Backdrop

Ok, so I know some of you are just DYING to know what happened with the backdrop for the wedding. I think it turned out well. I had to get up on a ladder and hang it twice, because I couldn't figure out how the lighting was going to work. Unlike southern California, northern Michigan, gets this funny thing called "weather". You see, there are these things called "clouds" and apparently they come and go as the wind blows. (we have wind here too). So sometimes it's sunny, but sometimes it's this thing they call "cloudy" or "overcast". And occasionally it does this thing know in those parts as "rain". At first this rain stuff was terrifying to Jack, and he refused to go outside, for fear that his hairdo would be ruined. But by the 2nd or 3rd day of it, he was happily frolicking in it, shouting "Mommy, Jack's shirt is all wet!"

So the changing light made the backdrop a little tricky to shoot. If it was sunny, the light just inside the door to the barn was really bottom lit from the basketball court. If it was cloudy, the light a few feet back was nonexistent. I could have shipped my light kit to Michigan, but that would have cost about $500, and then I would have been crying the whole time, which would have been awkward for the bride and groom. I had to do quite a bit of quick thinking, and a shitload of exposure fixing afterwards. Since I had Jack, quick thinking is not my strong suit. Why doesn't anyone tell you that the baby will take half your frontal lobe along with the placenta when it is born? Seriously, most days I would be content to sit around and drool.

So here are some of my favorites from the day. Nipper Knapp's family likes to do "jump" pictures. They got the idea from the Life Magazine photographer Philippe Halsman. He photographed everyone from celebrities, to heads of state, and even royalty. And somehow, he got them all to jump.

The Happy Couple doing their best American Gothic

It seems like they kind of like each other. I'm just saying...

These two also let me photograph them pretending to be godzilla smashing a city. Awesome.

Mr. Hoffman is not normally an effusive man

I had to put in my own jump picture right? Just in case you thought I wasn't really there

Group American Gothic

The other Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman

Nipper Knapp's father, otherwise known as BG, Big Guy, or Poppa. He kind of looks like a butterfly specimen pinned to a felt backing in this picture. Good symmetry BG, good symmetry.

After the ceremony, the bride changed into a frock suitable for competitive badminton, and chucks to match her hubby