The Last Word – Ken Sklute: S-Curve LA

Like most successful wedding photographers, Ken Sklute has a masterful way of teasing out great images from situations that don’t quite go as planned. “This image was taken in downtown Los Angeles,” says Sklute. “The wedding was being held at the nearby Millennium Biltmore Hotel, so I had searched out a killer area for some unique portraits.” The Biltmore, home to the Academy Awards in the 1930s and 1940s, is an extremely glamorous and ornate hotel. Consequently, Sklute wanted to find an area that contrasted with (and complemented) its old-world design.

The day before the wedding, scouting for the right site, he came across the Walt Disney Concert Hall, a strikingly modern steel building designed by architect Frank Gehry as the home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. “On the scouting trip, I visited the magnificent location and the sun was shining brightly,” recalls Sklute. “I was hoping to shoot this image in digital infrared to add to the drama.” The test images Sklute shot on the day prior to the wedding were outstanding, with huge cumulus clouds dotting the sky and perfect lighting.

The next afternoon, on the wedding day, the bride was running late—as so often happens. “It soon became a race to see who would win, the photographer or the incoming storm front,” says Sklute. On location at the concert hall, Sklute positioned the bride to take advantage of a sweeping S curve in the structure and create a powerful composition. As the bride prepared herself for the shoot, the breeze continued to pick up and the clouds grew progressively thicker. Finally, the last of the blue sky disappeared and a light rain began to fall.

The shoot might have crashed to a halt with no winning images to show for it—until a fortuitous breeze lifted the veil and kept it flying above the bride, mimicking the curve in the wall. Ready to capture the moment as it unfolded, Sklute was able to create this memorable image, which he shot in color and later converted to black and white in Photoshop CS3.

Michelle Perkins is a writer, designer and photographer from Buffalo, NY. Her next book, due out this month from Amherst Media, is titled 500 Poses for Photographing Women: A Visual Sourcebook for Professional Photographers.