03
Feb
09

Devin + Kelly

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Well, my wedding work has slowed down quite a bit this winter, but I’ve been keeping myself really busy with plenty of other projects. I’ve recently been doing some work with John Stewart Photography, which has been a great learning experience. John’s company does pretty much only school and sport photography which is very, very different from shooting weddings. Its a very traditional style of portrait photography – set up a background, set up a couple lights, and photograph each student or player just once. I’m digging it because its forcing me to slow down a little and make sure I’ve got everything perfect before taking the photo. I’ve only got one shot with each person and I don’t want to screw it up! :) This is a total change from my weddings and portrait sessions where I typically try and take a more creative approach by taking lots of photos at different angles, lighting, settings, backgrounds, etc.

I’ve also been lucky to have gotten the chance to tag along with Robert Bruce and photograph a wedding with him. Robert’s a super talented photographer with very strong lighting and technical skills while still delivering amazing candid photos. I most def learned a ton working with him. @Robert: Thank you so much for letting me come to work with you!

Kelly and Devin’s wedding was on a cold January day, so we didn’t get the chance to go outside for photos but I’m still pretty happy with the indoor church stuff we did. I started out at the Ritz-Carleton in Dearborn where Kelly and the bridesmaids where getting their hair and make-up done:

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The flower girl was adorable. She was giving me a hard time at first about getting her picture taken, but she eventually warmed up to idea. That is until she had to put the dress on and then she wasn’t feelin’ it anymore. Here’s one pre-dress:

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I really love this one of Kelly:

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And this one of Devin: _-81

The bridal party:

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Experimental photoshop for the week. Not sure if I like it. I’m still deciding::

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The reception @ the Burton Manor was a ton of fun!

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Congratulations Kelly and Devin!!

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24
Nov
08

tony + angela (preview wedding photos!)

By Sara Michele Leave a Comment
Categories: weddings
Tags: , , ,

I really loved the location Angela and Tony chose for their wedding! They had both the ceremony and the reception at Marygrove College in Detroit. The ceremony was in the chapel and the reception followed in the alumni hall. Both are very historic looking buildings with tons of character. What a great find for a venue! More information on this venue can be found at the Marygrove college website

Here are a few photographs from their wedding (click on any photo to make it bigger):

The groom:

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The guys:

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The bride with her bridesmaids:

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Angela’s brother was the “Man of Honor”:

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The whole bridal party was great. This was probably the easiest wedding I have ever worked. Despite having a pretty large bridal party, everybody was on time, organized and we got all of the photos done really quick!

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The happy couple!

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The guests loved their personalized candy bars!

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The first dance:

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This little girl was soooo cute. She kept running away every time I pointed the camera at her. Finally she got tired of running and I snapped this one of her:

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The DJ was great! Robert from Full Effect DJ Service. I really liked how he played the guitar during dinner. The limbo was also fun!

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Congratulations Tony and Angela! Thank you so much for having me as your photographer!

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