So here are some of my favorite images from the session we did at Kent Island, Maryland.

The sun was too bright for Ty, so he didn’t want to open his eyes. Oh well, at least they all enjoyed the moment.

Kissing her sister inside her mother’s womb…

and trying to listening to the baby….

Isn’t she a cutie…?

Gorgeous eyes too!

Thank you so much guys…

I wish the best for the baby. I’m sure it will be a beautiful baby.

Leo Dj

It was super hot that day. I believe the temperature was 103 degrees. Phew…

Luckily everyone get to wear semi casual clothing. It was my first time doing a wedding using a short and a sandal.

Everything is Maryland themed: the signs (notice the flag and the crab), the flower color, and even the wedding favors (the crab lollypop and Old Bay seasoning). Some would use Old Bay seasoning for seafood including for Maryland crab.

The catering menu includes steamed crab claws, oysters on half, and jumbo shrimps.

Yummyyy…

Anything to cool down from the hot weather…

Cheers!

I love fun/goofy clients or guests. They sure make make me laugh and makes my job more fun.

This are the cupcakes, decorated with Maryland state flag. By the way, I really do like Maryland flag, because the design is like from the medieval age era.

Congratulations Amy and Mark. May you live happily ever after.

Leo Dj

The engagement session was just few weeks ago. That’s when I met Bobby for the first time. The pre-wedding photo session was actually planned weeks before the actual one, but it was too hot that we had to postpone it. It was pretty hot during the day of the photo session as well, but not too bad.

Alicia and Bobby already picked a few great spot for the photo background, so that made it easier for everyone. I also pointed out other great spots as we were walking around.

OK. Enough intro. Here are the images you’ve been waiting for.

Alicia’s beautiful engagement ring.

Congratulations again on your engagement, Alicia and Bobby.

Can’t wait for your wedding in October.

Leo Dj

They’re one of the most nicest couple I’ve worked with. They’re just simply awesome.

This gazebo is where Erik proposed to Despina. Erik sure picked an awesome place to propose. Great view from there.

Congratulations on your engagement Despina and Erik. Can’t wait to do your wedding.

PS: Thank you for the lovely dinner.

Leo Dj

The reception took place at The Inn at Fredericksburg Square, Fredericksburg, Virginia.

But before the dinner, we did the bridal party, and bride and groom photo session.

Opening up a bottle of champagne…

Brotherly and sisterly love…

And off they go to the Fredericksburg Square…

Their dinner was served on a silver platter…

You may ask what’s with the football cake. Well, Oliver is a big fan of the Redskins.

Let me see your wedding ring…

Bride and groom’s first dance, as a husband and wife…

Next is father of the bride and daughter dance…

then mother of the groom and son dance…

Everybody jump…

… jump…!

Speech and toast from the maid of honor…

then from the best man.

Here’s the cake cutting…

It’s a war!

Time to clean up the mess…

They did the anniversary dance and this couple was the winner. They were the oldest couple that had been married for forty something years.

All the single ladies… getting ready for the bouquet toss…

Whoop!

Uh-oh… looks like two girls got the bouquet…

How low can you go?

Time for show of force… or … dance skills…

Well you know, it’s when the crowd gathers in a circle, and whoever wants to dance and hopefully show off they unique dance style will go to the center of the circle.

These guys are singing along with the Bohemian Rhapsody song from Queen.

.. and… that’s it…  Yayy!…

Congratulations Brittany and Oliver! May you live happily ever after!

Leo Dj

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Vendors

Venue: The Inn at Fredericksburg Square

DJ: Victor Gonzales

The ceremony was at Mt. Ararat Baptist Church, Stafford, Virginia.

Here’s Brittany and her sister, Alexandria, which is also the maid of honor.

This sisterly love image was taken after the ceremony.

So lets go back to the beginning to see their preparation on the big day.

The day started at The Radius Hair Studio.

I just love it when a client hires me for a full day wedding coverage. I get to capture the moments from the beginning to the end, and so they get the complete story of their wedding day.

The flower girl gets a hairdo as well.

“Yay.. I’m done…”

“Well.. do you like it?”

You can tell what she thinks by the look on her face…

Taking a picture of Mom…

Gotta dry them out…

Here’s the veil…

The mother of the bride admiring how beautiful her daughter looks…

After done with the girls, I went to the guys. Of course the guys had been ready. They didn’t need any make up and hair do. Well maybe some gel/mousse for the hair.

Then we went straight to the church.

The wedding rings, presented by the best man.

The bride’s, maid of honor’s and bridesmaids’ beautiful rose bouquets…

During processionals, I notice usually the flower girl and the ring bearer gets the second most attention from the crowd.

The bride and the father-of-the-bride gets the most attention of course.

The wedding ceremony was short and sweet.

To be continued to part 2!

Leo Dj

Two lovers who just tied the knot.

Here are some more of my favorite images…

The father of the bride doing an awesome speech.

I love you, Papa…

Now it’s mother of the groom’s turn to do the speech.

The flower girl wants to be a lady as well…

Isn’t she a cutie?

“Checkout my wedding shoes…”

“Right there… There… See?”

“Hi…!”

The steak was sooo tender and delicious… Yumm!

The beautiful wedding cake with white roses and canna lilies…

Their first dance as husband and wife…

“Eww… they’re kissing again…”

“Don’t wanna look…”

These kids are hilarious…

Next is best man’s speech…

and maid of honor’s speech.

Time for bouquet toss…!

Yaay…!

Then garter toss..

Yeah…!!

“Come on… go higher… Higher!”

Father of the bride having time alone with his daughter during the dance.

Then it’s time for the groom and his mother.

Now everyone can dance…

“Oops… I’m sorry.” Apparently, they bumped on purpose. :p

Money dance time…!

Yup, he’s the King…

Ka-chingg…!

Our King and Queen for the day!

Congratulations Junelyn and Brad! May you live happily ever after.

Leo Dj

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Vendors

Hair and make-up: Liv Lethal

DJ: Terry Bulles

Video: Visual Sketch Studios

Venue: 2941 Restaurant

Introducing the beautiful bride, Junelyn.

But let’s rewind a bit to the beginning of the day.

Here is the bride getting ready.

The maid of honor and the bridesmaids also helped her to get ready.

The cute flower girl is ready too…

And now.. introducing the groom, Brad, and his best man and groomsmen.

High five after lighting the candle of unity.

Our harpist.

The ring-bearer has another interest.

“Eww… don’t want to see them kissing… ”

“Are they done yet?” :p

The pretty ladies…

Yup, he’s the guy!

The beautiful waterfall landscape at 2941 Restaurant.

To be continued to part 2…

Leo Dj

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Vendors

Hair and make-up: Liv Lethal

Video: Visual Sketch Studios

Harpist: Nadia Pessoa

DJ: Terry Bulles

Venue: 2941 Restaurant

The wedding was at Padonia Park Club, at the Towson and Timonium-Cockeysville area, just north of Baltimore.

Here are some of my favorite shots.

But let’s go back to the beginning of the day, when they were getting ready.

Oops…

Mother of the bride putting on the veil for her daughter…

Presenting…

The beautiful bride, Nicole…

The flower girl…

The bridesmaids…

And the father of the bride, the groom, Kirk, and the groom party…

The groom’s first look at his bride, admiring how beautiful she looked.

Yes, it was an emotional moment…

Some touch up before the family and the bridal-groom party would be introduced to the guests at the reception.

The father of the bride happily danced with his daughter.

Kirk sang along with the song during the groom and mother-of-the-groom dance.

“Yo, let me see your awesome shoes, man…”

Come on… dance with me, Dad…

Check out da shoes!

Congratulations Nicole and Kirk. It was fun taking pictures of you and everyone else.

May you both live happily ever after.

Leo Dj

—

Vendors

Venue: Padonia Park Club

I found out later that the one in Baltimore was the advanced workshop.  I could still do it, but I really wanted to learn about the different strobes and modifiers, and how they would affect the lighting quality. Fortunately, Don was kind enough to give me and few others a “catch-up” session the day before. So it was more like a three-day workshop for me.

Here’s one image I took on the last day. We used 5 speedlights on this setup.

Here is Don the man himself.

These three images below were taken on the second day (or the first day of the official workshop session).  Don came up with the concept and the lighting setup for our team.

This was a setup from another team, but I asked the model to climb the dumpster.

This was also Don’s concept and lighting setup.  We used four speedlites on this image.

We always started the day with photographing still life before photographing models.

On the last day, our challenge was to take picture of something that’s black overall. How can we create those highlights around the edges? How do we make the background really black?

No Photoshop was done here to get the highlights while making the background completely black. It’s all in the lighting setup.

The camera was Ed’s camera, BTW. One of the guy in my team.

The next challenge was pouring “wine” in a wine glass.  This was even more difficult. It took a lot of trial and error to do this. The first image below was actually an accident, but Ed thought that the spill actually made it an interesting shot and suggested that I posted the image on my blog. We showed the shot to Don, and Don agreed.

And here’s the successful shot. We’re looking for that splash inside the wine glass.

After lunch, we worked with the models.

This time, Don separated the group into few teams of twos. I was with Rocky. Our challenge was to create a shot for a magazine spread with the model on one side of the spread. The theme was that our model supposed to be a hip-hop artist. Rocky asked me to come up with the concept. I originally wanted to use the woods as a background, but then I realize that I could use this cool looking car that would fit perfectly with the theme. We were lucky that this Dodge Challenger was there.

So with Rocky’s assistance, I setup the strobes to where I wanted to and did few test shots to make sure I got the correct exposure and angle on the lights. If I remember correctly, four speedlites was used for this setup. After I got the correct exposure and everything, then the owner of the car came and was ready to leave. I asked them if I could borrow the car for a couple of minutes. Luckily they were kind enough to let me use the car as a prop. Thank you!

So here’s the final shot.

This next shot was Rocky’s turn to come up with the idea. We were lucky to have two models because two other teams were done with their project.

After done with our project, I roam around to see what the other teams were doing. It seemed that pretty much everyone was done with the projects given by Don, so they were just taking advantage of the models that were still available and experimented with different backgrounds and lighting setups.

They also experimented with this interesting background indoor. When it was my turn, I asked for a different model that I had not worked with and asked her to play with her hair.

After I was done with my turn to take picture with the complex flash setup, I noticed that a few models were just waiting for their turn. So I asked these three girls below to pose by the window. I wasn’t using any flash here, just the available window light.

At the end of the day, we were all exhausted, but very happy and satisfied. We were all loaded with new knowledge and skills!

Thank you so much, Don. Now I like to experiment with flash whenever I can.

Leo Dj