Today’s post (and the wedding I have scheduled for tomorrow) jumped ahead in line a bit. I still have several sessions I’d like to blog from late October through November, but I just got a new camera and I’m so excited about these photos I just can’t wait to get them up. My clients from this past weekend can consider it an early Christmas present. 
Kimberly is my January 2nd bride, and the reason I’m trying to convince my husband we should have an weekend getaway in Houston over New Years. I’m sure Kimberly’s out of town guests are also looking forward to the chance to spend some time in a new place over New Years, recover for a day, and then party all over again on the 2nd!
As our session date drew nearer Kimberly and I both realized just how cold it was going to be that day. I’m more than willing to bundle up and shoot in the cold, but Kimberly knew she would be wearing a dress with sheer sleeves and an illusion neckline so she opted for an inside location. I was thrilled when she said she wanted to hold her session at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, TX, a location I’d seen pop up on some other Dallas area photographer’s blogs, but there is a fee to use the space and so I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to shoot there. We had to do a little bit of legwork to find out if working there on the day of our shoot was even going to be an option, but now that the shoot is over both she and I it was absolutely worth it. If you are a Dallas bride considering the Meyerson Symphony Center for your bridal shoot location, please do it. Your photographer will love you (especially if your photographer is me!) and the completely neutral background and walls and ceilings covered in windows create a lighting situation that really lets the subject shine.
I realize that I’ve included a ridiculous amount of photos for a blog post about bridals, but the combination of Kimberly’s easy-going smile, the dreamy location, and my new camera has me favoriting more images than usual and I can’t seem to narrow them down.
I suggested this arm placement, but she added in the head tilt. Kimberly and I are a good team.
I adore the pure joy on her face in this one.
Definitely one of my favorites from the session. She reminds me of a ballerina here, though I can’t quite figure out why.
Look at that bustle! If I were to wear that dress I’m not sure I would ever want to stop spinning.
Want to see how amazing the light (+ new camera + pro lens) is at the Meyerson?
SOOC
And the Fine Art Edit. I like the higher contrast of the one below, but the SOOC shot is rather lovely right out of the camera I think.
Kimberly is a master of that soft, slightly open mouth smile. Definitely not something everyone can manage (including myself).
My favorite details. Her bouquet came from Central Market and they put the cream ribbon and the pearls on as part of the purchase. So lovely, and the perfect accent for her bridal look.
Kimberly’s ring came from her grandparents. Her grandpa owns a jewelry business, and when she got engaged her grandma took her aside and showed her a box of rings, letting her know she could have whatever she chose. Lucky girl, right?
I recently learned about a new photograhic technique called the “Brenizer Method” and Kimberly was nice enough to let me test it out at her session. I still have a few things to learn, but I love the results and I’ll be doing it at other sessions in the future.
Mom came along to act as reflector holder (aka, my assistant, thanks mom!), personal groomer, and posing consultant. It’s always nice to have an extra pair of hands helping me to watch for funky veil placement, stray hairs, or dry lips.
Sometimes, I like to photograph reality as much as I like to photograph pretty, graceful, glowing clients. Looking this good is a lot of hard work you know!
THAT SHOT!
It’s the shoes that do it for me here I think. Another ballerina moment.
I made sure to get lots of pictures of her bouquet. Even if her wedding day bouquet looks nothing like this, she still paid good money for it and our shoot was less than 2 hours long. An investment like that deserves a good amount of camera time I think!
The biggest reason to love the Meyerson can be seen below. There aren’t many locations that provide a completely neutral background like this one, unless you’re working in a studio filled with hot lights.
I think Kimberly’s mom’s words were: “Every girl should have a photo of herself with flowers near her face.” I couldn’t agree more.
I couldn’t decide whether I liked this shot best in black&white or color, so I included both to end the post. I think I’m leaning toward the black&white, what about you?
Kimberly,
Thank you, thank you, thank you for going down to the Meyerson in person the day before to find out if shooting there was really possible. I hope you’ll agree that this was the best possible location we could have chosen for that day, with your dress, with you as the subject. So happy we did this for the chance it gave us to better get to know each other, and of course because of the beautiful images that resulted. See you in a few weeks!
Best,
Jenna
