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Pier Top Ballroom Wedding Photography at Hyatt Regency

A beautiful tradition that can be interpreted in as many ways as there are families, the father-daughter dance usually brings big smiles, sometimes tears, and always another chance for a beautiful scene setting image such as this one. One of the advantages of working with two primary (or "lead") photographers is that we are able to divide and conquer: one of us will take the standard shot, in this case a head and torso zoomed image of the bride and her father dancing with clean, direct lighting; the other photographer can take a few moments to get creative and find a new and interesting way to display the venue and the dance in a dramatic or visually intriguing way. In this case we've placed a variety of off camera flashes surrounding the dance floor which can be triggered individually by remote triggers on our camera bodies; in conjunction with our on camera flashes we can switch between a variety of lighting styles without having to do more than press a button or two. This not only provides variety in our work, it also helps us avoid having to use a lighting assistant, or VALS (Voice Activated Light Stand). Using off camera flash in this manner gives our reception images depth and variety, and is an exceptional help when there are venues where bouncing on-camera flash (a usual wedding photography reception technique) isn't optimal or perhaps not even an option; outdoor venues, venues with very tall spaces, or venues with dark or wooden ceilings that can either kill our flash batteries quickly or bounce an undesirable color cast back onto our subjects. The top floor of the Hyatt Pier 66 doesn't have this limitation indoors, but the outdoor spaces aren't covered, which means having remote flashes to work with can increase our range dramatically.

Location: Hyatt Regency Pier 66, 2301 SE 17th Street, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33316.

1/200; f/4.0; ISO 1250; 35.0 mm.