casual look
Originally uploaded by laurie416.
If you’re looking on the left hand side of the page and thinking – hey, Laurie and Jonathan have been married for three months today – why are they taking wedding pictures today?! Let me take a second and explain. We had a great photographer on our wedding day who took a lot of good photos and captured the event on that day. But looking back, we didn’t get tons of photos we loved from our wedding day and we also didn’t get the rights to our photos to do as we pleased with them. We also just wanted some “artsy photos” or as we’ve now described them, “fun photos.” So we figured, “We have a good camera. We still have your dress. You probably won’t wear it again. Let’s get some good use out of it and our camera and go rent my tux again and take some photos we really want.”
We took our friend Jen along (maid of honor) and she snapped away in Las Colinas (Irving), Texas.
We had a great day and by the end of the day we had nearly 150 photos we were really happy with – and can get copied, blown up and printed wherever we want. Awesome!
So just a few thoughts for those of you thinking about marriage and getting a photographer:
- Find someone who’s work you really enjoy
- Talk with your photographer and show her examples of what you’re looking for
- Make a list of specific photos you want and/or don’t care about
- Get the rights to your photos – after all you’re paying for the work to be done. A plumber doesn’t come back to your house and say, “I know you paid me to install your toilet – but I own it and will do what i please with it and you’ll have to pay me again if you want to use it.” (am I being to picky on this point?)
Or – if you want get a tripod and remote for your digital camera or a friend you can trust and go out and snap your own. Here are some things we found helpful:
- Be willing to take your own if necessary (we lucked out and didn’t have to)
- Be willing to have fun
- Find what you like, print it out, talk about it and compare. You can find loads of good ideas on Flickrby just searching for wedding or other wedding related terms
- Find a great location where you’re not having to do loads of walking or lots of getting in and out of your car
- Snap LOTS of photos. Especially if you have a digital camera – you can delete what you want or just don’t print the ones you dislike. Some of our favorite photos were candid shots in between the “posed” ones.
- Read some online hints on what makes a good photo
- Spend a little time with iPhoto or Photoshop to edit lighting or to crop photos before sending them to the printer
- Have fun!
