Beautiful Split Rock Lighthouse wedding photography from Steven & Marie’s awesome wedding on Lake Superior!
A nice B&W wedding candid of Steven & Marie.
Split Rock Lighthouse Wedding Photographers
Joannie and I always look forward to photographing our upcoming weddings. But this one has been on our radar for quite a while! Steven & Marie chose us as their Split Rock Lighthouse wedding photographers a while back and they set several things in motion when they did.
Their Tuesday, August 25th wedding date made it easy to select the dates for our 20th Annual “North Shore Portrait Weekend” for 2015. We were very excited to have the opportunity to place Split Rock Lighthouse wedding photography on this year’s agenda.
Steven & Marie at their first look at Larsmont Cottages on Lake Superior.
Senior and Engagement Photos on Lake Superior
We had multiple photo sessions “up north” on Saturday. The weekend off to a great start with Eagan High School senior portraits with McKenna. At the same time, the fun engagement portraits on Lake Superior with James & Alli; and two more family portrait sessions at Split Rock later on that evening.
Then on Sunday, we created Gina’s pretty Maple Grove senior portraits at the Split Rock Lighthouse and at stops along Lake Superior all the way to Two Harbors, MN. That’s a pretty full portrait schedule considering we had two last minute cancellations due to sick kids.
B&W infrared wedding photograph at Larsmont Cottages on Lake Superior.
As we mentioned in our previous stories about McKenna, James & Alli, and Gina, the wind was a huge factor that whole weekend up on Lake Superior. Beautiful overcast skies but with lots and lots of wind. Saturday was pretty windy, Sunday was really windy and Monday not only did the wind stick around, but the bottom dropped out of the temperatures too!
Joannie and I took Monday off to sightsee in Grand Marais, MN. We were actually going to play golf, but when we watched a few golfers try and hit off the first tee at Superior National Golf Course at Lutsen, we decided to get back in the car and go shopping in Grand Marais instead. Good call.
Up in a tree!
A (Wedding) Picture Perfect Day
On to Tuesday and the wedding of Steven & Marie. Needless to say, we were more than a little concerned about what might happen weather-wise, but boy did Mother Nature come through with a beautiful day for a wedding!
This would have been perfect wedding weather anywhere! A light breeze, soft overcast skies with occasional breaks in the clouds and nice comfortable temperatures in the mid-sixties. Absolutely perfect for wedding photography and especially great for creating Split Rock Lighthouse wedding photography on Lake Superior!
How’d she get up there?
Infrared Wedding Photography
As you can see by the previous three wedding photos, we had the opportunity to use our Canon 5D Super Color Infrared Camera at several locations. This included some beautiful infrared wedding photography taken at Gooseberry Falls State Park with Steven & Marie up in a tree!
“Up in a tree” was one of the images that they talked about when they reserved us as their wedding photographers, so we brought along a ladder to help make it happen for them. It got the attention of some of the other park visitors that’s for sure!
There’s a first time for everything!
But I have to back up a bit as I’m getting way ahead of myself!
Back To The Start
Steven & Marie’s Split Rock Lighthouse wedding photography actually got started at the beautiful Larsmont Cottages On Lake Superior. It was there that everyone got ready and Steven & Marie had their first look on the beautiful north shore of Lake Superior. We also took many pretty wedding photos of the two of them and their wedding party there as well.
Once we had all of the pre-wedding images at Larsmont Cottages, Joannie, myself and the wedding party set off in the direction of Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. We had several stops planned along the way, including in Two Harbors, at Gooseberry Falls State Park for the pretty falls, the scenic cliffs and as you’ve already seen, “up in the tree.” Steven also wanted to stop at someplace that had train tracks.
Oh yeah, and we thought we could throw a Split Rock Lighthouse wedding ceremony in there too!
Well, we were in our cars for about two minutes when I saw the location for Steven. Train tracks that were in a quiet and safe location and were actually in a pretty spot too! Nice.
Item one of the day’s wedding photography bucket list!
Train tracks for Steven.
Two Harbors Wedding Photography
We hit the road again for Two Harbors and some “urban wedding photography” on a day when there was going to be a lot beautiful scenic photographic opportunities. So I wanted a little variety tossed in there which is something that’s on my wedding photography bucket list whenever we photograph a wedding.
We found just what we were looking for (and much more) right there in the Two Harbors business district, a mere half a city block from where the 3M Company got its start.
A very cool red wall in Two Harbors, MN.
It was there that we got tons of great wedding photos in five entirely different locations less than 200 feet from our cars! The cool red wooden wall above was stop number one. While we were there, a woman came up to us from out of nowhere to tell us that she had (already) called the owner of the movie theater (behind & inside that red wall) and he was coming down to open it up so we could take pictures inside! Ya gotta love small towns!
We needed to stay somewhat on schedule, but we did spend a few minutes in the Harbor Theater and captured the wedding image you’ll see in the wedding highlight music video of Steven & Marie at the old-fashioned soda fountain. You gotta be ready for anything when you’re wedding photographers!
The four other cool locations where literally right there too! A cool, old fire escape, a great stone archway and the old broken wooden wall you see below. Five unique photo spots in probably less than 30 minutes. And we didn’t have to walk more than a hundred feet from where we parked our cars! Sweet!
Pretty fun!
Wedding Photography At The Ore Docks
The fun wedding party photo above and the one below with the Two Harbors ore docks and the tugboat in the background were both taken with one of our newest lenses. The super cool Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD lens. That lens is so awesome (and kind of big)! I call it my new “big boy lens.” It sort of makes our two Canon EF 70-200mm f2.8 IS USM lenses look like toys next to it.
The image above was taken at 182mm and the image below with the tugboat at “just” 300mm! I actually couldn’t back up far enough to use it at a longer focal length there.
The wedding party by the ore docks in Two Harbors, MN.
Gooseberry Falls State Park Wedding Photos
We left Two Harbors for our next stop at Gooseberry Falls State Park. We created the fun “up in a tree” wedding photographs you’ve already enjoyed above. While there we made a pretty photo stop by the actual Gooseberry Falls too. The cool wedding party photo was below taken at 600mm with the Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD lens. What a reach that lens has! I would estimate that we were more than 300 feet away from the wedding party in the un-cropped image you see below. Wow!
This is what a 600mm lens can do at a wedding!
Split Rock Lighthouse Wedding Ceremony
The wedding ceremony time was approaching, so we set off to create Steven & Marie’s beautiful Split Rock Lighthouse wedding photography and that’s the beautiful wedding images we have coming up next.
The newlyweds!
The most important wedding photos of the day had to include the world famous Split Rock Lighthouse. We made sure that we had the Minnesota icon in many of their wedding images including their wedding ceremony below!
What a beautiful place to get married!
What a stunning venue for a wedding ceremony!
Steven & Marie enjoying the view.
Our “Big Boy” Lens
Here’s more awesome Split Rock Lighthouse wedding photography. Above we have a wedding candid photo with Steven & Marie taken with our Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD lens at 300mm!
Split Rock Lighthouse.
The same lens from the exact same distance, but this time at “only” 150mm.
There are lots of reasons why Joannie & I love the north shore of Lake Superior so much and this very special location is one of the big reasons why! The fact that we could use this wonderful place to create Steven & Marie’s beautiful Split Rock Lighthouse wedding photography made it so fun for us!
A sunset stroll.
After their wedding ceremony at Split Rock Lighthouse State Park and the beautiful wedding photos taken there, we headed back to Larsmont Cottages On Lake Superior for their wedding reception. We closed out with some really pretty wedding photographs near the lake and on this walking path at sunset.
It’s A Small World After All
On a funny side note, something kind of unusual happened while Joannie & I were taking these sunset photographs right in front of Steven & Marie’s cottage.
There was a couple staying in the cottage right next door to Steven & Marie’s cottage and the wife noticed that there “was a wedding party outside by the lake.” As she kept watching she said to her husband, “hey, that’s Michael & Joannie!”
Down below I started hearing someone calling my name from behind me. I thought nothing of it (there’s more than one “Mike” in the world after all). Until I put my camera down and looked up to find out that someone was actually calling out to me!
There was Mike & Cathy Mohr! Mike & Cathy were spending the weekend at Larsmont to celebrate their 26th wedding anniversary and you guessed right if you knew that Joannie & I were their wedding photographers 26 years ago! What a truly small world!
We visited with them for several minutes and had a great time seeing them again. What a fun way to end a really amazing and beautiful wedding day!
Sunset at Larsmont Cottages on Lake Superior.
Thank you!
Steven & Marie, thank you for choosing us to create your Split Rock Lighthouse wedding photography with you. We were very inspired by the two of you and the many beautiful locations you chose for your wedding day.
I’m guessing that our more than 20 years of experience as Lake Superior photographers was one of the reasons you chose us to create your Split Rock Lighthouse wedding photography in the first place. I’m pretty sure we have exceeded your expectations and you haven’t even seen all of your wedding photographs yet! I know that Joannie & I exceeded our own expectations and I can assure you that they are set very high for each wedding we photograph.
Thank you for making us a part of your wedding day, we had a blast! – M&J