Second shooter // 24 // The Oaks wedding

Oh summer.

On one hand, I’m so happy to be in the midst of busy season, although I’m sorry it means less action over here on the blog, although there are lots more lovely weddings for your viewing pleasure! Contrary to how I felt working in retail, I love working every weekend now that it’s pretty much always a gorgeous party – that, and adventuring with Dani is never dull. Being around happy people is, in fact, contagious.

And I love being outside, and having longer days. Being able to be outside until late in the evening is something I long for during the rest of the year. But even this has a downside on a wedding day. When sunset doesn’t happen until after 8:30, it’s pretty rare to be able to do bridal party portraits or even most of the outdoor pictures during the best light on a wedding day during the summer. To that I say: thumbs down.

Finding good light on a June or July day can be tricky, especially anytime after 8a and before 6:00p, but if you know what you’re looking for, it does exist! This wedding was a perfect example of that. The grounds of the Oaks Waterfront Inn are stunning and have lots of trees that offer lovely deep, open shade.

But here’s the thing about shade: not all shade is good shade. It really depends on the light source that provides the fill light within the shade. Dani found this lovely spot amongst the trees along the side of the property that had the most lovely shade and fabulous fill light coming from the sun bouncing off the open field in front of the line of trees. Making images in light like this changed my world, for the better.

After photographing this wedding, I spent a week evaluating every patch of shade I saw on my daily walks. I found that during the afternoon hours, there is a lot of thin, filtered shade (not my favorite) and very little deep shade with good, even fill light. The best options are found near walls or in wide open spaces where there is lots of reflected light to provide good fill. But during sunset, the shade not only becomes wider and more consistent; the direction of the light bounces and reflects off of the available surfaces in a much more flattering way.

Really and truly, I’m falling more in love with sunset by the wedding. It may seem crazy to plan your wedding around doing photos at sunset, but if having amazing photos is something that really matters to you, I promise you that it is so worth it. That’s not to say that beautiful photos can’t be made at other times of the day. But really, those late summer evening hours are just simply magical.