I recently met an amazing filmmaker, photographer, artist - Bridget Redmond.  She is the creative brains behind First Kiss Films. I totally fell in love with her work as well as her personality! She’s super sweet, simple and full of excitement. You can tell how much she loves filmmaking just by the way she talks about it, her eyes light up and you can just feel the passion she has for it.

You all know how I feel about other artists that I love, I had to feature her on my blog and so I asked her to answer a few questions for me and here I am today, sharing a little bit of her passion and love for the art of filmmaking with you!

Tell me a little about yourself and what you do?

I’m a filmmaker and a photographer and I create wedding films using vintage movie cameras. I actually shoot all footage on motion picture film (Super 8mm and 16mm film) so the raw material is already timeless and touching. Of course it is the editing that brings the story to life.

Hi everyone! How is everyone doing? I’m finally resurfacing after a whole 2 weeks of being sick - I guess I got hit pretty hard this time with the flu/cold/fever the whole sha-bang!  But I’m on the road to recovery, thank you to all those who have been sending me love-mails and their well wishes, asking how I’ve been doing all this time.

There’s something I’ve been dying to blog about but just didn’t have the energy to do it earlier - I was lucky enough to attend the first ever STARFISH WEDDING WORKSHOP! What a workshop I tell you!  I found out about it by visiting Starfish’s website and was totally intrigued by  it so I thought, I’d sign up for it….I know I know you guys must be thinking I’m nuts to sign up for a Wedding Workshop when I’m not even getting married…but I thought this was the perfect way to learn about all the planning that is involved and try to see things from a bride’s perspective - I do deal with them on a daily basis and I often spend a lot of time with my brides just going over the wedding plans, working out with timelines, and vendor referrals and such.

So I registered for the workshop, and I am totally all praise about everything Starfish related. From the moment I sent Hannah…oh wait, I completely forgot to introduce the two shining stars of Starfish! Samantha Moonsammy and Hannah Schatz! These two fabulous ladies are phenomenal at what they do! I’ve had the honour of attending a few of their events and I can tell you that they don’t miss any details and they are super creative, artistic, helpful, organized and completely in control of all situations!   So I send Hannah an email, letting her know I’d like to register and within a few hours I get such a wonderful response, Hannah was super excited for me being a part of this workshop and she left out no words to celebrate this! I was already excited about this workshop..but now I couldn’t wait to meet Hannah and Sam!

Just to keep things organized and composed (because, otherwise my thoughts go all over the place!) I’ll break the rest of the description into parts.

Arrival:

On the day of the workshop, I was greeted by the staff of the Arc Hotel!! Gorgeous, Gorgeous Hotel! and I was ushered upstairs to the 2nd floor - at the door I was greeted by Hannah who recognized me instantly and helped me get seated and comfortable. I got a chance to chit chat a little bit with Sam and Hannah and I could tell they were just ecstatic to have everyone there. Around the room they had different stations set up, to give brides ideas for their weddings - really nice! They also had lots of goodies for each one of the attendees, which included a Cherry Cupcake from Little Cakes, Starfish Waterbottles, samples and lots more!

The Workshop:

The workshop started and I was totally blown away with all the information that Sam and Hannah had prepared. They covered everything, from budgets to bride personalities, to design ideas, to time management, and even a practice round of ‘walking down the isle and bouquet toss’ - they left nothing out! (All the stunning bouquets were creations of  Ottawa Flowers!) Everything was extremely interactive and I could tell the brides were totally enjoying this! heck I was enjoying it so much hehehe!!

On-site Demonstrations:

We were also lucky enough to have someone from Bacardi come in and give everyone tips on drinks at the weddings and also taught us all how to make Mojitos! (in my case a Virgin Mojito) (can’t stop saying Mojitos!!!) lolll Loved it!  A second presentation was made by the lovely Evis and Danielle of Holtz Spa. They gave in-house demos on updo’s and different hair-styles, as well as giving everyone tips on what products to use, what to use when, what to avoid - all to make sure that your hair and make-up are top notch on your wedding day.

Speed Networking:

The workshop ended with a Speed Networking Session - Just fantastic! It gave all the brides to speak to different vendors in the industry, one-on-one and ask any questions they had - basically gave the brides and vendors a chance to meet in person.  A special shout-out to all the wonderful vendors which come highly recommended by Starfish:

Sara of Paper Studio - beautiful, beautiful designs, they have such an amazing collection of cards, stationary, everything paper related!

Hana of Wedding Republic - an online personalized gift registry to make all your wedding dreams affordable!

Melanie of m-photography - who has the art to make any woman look like royalty through her lens!!

Lorant of Sixth Sense Catering - wonderful catering company. Excellent food, presentation and service!

Bridget of First Kiss Films - such a beautiful person who really  knows how to capture beauty through her lens! A Filmmaker that specializes in fine art wedding films on 16mm and Super 8mm film.

Suzanne of Wedding Decor - all the displays in the room were her wonderful designs! Definitely worth getting in touch for your wedding!

and

Jessica of Fabulous Cakes - Wow! her cakes are GORGEOUS!!! and I love how she loves creating masterpieces!

and that’s that folks! so if anyone of you, who happen to be engaged and in the process of planning your wedding…don’t hesitate and take this workshop! It will make your life so much easier!  So make sure you go out and register for their next workshop! I’ve included all the details below. Thank you Sam and Hannah for putting together this wonderful experience for all brides-to-be!

I’ll be back soon with more posts…there’s a blog post pile-pile up on my end! too much to blog about, not enough time!

Take care everyone!

XoXo

Just when I think things are going to become a bit settled and I can blog a lot…a million things just happen and I’m back to where I was last week!  So i’ve been meaning to start a new segment in my blog called ‘Spotlight’..this is where I would like to feature my favourite vendors as well as some of my favourite photographers and I’m honoured to introduce you guys to Kevin Swan of Swan Wedding Photography (www.swanweddingphotography.com). I’ve been following Kevin’s work for a while and recently had the pleasure to sit and have a chat with him on all things photography. I hope you enjoy his answers as much as I did.

Until next time!

1. How did you get in to Photography and specifically Wedding Photography?

I was introduced to photography by a co-worker at Nortel years ago.
He was an avid photographer, and took our team out to Gatineau Park to
introduce us to the basics of photography as a team-building activity.
I loved it, and continued learning more and more on my own.
Eventually, after trying my hand at taking photos at weddings of some
friends and family, I decided to take the next step and launch myself
as a serious wedding photographer.

2. How long have you been shooting Weddings?

I began taking amateur photos at friends' and relatives' weddings
about 9 years ago, then joined up with a local wedding photographer in
2007 as a second-shooter. 2010 will be my third year shooting
weddings professionally, on my own.

3. How did you develop your style? What influenced your style?

I tend to favour a clean, faithful photographic style. I like to keep
my subjects as sharp as possible, and I shy away from an overprocessed
look or using a lot of filter effects that I feel will quickly become
dated. My style was influenced by studying the work of many other
established professionals, and I found myself gravitating toward a few
photographers whose styles I really liked.

4. Any funny stories from your time shooting weddings?

It never ceases to amaze me how small children are able to sleep
through the loudest parties! At more than one wedding reception, I've
seen infants in strollers, sound asleep while people are doing the
Macarena and singing along at the top of their lungs!

5. What equipment are you using now? What are your favorite lenses?

I shoot with a pair of Nikon D300 cameras, with the battery grip. I
stick with genuine Nikon equipment - all my lenses and flashes are
Nikon. My favorite lens is easily the 17-55 f/2.8. The focal length
range is perfect for event photography, and the fast aperture and
pro-grade glass consistently deliver sharp, distortion-free photos. I
also love the 50 f/1.4, but working with such a shallow depth of field
is not very forgiving. You really have to be paying attention to your
focal point to get the most out of that lens. Finally, I also love
Nikon's 10.5 f/2.8 fisheye. I rarely deliver more than 1 or 2 photos
taken with this lens to the clients, because the effect quickly gets
gimmicky, but when used sparingly and artistically, it can really set
your photos apart from those of the couple's other guests.

6. Any advice you would give to someone getting in to Wedding Photography right now.

I think wedding photography is more about people than it is about
photography. Digital photography has really lowered the barrier to
entry to the field, so the key to success is your personality, and how
you deal with your clients. You have to be personable, outgoing, and
flexible. Set yourself apart from your competition. You have to be
good at several different skills in order to be successful -
specifically the photography itself, post-production in Photoshop
and/or Lightroom, album design, and general business skills, like
dealing with suppliers and having a good system to keep yourself
organized.

7. How do you feel about Photographers helping other photographers?

I think when photographers work together to improve each others' work,
everybody wins. The photographers grow their skill set, and the
clients end up with superior photos. It's important for new
photographers to be able to bring something to the partnership, so
both parties are able to feel good about joining forces and working
together.