Weddings are seasonal events…..  there are times of the year many brides would like to have their weddings, and the inevitable jockeying for dates can oftentimes test the patience of the most laid back personalities.  The most obvious advice for brides looking at weddings in the Spring and early Fall is to start booking your top vendors as soon as you have your date nailed down.  April, May, and June are your most popular months in the Spring, and October is the most popular in the Fall.  Knowing this, you may be able to get a head start with vendors …more

I’d like to to talk a bit more about engagement sessions.  Many couples feel the engagement session is not a necessary part of planning a wedding, and is an expendable part of wedding packages when they’re on a budget.  To this point alone, I completely understand – many of us are on a budget and to find any way to save some money is like finding a bit of gold underneath a stone.  However, the engagement session is so much more than simply taking photos of you both as a couple…. it’s time spent with your photographer before the wedding …more

Holidays are a busy time of year for everyone.  They are a time for celebrating, visiting family and friends, shopping, making resolutions, and also a time for getting last minute chores completed for the year.  For many couples, it is also the only time they have days off together in order to visit with wedding photographers.  This can often present problems when trying to schedule appointments as photographers may also be busy with family obligations or traveling out of town.  I can personally testify to many couples getting angry with me for not being home when they will be in …more

One of my favorite aspects of this job is meeting new people.  I have been fortunate enough to have some wonderful clients in the past, and will be working with some equally as wonderful next year.  This business is all about people, and a wedding photographer has to be a bit of a people person to succeed.  The variety of personalities we may encounter with just one wedding can be absolutely staggering… and it’s our job to effectively communicate with each and every one equally.  We have to juggle strong-headed mothers of brides, nervous grooms, drunk groomsmen, overbearing fathers, hyperventilating …more

The wedding album is one of the last things a couple gets to enjoy from their big day.  Depending on the style you choose and the photographer in charge of producing it, the level of involvement each couple has can either be very limited, or extremely involved.  Which is better?  Well, neither really.  What it really comes down to is whether you have the time to devote to an album that requires you to pick out all the images and sit down for a creative meeting to discuss the direction you’d like the design to go in.  If you don’t …more

Most of us expect the best possible product for our hard earned money.  We put in the hours, we sacrifice our time, we sometimes start from scratch and become success stories, we take time away from those we love to make sure we can pay the bills and feed ourselves, and some of us have problems letting go of our funds unless we are certain we will get our money’s worth.  Understandable, and certainly nothing unusual in a society that puts so much stigma on the value of a dollar, and measures someone’s worth by the things they own.  I …more

Hiring or asking friends to photograph your wedding can sometimes be a calculated risk.  There are advantages to having a personal relationship with your wedding photographer, like being more comfortable around them or having confidence that they know what you like.  However, assuming the personal relationship will easily transition into a working relationship is what gets most couples in trouble. 

There is an easy comraderie that comes with friendship that usually does not exist in the workplace…. and for wedding photographers the workplace is their studio or on location site for shooting sessions.  It is not always easy for the photographer …more

Many brides are very particular about the way they look in photos.  I myself am very self conscience of any type of photo taken of me, but if I were a bride I would constantly be second guessing the poses, the lighting, my makeup, my hair, etc….  It is extremely important you communicate with your wedding photographer on the day of a shoot.  Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to tell them of certain angles you are not fond of, or if you have a blemish and would like it retouched out of every image, or if you are a bit overweight …more

Common questions:  I have listed below some of the more common questions I receive during my consultations. 

Why did you become a wedding photographer?

How long have you been a wedding photographer?

Do you have backup equipment?

Do you bring an assistant?

What if you get sick?

Do you handle stress well?

How do you dress for weddings?

Do you consider yourself a people person?  Why?

Are the images available for purchase on a CD/DVD?

Do I have full permission to make prints from these images?

How is the copyright handled with the images?

How soon after the wedding day do I receive my proofs?

How long are the proofs online?

How much are …more

Do you need to know alot about photography to hire a wedding photographer?  Not really, but any knowledge will help.  With the popularity of digital it is so easy for anyone to pick up a camera and call themselves a professional photographer.  However, that doesn’t mean they really know anything about photography…. This business is about so much more than holding a camera in front of  your face and pointing at a subject.  Yes, many of the newer cameras on the market make it much easier to take a good image, but unless the owner understands lighting and composition, that …more

Working with a wedding photographer can sometimes be a bit intimidating for those of you not comfortable in front of a camera.  I have experienced many couples that just can’t seem to relax knowing I am photographing them.  The most extreme case I’ve encountered was a bride who was paranoid during her entire bridal portrait session – she was so self conscience that she could not relax in any of her images, and it unfortunately showed in the results.  Her portraits were beautifully lit and composed, and she herself looked magnificent, but she was stiff and had tense expressions on …more

The out of town bride has unique challenges when planning a wedding.  The most obvious is her inability to schedule appointments during the work week, but another disadvantage she will often come up against is having to rely on others to screen possible vendors to meet with, or entrust them to hire whom they see fit.  I often run into this situation with brides who depend on their mothers for most of their big decisions.  Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with mothers handling some of the planning when their daughter is only able to come into town a handful …more

How important is it to have a wedding photographer that specializes mainly in weddings?  Well, to be honest, that is totally up to you as the client.  But, I will share my view on this and you can mull it over if the situation arises for you in reality. 

There are so many facets to photography that it’s sometimes overwhelming choosing which field to specialize in.  There is newspaper/magazine photojournalism, commercial art, fine art, children, weddings, aerial work (mapping and surveying), family portraits, high school seniors, sports, underwater photography, etc….  If it can be photographed, chances are someone specializes in it.  So, …more

I know I’ve talked about this already, but I’d like to add a bit to the importance of a good relationship with your wedding photographer.  Yes, it is important for the days leading up to and including the wedding day, but it also will often extend beyond that time as well.  I have many clients that contact me years later to photograph their children and do family portraits.  The bond I’ve established with these clients provides an instant trust when working with their families later down the road.  Would you want just anyone photographing your first child?  Would it mean as …more

Wedding photographers everywhere will tell you that what we do is not easy.  In my opinion, this area of photography is one of the most difficult because we have only one chance to get a shot; most of the time we have no, or very little, control over our environment and have to improvise constantly; and have the extremely high pressure of knowing our images have so much emotional value to our clients.  So, why do we do this job?

For me, it’s all about people.  I am, by nature, not a social butterfly.  I’ve never been one to go to parties or out on …more

When meeting with wedding photographers there are so many questions you can ask to get a better feel for who they are and how well they might work with you.  Sometimes, however, couples have a difficult time taking what they learned in a meeting and objectively applying it to their decision making process.  I mean, what do you do with a statement that may go something like, “I got into wedding photography by accident, but it pays the bills.” ( And yes, this is an actual statement from a wedding photographer as relayed to me by a mother of a …more

As a wedding photographer, I have seen many weddings; big and small, expensive and inexpensive, elegant and simple, rainy days and bright sunny ones, church weddings vs beach weddings, young couples and older couples….  there is an infinite variety of ways to make each wedding unique, and I don’t think I’ve seen the same one twice.  But, what goes through my mind during each wedding as I’m shooting?  What do I, as a wedding photographer, think of each couple, each event, each dress, all the flowers, and all the food?  For me, every wedding has it’s own aura – it’s …more

Does the fashion styling of your wedding photographer matter?  This might seem like a silly question, but in my opinion, yes it matters very much; especially at semi-formal and formal weddings.  The job of any wedding photographer is to not draw attention to themselves while shooting.  The day is not for them, it’s for the wedding couple.  At a formal gathering, they will stick out like a sore thumb if dressed in khaki pants, polo shirt, and sneakers.  I realize this may be a uniform and understand the need to be comfortable ( it took me five years to find comfortable dressy …more

How do you narrow down your choices of wedding photographers when there seems to be an overwhelming number to choose from?  It’s not easy, I’ll admit, but once the first step is taken, it will get easier as you go along – hopefully.  My advice for the first step is to first determine what style of wedding photography you like.  There are three general categories:  formal, candid, artistic/editorial.  Formal is just what it sounds like…  most of the images are posed, traditional shots that the photographer sets up ahead of time.  This type of wedding photography has been around for generations …more

One complaint I hear often from couples – not from my clients, but usually from friends and family of couples who have recently gotten married – is that making appointments with their photographer always seemed a challenge.  For whatever purpose the appointment, it was often frustrating pinning down a date and time everyone could get together.  Portrait sessions, consultations, album pick ups…. in fact, the only time they had no trouble getting them to show up without any scheduling hassle was the wedding day!  In fact, I’m sure some of my clients have felt the same although I am in no way trying …more

One challenge I’m often faced with is wedding magazines.  There have been several occasions where brides will bring photos in and ask if I can reproduce them, and my answers are usually not what they want to hear.  There are two types of photos in magazines:  fashion/ad photos, and real life wedding photos.  Both are difficult to copy exactly and for many reasons I try not to make any promises, but instead make compromises letting them know I’ll get the feel of the shot, but may not have the ability to reproduce it faithfully.  Let’s look at the fashion/ad photos …more

Many couples contact me via email….  which is fine because I’m often working on the computer and it’s easy for me to check my inbox several times a day.  But, I’d like to make the case for phone calls.  So much of our communication these days is through some sort of technology:  email, texting, blogging, etc…  and yes, even phone calls are through phones.  However, by taking the personal element out of the equation, it’s so much easier for couples to view wedding photographers as simply names and not people.  ( This may sound a bit harsh, but I know I am …more

What do wedding photographers do the other six days of the week when they’re not shooting weddings?  The answer depends on each photographer, of course, and what level of service they offer.  For example, a wedding photographer that only offers day of the wedding coverage and then gives you all the images on a CD will obviously have less of a hectic schedule than one that designs wedding albums.  But, it’s not only just about the albums…. there are so many small bits that make up what we do it’s amazing some of us stay sane.  A few things I …more

If anyone is out there reading these posts, I would love to hear from you whether you are in the process of planning a wedding, or have already gone through the entire experience and would like to share your story.  My goal is to one day have a dialogue with couples at every stage of their wedding story – and seasoned vets can give advice to those of you just getting started.  I would like for much of our discussions to center around photography, but I’m enough of a realist to know that other aspects of weddings are just as …more

In our media driven world, many of us make assumptions and judgements of others based on how they look.  It’s an unpleasant, but true fact.  I’m sure you’ve heard the term, “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, but do we really live by that?  I know I’ve been guilty of judging others, only to be surprised and delighted later on that I was wrong. 

So, what does this have to do with wedding photography?  Well, it’s important for couples to adopt the same principle when meeting with photographers, even though looks can sometimes tell you everything in many cases.  When you walk …more

Meeting wedding photographers for the first time can be a bit daunting.  For some reason, we are viewed as either something akin to celebrities, or seen in a similar light to physics professors.  Of course, there are also those who see us as necessary evils…. but thankfully I have not run into too many couples like that.  I am often amazed at brides (it is most often the bride that I meet with) who arrive nervous and awed by what I do.  For me it is simply a way of life, a profession I adore and am grateful I have …more

I’ve been asked many times over the years if I’ve ever had any really crazy moments shooting weddings.  With the onslaught of “reality” tv shows portraying all weddings as platinum or all brides as bridezillas, many people assume the events portrayed on these shows are the norm rather than the exception.  Well, in my experience, they are the exception.  A boring answer, I know, but I haven’t had any really crazy moments and I have not photographed any platinum weddings – gold maybe, but not platinum.  In reality, almost all of my clients are wonderful people…. I wouldn’t hesitate to invite them out …more

We live in a world of instant gratification….  Instant coffee, instant oatmeal, instant gourmet lasagna in a box, instant credit, instant access to any information you want on the internet, instant living room designs in furniture showrooms, and yes, even instant homes out of a box.  In the world of weddings, it’s not the same.  Many brides go through hours and months of frustrating waiting;  wedding dresses need to be ordered and fitted; invitations custom ordered; anything that needs a monogram or names engraved, stitched, or etched have to be custom ordered; if anyone in the wedding party lives out of …more

About five years ago I did a wedding on an island off the Eastern Coast.  In general, I love the beach, love the ocean, love sunsets over the water, love almost everything to do with being near the sea…. however, as a professional photographer, I hate the sand.  I’m sure anyone who’s been to any beach with sand will tell you it gets EVERYWHERE.  It gets in places you wouldn’t think it could possible reach…. earlobes, nostrils, underneath fingernails, bellybuttons, in your clothing, in your bag, in your shoes, in your food & drinks, etc…  But, for a professional photographer, the …more

Lori walked in with confidence and determination.  She knew exactly what she wanted in a wedding photographer and booked my services on the spot.  She was artsy in a way that hung on her like fine clothes – quirky personality, but very friendly – funky clothing, the kind that girls envy rather than turn their noses up at – and she had a million great ideas for her own album.  She was an artist and graphic designer and I had absolutely no problem with her deciding to do her own album rather than take advantage of mine.  It’s not a …more

All brides  are not created equal….  I’m focusing on brides here because in reality, they are the ones who make the most decisions for the wedding day.  Now guys, I’m not trying to minimize your role in the wedding process, but let’s be real here… most of you just want to show up and don’t really mind if the flowers are roses or tulips.  Right?  Right. 

In nine years of photographing weddings, I’ve met an enormous range of brides:  laid back, organized, clueless, drama queens, spoiled daddy’s girls, charming, loving, sophisticated, controlling, apathetic, messy, creative, etc….  you name it, and she’s …more

In the hustle and bustle of today’s society, it is so easy to lose sight of what is really important in our lives.  This is so true of planning a wedding as well.  Couples are constantly bombarded with magazine photos, internet articles, bridal salon window displays, insistent sales people or family members, too many options, and even flower envy.  It’s no wonder planning a wedding is difficult even under the best of circumstances.  You all want your own version of the perfect wedding, but in this quest it is easy to lose sight of what is really important in this …more

Wedding coordinators are, in my opinion, one of the best decisions a couple can make.  If you have it in your budget, I know you would not regret hiring someone to help you plan and organize your wedding day.  However, if you have a tight budget, but would still like someone to help, some coordinators offer “day of” services:  present on the day of your wedding to ensure everthing and everyone stays on schedule.  This may not sound like much, but I can assure you it is one of their most valuable assets when something unforseen occurs.  It is the …more

Many of you will meet with photographers and still have no idea who to choose.  It’s not an easy decision.  Whether it’s because all of them are great and you just can’t pick one, or maybe you’ve met with several and none of them are “WOW”-ing you, the decision has to be made and most couples I’ve spoken too admit that it basically comes down to not wanting to make a wrong choice.  In a nutshell, photography is one area of planning a wedding that is an unknown to many couples.  You aren’t experts and wouldn’t know if the person you are meeting …more

I just realized that despite the About page on this site, I have not adequately explained why I’m here….  I’ve been photographing weddings for nine years now, and I have enjoyed every minute of it – even the challenging times when I asked myself, “what have you gotten yourself into?”.  I will be honest and say that this job is not easy and there are days I am ready to pull all my hair out, but they do not overcome the great joy I get from seeing my clients happy and appreciative.  I have dozens of thank-you notes, hundreds of …more

In the world of wedding photography, anyone can hang their name outside the door and call themselves a pro if they have a few good shots to display.  But, what actually  makes a professional wedding photographer?  Literally, the word professional means you are charging for your services in a given occupation.  But, is that what you, the client, thinks of when you hear someone is a professional wedding photographer?  My guess is, probably not.  Professional has the unspoken meaning that someone has experience and wisdom in their given field.  Only in the last several years, in the world of professional vs amatuer sports, has …more

Let’s continue on with wedding photograpers that seem too good to be true because of their prices…..  Now, everything I’m about to say will not apply to every photographer out there.  I know there are many affordable wedding photographers who are very talented and honest people.  What I’d like to touch on are the ones who are in this only for the money and do not have your best interest in mind.  Wedding photography is simply not a business you get into to make some extra money on the weekends.  In my opinion, there is so much more than just …more

Finding a wedding photographer is challenging.  One aspect of the search that drives most couples and families to argue is money.  The financial realities of planning a wedding usually come crashing down on brides – whose family traditionally pays for the wedding – like a piano falling out of the sky.  Weddings are expensive, folks.  Yes, there are ways to plan one on a budget – one of my best friends did exactly that and had a beautiful wedding – but it usually takes ALOT of research, legwork, compromising, and just good old luck to acheive the truly budget wedding.  Some …more

Ok, so let’s talk about wedding photographers today.  Who are we and why do we love our jobs?  Well, obviously it’s different for everyone…. but I’ll tell you about me and maybe in the course of this blog we’ll have others join in and tell you what they love.  I’ve been doing this for nine years and it’s been a roller coaster!  Out of the blue I was hired to be a wedding photographer and worked for someone else for a while before going out on my own.  I had so many ideas I wanted to try, but needed to …more

I guess the most important piece of advice I could give anyone planning a wedding is to please, HAVE FUN!  It is so sad to see couples, mostly brides, come in with frustration and stress just oozing from their pores, and many of those times they are only in the beginning stages of the process – finding a wedding photographer is usually one of the top five things a couple does first.  What can you do to help yourself not get too stressed?  Hmmm… that’s a good question, and one I will give you my own personal advice for. 

First of …more

So, what is this site for, and what are we going to talk about?  Well, at first I wanted to simply discuss how to find a wedding photographer – even though I know that is not a simple task for some.  However, after putting my ear to the ground and really listening and paying attention to what clients & non-clients were dealing with, I realized couples need help with so much more than finding a photographer for their wedding day.  When the book is published (more on that later!), you will have a complete guide on how to find a …more

Hello out there!  Welcome to what I hope will be a tool to help those of you out there trying to find a wedding photographer!  Are you recently engaged and now overwhelmed by making decisions for your big day?  Have you met with some photographers and are now scared to make a final decision?  Are you afraid to make that decision because you don’t want it to be the wrong one?  I can assure you, there are many out there in the same boat.  This is not only a forum for me to talk about what I know, but also …more