I am so beyond excited for Lan and Ron's wedding coming up in October at the Ashley Manor. Lan is the younger sister of Thuy, one of my best-in-the-whole-wide-world friends. So I've known Lan a long time, since she was seven. I cannot wait to see all of Lan's family all together for the wedding. I am so excited for Lan's big sister to come back to Arizona to be in the wedding. It's been way too long since she was here in Arizona!
Rain was predicted and all day long I was watching the clouds build up and wondering if we would be getting a monsoon. This is how it looked up in the sky about an hour and a half til sunset when we were scheduled to meet up. When we got to the the Coffee Shop, the wind was starting to blow and dust was starting to swirl around. But I wasn't too worried; actually I was relieved, because it would give us a little break from the heat.
Many, many thanks to Tina Le Burnham for doing Lan's beautiful makeup. Tina's a photographer too and she does hair and make-up. Doesn't Lan look just gorgeous? I LOVE the eyelashes! When Lan first got to the Coffee Shop, Ron was still on his way, so Becky and I started taking photographs of her right away. I love the way the wind was blowing her hair. :)
Once Ron got there, we walked out into the vineyard.
Something magical happened when we got to the vineyard. The sun came out from behind the clouds and gave us the most incredible and enchanting light for a few minutes.
Thuy and I think Ron looks a little like Tim Robbins, the actor. Has Thuy ever told you that, Ron? :)
This photo (above) was taken with the last light of the day. Minutes later it was completely dark and we went into the the Coffee Shop for drinks and to get out of the heat. And then after a while, we were refreshed and ready to go back out.
So we went out to the picnic tables, where there are a lot of lights strung up between the trees. We went there because I wanted to experiment with getting these heart shapes from the lights. (The lights aren't really heart-shaped, they are just regular bulbs.)
To get heart shapes like this, I cut out a small heart (about half an inch in size) on a piece of cardboard, held it up to my lens, my lens was wide open (f1.2) and I manually focused so that nothing was really in focus, until I saw hearts where the lights were. Becky and I were just talking about this experiment and she thinks we could get the subjects in focus and the hearts too. It would require using our tripod and the bulb setting. We'll experiment on some other lovely couple (anyone out there interested?) and if we figure out how to do it, we'll let you know how.
Okay, so these pictures below? f4 3200 ISO, 1/15th of a second and on my LCD they were completely dark--you couldn't see anything. In camera raw, I push the exposure to almost 4 and slide some other settings around. And so exposure/lighting-wise, you might say these images have some problems and shouldn't be posted. And you know what I say? I say I don't care! They're too cute not to post.
I LOVE these images. Lan and Ron, this is how totally and completely adorable you two are.
After experimenting with creating hearts, we all got in our cars and drove to Joe's Real BBQ to have dinner. Lan's brother Ty met up with us.
And then when we were done eating, we went outside and Lan and Ron had to start being my models again.
I like the little crescent moon in the photo below, really low on the horizon and so near the two of them.
The two of them under the Gilbert Water Tower:
Lan and Ron, we had so much fun with you guys and we hope you did too. It was so hot even after dark that I just have to say Good job! You guys rocked this and your wedding is going to be amaaaazing!
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