11th May 2007
Riviera Maya Trash The Dress, color gels
My awesome photographer fiance, www.soltamargo.com & I shot a wedding on April 9th and ended up going back out the next day with the couple to do a trash the dress session in the middle of the Jungle in the Mayan Riviera.
We decided to film a documentary movie (www.delsolphotography.com/ttd/ttd1) with our P&S camera while swimming in a Cenote with our 5d’s. We live in Playa del Carmen and have a great knowledge of the surrounding. We have a few locations that are off the path in the middle of the jungle in these amazing caves that are filled with crystal clear water with openings in the ceiling and set up the perfect setting for these type shots | Exotic & OFF THE HOOK.
Here we have located our subjects in a spot in the cave located just under an opening in the ceiling. We depended on natural light and exposed for their faces. The speedlights were setup using Bogen Lighting Filters. #106 Primary Red & #181 Congo Blue.
The red flash was set to 1/32 power and the blue to 1/8, zoomed in to maximize the 20 foot throw. The red gel speedlight was set on a rock ledge and the blue gel speedlight was sitting on a hotshoe foot.
We shot this frame to showcase the 2 flash locations. The documentary movie was filmed next to the location of the blue gel.
Here, We actually were only using 1 speedlight. I was holding the speedlight away from the wall so it would wash the color across the back wall…definitely adds some flavor!
This documentary video pretty much tells the story…
Trash The Dress
Niiice. Very nice.
Great work - very creative and a great idea for a “day after” shoot - great presentation as well. A bit too much you in it — but that’s OK! I’ll keep the idea in mind and send a link if I get a chance to do something like it here in Maine. Cheers and thanks for sharing!
~ Roger
wow! the lighting effects are awesome. plus the risk of expensive cameras taking a swim, fantastic! the couple must be very pleased with the results.
Really cool! One the best things on photography I have seen on the web! Great job. Your blog is fabulous. Will bookmark, expecting you to update it very frequently! Thanks!
I didnt think there was too much you in it at all.. it was nice, as a fellow photographer, to see you all in action .. thanks for putting this together and consider me a new fan of your nascent blog!
Stunning. Absolutely stunning. Shows what can be done with a whole load of thought and practice. Bride swiming underwater, truly inspiring. The U.K. doesn’t really have those locations … Wokey Hole somehow doesn’t really cut it. Thanks for raising the bar … I may never reach it, but I’ll have fun trying.
these photographs are stunning - really great stuff, and a great blog to boot. Thank you very much.
Brilliant!! i never thought of this idea, thank you so much for sharing, just wondering how do you attach the flash to the rock?
Great job guys! I cannot wait until the first bride offers to do this!
Excellent job! Very creative and original. I bet the clients were very pleased with the results.
wawee, a great body of work. After attending the wppi, i can say this is a beath of fresh air from all the same old stuff. The name concet of Trash The Dress is very dynamic as well. I will be looking forward to new updates on your blog.
Thanks,
Edo
[…] FlashFlavor’s wedding photography just rocked my world (via strobist). Check out the ‘Trash the dress‘ documentary video- awesome shots. Tags […]
wow, thanks for taking the time to comment everybody! I am wowed by the participation here. I am just getting this blog going but have lots of cool ideas coming! Please keep an eye on my updates!
The Riviera Maya cenote is a one of a kind environment. We have had a couple of sessions in these natural pools and I figured it was about time that I spice it up a little. Our clients FLIPPED out when they saw this. I did too
Cheers & much love!
Matt
Nice! I love seeing what tools other people use and how they are using them. Awesome and inspiring work that you and Sol are doing. I look forward to more great stuff from you guys in the future.
Lucky, lucky, lucky. I have for the last three or four years been trying to convince my brides that they want to do something like this. but so far, no takers. I might just have to point them to this to show them sort of what I’m thinking about….
The blog will get you noticed Matt. Although I do have a lot of traffic….38 posts and 1 comment sort of stinks, however people do visit! Your doing great, and as I said before…I cant wait to show my next bride this!
I was glad when the groom finally took off his shirt. I mean, let’s celebrate the male body beautiful, too!
In all, the shots are breathtaking; inspirational.
nice work.
thanks for sharing
Christine, Joseph was totally a TEAM player with this session. Honestly, i don’t thin he had any clue as to the depth of our shoot but once we got in the underground cave, he was in the game! The ocean side shoot worked out and I just threw it out there for him to loose the shirt. I gave him a preview on the LCD and he was even more in to it! these clients ROCK!
Cheers & thanks everybody! It is my goal to make awareness of the trash the dress. Because we operate one of our studios in Playa del Carmen, our clients are seeking out exotic shoot ideas… so it is a win win win for us and hopefully everybody else can capitalize on this!
saludos,
matt
I love this! I’m not sure many of my brides would be open to the concept, but I’m so going to try for it. Unfortunately, Dallas doesn’t have any caves or really even beaches/water…but I’m sure I could come up with something.
BTW - I just love love love your lighting. The reds and the blues are beautiful! You definitely inspired me to strive for more than the same old same old. Thanks for sharing this!!!
wow, this is by far the most amazing documentary on a shoot I have ever seen. I want to show it to all on myspace but its flash and I can’t put flash players in a bulletin, darn it.
Erin, please go and check out www.trashthedress.com and look for some inspiration there with the TTD sessions. For sure, there are many ways to have some fun with ttd’s. We appreciate your kind words and have some cool ideas coming up to share…please, stick around.
Abe… look no further, myspace this baby and stick a youtube link in there
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNCnxqVUpmg
cheers!
matt
[…] Well, to start out my photo blog, there’s a particularly interesting wedding photography website that I happened upon from Scott Kelby’s “Photoshop Insider” blog. He highlights the wedding photographer duo (now dubbed Del Sol Photography) that goes to unusual lengths in some of their sessions. One of my particular favorites was their “trash the dress” session, where they took some very evocative shots in some fresh water caves. […]
Wow Matt, this is beyond weddingphotograpy, this is weddingmagic!
Your blog is great, I have already learned alot, and got alot of new ideas, so I hope you keep up the great stuff!
Cheers,
Bjorn
wow, Bjorn, that is a killer comment. I think you have coined a new phrase!!!! I love it!
Weddingmagic… humbled by that one for sure!
Gracias, keep dropping by. We have some interesting stuff coming!
Cheers,
matt
very exciting work… nice job!
Matt,
Not to pile on the well deserving accoloades, but this documentary was sweet without measure!! I appreciate your photography style. Its FRESH!!! Of course, your blog has become one of my bookmark victims.
Thanks for sharing. For a newbie photography enthusiast such as myself, this is quite an eye-opener. Keep your ideas rollin’, dude.
Hey, what’s the name of the jazz/rap fusion track playing in the background of the video, and who’s the artist? Thanks, man.
We actually took the track from the Black eyed peas, song title: Sexy. We did a little editing on the track so it would loop over and be seamless. I thought the track was a perfect fit!
Thanks again for the comments!!!!!! Keep em comin! We will have some new stuff coming soon!
Cheerios,
Matt
Absolutely stunning !!!!
congratulations on some truely amazing ideas, and fantastic photography - I’ll definitely be back to check out your blog often
These are wonderful. This is the kind of wedding photography I would do if I became a professional photographer. I just love the trash the dress series.
[…] I’ve talked about one of our previous sessions before HERE and if you have seen that, you will see something familiar. We added a little color to the background again but this time, we used a mix between the amazing power of the video light and a red gelled flash flavor. The combo worked very well for the looooow light circumstances. I am hoping that my viewers can live vicariously through this session and help us keep the TTD phenomenon alive. You can do this by posting this TTD link in your blog. Show it to the world, tell a friend or neighbor about this insane video you watched. Del Sol is making a huge effort to keep an interest in the TTD session. […]