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Friday, March 26, 2010

{Photography Tip!} Using the Sun as a Backlight in Portraits.

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Here is a blog post that's a little different from our usual posts. It is mainly intended to inspire other photographers (and everyday lovers of photography alike) to not be afraid to use whatever light is available to you at the moment, to its fullest! It takes practice, practice, practice to get it right, but you CAN achieve gorgeous, warm, artsy, romantic tones, if you only kept trying and experimenting!




The bright mid day sun, and the gorgeously warm sunset sun (essentially: a bright glowy light in the background of the subject), is capable of allowing us photographers to be more creative, to play with light, to soften the feel and look of an image, making it more romantic and interesting and fun to look at. Weather the final image is to be in color or black & white, the natural bright light behind the subject will stun!



Here is what I mean. Lets say we are photographing a couple at 8pm during a clear evening in the summer. The sun is getting ready to set, leaving behind nothing but long shadows and a gorgeous yellow/orange glow on anything it touches. Don't be afraid of the drama of light and dark! Use it all to your advantage.


I should mention that we set our cameras to be completely manual, meaning we set our own custom shutter speed and aperture and ISO, for every single shot we take. This allows us to get exactly the image we want out of a scene. If our cameras were set to fully automatic, it will most probably calculate (measure off of) the brightness of the background light, making the couple in the front disappear in the darkness of the shadows. Which is not what we look for. We want the couple to be enveloped in the warmth of the sunlight. We want to yellow orange glow of the sun to wrap itself around the subject of the image, as if blanketing them. The ultimate goal is to allow for the bright background to be as bright as possible, almost "blown out", the couple in the front to be soft and tinted in the light, and the whole image to be warm and romantic.




There is nothing wrong with "playing it safe" by using a flash to make sure the couple is always perfectly lit. In fact, having some of these "safe" kinds of images is a great addition to a whole series of images of the couple. However, the whole point of photography is to experiment, to go above and beyond what the human eye can see, to play with available light and to create/capture moods that will certainly escape in a blink of a naked eye.



Having a professional photographer who knows the ins and out of his/her equipment and who has the courage and imagination and artfulness to create something truly stunning and special and different, is what makes for an already perfect day (your wedding) even more memorable and immensely stunning!

Feel free to ask me any question you might have. We are always willing to talk about the technical aspect of things when it comes to photography. Even though we have been in the exclusive, full-time, business of wedding photography for 6 years, we are always eager to learn more! We LOVE what we do! :-)


Thursday, March 25, 2010

PDX Photolounge at the Bridal Show... Here are our photos!

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PDX Photolounge!


Always fun having them around... they even have a box full of props!


The Portland Perfect Wedding Guide's Bridal Show was even more fun with PDX Photolounge... the fact that their booth was right beside ours, made it very convenient for us to play! :-)


Here are some photos of us:


Me holding FIORIBELLA's bouquet!



Josh being Josh:



Josh and I playing around:



Mandi (of Champagne Wedding & Event Coordination) and I:


Sunday, March 21, 2010

Photos from "Portland Perfect Wedding Guide's" Bridal Show!

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Hi again old friends, new friends and fans!


As promised, after a much needed long night's sleep, I present to you: the full post with many more photos of the Bridal Show post! Again, a huge thanks to Judy with Portland Perfect Wedding Guide!


Our image from a Lakeside Gardens wedding from September 2009 was the chosen one for the Show's main welcoming poster!



Brides obviously happy to be at the show and a down shot of the Diamond Dash contest! Those brides has to eat of dig their way through a cup cake. One of those brides had the winning cupcake, good for a pair of 1 carat diamond earrings! (Compliments of Joseph K Wedding Rings).



Champagne Wedding and Event Coordination was the organizer of the whole thing. Mandi & Rachelle are always SO essential to the smoothness and flawlessness of any event. Ania Collection provided the gorgeous wedding dresses our models wore during the fashion show AND donated one of their amazing gowns to a winning bride! The image of the glasses, is a detail of the temporary tattoos The Naked Winery was giving away along with yummy samples of their various delicious wines (the names of which are SO unique and entertaining!).



From the top left, clockwise: The ladies from Macy's home decor were there to show off cutlery and place settings for every taste. One of my favorite florists EVER is Fiori Bella. Regina is the owner and the artist behind her flowery art and on top of being talented, she is a sweetheart! More detailed images of her bouquets are below! 



The Heathman Hotel's restaurant is one of the top in my book! Just look at the abundance of foods displayed here! Josh and I were so lucky to have had our booth placed in the same little sun room as them :-) The mini cupcakes are from the wonderful Cupcake Jones. Delicious and pretty! The pink accent on the white frosting is a candied mini rose petal! Yummmy!



Here is our humble booth. We had lots of prints to show, anywhere from 4x6s to a 20x30! Our iMac was streaming hundreds of gorgeous images from our 2009 wedding and engagement photo collection, while Josh and I greeted our new brides and their friends. It was a blast! We made great new connections and our Engagement Session giveaway was won by one of the sweetest brides we met, Melissa! Can't wait to play with her and her fiance! Every single one of our prints was printed by our fantastic lab: Pictage. They cater only to professional photographers and are an amazing, friendly, organized, high quality and wonderful company to work with. All of our couple's photo-shoots are hosted online via Pictage and any orders for prints of books are expertly created by them. Couldn't run our business without them. Thank You.



As promised, here are Fiori Bella's bouquets. The beautiful models were walking around in their Ania Collection dresses and carrying Regina's floral creations with pride. How could they not?? :-) Just look at the simplicity and colors. We predict working alongside Fiori Bella many times over in the future. Genuinely beautiful flowers and genuinely sweet owner.



A few other vendors I didn't have the chance to photograph at the show are equally as talented. I wish I had had more time and flexibility to roam around the rooms shooting, but our booth kept up in one spot for most of the time; which is a good thing! :-)

- Focal Point Digital Media (videography by Ryan Chaney)
- Bella Events by Delana, LLC (event planning)
- PDX Photo Lounge (always fun! lots of photos of Josh and I to come!)
- Event Team Entertainment (awesome DJ and MC service)
- Multnomah Falls Lodge (a gorgeous lodge right at the base of the tallest waterfall this side of the Mississippi! In the Columbia Gorge!)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Sneak Peek of "Portland Perfect Wedding Guide's" Bridal Show at The Heathman Hotel, Downtown Portland!

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Happy first day of Spring!


It was a gorgeous day in Portland today and a perfect day to ring in the new sunny & warmer season!

Josh and I had started the day off earlier than usual today, to head out to Downtown Portland. We set up our photography booth in plenty of time, then we waited for the show to begin and the brides to come!

It was a fun and memorable experience. We will do it again in the future, for sure!

This is just a sneak peek of the photos I took of the show. More to come tomorrow, after a good night's sleep :-) I'll include a list and links to the vendors who participated and the organizers who put it all together, so check back tomorrow, for sure!

Thanks, as always, for reading, and have a great night!

~ Alice & Josh

We are SO proud of this welcoming poster! Our photo, of one of our favorite couples was the image of choice for the backdrop to the show! YAY :-)


Here is our humble booth! We had lots to show and think it was a hit!


More photos to come! Lots of details of one of my favorite florists EVER too! :-)


Monday, March 15, 2010

Come see us at Portland Perfect Wedding Guide's bridal show at the Heathman Hotel!

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We are so excited to be participating in this!
I hope to see many new faces, new couples, that day!
Its a cozy and very personable bridal show allowing for plenty of time for chit chatting with great local vendors!


Location: The Heathman Hotel, Downtown Portland OR
Date & Time: Saturday March 20th, 2010 from 12pm to 4pm
Organized by: Portland Perfect Wedding Guide & Champagne NW 

For those of you on Facebook, here is the event page, which you can RSVP from.

Josh and I will have a booth with lots of prints and books to look through. We are also very excited to show off our latest very large prints! We just ordered one 20x30 print and two 16x20 prints of three of our favorite weddings, on metallic paper! I posted these three images below... they are going to look awesome! OH we are so lucky to have such a great lab!

By the way... we will be giving away a casual and fun and laid-back Engagement Session to one lucky couple! So be sure to stop by our booth, tell us all about your wedding and sign up for a chance to win!

Contact me if you have any questions!

Mobile: 503.732.0378
Email: Alice@MoscaPhoto.com

See you there!

~ Alice (& Josh)







Saturday, March 6, 2010

Paintings! That's right... Josh Kincaid paints too!


This might be news to most of you, but Josh paints!

Not only is he the other brilliant Mosca Photo photographer, he also has an innate talent for composition, color, shapes... assembled with paintbrushes on canvas!

Our home/studio is adorned with his paintings, all of which are bright and colorful and give a feel of an art gallery to otherwise stark walls.

Two of his paintings are now displayed at one of our favorite local Italian restaurants here in NW Portland (
Basta's Trattoria). Stop by, grab a drink, some delicious happy hour food, and look at Josh's paintings hanging in the main dining room! I am SO proud of him! :-)

His pieces are, obviously, one of a kind. No two paintings are the same. They can be seen on the web and purchased in its original glory, or as Giclees.

One of his paintings is below;
the others are HERE! Click on an individual piece of art to see the larger version and to zoom into the canvas to see the actual texture.

Have a wonderful day and thank you for supporting your local artists!

~ Alice


Friday, March 5, 2010

{Engagement!} Holly & Manny in Downtown Portland OR!


Holly & Manny are awesome! Hip, fun and open to anything!

They were one of the very first to book us for our summer 2010 wedding season, so this engagement session has been in the making for a while! We were waiting for the perfect weather to grace us for at least a couple of hours and we sure got it!

The goal was to look for gorgeous spring blooms in an urban setting. We found some blooms in the Pearl... and they are gorgeous! Then, we made our way to the waterfront and bridges and tracks... how much more urban can we get??

Here is a sneak peek of the engagement session... we have SO many to show! This is just a taste of what's to come :-)

Love,

Alice & Josh

{Holly & Manuel's Friends & Family Should Click HERE to see ALL of the images!
Create folders of your favorites, order prints or albums, view as slide show... lots of goodies!}