Bridalize could not be more proud to recognize of one of our wonderfully talented photographers, Danica Larsen, as she was just voted Denver's Mile High Photographer of the Month!
Check out some of her amazing pics and the full interview:
Who are you?
I am Danica Larsen and I love being a photographer. Five years ago I discovered my passion to have people see their beauty and found that I was already doing that through photography recreationally. Each person has a unique beauty about them and what better way to capture that than through a photograph.
Did you go to school to study photography?
Since graduating in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management I have have taken photography classes and workshops to obtain a good technical foundation to develop my style and general photography knowledge.
How long have you been a wedding photographer?
This is my 4th wedding season.
How would you describe your style?
My style develops and evolves every day according to my surroundings, capturing my clients, and observing life’s ever-changing beauty. I am drawn to emotion. I am drawn to contrast and color. I am drawn to simplicity. While I love being able to pose people for an editorial shot, my favorite is to capture couples or families interacting with each other.
How many weddings do you average per year?
Since I enjoy shooting families, newborns, and kids, I allow myself to book up to 25 weddings per year. This allows me give my brides and grooms my undivided attention while maintaining a boutique photography experience for each client. Every wedding we custom design client websites, announcements, and albums and allow time to give our clients the best of each of these.
Where is your favorite Colorado location to take pictures?
Colorado is a photographer’s dream! From the Rocky Mountains and the evergreens that you can find in the Betasso Preserve, to snowy landscapes, to Red Rocks and the sports stadiums, to the copper walls and iron work of Lodo, train tracks near REI, and bright colored walls by Invesco field there is a plethora of amazing places to shoot.
What sort of equipment and software do you use?
The Nikon D700 is my front runner and my second camera body is a Nikon D300. My bag includes the following lenses: f2.8 17-55mm, f2.8 70-200mm, a fisheye, 100mm Micro and my favorite lens: f1.8 50mm. I use Radio Popper wireless flash system with my SB900 and use the SB600 as a slave flash.
What lighting equipment do you take on a shoot?
A 5-way reflector seems to be all that I need to bring with me, however, I keep my Thinktank bag handy with 3 flashes, Radio Popper’s and other lenses.
What is your most used Photoshop tool, plug-in, action set etc.?
While I do most of my editing in Lightroom, when I pull images into Photoshop I use Totally Rad Actions. Specifically, I find myself using Claire-ify and Oh-Snap more often than the others.
What gives you ideas and inspires you to create such amazing imagery?
My clients are definitely my inspiration. The flirty way she stands when she looks at him. The sparkle in her eye. The protective hug he gives her. The way her nose wrinkles when she laughs hard. The way only mom can make the baby smile. The baby laughing a deep belly laugh when Dad throws them in the air. Every couple and family is unique and capturing that uniqueness is inspiring.
If you could shoot a wedding with someone who would it be and why?
Greg Gibson. His three day class at WPPI was amazing and am so inspired from his photojournalistic style and his pulitzer prize winning photo coverage. Being able to see him in action and work with him would be invaluable. If I could somehow have some of his amazing photojournalist talent rub off on me, I would be a grateful photographer!
How many images do you average per wedding and how many do you usually present to your clients?
Generally I take about 2200 per wedding; however, I have even reached up to 4000. What is consistent across weddings is the client sees about 150 in a highlight slideshow on their custom website and while more images are posted to the ordering site and burned to their CD if one is purchased.
Have you ever had anything go wrong at a wedding and if so, how did you handle it?
Oh man! First of all, with weddings there is always potential for things to not go exactly how I envision before wedding. The thought of my most horrible moment still makes my stomach turn. I was shooting my first wedding in the The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver. It is a gorgeous church, was one of my early weddings, and the reason I purchased the +$2,000 f2.8 70-200mm. Right before the ceremony, I opened the lens cap and glass begun falling to the floor. GLASS!! I was horrified, and almost cried, but alas, the bride was about to walk down the isle, so, I slapped on my f1.8 50mm on the D700 and was shooting the wedding with that and my f2.8 17-22mm. Needless to say, my lens breaking seemed to throw me off mentally, but I had to try and shake it off and not let it affect me as much as possible. Thankfully after the wedding I found that it was just the filter that broke.
What do you feel is the most challenging thing about photographing weddings?
A lot of my brides don’t have wedding planners and that makes things more challenging for me where there is not someone keeping everyone on schedule. The wedding party seems to run late so there have been times where I have had to change where we shoot the formal portraits because there wasn’t time to do them where we first arranged. Improvising and having the ability to making any lighting situation work are the keys to wedding photography.
Do you advertise? If so where?
I belong to Bridalize – a wedding vendor conglomerate in the Denver Tech Center at Shops at Landmark. This weekend will be my second in-store photography promotion with The Gap for a complimentary photo session with purchase. This is a great way for me to meet new clients and display my work in exchange for taking photos at the event. These have been a really great ways to reach target clients outside my current referral base in addition to achieving some great brand recognition.
What advice do you have for somebody who wants to pursue wedding photography?
Shoot as much as you can and find someone you like to work with. Even if you shoot with them for free, it allows you to learn as much as you can from them. The “in field” experience shooting along side someone more experienced is invaluable.
Which five words would your friends use to describe you?
Encouraging, happy, thoughtful, creative and hard-working.
And the last question, if you had one wish…
My wish is that I could affect everyone I come into contact with in a positive way having them feel beautiful about themselves. Ideally, it would be nice not to worry about finances and to be able to donate time to taking photos of women and families who have been touched by cancer and give them beautiful collection of images of their loved ones.
CONGRATULATIONS, Danica! You deserve it :)
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