Mike Varel's Blog - wedding photojournalism + cinematic wedding films - Kansas City + worldwide

update: calendar + things to come

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:52:49 -0600

The 2011 calendar is quickly filling up so please email me with any questions and get your date secured for next year.

I limit myself to 30 weddings per year so I can turn around a wedding film in 10-12 weeks and photos within 4-5 weeks of the wedding. If you're getting married this year please contact me and I'd love to put you in touch with some really great folks in town that do amazing work.

I also have about 10 new wedding films coming to the blog soon so be sure to come by each week for a new one.

Here is a quick preview of Ashley + JP's photo wedding coming soon:

laura + charlie e-session [lawrence, ks]

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:57:14 -0600

Laura + Charlie are fans of the movie "The Notebook". Well, maybe Laura is a bit more than Charlie... but for their 40's themed engagement session he played the part quite well.

We went out to Circle S Ranch north of Lawrence. It's a beautiful location, has an old truck and plenty of great spots to shoot. My new friend at Sunflower Outdoor & Bike in Lawrence rented me a great pair of Electra bikes for the shoot.

nadia + ross [kansas city]

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:22:44 -0600

Nadia + Ross are the coolest Russian couple I've ever met. That could be because I haven't met many, but they truly are so warm and appreciative that I felt like I had new friends as they left the plaza that evening.

From the moment we arrived we saw family and friends helping prepare... all of them speaking Russian.

Ryan and I really weren't sure what to do with that. We walked in where the ceremony and reception were being held back to back and once it began, not a word of English was heard for hours. We did our best to understand, but more importantly captured the emotion of what was being felt.

Here are some images from their day:

nadia + ross: coming soon

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:53:22 -0600

an update.

Tue, 11 May 2010 10:13:52 -0600

The first four months of the year were absolutely crazy.
and fun.

From Guatemala to Canada, Florida, West Virginia and Las Vegas, the slow part of my year was anything but.

The Vegas trip was crazy. Landed, filmed till late, slept, filmed all day till 5 pm and went back to my hotel to edit till about midnight. I waited for approval on the final video for the ACM Awards and flew out the next morning.

I got to see some great people out there and film the show for the troops at Nellis Airforce base, which was pretty great. Dierks Bentley, Montgomery Gentry and a whole bunch of great artists and musicians played for a few hours until I realized the shuttle with Josh had left me behind :0)

I caught the next one and talked with Matt Sayles who is an amazing AP photographer that does celebrity/event work. Matt, good luck finding a wedding photographer! (he's friends with some of the world's best photojournalists)

I also shot a beautiful wedding in Charlottesville, West Viginia at a vineyard that was a scene out of a movie. I'll share what I can with you on that soon.

My nephew Casey Jay turned 1. Him and Grady may be my favorite thing to photograph...

For now, wedding season is in full swing. I think the next 6 or 7 weeks in a row before one weekend off and back into another 6 or 7. So far this year is mostly in kansas city with a couple stops in st. louis too, but I'm thinking another beach wedding needs to happen.

I think I may have a couple dates open in the fall yet, but most of the year is already booked. I'm hoping all the concerts I want to see aren't falling on Saturday nights. Last year Keith Urban was playing the Sprint Center and I was 3 blocks away filming. Talk about bummed. But it was a great wedding :0)

In the meantime I have to tell you about Amy Seeley. She's all over my blog in my videos, but if you haven't heard her other music it's time to stop and do that now.

photo by Jesh De Rox

She has an unbelievable voice and her piano playing is just gorgeous. Lyrically she has a way of taking you on a journey and arranging words in ways that make me smile.

I'm also wrapping up work on a video for Food for the Hungry here in the next few weeks with some awesome motion graphics from Matt White and writing from Rick Mundy with Kansas City Creative. I'm excited to work with those guys more helping non-profit organizations to tell their stories and have more of an impact in the world.

The next several blog posts will be wedding films and a few photo weddings as well. Let me know if I can help in any way for your wedding, even if I'm already booked, I know some incredible folks in town.

katelin + bryan: preview [kansas city]

Tue, 04 May 2010 09:43:42 -0600

Katelin told me a couple days before her wedding, "I'm going on my last run as a single girl". Feeling that was part of the story of their day, I went along for it. When I say "went along" I mean, I drove along. Seriously, I coudn't keep up with her. I tried. hard.

For best results, push play, then pause and allow the video to buffer fully before pushing play again.

Music: Amy Seeley, "Walk to the Park" from the amazing record, Eight Belles

Licensed through With Etiquette

I'm really looking forward to the 2010 wedding season and all the stories yet to be told. If you're getting married this year please contact me quickly as 3/4 of my open dates are already booked.

country music anyone?

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:02:16 -0600

In addition to weddings, corporate/marketing and non-profit video producitons, I also have a history of doing country music video work. Random? Maybe...

Two years ago I did a piece for Chuck Wicks for the Academy of Country Music Awards and this year I'm working on a 6 part video series to introduce everyone to Josh Thompson. He's an up and coming singer-songwriter with songs like "Beer on the Table" as well as "Way Out Here" out on the radio right now.

Photo by Mike Varel

This is his first year attending the ACM Awards in Las Vegas, but I'll let the videos tell you more about who he is.

The first 4 episodes were shot from Kansas City to several stops in Florida. Episode 5 was sent up from Nashville and I'll be shooting and editing the last one from Las Vegas the day before the awards show. (no pressure right?)
I'm really excited to be filming a special concert for the troops at the airforce base as well.
Each episode will release every few days so check back for them.

Swing by CBS.com and check out their ACM Awards section for the videos.

If you're into country music, check out the ACM Awards live on CBS at 7 CST, April 18th.

[And a very special thanks to the rock-star editor Matt White who's been helping me meet the crazy deadlines on these videos]

ashley + jp: engaged [ottowa, ks]

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:16:58 -0600

Ashley + JP were on spring break and wanted some outdoor engagement pics since their wedding is quickly approaching in May.

They found an awesome little spot down in Louisburg and we spent a couple hours together. We almost fell through the floor of the old barn a couple of times, but the photos were totally worth it!

Here are a few from their session:

Contact button broken

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:22:43 -0600

So I just learned yesterday that my Contact button on my www.mikevarel.com website has been broken for quite some time. I've still been receiving emails through my blog and through my wedding films contact form (www.mikevarelweddings.com) but apparently no emails have come through to me on the other site.

SO, if you have emailed me and haven't heard back, I sincerely apologize, I just never received it. After I fixed it yesterday I've received 3 emails from it, so I'm sure I've missed a few folks.
If you're one of the people that hasn't heard back from me within 24 hours of emailing me, please let me know - thanks!

By the way, my nephew Grady turned 2 this past weekend. After his work on the Legos he helped with my web issues...

amy + aaron: engaged [kansas city]

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:34:33 -0600

Amy is an amazing dancer, and incredibly dedicated.
Aaron is hilarious and yet brilliant. Well, smart enough to snag Amy anyway. In an instant, she had eyes for him one day seeing him at a mutual friend's place.
Aaron was too concentrated on homework to be bothered with her, although he noticed her gangster-style men's camo shorts and wasn't too impressed.
After a little persistence on Amy's part, they wound up going to dinner a couple days later. After an outfit change I think it's safe to say Aaron's impression changed.

I got to shoot Amy's sister's wedding video a couple years ago and have loved hearing updates on Amy's almost-engaged status over the past year. Her mom Suzie would send updates through my mom who gets her hair done from her. "Not yet, but I think we're close" she would say. Amy was so excited when it actually happened that I think I got a notice before the rest of the facebook world did.

I had such a great time shooting their engagement pictures. Aaron is just as goofy as I am and once the English accents came out, I knew we are going to have a blast on their wedding day.

Here are a few from their session:

We hung out at JP's Winebar downtown which is an awesome place - Aaron is a fan of lights so we hung out till they came out and made a few pictures with them too.

meg + joe: married [chicago]

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:07:41 -0600

I first met Meg at Focus Seminars. We quickly became friends and stayed in touch even when she went back to work in Chicago.

I got phone calls and emails telling me about how she met Joe at church and how amazing he was. Then the day came when I got the call. They were engaged and she wanted me to shoot her wedding pictures.
I was so excited for them and to finally meet Joe, but I really felt like I wasn't Meg's photographer. I knew I could do it, but what I wanted for her was better than I could do.
I sent her to my friends at Wirken Photography. I really wanted Becca to shoot the photos for them, and if I was asked to do video I'd love it, but would've been happy to just be in attendance.

In the end, Tyler shot the engagement photos, Becca and Jewel got to shoot the wedding and Ryan and I went along for the video. It was one of my favorite weddings of all time for so many reasons. One, it was Meg & Joe, and I love them - for another, it was Chicago and their wedding was gorgeous. I had also met Meg's mom and sister at Focus, so it was awesome to be a part of the family for the day. The ceremony was amazing at the Moody Bible Church and the reception was by far the best I've been to. The band Sway performed all night and I've never heard better - the dance floor was packed!

The entire day ran so smoothly and I loved the detailed & professional service from Kristin at Big City Bride.

Thank you Meg & Joe for letting me into your world, on your most special day. I was truly honored to be there and capture all of those moments for you. It was one of the hardest edits for me to do because I wanted it to be a 4 hour video. You guys are wonderful & I hope you enjoy this short piece before you get the full length piece... which may be 4 hours.

The music in this video is by Amy Seeley - she's amazing, swing by her website and check out her stuff or grab her record off iTunes. Music was licensed through WithEtiquette.com

Details:
Wedding Planning: Big City Bride
Church: Moody Bible Church
Reception: Germania Place
Band: Sway

For the technical folks out there:
You may see a visual difference in this video compared to the rest that I've done or posted here - Canon released a new camera and it arrived literally the week of the wedding. I shot this entire piece with the 7D, hand held with a 20mm and a 50mm lense. I didn't have time to buy anything else for it. Since that wedding I've shot and produced several other projects with it and all 2010 weddings will have the same visual quality, plus a few new tricks.

For those of you that were left hanging at the end of the video wanting to see more; all of my videos cover the whole day. This is just the opening piece, followed by a full-length ceremony shot with multiple cameras as well as the whole reception edited to music as well. Contact me today so I can get your day on my calendar, 2010 weddings are filling up fast!

kara + domingo: married [nebaj, guatemala]

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:30:16 -0600

This was a new experience for me.
Typically I meet a couple, we have some time together at the engagement shoot and then I see them on the wedding day.
With Kara + Domingo, I got to shoot pictures of them for an entire week leading up to their wedding. (see past blog posts for the story)

I connected more with them and their family than anyone I've ever shot in the last 9 years. It wasn't work, It was truly a blessing for me to be there and experience their day with them.

Part of what made this wedding so amazing was all the behind the scenes stories that I got to be a part of.
The other incredible thing was that Domingo's parents speak Ixil (pronounced ee-sheel), so there was really only pointing, nodding and body language to communicate with them unless Domingo translated - Yet these two families came together in an incredible way.

After having 8 sons, Domingo's mom expresses how she feels like she has a daughter now:

The wedding was held in Domingo's backyard. The entire thing was landscaped and designed around his future wedding.

Here are a few from the beginning of the day:
I love Kara's shoes, the calla lilies, and her dress. Kara also kept peaking out the window to watch Domingo setting up while her incredible sisters helped her get ready. I loved catching moments of the close relationship she has with them as the week went on.

As a gift to his future bride, Kara's great grandfather bought this bracelet from the Vatican. Passed down over the years, Kara's mom leant it to her to wear during the wedding. Amanda and Laura wore it in their weddings too.

Here are more from the wedding:

Domingo, Kara, Paula, Laura, Amanda, Ed & Ruth - thank you for inviting me into your lives for an entire week. (All of the rest of you too!) It was an ubelievable experience that I cherish. Thank you for letting me capture the moments from your day and I look forward to many more visits to Guatemala and Canada. (eh?)
If you are a member of the family, please visit here and for the online galleries.

Guatemala

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:56:38 -0600

This was an incredible week. It's hard to describe really. Meeting new people, having an instant connection and sharing amazing experiences and meals together for an entire week really made this special for me. So much so, it really made me forget all about the vacation I had taken the week before.

I flew into Guatemala City to spend the week touring the country with Domingo + Kara, plus her Canadian family. I knew we were going to see some stuff leading up to the wedding weekend, but I had no idea what.
It was an adventure, and I was along for the ride - camera in hand.

We started out Monday morning in Antigua, Guatemala.

If you're from Kansas City, picture the plaza, just hundreds of years older with incredible architecture, charming little shops where practically everything is hand made, and oh yeah, volcanoes in the distance. This happens every 15 days apparently, and we happened to be there on one of those days -

We visited a candle maker's shop to pick out a unity candle and anything else that we could use for the wedding:

I love this moment with Kara and her mom, and Andrew's face in the background

We spent a lot of time on this:

Kara + Domingo didn't seem to mind:

The first day we went zip-lining in Panajachel, right off Lake Atitlan which had 3 volcanoes behind it. Imagine flying over the tree line 50-100 feet up and looking down into a valley leading to a lake with volcanoes behind it. It's even more amazing than it sounds. The whole family came along, even Kara's 9 yr-old nephew Andrew who did amazing.

Day 2 began with Domingo loading our luggage on top of the bus

I gave our bus driver Juan my sun glasses because he was cool, and I sat up front with him a lot. "Tu & Yo, Juan" (You and Me) I would say pointing at the horizon and he would laugh as I pretended to have any idea where we were going. He didn't speak a lick of English, and got lost every day of the trip.

We visited a glass blowing shop and I got to shoot them in action -

After that, we hit the hot springs - naturally heated by the volcano.

We drove further north each day getting closer and closer to Nebaj, which is where Domingo is from, and where he and Kara first met.
On the way we stopped by a children's camp to show the family what Kara's dad had been helping with on missions trips, as well as cutting down some bamboo for wedding decorations.

You'll get to see what was done with the the bamboo in the wedding post.

Let me throw in some shots of Domingo + Kara now. I'd take them from time to time, place to place, but we also had an impromptu engagement session right there in the Mayan ruins.

I'm going to leave it at that for now. I'll show you all some wedding photos and maybe some set-up stuff too in the next one...

Guatemala: Mercado de Atesanias

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:38:57 -0600

The artist's market.
It's open each day of the week, but even bigger on Thursdays and Sundays.
I got to photograph it on a Thursday.
I'm going to let the images speak for themselves. Color, texture, character, beauty.

where to begin

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 11:22:18 -0600

I have no idea where to begin here.
I'm back in town after two incredible weeks, one that made the other look just silly.
My vacation in the southern caribbean was much overdue and great, but completely overshadowed by an unbelievable week in Guatemala.

There's simply too much to share for one blog post, so several will be coming.
I'm not even going to bother with talking about vacation although it was great to hang with some of my old Nashville friends on some really great islands. (and eat way too much)
I'll include a couple of shots though for those of you stuck in the cold KC weather:

Here is what's to come:
- zip-lining in Guatemala
- a glass blowing factory
- hot springs naturally heated by a volcano
- a Guatemalan market
- being adopted by an incredible Canadian family (practically)
- an unbelievably beautiful wedding with an epic mountain backdrop and over 500 Cala lilies

for now, a scene from Guatemala:

(that's a volcano in the background - one of the 6 we saw)