our New York loves AND a "dragging the shutter" experiment to try at home

The best thing about photographing New Yorkers?
(Specifically midwest born + bred New Yorkers.........)
Well....
weather is never allowed to stand in the way;
tremendous outerwear seemingly (always) right at hand; and........
FABULOUS shoes....

stereotyping?
SilverBox???
well, only in a good way ~ it's just that our New York clients hold a special place in our hearts.

We love that "nothing-can-throw-them-off-their-game" spirit.....When storm clouds threatened Sarah Starbuck + Josh Jacobstein's outdoor celebration ~ didn't phase them at all (congratulations on the new baby by the way!) ..... Not weather, not traffic, nor any random acts of God deflated Kimberly Lakin and Geoffrey Mize's celebration.

Amy and Grady live and work in New York, but came back to where they grew up for their "I-dos"
(and we LOVE that they did!)

Here are 2 proud fathers at Friday night's festivities....
Amy's dad, Dr. Keller, practicing the walk-his-daughter-down-the-aisle part:
.....and Mr. Laird with a few words of wisdom and thanks at the rehearsal dinner as Grady records from the sidelines:
Rehearsal dinner was held at MU's Faurot Field press box....a fun place to throw a party!!
and there was a band!
a really great one!!
it seems Dr. Keller (MU Electrical and Computer Engineering) has some pretty talented grad students:and speaking of talent...
Amy and Grady both work for national magazines......Amy is, in fact, the beauty editor of Allure and she brought a New York stylist and a NY make-up artist in on the bridal prep. and WOW! (worth repeating: WOW!!)

We should preface by saying that Amy is a beautiful woman anyway; but oh-my-gawd did she look polished + glamorous (seriously stunning!)....and JUST AS stunning/polished/glamorous at midnight as she did at 12 noon ~ we've simply never seen hair and make-up "hold up" so remarkably well till the wee hours. (Especially with all that dancing -- DJ Aaron Rose really rocked the house....which reminds us of another "stereotypical love" ~ our New York friends do seem to know how to party..... )
S T U N N I N G . . . . . . . .
Confident + Happy:
Reallly, really happy:
We love this documentary image Kim created in the hotel room.... sort of the "final adjustment/last check"
And here's our favorite pre-ceremony image that amy (Enderle, SilverBox) created of amy (Keller, bride!) in the church library/dressing room moments before walking down the aisle:
She was simply radiant!!!
it was (BURR!) cold outside , so we found some creative use of the space around the sanctuaryand speaking of CREATIVE; have you ever seen a cuter way to post dinner seating assignments? These trees (created by Kent of Kent's Floral Gallery) were right outside the door ballroom door....and the trees were complete with birds.....how CUTE is that!!
lovely, lovely, lovely!!:
oh there are so many images we want to share in the day-in-review.....

kim's very lovely dress-in-the-window interpretation
[.....one more advantage of us working together: amy being on hand to hang it this high ;) ]

(slightly "fish-eye-y" image of men in front of memorial union)

(Grady's sweeeeeet neices, post-flower-girl clothes, ready to party at the reception)

**our favorite cake picture of the year (and it was DELICIOUS, too! - pastry chef Edith Hall is amazing!)
(oh and we LOVE this series of amy and her dad dancing)

(and this heart-string-tugger: grady's mom's hug at the end of the mother-son dance)

just a great, great celebration
happiness + joy from beginning to end.......
on a most wonderful day....

(in front of Shelter Garden's giant tree)

We could go on and on (and on!) ~ but seeing the slideshow is a more melodic way to peek at our favorites and get a sense of these neat people and their blustery, brilliant day.
Enjoy!

Oh, and please note, requests amy (Enderle's) husband Paul (Wagner, Kansas City native, swelling with Kansas City pride) that the song you'll hear was originally written and performed by a Kansas City singer/songwriter. The slideshow offers a compilation of 2 different versions, with the second of the two being the original. If you're in a trivia-game mood and would like to guess BEFORE clicking, here's one more hint: the chirps + sweet tweets of birds were incorporated into the 1975 soundtrack, perhaps by producer Stevie Wonder....any guesses?

lovin' you~
amy enderle and kim wade, SilverBox Photographers

(exterior image of Lela Raney Wood Hall on Stephens College campus)the p-h-o-t-o P.S.

a special shot and shout-out to the other photographers (and photography enthusiasts!) checking the blog.... we often talk up our love for wide-open aperture but here's a technique where shutter speed is the key variable. Most often referred to as "dragging the shutter", this works wonders when you hope to communicate sense of action, flow, or general hurriedness of the scene. (Home and Garden type magazines often turn to it to showcase a sense of life in the featured room ~it's the blur of the homeowner, or their child, walking thru the the frame.) It's relatively easy and super fun if you're in a trial and error type of mood....so set those cameras to manual, pull out your tripod and give it a try!

For this image (the first shot I took when entering amy's hotel room), I used the shutter speed of 1/8 s to get amy-on-the-phone / amy-in-motion whirlwind effect. Anytime you keep the shutter open longer than 1/25th (so shutter speeds of 1/20, 1/15, 1/10, 1/6, etc) you'll likely get some blur ~ which is why putting the camera on a tripod is best: you want the blur to be of your subject, not because of your inevitable movement in holding the camera. (Granted, this picture is handheld with available light ~ but honestly, that's because it was a split-second documentary decision rather than planned shot...go with the tri-pod on this, you won't be sorry.....)

Now since you're leaving the shutter open for an extended period, you'll need to DECREASE the amount of light coming into you camera through your other 2 variables -- so adjust your aperture and/or ISO accordingly. In this type of environment, we'd normally shoot at f/2.8 with "film" speed of 800 or 1600 and then adjust shutter speed with each shot for proper exposure -- maybe pulling out a prime lens to open to the wider f/2.2 or our beloved 1.8 if things were still too dark. Metadata on this image shows that I had set the ISO to 1600 but dialed to f/7.1 to compensate for that extra light. A fun effect for a communicative image -- and fun to try at home.

If THESE things are in your house, how about: set camera on tripod and focus on stockings. Turn all the lights on/open all the shades and use available light, rather than flash, to simplify a bit. As a starting point, go with 1600 and use the settings this image was created with: 1.8 s at f/7.1 and see if you can get a small person or roommate or pet to run/leap toward the stockings. Have fun!! Too much light? Go to f/8.0 or f/9.0....too little light? Widen things up by taking your aperture in the other direction -- give 6.3 or 5.6 a try. Would love to see what you get! ~ amy