Alexis and Ted trade innocent cheek kissings with each other at a recent engagement shoot in Pasadena's Lacy Park.

Pasadena is gorgeous!  If you think of warm weather, bright sun and blue sky, and lush green grass sparkled with palm trees, than you’ve arrived in Lacy Park in Pasadena, where Alexis and Ted had their engagement shoot.  They were hands down, one of the most expressive and easy going couples we’ve worked with.  Pure love baby!  With much appreciated inspiration and friendship from Avery & Austin, an amazing couple who’s wedding we shot on Muir Beach near San Francisco last year, the shoot was a roaring success.

Alexis and Ted share a moment while being surrounded by an incredible atmosphere near the flowers of Lacy Park. I love those tall trees in the back... makes me want to be in Tuscany...

Before the shoot, Alexis had a million fun ideas like bringing her handmade “Save the Date” sign, a picnic basket and blanket, stethoscope, and Carebear named “Grumpy.”  When we arrived, there were even more fun stuffs like bright red umbrellas and a set of golf clubs.  All of the props meant a lot to the couple, and were carefully chosen because of their special meanings.

We shot both film and digital, with Alexis and Ted’s love of our film photographs mirroring our own.  Black and white, color, and slide film all slid through the cameras while Alexis and Ted listened to each other’s hearts with the stethoscope, kissed behind their save the date sign, and had an improptu golf lesson.  We felt honored to be working with such loving and gentle people!

Enjoy these few images while the others get processed and make their mark upon the blog soon enough…

As Ted is a cardiologist, he knows just how to have his heart beat loud through the stethoscope... this image sort makes you melt right? Sort of like looking at a litter of puppies...

Doug's camera decides to make it's own magic with a double exposure - came out awesome!

During the cocktail hour, these sisters sporting colorful sari's gave a moment up for a great capture with color film and a plastic holga camera.

How do we get so lucky to photograph two of the most talented freelance musicians in Boston on their wedding day?  It must have been fate that I met Meena in Boston when I was assigned the seat next to her in a choral rehearsal.  I remember my jaw dropping the first time I heard her sing, and we talked about our unique backgrounds (Meena is Indian and Japanese), where to get the best rice balls, and bollywood movies!  Doug and I kept bumping into Meena and Ari at music events around the city – Ari playing at The Boston Philharmonic‘s Gala, and both Meena and Ari performing together with Voci Angelica at The Larz Anderson Automobile Museum at the Bless by Bless Charity Fashion Show.

Pure love. Katherine catches Meena and Ari as they share an intimate moment by themselves after stepping out of reception tent. A posed image? Nope.

One day, Meena, asked me via facebook, “Hey, would YOU photograph my wedding?”  Of course, I said YES!!!

Their day was amazing.  The pace was relaxed, the halcyon house was beautiful, the light perfect, the music enchanting, and the best part of this day was that Doug and I felt a special connection with Meena and Ari, not only as photographers, but as good friends.  I hope you enjoy Meena’s words about her incredible day!!!

Meena and Ari waltz through a private grove of trees after having their ceremony on a point overlooking The Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

The Happy Couple:

• Bride: Meena, Soprano
• Groom: Ari, Cellist

Wedding Date and Location:

• September 12, 2009
• Halcyon in Easton, Maryland, USA.

Photographers: Katherine and Doug of Helios Images / Douglas Despres Photography.

Sisters.

Medium:

• Digital
• Black and White 35mm Film
• Medium Format Black and White Film
• Medium Format Color Film

What Made Your Wedding Creative:

• Multi Cultural Wedding: Venezuela, India, Japan!
• Bollywood Dance
• My dad’s folk song performance
• Colors
• Flowers
• Mendi
• Braidsmaid’s Sarees
• Salsa Band

Your Biggest Challenge: Planning everything from far away.

The Ceremony.

Your Favorite Moment:

• EVERYTHING!!!
• The ceremony was beautiful.
• Walking down the aisle and seeing the gazebo thing decorated for the first time;
• The fabric floating in the wind, and seeing Ari after a while;
• The Bollywood dance;
• [Our] first dance to [our song] Besame Mucho;
• When my mother-in-law called me her “daughter;”
• My family and friends coming together from different areas of the world;
• Food!!;
• Cake!!!

Any Favorite Vendors / Planning / Helpful Shopping Links? Photographers were my favorite  Everything else form the local area, so there are no websites or anything…

The most delicious cream puffs in the world - they take you away to pure oblivion!

Why does it feel like when we do love life posts they are mostly about food?  Cause food is DELICIOUS!  What’s cool about it is that everyone in the world tries to do it the best they can, as often as they dare.  Sooo many cultures center their everyday plans by it, and they’re special occasions.  Food is also eaten hopefully every day, hopefully mulitple times, throughout your entire life.  What does this mean?  That if we’re doing it all the time, we should try and make it fun and rewarding.

This was exactly the case at the Falcon Nest Winery in Paso Robles, just over the mountain pass via route 46.  At the end of the meal, I was in one of those food coma’s that just leave you wanting to roll on your side and drool blissfully for the rest of the night.  As a recent joiner to Yelp, I had this to say about my experience…

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I could sum up my incredible experience in just one remark if I wanted to, which would be “Ooh la la!”  That could be it, but no.  Brilliant food, long honest laughter and succulent, red wine went perfectly together, to create an experience that deserves a longer story.

Katherine and her cousin Sinae from Seattle, peek from behind some shiny fabric shared at The Falcon Nest.

We were lucky enough when we walked in at sunset to find both the owners there, Franco and Carol, who served us with warmth and kindness, and reminded me of old world candor and humor.  Carol taught me a ton about wine in just twenty short minutes as I’m fairly naive about the whole thing.  For me, if it tastes good and the energy from the people and the place rock, then we’re good.  Yes, their red wines were amazing, loved every one.

These sweet sounding finger cymbals were one of the many cool things that Carol brought out to have fun with during our dinner!

As we didn’t set up a reservation at all and just walked in to check them out, they were starting to get ready for a small private group of four, for whom Franco was magically conjuring up venison stew, squab and some other amazing scented treasures wafting in from the kitchen.  They offered to check on how much they had, and if enough, would love to include us in the special dinner.  Granted, dinner at The Falcon Nest is regularly offered by Franco, but this was a special rare blend of food that they had arranged to cook previously… so we felt very honored that we could be included.  Their pricing seemed more than fair, and later we were thankful we stayed.

Franco's engrossing tale of delicious foods in France and other parts of Europe, as Carol looks on...

Carol was already open and warm to us and once Franco had made everything and served it, he was happy to stick around and talk about cooking stories and world travels and cultures with us.  They made an adorable couple and we quietly made photographs of them while we all laughed and brought our conversation late into the night.  They closed at 7:30pm, but Carol and Franco stayed and joked with us until 10:30!  That’s THREE HOURS… not a tiny slice of time!

Falcon Nest "cab" is sooo good. It tasted so smooth and happy with our delicious meal - thanks Carol and Franco!

The experience was exactly what we were hoping to find… a small family owned vineyard and winery with excellent quality, a small environment, and kind, down to earth people to talk with.  There’s some huge thing to say about family owned places that care about quality of life.

Thank you Carol and Franco for giving us our first Paso wine experience of tremendous caliber, and can’t wait for our family and friends to visit from New England so we can bring them to your special place (we’ve already told them about you two and your winery!)

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Kate and Nate glow by a single spotlight as they dance the night away during their wedding reception at the luxurious Ventana Inn perched on California's Big Sur coastline.

“I first found Katherine and Doug through the WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association website.) I was looking for someone with an artistic vision who didn’t take silly posed fake photos.  Our wedding was more nontraditional and unscripted than most and we wanted someone who could capture our story as it unfolded.  We weren’t posing for a magazine shoot, but wanted to be in the moment and feel like ourselves.  Being slightly nervous as the center of attention, we were also looking for someone that we felt comfortable with.  I contacted probably 15 other photographers during the same time, but I knew we had found our photographic match when I saw Katherine and Doug’s website.  I instantly loved their style and was surprised to find out they had made a similar move from New England to California.  Not only had we lived in the same neighborhood across the country, but they had photographed a wedding at a Connecticut venue where I had recently been a bridesmaid.  After speaking to Doug on the phone, the coincidences only further convinced me that we HAD to have Katherine and Doug as our photographers.  It couldn’t get much better when their suggestion to meet for the first time was at a French bakery.

Throughout all of our communications over phone and email, I felt a pleasant blur between friendship and a detailed, professional commitment to service. Katherine has the rare ability to richly express her vision in words.  I loved her warm communication style and think she really went out of her way to make sure we were both on the same page before our wedding drew near.  Doug has the perfect mix of experienced professional confidence, offset by a quiet humor that puts anyone at ease.

During our wedding day Katherine and Doug were everywhere, yet completely seamless with the environment. I’m afraid we kept trying to distract them to chat, as they also felt like our guests.  I was unprepared for what a physical workout they had, running all of the place.  We were joking they were like our photo ninjas, dressed all in black, crouching, running, and silently ducking throughout the night.  I was also unprepared for the competing “paparazzi” they silently battled during the evening.  I’m not sure I would have been as good-natured as they were with the other photo-snapping guests distracting from their job!

One of my favorite moments was all 55 guests lighting sparklers and gathering for a group photo. I got as far as buying the sparklers, but couldn’t really imagine how or what we were going to do with them.  Katherine and the hotel‘s staff immediately took over to organize the moment.  Looking tiny standing on a chair, Katherine commanded the group’s actions to make the photo work.  She really connected the crowd in a fun way.

So many of my guests commented on “how great the photographers were” – which was a testament to their easy-going personality and hard physical work throughout the night, since these comments all came before anyone saw the actual photos!  From joking with our family and guests, to scoping out the venue beforehand and meeting the hotel staff, Katherine and Doug spread a little wave of joy and sweetness wherever they went.

I can honestly say that we both had complete blind faith in Katherine and Doug’s skill and had no doubt they were going to provide us with amazing photos. We didn’t have a single worry during our wedding day, confident that they were expertly carrying out our shared creative vision.  I could hardly stand the anticipation after the wedding to see the result.  When we received the photos, we couldn’t be happier.  I wish Katherine and Doug could follow us around forever, documenting all the mundane moments of our life and making them appear special and emotive.  My absolute favorite photos of our wedding are the black and white evening shots of us dancing.  They captured the feeling of a slow motion dream-like romance movie.

Katherine and Doug embody the term artist and I admire their aesthetic vision and ability to create their own creative path in life. They are the type of genuine, original people that I am glad to support, and I wish them all the success in the world!”

- Kate and Nate

Eun and Mingoo bid farewell to their wedding guests in front of Willowdale Estates in Topsfield, MA.

One of most gratifying new benefits that we’ve been offering since last year is our film by the roll – it rocks! Basically, Katherine and I love the feel, sound, and and smells of good ol’ black and white film and manual cameras (not so much the taste though… and oh, Katherine is more of a fan of color but we’re going to focus on B&W for this post), so we put that passion into shooting individual rolls of film for art loving couples.

Asako's torso glows during her reception at the Winchester Town Hall.

Film is how we both started, Katherine in high school shooting her sister’s yearbook portrait, and me in sixth grade on a field trip to “Ferry Beach,” a New Hampshire thing, photographing a sunrise while sitting on a log on the beach with my friends. It’s also what I use to shoot 100% of my own fine art work and where the foundation of all my photographic training came from – be it from a fine art university darkroom, on assignment for a daily newspapers, or behind the lens at a wedding.  The cameras to shoot it just feel more tactile – harkening some mystic photo energy from the masters of the past and providing a no-excuse high knowledge to make the image count.  One huge highlight technically, is film’s exposure latitude, meaning that you can still get highlights and shadows to be friends in a scene together.  Much of the time with digital it’s either one or the other.  Another cool benefit?  Much less contrast!  This gives the photographer more room to play with exactly what they want to do with the tones in the future.

What happens when we shoot by the roll? First, we have a couple who digs the look and feel of film, that values creativity and it’s path of floating enigma.  They coin us to generally shoot two or three rolls during their wedding, in addition to our digital capture.  So far, I’ve been the one shooting most of the time, in black and white.  When Katherine is behind the wheel, she’s zapping away with some sweet color portrait film… YEAH KODAK PORTRA 400NC!  We shoot the specified number of rolls, with developing and sweet standard sized contact sheets thrown in by our master printer Paul Sneed in the darkroom.  The cool part about having the images on a contact sheet style layout is the photographer’s thoughts throughout a scene can be observed through the succession of light, people, and angles saved in the images.

An expertly hand-printed standard size silver gelatin contact print (actual size of 35mm negatives) from the darkroom.

Additionally, we love coupling some of our Uniquely Helios products with these rolls, offering our unique 16×20 Industrial Helios Sheets (future post… think GIANT matted and backed contact sheet) or museum quality silver gelatin prints toned in selenium or GOLD by our master printer in the darkroom.  So far, our couples have been ectsatic and love the results.  More than this, we love the results.  Could this trend of shooting more film be gaining momentum in the future???  You “betcha.”

What I like most about it is that there is no motor drive… no auto exposure… no auto anything. I shoot with 70′s era tank-ish Nikons with modest lenses, a light meter, and good ol’ know how from experience to get the shots.  Good saved moments come about by way of knowledge and preparing for the lucky strike.  To see and prepare for exciting moments relies on noticing the rise and fall of a scene.  Much like watching a play, there are tell tale signs of people, light, and energy coming together that will build into a peak moment when everything seems to strike slow motion, come togetheeerr, and fllllloooooooaaaaattttttt *SNAP* then whip back into real time again.  Sort of like the football flick “Any Given Sunday” when real-time and slow motion moments are danced together in a scene down the football field.  Which reminds me, the more posts I write on this here blog, the more movie quotes and references you will be likely to see.  And sports – I grew up playing sports every season, for about ten years in a row.

A scene during the preparation phase of Mingoo & Eun's wedding at Willowdale Estates.

There’s a slower pace when shooting all manual in film. I have to stress though, that this slow part is for the actual “shooting” only (the pressing of the little magic button) when that split-second slow motion time drums in.  Besides that, the heat is on!

Flipping to film is when everything is tested, and I take it as a challange to produce some great stuff by fighting the obstacles. You feel like every image has to count… which they really do because every frame is money and time and also brings you one step closer to finishing the roll, which means spooling the little crank with a road runner hand, and switching out the rolls, while sweating to do it fast enough to not miss a possible shot.  Why do this to yourself Doug?  I say, without the panic, where would the reward be?  I think it adds to it… the whole situation has your mind racing to figure out what’s an important shot (either for us or them) and to calculate the shrinking number of those so that you end the roll at exactly the time that there is a lull in front of the camera.

Black and white seems to be the natural choice for me because it breaks down the image strength to the core – emotion and design. If it doesn’t ring with these, then the image flops and feels like a broken noise-maker at Tommy’s seventh birthday party.  You feel it, or rather, you don’t, pretty immediate.  Also, we can concentrate mainly on expression and light, always paying close attention to the forms of the scene within the overall design.  With color (and yes, I do love shooting color at certain times)  I’d be thinking about the color of light constantly and how that will translate to the image, and also striving to use color as a design element.  So far, sticking to black & white capture for my side of film by the roll has proved rewarding in every way, so it makes sense to continue the tradition for now.  This is unless you want a roll or ten taken by me specifically in color in the Maldives – are you getting married in the Maldives?  Please say yes.

Lindsay surprises Luke with a choreographed dance with her bridesmaids on the grounds of Edna Valley Vineyard in San Luis Obispo, CA. Emotion and design!

Please explore our black & white film by the roll image gallery below and clicking on images to make them bigger and sharper.

In closing, I think I’ll quote a great mind of the twentieth century by saying “It’s too damn hot for penguins to just be walkin’ around.”

*** Care to comment?  Know which flick the quote is from?  We’d love to hear about an experience you had with us shooting film by the roll!  Also, what stories do you have after shooting with your own old school fully manual cameras and good ol’ fashioned film?

Lindsay's beaming smile after getting hitched to Wade in Mendocino, California. (Copyright 2009 Douglas Despres)

Who gives a shit about clichés? Lindsay and I wanted to create our wedding as unique; a bipolar opposite of the traditional weddings doused in rigid poses, uniform walks and an otherwise froth to get to the reception. We know this isn’t reinventing electricity, but we shot for it nonetheless. After getting knee-deep in our version of creativity regarding the wedding characteristics, we realized this isn’t as easy of a process as we’d hoped. We thought a casual wedding running away from tradition would be easier than scratching your ass; not necessarily the case. After realizing the uphill mission ahead of us, we felt like a one-legged man at an ass kicking contest. Seeing as this is a review for Doug & Katherine, I can’t say in honesty that this unexpected difficulty ended with the selection of photographer.

Truthfully, I thought it was going to be a breeze finding a good fit, being the self-proclaimed decent amateur photographer I am: find a friend who still insists on bringing their Nikon F to every function, pay him/her in PBRs, and call it a day. Then we realized we didn’t want that, thankfully. We wanted something special, yet artistic; and couldn’t have been happier when we stumbled upon Doug’s website. So, the search for a photographer wasn’t easy, until we found Doug & Katherine.

After checking out the website, we were really into Doug & Katherine’s style; we felt it matched what we were looking for to a T (I never got that comparison, but you get the point). In an effort to relay what we were looking for in photography, we decided to meet at a bar in the late morning of a Saturday, get drunk, talk about boobs, the mating patterns of bumble-bees, and pocket lint. Doug & Katherine were rad, such great company and extremely friendly. We were sold, and were more than happy to check that necessity off the list in comfort.

The communication up to the day of the wedding was transparent; there was never a time of question. Doug & Katherine’s entire process is professional, and user-friendly.

The day of the wedding was incredible for us, although we are speaking out of a bias. In regards to Doug & Katherine’s part, we couldn’t have been happier. As a team, they worked wonderfully; Katherine hung out with the sleazball dudes while they poured bourbon on their bacon and strummed banjos. She was so easy to have around, never getting in the way, yet always in the moment snapping shots. Doug was more than refreshing to have around while the girls got ready. The mother of the bride walked in and noticed how calm the environment was and Doug played a huge part in that. Never once was I uncomfortable or awkward…and we were in a tiny little studio sized cabin! From the process of getting ready to risking life and limb on a dance floor full of post-keg stand drunkies, Doug & Katherine were fantastic. In fact, we wished they could’ve stayed longer, off the clock and ready to rock (sorry, couldn’t help it).

We recently got our pictures back from the day, and they are incredible! The quality of the shots is beautiful, and the artistic edge is apparent. These two are pros, and I strongly recommend their services to anyone. I thank Doug & Katherine for making our day such a gem, they really contributed in a massive way. I look forward to hanging out with them soon, off the clock and ready to wash some socks.

Thanks again guys!

Wade & Lindsay

“Doug’s photographs are perhaps best known for their stark black and white, snapshot aesthetic, and his fine-tuned sentiment for light.”

Meet Douglas Despres, international award winning American photographer based in Alameda, CA.

Hoo Yah!  Douglas Despres first emerged nine years ago as the staff photographer for The University of South Florida’s award-winning daily paper, The Oracle. What sets Doug apart is his quirky, humorous approach to photography, and to life.  He holds a Bachelor of Studio Arts Degree from USF, is an international award winning member of the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA), an award winning fine art photographer, and serves as a special correspondent to The Cambrian newspaper.

Exhibitions of Doug’s photographs include Amnesty International’s ‘Wake Up World!’, the ‘National Summit on Cuba’ featuring Mikhail Gorbachev, and ‘One Community, One Book’ featuring Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Nilo Cruz.

The bright take off into wedding photojournalism began eight years ago.  Doug’s photographs are perhaps best known for their stark black and white, snapshot aesthetic, and his fine-tuned sentiment for light.  He presses forward into the field with a certain joie de vivre, and seeks out peoples who make the ground of reality a wavering mirage.

Our first Noir Narrative attempt used the convenient darkness of an airport terminal.

Doug’s Portsmouth Nights series, Akira Kurosawa’s effects, and the Film Noir genre inspired our solution to make portraits of lovers that rock. We call them: Noir Narratives. These low-key, ambivalent black and white images explode with cinematic expression, silouettes, melting darkness, and contrasting spotlights. We hope the images leave you with more questions than answers, and once lost in the beautiful fog of love itself, that you’ll discover the most mysterious, fabulous corners of each other’s heart.

The 2 song scenes in Kurosawa's Ikiru

The element of magic was the driving force behind our desire to revamp the industry standard engagement photo session. When we first started dating, Doug and I discovered early on a shared love for Akira Kurosawa movies. They captivated us. Kurosawa used weather elements like rain, fog, intense heat, freezing wind, and snow as a signature technique to create a more intense feeling of the mood. Also, he chose to use multiple telephoto lenses because he liked the flattened effect, and he believed that the actors performed better when they were recorded from farther away, and when they didn’t know which camera was on them at any given time.

Portsmouth Alley At Night In The Fog With Snow.

Doug and I love using weather elements to influence texture and mood as well. In Doug’s personal work, particularly his Portsmouth Nights series, he explores a city covered in fog, sleet, rain and snow, to create dissonance, texture, and lingering emotion in a series of night-time practices.

The garage where we parked our cars ended up making perfect conditions for our shoot. We love thinking on the fly, if a situation presents itself, we always try to take advantage.

Though we can neither control the weather, nor do we generally have the means to make it rain in black calligraphy ink on command, the one element of magic that we can always count on, is the blanket element of darkness, it happens every evening, and that is why we shoot our sessions at night.

Interestingly, we do not use telephoto lenses on these shoots. Perhaps we have a luxury because it’s only one frame, and one moment, that we’re after. When it comes down to it though, Doug values the different layers, and the depth, and third dimension that standard and wide angle lenses lend. He also tends to hang back, and let the scene unfold, but he likes the option of being close with his subjects at times, and he is quite disarming, isn’t he! You are not actors after all, but real people, in love. Allowing another person into that circle requires trust, and a real realtionship, and it always shows.

Doug of Helios Images always shoots the Noir Narratives with Katherine serving as artistic director, in black and white film, and fully manual, hard knocked film cameras, with no automation whatsoever.

Please enjoy our gallery below full of the inspirational photographs, each created by Douglas Despres, that fueled the creation of the Noir Narrative.

The Gallery:

Jen and Ryan Walk Past Girls Playing On The Beach. (Copyright 2009 Douglas Despres)

“We just starting going thru these and are so happy that you and Katherine captured our day so well. It was such a happy day and it all went too fast! Really great pics of the kids, and I see that not only did my young nephew Brock manage to get himself into many pics, but also have some time to hit on Katherine — he’s always so busy! We love the pics of the kids, and also of the getting ready and shots of just Ryan and me. Another observation is that we were very happy that we felt so comfortable with the two of you. You two managed to quietly capture a lot of moments we weren’t even aware of, giving the pics a more genuine feel. Cannot wait to share these with the family!”

- Jen and Ryan