Photographers and clients alike regularly comment on this photograph and the question invariably asked is whether this is a Photoshop effect.  Far from it - this image is straight out of the camera and is one of my favorites …

It is an image taken during one of the portrait sessions of Desha and Kyle’s wedding in Aruba.  Their wedding consisted of two parts: The noon-time legal wedding ceremony at the Orangestad courthouse; and afterwards in the evening, the vows ceremony on the beach.   After the wedding ceremony at the courthouse was completed, I spent some time with Desha and Kyle, photographing them around the colourful city center.  The old colonial buildings offered a beautiful setting for this first set of wedding day portraits.

As we finished up this noon-time session, Desha and Kyle and I agreed to meet again on the beach much later in the evening and we said our goodbyes.  We were walking through a shopping center on the way to the main street to grab taxis to take us to our respective lunchtime destinations … and then I called them back excitedly, and told them to stand in a certain spot in the middle of the shopping center and just snuggle in a bit. 

They both looked a bit bemused at my request - after all, it was just a shopping center - but they indulged me.  I lay down on the ground and shot upwards against the neon-lit ceiling.  By throwing the multi-coloured neon lights out of focus, I was able to isolate the couple against this background.  It’s a photo that I am quite proud of, since it is so striking looking, but difficult to figure out the context for anyone who wasn’t there.