Lane Weddings – the blog. – Omaha Wedding Photographer

I’m setting down my wedding album designs for a week to spend time with family in San Diego.  And the weather is suuuuu-weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

I’ve got a couple of the best travelling companions the world has to offer.

Anybody who is familiar with my photography knows I’m a sucker for big skies.  I love looking to the sky and using it as a primary prop in my portraits or other photography.  So much that during receptions, I’m frequently taking a peak outside to see what’s going on, looking for a great opportunity to take my couple outdoors to for a quick portrait session.

Best sky: wedding

That was the case last June when photographing Mike and Nicole’s wedding.  A storm had just gone past and left in it’s wake a beautiful palatte of colors and whispy clouds.  The sun then peaked out and showered the landscape with the most buttery light.   This was one of those “can’t go wrong” situations.  Mike and Nicole were awesome to work with, making for a perfect moment.

Best sky: engagement session

Come to think of it, last spring was chalk full of thunderstorms rolling in.  One such storm threatened to rain on our parade as I met up with Jon and Lacey to photograph their engagement session.  A think wall of clouds blotted out the sun, making for a nasty blue cast over everything and caused me to believe we might run out of light earlier than expected.

Just as I thought we were about to finish, we all stopped to notice the electric storm cell off in the distance that was full of distant lightning.  I decided to switch gears and grab gear for nighttime lightning photography.  Sometimes shooting lightning is easier than others.  Getting a cool sky was easy on that night, but actually capturing a bolt was a challenge.  For one, Lacey and Jon had to sit perfectly still for my 30-second exposures (dozens of them).  Second, the lightning wasn’t breaking the surface of the clouds.  Finally right before the storm hit with its heavy winds, rain and hail, I nailed the shot you see here.

Not bad for a night’s work.

This is part two of the people, places and moments that inspired me during last year’s weddings.

It really is kind of special to get to be part of such an important day in the lives of so many wonderful families.  Weddings can be emotional days for parents.  I’ve seen some pretty stoic fathers in tears when they give up their daughters to be wed.

I decided to include a “rockin’ fathers” category based solely on the spirited time these two gentlemen had on during their respective child’s wedding days.

Runner Up: Mr. Douglas

This father of the groom came to the reception ready to have a good time.  After cheering on an Elvis-impersinating d.j. (top-left), Mr. Douglas put on his dancing shoes and became the life of the party.  It didn’t matter if he was dancing with children, with the beautiful bride, Erica, “doin’ the train”, or dancing with himself–he always portreyed the image of letting lose and having good, clean fun.

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Grand Champion Rockin’ Father: Mr. LindFrom the onset of the day as the bride, Diann, was getting dressed and ready for her wedding, it was clear that she had a very close relationship with her father.  For the remainder of the day, Mr. Lind came accross as the strong, quiet type–that was until late in the reception when the d.j. decided to play a little game where he set up the groom with his father and father-in-law with inflatable guitars and prompted them to play air-guitar like they were in a rock band together.

There was no question who was playing lead in that band; from the onset Mr. Lind morphed in to a hard-core, heavy metal air-guitar GOD.  The guy went nuts to the delight of everybody at the reception.  You’d have to go to a Van Halen concert, circa 1984 to get that kind of guitar show.  The guy was an instant rock star.

Former classmate, excellent Omaha World-Herald photographer and all-around swell guy Matt Miller has a new web site.  Check it out:  Matt Miller Photography.

I recently had lunch with Matt and he got on my case about my lapse in blog posts.  Touché.  But he also challenged that he outposted me in 2008.  Not so fast, Matt.  By my count I blew you away, 53-32.  You’ll have to ask him for the unpublished URL of his blog.

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While I’m touting other photographers and talking about blog proficiency, I would be remiss not to mention one of my favorite area wedding and portrait photographers.  Not only is Khara Plicanic of Kabloom Studios in Lincoln a fabulous photographer, but she is a freaking blogging machine.  She blogs more images in a month than Matt or I do in a year. I honestly don’t know how she does it between all the shoots, the editing, the teaching she does, and everything else she’s involved in.