I recently had a client ask me how I ensure authenticity in my work and it was actually something I’ve never been asked before -- certainly nothing I really put concrete words to! A few weeks ago, I asked my Instagram tribe to give me three words they thought best described my photography and authenticity was one of the words that came up over and over again.
So I am showing authenticity but couldn’t put words to how exactly I do that. Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about that ever since she asked the question and I’ve come up with a few things I do. There are a lot of ways to capture authenticity but here are a few! 1. Pre-session questionnaire I am big on communicating with my couples a lot, especially during the booking stage of the game. I love hearing the story of how each couple began and how their love grew into an engagement. Storytelling is what drives me to be a wedding photographer so getting all the details helps me show who you are as a couple during the engagement session and the wedding day. 2. Do an engagement session! I recently wrote a blog post about why you should do an engagement session with your wedding photographer. I’ve noticed a huge difference with couples I’ve done an engagement session with and couples who I haven’t. There’s a stronger rapport and the couple usually trusts me more. They’re able to give me feedback on poses and images they really loved and want to recreate on the wedding day. I’m able to see how they interact with each other during the engagement session, a much more relaxed environment. 3. Try a variety of different poses and moods during the engagement session In that vein, during the engagement session, I like to do a variety of poses and moods to see what you like best. I’ll make you laugh, have you make each other laugh, and have you frolic happily through a field (just kidding -- sort of!) I’ll also create some quieter moments where it looks like I’m just peeking in on an intimate moment between the two of you. Most couples love the variety. But if I get the sense that being serious and intimate just isn’t your thing, I’ll focus more on the happy, joyful images (and vice versa!) 4. Ask for feedback on engagement photos I send all of my couples a pre-wedding questionnaire to help determine the timeline and family shot list, among many other things. This is where I ask for feedback on your engagement session and what’d you like to see more of on the wedding day! 5. Make ‘em laugh I know how nerve-wracking it can be to be in front of a big ol’ camera. I was not a photographer when I got engaged so I remember it very vividly! Even as a photographer, I still get nervous in front of the camera. One of the best ways I’ve found to loosen people up and get them to look like themselves is to make them laugh. Whatever I have to do to get those smiles flowing I will do. I have no problem being a little goofy if it means we’ll get some beautiful, authentic images in the end. Totally worth it in my book! I’d love to know: What are other ways I can make you more comfortable in front of the camera?
0 Comments
Engagement sessions seem to be the first thing people want to cut from their wedding photography budget. They wonder what on earth they’ll do with all those photos of them when the true photo-sharing event is on the horizon: their wedding. Or they have a a friend with a nice camera and think they'll just have them snap a few photos.
I absolutely LOVE engagement sessions with my brides so I thought I would share why and how doing an engagement session can actually help you have better wedding photos (it’s true!) First, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about what is an engagement session: Plain and simple, an engagement session is a photo shoot with you and your fiance in non-wedding clothes. A lot of couples choose to do their photos in a location that is representative of who they are. Go to the lake a lot? Let’s shoot at White Rock! Like to go for long walks? How about Arbor Hills Nature Preserve? Prefer a sleek city setting? How about downtown near the Dallas Museum of Art. Here’s why I love engagement sessions (and you will, too!): 1. You can use the photos for your save-the-date and/or decor at your wedding reception. I love when couples display a few framed images on their gift table or use their images in their guest book. And trust me, guests LOVE to look at your engagement photos. 2. It’s a relationship-builder with your photographer. Whenever I talk to brides, I tell them I notice a huge difference in the quality of the relationship and images of a couple who I’ve done an engagement session with versus a couple I might’ve only met in person once for an hour at a coffee shop. By the wedding, you’ve been in front of the camera and know how much guidance/direction you need from me. You know what angles/poses you like and we can recreate them on your wedding day. We also know what didn’t work for you and avoid those. We also have time to talk to each other and learn about each other. 3. It’s a great time to do a hair and makeup trial before the wedding - especially if you’re not doing a bridal session before the wedding (can I get a haaaaay from all my Southern girls?!) 4. It's a really sweet season to document and celebrate. Being engaged is something that only happens once and the season often flies by. It’s a short time between dating and marriage, that deserves to be documented and commemorated. The engagement photos I did with my wedding photographer are still some of my favorite of us. So I'd love to know: What do you think about engagement sessions? Do you want to do one? We all know there is a wealth (er, overabundance) of wedding-planning information out there for brides on sites like The Knot, Style Me Pretty, Wedding Wire, Martha Stewart, Brides … the list goes on and on. If you’ve been a bride for more than five minutes, you know how overwhelming it can be to sift through all the information about how to find the perfect vendors to fit the vision for your big day.
This next statement is going to sound biased but I don’t mean it to: Your wedding photographer is perhaps one of the most important vendors you will hire for your wedding. Think about: You spend more time with your photographer than you do with your husband on your wedding day (crazy, right?!) and your photos are the only thing you take with you after the cake is eaten, the flowers have wilted, and your gown has been cleaned and preserved. Your wedding photos are forever. I’ve heard horror stories of brides who have hired less-than-professional photographers and completely regretted it years later. I don’t want you to be one of them! So in addition to loving your photographer’s work and trusting their business acumen, here are a few things I wish brides would ask photographers to get a better idea of who they’re hiring:
I've found that while the questions you should ask your photographer lists on Pinterest and The Knot can be helpful, usually the average bride doesn't understand the difference between Canon and Nikon, or off-camera flash vs. natural light. But I'd love to hear from you! What else do you want to know about your wedding photographer? Before I got married, people would often talk about how easy it was to become like roommates with your spouse rather than partners, passing each other like ships in the night. On an intellectual level, I believed them but since I wasn't married yet, I had no idea how easy it was to fall into that trap.
When two young busy people join their lives, it can be really easy to keep your separate schedules because you'll just see your husband/wife when you get home, right? Or you're both exhausted from a long day of work so you plop on the couch and eat your dinners while mindlessly binging on the newest Netflix series. Don't get me wrong: loving the same shows has been such a fun thing in our marriage but we have to be careful not to get to caught up in it. I'm not even sure how we started this (pretty sure it was Travis's idea) but when we get home from work, we try to sit on the couch for as little or as much time as we need to touch base and process events that happened throughout the day. We do talk throughout the day but it's usually short, utilitarian conversations ("Can you stop and get bread?" "Did you pay the electric bill?") Sitting on the couch gives us the opportunity to take a deep breath and re-acquaint with each other. Is it a huge time commitment? Nope. Does it take a lot of effort? Sometimes. There are so many things constantly pulling for our attention but we make an effort to shut out the noise, even if it's just for five minutes, to reconnect. Now that I work from home, it's even more important for me to draw the boundary line of when I close the door on the home office and transition out of worker bee mode. Our daily "couch time" is a lot like my relationship with coffee -- I don't necessarily feel a zillion times better each and every time (though sometimes I do!) but if I go without it too long, I feel the withdrawal. Do you and your spouse have daily touch points? I'd love to challenge you to try some couch time! It doesn't have to be anything monumental. Just a brief period of time with no phones and focusing on each other. Let me know how it goes! I'm sure you wouldn't be surprised to learn that when I was younger, I was always the girl with the camera. My friends and I would arrange photo shoots in our backyards and shoot rolls and rolls of film (cuz no one had a digital camera at that time besides the pros!) I loved dropping off the film to be developed and picking up the thick white envelopes full of prints and negatives. It was so fun to relive whatever memories the film had captured just a few days before. You know what I'm talking about -- someone blinked with a crazy look on their face or you captured the perfect mid-air jump on the trampoline. I still have so many of those photos (organized by year with written descriptions and ages of everyone in the photo OBVIOUSLY) in my home office. I've said it once, I'll say it a million times: there is nothing like flipping through those tangible stories of my childhood. You can imagine my excitement when I found out a few years ago that a lot of the photographers I followed and admired had started using film in their business. And y'all, it has come a long way from one-hour developing at CVS. Film has a lot of benefits but many brides have no idea why someone would choose to shoot film over digital -- and sometimes, they have no idea what film is! (For reference, it's not video. It's the stuff we all used to put in our cameras before digital cameras burst on the scene in the early 2000s). Some brides get concerned when they hear their wedding photographer is going to shoot film at their wedding -- and I get it! We can't see the back of our camera and there's a lot that can happen to damage a roll of film. But if you're hiring a pro (and you should!), they will have safeguards in place to make sure that even if the worst happens, you have every aspect of your wedding documented beautifully. NOTE: I do not shoot everything on film on a wedding day. I utilize digital all the time for numerous reasons (lighting, time constraints, etc.) but I always have digital backups of anything I shoot on film. Either I take the backup or I have my second shooter do it while I shoot film. Just thought I'd throw that out there so we're all on the same page. Without further ado, here are some reasons why I personally love incorporating film into my work: Film is timeless Ever seen wedding photos of someone who got married in 2009? I bet the editing style is pretty different from what's popular today. Of course it's difficult to plan a wedding that won't look dated on some level but I would hate to look back in 10 years and have very dark, moody, and muddy images that are so 2017, ya know? Film has a timeless look. That's why your parents wedding photos (aside from the hideous bridesmaids dresses) still look like they could've been taken today. No weird editing filters. Film captures most detail better than digital What do I mean by this? Well, I'm going to try not to get overly technical here but basically on super bright days, if there's a lot of light behind you, because of the way the digital sensor works, the background will look almost white. The background is blown out. With film, because it is so hungry for light, I'm able to capture the couple and also all the pretty detail in the background. In the photo below, it would have been really hard to retain all the details in the clouds and ocean had I been shooting digital. But because of how film works, I was able to capture all of the texture. Film also make skin tones look really pretty. Skin looks smooth and has a realistic color tone. With digital cameras, sometimes it can take a lot of editing to make uneven skin look even and like the right color. Digital sensors are more sensitive so skin tones are more likely to have colors casted from the environment (i.e., bright green grass can make your skin appear green). Film has made me a better artist
Because each roll of film has a limited number of shots, it forces me to slow down and really think about what I'm shooting instead of just clicking the shutter rapidly. It helps me make sure your hair looks perfect and your husband's tie is straight because I don't want to have to reshoot it. Film is expensive so I think very carefully each time I compose an image. Film has helped me see light differently (and better!) and I truly believe it's what has elevated my work over the past two years. I believe shooting film is one of the best ways I can serve my clients and provide them with beautiful romantic and timeless images. My clients tell me all the time that although they weren't sure about film at first, they absolutely love the look of their images on film! It's hard for me to believe that four years ago at this time, I was planning my own wedding. The experience was not exactly what I pictured or what wedding magazines make it out to be. Can we be honest for a second? Planning a wedding is hard. Most people I've talked to have not had the picture-perfect Pinterest planning experience but it seems like no one wants to talk about it. Well, today we're going to get real about wedding planning.
Am I doing something wrong if wedding planning is more difficult and stressful than it is joyful? Oh sweet girl, no no no. Even the most kind and gracious individuals have been thrown for loops when they start planning a huge event like a wedding. Why? Because people get involved. Truth: Everyone wants to know how this event is going to be significant for them. Our pastor told us that little nugget of wisdom while we were experiencing some turmoil and it really helped us frame how we interacted with friends and family members. Weddings are a big deal which is why people tend to get emotional about it. Reassure your loved ones that they are important and their presence on your day matters. Involve them in some decision-making so they feel included. Thank them for their time and support of your future marriage. Truth: Think about how you want to remember yourself during this season a year or two from now. Can I be honest? There were moments when I wanted to lash out and scream at the top of my lungs. Was a wedding really worth the stress? At the end of the day, we wanted to be married and certainly that could happen is we just eloped ... Yep, go ahead and throw out the "e" word. It'll make you feel better. If that doesn't help, go for a run, take a bath, or have a vent session with an impartial friend. Find a way to release your stress that does not include screaming matches or slammed doors. While I was engaged, I took a long walk with a dear coworker/friend of mine one day, and she told me about a friend of hers who recently posted on Facebook about regretting how horribly she had treated everyone on her wedding day instead of enjoying the fact that people took time and money to share in their celebration. She regretted it so much she wrote about it on social media on her one year anniversary. Oof. It made me realize I didn't want to look back and have those same feelings. I wanted to look back and see someone who rolled with the punches, who was gracious and kind, despite the circumstances, and who's focus was on marrying their best friend -- not ripped bridesmaids dresses or limp flowers. Four years later, I can tell you those little things do not matter, even though we had some big things go wrong on our wedding day (a story for another time). What matters is the marriage covenant you're creating with your husband in the presence of the people who love you most in the world. If you're feeling stressed out or just plain want to cry, I want you to know I hear you and I feel you. I remember being where you are. I wish I could take you out to coffee (or let's be serious, WINE), hug you fiercely, and tell you it will all be OK. Because honestly, the moment you say "I do," it'll all melt away and the wedding plans won't matter anymore. Your marriage will. Natural light has become quite a buzzword in the photography world the past few years. We as photographers understand what it means but it can be confusing to clients or people who aren't in the photography world. I've had many conversations with wedding professionals and potential brides alike about all of the misconceptions surrounding natural light photography, and I thought it would be a good time to dispel some of the myths. First, let's talk about what natural light photography is and what types of images it produces. Natural light photography means using available light (i.e., the sun) to create an image without the use of additional lighting sources (i.e., flash). You know what creates all those gorgeous, glowing engagement photos you see in your Instagram feed? Natural light. Or what creates light and airy bridal portraits? Natural light. Sure, you can use external lighting to create it but it's not quite the same as the golden hour sunset. As always, I want to give a disclaimer that all of this information is simply related to my style of photography. There are many photographers I admire who are not natural light photographers and that is OK! It works for them. Natural light and learning to manipulate it to create beautiful images is how I've developed my style and since there are many misconceptions, I want to educate brides about what it means for their wedding day. Misconception #1: Natural light photographers will only shoot your wedding if you do a first look. Truth: In a word, no. In a few words, no no no. Someone told me this one time and it blew my mind. Do I love first looks? Of course. Can I still give you beautiful portraits if you choose not to do a first look? YES! If I have a couple who doesn't want to do a first look, I work with them on their ceremony timing to make sure we have enough available natural light after the ceremony to create those beautiful, romantic images they hired me to create. In the photo above, Brooke and Ben did not want to do a first look so we did their portraits after the ceremony and look how gorgeous they are. Misconception #2: Natural light photographers can't photograph a reception because it'll be dark. Truth: Before I answer this (because it's a little sticky), please ask a photographer to see a full wedding gallery before you hire them so you can see what their reception photos look like. Most natural light photographers know how to use their flash enough to photograph your reception but there are a few (likely less experienced) photographers who dub themselves natural light because they do not know how to use their flash. This is a very rare case but it happens. Like I said, look at a photographer's work -- their blog, their portfolio, and their online wedding galleries -- to make sure this doesn't happen. The majority of the time, we work hard to make sure we know our flash and can create beautiful reception photos of your cake and your first dance without making it look like a bad family portrait from the 90s. In the photo above at Megan and Brandon's wedding, I wanted to preserve the romanticism and emotion of the morning so I set my flash power low so as not to create harsh shadows or a flat image. I think it worked pretty well, don't you? Misconception #3: Natural light photographers don't know how to use flash or work in dark lighting situations.
Truth: This is sort of related to misconception #2 but I want to expand on using flash in other wedding day situations. Sometimes bridal suites or hotels are really dark. Sometimes churches are really dark and there is not enough available light to photograph without a flash. In those situations, I will put my flash on my camera and again, dial down the power to create soft images that mimic natural light and don't look like bad 90s portraits. Is it my favorite thing to do? No. But I've learned enough over the past few years to know that when it's a complicated lighting situation, flash can save me hours of work in post-processing. Jasmine and David's New Year's Eve wedding started after the sun set and to make matters more challenging, the chapel was really small and dark. This image was taken with flash but still looks like there was plenty of light flooding in. So rest assured that if you don't want to do a first look, your wedding photographer can work with that and will also be able to give you beautiful reception images. Natural light photographers prefer to use sunlight as a light source to create beautiful images but that doesn't mean they need the sun. Be sure to check out their wedding galleries if you have any doubts and don't be afraid to ask questions! Are there other misconceptions about natural light that you'd like to know about? Let me know in the comments! I can't think of many pieces of information regarding your wedding day more important than the timeline of the day. It is crucial to keep the events of the day moving and to make sure everything you want documented is documented. How does one create the timeline? Most photographers have a questionnaire they will send you before the wedding so you can fill out information that will help them create it. Are you doing a first look? Do you have huge families? Small wedding parties? Are the ceremony and reception in the same place? How long will your ceremony last? All of these details are things we need to know ahead of time. Once we receive your responses, we will take the information and figure out how much time to allot for everything. Below I'm sharing two sample timelines, one with a first look and one without a first look. But before I do that, I want to give a general idea of how long it takes to complete all the photos of family, wedding party, and you and your groom. This is one of the biggest misconceptions I see with brides planning their wedding! 1. Family photos I like to do family photos immediately following the ceremony because this is the largest group of people you'll have waiting around. And the more people you have hanging around, the more chaotic things will become. So we start with the largest group first (i.e., extended family) and move to smaller groups (you and mom, you and dad, etc.) Because family portraits are fairly straight forward and traditional, I typically budget 20-25 minutes. I recommend including your immediate family and grandparents in this section. If you have a favorite aunt, by all means, include her. Otherwise, extended family (cousins, great uncles, etc.) can be photographed at the reception. TIP: Make sure you communicate clearly to your family members that they are to stay after the ceremony for photos (or come before the ceremony!) So often we are chasing down family members who have already gone to the reception because they didn't know they needed to stay. 2. Wedding party In most cases, I try to take photos of the bride and her bridesmaids and the groom and his groomsmen before the ceremony so all we have left to do are some shots of the full wedding party. If you are doing a first look, we will likely knock all of these out before the ceremony. If there isn't time to do wedding party photos before the ceremony, we will do them after all the family members have left for the reception. Overall, depending on the size of the wedding party, these photos can take 10-30 minutes. TIP: Most photographers will take photos of you and each individual bridesmaid (or the groom and his individual groomsmen) so you likely don't need to list that on your questionnaire. You can always ask your photographer about this to make sure they do it and they know it's important to you! 3. Bride and groom These are, without a doubt, the most important images from the day. They're the ones you will print and hang on the walls of your first home. They're the ones you'll put in your heirloom wedding album. They're the ones your children and your grandchildren will want to see some day. Unfortunately, when couples don't do a first look and have been smiling for photos for almost an hour at this point, they want to take a few and head to the reception. And I get it! Your guests are here to see you and celebrate with you, and you want to spend time with them. But you might regret not allowing for enough time for photos of the two of you. The more time you give your photographer, the more creative we can be. When we have 10 minutes and we're rushed, we can certainly deliver you a good product. But if we have time to walk around your venue, we can find different spots and try different things. On the other hand, if you don't feel like you're getting enough photos or like your photographer is (gulp!) rushing you, please say something! You have paid a lot of money and you deserve to be happy with your experience and your product. TIP: Can you guess? Do a first look! This will give you time before the ceremony for a lot of photos and it will likely you give you time after the ceremony for some dreamy, glowy golden hour photos. Sample timeline with first look:
2 p.m. Getting ready photos 3 p.m. First look 3:45 p.m. Bride & bridesmaid photos 4 p.m. Groom & groomsmen photos 4:15 p.m. Full wedding party photos 4:30 p.m. Tuck away before ceremony 5 p.m. Ceremony 5:30 p.m. Recessional 5:40 p.m. Family photos 6:05 p.m. A few more bride & groom photos 6:15 p.m. PARTY TIME! Sample timeline without first look: 3 p.m. Getting ready photos 3:30 p.m. Bride & bridesmaid photos; family if available 4 p.m. Groom & groomsmen photos; family if available 4:30 p.m. Tuck away before ceremony 5 p.m. Ceremony 5:30 p.m. Recessional 5:40 p.m. Family photos 6:05 p.m. Wedding party photos 6:30 p.m. Bride & groom photos 7:15 p.m. PARTY TIME! I'd love to know what confuses you the most about planning your timeline! Are there other things I didn't cover that would be helpful for you? Tell me in the comments and I'll be sure to respond! If you haven't spent a lot of time in the professional photography world, you may not have heard the term "golden hour" but I'm guessing you know exactly what it is -- that hour right before sunset as the sun dips lower in the sky, softening it's blaze and bathing everything in a warm glow. Not only does it make everything seem alive and well, golden, it's actually the perfect time for a photo session.
A lot of people ask me what the best time of day is to take photos. Some think noon is best (because the sun is brightest!) but noon is one of the worst times. The sun is so high in the sky, it makes everything seem flat (no dimension) and it casts really harsh shadows, especially under the eyes. It creates an editing nightmare for that reason! During golden hour, colors are more saturated and because the sun isn't as harsh, creates a soft depth and glow to images. Not only will hair glow but your skin will look luminous. Who doesn't want that?! So if you're planning an outdoor portrait shoot, the best time to start is 60-90 minutes before sunset. If you're planning your wedding, there are more factors to take into consideration (to do a first look, ceremony length and location, etc.) but generally, you want to make sure you have at least 30 minutes before the sun sets to do portraits of you and your groom. If you have questions about golden hour or portrait sessions, please drop me a line in the comments below! Perhaps one of the most heavily debated and emotional discussions of my job is talking with my couples about whether to do a first look. Many people are worried that seeing each other before the ceremony will take away from the joy and excitement of walking down the aisle to your soon-to-be spouse. Some like the tradition of it. If I may, I'd like to share some pros of doing a first look before the ceremony with the caveat that if you are one of my clients (or you want to be one of my clients!), I am absolutely happy to work with you and not do a first look. It is honestly everyone's personal preference, and I would never push anyone to do something they don't want to do. So, with that being said, here are some really good reasons to do a first look. 1. You will be less stressed during your portraits and therefore will be happier with your photos when you receive them. Wedding days go by so fast and one refrain I hear over and over again is that it is important to all couples to spend time with the guests who came to celebrate such a momentous occasion with them. By time family and wedding party photos are over, it's time for the bride and groom photos, and I can tell you that nine times out of 10, they are just ready to get to the reception and party. If they've kept their guests waiting, they feel bad about spending more time away from them -- and it tends to show in photographs. With a first look, there's typically only a handful of photos to take after the ceremony so you are able to get to the reception faster and party longer. Who doesn't want that?! 2. You'll be able to spend more time at your reception with your guests (see above). Because the bulk of your photos will be done before the ceremony, you'll only need 15-20 minutes after to wrap up anything we weren't able to get to. If you don't do a first look, you can count on at least an hour to an hour and a half for portraits after the ceremony. 3. Doing a first look in NO WAY takes away from the excitement and joy of walking down the aisle toward your husband.
Time to get personal: my husband and I did a first look before our ceremony. I was skeptical at first but I am SO glad we did! For all of the aforementioned reasons of course, but also, it was so wonderful to be able to see each other before and really just enjoy the moment. We were able to express how good we thought each other looked and talk a little bit about everything that had happened so far that day. If the first time he saw me was during the ceremony, I don't know that I would've been able to tell him how good he looked -- and vice versa! We had a few minutes to ourselves and our photographer was able to document the pure emotion of the moment. Those photos are some of my absolute favorite from our wedding day. So I'd love to know -- did you do a first look? Would you do a first look? Tell me why or why not in the comments! |
About meI'm Chelsea - a photographer, writer, adventurer, traveler, wife, Christ follower and mama to the most adorable rescue pup. I'm passionate about telling authentic stories with meaning and purpose and spreading joy through photographs. Grab a cup of coffee and stay awhile. Categories
All
|