*It doesn’t really involve drinking cocktails!
My approach to your wedding.
I’m guessing that many of you won’t have booked a wedding photographer before, or if you have, chances are it wasn’t me!
When I’m talking with people about their wedding photography, it often turns out that a lot of people aren’t too sure of what to expect from the photographer.
Now I can only speak for myself here, so don’t chase me if:
A. you haven’t booked me and your photographer doesn’t go about things in the same kind of way or
B. if you have had experiences of photographers before and they don’t roll my way either!
Also I’m not saying this is how it should be done….I’m just saying, this is how I do it.
For those of you that already booked me hopefully I’m not telling you anything that comes as a massive surprise. If you haven’t booked me, maybe you will like the sound of things and give me a shout, equally, if you don’t like the sound of how I ‘work’, if nothing else I have given you an insight into what you don’t want and you will find the right photographer for you.
Wedding gear!
The week before your wedding is where it all starts, I check all of my equipment, clean my lenses, check my memory cards (there’s a lot of these), charge all of the batteries (there’s a lot of these too, some for my cameras and some for the flashes which I may need when you are dancing or if we lose the light), check the belt I hang my cameras from still fits (one too many biscuits or pies and it may need adjusting!) and I also write down all the postcodes of places I need to be at during the day. I now also go old school and write directions down, (this comes from an almost sticky experience of following my sat-nav down a dirt track, ending up in the middle of nowhere with no mobile signal, half an hour before a wedding!) to go along with my car and phone sat-navs.
The night before I check I’ve got a stash of food ready for the following day (no-one wants a hungry Rosie! Whilst I’m mentioning food, I never expect any of you to feed me but if you do, I am always very grateful) and that the clothes I’m wearing are ironed. (Generally a checked shirt, black skinnies and the comfiest shoes in the world) This is also when I avoid any dodgy take aways or food that hasn’t been cooked by a trusted source! Then I make a note of any group photos that we have spoken about and agreed on. (This note then goes into the pocket of the earlier mentioned skinnies.) Lastly I make sure I have contact details for you written down and stored in my phone.
On the day, if I haven’t already been to look around your venue (I look at all venues on Google first anyway), I make sure I arrive at your venue with plenty of time to have a spy around. I like to use places for photos that aren’t always obvious, looking around beforehand gives me chance to find these places, resulting in some photos for you, that are a bit different.
Wedding photographer or friend?
Then the taking photos bit actually starts, this might be of your venue as I’m looking round, of you starting to get ready, or of the arrival of your guests. For the actual photos bit I tend to move around whatever is happening. A lot of people say sorry to me for getting in my way, but this really isn’t something I’ve got a problem with. If I need to get a photo then I can move myself to get it.
I’m pretty quiet during this time too (in fact I mostly am pretty quiet) letting you get on with your day, rather than interrupting it in any way. That’s not to say I will ignore you or your guests (I’ve sorted buttonholes, entertained children, fetched drinks/bags, taken stickers off shoes….) in fact I’ve had guests wonder if I am friends with or know the couple I’m working with purely from how well I get on with people.
Group photos.
When I’m doing the photos bit I’m best off in the background, this allows things to flow naturally and I can then get nice natural photos.
If you have asked for any specific group photos, especially a whole group one of everyone who has come to the ceremony, I like to get this done first. It makes sense to do it straight after the ceremony before anyone wanders off! Once that’s done we can then do any other group photos you want. (We will have spoken about these beforehand, but I say to people to try and have just five or six. This way it minimises time on the day taking them.) It is a massive help if someone can help ’round up’ any guests involved in these group photos, again this speeds it all up, leaving more time for enjoying the wedding.
When it comes to group photos I don’t get hung up on guests having to stand on a particular side, I keep things quite informal so guests feel relaxed.
Alone time.
If you want some photos with your new husband or wife this is then a good chance to have what I call ‘alone time’. This is basically where the three of us go off for a short time to have some photos in the places I spied earlier. Again, this is all very relaxed, I won’t direct you to do something that you wouldn’t normally. (This would show in your photos, I want you to have photos that you will put on your wall, not look at and think ‘oh that’s when Rosie made us do that thing that made us feel uncomfortable!’)
Ninja mode – the hands off approach to wedding photography.
Then it’s back to your guests (who were probably enjoying some nibbles and drinks whilst we were gone, so don’t think they will have missed you too much!) this is when I go into full on ninja mode and get great natural pictures of people relaxing, mostly without them ever knowing!
This can also be a good time to grab me for any spur of the moment photos you may want. Just ask me! Chances are I will have got lot’s of you with people when I was in ninja mode, but still ask me!
When you eat, this is when I will leave you alone. Pictures of people eating food will never be good and it also gives me chance to refresh.
Then ninja mode engages again and it’s photos, photos and more photos. If the sun is going down and goes that awesome orange colour, I may suggest popping outside for five, but apart from this I will again be taking photos as things happen.
I guess I take the ‘hands off’ kind of approach, as my thing is to get the best photos I can for you and I believe this is done by making people feel relaxed.
Before I leave I will come and check with you both that there wasn’t anything else you had suddenly thought of that you wanted. Then off I trot…..
Straight after your wedding I back up all of your photos onto two external hard drives and onto my computer hard drive. At any one point I can have up to five copies of your photos backed up safely in different places.
What happens after the photos are taken?!
Next day in most cases I put up a little preview of your photos on Facebook (feel free to tag and share)
My current turn around time for getting all your photos to you is a 6 weeks.
Some of your wedding photos will then make an appearance here, on my website blog for you to re-live all over again!
Seems a lot of words for someone who basically hangs in the background with two cameras and lets your day do it’s thing!