It’s been a week since my last post, sorry.  I’ve been busy with weddings, designing books, back to school shopping for the kids, and simply enjoying life.

Cristine and Ryan’s wedding ceremony was at Heinz Chapel on the 8th of July.  Heinz is a beautiful site for a wedding ceremony – I’ve been fortunate to shoot three weddings there this year.

At the doors to Heinz Chapel

At the doors to Heinz Chapel

There were thunderstorms forecast throughout the afternoon and a few drops started to fall as we finished up the formals outside of the chapel and walked over to the Mellon Institute next door.  Cristine was super organized and had umbrellas on hand just in case we needed them.

Wedding Umbrella Photo

Staying Dry

The Mellon Institute provides some fantastic natural light, I can never figure out why some photographers feel the need to pop a flash off while shooting there.  I see it all of the time.

Mellon Institute Wedding Portraits

Cristine and Ryan

After some portraits of Cristine and Ryan, we did some shots of the bridal party.  Count ’em, there are 22 people in the party (the flower girl would have made 23!) which is a pretty big group.  This is where having a great assistant like Caroline is essential – I almost stepped backwards off of the big piece of granite that I was standing on!

Stairs are a good tool to arrange large wedding parties and the Mellon Institute has those.  For a different look, we lined the group up in front of the columns.  I shot with a wide angle lens so that the lines of the columns converge towards the top of the photo for a dramatic effect.

Large Wedding Party Photos

The Wedding Party

That’s it for now.  I’ll post some photos from the reception at Pittsburgh’s Grand Hall, including a counterpoint to the bouquet toss post from a couple of weeks ago.

Joe