2009 August | Caroline + Ben Photography

Monthly Archives: August 2009

Aug 31 2009

Austin Wedding Photography: Star Hill Ranch – Leticia & Josh

Last night was the first time I photographed a wedding at the Star Hill Ranch… I gotta say, it is was one of my favorite wedding venues in Austin. There are so many interesting backdrops to photograph. The venue is also very flexible to fit any size wedding with the option to choose between two different chapels. They also have accommodations for up to 500 guest, Amazing place…
Leticia and Josh got married on August 30th, 2009. The wedding could not have turned out more perfect. The weather was very pleasant considering it was over 100 degrees just two weeks earlier. They choose to get married in the smaller chapel which had much more character than the larger one so there was not quite enough space for everyone to fit. The wedding went on without a hitch and after they exited, they rang the chapel bell to Que the Mariachi Band to begin playing for the guest while I took the Bride and Groom around for some portraits. There were so many interesting locations, I almost wanted to keep shooting for another hour, but the party continued inside. After dinner everyone really enjoyed the candy bar provided by the Bride and Groom and then when it came time to cut the cake, all the Brides Maids went around to cut the cakes which had been placed on every table. Very clever idea… the rest of the evening was nice and relaxing. Close friends and family stayed around for some dancing celebrating. I wish the best to Leticia and Josh. Congratulations!

This is another HDR photo similar to THIS ONE
Star Hill Ranch, Brides house, Wedding Dress

Josh Getting ready in the grooms quarters

I LOVE this picture! He just has that look that makes the image perfect.
Groom receiving gift from the bride.

Groom looking into the Brides eyes for the first time.

Wedding ceremony at the Star Hill Ranch Chapel

Catholic ceremony at the Star Hill Ranch. Lasso

Wedding photography at the Star Hill Ranch.

Bride and Groom Portrait in front of an old Rusty truck

Bride and Groom portait infront of the Sunset at Star Hill Ranch.

This one was shot with the 100mm Macro lens. I placed the Rings on the mirror that was underneath the center pieces. Christmas lights were hanging all round the reception hall so I used them as a backdrop in the reflection. I would have liked to get more DOF but I was already at 3200iso and 1/60th shutter to get as much ambient as possible so I could not lower the aperture.

Thank you for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment!

Austin Wedding Photographer Ben Godkin

Tags: austin wedding photography, Ben Godkin Photo, Josh, Leticia, Star Hill Ranch, Wedding

Aug 30 2009

Wedding at the Star Hill Ranch: Sneak Peak

I just got home from tonight’s wedding at the Star Hill Ranch in Austin, Texas. Leticia and Josh are such a lovely couple. The wedding turned out PERFECT, I couldn’t be happier for them. When I noticed the beautiful sunset outside I quickly grabbed the Bride and Groom for a portrait.
I will post the rest of the images soon, so stay tuned.

Austin Wedding Photography Bride and Groom at Star Hill Ranch

Tags: 1-Weddings, Bride, Groom, portrait, Star Hill Ranch, Sunset

Aug 30 2009

New Orleans: SWPB Adventure

New Orleans was awesome! The SWPB group founded on Flickr united in New Orleans a couple weeks ago to share ideas and tricks of the trade. I mentioned some of the trip a couple posts ago but here are the pictures to back it up now
We had some really great attendees at this workshop and I have learned so much from the online flickr group. Christine Tremoulet from Houston helped use figure out some good SEO for our blog, Mark Parker from Birmingham brought up a good discussion about networking, and Ryan Brenizer from New York taught a bit about how to have a good consultation with a client and a few new lighting techniques. Ryan is considered to be one of the top 20 wedding photographers in the world according to WPJA, so it was quite an honor to be working with him… and hanging out with him on Bourbon street

engagement couple in New Orleans streets

Christine hooked us up with some models to shoot an ‘engagement session’.

engagement couple in New Orleans streets

photographers in New orleans street for workshop
as you can see, there were quite a few of us roaming the streets.

lighting workshop photo of engagement portrait
This was part of the workshop and is one of my faves. Mine is a single shot while Ryan Brenizer did a multiple exposure shot of this pose that turned out awesome- check it out here.

engagement portrait in the french quarter with workshop

engagement portrait in New Orleans lit with video light
these 2^ done with a simple video light.

bridal portrait in New Orleans at Le Richelous hotel
The next day we had a fellow wedding photographer that happened to be gorgeous, model for us. Both shots were taken at the hotel we were staying at- Le Richelou

warm and cold tone lighting bridal portrait in New Orleans
A dark alley way- a great place to take a bride

Notice that someone was holding a (warm tone) video light on her while Ben & I set up a (cold tone) flash- which created some interesting colors.

New Orleans skyline with bride, Lyenette

last but not least the skyline of New Orleans.. the end!

Sincerely, Your Austin Wedding Photographer- Sweet Caroline Photo

Tags: austin wedding photographer, Bridals, Engagement, new orleans, strobist, swpb, workshop

Aug 27 2009

Austin Engagement session: Jacqueline & Billy

Recently I have noticed quite a few people searching for ‘cool places to shoot engagement photos in Austin, TX’…. well, if you look around, MOST places are cool to shoot engagement photos in Austin. So many cool textures, structures, colors- cannot pick a better place for portraits, really. Jacqueline suggested to meet up at Progress Cafe on 5th st. and San Marcos st., after checking out the area via Google Earth, I approved, not having actually been there before. The day of the shoot (today), Ben & I showed up 30 minutes early to drive around and get a plan of where we wanted to shoot, there were tons of cool places. So during the shoot we just ended up wandering around hitting up every spot we thought would look cool in a photo.

Ok to the shoot. I am going to start off by saying I am very jealous of Jacqueline and Billy- they are moving to Scotland in just over a week for grad school. They are a really down to earth couple that wants to do good things for this world. We were nervous that we weren’t even going to be able to shoot today though and with them leaving so soon, didn’t know if we were going to get another chance. It was POURING at 6pm when we met up… then 10 minutes later there was not only one rainbow… but TWO. How perfect, this shoot was just meant to be!
Jacqueline and Billy will be back to have their traditional Scottish wedding January 2nd,

ok ok… just one more thing about this shoot. Ben & I have recently been trying to work together more often, because when we do, we have more chances to do some awesome new things- he helped with lighting in this shoot but also put together a cool little video and set the music to one of the couple’s (as well as mine) favorite bands, Radiohead.
We will be working together as much as we can in the future and will soon be offering a package that includes the both of us, two professional fine art wedding photographers that have great chemistry and together attempt to create photographs like no one has seen before…. did I mention? We will also be including videography.

jacqueline and billy kiss in the water reflection