Every year around Easter my daughter and a group of my closest friends go camping at the Indians campground in the Los Padres National Forest. It is one of the best parts of my year. I often do some photography while I’m there. This time, the fun stuff was putting a strong IR filter on my lens and getting some long exposure shots of the Arroyo Seco river.

This photo is a 25 second exposure (I know, my previous post is a long exposure shot too, must be the flavor of the month.

It was just after a storm, so I got some shots of clouds as well.

All photos @ Alex Schoenfeldt 2012
All rights reserved
San Francisco Photographer

I did a pregnancy photo session for a couple recently. We started on the hills above the ocean somewhere south of Pacifica CA. We got some great shots of the two of them but the award winner is posted below. The long back hair, round pregnant belly, dark Indian skin, the dark cliff walls, the cold white-capped ocean, this shot just works in my opinion.

It’s on the blog twice. I was just going to post the color version you see first. This shot is a bit intimate, and I know for a fact the husband has some conservative family members, I thought I’d check before I put it out there on the interweb for all to see. I emailed a proof of the shot with my request, and when I got the email saying “yes” back it also said “aren’t you going to use the black and white version?”

Which one do you like better?

I’m just going to let this photo speak for it self.

It was taken at a wedding reception at the Metropolitan Golf Links, in Oakland CA October, 2008.

Bride hugs her best friend

Last month I got to shoot a wedding and reception at Heather Farms in Walnut Creek. The gardens and gazebo were gorgeous, and the bride and groom were game for some fun photos.

During the vows, the groom, a Specialist in the military, gave the bride his heart. His Purple Heart. It was touching!

All photos ©Alex Schoenfeldt 2010. All rights reserved.
San Francisco Bay Area Wedding Photographer

Bride Arrives

putting on veil

wedding ceremony

Purple Heart

bride and bridesmaid under gazebo

Bride and Groom in Gazebo

Bride and Groom laugh in Meadow

Portrait of Bride

infrared

groom pushes bride on swing

Father Daughter Dance in Sepia

Bride and best friend, dirty dancing

girls laughing

Long Exposure of the dance floor

Infrared wedding photos from the Oakland Mormon Temple

When people get married at the Mormon Temple (or LDS Temple. Feel free to tell me in comments which is better) the temple itself is an important feature in the photographs. I love shooting there. As a photographer, I appreciate the scale, the lines, and the tones.

I’ve shot there many times, (here is another LDS wedding that made it to my blog) but this past week was my first time there with my infrared converted digital camera. It was a nice sunny day, which enhanced the effect.

All Photos copyright 2010, Alex Schoenfeldt Photography. All Rights Reserved.

I thought I’d combine my new love of experimenting with infrared with my old love of wedding photography.

This photo was taken in the park in front of the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. On a busy Saturday, the park was full of people, and really not the most romantic place. A great place for people watching, but not the best place for bridal shots. However, the infrared really transforms the scene. It becomes a magical land with romance and mystery, the crowd of Saturday tourists fading into the background.

All photos © Alex Schoenfeldt 2010. All rights Reserved
Alex Schoenfeldt Photography

I recently bought a digital canon, a D60, that has been converted to shoot infrared. Now, you can’t quote me on this, but here is to the best of my knowledge how this thing works. All digital cameras have a filter in them that blocks infrared and allows visible light to pass. In my new IR camera, someone has taken out that filter and placed instead a filter that does the opposite, blocks visible light and allows IR to pass.

If I’ve got that wrong, let me know in comments.

I first took the camera out to the Berkeley hills, and I loved it right away. I could tell immediately that I had to learn to see in a new way to get the most out of this camera, which as a photographer was an exciting prospect.

Then, I took the camera to the Big Sur River with some friends, and here are the results:

All Photos © Alex Schoenfeldt 2010. All rights reserved.
Alex Schoenfeldt Photography.

From 2005, this is one of the oldest weddings I’ve posted on this blog. (I have a very rigorous process for deciding what to post. I reach blindly into the drawer where I keep all of the old contracts, and pull one out at random.) I was using older equipment, and I had hundreds fewer weddings under my belt (at this point I’ve shot over 600 professional gigs, including weddings, portraits, corporate events, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs etc…) but I am still happy with my work, looking back.

Angela and Steven got ready at Churchill Manor in Napa, had a ceremony at Marsha’s Vineyard in Napa, and a reception at the Pelusi Building also in Napa.

Bride before the wedding, sepia

Bride and Bridesmaids through window

Wedding Ceremony

Please take a look at the image above, and the image below. These are the same image, and the second one has been converted to Black and White. Back in the bad old days, you had to pick which you wanted to shoot, but now,I shoot everything in color and convert the ones I want to see in black and white. I think it words very well.

Wedding Ceremony, Black and White

Bride with flower girls

All Photos © Alex Schoenfeldt 2005. All rights reserved.
San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer

Lisa and Chris got married at the Evergreen Lodge in Goveland, CA. They were on the older side of brides and grooms. (Not old, jut older than most first timers). Something I noticed with couples that are in their 30′s and 40′s when they get married. They stress a lot less about every little detail, and bring their own personal ascetic to the wedding instead. It’s quite nice really.

Photos © Alex Schoenfeldt 2006. All rights reserved.
Yosemite Wedding Photographer

Yesterday, I got a photo order from Maria and Adam. I hadn’t thought of their wedding in a few months, and the photo order was a nice reminder. I especially like the black and white shot of them under the Oak Tree. Something about it seems so eternal.

They got married at the Hahn Estates in Soledad, a Vineyard.

All photos © Alex Schoenfeldt 2009. All rights reserved.
Alex Schoenfeldt Photography