Christopher and Bethany eloped at Moonlight Beach, in Encinitas California in October of 2016. Christopher had connected with Alan and stated he was looking for a wedding photographer to capture his ceremony. He told Alan it was an elopement. He was surprising his future bride with the photographer. Bethany and Christopher are both in the Coast Guard. Christopher was stationed up in SFO and Bethany was arriving near Oceanside. They had just a few days together.
They planned their ceremony at Moonlight Beach at 2:00 with just the Justice of the Peace as their witness. The ceremony was on the bluff in a small park above the beach.
Bethany glowed with happiness and love as well as Christopher. None of their family knew. After they read their hearfelt vows Alan suggested we go down to the beach to take some additonal photographs.
Photography Shoot Challenges: There was a fence on the bluff that Alan had to manuveour around. It was a very bright day without any clouds; very difficult lighting conditions. Alan worked his magic and captured the emotion of their eleopement and some beautiful photos on the beach.
Photographers are often handed difficult lighting situations and they to make the best of it. This is some best practices:
- Use a 3 stop filter
- Place the couple in a location where the sun won’t cause them to squint
- Use a strong flash (that seems ironic with the bright light, but the flash actually takes away some shadows.
- Alan USED a HD Range on some of the shots to contrast the hight and low lights
