Luray Wedding

Direct sunlight can often not be our friend... but not this time.


Congratulations, Sarah and Brock.

Modern Bride Closes

Sorry to hear that Modern Bride (along with other Conde Nast publications like Elegant Bride and Gourmet), has been closed and will no longer be published.

Too bad - we contributed fairly regularly to Modern Bride (both photos and occasional columns/articles) and enjoyed working with their editors. Declining ad revenue - along with pretty stiff competition from The Knot - caused Conde Nast to find cost-cutting opportunities.

From what we understand, Brides.com will stay in operation, and Brides magazine will go to a monthly publishing schedule to pick up some of the slack.

Ask the Experts Column

Our first column for the OneWed.com Savvy Scoop blog is up. Once a week we'll answer questions from OneWed members about wedding photography and wedding topics in general. This month's column is about location shoots and permit fees. Check it out!

Critically-Acclaimed Bouquet

Congratulations to Emma on her bouquet taste - a photo we took of her bouquet made the front page of OneWed. Here it is ----

A Little Recognition

One of our photos was just chosen out of thousands of entries by OneWed.com, the largest searchable online database of wedding vendors, to be featured on their home page. (It's not up yet, so don't bother looking. It should appear in the next week or so.)

We also will be contributing to an "Ask the Experts" column on OneWed, answering wedding photography questions from OneWed readers.

Pretty cool!

Harrisonburg - JMU - Joshua Wilton

Beautiful weather Saturday, great couple, fun families... could not have been a better day for Emma and Alan. We've barely started going through photos, but here is a sneak peek for family and friends to check out.

And congratulations to wedding planner Lynn Ianizzi of Finer Points, and the staff at the Joshua Wilton, for putting on an outstanding event. And to DJ Danny Craig for keeping the dance floor full for nearly three hours. (Never an easy feat.)

Clifton Inn, Charlottesville VA

Rained in Charlottesville a couple weeks ago for Rebecca and Matt's wedding, but the Clifton Inn was nice enough to hold a tent over from the previous day's wedding... so everyone stayed dry. You know a staff cares when the Event Coordinator and Facility Manager are hard at work on umbrella duty. This was our third time at the Clifton Inn in the last couple years, and as always they did a wonderful job.

Congratulations Rebecca and Matt!

Bubbles over Rice (or Bird Seed)

Another of our less than thought-provoking survey results:


Couples prefer bubbles by a 3 to 1 margin over rice or bird seed. Why? Less mess, less cleanup, and bubbles don't run afoul of increasingly tight venue restrictions. (A number of venues prohibit rice and bird seed in their contracts - they don't want to clean it up or avoid hungry birds later.)


Plus bubbles are a lot less likely to end up in your hair, your gown, or your eyes. And from our point of view they tend to make for better exit photos.

Reflections on 2009 Wedding Dress Trends

Okay, so the word "reflections" was chosen just so we could fit this picture in...


... but it's also appropriate. Since we've been photographing weddings for years, we have some experience with trends and changes in tastes and wedding styles. From what we can gather, here are some wedding dress trends for 2009:


An easy way to find clues about what designers are thinking is to look at the keywords they use to describe their wedding dress styles: this year it's words like construction, waves, sophisticated, folds, textures, glamorous, scale, proportions, old hollywood, seductive, necklines, lace, small details, short, blooms, color, lightweight.


More designers are using fabrics to create small details that add a little flair to their gowns. Beadwork and glitter are still be popular, but early looks show layering and dress construction that further helps to create a sense of drama, especially in oblique lighting.

Short dresses are also coming back, and will be more popular in warmer areas.


Strapless gowns will still be popular, but necklines and sleeves can be elegant, too. (Plus strapless gowns create the universal problem - no matter how well they fit, gravity takes a tool and you'll spend a lot of time pulling your dress up.) When you're choosing, think about the environment you’ll be in for your wedding day, and try on a few dresses with straps just to be sure strapless is right for you.

More Congratulations

More congratulations are in order. We photographed Jeremiah and Erin Bishop's wedding several years ago....


Jeremiah is a world-class mountain bike racer, and last year he won the U.S. National Mountain Bike Championship in both the short track and the marathon classifications. (Just how good is he? In 2006 he placed eight at the World Championships, which is the highest placing of any U.S. male at that event in over a decade.)


He's also a versatile rider; above is a photo we took at the 2006 Tour of Shenandoah road race, an event he entered just to mix up his training (and as a favor to race organizers.)

He's also been invited to be on the panel of the Washington & Lee University Institute of Honor Conference this month, "Sports in America: Playing Fair," where he'll discuss his views on doping and illegal performance enhancement. (Quick summary: He's against it.)

It's quite an honor, since the conference features speakers like Myles Brand, the head of the NCAA, Travis Tygert, Senior Managing Director and General Counsel of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and Jeffrey Toobin, lawyer, author, and legal analyst for CNN and The New Yorker.

Thanks for a Great 2008

Thanks to all our couples for a wonderful 2008. We were fortunate enough to photograph weddings in Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Lexington, Staunton, Waynesboro, Luray, Richmond, Woodstock, Roanoke, Lynchburg, Williamsburg, Virginia Beach, Fairfax, Alexandria, Manassas, Arlington, Reston, Woodbridge, Warm Springs, Winchester...


... Front Royal, Roanoke, Culpeper, and Staunton, plus out of state locations like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Bethesda, Rockville, Silver Spring, Raleigh, Monterey, Philadelphia, and New York.

Everyone at BlackBird Images wishes you - and for a number of you, your recently born kids or kids on the way - all the best in the years to come.

Don't Be Afraid of Unusual Angles

If the only times you've been professionally photographed were in a portrait studio, you're probably conditioned to the same old poses and camera angles. Even so, be open to trying something different - the results can be striking.

(It also helps that, in this case, there are picnic tables at JMU's Arboretum for us to stand on.)

Quick Photoshop Discussion

At just about every wedding at least one person will say something along the lines of, "Oh, that's okay... they can always Photoshop that out." And it's true - skilled Photoshop users can do magical things. We perform some type of corrections on every proof: cropping, adjust light levels, correcting color castes, and sometimes retouching minor imperfections. Or we'll do a lot of work to rescue a what can be a great photo, like in this case.


Occasionally we perform major surgery: turning ex-boyfriends into bushes, removing objects from the background, even putting people in a photo who weren't originally there.

But what we don't do is turn people into something they're not. Here's a notorious example of photoshopping; the version of Faith Hill on the right is the original photo, retouched on the left.


As you can see, she got thinner, picked up a healthier glow, and had her face smoothed significantly. (What's ironic is if they had used the original photo, most people would have thought she looked odd, since we're all conditioned to seeing heavily-retouched photos in magazines. Our paradigm has changed so what's real no longer looks real.)

Here's a Jessica Alba before/after version.

The lighting is a little different, but you can easily see where some shaping/sculpting has been performed.

There are tons of examples of celebrity retouching, so we'll stop there... but you might like seeing a couple examples of outright Photoshop mistakes. Here's one from England's Daily Mail; evidently an editor felt the magazine the gentleman is holding had to go, but the tech didn't finish the job.

Now check out this image of Beyonce. It's a striking image... which may distract you from the fact there's no way her hands could be in that position. Check out her right shoulder; the only way to push your shoulder forward like that is to angle your arm backwards at the same time. (Try it.) Yet somehow her right hand has managed to sneak all the way back around to hold the perfume bottle.

Along the same lines is the Spiderman 2 poster. While artistic license is definitely assumed for movie posters, it's still hard to imagine how Kirsten Dunst's arm is long enough to reach under and then up to Spidey's shoulder, especially the way her upper arm is angled.

Does it really matter? Nope - without her hand on his shoulder, the poster loses a lot of its emotional effect. While she's clearly hanging on, showing her hand with her fingers spread also implies an intimacy and a sense of caring... so while this pose is anatomically impossible, you could also argue it's necessary for the poster to be successful.

But... what's not so understandable is altering what at least pretend to be news photos. In the photo below Brad Pitt is carrying one of his kids with his left arm... yet the same child's face is floating over his right shoulder, too.

What does all this have to do with wedding photography? Maybe not much... but maybe a lot. Imagine you're, say, Jessica Alba. You're undeniably beautiful, yet when you pick up a magazine and see how much retouching the editors felt needed to be done to your images, how good can that feel? Clearly the implication is you're good... but not nearly good enough.

Bottom line? Be yourself. Relax. We'll help you look your best while making sure your photos show the real you - not a plastic version of you. Year later when you look at your photos, your first thought will be, "Wow - I looked so good and was so happy that day..." not "Wow, they sure did a great job retouching my photos."

... But Traditional is Also Great

Our last post may cause you to think we favor non-traditional or heavily-stylized photos. In the end we favor making our clients happy: If you want non-traditional, we'll deliver. If you prefer a classic look, we'll deliver.

For example, one of our wedding favorites from the last couple years is this photo.

Why? It's not stylized or photoshopped or meticulously posed; instead it's clean, simple, clearly evokes a time and a place... and captures both Shelley's warmth and her sense of playfulness.

Most importantly, it's the look she wanted.

Bridal Portraits - With a Twist

Traditional bridal portraits will never go out of style, but more and more brides are looking for something less conventional. In fact, some of the shoots we've done recently would never be defined as bridal, even though that was the clients' intent. They wanted something different... and we think you'll agree they got it.


Keep in mind these take time and effort to shoot - on our part as well as yours. Hair, makeup, location... all are critical. (For the photo above you need to be willing to stand partly unclothed in 40-degree temperatures on a windy beach.) Or you may want something a little less literal and heavily stylized ---


Again, you can't just roll out of bed and get this kind of look. (Great genetics help, too.) But a studio isn't always necessary - we pulled this off under natural light coming through a high window. It was a two-minute setup that turned out to be Michelle's favorite from the entire session, for reasons that are hopefully obvious.

Time of year is critical, too - the cherry trees were in full bloom for less than a week, but they're perfect for the look she wanted.


So if you're looking for something non-traditional, start talking to us now so we can pull all the elements together!

Shenandoah River

We scheduled a sunrise engagement session a few weeks ago and while waiting for the couple to arrive were treated to this. Definitely makes getting up early worth it ----

Church Photos

We tend to focus on faces - kinda natural, since we're wedding photographers, not landscape or architecture photographers. But we've gotten a lot of requests to see church photos, so here are some random ones from the last few months. Bonus points if you can name all four churches.





In order, First Baptist Church, Woodstock; Jackson Memorial Hall, VMI; First Baptist Church, Waynesboro; Parkview Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg.

Renewing Vows - One Week Later

A few months ago we photographed a "second" wedding ceremony; the couple were married in Arizona, went on their honeymoon, then came to Virginia to hold a second ceremony for local friends and family. Here they are outside the Stonewall Jackson Hotel in Staunton (where we've photographed five receptions this year alone.)



We've seen more of this type event in recent years - destination weddings are still popular, but often the couple will limit the guests at the destination and then hold a second service (or just a reception) for those who were not able to travel.


Speaking of the Stonewall Jackson Hotel, they do a consistently great job with receptions. The location is great, the service is excellent... we're always happy to work there. If you're looking for a venue, check them out.

Old Hickory Golf Club - Woodbridge, VA

A few more photos from Kirsten and Ryan's wedding in Woodbridge, VA. Foliage was pretty, but Kirsten looked even more spectacular.

Lucky with Light

Every once in awhile the light is perfect... and you're there when it is.

Fall Weddings...

Quick post to show the splendor of fall foliage... we were in Woodbridge, VA for Kirsten and Ryan's wedding. Kirsten had found this spot less than a mile from the country club where the wedding was held... perfect!