As much as it will be a challenge, I realize that there’s nothing that I can do about it, so I may as well soak up the experience (pardon the pun) and be prepared and have fun with it! One thing that I love to do before any shoot is research the shots and poses before I even get out there and shoot. Hey, I’ve only been doing this since August 1, 2009..that’s not a lot of time and I really can’t wait till the time that I’m able to just walk into any situation and know what poses and shots I want to take, but until that time I’m going to work my butt off to make sure that the people that are trusting me with their photos are happy. I really admire the folks that can just walk into a shoot and know what they want to do before hand, it’s truly a gift and I hope to develop mine.

Back to the rain on a wedding day, as much as I like something different every now and then and rain would be included – it’s VERY important to have a back up location where you’re not going to get wet. A few shots out in the rain are great, but it’s tough to do an entire formal wedding shoot there. If any of my photographer friends whom read the blog would like to chime in and tell me their experiences, I’d really love to hear your tips, thoughts, experiences.

Boy I really hope I didn’t jinx myself for the next wedding I do in a few weeks

image courtesy Matt Adcock @ http://www.flashflavor.com/

I’m wondering what else is out there? I know for the guys there are a lot of options (and for the bridesmaids as well) such as cigars, hats, canes, sunglasses – but wondering if you folks have seen other ones either at weddings or in photos you’ve liked? I’ve seen umbrellas used when it wasn’t raining (and of course when it was!).

Just trying to get some creative ideas for weddings in the future, I do like painting a good scene

Get your best dress on and make sure you’ve had enough of your most effective weight loss supplements cuz you’re going to want to look good for the wedding right??

Umm.. SURPRISE!! NO WEDDING!! Well.. actually.. maybe there was a wedding.. to an inflatable doll. I love PEI.

From CBC News

A P.E.I. woman pulled the prank of a lifetime on her family and friends last weekend.

Judy Coffin invited family from all over Canada to attend her wedding to a mysterious Florida fiancé, Joe. Close to 150 people turned up at Coffin’s cottage, where they gathered under a wedding tent. A sumptuously decorated wedding cake waited at the back for the end of the ceremony.

But when the groom walked up the aisle he needed help — Joe was an inflatable doll.

“We were trying to come up with something unique for a family reunion,” Coffin said about the plans she and just a few other relatives on the Island made to fool the rest of the family.

“Life is short so live for the moment,” she said. “So laughter, family and friends is all it’s about. My favourite saying is, ‘Cherish yesterday, dream tomorrow but live today,’ and I hope that’s what everybody took from it.”

After getting over the shock of the pretend ceremony, the congregation gave Coffin a standing ovation.

Coffin said she believes there are only one or two people who were upset over the gag, and she is planning some random acts of kindness to make amends.

I am also extremely excited to tell you that I have already gotten another booking from the photos. To me this is amazing.. I am very much looking forward to it.

You can see them on my Facebook page as well.

I’d also like to take this moment to thank Kim and Kenny for allowing me to use their photos to showcase the day and the photography work.. it is VERY much appreciated. You guys rock.

Ok.. got to get back to some of the other topics I focus on… next one coming up!

Well I’m thinking it is.. especially when she’s  sitting with some of her family watching the slideshows and pictures you took of their wedding.

While I’m sitting here trying to figure out which ones I want to add to my ‘portfolio’.. I can’t help but smile and enjoy the moments that I’ve been waiting for since I accepted the job as a wedding photographer. I told her that I was probably just a few short levels under her as far as nervousness goes going into it.. but they told me that they would never know. That means a lot.

I had a really good time shooting the pictures and I swear if every couple was as nice and easy going and excited about getting married as these two were.. I would do weddings all the time! As it stands right now, we’ll just have to see how much interest gets drummed up for my ‘services’ after seeing some of the pics.

For the record.. I took over 1400 photos.. cutting it quickly down to 675, then finalizing to just over 400 to present to the happy newlyweds. I showed the bride, mother, and some family & friends last night.. and I dare say that the bride was pretty darn excited about it all. I couldn’t be happier with the results.

Without further notice.. here is a sample of the photos taken .. enjoy.. feel free to leave comments.

I have also just created a facebook ‘fan’ page.. with the same photos if it’s easier for viewing.. I will be putting up more of an official page soon as well.

]]> http://www.lencurrie.com/2009/08/if-you-make-the-bride-cry-is-that-a-good-thing/feed/ http://www.lencurrie.com/2009/08/photography-is-hard-work/ http://www.lencurrie.com/2009/08/photography-is-hard-work/#comments Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:50:25 +0000 lencurrie http://www.lencurrie.com/?p=813

Tired Hunter

Well I finished the wedding shoot at around 10pm on Saturday night and was home around 11pm. Considering I left the house at 11am, I’m thinking that’s a very long day.

You know, truthfully it was all very worth it. I really did enjoy myself and learned SO much from the experience.. I’m really glad I did it.

I’m not posting any wedding photos just yet, as I have to get permission and show the newlyweds before I do. I can tell you this however.. I love them! Not to toot my own horn, but with the help of Liz.. I really think we captured their day extremely well, and also got some extremely cool shots.

I think I told everyone that asked how nervous I was heading into the day.. I seriously could not go 15 minutes without thinking about it.. especially as the time drew closer. I could have been worse than the bride!

Overall, I took over 1400 shots.. myself and Liz woke up and went through them and narrowed that down to 650-ish.. and now I’m touching those up and really getting down to the nitty-gritty. I figure we’ll have over 300 presentable shots if not more for them, which I think is pretty darn good for a first attempt.

I had a few goals during this first wedding shoot.. and I think I accomplished them:

1. capture the day – shoot it like I would want my own wedding day captured and make sure they will be happy to look at them 50 years from now.
2. have fun – if it’s too much like work, it likely isn’t something that I should be doing.. have to enjoy myself
3. try not to forget any shots! – I believe I did get most of what people were looking for, there were a few shots I would have liked to have gotten and missed.. but I guess that happens with every wedding

Besides that.. it was a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday. It was extremely hot and I was sweating like a madman. My #1 tip to anyone else considering doing something like this is that they should have an assistant.. and a good one. Without Liz at my side, I know that I could not have even come close to doing this wedding. That being said, I can honestly say that my confidence has grown immensely as far as photography goes and I’m seriously considering it as a side business. We’ll see how the feedback is on this one first though… can’t wait to post them up and have people comment.

Enjoy.

*I couldn’t actually embed the video due to restrictions put on the video (their request) so head to YouTube.. worth the 3 minutes.

I’m hoping beyond hope that everything turns out really well as it could certainly lead into more ‘gigs’ and also be an absolute huge boost to my photography ‘ego’

Last night I had the pleasure of heading up to the area in which the wedding and pictures are going to take place, I never realized how beautiful some areas of the Island really are when you get out there and take a look around. I was in Kinkora, and although it really is a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ type of town, it is very close to the Confederation Bridge, as well as numerous beautiful farm landscapes and a really picturesque area (on a sunny day of course..which.. umm..well.. it wasn’t yesterday)

So now I’m in search of a new wider portrait lens. I have a few options which I’m going to try to exhaust.

1. buy one (not going to happen as they are over $1000 for a good one I believe
2. rent one (I’ve called a few spots and no one seems to know where to get one rented on the island, there is a spot online however I can try)
3. borrow one (this is my optimal choice. I will pay someone to borrow a nice lens for sure.. to rent costs a lot more obviously)
4. skip it, use my kit lens (I decided when I accepted this gig that I wanted to use a better lens, and if it costs me 1/2 of what I’m going to get paid for the gig.. I’m not going to use the damn kit lens!)

One thing that I’m doing for this wedding which I think is common practice now with a lot of photographers is put all the pictures on a disk, or a card for them and let them do the selection & printing. Back in the older non-digital days, print outs are where the photographers really made a lot of money as they would charge abnormal sums for prints done by either themselves or another company. For example if a photographer charged$50 for an 8×10, they likely could get it done for $25 or so which would have netted themselves another $25 for their hard work. I’m not looking to do that as I believe they should be able to shop around and find the best price and spot for their prints, it’s really easy with all the online photo labs anyhow. Then they can get huge blowups if they so choose, or simply get one print and put the rest in a digital frame, or maybe one of those keychains.. ha ha ha.

One thing I AM looking forward to is the post-processing of all my shots. I would consider myself a semi-professional Photoshop user, and as such.. I’m not worried if the lighting is a bit off, or if some of the shots aren’t perfectly cropped or whatever.. I can do that afterwards without issue!

So I basically have two things I have to focus on before August 1st. Lens, and the shots.. as I mentioned earlier, I did get a chance to go out and see where I will be taking the photos.. so that’s going to help immensily, if you have any absolutely favorite wedding shots that you would like me to check out. Leave a comment below and I’ll certainly check it out… would be cool to find as many good poses as I can for my first time doing it.