With more to come!!

photo: Gia Canali

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Wishing you a magical 2012, full of grace! And lots of twirling!

*Thank you, Carrie, for making the long journey out here to let me make photographs of you : )

photo: Gia Canali

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Sometimes it works out to do engagement photographs before the wedding with a destination wedding. Other times, it doesn’t. Jess met me for her bridal photographs in Los Angeles, but TJ couldn’t come. So we took an hour the morning after the wedding (yes! we were all a little groggy) to capture some images of the two of them together. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: I love how relaxed and sweetly intimate post-wedding portrait sessions always are. Really, it’s the recipe for perfect portraits …

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That’s a wrap! Now, we are drawing near to Jess and TJ’s first anniversary and I am quietly wishing them, as I wish all my clients, a marriage as marvelous as—or more marvelous than—their wedding!

photographs: Gia Canali

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The great thing about bridal portrait sessions, as opposed to weddings, is that you have the real luxury of having time to make portraits, slowly.  I mean: I love the challenge and the rush of making portraits happen in the swirl of the events and obligations of a wedding day (what wedding photographer doesn’t?!).  And Jess’s session was slower than most because we intentionally sought to make images on our slowest, most deliberate cameras.

Bridal sessions are about the bride and certainly also about her exquisite refinery.  Jess’s dress was designed and lovingly crafted by Suzanne Hanley of Atelier des Modistes.  Sue is a genius designer and I feel lucky to count her among my friends.   I particularly love the lace chevrons (though, seriously, I can’t fathom how much time it took her and her team to make those) and the bustle, which reminds me so much of the wild, wild west.  Jess’s bridal session is also featured {here} on 100 Layer Cake today, with an interview from Jess about the custom dressmaking process.

Neither one of us could have known that Jess’s wedding day would bring rain (or rainbows) and mud or that the slow moments in the day could be counted on the fingers of two hands, so I am extra grateful we made time early in the summer before her wedding to make these portraits.

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Jess found other value in making these images.  This is what she wrote:

“I thought it was really helpful to do the portrait session before, because it was an excellent introduction to you and Matt, and how you like to work. It was also great for me to hear some tips from you on posture, how to stand, how to act, etc., before the “main event,” so to speak. It was certainly a little more challenging to take photos alone, as opposed to how much more natural and easy it felt when I was with TJ.  But I think for people who haven’t been photographed much before [their weddings], it’s a great introduction. Plus seeing these initial proofs, I could then say to myself—well, I like it when I smile like this or that, and I love how my hair and makeup looks in these photos, and so on—so it was a great dry run overall.”

photographs: Gia Canali

gown: Sue Hanley, Atelier des Modistes, whose little shop in San Francisco I featured awhile back; hair and makeup: Sharon Tabb.

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This adorable wedding can be found over on {snippet & ink} today, and {here’s} a link!

Someday soon, I might post more images … might.  I don’t want to make promises I just can’t keep!

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It rained all day and all night at this wedding, without ever letting up.  We made some of our only real outdoor portraits under the canopy of this stand of redwood trees, which was somehow dry, even after two solid days of driving rain.  I love how the bride looks like she’s floating above the forest floor (and also kind of glowing!), like a wood fairy or a nymph.

The truth is that you never really can do anything about the weather.  Just be ready to go with it.  This couple had envisioned lots of portraits in the fields and forests near the reception venue. (And I had, too!)  The weather, unfortunately, made that pretty impossible, not to mention totally impractical.  Plan B was to run outside during a break in the rain.  It never happened.  So … we all adjusted our expectations and made the best portraits we could in the few spots we could reasonably get to.  Although I absolutely love all the photos that show the rainy day for what it was, the images from this series that seem to transport the bride far from her rainy wedding day seem extra special.

photo: Gia Canali

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{click any image to enlarge}

We’ve been busy in the studio, printing and making things (one of my favorite things about my job!).  Here is detail on one pair of handmade encaustic prints.

photos & prints: Gia Canali

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Happy Valentine’s from all of us here at Gia Canali Photography! I hope you and your beloved are cozy together today.

photos: Gia Canali

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