So Many Moments
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award-winning family portrait + destination wedding photography https://www.SoManyMoments.com
Based in Sandpoint, ID
Serving North Idaho and FAR beyond!
02/22/2026
Day 6 Stills | Slow Shutter with Rear Curtain Sync | 14-Day Wedding Photography Challenge
Wedding dance floors can be chaos.
Variable lighting. Fast movement. No do-overs.
So after a dance fitness class I teach (), I asked some gals to hang around for an extra two songs. I had 6 minutes to make a shot worth posting on our dance page in just about the most terrible conditions I could come up with, a cluttered dark dance studio, and entire wall of mirrors framed by a single rope light and little marquee, with the really fun DJ light …mounted against the mirror, so I couldn’t use it to add color or dimension.
If this was a wedding, I’d have walked in with second strobe mounted ready to go, but this challenge was about bare bones slow shutter drag and rear curtain flash from a single strobe.
Because sometimes weddings move fast and I want to know that no matter the room or the lighting, I can walk in, adapt, and make it look like it felt.
Day 6 | Slow Shutter with Rear Curtain Sync | 14-Day Wedding Photography Challenge
Available light photographers panic here.
Dark rooms where even the highest ISO isn’t going to take you very far.
I set up a time constraint exercise in the most terrible conditions I could come up with.
Then practiced. Slow shutter. Rear curtain sync.Let the ambient light streak.�Freeze the faces.
Because if I can control a flash in here, �I can control it anywhere.
Dance floors shouldn’t look flat.�They should feel like movement.
02/22/2026
Day 5 Stills | Harsh Light Portraits | 14-Day Wedding Photography Challenge
Harsh midday sun is one of the least favorable lighting scenarios. Hard shadows, squinting eyes, add snow and we have the absolute worst time of day to shoot available light.
So that’s exactly when Matt and I decided to challenge each other to ten minutes with our teen daughter in the backyard!
Day 5 of sharpening the craft! Check out the reel for video version with settings.
Also… WHO WON?
Sam - color 🎨🫶
Matt - monochrome 🖤🤍
DAY 3 | Scene Setting | 14-Day Wedding Prep Photography Challenge
This challenge became forcing myself to carry around a camera, even when highly incovenient! But I’m calling it the SCENE SETTING day.
We’re gearing up to shoot a wedding soon, so to prepare I came up with a hay-wired idea at 4 am to practice a different facet of wedding photography EVERY DAY for two weeks.
Day 3 and it didn’t turn out quite like I planned, but twists and turns of events feels very WEDDING PREP too.
I planned to pan the camera for action shots. Instead, I caught what I could between the chaos of hauling 5 kids (2 of them toddlers!) to the ski resort on little zf with a 40mm prime.
On the way back down, we caught the most stunning view of our little lake-side downtown. I still can’t believe we get to live here. *pinch me* As I’m doing every day, check out the next post for extra stills.
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