The Golf Club at Newcastle Wedding with Tara Brown Photography Seattle

About a month ago, I had the wonderful opportunity of being a second photographer for Tara Brown of Tara Brown Photography. Tara is a fantastic wedding and portrait photographer based in Seattle, WA and the surrounding areas. Plus, she's a Husky, so that makes her even cooler. :) She was kind enough to have me along for a wedding that took place at The Golf Club at Newcastle, one of the most beautiful wedding venues around Seattle in my opinion. This being my first wedding that I had been an assistant photographer at, I couldn't have asked for a better photographer to work with! 

The day started bright and early! I think photography is the one thing that I could get up for at the crack of dawn and not be the slightest bit upset. We started by photographing the wedding details. If I could go back and change one thing, it would be to have a macro lens to get those beautiful detail shots, especially of the rings. For some of the shots of the invitations, I tried doing something a little different by putting them in the plant and fence. While it doesn't capture the details, it was something unique to the venue which I liked. (For the photographers following, most of the day I was using my Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS II USM and Canon 50 f/1.4 along with my Canon 6D. While the 70-200 is a spectacular lens, it just doesn't really work as a macro lens.)

Next up: The Guys. The guys were getting ready in a more rustic part of the Newcastle venue. There was a pool table and Tara had the awesome idea to arrange the pool balls with the date of their wedding. I thought this was a great way to capture the details of the venue, but really personalize it with the date of the couple's big day. (While I promise I haven't forgotten the bride and groom's names, I have decided to keep their privacy and not use their names since I was not the main photographer for this wedding.)

Due to the time crunch, I didn't have much time to spend with the bride while she was getting ready. This meant more time hanging with the guys!

Before I knew it, it was time for the ceremony. The tent was gorgeous! Like I said, I'm convinced it's one of the best venues for a wedding. I absolutely loved the groom's reaction when he saw his bride for the first time! There were a few tears, but they were happy tears! 

 Post-ceremony, it was time for the formal photos! For the most part, I was off to the side trying to get new angles. I really love how the photo turned out with the bride and groom kissing while everyone looked at them from down at the bottom of the grassy hill.

As we were heading up from the formal photos, I saw there were two Polaroid cameras out for the guests to take photos of themselves and put in the guestbook. I thought this was such a cool idea to really remember the day by.

I remember checking my phone and couldn't believe it was already as late as it was. Time for the first dance and the wedding toasts! And cake. :)

I still think that the funniest photos of the day came from the garter and bouquet toss. The bride had played on a softball team with a lot of her wedding guests. One of the photos they wanted was a bouquet toss with them using a softball glove. I had to laugh when I saw the photos and how all the girls were going after the ball bouquet!

I broke out my light stand for the rest of the reception to give the photos a little bit of a different look.

The day ended, but I noticed the bride and groom dancing on the floor for one last time. I still had my light stand up, positioned myself so the light would light them from behind, checked my settings and got these last two images of the day. These were two of my favorites. To me, this shows a glimpse into their relationship: full of laughter and love. It was amazing to be part of their special day and cannot wait to be a part of another wedding!

Thank you again to Tara for having me along! She is a fantastic teacher and so supportive. Tara, I couldn't have asked for a better photographer to introduce me to the world of wedding photography! Can't wait to do this all over again with you!

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Sean Brown is a nationally featured high school senior photographer based out of Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR. If you're interested in booking a session or would like more information, please use the contact link on his website. Sean is now booking sessions for the Class of 2016.


If you like what you read, make sure to go to the "Follow By Email" box at the top right of the page to sign up for email notifications whenever I post! 


Also, remember to "like" Sean Brown Productions on his Facebook page and follow @SeanBrownProductions on Instagram by clicking the links provided.

The Road to Hana and Haleakala National Park

The past couple of weeks (or should I say month!), have been extremely busy for me with everything involved with finishing up school at the University of Washington in Seattle. But now, I am done with my sophomore year of college and ready for everything that I have planned this summer, which includes wanting to blog more! :) The first thing up this summer, a trip to Maui.

To start out the trip, my family and I took a couple days to travel over to Hana, a side of the island we don't normally go to. We started out the trip with the always exciting Road to Hana.

Along the way, there are various fruit and juice stands to stop at along the way. We stopped at this one to buy a fresh Maui pineapple and check out the overlook just a few steps behind the stop.

Throughout the drive, there are various overlooks that have terrific views of the coastline. We were fortunate enough to find one turnout where there was a place to stop and head down by the water. 

One of the last stops for Day 1 was Three Bears Falls. While you can see the falls from the bridge, it looked too good to pass up. I HAD to get down to the bottom of the falls. After a little bit of climbing and scaling the rocks to get down, I arrived at the base of the falls. 

We started Day 2 on our way to Haleakalā National Park to hike the Pipiwai Trail to Waimoku Falls. Along the road, there were so many waterfalls. Living in the Pacific Northwest, we're fortunate to have a lot of falls, but there's something magical about the falls in Hawaii.

We got to Haleakalā and started the hike. The hike was beautiful the entire way and consisted of a lot of steps, tree branches along the path and bridges to cross over. 

Roughly half the way along the hike, you come across the bamboo forest. This was remarkable. The bamboo is taller than you can imagine and when the wind blows the trees make a really cool "clicking" sound when they hit each other. 

We got to Waimoku falls, but sadly, we couldn't get to the base of the falls. I am guessing that it had something to do with some flooding or trails being blocked as it looked like one of the trails was now a stream. I went a little farther than I was supposed to, but hey, it made for a better photo. :)

At the end of the hike, I looped around to the Pools of Oheo. There were so many people in the pools that I didn't like the photo, but the coastline is among the best I've ever seen! I climbed out to some of the rocks at the edge of the coastline and took a couple shots there, then headed back to grab a different angle. The waves breaking here were massive and just added to the spectacle of these cliffs. If you are ever in Maui, I highly recommend this hike, especially if you're there at a time when you can hike up to Waimoku falls and experience being close to the falls.

__________________________________________________________

Sean Brown is a nationally featured high school senior photographer based out of Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR. If you're interested in booking a session or would like more information, please use the contact link on his website. Sean is now booking sessions for the Class of 2016.


If you like what you read, make sure to go to the "Follow By Email" box at the top right of the page to sign up for email notifications whenever I post! 


Also, remember to "like" Sean Brown Productions on his Facebook page and follow @SeanBrownProductions on Instagram by clicking the links provided.