Eric & Marin
Eric and Marin in Montecito, California. Just under seven minutes of their day. Sound on.
The sun between them.
Eric and Marin were married in Montecito, California. The frame we lead with is the one that held: the two of them nose to nose, the sun flaring directly between their faces, his rust brown suit warm against a warm sky. Montecito faces south along this stretch of coast, so late light arrives from the side rather than from behind, which is what puts the sun between two faces instead of behind them.
There is no venue name at the top of this page because the day did not need one. Montecito is the location and, more to the point, the reason the film looks the way it does. What follows is what we know about filming here.
Notes on filming in Montecito.
Montecito sits on a narrow coastal plain between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific, and this stretch of coast faces south, the longest south-facing section on the West Coast outside Alaska. That governs the light. The sun tracks across the water rather than dropping behind it, so late light arrives from the side and stays usable longer than on a west-facing beach. Mornings can sit under marine layer off the channel, flat and gray until it clears. The oak canopy the name refers to throws hard dappled shade at midday: expose for skin and let the ground go. And sundowners, the dry northerly wind that runs down the southern slopes near sunset, tends to land at portrait hour. That is an audio problem before it is a picture problem.