Sarah and Stephen

WingsOfLovePhoto

Meet Sarah and Stephen...high school sweethearts who got married this weekend. He is in medical school and she is a teacher. I was not their photographer, but a guest at the wedding. Here are a few shots of them if you would be so kind to critique. Unfortunately I was at the mercy of the "real" photographer and couldn't use any flash so these are all exisiting light or the benefit of her flash. It was interesting to see how other's work a wedding. She used on camera flash with some kind of rigged up bounce card.... nothing like I am learning here! I really wished this was my wedding to do...it was the perfect fairy tale! (except for the groom who was playing football with his brothers the day before the wedding and scratched his cornea thus his left eye was swollen almost shut! )

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WingsOfLovePhoto

Almost 100 views and no comments? Are they horrible? Does that mean I should stick to kids??

Qarik

lovely shots...very well framed and clean!

schmoo

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

Almost 100 views and no comments? Are they horrible? Does that mean I should stick to kids??

Dgrin's a really busy place, so it's easy for threads to get missed. Don't take it personally!

Also, a lot of people look at our stuff here as unregistered visitors. View counts are tallied for them, but they can't post.

I think #5 is my favorite. Nice clean BG and subtle framing at the top with the leaves. Looks like it was a gorgeous, romantic wedding!

heatherfeather

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

I was not their photographer, but a guest at the wedding. Unfortunately I was at the mercy of the "real" photographer

Beautiful stuff! I especially love #3 and #4...


I am curious how the other photographer felt about you tagging along even without flash. That would have been hard for me, I know.

I always have folks with the Rebels tagging along, but I am assuming you have and carry much more than that.

WingsOfLovePhoto

heatherfeather wrote:

Beautiful stuff! I especially love #3 and #4...


I am curious how the other photographer felt about you tagging along even without flash. That would have been hard for me, I know.

I always have folks with the Rebels tagging along, but I am assuming you have and carry much more than that.

Thanks Heather....coming from you that"s a huge compliment! This was the daughters wedding of a really good friend of mine. She chose the other photographer as to not ruin our friendship if anything went wrong but she still wanted me to take pictures. The photographer knew that ahead of time. Her package had been paid in full (over 4K...way more than me and she didn't rely on post wedding sales. I made sure of all this before I agreed to take any pictures. I met her outside after the church ceremony. She approached me because I have a D3 and had the 70-200 on it in the church and figured I was professional. She made a comment that she was glad she also used a D3 or she would feel inferior! The whole time I made sure I stayed out of her way, I shot from a distance and to the side. My crops are all pretty strange as I was cropping her and her assistant(but she didn't have a 2nd shooter) out often. I don't think they will be as sharp as hers either because I was quite a distance and cropping in. I told her to kick me if I was to ever get in her way...... I really didn't want to do anything to make her mad! I think we ended the night on a good note. The bride, groom and family were happy that I could post pictures right away and that hey didn't need to wait for 4-6weeks for the others. Do you think you would have been agitated in this case?

heatherfeather

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

Thanks Heather....coming from you that"s a huge compliment! This was the daughters wedding of a really good friend of mine. She chose the other photographer as to not ruin our friendship if anything went wrong but she still wanted me to take pictures. The photographer knew that ahead of time. Her package had been paid in full (over 4K...way more than me and she didn't rely on post wedding sales. I made sure of all this before I agreed to take any pictures. I met her outside after the church ceremony. She approached me because I have a D3 and had the 70-200 on it in the church and figured I was professional. She made a comment that she was glad she also used a D3 or she would feel inferior! The whole time I made sure I stayed out of her way, I shot from a distance and to the side. My crops are all pretty strange as I was cropping her and her assistant(but she didn't have a 2nd shooter) out often. I don't think they will be as sharp as hers either because I was quite a distance and cropping in. I told her to kick me if I was to ever get in her way...... I really didn't want to do anything to make her mad! I think we ended the night on a good note. The bride, groom and family were happy that I could post pictures right away and that hey didn't need to wait for 4-6weeks for the others. Do you think you would have been agitated in this case?

Not at all. I would have enjoyed working with you if we had a prior agreement. But it is intimidating to think you might be out gunned. (Especially with your stuff, it is always so good.)

The only time I have ever had to speak to another photographer at a wedding I had booked was this last weekend. The officient had given me some very specific rules... my feet and my assistants feet could not move during the cerimony. We could not bend or anything. There was a family friend with a SLR that was jumping around all over the place, and I was worried the officient would think that he was one of my seconds. And I also have a clause in my contract that my photographs will be limited by rules that the officient gives... I am not going to get as good of stuff if I am anchored to 1 spot. I just asked the other guy to stick to find a spot and stay there. It was totally fine.

WingsOfLovePhoto

heatherfeather wrote:

Not at all. I would have enjoyed working with you if we had a prior agreement. But it is intimidating to think you might be out gunned. (Especially with your stuff, it is always so good.)

The only time I have ever had to speak to another photographer at a wedding I had booked was this last weekend. The officient had given me some very specific rules... my feet and my assistants feet could not move during the cerimony. We could not bend or anything. There was a family friend with a SLR that was jumping around all over the place, and I was worried the officient would think that he was one of my seconds. And I also have a clause in my contract that my photographs will be limited by rules that the officient gives... I am not going to get as good of stuff if I am anchored to 1 spot. I just asked the other guy to stick to find a spot and stay there. It was totally fine.

God that must have been hard! To photograph a whole ceremony from one spot? I would have brought like 4 people with me I did a wedding last year where the Priest said no flash. I did the whole thing without flash (really tough in a dark church as you know!) all the while flashes from cellphone cameras and 100.00 handhelds were going off in the pews. I was so frustrated! At this wedding. I got no church shots from where I was in the pew thanks to the videographer who parked himself in the middle of the isle on a tripod and there was no going around him. I thought that they needed to be much less conspicuous in a church ceremony...oh well...live and learn I guess!

heatherfeather

I would have brought more people if I had known... The bride and groom had assured me that the officient was so laid back there would be no rules... And were surprised when the officient laid down the law the night before at the rehearsal. But the photos turned out just fine. I set up my assistant with another camera on tripod, set it to P and just told her to do her best. And the photos turned out just fine. I used to use 2nds but found that for what I wanted to pay there were very few keepers and a whole lot of extra hassle.

sweet caroline

These are very nice. It's always agonizing waiting for comments!

Caroline

Shudderz

heatherfeather wrote:

The officient had given me some very specific rules... my feet and my assistants feet could not move during the cerimony. We could not bend or anything. There was a family friend with a SLR that was jumping around all over the place, and I was worried the officient would think that he was one of my seconds. And I also have a clause in my contract that my photographs will be limited by rules that the officient gives... I am not going to get as good of stuff if I am anchored to 1 spot. I just asked the other guy to stick to find a spot and stay there. It was totally fine.

To go one further, I had a priest tell me the exact spot I could stand in.....and then DURING THE CEREMONY would tell me when I could and when I couldn't take pictures. Literally, he would turn to me and say, "no pictures now" after that moment in the ceremony/mass had passed, he'd turn to me and tell me I could once again take pictures.

I put a camera on remote up in the balcony (prefocused where the couple would be, and hooked to a pocket wizard). He'd told me that if I was in the balcony I could shoot the whole time....I figured the best of both worlds, some shots from stage left where he put me, and some from right above the aisle from the balcony. So for the moments he would let me shoot from up front, I was clicking away on my pocket wizard!

Thankfully my contract also states I will follow house rules and that the quality/quantity of photos may be affected by them.

Photosbychuck

Great photos

my fav #8

Shima

Great job considering you weren't the photographer

kyeezie

I love the pictures, very bright and crisp!

MelMcClain

I'm a fan. Were you also at the mercy of the photographer's poses or were you able to do some manipulation?

WingsOfLovePhoto

MelMcClain wrote:

I'm a fan. Were you also at the mercy of the photographer's poses or were you able to do some manipulation?

Thanks for the compliments! I was at the mercy of the photographer. All her poses...most were nice, alot were kissing though...I think maybe to hide the grooms swollen eye? Many were centered around the carriage. I would have liked to see a few "cleaner" shots, some with a little less distraction or to incorportate the nice stone in the church building. She did get a few at the reception that I wasn't around for But it was definately interesting to see how others work!

Howitzer

well after looking at your gallery on your website.. I must say I dont think you posted the best pics here..

I really like pics 3, 15, 20, 35, 38 48 is amazing.. really amazing..., and 150 is awesome too..

WingsOfLovePhoto

Howitzer wrote:

well after looking at your gallery on your website.. I must say I dont think you posted the best pics here..

I really like pics 3, 15, 20, 35, 38 48 is amazing.. really amazing..., and 150 is awesome too..

Thanks very much for taking the time to look through the gallery. The ones posted here were just the first few I worked on before I had looked at them all... I did see your first post...I appreciated those comments too but I really was just staying out of the photographers way so I didn't get alot of straight on shots...I am a wuss and didn't want to upset anybody I am still weeding through all of the pictures as I took over 700 of them!

zoomer

I think they came out nice.
The couple looks like they were having a good time.
Well exposed and looks like the official photographer was doing a good job of posing them so they got a win win on the photograhy side.