Oasis Winery & Vineyards Wedding

We photographed a wedding at Oasis Winery & Vineyards this weekend and have already been asked for our impression of the facilities. Since the bride and groom haven't seen their photos yet we'll only post a couple (at least for now).
The winery is located about 10 miles outside Front Royal, VA, a little over an hour's drive from Harrisonburg and no more than an hour from Northern Virginia. Here's a view of the lake as seen from the Pavilion with the vineyards in the background. The wedding BlackBird Images photographed was held just to the right of this photo, with the lake and fountain (and mountains in the distance) as a backdrop.


The winery offers tours and tastings on a regular basis and is frequently used for weddings and special events. It has a large tasting room, outdoor patios with tables and umbrellas, picnic tables scattered around the lawn, and a large pavilion for receptions and events. They also have an in-house limo service and have facilities suitable for caterers, bands, dancing... virtually anything you might need for your wedding.
From what we could see the winery can easily handle a large and complex wedding and reception. The staff was friendly, courteous, and professional, and was attentive to all the needs of the guests.
Each staff member wears a radio headset which allows them to instantly communicate with other staffers and make the event flow smoothly, a nice touch we rarely see. (During the posed photo session after the wedding we asked a staffer for a hand towel for the bride to use - it was 92 degrees at the time - and she radioed up the the main facility and towels and bottled water were brought down in less than a minute.)

Compared to some of the venues we've visited recently the Oasis Winery is on the higher end of the price scale, but in return they offer excellent service and, if you like, a turn-key wedding package. (They even chauffered guests who were unable to walk down the hill to within yards of their seats.) The only problem we noticed was that the groom and his groomsmen had to use a storage room/office to get dressed - the space wasn't a problem in itself but the room wasn't air conditioned and on a 90 degree-plus day it was like a sauna.
The Oasis Winery is a beautiful spot for a wedding; address the issue of where your party will get dressed and your wedding will be perfect.

Weddings at the JMU Arboretum

First a disclaimer: BlackBird Images hasn't photographed a wedding at the James Madison University Arboretum in Harrisonburg, VA. (We've used it dozens of times for family and model photos, though.) With that said, if you're looking for a pretty - and convenient - location for an outdoor wedding, the Arboretum is hard to beat... albeit with a few caveats we'll discuss in a moment.
The most striking features of the Arboretum are the small pond and the wooden bridge. Here's a photo of one of our brides-to-be on the bridge. (The ducks may decide to crash your wedding.)

The lawn surrounding the pond provides a couple different spots where your ceremony can take place; which you choose will depend on how many guests you have and the time of day. If you're getting married in mid-summer make sure you pick a spot that provides the most shade.
The price is very reasonable: for $250 JMU lets you use the Arboretum and will set up/take down chairs and provide an arch as a backdrop.
While you won't use them for a wedding, there are also a number of paths and trails through the woods; one path leads to a very pretty terraced garden area. The photo below was taken on a path leading to the terraces.


There are a few things you should keep in mind if you use the JMU Arboretum for a wedding. One, it is a public facility, so even though you'll have plenty of room for your wedding there can and probably will be people nearby walking on the trails, sitting on benches, etc; if you want complete privacy it's unlikely you'll get it. A bigger problem is parking: the Arboretum parking lot has room for 15 to 20 cars at the most. If you have a number of guests, your best bet is probably to have them park in one of the large lots across the street next to the CISAT buildings and figure out a way to shuttle them over.
For the price, there are few settings prettier, and the minor inconveniences don't outweigh the value you get. To visit the main Arboretum site for general information and more photos, click here. To visit the Arboretum's wedding-specific page, click here.

Website Photography

BlackBird Images is frequently asked to create photos for commercial websites (especially since our parent company, BlackBird Media, designs and develops websites.) While photography is photography, web photography requires a different skillset and approach; instead of creating photographs intended to stand on their own, web images should be designed to fit seamlessly into the website's layout and structure.
For example, here's a photo of product emerging from a commercial dairy processing line shrink tunnel.

Granted, seen on its own it isn't particularly exciting... but now check it out in its natural habitat on the Bishop Firm website (the Bishop Firm is a client of BlackBird Media.)
Sometimes web photos can stand on their own, as is the case with this photo of a Bishop Firm engineer at a project site.

But again, check it out in place on the Bishop Firm website and you'll see it fits perfectly within the overall site design.... providing a more personal touch to an industrial website. Website images and graphics require a different discipline and approach - don't let your photographer create product, process, and personnel photos with no consideration for where and how they'll be used on your website.

Photojournalistic Wedding Photography

We received a flood of responses to our recent posting about wedding photography styles - in particular about photojournalistic wedding photography. If you're unfamiliar with the phrase, "photojournalistic" wedding photography is really just a multi-syllabic way of saying "candid" wedding photography.
Here's an example of an image in photojournalism style: it shows the bride-to-be getting emotional when she hugged her brother right before the wedding.


Here's a different view, seconds later, of the same moment photographed by the second BlackBird Images photographer at the wedding (we always send two photographers for just this reason.)


Every wedding photographer poses some photos... or at least they should. For example, among images we pose are the traditional post-service wedding party photographs; we also work with the bride and groom to pose and create specific photos they've requested. (We then work hard to make them feel comfortable - and it shows.) At BlackBird Images we provide our couples with a blend of posed and candid or photojournalistic photos; it means we take a lot of photos (we average 1,000 to 1,200 during a 3-hour shoot), but it also means our clients get photographs - like the one below - with genuine expressions no amount of posing could produce.