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Best Wedding Photography // 2016

By | Features, Weddings | One Comment

In the name of love, I present to you my favorite wedding photos from 2016.  I really should say in a labor of love because it took a lot of time to take all these shots and also a lot of time to narrow them down!  I had about 450 shots that I thought were exceptionally blog worthy this year (though it could have easily been twice that!)  And I think I finally narrowed it down to about 180.  There were so many magical moments that I was fortunate enough to be a part of this year that I think this might be the hardest “best of” post I’ve ever done!  But it was all worth it and totally paid off because as of this writing I am proud to say that I have won Best of The Knot for 2017!

          

That marks three straight years of making the best of list, putting me in the top 2% of vendors on The Knot.  It’s been a lot of hard work but as much as I can claim credit, it’s really all my amazing couples, giving me wonderful reviews that really tipped me over the edge.  I’m not one to gloat so I won’t say much more other than when I set out to win this award I made it a goal to win it for at least three straight years in a row.  And now that I’ve done that I’m quitting the biz… juuuuust kidding!  In honesty, it feels more like when a famous restaurant gets their 3rd Michelin Star.  The hard work finally gets you to that elite status but now you have the pressure to not just maintain your work but to create beyond what’s been expected of you.  And when you face that moment you can either pack it all in or dig creatively deeper then you have ever dug before.  I choose to dig and whether you be a someone I’ve worked with before or someone I have yet the pleasure to meet, I hope you decide to join me for the excavation.

As always, enjoy the highlights, I would love to hear what your favorite shot might be in the comments (waaay) below!
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Best Engagement Photography // 2016

By | Engagements, Features | No Comments

What a year.  What a year for engagements.  What a year for Danto Photography!  This year marks my 3rd straight year of winning best of The Knot, which is no small feat.  Only the top 2% of vendors on The Knot get this acclaimed award so I’m extra humbled about the win.  To kick off celebrations, I’ve put together this blog post of my favorite engagement photos from the past year.  This years crop of favorites have some of best work as of yet.

Every year I learn a trick or two that help elevate my work and this year I think my post-production editing has been the largest improvement in my set of skills.  I’ve learned how to better fine tune my editing in such a way that the photos are really jumping of the screen.  For example, the first picture below had a ton of adjustments – exposure painting, photoshop body retouching, highlight/shadow adjustments, boosts in clarity and vibrance… the list goes on.  Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details, lets just get to the results!  Scroll on down and enjoy!  Thank you to all my awesome couples this year for letting me join in your journeys, it has been an honor!

Oh and as a bonus, I threw in three non-engagement photos that I took while on engagement shoots.  Just some fun city/scenery shots, enjoy 🙂 Read More

Top Ten Wedding Ring Shots // 2016

By | Features, Weddings | No Comments

My goal as a wedding photographer is to get my clients the very best photos I can while being as creative as possible.  It’s a difficult balance to achieve because often enough, being creative is a race against time in the face of shot priority.  I am only at a wedding for my contracted hours, and sometimes that leaves just enough time to get the safe shots and not much more.  Yet despite my constant race against time, there is always one aspect of the day that I make a point to focus my creative juices on — the ring shot.

To me, the wedding rings are the perfect symbols of the bride and groom and I relish the opportunity to color that with my own creative flair.  Yes, you could be extra creative with almost any image you take at a wedding but most of the time the CONTROL isn’t there.  Weddings are fickle beasts and you’re at the whim of what is happening at that very moment, which can sometimes limit creativity.  But one thing I know for sure, rings are rings and will do whatever I tell them to do.  My wildest dreams can come to life in their tiny world as long as I have the patience and inspiration.

It is my love of the ring shot that has inspired this post into creation and as long as I’m a wedding photographer I’m going to do one of these every year.  So without further ado, here are my top ten ring shots of 2016. Read More