Colin & Elizabeth's Wedding
Colin and Elizabeth got in contact with me last year regarding their wedding this past May. Booking me early is pretty important because shooting days can fill up pretty quickly. Weekends especially are in demand. So they made a great choice to lock down their wedding photography as quickly as they could. I was really looking forward to their wedding and was excited when the day came up!
I was the only photographer on site (and no videographer was was hired) so everything fell on me to make sure I had complete coverage of everything that went on during the event. It can be a lot of pressure to be the sole person handling the documenting of a wedding, but I enjoy the pressure! It really brings out my “A” game. So for this wedding I made sure to have my cameras ready to go. Both my main shooters have 2 card slots so that the 2 files are produced with every shot. This redundancy is critical if a memory card fails or becomes corrupted at the end of the day - at least there would be the other card to rely on. I always shoot with dual memory cards per camera as I am so afraid of any information loss!
I was ready to go right when I go out of my car. I ran into the flower girl as she was waiting with the bridal party. This actually was my favorite shot from the entire day. I love her smile and big, bright eyes. Her joy I feel is captured so well in this frame. If I wasn’t ready with my cameras ready to go, I would have missed this shot. It’s times like this that remind me to be ready at all times. Things happen in a split second and any little thing can cause you to miss a shot. I try to minimize this as much as I can.
The entire wedding - ceremony, reception, and dinner - took place at the same location. It was a beautiful location in Sutter Creek. Thankfully, the weather was gorgeous. The only thing I had to worry about was making sure that I took the photos at a good angle as to not have shadows or highlights getting in the way too much. Many of the photos had to be adjusted for the lighting in post though. It was freeing shooting with my Sony cameras knowing that they have a ton of dynamic range to work with so I could recover anything blown out or too dark in shadow.
Capturing the emotions and the expressions of the bride, groom, and guests is the most important thing to me. A bad look from the subject of the photo will ruin the entire thing. I’m constantly snapping away and taking burst shots so that I have multiple frames to select from. More shots means a better chance of getting just the right moment and having the ability to pick the best photo from a nice burst selection. Since everything is digital now, I am free of feeling like I am wasting film by shooting multiple frames. So I guess my advice is: Never feel bad about shooting high speed! It’s for a purpose!
I always try to shoot with the shallowest depth of field as possible. The isolation that some of my lenses give me is incredible. My main bread and butter lens is the Sony G-Master 70-200 2.8. It has a great reach, and the longer I shoot it, the more compression I get in my image. It’s just a look that I really love. That particular lens is also very sharp. It’s a MUST HAVE lens if you are doing any sort of event shooting. I couldn’t imagine myself with out it!
It’s so sweet to see all the love and emotion at a wedding. And it’s an honor to be the one out there trying to put it in a still image. I really appreciate Colin and Elizabeth putting their trust in me to get the job done right.
Tying the knot is something at you (hopefully) only do once. The event needs to be captured in the best way possible. And I really believe you get what you pay for when it comes to photography. Make sure you do your due diligence when looking for a wedding photographer… or just go with me!
I had an amazing time at Colin and Elizabeth’s wedding. I wish them the absolute best going forward. As for me, I can’t wait for the next wedding to capture via photographs or in video!