Whistler Helicopter Wedding

Ashley and Duncan are from the UK, and came out to Whistler for an extended vacation, and thought they would get married while they were out here. To make it really special, they decided to get Blackcomb Aviation fly them up to Beverly Lake on the back side of Rainbow Mountain for a high altitude wedding.

Here's a link to the wedding album I designed for them.

I don't to photograph in a lot of cathedrals, but this is way better.


Ashley gets a new hairdo as the helicopter takes off.


I love doing black and white landscapes, and it was a beautiful day for it.


Dale the mountain guide leads the parents over from the helicopter. It made for quite the entry.




Ashley and Duncan get a lashing as the helicopter lands to collect us.


While I love being in the high alpine for weddings, if there's a lot of snow, it's sometimes tough to get a good portrait, so we stopped off at Green Lake for a quick portrait session.


I put this little animation together of the helicopter taking off and landing. I thought it looked pretty cool.

Tech Stuff
A helicopter wedding is tough thing to co-ordinate, especially in the winter. Before Ashley and Duncan arrived, I had a long talk with Dale, the mountain guide, to make sure we were in a safe area, and to see if he had any off limits areas to keep out of. Avalanches and steep slopes are a real hazards in the back country. Helicopters, especially when they're running, are very dangerous to be moving around, so you want to have someone there who really knows their stuff.

I packed all my gear in a backpack, as the rotor blast from the helicopter blows snow into pretty much every crevice imaginable, and you want to have as much as possible packed away.

Nicklaus North Winter Wedding

Trina and Mark came to Whistler from Washington State to have a intimate wedding at a Nicklaus North Chalet. If Trina looks a little cold in the outside pictures, it was -11 degrees outside when we did the portrait session.







Tech Stuff:
The pictures are a little misleading, as we shot the portraits the morning after the wedding. The ceremony was 8:00 in the evening, and there was no natural light at all for portraits. For the pictures of the ceremony, I turned the camera flash off and turned up the camera ISO up to 3200 for a few photos. It was so dark that the guy doing the ceremony couldn't read the vows, so he grabbed one of the candles for light, and that made the photo. For the group photo, I brought an alien Bee strobe unit with a softbox mounted on it. My camera flash just didn't have the juice to do a photo like this.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Nikon AF-S 28-70mm f/2.8 (ceremony) , Nikon AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8 (portraits)
Lighting: Alien Bee B1600 Studio Strobe, Medium six softbox.

Whistler Heli Wedding - Rainbow Mountain

I love doing helicopter weddings, they really are a lot of fun. Kirsty and Billy came out from the UK for their wedding, and flew their entire family to the top of Rainbow Mountain. It was perfect weather for it, with calm winds, and cool temperatures, unlike the last helicopter wedding I did.

This was a few years ago, but this morning, Billy posted some shots on his Facebook page and tagged me in the gallery. His Dad had a few nice shots of me at work, which is something I don't have a lot of, so I thought I'd put them up on my blog.


A view you just can't beat, with Whistler/Blackcomb in the background.


That's me waving at the helicopter pilot to move in closer for the shot. With the wide angle lens, he really needed to be on top of us for this to work. He was on his way back from dropping off the family members, so we able to set this up before he landed to pick us up.

Marlene and Kyle's wedding at Nicklaus North, Whistler

Marlene and Kyle are from Evanson IL, which is close to Chicago. They came out to the Nicklaus North Golf Club here in Whistler for their wedding last week and really had a great time.






Marlene and her bride's maid got ready at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, which is one of the top Whistler hotels.


We were all able to squeeze into an elevator.


The ladies in the Mallard Bar at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.


Kyle and his father and brother just before the ceremony.


Giving away the bride.






Nicklaus North has one of the best patio's in Whistler, and it's a favourite location of mine for weddings.




What I have to put up with. The valley trail boardwalk is a great spot for bridal portraits, except for the almost constant bike traffic.








A great way to introduce the couple to start dinner.

Tech Stuff:
For most of my wedding photography, I keep it pretty minimalist. For a nice sunny day later in the afternoon, lots of extra flash just blows out the already beautiful looking light.

Cameras: Nikon D700 and D2x
Lenses: Nikon AF-S 17-35mm, AF-S 28-70mm, and AF-S 70-200mm. All f/2.8