Tampa Wedding Photography and the garter toss

Time once again to show-off a favorite image from a recent wedding. Wedding photography is funny sometimes because the things that you think would be easy can be quite hard and vice-versa. The garter toss is a good example.

Most of the time, the garter toss is really several pictures. There's a picture of the groom throwing the garter and there's another of the men catching. Seldom do you get a chance to capture the entire thing in one shot. You need a lot of light, a large enough space to frame the shot and a little bit of luck.

At this wedding I got everything I needed. I set my off-camera flash on a tripod to my right and bounced it off the ceiling above the guys and I used my on-camera flash to bounce left and light the groom. Then I waited and prayed for the Hail-Mary shot...

You can see more Tampa and St. Petersburg wedding photography on my website.

A wedding cake picture that's a cut above

As a wedding photographer in Tampa Bay, I see a lot of cake. All kinds of cakes. Big cakes, little cakes, red cakes, blue cakes. I also see a lot of cake smashing.

Photographing the cake cutting at a wedding can actually be challenging. To the outsider it might seem simple because the subjects are standing right in front of you but it's actually tricky to do because of the typically fast motion involved when someone starts smashing cake in their spouse's face. The more motion involved, the more you must increase your shutter speed to "freeze' the action. Every increase in shutter speed means less ambient light in the picture. This is why you will often see cake shots where everything behind the couple is dark.

But I'm getting away from the subject of this post which is to show a picture from a wedding a few weeks ago that I love. As a wedding photographer, I love a picture that tells a story and this one tells a story loud and clear:

There's a lot that I love about this picture from the great color in the background to the groom's obvious attempt to explain why his new bride has cake on her nose while his face remains clean. But without a doubt, it's the little boy that I love the most. I love everything about him, all the way down to the glass in his hand. He just adds so much energy to the shot!

For more wedding photography in Tampa Bay Florida, visut my website.

Never let a black cat critique your work

One of the great things about having a father who is a professional photographer is that you get beautiful portraits from every event that occurs during the year. One of the bad things about having a father who is a professional photographer is that he's always bugging you to let him take beautiful portraits during everything that happens during the year.

Yesterday being Halloween, I of course wanted to take some nice shots of my two daughters in their Halloween costumes. So, after they were dressed, we went into the studio and took some pictures.

Because they're my family and because I do this quite a bit, I don't typically spend as much time or care when taking pictures of my two girls. As a result, yesterday when I looked at the pictures I had taken of my youngest daughter Mackenzie, I discovered that her Strawberry Shortcake hat was pulled down just a little bit too low over her left eye. The left eye, though visible, was in shadow. As my wife and I were looking at the picture I turned to her and said, "I'm probably the only person who will even notice that." No sooner had I said it when my oldest daughter, Samantha, walked up behind me, looked at the picture and said, "that's a great picture of Mackenzie but you can't see her eye."

Let's keep in mind that my oldest daughter is only five years old.

Now, I don't know if the shadow on Mackenzie's eye was that obvious or if Samantha, having spent her entire life being photographed, has actually developed an eye for spotting mistakes. What I do know is that five minutes after she said it, we were back in the studio taking new pictures of Strawberry Shortcake.

These two pictures are actually good exanples of how I like to work when it comes to portraits. When photographing Sam (the cat), I lit her in a more dynamic fashion with more shadow on her face. This creates more depth and contrast in the picture which I thought was appropiate for a "roaring" cat. Also, because she is in black, I shot her against dark blue. When Mac came in for her picture, I changed the background to a more red tone to match her color scheme and moved the light more on center to remove most of the shadows on her face. Strawberry Shortcake shouldn't be scary.

You can see more of my work on my website.

This picture cracks me up...

Some of my favorite pictures are the ones that I take when I'm not supposed to be taking pictures yet. Typically, I'll take a few pictures while my model is still getting ready so I can test the lighting, etc. Sometimes this results in a picture that I like, even though it's not really something you would print and frame.

Today I was photographing The World's Most Photographed Children © when I got this shot. Bobbi's arm seems so loooong. Meanwhile, there's Mac..... the bored Diva.

See more Tampa children's photography at www.boorayperry.com

Portrait of author Laurie Kellor

Last Friday I went to Samantha's school to take some pictures of a visiting author. The school is always on the lookout for parents to take pictures for the yearbook and so I volunteered to help out.

Laurie Keller is a children's author and illustrator. She spent an hour with the entire 4th grade class and tolerated me like a champ.


I imagine that I probably behave a little differently than the other parents who volunteer to take pictures since I show up with my entire gear bag and take pictures like it's a job. (I don't suspect that the other parents walk around with two camera's around their necks!) One of the great things about photography is that you can create something special from any circumstance if you just look for the shot. Once I have the camera in my hand I immediately start to scan for something creative... just the right angle or light... that will make for a good picture. (My wife sometimes won't let me take my camera unless I promise to "take pictures like a Dad, not a photographer." :) )


I mentioned that I brought my entire gear bag with me. I prefer to keep all my gear together all the time. I have a small bag that I sometimes will pack with just a few things if I will be moving around a lot (like Disney World) but otherwise I just take the whole bag. I like knowing that I have everything I could possibly need with me. There's also the peace-of-mind that comes with never having to worry that you left some vital piece of gear in another bag.


After Laurie's presentation I asked her if she would mind sitting for a quick portrait. I couldn't resist the chance to photograph an author in a library. She was a great sport about it and we got a great picture.




You can see more of my photography on my website.

Wedding on the beach at Treasure Island

Perfect Florida Beach Wedding has everything you need for your beach wedding in Treasure Island, FL.

A few weeks ago I was shooting a wedding where the reception was at the beach but the wedding was in a church. Around sunset, I took my bride and groom out to the beach for some nice shots and discovered that the water was about a half-mile from the back of the hotel. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration but it was far.

I told my bride that I would be happy to walk as far as it took to get close to the water but that it was really up to her since she was the one in the dress and it wasn't exactly cool outside. We decided to stay near the hotel.

The effect that this had on the pictures is that we ended up with shots that almost look like they were taken in the desert because it's nothing but sand as far as the eye can see. That's okay, though, because the pictures were still great!

See more St. Petersburg wedding photography on my website.

St. Petersburg Wedding Photographer

When you're a wedding photographer in St. Petersburg, you have to be prepared to take pictures on the beach. A lot of people get married on the beach in Florida. A few weekends ago I had a unique situation because my bride and groom got married in a church but had their reception at a beach resort. Typically, it's just one thing or the other but in this case I got to shoot wonderful formals in the church and then later shoot wonderful formals on the beach.

By the way, if you are planning a beach wedding in Clearwater or St. Petersburg than Perfect Florida Beach Wedding has everything you need from arches to chairs... photography and officiante!

The wedding was at the Pasadena community Church which is right next to Treasure Island. The reception was at the Bilmar Resort on Treasure Island. The church is fantastic... very big and lots of light (we photographers love lots of light at a wedding ceremony). The Bilmar doesn't have a lot to offer in terms of ambience but it doesn't have to offer much because it's on the beach. As long as you have the beach and a sunset you have plenty of opportunities for great photography.

This is my favorite picture from the church. As I mentioned, there was quite a bit of light in the church so I had to make adjustments to my shooting style in order to isolate Danielle from the background. Usually, it's the other way around when you're shooting in a church and the problem is trying to get enough light on the background.

Sometimes a church will have beautiful stained glass in it but the windows will be high or far in the back which was the case here. In this situation a big zoom lens comes in very handy because it allows me to make the background look much larger and fill the space behind Danielle and Sean.
All of my favorite shots weren't formal ones, of course. One of my favorite moments at a wedding is when the bride steps into her dress. It frequently takes four people, a crowbar, and several ropes and pulleys to get her into that huge dress. It almost always makes for a great picture.

That's it for now, I'll post some of the pictures from the reception and the beach a little later.

More St. Petersburg wedding photography on my website...