Next Week ...

Hello avid readers!

I've spent much of the past couple weeks going thru and editing a ton of work I've been doing lately, including weddings and side projects.

Next week I will try and post as much as possible - to show a couple recent weddings, some weddings from earlier in the year that I had missed, as well as a few studio shoots as well!

Will also write about the final demise of the most highly regarded film in the world - Kodachrome - and the effect that it has on current photographers and the photography world in general.

Thanks for your patience! :)

Chris

Aleksandra + Roman

Last weekend was a busy weekend! Not only did I document Rose & Garry's wedding (slideshow which can be seen in my last post!), but I also had the pleasure of being along side Andreas to document the marriage of Aleksandra & Roman.

This was my first Serbian wedding! It was quite an experience - the ceremony has many differences to a 'traditional' Canadian Catholic/Anglican wedding.

First and foremost, the space in which marriage takes place is gorgeous (not that other churches are not)! One big rectangular room, alter in the middle, with a smaller ceremony done in near-privacy at the front. Unlike the Catholic church that I grew up attending (thanks to Catholic schooling!), guests do NOT sit and watch the ceremony! Everyone stands, semi-circle, around the back of the room - free to watch from any angle, with the only exception being in front of the alter. Lighting is very low and yellow, which makes it hard to find a great colour balance for images, but a photographer can also make this work to their advantage, with warm tones through out each image.

When the ceremony is complete, everyone congratulates the bride and groom, and slowly makes their way outside. Aleksandra & Roman then make their grand exit down the staircase, with the best man Jamie following close behind, throwing coins (for good luck and prosperity) at them while they step down on the way to their limo. Aleksandra & Roman decided to have their reception at the Liberty Grand, which avid readers of this blog will realize is one of my favourite venues in the city! Great cultured food, beautiful natural lighting, and a huge Serbian celebration all make for one hell of a great reception!

Toronto must be one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world - especially for a wedding photographer! Serbian, Indian, Outdoor, Catholic, Anglican, Jewish, and many more - from synagogues to golf courses to cathedrals, to white dresses and sari's, you would be hard pressed to find such a diverse city with such a diverse cultural and wedding community anywhere else!

All in all, this was a great wedding and a great experience! Check it out!

This upcoming weekend is the marriage of Jamie - the best man of Aleksandra & Roman's wedding! - and Teresa, who also happened to be in the bridal party. Some familiar faces will be refreshing - here's hoping the weather holds up!

Rose + Garry - Slideshow in HD

Here is the slideshow I presented to Rose + Garry at their wedding reception this past weekend!

Rose & Garry HD from chris bodnar on Vimeo.

If you wish to watch it in HD, click on the 'HD' symbol - it will transfer you to an external page, but I promise that it's worth it!

A follow-up story and more pictures from this wedding will be posted shortly - until then, enjoy!

New Business Card

I just received my new business cards today!

They are silk-matte cards - nice and smooth texture. My favorite feature is one you can't notice from the picture! All of the text has a gloss overlay on it - this is called Spot UV - so it has texture and shine, only on the text. Very cool.

The simple and clean design was done by a wonderful designer (who happens to also be one of my closest friends) by the name of Gaelen Mackay - check out her website for many more cool things!

http://www.gaelenmackay.com

The white washes out a bit in the photo, but you get the idea!

Carolyn + Rob

This past Saturday brought upon another small and intimate wedding for Andreas and I!

Carolyn & Rob are doing what many more couples these days are doing - getting married at an older age. Being a second marriage for both bride and groom, they knew exactly the style of wedding they wanted - relaxed, small, and in the presence of very close friends and family. The ceremony and reception were not the usual large summer affairs - roughly 70 people were in attendance.

The venue was an old school house - Enoch Turner School House located in downtown Toronto. It was built in the mid-1800's, and still includes original desks and chairs from that period! Attached to the school house is an old chapel, which is where the ceremony and reception were held. The combination of a slightly cloudy day and the tall narrow windows of the chapel let in the most perfect light for the ceremony - soft and diffused. Windows on nearly all sides meant that the room stayed nicely lit until approximately 7:30!

Venues like this not only make for beautiful weddings, but for nearly perfect images as well. More than 90% of my images are shot using natural light - no flash at all - this means that soft light really aids in not only setting a mood for your day, but adds to the dynamic of the photographs taken as well. Natural light combined with a candid point-of-view leads to natural and real photographs. New couples - keep that in mind while choosing a venue!

Anyways, here are a couple images from the ceremony - Carolyn was walked down the aisle by her teenage son, which was definitely an emotional experience!

Enjoy!

Grace + Casey - A Guys Point Of View

This past weekend not only saw the dawn of warm weather for Toronto, but also the marriage of Grace and Casey - albeit on the rainiest day of the week!

The day was very low key - a small but beautiful wedding. The ceremony was at one of my favorite churches in the city - Grace On The Hill. Roughly 40 people were asked to attend both ceremony and reception, making the day both relaxed and intimate. The reception was held at Sassafraz in the Yorkville district of Toronto - the newly renovated and highly rated resto was the perfect fit for such a small occasion - the food delightful, and the combination of wonderful guests and great vendor staff made the night a special experience.

Andreas was with the bride, while I was assigned to photograph Casey and his sole groomsman Carlos. I had a partner-in-crime as well - Caylee Alzner, a recent OCAD Photography grad, eager to get some hands-on experience.

I love being around and photographing the guys at weddings! Most everyone would agree (including most grooms) that a wedding day is the brides day - most attention to detail is done for and with the bride. A lot of brides and brides-to-eventually-be have a pre-determined idea of how they want their wedding to look - the dress they grew up admiring; their favorite flowers in the bouqet; the church their parents got married in; their father or father-figure walking them down the aisle; that first kiss after the "I do's"; the venue in which to celebrate with friends and family afterwards - most, if not all, determined by the bride, albeit sometimes with a grooms opinion thrown into the mix.

Photographing a bride in the morning is full of excitement and anticipation! The bridal party getting hair and makeup done, running around with their dresses half-way on. The bride is the centre of attention, and everyone can feel the energy in the air - even us photographers, often only meeting them for the first time that morning. This is the time where the entire mood of the day is set!

Photographing the guys, in contrast, is a much more laid back experience. You arrive, typically to the groomsman and groom relaxing, talking about which team beat which the day prior, the big fight coming up, or just talking about seemingly unimportant things. Don't get me wrong - the groom is definitely nervous - usually a drink to calm his nerves is definitely in order! However, the morning for a groom is very much just another few hours of just 'hanging with the guys' - and the atmosphere definitely shows this.

Back to Casey and Carlos - these 2 have been best friends since grade 3 - this is put into perspective when you know that both are 38 years of age! Their type of friendship definitely shows - words of encouragement, along with jokes about how they met and what to do once married life was final. After getting dressed in their room, I took them to the rooftop of the Delta Chelsea for a couple quick portraits - the results which can be seen below. This was followed by one last drink at the hotel bar - rum and coke I believe!

The images posted here will be focused on the groom - hopefully the pictures give you a sense of what it is like being around the men for their morning-of. Check the website in the next couple of days for a more complete set of images, including the beautiful bride and ceremony!

Coming Soon - Website Change!

I would just like every one to know that I plan on altering my website within the next week!

I will be adding a "Recent ... Bride + Groom" section to the main page. This will be a little slide show of images taken thru out the day, forming a miniature story of each wedding!

I will still keep (and add to) my 'wedding' section of images, but this new section will give every one the opportunity to take a look at how my time is spent with new couples nearly every Saturday this summer!

Stay tuned - I believe the wedding this upcoming weekend will be the first I will add.

Don't forget, any suggestions or comments are ALWAYS welcome.

Thanks for staying patient and loyal!