This was the ultimate trust exercise that a couple could have with their wedding photographers. See their full wedding here (it happens to be an all time favorite of mine). I thought I would share this encore session first since it goes with the launch of our new website. I had this idea for a new main hero shot on our website. In my head it was colorful, fun and the epitome of our brand. I knew Lindsey & Mike would be perfect to execute it, but there’s a level of “why the heck would they want to get into a pool for me?” when approaching a couple about such a concept. Luckily they had complete trust in us and loved the idea. They were staying at The Sirata Beach Resort for a couple of days after their wedding so timing worked out perfectly. And we are so grateful to The Sirata for letting us crash their pool that Tuesday morning for an hour.

The trick was, not getting our couple wet. We wanted them to be effortlessly floating and totally “we do this on a normal basis” cool and collected. I scoured the internet for the biggest floats that would contrast against the blue water. And then I realized I would have to get into the pool with them to stabilize the floats so the gown and suit would stay perfectly dry…

The final hero image! We really want this to become synonymous with our brand.

And now some behind the scenes! So this set up was quite difficult as you can imagine. I was in the pool to hold the bottom of the floats and help Lindsey & Michael get on and off. Not a drop of water got on them! A success. But there was another catch… for our framing, the camera had to suspend above the pool. So Evan attached our Nikon D750 to a stand and got a bicep workout while holding it above us. Then I controlled the camera remotely from our phone, in the pool! I couldn’t leave the pool because I had to keep moving the floats exactly where I wanted them in the frame. It was quite a show. Move the floats, focus the camera, move the floats, click. Evan had to be very still so the focal depth didn’t change as I recomposed by moving Lindsey & Mike about the pool. We didn’t airbrush me out of the frame, I was literally moving in an out as needed then in again for a quick cameo shot. The images of me are a bit blurry, I think Evan was getting tired.

Last are a few camera shots of us in action, including a shot of our whole set up courtesy of Lindsey’s Dad who looked on at the spectacle with quite a few hotel guests.

We are forever thankful for this amazing couple who trusted us and our vision completely. When you trust your wedding photographers, you can create some real magic! I hope more of our couples will be up for some adventurous shoots like this in the future.