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Hagen and Natalie’s Engagement

August 24, 2011 by Armin

Hagen is Garret’s brother, so I was more than happy to take their engagement photos, along with his upcoming wedding as well.  Hagen and Natalie were going with a nautical theme for their wedding and wanted some shots with the Seattle skyline behind them, so Alki was the obvious choice for some good locations.  We lost light pretty fast, but thanks to R.J. Deguzman’s help with reflector and off-camera speedlight work, we were still able to get some good captures.  I started off with the Nikkor 24-70mm ƒ2.8, then moved to the Nikkor 85mm ƒ1.8D, and finally ended with the Nikkor 70-200mm ƒ2.8 VR2.  The VR2 proved to be very useful and impressive as usual. I simply cannot rave about that lens enough.  I even used it for a Brenizer Method shot, but I think my 85mm still does it better thanks to the wider aperture.  Anyway, here is a link to all the photos:

http://photos.arminausejo.com/Weddings/Alpers-Heckman-Engagement/

And a few of my personal favorites:

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Houglum-Alcantara Wedding

January 14, 2011 by Armin

My cousin Liezl married her long-time boyfriend Dan on this past New Year’s Eve.  Since the wedding started at 7 pm at Our Lady of the Lake Church, the lighting challenges would once again prove to be difficult.   However, this time around, I was not the hired photographer for this wedding since I wasn’t even sure if I was going to be in town for the New Year.  As luck would have it, I was able to attend the wedding and take photos from my seat in the pews.  Since I was taking photos for the fun of it, I decided to experiment a bit: I shot with only my Nikon D700 and primarily my Nikkor 85mm ƒ1.8 and Nikkor 50mm ƒ1.4 lenses.  I also had my Nikkor 24-70mm 2.8 with me, but it only saw very limited use during the ceremony and during the reception at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle. Each photo during the ceremony was taken at ISO 3200, which really shows off the good high ISO/low noise capabilities of the camera.

You’ll also notice that I decided to experiment a little bit with my post-processing style, using a more muted, desaturated look with higher mid levels, rather than my usual color-saturated style.  Please let me know what you think!  Onto the photos, and congrats to Liezl and Dan!

Link to all the photos: http://verdugo.smugmug.com/Weddings/Houglum-Alcantara-Wedding/

A few selected favorites:

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Wiegand-French Wedding

January 4, 2011 by Armin

Years ago, my first magazine cover photo was a rolling shot of a Subaru STI with pink wheels, owned by Stephanie French. Over the years, we’ve become good friends and in some ways, I became her personal photographer.  This past December,  I had the honor of taking Stephanie’s and Travis’ wedding photos in Bellingham, Washington.  This wedding also represented the debut of my new Nikon D700 and Nikkor 24-70mm ƒ2.8 lens, and wow, did they sure shine.  With Wence once again assisting, we started out at the Chrysalis Inn and Spa on a driest and most beautiful day in all of December for the wedding preparation and formal photos, then moved over to the Squalicum Boathouse for the wedding ceremony and reception. Lighting and moving space conditions at the boathouse were quite the challenge, but the new D700 and my trusty D300 combo still worked great.  Congratulations once again to Stephanie and Travis!

Link to all the photos:  http://verdugo.smugmug.com/Weddings/Wiegand-French-Wedding

A few selected favorites (the wedding dress is actually her grandmother’s — 60 years old!):

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Allas-Main Wedding

June 21, 2010 by Armin

Today marks the 271st day in a row where temperatures did not reach above 75 degrees in Seattle, but thankfully for the Allas-Main wedding on June 12th, it sure came as close as it ever did throughout this cold weather streak.  The skies cleared up after a week of depressing rainfall for the outdoor wedding at Parsons Garden, located just west of Kerry Park on Queen Anne in Seattle.  I’ve known Erik and Tana for over eight years, and I was deeply honored to be asked to help photograph their wedding.  I split the duties with their other photographer friend, each taking different duties for the ceremony and reception.  This helped ease pressure on me, so I was able to definitely enjoy myself more than I typically would.  I primarily relied on my trusty Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens for most of the wedding shots, then my Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 and Tokina 12-24mm f/4 for the formals and reception at China Harbor on Westlake Avenue in Seattle. We simply could not ask for better conditions, making this wedding a great way to kick off the summer wedding season.  Congratulations again to Erik and Tana!

Link to all the photos:  http://verdugo.smugmug.com/Weddings/Allas-Main-Wedding

A few selected favorites:

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Barrick-Melnik Wedding

April 10, 2010 by Armin

I’ve known Bryce and Jenya since high school, and just by chance we ended up becoming closer friends long after high school through my cousin Wence.  Their wedding ended up being quite informal, with the celebration actually involving a video of the short 5-min wedding itself that had taken place months earlier.  After the video, we feasted on a taco bar and played a plethora of board games.  Overall, we all had a great fun time and I felt quite honored to be their choice for their photography.  Eugene let me borrow his D300 again for my second body, and once again the lack of high ISO noise impressed me yet again.  This lack of noise makes me extremely excited to upgrade to a D700 or higher, which hopefully will happen sooner rather than later.

Link to all the photos:  http://verdugo.smugmug.com/Weddings/Barrick-Melnik-Wedding/

Selected favorites:

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Rogers-Spradlin Wedding

December 12, 2009 by Armin

My good and long time friends, Russell and Suzy finally tied the knot on the 24th in Redmond, WA. It was a relatively small wedding, with both the ceremony itself and the reception taking place at the Clise Mansion in Marymoor Park.  I teamed up with my good friend and fellow photographer Tanya Jose, since we’re both friends of Russell and Suzy and this would be our joint wedding gift for them.  I started out the day with the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D that I purchased from Josh Mackey, and then let Tanya use it for the rest of the day.  I then switched over to my venerable Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8, which remained on the camera throughout the wedding and reception.  Special thanks again to Wence Estrada for helping with the lighting.

Tanya and I decided to split up the wedding photo duties, with myself taking all of the main posed photos and wide angle shots, while she kept the 50mm on her camera for the short telephoto and candids.  She said she’d be processing her photos as soon as I finished mine, so I’ll be posting up a link to her photos as soon as she has them ready.  The D300 worked great as already proven, and shooting at ISO2000 in the very dimly-lit room proved to be perfectly fine.  Without further ado, here is a link to the galleries:

http://verdugo.smugmug.com/Weddings/Rogers-Spradlin

And a few of my personal favorites:

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Donckers-Klingele Wedding

December 12, 2009 by Armin

Wence and I made the trek out to Yakima to shoot Ryan and Rachel’s wedding.  We made the wise decision to drive over on Friday night rather than Saturday morning and thanks to Wence’s driving, we made it from Seattle to our hotel in Yakima in almost exactly 2 hours, which included a break to get fast food in Ellensburg.  With a good, solid 8 hours of sleep under our belts, it was business as usual starting with photographing the groom and groomsmen getting ready at the hotel.  We then headed over to the bride’s parent’s residence to document getting into the wedding dress, and then took the wedding party photos at the Yakima Arboretum.  After a quick 45 minutes there, we made haste to the church, where both the wedding ceremony and reception took place.  Everything went smoothly and we were back on the road to Seattle by about 8 pm.

While my old D200 still did a great job with the Alpers-Merani Wedding, the high ISO noise compared to the D300 bugged me a great deal.  Luckily, Eugene was nice enough to let me borrow his D300 to be my second body for this wedding, and it proved its worth very well since the church was much darker than I had expected.  I used the same wide gamut of lenses at this wedding except for the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 and the Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 Micro.  The Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 once again proved to be a great low-light lens during the reception, especially since it’s nowhere near as obtrusive-looking as the big “Hatori Hanzo” Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR.  Since the 50mm didn’t get much use, I actually did end up selling it in favor of the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 that I bought from Mackey. Anyway, here’s a link to the galleries:

http://verdugo.smugmug.com/Weddings/Donckers-Klingele-Wedding

And a few of my personal favorites:

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Alpers-Merani Wedding

December 12, 2009 by Armin

What an epic wedding!  This was my first wedding in awhile and I was anxious to see how well the D300/D200 combo would work out.  The D300 really shined, but I have to say that the D200 was really starting to show its age, especially with the high ISO noise.  Nevertheless, I think the photos still turned out quite well.  The Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8 was the main workhorse throughout the day and truly proved its worth.  If/when I decide to go full frame, I certainly hope that the new Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 can live up to how well the 17-55mm f/2.8 has worked for me all this time.  I debated on renting the new Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8, but as it turned out, I only found myself using the ultra-wide during the reception.  On the telephoto end of things, I used the 70-200mm f/2.8 for the wedding itself, but I switched it up with the Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 for the wedding party photos and reception.  I even found use for my Nikkor 60mm f/2.8 Micro at the reception as well, so the only lens I didn’t use at all was the 50mm.  Time to sell it?  Maybe…

In any case, here’s the link to all the galleries:  http://verdugo.smugmug.com/Weddings/Alpers-Merani-Wedding

And a few of my personal favorites:

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Erik and Tana’s Engagement

December 12, 2009 by Armin

This was a very special set of engagement photos since it was an actual Cambodian engagement ceremony.  Since I’ve been good friends with Erik and Tana for a number of years, I had no problem filling in for their hired engagement photographer who ended up being late.  The ceremony started with an offering of gifts to honor those who came before them, and moved indoors for a lengthy ritual to bless the newly-engaged couple.  Both Erik and Tana, along with their wedding party, wore traditional clothes as well.


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Stevens Wedding, 9-13-08

December 12, 2009 by Armin

I wasn’t the hired photographer at my friend Brian’s wedding, but they were still thrilled with the very limited amount of photos that I was able to take.  Most of my shots were taken with my telephoto lens from the back of the ceremony so that I wouldn’t get in the way of their hired photographer.  The wedding ceremony and reception took place at Tyee Yacht Club on Lake Union in Seattle, WA.  The location beautiful and made for a great wedding locale for a small wedding.

First Kiss
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Wise Wedding, 9-8-07

December 12, 2009 by Armin

After a hiatus from wedding photography, I returned back to the field with the wedding of my friends Kevin and Emily.  This outdoor wedding took place at White Pass, WA right on the ski slopes that would normally be covered with snow during the fall and winter.  I had known Kevin and Emily for a number of years prior so it was my honor to shoot their wedding.  The ceremony itself only lasted about 15 min, with the reception easily going late into the night.  I even came to the rescue of my friend whose radiator had blown on the way up to the pass the night before by bringing a replacement radiator with me early the next morning.  Only among our group of friends would we not only have a wedding but also replace a radiator in the parking lot on the same day!

Emily and Kevin at White Pass, WA
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Walker Wedding, 9-23-06

December 12, 2009 by Armin

My good friends Tex and Monica were married at the Shilshole Bay Beach Club in Seattle, WA.  This wedding was much smaller than the Hallock wedding I shot just a month prior, plus it was full of my friends, which made the whole experience much more easy-going.  I had taken Tex and Monica’s engagement photos previously, so it was very easy to work with them.  The weather was gorgeous and not too hot, which made for very ideal shooting conditions.


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Mary Ann and JayR’s Engagement

December 12, 2009 by Armin

My good friend Mary Ann and JayR asked me to take their engagement photos, but they wanted some more “epic” locations.  We ended up driving out to Snoqualmie Falls and actually walking on all of the rocks to get right up next to the falls.  That’s definitely not allowed anymore, so I guess we lucked out when we took these.  They also wanted more formal shots and we drove back to Seattle’s Discovery Park to take the photos there among the tall grass.  Overall, it was a full day of photography and I think they all turned out very well.


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Tex and Monica Engagement

December 11, 2009 by Armin

My good friend Tex proposed to his then girlfriend Monica through his car feature in Subiesport Magazine, which ironically was my first feature article in a magazine.  He of course asked me to take their engagement photos.  We started at the Japanese Garden in Seattle’s Arboretum, then ended up at Kerry Park on Queen Anne.  They in turn used these photos for their wedding announcements.

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Hallock Wedding, 8-5-2006

November 12, 2009 by Armin

Fresh out of graduate school, the first wedding I photographed was for my grad school buddy, Joe Hallock and his bride-to-be, Maureen.  The wedding took place at the famous Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia.  The scenery and day was absolutely gorgeous, which made for just about as perfect and outdoor wedding can be.  A wedding of this size was a bit daunting being my very first one I’d be doing professionally, but I think everything turned out great.

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