pascale wowak photoblog

Dave & Kristy

These two are close friends of ours.  Dave and my hubby work together and are good buddies and, funnily enough, Dave and I actually go WAY back, although we also worked together more recently several years ago.  I did their engagement session a few months ago and was so honored that they chose me to photograph their wedding. Dave and Kristy are just GOOD peeps.  I love 'em to pieces and can't wait to see the gorgeous babies they are going to have!

There had been a massive storm for two full days prior to the wedding, including right up until a few hours before the ceremony but lo and behold as the sun rose that morning, the rain stopped and we even had moments of pure sunshine amidst the clouds.  Gorgeous day.

These two know how deeply I care for them so there's no need to get all mushy here on my blog.   I hope they love this slideshow; which is just a fraction of the images I was able to capture on that very wonderful day.

Love ya!

Click on the link below to view slideshow (it takes a minute to load, be patient!):

DAVE AND KRISTY

Melissa & Jeff

What a delightful couple! This wedding was all about joy, love, laughter... and music! Melissa and Jeff, along with their combined five children, and all their family and friends were married at home in a very heartfelt and moving ceremony. Melissa and Jeff's personalities really compliment each other, very yin and yang.

 Plus it was a gorgeous day with perfect weather. I was only concerned during the ceremony when the smoke from the delish BBQ grill kept wafting into the ceremony hoopah area and creating a very fuzzy look to my images. I couldn't exactly ask the catering staff to stop grilling (or no yummy food!) so I just had to roll with it.  The smoke started to dissipate near the end of the ceremony.

 After the ceremony, everyone mingled and I had a couple minutes to do what I will call "not so formals", which consisted of me grabbing as many group poses as possible before everyone scattered away from me!  Formals were not a priority for them and besides, everyone was far too busy having a good time!

I also didn't include the "not so formals" in the slideshow because they were not what this wedding was about. It was about relationships, emotional connections and happy moments with friends and family. I picked a few select favorite images for the slideshow to really showcase how I saw the wedding day unfold.

 After the toasts, Jeff surprised Melissa by performing a song he and a friend had written just for her. It was just beautiful and the tears in her eyes said everything. A little later there was Irish Line Dancing (instructor included) and fantastic live music being played the rest of the evening! The perfect ending to the perfect day. :)

 Melissa and Jeff, I wish for you much joy and happiness. Enjoy the slideshow.

 Click below for a direct link to the slideshow:  

MELISSA AND JEFF

Jeremy & Nicole

I had the distinct pleasure and honor of being the photographer for Jeremy and Nicole's beautiful wedding a couple weeks ago.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day in the most lovely setting with an awesome couple.   Jeremy and Nicole are two of the most down to earth, nice, easy going and GENUINE people you will ever meet.  Their love, affection and respect for each other was evident from the first time I met them.  They were both so relaxed on their wedding day!  Nicole didn't even freak out when the vows and rings were temporarily misplaced (doesn't that sound better than lost?!). She was all zen and smiles.  She single handedly kept everyone cool and collected by being so calm herself. :) 

When I narrowed it down to my list of "favorites" to post I couldn't get it lower than 100 images... And my little blog here can't handle that big a post without wigging out.  So, I took the extra time and put together a slideshow of 200 images (out of 700+).  I only included a very small handful of the formals because there were so many of them. 

As you can see Mission Springs was such a great location.  It also has alot of meaning to Jeremy's family as they have a longtime connection with its inception and history.

What I loved most about the day was the amount of joy and laughter!  A fun time had by all. :)

Jeremy and Nicole, I hope your honeymoon was delightful and that you enjoyed coming home to this slideshow!  I wish you both the very best and thank you for including me in your very special and fabulous day!

To view the slideshow click here

California Photographic Workshop

Interestingly enough, I have been to two workshops in two weeks.  This is especially unusual considering that I rarely attend workshops, but it just so happenned that the only two I wanted/could take this year were back to back.  And to say I missed being around my kids as much as I am accustomed to is an understatement.   I missed them BIG TIME!  But mommy got alot out of this so it was worth the temporary separation!

This workshop was organized by California Photographic Workshops, with my selected topic all about Wedding Photography, taught by the legendary Joe Buissink.  Unlike last week's one day workshop where the objective was to just listen and absorb, this was a very intensive course where we shot for many, many hours including a couple very long days (8:30 am to 8:30 pm).  This was definitely a "learn by doing" type of class and exactly what I needed to hone my skills and apply all the valuable information I had learned. 

What better opportunity than to to play around with new techniques with cooperative beautiful models, in a no stress environment, and with an instructor nearby to help you deal with any questions you may have?!  We ran a bunch of different scenarios and focused on achieving different results for differents shoot sessions.  One day we focused on capturing movement and energy in images, another day we focused on capturing natural moments, another time we focused on beach shots and then another on dramatic/fashion type poses. We also did a good deal of flash photography work for inside churches.  During all of this much of it was focused on the one thing that I do best: making people feel comfortable and at ease in front of your camera. 

The tricky part was that we were set loose witha  model in a gown and bouquet and that was it.  It was up to us to figure out a theme or idea or pose, use whatever was available on teh grounds as backdrops, settings (trees!), fences, doorways etc... We were not given suggestions or ideas, it was up to us to orchestrate the entire thing.  Plus, with 4 to 5 people per model before switching groups you each had about 8 minutes in which to come up with your ideas (as many of them as possible) and execute them before it was the next person's turn.   That was all about teahing you to think fast on your feet and use the natural light and situation at hand as best and as quickly as possible.  Fortunately, i think my work with kids and families has trained me well in working and thinking quickly on my feet and coming up with good ideas and conpositional vision using whatever is available to me.  My ability to read natural light (called "seeing the light") is one of my skills and it came in really handy.  That said, when it came time to doing flash work I was about as pathetic as they come and totally OUT of my comfort zone.  I learned a great deal during that session.

We were blessed with many different models to work with and I had the good fortune of working repeatedly with three of them whom I particularly adored.  Total professionals in every way.  Knew how to work the camera, work their bodies and help me make some really amazing images.  I'm very proud of the work I submitted every morning from the day before and pleased with the results I achieved in a medium very different from what I am used to shooting.

I met alot of other wonderful photographers, some local whom I really hope to stay in touch with. 

I also gained some very valuable personal insight into my work and I will perhaps delve deeper into that in another post.  For now, I will post 50 of my favorite images frm several hundred taken over the course of the past 4 days.  Please feel free to comment about them.  If anyone is interested in more info about teh details of the workshop you can email me directly.  I HIGHLY recommend this class with Joe.  Besieds being an incredibly gifted photographer, he is a truly amazing PERSON.  His HEART is what makes him able to take the kind of images he takes.  It's like his head (technical skill) is working in conjunction with his heart and soul when he is at a wedding and the result is pure magic. 

Here is a sampling of my work from this week:

This is Joe showing the model one of the pictures he'd just taken of her.