Denny Henry

 I've previously written about photographing Jana and Kevin's wedding, but I left out one of my favorite images from the day. I was extra excited for Jana and Kevin's wedding, because she specifically wanted me to shoot film.

I sometimes shoot 4x5 or other film when I'm covering weddings, in addition to my regular digital coverage.  Mostly I do it for my own enjoyment, and often the film images simply blend in to the other black and white images from the day. The film images that do stand out are the 4x5's, because I often mess with the tilt-shift functions of the camera when I'm shooting with it. 

Tilt-Shift portrait of the bride and groom shot with a 4x5 in Dupont Circle

The below portrait is of Susan Sterner, the head of the photojournalism program at The Corcoran college of Art + Design.  She was also my teacher when I was a student there. 

It can be nerve racking enough photographing other photographers, but I think it's even worse when that photographer is a former teacher. 

I started with two ideas for the portraits that would relate to Susan's involvement in Photography.  The first idea was to shoot her in a studio environment, and to include the strobes and seamless as part of the setting for the portrait.

The second setup was to use a 4x5 Crown Graphic to shoot a tight shot of her face with a very shallow depth of field.  I set up against a white stucco wall with a large window to the left of the camera.  The image on the bottom shows me focusing the 4x5 camera.

Susan Sterner

Behind the scenes image by Jacqulyn Maisonneuve

Update on Friday, March 5, 2010 at 8:00AM by Denny

More behind the scenes photos can be seen on Jacqulyn Maisonneuve's blog. 

Before my life as a photographer, I studied aerospace engineering briefly at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL. I was there for two years, and did more math than I ever hope to do again. I didn't like the engineering part of my time in Florida, but I did meet a few interesting people while I was there. My friend Joel was one of the first people I met when I moved in, and he was just married last weekend. Joel and Chelsie's wedding was one of the most relaxed weddings I've been to.

I went to New York recently to visit my great-uncle Norm. We spent the afternoon catching up, and I shot a few 4x5 portraits of him.

Norman in his apartment in New York City.

I shot the wedding of Marisa Day and Jon Martin a few weeks ago. They were married on Marisa's family farm in rural Virginia. I arrived at the farm about an hour earlier than I needed to so that I could unload my equipment and scout the area. The ceremony was held just outside the house and the reception was in a huge tent set up in the field adjacent to their garden. We found three to four locations that would be suitable for the image of the entire bridal party (ten bridesmaids and six groomsmen), and a few that would work best for just the smaller groups.

My favorite location by far was an old tractor and barn in a field near to the farmhouse. The tractor was old, and rusty, but is still in use by Marisa's family. Marisa and Jon were happy to take the walk with me to get the pictures. I've been trying to get a few large format images at each wedding I've shot recently. When we got to the tractor I shot everything I needed with my SLR and then broke out the 4x5 to make a few extra frames.

4x5 by the old barn
Later this week I'll be posting more images from this wedding.