Sometimes, when I need to be reminded of why black and white is so beautifully suited for wedding photography, a picture like this pops into the viewfinder and in an instant, I'm transported back in time, Irving Berlin's Cheek to Cheek playing in my head, all is well with the world.

Heaven, I'm in Heaven
And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak
And I seem to find the happiness I seek
When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek

Once upon a time, I shot only black and white film at weddings. Now, of course, any image can be either color or black and white, and sometimes it's hard to decide. Maya's post-processing of color images, as you can readily see in these galleries and on these pages, is so beautiful that what once was an easy decision has become much harder.

 Photographers have debated this for years, particularly wedding photographers, many of whom have given up on "artsy" (their term) black and white images. Artsy? That's just plain silly. Having shot a few hundred thousand rolls of black and white film in my life, there's nothing gimmicky about it at all. Black and white images are as honest as they get, stripped of all pretense and forcing the viewer to look more keenly at content. It's true, they are evocative--particularly of the eras of Gershwin and Berlin and Ellington--but content is always still king.

This past weekend I had the pleasure of shooting a lovely wedding at Evermay, the marriage of Gus Coldebella and Heather Ferguson. (Talk about a "gambler's lucky streak." Three of the last four weeeknds. Take that, Irving Berlin!) You might recall this couple, as they "initiated" our new Dark Slide home last month during cherry blossom season. And as with the other weddings this past month, they had an absolutely glorious spring day. As the motor of the 1933 Rolls Royce started to rev--think of a duck on steroids--and the wind started flowing through the windows, we all just smiled and laughed. After all, I've seen so many fake bride-under-veil photos in the last ten years that I always get a thrill when it happens for real.

 You guys--all 23 of you--know by now that I have some definite opinions on all things wedding related. And if Matt's Law #1 is that there only two kinds of wedding, stressful and fun, then Matt's Corollary #1 would be that there are only two kinds of brides and grooms, those that smile all day and those that don't. I don't have to tell you that Heather and Gus are of the smiling kind. Every time I turned around Heather was bright-eyed and laughing. That's a great thing to see. And now, as they lay out on a beach somewhere in Hawaii, I can bet that, in between sips of frozen daiquiri, they're still beaming from ear to ear.

For a sneak peak at Gus and Heather's pictures, click here.

Matt 

Before we get to the next wedding coming up this weekend, a quick word or two about some nuptials that have yet to take place.

I shoot a lot of engagement portraits for my brides and grooms. And I like them to be cool, not simply a bride in front of the Lincoln Memorial. This past week I traveled up to Baltimore, down towards Charlottesville and up and down the GW Washington Parkway, searching for the perfect Redbud tree.

Elizabeth and Felipe are getting married in Baltimore, at the gorgeous Peabody Library (where my sister Jennifer was married a few years back).  The first thing you notice about Elizabeth is her smile, which runs roughly from Inner Harbor to Mt. Vernon Place. After that comes the laughter, which she and Felipe seem to share every few seconds. I can't wait to meet his family, who are traveling from Colombia for the wedding. That should be a blast.

One of things I love about Baltimore is that you don't have to walk more than a couple of feet to find some great old building. That's exactly what happened when I met Elizabeth and Felipe near the Baltimore Washington Monument. We just walked a few blocks and found a beautiful archway and a welcoming stoop. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.

And speaking of uncomplicated, I have to laugh when I think of how simple it was to shoot a beautiful photo for my July couple, Meghan and Felix. They'll be getting married at a Virginia Winery, Hillsborough Vineyards. One of the great things about a wedding at a vineyard is how unstuffy it is. Guests wander about drinking champagne, the air is crystal clear and music wafts through the rolling hills.

With this in mind, Meghan and Felix took a leisurely drive down the GW Parkway a few days back , looking to see what might be in bloom. As it was a laid back Sunday morning, we had no real agenda, though I admit Iwas angling for a redbud. Here in the nation's capital, the plant progression goes something like this: First come the forsythia, followed by the wildly popular cherry blossoms. But if you ask me, the magnolia and pear blossoms give them a good run for their money. Something about those huge blooms on the pink magnolias. And right after they're all done, the redbuds appear, their deep purple foliage clinging tightly to branches. (Redbuds often look as though they've been wrapped tightly in color, whereas cherry blossoms hang lazily.) And just as the redbuds start to fade, and you think there's no more magic to come, cue the dogwoods.

Anyway, I knew we would find a redbud somewhere and sure enough, on our drive up from the Mount Vernon vicinity, we found one. When we scheduled this session, I didn't tell Felix and Meghan that they'd have to stand along a parkway filled with speeding cars. But if you shoot things at the right angle, all of that disappears.

I look forward to their wedding in July. I know it will be just as beautiful.

 Finally, I took a nice dive down towards Charlottesville this week, where my two of my siblings once went to school, to shoot an engagement portrait for Natasha and Wade. Or perhaps I should say I drove down towards Charlottesville to take some pictures of a playful German Shepherd named Blue, photos that also happened to include Wade and Natasha.

Wade and Natasha are crazy about Blue and the feeling is mutual, believe me. And since you all know how much I love my own Golden, Cooper the Wonder Dog, you won't hear any jokes about crazy people and their dogs from me. You either get it or you don't. And I get it.

It was a perfect day for a long drive down south. Just like with the GW Parkway drive, I got to watch all the trees coming into bloom along Route 29. And as the three of us (four of us, couting Blue) walked around the family farm, the same thought that always pops into my head in these parts showed up: it sure would be nice to have some land and old farmhouse someday. Someday. Natasha's very sweet mom (who made a fantastic lunch for us) kept worrying that the old barn was going to be in photos. The barn I want to tear down! she said. And we all laughed, because who wouldn't want an old barn in their photos?

Well, I'm going to go to bed. The Caps just lost a heartbreaking Game 7 in overtime. It was a thrilling finish to a remarkable comeback season. Would have been nice. Tomorrow it's off to see the Mets (my old team) take on the 6-15 Nats (my new team.) Doesn't look good.

 Take care,

Matt 

'Ya gotta love spring in Washington.

 Matt

Thomas Wolfe's famous title notwithstanding, you can go home again, especially if that home happens to be Evermay in Georgetown. I have several weddings lined up this year at Evermay, the gorgeous Belin homestead, including the two I just photographed these past weekends. And next week, after a Passover break, I'll be back again.

I love Evermay and a lot of it has to do with its rich history. I wrote about this last fall, and even though we have a new home for The Dark Slide, you can still find the post here, at the old site. (A technical note, since some of you have asked: the photos at the old blog site aren't active, as they're competing to "find" the same domain called mattmendelsohn.net. Someday, if we have time, we'll manually re-upload them. But the text is all still there, dating back a couple of years.)

A lot of historic mansions and homes have found new life as event venues, though many tend to sweep the history under the rug. I love Meridian House, with it's magnificent linden trees, but I have to admit it's hard to ever get a feel for who lived there originally. You have to go down into the lower level, where some photos line the wall, to get that sense. Not at Evermay. The Belin family looms large here, from the photos of them moving in at the beginning of the last century to the great "Yale Man Leaps From Hindenburg" newspaper front page hanging in a display case, and that's how it should be.

First up at Evermay was the marriage of Elizabeth Collins and Marc Van Gestel, both of whom have something I secretly (well, maybe not-so-secretly) covet. Elizabeth a pastry chef who happens to work at the hub of frozen custard in this region, Del Ray's The Dairy Godmother. It's always good to know someone in the chocolate business, don't you think? Better than knowing someone who sells widgets.

And while I'll never turn a way a good frozen custard, it's actually Marc who I might hit up sometime for a favor. You see, Marc's a commercial airline pilot and I, sad to report, am not exactly the world's greatest flier. I do it a lot, I've shot stealth fighters refueling from Sacramento to Plattsburgh, and twice in my life I've jumped from a perfectly good airplane. But none of that takes away my general lack of enthusiasm about flying. (Notice I haven't used the word "fear" here. I'm trying to stay positive.)

So, Marc, don't be surprised if someday I ask you to explain away the 83 things that keep me from truly sitting back and enjoying my flight. I'll forever be in your debt.

Elizabeth and Marc are currently in the Galapagos Islands and Peru and Ecuador, taking in giant turtles and the like. And from what they told me, they're not flying standby, waiting for some jump seat.  For a change, the pilot gets to relax.

(To view a quickie gallery of photos from Elizabeth and Marc's wedding, click here.)

A week after Marc and Elizabeth's wedding I returned to Everymay for the wedding of Amanda Fuchs and Jeremy Miller. Like the couple before them, Amanda and Jeremy lucked into one of the most beautiful days one could ask for. Both weekends started off a bit dicey, weather-wise, only to turn into glorious spring days.

Amanda, Jeremy and I have a lot in common, including restaurants, politics and a love of far-off travel. And I can't overlook their impeccable taste in giving their guests authentic New York black and white cookies as they left. (Remember, it's more cake than cookie. Don't get taken by local impostors.) In fact, right now they're staying in Oia, the tiny tip of Santorini, the same town where I got engaged ten years ago. I don't know if anyone

 keeps a list, but the view at sunset from the top of the steps in Oia has to rank among the top five vistas anywhere in the world. Since I've now been to Greece several times, I wrote Amanda a quick list of things to do while there. (My wife Maya speaks fluent Greek, which I must admit helps a lot in a country where the word for yes is "neh" and the word for no--"ohi"--sounds a lot like "okay." Fair is foul, foul is fair...)

A neat thing happened during the time leading up to Amanda and Jeremy's actual ceremony, and it demonstrates why it's always good to be ready for anything. As I was taking portraits of the bridesmaids and groomsmen in the gardens, Alexandra Kovach, Evermay's director of hospitality, whispered in my ear that Jeremy's father was alone at the piano in the parlor. Since I was occupied at the moment, I sent my assistant Matt Lisack to check it out. Matt returned with a photo that is both simple and stunning.

Too often in wedding photography I see goofy clichés and worn out ideas still making their mark. There are photographers out there who actually think they're being original by asking the groomsmen to don sunglasses and walk like they're in the film Reservoir Dogs. Seems a bit seventh grade to me. What Matt found is a truly honest little moment, something none of us outside, including Jeremy and Amanda, had any clue was happening. This would be a dynamite photograph if it showed a busboy seated at the piano. But the fact that it happens to be the father of the groom makes it priceless.

Two weekends, two couples, one great old house.  And in two weekends from now, when I'm at Evermay for the third time in three weddings, it'll be fun to see what new little things turn up. Maybe it'll be a certain plant that's in bloom that day, or some great light streaming  through the upstairs window, or a moment like the one to the right here. Can't wait.

To see a mini gallery of photos from Amanda and Jeremy's wedding, click here.

p.s. A quick thanks to Kirsten Michels at Capitol Catering for always being so good to us. Nothing against the soggy club sandwich that some other caterers seem to like to give photographers, but, boy,Capitol Catering makes the best beef tenderloin....

In the interest of parity, I'll end this post with another photo from Elizabeth and Marc's wedding. 

Take care, guys.

Matt 

In the couple of years I've been writing The Dark Slide, I've not once posted a technical review of any kind. Considering that I have as much fun using a 4 x 5 view camera, a big empty box with a lens, as I do my digital equipment, I wouldn't exactly be the go-to person for technical advice. That's what CNET is for, right?

I've always been of the mind that gear is overrated. When other photographers start talking about technical specs at our monthly pho get-togethers (Vietnamese soup), my eyes glaze over instantly. After all, some of the greatest (and sharpest) photos I've ever seen, and the photos that really impacted me as a kid,  came out of the Vietnam War--taken on "primitive" Nikon F's in miserable conditions and processed in dirty darkrooms. In fact, a childhood schoolmate of mine, Ken Rockwell, has created a wildly popular website devoted to photography, a site where he specifically demonstrates how one can make gorgeous images using nothing but a cheap, old camera.

Having said that, for the last couple of weeks I've been using a D3, graciously loaned to me by my buddy Ron Taniwaki at Nikon, and I have to say it's pretty spectacular. Ron is an old friend, dating back to my days in Los Angeles in the early '90's, and, with Robert Hanashiro of USA Today, first introduced me to dim sum, something I'll always be grateful for.

As we all know, for years now Canon has stolen a lot of the thunder from Nikon and people were starting to wonder if the guys with the black lenses would ever recover. Well, worry no more. Nikon's D3 is a remarkable tool and I will be buying a couple shortly. Just about every photo on this new blog has been taken with it.

This camera is sharp. Really sharp. I purposely inverted this small detail of a shoot from yesterday afternoon of the Schuller family to demonstrate my point. As Josh was swinging Griffin, I noticed that each time the baby cleared his body the most amazing rim light would illuminate his hair. As it was just before sunset, this is exactly how the image appeared to me as I was shooting. And since the D3 has what feels like a mini-HD display on the back, I could tell immediately that I had gotten the image.

Since The Dark Slide isn't written specifically for photographers, I won't get much more technical. Come to our next pho lunch and I'll tell you more. (Ask for the #12 with an extra side of brisket.) There are other features--particularly the second CF slot--which make it really appealing to a wedding photographer.  The drive is fast and the focus is dead on. And ergonomically speaking, it feels like a more comfortable descendant of the Nikons I always grew up with. (My favorite camera of all time remains the brickish F3HP.)

 Well, I have to run. It's a Saturday and I have my 458th wedding of the last ten years in a few hours. As F. Scott said, and so we beat on....

Matt