Being experienced in photographing weddings, how can you NOT photograph a wedding of a long-time friend and his future wife? Exactly. You can’t. So I did.
Dan and Ellie make a great couple and I wanted to do our friendship justice by making memorable photographs of the start of their lives together.
Dress
The end of the dress, and photographed the way that it is, references and reminds me of the instance that a wave reaches the end of its push towards the shore. The foam sits there for half a second then retreats back into the ocean. The angle of this photo with the wavy pattern at the end of the dress lend it to that observation. It’s a metaphor I haven’t tried to connect before – a wedding dress and the ocean. I suppose their both only visible for a relative instant.
Tie the Knot
Close detail on the back of the dress. There’s something about the “getting ready” shots that lend themselves to the nostalgic black-and-whites.
The finishing touch.
Chances are you wouldn’t make this connection without my help, but that’s Ellie’s blurred reflection in the mirror on the background. You can make out a rough head, but that’s her.
Pillow
Call me young, but of all the weddings I’ve photographed, I have yet to see an embroidered Ring Bearer’s pillow like that. Classy.
Veil
This is one of my favorite photos from the whole day. Ellie looks somewhat dazed in the freshly complete wedding ensemble, gracefully touching her veil through which you can barely make out her face in the myriad of translucent white. It’s touching, subtle, and humbling. Congrats, you two.
Mr and Mrs Peacock
And finally, a big “rockstar” photograph of the two of them. Backlighting is a dramatic technique I enjoy working with on events like this. It glorifies the subjects, hoping to make the photograph represent the day’s importance and presence in their memory.
So, that’s that. I propose a toast to you, Daniel and Merielle. May you both enjoy and prosper in your lives together.
If you’re interested in viewing the whole day’s worth of photographs, contact me at ben@bwhitlockphoto.com and I can direct you to the proper website.
Well, after the late night of karaoke, we pulled into the hotel room at about 2pm and fell asleep. That got me over the jet lag for sure. But we slept in late, and my preparations took a bit too long and we had to run to catch our bus out to Hakone, which took about two-and-a-half hours to get there.
We went up mountain roads, through small mountain towns and I got to see mountains for the first time in my life. Yeah, if you can believe it. All my life, I’ve only lived in coastal states and cities, where it’s relatively flat. I’ve lived in proximity to salt water all my life, thus I haven’t been able to see mountains. So, for my virgin eyes, they were spectacularly beautiful.
I mean, seriously. Absolutely gorgeous. This is screensaver-worthy here.
Moving on, more hairpin style turns (that would go great for drifting – Initial D style!), and 2.5hrs into the bus ride and we arrive at Hotel de Yama, which is on the lakeside of Ashinoko (Lake Ashi), more on that later. The hotel was quite upscale, fancy, and very hospitable. Us young’ins stayed in a Japanese style room, while the adults stayed in a western room with regular beds – what you would normally expect in a hotel room.
Here I am standing in the first room you walk into after the foyer area, looking into the sitting room. Each room is divided with the sliding dividers, and the room smelled like Japan, if it would have a distinctive smell. To camera-left, the whole wall was made of windows and sliding glass doors that overlook the garden and the Ashinoko. The bathrooms were interesting japanese style, too where the showers are built into the wall and you sit on a small wooden stool to bathe, while the tub was built into the ground (photos on Flickr). I enjoyed this change of pace. During dinner, they would come into our rooms and prepare our beds, which would lie on the floor.
We went up to the fifth floor to look out of the observatory, where we can see the entire lake, the mountains and the gardens. And Mt. Fuji (in the distance, and for five minutes until the clouds cover it)!!!!
Mt. Fuji was a bit clearer in real life, but still hard to see through the haze and the clouds. But I saw it.
It was a really great view of the whole landscape and such a beautiful place to be in.
Before dinner, we headed on a walk down a small trail that was along the lake, which led to small town and a Shinto temple.
This is us “kids” in front of the Gate of the Gods (?) that marks all the Shinto temples. This was the sea port entrance, and there were others up the hill, closer to the temple.
After a long hike up many flights of stairs, we arrive at Kosho Temple, which, as explained to me, was named after the emperor of the time it was built, some 2400 years ago (with renovations, of course).
This is the initial gate in to the main temple. The decorations and design of their buildings is interesting and definitely different than western-style, though not nowing much about architecture, I couldn’t tell you the first thing.
Now, walking down towards the town more, we stopped on a small bridge, and wow, what a view it had.
You could rent a small boat and ride it on the river, take a ferry (pirate) ship accross the lake, or fish from the docks.
This lake, Ashinoko, is one of five lakes around Mt. Fuji that were formed from it’s volcanic activity. The eruptions flowed so far that they blocked off and covered parts of a nearby river, enclosing and forming five lakes, including this one.
We then ventured into town and stopped at a few small shops, turned around and saw this wonderful view of this mesa with a small building atop it:
Everywhere I turned, everything was just so strikingly beautiful and there was something new to look at around every corner.
Just on the other side of the road was a cool piece of history.
This is the original dirt and gravel road, from about 400 years ago, that connected Tokyo and Osaka. Obviously, people traveled by foot and carriage (?) between the two cities down this long road.
After this, we headed back to the hotel and prepared for a relaxing time in the bathhouse. When I went, it was Tyler, Mr. Watanabe, and myself. So, for clarification, yes, this is where you bathe in public, surrounded by other people. Honestly, it took about 2 minutes to get used to and everything was fine. Mr. Watanabe walked me through the customs of the bath house, and the importance of it. It can link each other’s friendships and improve their communication, all while getting relaxed in the very warm bath water. I consider it male bonding time, and it really is.
This particular bath house had an indoor and smaller out door bath, showers all along the walls, a sauna (which was about 90degrees Celcius; and I have never been in a sauna, so I lasted about 2 mins), massage chairs, a large sink and grooming area, and different specific massages devices for your feet, etc. Overall it was extremely relaxing and you can feel the spiritual energy in there. Of course, as it was a bunch of naked dudes in there, I didn’t get any photos. But I’m sure you can understand that. Just trust me when I saying that it was well worth the personal exposure, which isn’t that bad, really.
I took a quick stroll through the gardens just before dinner as well, and took some photos with the fleeting daylight. Being so high in altitude, it was also very foggy from, well, being inside of a cloud, which gave it another eerie feel.
This is Ashinoko inside of a cloud, but you can feel a bit more surrealism to it.
Monochromatic-the-sun-is-gone type of light.
This is one of my favorites because of the different colored lights. The blue was from the fleeting dusk light, while the yellow lights were coming from the building nearby, so get complimentary colors in a dreamy atmosphere. There’s a small figure in the distance on the road also (Mr. Watanabe), which adds a nice final touch.
Following this, we had a very upscale Japanese dinner. Simply put, Brittany and I didn’t eat much. Haha. It was just a little out of my palette range, but Mana had a quite a bit more than us. She even said that it was a bit too much for her.
So, we were all ready to pass out by then, and our beds were there waiting for us. We slept for about 10 hours up in the mountains.
———————
Now, at 10:30am on Tuesday morning, my final full day in Tokyo, it’s a bunch of shopping and eating at ramen stands and curry shops for me. I’ll get to Monday possibly tonight.
Saturday was business. It is the main reason why we are here in Tokyo.
If you haven’t heard by now, Tyler, which is Brittany’s brother, got married about three weeks ago in Gainesville. They had a traditional American Christian wedding and reception with bridesmaids, groomsmen, the whole nine yards. Now, since Mana, his wife now, is Japanese, and most of her family lives in Japan, so of course, they needed to have a wedding in Japan so her whole family could enjoy the wedding as well.
So, we’re all here and I got to photograph it. Which means I get a lot of different and unique portfolio shots.
So, we woke up and headed to Chinzan-so, which is the resort where the wedding was held. It was a Four Seasons Hotel (see an earlier post about Thursday). Now, this wedding was very VERY time constrained and they were very strict about where to be and what to do, which left NO time for creativity and getting different, interesting shots. Literally, I had less than five minutes to get group shots and a few portraits together with the two of them. They obviously run things quite a bit differently than we do in America. But, on the plus side, at least at this hotel, the people who are coordinating the whole wedding (and I mean people in plural; there were probably 10 people assigned to this wedding to make sure everything goes according to plan and on time) set everything up and got all the people in the right spots for me, leaving me just to shoot it.
So, we started with Mana getting reading ready in her very ornate kimono:
I got quite a few other detail and more formal shots of her in preparation, but this one is just so kawaii and so japanese that I have to post it. It shows fancy, formal Mana in her true self.
But still, you can see how much goes into getting prepared for this wedding. She had to RENT this kimono, hired two people to dress her and fit her wig (no way that’s her real hair), and get her fully prepared. I don’t know how long it took exactly to get her dressed, but I would imagine it’s a few hours.
Then we moved on to see Tyler in preparation:
He couldn’t turn around to show us the front as there was someone in front of him getting him dressed, but you can get a glimpse of it here (and more later). And let me tell you, those clothes are sweet. (I don’t know the name of it; do you??)
Another fancy thing about having your wedding here is that you get a big portrait done with the whole family in one of their three photo studios. In the hotel. Crazy.
So after a brief meet-and-greet with the whole family and guests, we headed to the studio for the portrait, which I was included in, which was very cool. Photography note: they were using medium-format film Mamiyas. I do wonder why there were using film… and yeah, it was definitely film. i got a good look at the cameras the day before.
Anywho, after that, on to the garden where we did a large look-down-on-everyone group shot, then families, friends, and portraits.
Here you can see their outfits very well. Very traditional (and bad-ass). We did a few more of these shots, moved on to a small red bridge that is a popular photo spot on the grounds, then headed inside for this quick shot.
Unfortunately, do to the extreme time constraints, which might be a cultural thing (maybe photos just aren’t AS important as we make them to be in America?), this was about as creative as I had time for. I simply had to get the shots that REALLY counted. From the beginning of the groups to this last portrait shot, I had a total of about 5-7 mins. Tops.
But I did something I haven’t done very much, which is to have two cameras, one with a short lens and an on-camera flash and a radio trigger on one shoulder, and another camera with a telephoto and a radio trigger on the other shoulder, and an off-camera key light with a radio receiver, thus utilized by both cameras. This enabled me double the shots in half the time, which was very handy. I had done this before, just not with them both linked up to one key light.
Seeing all the photographers around the hotel (and there were many of them; there were TWENTY weddings there that day as it was a Saturday, and a favorable day in the rotation for weddings) got me inspired to do this, as they all had two cameras around, though i didn’t see any of them with an off-camera light more than a few inches. Not saying that means they took bad photos at all, I’m just making a point to not that. Maybe in sucha gun-and run place, they don’t have the flexibility or manpower to tote around an extra light. I, on the other hand, only was able to use that second light during these portraits and during the reception, where I had everything to do in a small location.
Moving on to the timeline, after these photos, we were off to the reception. The parents greeted all the guests by bowing as the guests walked in and took their seats. Mana and Tyler were announced and took their seats at the head of the reception hall. Now, there were a few toasts (I think), then dinner was served, where Mana and Tyler left the hall to go change into their more western-style clothes. During this time, there was a quick slide show showing eachothers lives, their lives together and a few photos from the wedding in Gainesville.
They returned half way through dinner (which was very awesome), and looked amazing.
I’m telling you, Mana was smoking in that dress and fancy jewelry. They looked really good together and their clothes rocked – way better than a normal tux and white dress, in my opinion.
After this point, dinner was finishing up, there were a few toasts and speeches, a bit of entertainment by the family and friends with music and more speeches, a traditional Japanese folk song, and a summary from friends’ perspectives on how they met. That took, at most an hour. Mixed in with this was a cutting of the cake, again, all coordinated by the reception staff, so all I had to do was shoot. Also, a final thank-you from the parents, then we all left.
I did a few more portraits in their western clothes in two small locations around the hotel, and got a final photo of the two of them and me and Brittany, which I really like:
I think the four of us have really bonded this trip. Haha. Corny, I know, but they’re kind of the reason that we’re all here. And they’ve helped us so much with getting around Tokyo and getting to know the culture.
So, overall, the wedding process was very similar to an American wedding, with, at least in this particular instance, the time allotted was very compressed. A few differences: the obvious costumes differences, tied to their long cultural history, and the fact that they changed clothes completely; the reception didn’t have any dancing, which could still be tied to time constraints or preference on their side, but looking through other photo albums at the hotel, I didn’t see any photos of people dancing; the high involvement of the parents of the bride and groom – the bowing, the speeches, the meet and greet, everything – it’s more of an entire family tradition, rather than just centered on the bride (and sometimes the groom).
It’s great to see another cultural perspective on a wedding and I picked up a few ideas that I can use back in the states when shooting American weddings. One major thing is to include the bride and groom in shots of each and every table. Here in Japan, they deliver gift baskets of party favors to each table, at which time they take a group photo with that table – something we can do here if it’s coordinated correctly. It’s not something I have dominantly seen in America, but it is something I have seen in both Asian weddings I have witnessed: Vietnamese and Japanese.
——————–
Enough formalities. On to the after party.
We all met up in the hotel lobby and headed out to an izakaya to get some beers, sake, and food with a fair amount of people – about 15 of us or so.
From left to right: Steve Evans (Brittany/Tyler’s Dad), Mana’s cousin (name?), Mr. Takao Watanabe (Mana’s Dad), Mana Evans, Me, Tyler Evans, Brittany Evans, Janis Evans (Brittany/Tyler’s Mom); other side from the back: Mrs. Hiroko Watanabe (Mana’s Mom), Ben Hurd, Akie Mori (Ben’s Fiancee), Mana’s friend (name?), Bill Hunt, Mana’s cousin #2 (name?), and Cliff Cramer. Sorry if I couldn’t get everyone’s name. If someone can tell me, I’ll be sure to add them.
Such a great bunch and we had TONS of food, lots of beers, and cold sake in some COOL bottles.
This is Brittany and me before the night really got started. Notice the shirt I’m wearing if you can read Japanese: Yopparai. I figured it’s be fitting for an evening of beers and sake (it means drunk, btw).
After this, a handfull of us headed to a karaoke bar close by. And guess what? Free drinks during karaoke. Some more beers. Haha. So we had a bit more to drink (and some mizu to wash it all down), plenty of songs to sing and laughs to share. If you were following me on twitter that night or via facebook, I said this was probably the best night of my life. Well, that could have been a bit of yopparai speeking, but let me tell you, definitely top five. Definitely. I couldn’t have imagined a better night on the town, soaking in the late night Japanese culture and enjoying some great people in a city that has so much to do.
Yeah, definitely top three, then. Totally rocked. I mean, look how much fun we’re having:
Anyways, This day rocked. I’ll get to the past two hopefully in the morning.
I have gifts for most of you that responded. And if I couldn’t get anything for you specifically, I’m bringing back a bunch of generic goodies to hand out.
It’s now Monday night at 12:46am. Tomorrow is my last full day in Tokyo and we’re having a free day of shopping and exploring the town one more last time. It’s going to be so sad to leave. I heart you Tokyo.
Mt. Fuji was a bit clearer in real life, but still hard to see through the haze and the clouds. But I saw it. 
