Diana & Michael’s Photo Shoot!
This pretty lady has been working with me for 17+ years and it was such a joy to shoot her and her significant other at The Alexander yesterday! (Michael quickly figured out that we pretty much read each other’s minds and finish each other’s sentences at this point! LOL) Thanks Di for always keeping me happy, hydrated, sane & on schedule…you rock!
Melissa Gallant’s Photo Shoot
Melissa is a fabulous harpist in Indy who needed some updated photos for her website, performance brochures, etc. so we did her photo shoot at The Alexander Hotel yesterday!
Spring Minis!
Who is ready for Spring MINIS?! I am! Mini sessions are perfect for quick, updated family photos, engagement pics, head shots, maternity, baby, children or pet photos! Due to our busy Spring wedding schedule, we won’t have a designated weekend for Spring minis this year so we’ve decided to book them on an individual basis, either before or after other shoots that are already on our calendar. This might work out better as it’ll give all of you more date & time options! 🙂 Email me to book your session!
Sparkler Photo Tips for Amazing Wedding Images!
Wedding season will be here before we know it so I thought I’d offer up some fun ideas and advice on how you can incorporate sparklers into your wedding to create some amazing images! Over the past several years, we’ve been bringing sparklers with us to most of our weddings and the resulting images have definitely turned out to be some of our favorites. We’ve photographed everything from sparkler exits to couples who have gotten their wedding party involved to spell out words like, “love” or their wedding date, to create a truly memorable image!
4 tips on how you and your photographer can get great photos with sparklers:
- Buy 3 minute sparklers and a wind resistant lighter ahead of time (They do make 5 minute sparklers but I’ve found that those create too much smoke)
- Check the sunset time for your wedding date
- Use a camera on a tripod with a wide angle lens
- Settings: Low ISO, long shutter speed, white balance on “shade” if you like a warmer toned look
We purchase the 3 minute sparklers from Sparklers Online and then bring them with us to most events now. You’ll want to check the sunset time online beforehand and look for the “end civil twilight” time which tells you at what point it’ll be totally dark outside and then plan to do them at that time or even later depending on the weather and the order of events. Once it’s dark outside, we take our couples out to the venue’s parking lot or open area (away from grass or anything that can catch on fire) and we teach them how to get the best sparkler photos before we actually light them. We always make sure that one of us has a bottle of water handy in case anything goes wrong and we always choose the darkest spot available in the nearby area to avoid ambient light showing up in the photos. (Sometimes a dark background isn’t possible in which case you’ll have to play with the exposures a bit more)
To get the best heart sparkler shots, the couple will need to stand as still as possible and remember to smile while they’re doing their sparkler action in 1 second or less. It’s much harder than it looks! Practice making each half of the heart by starting at the top and curving around to the bottom together. You’ll want to start and end at the same time so make sure you practice before the photographer hands you a lit sparkler.
There’s all kinds of fun things you can do with sparklers, there’s a shot going around on Pinterest where the couple is surrounded by sparklers and that’s become a very popular request. When we have a client who requests that shot, we usually take 2 groomsmen outside with us and have them run around the couple while the sparklers are lit, we advise them to go up and down with the sparklers while running but we ask that they try to avoid the sparklers being in front of the couple’s faces while they’re doing it. (Photographers, the settings for this particular photo are usually ISO 200, f/6.3 at 2.5-7 seconds – depending on ambient light, no flash & on the “shade” white balance setting.) I think sparklers make really neat end of night shots for our client’s albums and everyone loves the outcome of the photos!
Notes to your photographer: before going outside, put a wide angle lens on your camera (we usually use a 24mm) and then put your camera on a tripod and preset your camera settings beforehand. It’s much easier to do all of this preparation work while you’re still inside the venue than it is when you’re outside in the dark. The settings are a little bit of trial and error depending on the amount of side light or back light you may be working with in the evening. We tend to switch the white balance to “shade” since that adds more warmth to the photos, it’s a personal preference. Also, during sparkler exits, we usually incorporate a bit of flash or an off camera video light to capture the most ambient back light while still maintaining good exposure on their faces. 🙂
8 Reasons Why You Should Have Two (or 3) Photographers at Your Wedding
I realized very early in my career that one photographer just couldn’t possibly (adequately) cover everything that occurs on a wedding day! As a photographer, we’re always coordinating schedules with vendors, making sure everything on the couple’s checklist gets photographed, working within tight timelines at multiple locations, managing large groups of people and making sure that we’re not missing anything in between that. We include 2 photographers and an assistant (who also side-shoots) in all of our photography packages so that our brides get the most complete coverage of their wedding day. If you’re undecided on whether or not you’d like a 2nd photographer covering your wedding, here are some of the benefits to having multiple photographers and reasons why it’s worth it:
- One photographer can be in the dressing room photographing the girls getting ready while the other is photographing the guys getting ready. My husband and I divide and conquer a lot during the getting ready shots, he photographs and helps the guys while one of my other female side-shooters and I are with the ladies. Since we time sync our cameras, our couples are able to see what was happening simultaneously as they were both getting ready for their big day!
- If you decide to do a private moment (aka “first look”) you’ll have multiple perspectives captured! You’ll get to see the joy in your groom’s face when he first sees you and your reaction to seeing him at the exact same moment since one photographer will be focused on you and the other, on him. (See photos below) 🙂
- One of us will usually pose people for group shots while the other shoots the groups, making your formal photos go much faster. (The 3rd person in our team can also locate missing family members while we continue down our list, which also helps us run things more efficiently for our couples!)
- During the ceremony, all 3 of us split up to get various perspectives. One of us will be in the center aisle and the others will be on the sides or in the balcony. When we offer multiple perspectives, we also have different lenses on each camera so one of us is usually capturing wider angle shots, one of us focuses on mid-range shots and the other works on close-ups.
- We can also divide and conquer during time crunches, for example, if our timing is tight when we get to the reception, one of us can shoot room shots, décor, cake and details while the other one photographs cocktail hour or helps the bride bustle her dress & remove her veil before introductions.
- During toasts, one of us will be focused on the person giving the toast and the other will be focused on the bride & groom’s reactions. This is also helpful because a lot of times the person giving the speech may be in the front of the room and the couple may be on the other side of the room.
- We also print a folio of sample photos for our couples to take with them on their honeymoon so one of us works on printing pictures while the other one is covering the dance floor during open dancing.
- If you love pictures as much as we do, then you’ll love the fact that more photographers equals more photos! Most of our clients end up with anywhere from 1,500-2,500 photos after a typical wedding day. The testimonials, thank you cards and gifts that we receive afterwards show us just how thrilled our couples are when they have so many great photo options (from various angles) to choose from after their big day. Our #1 goal is to provide them with awesome photos that they’ll cherish for the rest of their lives and that’s not something most people want to skimp on when it comes to their once in a lifetime event! CONTACT us today to check availability of your wedding date!
