Bruidsfotografie Amsterdam - Mr & Mr

Amazing wedding on the IJ in Amsterdam with Anthony and Sean. They contacted me last year and told me they were getting married and would love for me to photograph their wedding. When they told me they were in the USA I got super excited and thought, "wow, what a cool destination wedding".. haha. Well it wasn't to be in the states, but instead they were looking for an Amsterdam Wedding Photographer for an amazing boat wedding this April.  There were a few conversations in between and I got to know them a little by skype and we planned for the wedding photography in Amsterdam.  So last week the day finally came. It was great to meet them at last. What an amazing couple, genuinely really nice, and, friendly, people. It was a pleasure to meet all their family and friends from all over the world and be part of the big day. Congrats MR & MR.!!

Bruidsfotografie Amsterdam - Engagement on Magere Brug

ROSS + ALEXA

The element of Surprise

Ross got in contact through my facebook page.  He planned to propose to his girlfriend Alexa in Amsterdam and wanted to make some photos of the occasion, so needed an Amsterdam wedding photographer. He said it was really difficult to surprise Alexa because she is sooooo organised that she always knows what is happening in her schedule. A planned meeting in Paris was given up, with the help of the parents, in favour of this proposal to the love of his life on the, Amsterdam.   I do love these surprise moments and always feel blessed to be part of them somehow, and this was no exception.  The legend says if you kiss on the Magere Brug (skinny bridge) then the love will last forever. There were many kisses so I guess they are set for life now!

Thanks again Ross for inviting me into your special event!!

Portraits from a loveshoot

Shooting loveshoots has kept me very busy of the last few weeks in the run up to wedding season, not to mention my other work in the architecture sector.  Wedding photography is becoming more and more of a passion as time goes by and all the loveshoots really have made my experience as a wedding photographer in Amsterdam richer. This one in particular was just fantastic. Jennifer and Hannan are such a lovely couple and it was such a great afternoon photographing them in Bloemendaal, just a short train ride from Amsterdam. This is a little of what Jennifer had to say after the shoot. "From the first moment we met Mark he gave us a really easy-going and relaxed vibe, that definitely helped with the nerves.  Mark was awesome, he helped us when we needed help but made himself invisible at the same time. When I look at the photo reportage I see emotions, I see certain moments that I recognize from our private lives. Even people who don’t know us in person will ‘see us and our love for each other"  

I cant tell you how good it feels to bring the happiness to people like this. Heart warming indeed. 

See the whole shoot here: 

Portrait from a Loveshoot in Bloemendaal - VSCO Presets

I started using VSCO about a year ago for my wedding photography in Amsterdam and to be honest I struggled with them a lot. It took me a long time to learn how to use them effectively for my work. I was expecting a straight out of the box beautiful image kind of thing and couldn't explain why my images didn't look like others I had seen. Finally i saw a video of someone else's workflow and I had been on the right track all along with my experimentation. Its all in the contrast, blacks and colour sliders.  Take the two images below for example from a loveshoot I did last week. Both images are using VSCO Kodak Ektar 100 Vibrant.  The second image is horrible and dark and is what happened when i pressed the magic preset button. All I did to make it into the lovely moody first image was to increase the blacks and shadows, reduce the contrast and orange saturation.  So that is a little insight into my workflow. I hope its of interest.  Click the second image to see the full gallery. All images shot on the Sony A7rii

Kodak Ektar 100 Vibrant (tweaked)

VSCO Kodak Ektar 100 Vibrant