Amy Aiello

I flew out to Phoenix, Arizona for Jen & Scott's wedding day. Two days after the wedding, we made a trip up to Sedona to take additional portraits of the couple in a unique setting. They were running behind in getting ready, which set us back for the day (more on that later).

Our first stop was Tonto Natural Bridge, where we captured the photos of these two inside of a canyon-looking area. We first had to hike about 30 minutes down into the canyon. My assistant Mark and I each had lighting and camera gear to carry, and the couple had their wedding clothing in garment bags which they carried over their shoulders.

There was a beautiful waterfall within the basin of the natural bridge, and we used it as a backdrop for one of the photos. We used the view from the opposite direction as an additional background. Jen and Scott changed into their wedding day clothing once we arrived to the location we wanted to capture their photos in.

After we finished up at Tonto Bridge, we decided to make a drive further into Sedona to Devil's Bridge. We had hoped to arrive on time to have daylight, but miscalculated the time it would take to make the drive. We ended up arriving at the park exactly as the sun went down, but still had a hike to make in order to get to where the natural bridge was. We decided that since I was equipped with a tripod, some lights, and since we had come such a long way, to move forward and aim for a nighttime capture complete with stars.

What we didn't know was that the hike would take would take a full hour of brisk walking, while carrying even more equipment than we had before. We also were minimally prepared as far as flashlights go - three smart phones; two of which were nearly dead. We couldn't see much further than in front of our faces, and with a moonless night, things could have gotten bad without working together to make sure we were all safe. The last portion of our hike literally involved some pretty steep climbing (fully equipped, remember). We all discussed turning around and going back at this point, as we had no way to know how much further we had to go in order to make it to the bridge.

We carried on, and finally made it! My camera needed massive help to even lock focus on the couple (my eye couldn't have done it on manual if I wanted to), and so I had Scott aim the light from a smart phone toward Jen's face so that I could lock focus. I set the camera for both 20 and 30 second time exposures, and was only able to create a total of 3 images (we were all pretty anxious to leave and to be back at our cars where we would be safe, AND it was a struggle to pose them between the canyon gap and where I was standing; there was over 1,000 foot drop between us).

An hour after finishing, we made it safely to our cars, and that was that!

I flew out to Phoenix, Arizona for Jen & Scott's wedding day. Two days after the wedding, we made a trip up to Sedona to take additional portraits of the couple in a unique setting. They were running behind in getting ready, which set us back for the day (more on that later).

Our first stop was Tonto Natural Bridge, where we captured the photos of these two inside of a canyon-looking area. We first had to hike about 30 minutes down into the canyon. My assistant Mark and I each had lighting and camera gear to carry, and the couple had their wedding clothing in garment bags which they carried over their shoulders.

There was a beautiful waterfall within the basin of the natural bridge, and we used it as a backdrop for one of the photos. We used the view from the opposite direction as an additional background. Jen and Scott changed into their wedding day clothing once we arrived to the location we wanted to capture their photos in.

After we finished up at Tonto Bridge, we decided to make a drive further into Sedona to Devil's Bridge. We had hoped to arrive on time to have daylight, but miscalculated the time it would take to make the drive. We ended up arriving at the park exactly as the sun went down, but still had a hike to make in order to get to where the natural bridge was. We decided that since I was equipped with a tripod, some lights, and since we had come such a long way, to move forward and aim for a nighttime capture complete with stars.

What we didn't know was that the hike would take would take a full hour of brisk walking, while carrying even more equipment than we had before. We also were minimally prepared as far as flashlights go - three smart phones; two of which were nearly dead. We couldn't see much further than in front of our faces, and with a moonless night, things could have gotten bad without working together to make sure we were all safe. The last portion of our hike literally involved some pretty steep climbing (fully equipped, remember). We all discussed turning around and going back at this point, as we had no way to know how much further we had to go in order to make it to the bridge.

We carried on, and finally made it! My camera needed massive help to even lock focus on the couple (my eye couldn't have done it on manual if I wanted to), and so I had Scott aim the light from a smart phone toward Jen's face so that I could lock focus. I set the camera for both 20 and 30 second time exposures, and was only able to create a total of 3 images (we were all pretty anxious to leave and to be back at our cars where we would be safe, AND it was a struggle to pose them between the canyon gap and where I was standing; there was over 1,000 foot drop between us).

An hour after finishing, we made it safely to our cars, and that was that!

I flew out to Phoenix, Arizona for Jen & Scott's wedding day. Two days after the wedding, we made a trip up to Sedona to take additional portraits of the couple in a unique setting. They were running behind in getting ready, which set us back for the day (more on that later).

Our first stop was Tonto Natural Bridge, where we captured the photos of these two inside of a canyon-looking area. We first had to hike about 30 minutes down into the canyon. My assistant Mark and I each had lighting and camera gear to carry, and the couple had their wedding clothing in garment bags which they carried over their shoulders.

There was a beautiful waterfall within the basin of the natural bridge, and we used it as a backdrop for one of the photos. We used the view from the opposite direction as an additional background. Jen and Scott changed into their wedding day clothing once we arrived to the location we wanted to capture their photos in.

After we finished up at Tonto Bridge, we decided to make a drive further into Sedona to Devil's Bridge. We had hoped to arrive on time to have daylight, but miscalculated the time it would take to make the drive. We ended up arriving at the park exactly as the sun went down, but still had a hike to make in order to get to where the natural bridge was. We decided that since I was equipped with a tripod, some lights, and since we had come such a long way, to move forward and aim for a nighttime capture complete with stars.

What we didn't know was that the hike would take would take a full hour of brisk walking, while carrying even more equipment than we had before. We also were minimally prepared as far as flashlights go - three smart phones; two of which were nearly dead. We couldn't see much further than in front of our faces, and with a moonless night, things could have gotten bad without working together to make sure we were all safe. The last portion of our hike literally involved some pretty steep climbing (fully equipped, remember). We all discussed turning around and going back at this point, as we had no way to know how much further we had to go in order to make it to the bridge.

We carried on, and finally made it! My camera needed massive help to even lock focus on the couple (my eye couldn't have done it on manual if I wanted to), and so I had Scott aim the light from a smart phone toward Jen's face so that I could lock focus. I set the camera for both 20 and 30 second time exposures, and was only able to create a total of 3 images (we were all pretty anxious to leave and to be back at our cars where we would be safe, AND it was a struggle to pose them between the canyon gap and where I was standing; there was over 1,000 foot drop between us).

An hour after finishing, we made it safely to our cars, and that was that!