Rob and Lauren Blog

So we just arrived home last night, and I gotta say I’m pretty happy to be back on solid ground. I was not made for the sea, and had a lot of Gravol over the past week! Nevertheless, I will say that it was totally worth it, based on the amazing images we were able to create. Believe it or not, we have now shot Sonal & Raj in 5 different countries.

You’ll be getting to see those shots soon enough, but for now just a couple neat ones that Rob took of the scenery.

A view of San Juan, Puerto Rico from the ship deck.

 Lauren :)

Ok, I’m caving. Here’s a sneak peek at a couple photos from the wedding. I am just dying to share these, because, to be honest, I think they are some incredibly stunning images. A lot of the credit has to go to Sonal and Raj, who are just about the best posers out there :)

From a portrait session in San Juan.

 And wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. How amazing do these two look???? WOW!

 Many more will come in the next couple weeks. Until then, just enjoy.

Lauren :)

Another teaser for you. We’re actually getting ready to head off again tomorrow, this time to Vancouver to hang out with a ton of awesome people! But that doesn’t mean you don’t get to see more pretty pictures.

This is one that we took after their wedding ceremony on the island of Anguilla, at the world famous Cap Juluca Resort.

 Lauren :)

Welcome to the first edition of Monday morning teasers! Every Monday following a wedding we will be blogging a few of our favorite shots of the day, so make sure to keep coming back!

Reina and Prav’s wedding was in the lovely little city of Calgary. The weather was beautiful in the morning, and even though it turned on us in the afternoon we still managed to get some wonderful images of these two very amazing people. I believe the following day Calgary experienced quite the snowstorm, so the weather was holding on just for these guys! Here are a few shots that caught my eye this morning.

 Enjoy your Monday everyone!

Cheers,

Lauren :)

I have no idea how many pictures you are going to end up seeing of Sonal & Raj, but it will probably be in the area of a billion. Their 7 day long Caribbean cruise was a photographers dream, and we took so many photos we got blisters on our shooting fingers!

Today I’m going to show you a few shots of the first few hours of the cruise to set the scene.

Leaving Ft. Lauderdale. I love the two cruise employees just enjoying a quiet moment before the madness of the cruise gets going.

 The guests were enjoying some live music while we were enjoying some beautiful light.

 Gotta love when the Coast Guard waves at you!

 And because a post about Sonal and Raj isn’t complete with photos of these two beautiful people, here’s Sonal.

 And that crazy guy on the right is Raj. Get to know them well, because you’ll be seeing a lot more very soon!

 And check back in on Monday! We’re shooting an amazing wedding tomorrow, and I already know that photos are going to be off the hook!

Lauren :)

Hehe, mayhem. Don’t you love alliterations?

So, here we go! More of Sonal & Raj, yay!

The first day on board the ship Sonal & Raj planned a fun little mixer activity for all their guests to get to know each other. They got into groups and dressed one team member up as either a bride or a groom using toilet paper, streamers, feathers, and all sorts of other fun little things. I love this shot of Sonal’s mom getting her tiara put on :)

 And this guy was such a good sport as the ladies crafted a toilet paper turban for him!

 Then in the evenin the ladies got together for the mendhi party. I gotta say that the girls who did the mendhi were all starts! Imagine doing such precise and delicate work while a huge cruise ships rocks and sways!

 Sonal looked gorgeous as always. I love how her mom looks so happy to see her daughter all dressed up!

 Such beautiful colours, and sparkles from their jewelry!

In the meantime, well, this was the “mayhem”!

 Take a moment to really look at everyone in this image and see the little story that is going on. I love it!

 How much do you love those earrings??

 The final product!

 And yes, there is still a lot more to come!

P.S. DEFINITELY check in on Monday for an awesome new annoucement!! If you ever wanted some amazing photography by Rob & Lauren, you’re REALLY gonna wanna see this!

Lauren :)

Can you imagine the awesomeness of doing a portrait session in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico?

Well you don’t have to imagine, because we did it! I think we could have shot there forever, except for the fact that it was crazy hot out! Nonetheless, it was amazing. I hope you enjoy these images!

 We were so excited to find this stunning patch of light.

 Yum! A gorgeous couple, beautiful light, and amazing colours. I think this might have been the most perfect little town ever!

 Isn’t this the best puppy ever? He was just chillin’ in the window, paws crossed, watching the world go by.

 Lol, man, it probably seems like all we do is take pictures of the animals we see while out shooting….But look how cute he is!!!

Ok, I promise this is the last one! While we were shooting under these huge trees we heard a noise from above. I looked up and saw a CAT climbing down the tree trunk! My first instinct was, of course, to take a photo!  What an adventurous little guy.

 But when all the craziness of tree-climbing cats was over, we went back to taking more stunning images of this gorgeous pair.

 Lauren :)

Wow. Where to begin? Our weekend was completely packed with Shazma and Matt time, and I don’t think we would have had it any other way! These two must be just exhausted today, because they were going even harder than us the whole time! They didn’t even get a chance to peek at the photos during the reception they were so busy, so I’m going to post a ton for them today!!

We started off with the mendhi on Friday. Shazma’s design looked just unbelievably amazing!

 Then it was time for the pithi. This design was created with coloured rice under Shazma’s chair.

Shazma’s friends and family fed her sweets, showered her with rose petals, and gave her good wishes for her marriage.

 Matt’s friends, on the other hand, did this to him….

 I think this may be my favourite groom portrait ever, lol!! Poor Matt, he smelled so terrible!! I think they got him with salad dressing, peas, sprinkles, pop, peanut butter, ketchup, whipped cream, jello powder, honey, and a bunch of other such things. But he was a good sport, and got to hug all his buddies at the end, so he got his revenge.

 Then the wedding day!! Shazma’s shoes were just beautiful.

Oh, and so was she :)

Love this ring shot Rob took. So simple but gorgeous.

 This was Shazma’s reaction when she looked out the window and saw Matt and his groomsmen waiting for the girls to arrive.

 We took this awesome bridal party around a parking lot downtown, and it was crazy fun!

Then it was Shazma & Matt time.

 When we were driving around scouting locations for these cuties, I said to Rob “Let’s do something EPIC for them”. Then we found this spot. And we did something epic.

And that’s not even the half of all the crazy fun we had with them! You’ll have to wait for the full wedding post for the rest. But trust me, much more to come on this blog this week!!

Shazma and Matt, you guys are amazing, thank you for such a fabulous weekend!

Tons o’ love,

Lauren & Rob  :)

Yep, the wedding day is so crazy huge that you’re getting it in parts. I’m seriously so excited to share all these images with you guys! Right now we’re spending a lot of our time indoors working on the computer, so I love getting to look at the ocean through these images :)

This wedding day was truly an adventure. We started off docking at St. Maarten. Sonal was SO excited!

 We then hopped on a bus and drove across the island. We were treated to some stunning views on our trip!

 Then it was time to hop on our private chartered boat.

 Goodbye St. Maarten!

Hello Anguilla! Anguilla was a nearby island that we all travelled to for the ceremony.

 And welcome to Cap Juluca, one of the most stunning resorts in the world. Trust me. You see this place in magazines like Condé Nast all the time!!

The rooms were so gorgeous.

And I loved this little detail. When in the Caribbean, you need some Pyrat Rum!

And those lucky boys got to get ready in this villa.

Raj’s jootis.

And one last peek at that stunning villa. Yes, this is the private swimming pool.

There is still so much more to come from this wedding day!! But I hope you enjoyed this little beginning.

Lauren :)

I’d like to introduce you to these two stunning people, because they are going to be on the blog on Monday! Yep, these kids are getting married this weekend. We met with them this week to chat about the big day(s) and holy smokes. It’s going to be spectacular!!!! That is a Monday morning post you definitely don’t want to miss!

 Ok, check out that image on the right. With the bird. It’s trippy right? One of my favourite images I’ve created this year, no lie.

 Man, I can’t wait until this weekend! This wedding will be the definition of epic. Just wait.

Lauren :)

This post is a lot more philosophical than we normally put up on here, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Rob and I chat quite a bit about art, beauty, photography and life, and it’d be really great to hear what others think of all this crazy stuff that goes on in our heads!

So, recently we watched Match Point again. It’s a truly brilliant movie. Truly. It needs to be watched a few times to really appreciate all the subtleties. But my favorite line is this:

The man who said “I’d rather be lucky than good” saw deeply into life

This weekend we shot a very intense wedding. Two days, 23 hours of shooting, two ceremonies, and an unbelievable number of images created. Last night when we got home we were just exhausted, but can never sleep right after a wedding, so we usually peek at some of the photos.

It was then that I came across this image and was just totally stunned.

 At first glance this image looks fairly straightforward. But I URGE you to stop and give yourself some time to look at it. Really look at all corners of it. Take the time to see the tones, the colours, the background. Note where your eye travels across the image.

Now that you’ve done that, I’ll tell you how I see this image. First off, it’s important to note that this hasn’t been edited at all. It hasn’t been cropped to create a better composition, it hasn’t been given contrast, had the colours changed, or the exposure tweaked. It is completely straight out of the camera. (I gave it a touch of web sharpening so you can see the details well at this size, but that’s truly all). I wouldn’t even put our logo on it because that would ruin it. That’s how deeply committed I am to showing this image are purely as possible.

The first thing I noticed was the absolutely perfect composition. Notice the space on either side of his shoulders. It’s pretty much perfect. Notice where the center of his neck is in relation to the two lines on the wall behind him. It’s pretty much perfect. Notice the fantastic lines in the image. The lines of his jacket, his shoulders, his tie, his shirt, his jaw, the peak of his lip, the small goatee. See how those lines all play together in such wonderful harmony.

And now where does your eye travel? It first hits on his white shirt and his tie. The brightest point in the image. The interesting thing here is that the tie isn’t in focus. If Rob was thinking when he took this, he would have focused on the tie. But he didn’t, he made a bit of an error almost, and focused on the face. So since the tie isn’t in focus, your eye tries to find something else to look at. Something to anchor to. It then travels up to the strongest point of contrast, which is his chin. Then you see his lips. I know this sounds so creepy and weird to say, but from an artistic standpoint they are perfect. The tone, the shape, the subtle expression. Perfect.

Then your eye drifts down, takes in the wonderful colours of the boutonniere, and lingers on the forms because it’s not quite in focus. The lines of his jacket then bring you down to the bottom of the frame, completing the journey.

(NB. That’s why my eye does every time I look at this. Your eyes might have a completely different trip, which is the beauty of art, it’s so completely subjective.)

Now, by this point hopefully you can see what I mean when I say that this image is absolutely perfect to me. I wouldn’t change anything at all. Nothing. There is nothing I feel I could do to make it any better than it is.

That’s a bold statement to be sure. And trust me when I say I’m not bragging. That’s where luck comes into it.

Rob took this image. I’ll be the first to say that I think he’s a wonderful photographer, and has a great eye for composition. But Rob isn’t this good. He’s not perfect. This image he created was not the result of him seeing all these little elements, and then pressing the shutter. He saw a lot: he saw the lines on the wall, the beauty of the groom’s outfit, knew he wanted to crop out most of the face to keep the focus on the details, and wanted the shoulders squared (essential to the composition) and the head turned (also essential). But Rob could not have possibly intended to create such a perfect frame. He was lucky. Very very lucky.

When I realised that this perfect image had been created, and it was a result of luck, I started to think. How much amazing artwork is the result of skill combined with heaps of luck?? Obviously skill is an essential part of creating great art, but does luck bring it to that next level more than we realize? It’s just a hypothetical thought, but what if Da Vinci had inteded another expression for his Mona Lisa? What if he was trying to do something else? And now all these years later, the smile is what we see as his brilliance? Now I’m not saying Da Vinci wasn’t brilliant. I’m just using a well known example to suggest that maybe luck is a huge huge part of being an artist. Some days you’re lucky and create something that transcends your skill level, and some days you’re not, and what you create is pretty standard.

To me, this image isn’t just a wedding photo. It’s a piece of art. I’m completely serious when I say that I intend to send this to our printer, and have a very large canvas made. I want to look at this photo every day, and enjoy the experience of looking at it. That’s what I get when I see it: an experience.

But perhaps I’m totally crazy? Maybe we are seeing more into this than exists. But I’m so very in awe that so many elements seemed to unite so perfectly to create this. So much chance. I don’t think images like this just happen every day, and so I wanted to share something that really excited us.

I really hope you enjoyed this diversion. Tomorrow we’ll be back to our regular program of crazy awesome photos (including acrobats, unbelievable reception rooms, Indian Orthodox ceremonies, painterly landscapes, and even a Bentley :)

Lauren

I think my blog dudes would smack me if I uploaded the 49 images I got ready from this wedding all at once, so I’m going to do this over two days. Today you get to see part one of this wedding, and tomorrow will be part two :)

We started off with Robyn as she got ready for the Sikh ceremony.

 Yowza!

 Then it was time for the ceremony. The priest started everyone off with a prayer before the milni ceremony.

 The Nanaksar Gurdwara is seriously gorgeous.

 The ceremony ends with the offering of prasad to all the guests.

 See what I mean? What a gorgeous building.

I love these two. The background looks like a painting!

And our day ended with the doli. Sush and his guys had to bribe their way into Robyn’s house. I love these shots Rob got. He was squished in so tight that he could barely move. It made the shots seem so real, like I’m standing right there.

 For this one I feel like I’m part of the conversation. It’s a perspective we don’t usually get, being up that close and personal, but I love it so much.

 And for the record, they did finally manage to bribe the girls enough to get in :)

 And I’ll end on this one. Highly emotional, but so impactful. Sush leads her out of her parent’s home as they are tied together with a scarf. Robyn throws grains of rice as she leaves.

Come back tomorrow for the rest!

Lauren :)

I really hope  you guys really enjoy the images from day 2 of this crazy wedding extravaganza. I think there are some really special frames in here!

 Starting with this one. Isn’t the light gorgeous? A+ to Rob.

Oh, P.S. If you’re a shoe lover you might want to sit down. Things are going to get crazy. These are Robyn’s morning shoes.

And these are her evening shoes.

 Sush’s family comes from Kerala in South India. They are members of the Malankara Orthodox Church. It was our first time shooting a ceremony like this, and it was amazing. Sure, we had to stand for nearly 2 hours, but completely worth it. It was held in the stunning St. Josaphat’s Ukranian Catholic Church.

Waiting to start.

The ceremony was held primarily in Malayalam, their native language. That meant we didn’t generally know what was going on, but here they are blessing this chain for Sush. I believe it is called the “Blessing of the Crown” ceremony, as they used to use gold crowns.

Sush’s father swinging the thurible, which is filled with charcoal and incense.

Love this one of Robyn’s bridesmaids carrying her dress. When there is a combining of cultures in one frame (mendhi with a Western wedding dress) I just get so excited.

We returned to Sush’s parents house for a milk ceremony. Sush’s mom served them chocolate milk.

And they drank it. And that was pretty much the extent of the ceremony! Sometimes they are complex, and sometimes just very simple :)

Then it was time for some cool shots with this stunning bridal party.

Flowers from Swish. Awesome.

That would be a Bentley. Just look up the MSRP. I think you’ll be quite surprised :)

And I’ll finish up with a couple shots from their reception. Truly the most gorgeous reception decor we’ve ever seen. Huge props to the amazing people at Elegant Touches for their unbelievable work.

Sush waiting as Robyn gets ready for the reception. Doesn’t he look crazy cool?

Oh yeah. There were acrobats. It was insane.

Oh man, what a wedding. I started giggling when I was looking at the rings! So so so nice.

Yeah. Nuts right?

Lauren :)

Yowza, never before has 12 hours flown by so fast! This wedding was jam packed of visual treats and emotion and we were so lucky to come along for the ride! I’ve been prepping images all morning and at this point I think I’m just going to jump right in and share them!

It’s been a while since we’ve shot an Indian wedding, and as soon as I was immersed in all the vibrant colours and heard the energetic music I felt a very strong longing to go back to India. It’s been over 2 years since we traveled there, and I still think about it constantly. 

First up, some beautiful beautiful details from the wedding ceremony.

Love this moment. Shirmee’s family was getting her ready, and with the heavily adorned clothing she’s wearing that can require a pretty firm hand. Her hair was pulled awkwardly, and yet she managed to look absolutely graceful and beautiful in her reaction. I suspect it was due to excessive happiness that day :)

Meanwhile, Sunil and his family make their joyous procession to the temple. His sister is in the front there, and one of my favourite things about Indian clothing is the way the light plays off of it. Notice the small little specks of light all over her as the sun reflects off all the jewels in her sari. Love all the emotion in this one! You can even peek Sunil in the back, on the left, above everyone as he rides in on a horse.

Then it was time for the ceremony. These two didn’t stop peeking and smiling at each other the whole time. I loved it!

They make offerings to agni, the sacred fire. 

One of the priests of the Bhartiya Mandir watching the ceremony.

And right after they are announced husband and wife. Total happiness.

The smiles just never stopped. Their bridal party was SO much fun, and we had a blast playing around with them.

And watch out, because this is the baddest group of bocce ball players you’ve ever come across. 

Yep, we played a few rounds of bocce during the photos! And it was a blast. Shirmee gave it a go, but based on the reaction of her bridesmaid I don’t think this shot was too successful.

Sunil was totally focused for his attempt. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough, as in the end the girls took it, 2 games to 1. 

Then portrait time! Hooray!

Her mendhi was absolutely incredible and so intricate.

And I’ll finish off with a few peeks at the reception. The decor was so incredible.

Shirmee and Sunil are a couple with a lot of rivalries. If you remember their engagement photos, they are Starbucks and Tim Hortons. Well, they are also the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames. I loved how they playfully incorporated it into their wedding day!

And a final shot of Sunil’s mom showing off some great dance moves!

Well, this is just a tiny peek at the incredible day we spent with them! Shirmee and Sunil, thank you so much for including us in your celebration. It was a blast and a half!!

Lauren :)