Have you ever seen a Mayan Ritual performed at a wedding??? I for sure hadn't until my last wedding! I got this set of keepers at one of my last gigs in the Riviera Maya.... My 11/17/07 bride totally surprised her guests with an entertainment performance that I must admit, was absolutely unbelievable! I was getting ready to photograph one of the most insanely exotic sequences of images I have ever captured during a day of matrimony... I was aware there would be evening entertainment, but 12 ornately dressed Mayan warriors with head dresses that will give you nightmares......uuhhh, na. didn't quite visualize that! So howa bout on the spot thinking of "what the hell do I do to make these images dramatic" type thinking... well, I put on my cap of creative flash how too... and came up with these images... Actually, I didn't have time to think, i just started shooting. I shot almost 100 frames of this 30 minute dance... here are a few of my fav's... Camera and flash settings: 5d, 1250 ISO, 1/30th, 2.8! If you have ever read any other of my posts, this would be old news to you. Slave flash set to 1/64th.... again, old news. I did occasionally boost the flash to FULL power... can you guess which ones? Is this SICK or what??? at this point, I was becoming a Mayan Warrior myself.... These guys were flying around at MACH speed, going in circles, jumping in the air, screaming death chants! I was trying my best to move with the wolf pack until this guy got in my face (i think he was the leader of the pack)... but anyway, he literally looked at me and belted this whoooaaaaaaahhhhhh scream in my face, which I must admit, intimidated me.... Here he is again, keeping an eye on me... This is one of my FAV's from the sequence. I wanted to backlight this crew to showcase the layers of this madness. Fill with on camera 580... here is a sneak peek at our setup... (only 1 slave speedlight) and the grand finish...(this appeared to be a kill, one warriors strength over another) I just thought I'd post this to help you out for the next time you encounter Mayan warriors..... insane eh? Thoughts? Cheerios, mateo PS: ***Update*** I thought I'd give you a little heads up as to why it is that FF gets updated SO lamely... I'm just plain busy. 14 weddings in the month of November..no thanksgiving yum yum for this turkey! Both Sol & I and our Associate shooter are working our ARSSES off so its difficult to keep up with this blog. Just give me a break if you come back to see we haven't updated this thing. Almost 100 weddings in 2007... whewwww.... I need a break! 2008 isnt any different... we already have 50 weddings booked up to MAY! What the hell is wrong with me????

I just wanted to say thank you David Hobby at Strobist for your kind words and recognition. David has helped both Sol & I achieve publication in 3 magazines, around the world... all in the last 2 months! David Hobby is one of the super heros of internet marketing. If you sell anything marketed to photographers, you should be advertising on his site. He has zillions of readers and the come back again and again for a reason! He continues to keep the photo world informed and now he is offering a contest :) for folks who enter images into the strobist flickr pool!. I think that pool needs some HOT wedding photography representation! So if you are a wedding shooter, please submit your images there so we can represent!

 

Many Thank YOUS to all the people who called, wrote and commented on our blogs with congrats to us on our special day... The love is very appreciated.

 

 

Here are a few images that were shot by some of my photographer friends who were guests at my Dec 6 2007 wedding. Be sure to check links to their site to see a few more images from the sneak peek :) ***Disclaimer*** Sergio Photographer was the official commissioned photographer for this event, his mack daddy images coming soon! Sergio was digging on the FF at my wedding, so maybe we can see his techniques here :)

 

****UPDATE**** Checkalo Sergio's photos: Sergio Photographer Slideshow and his blog: Sergio BLOG Here are a few of his images... This one is ALL of my photographer buddies :) after a few BIG glasses of Don Julio...

 

Guest photographer friends: These few images from previous FF poster, Mark Adams, from LaCour. Ok, so I liked the Mayan Warrior thing! And these from my amigo, Chris Savas. Chris works as a commercial photographer shooting events all over the world. He showed up to my wedding with a Mark III and a Canon 300 2.8 with a 1.4 extender... sheesh, that combo is heaver than me! And here are a few from my amgio, Ben Chrisman. Ben Chrisman is a compositional FREAK! I am blown away by his stuff, just amazing work. He likely won't be featured on FF because he doesnt slave flashes, nada! I've been thinking of doing and "Anti-Flash Flavor" post though... Ben would make a perfect candidate! Hit his blog to see several more of my wedding, including me SLAMMING tequila! Viva Don Julio Reposado This one of Sergio in action And these from my friend, Matt McGraw. I took 15 dance lessons! Here are a few from my bud, Patrick Williams this is the group photographer shot.... THANK YOU to all my photog buddies who snapped a few frames, I'm sure I'll be seeing some more here soon :) Cheers, mateo y sol

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I wanted to put up a small taste of flava over the holidays, seeing that I only update FF every week or so. We just got back from the Dominican Republic, 4 days of adventure with some cool clients! Today, we are with my family for some needed time off and I found an image to share with FF readers! I pulled and old trick out of my bag a few weeks ago (dec 8, 2 days after my wedding)! I will occasionally put a flash or two under the table to light the reception table settings in a unique way, so that my clients will get to visualize their hard work and table setup, in a TOTALLY different way than brightly lit! At this wedding, I was swimming in ambiance, the stuff was just everywhere. The wedding designer put special attention to lighting elements that would give the entire setting a mood to give the place the feeling as if it were in an outdoor ballroom, especially with the overhead lights. These were pretty powerful lights too, at 40 watts or so. I decided after several combinations that I wanted to turn them down, so I underexposed the background and added a single speedlight under the head table. I could have exposed the background more, which i did in trial and error, but the moodiest image I could come away with had the pool's reflection only showcasing the table and the overhead lights, along with the rope lighting on the trees... slave speedlight set to 1/4 power My point with this post is to showcase the many ways to change a setup with an added speedlight. Next time, I'll use 4 speedlights in this situation, who knows...maybe add a little color! And here is my straight ambient shot...I took this image within seconds of the above example. Any thoughts or other examples on under table lighting? If you have one, please share it in the Flash Flavor Flickr image pool. Or drop us a comment here and show us :) por favor! Cheers & merry Christmas, mateo

I love shooting silhouettes! To me, they are one of the easiest and safest ways to make a beautiful portrait. Usually, I'm shooting these images with very little residual light left in the sky so my exposure settings are reaching the limit of hand holding the camera. In this case, I just wanted to show what a simple kiss of light can do for a simple silhouette. Nothing more and nothing less. 1 speedlight, l1 KISS. Try this one, you will make wonderful images! Can you guess where my flash power setting was? Cheers! matt PS. December 6 is MY wedding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sol & I covered a wedding on Dec 1. We also had our associate shoot a wedding yesterday and a TTD today... We have 2 weddings on Saturday, are we freeks? Anyway, I'm taking today and tomorrow OFF. Cheers! matt PSS. Wanna see some totally NOT related to Flashflavor? I thought this was INSANE!!!!!