September, 2009 Archives

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Deanna and Aaron were married at the Camden Aquarium on Labor Day weekend.  It was so much fun to able to photograph them inside the shark tunnel and to experience the party in the Rotunda.  They both love to travel and dive so the  decorations and personal touches played on their various trips and their year spent traveling around the world.  What fun! They are both wonderfully adventurous so Aaron surprised me with a snorkeling mask for some of the photos and they were up for pictures both inside and outside the Aquarium. The Aquarium is a great venue for a wedding and was a perfect choice for Deanna and Aaron!  Check out the slideshow to see more.

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We had an unbelievable time
at our wedding and you were a pleasure to work with.  Just looking at
that first slide show tells me that you did an incredible job.
– Aaron

The slide show is fantastic. We cant wait to see all of the photos next week! – Deanna

emily and judah lead composit

 

I had the pleasure of photographing Emily and Judah’s wedding at The College of Physicians on August 2nd.  The College of Physicians is a beautiful location for a wedding and the food provided by Catering by Design is wonderful. Both Emily and Judah have an appreciation for B&W silver photography and Judah being a filmmaker, requested that I shoot some film as well as digital.  It was wonderful to break out my cameras that now mostly get used for my fine art work and and shoot 36 frames per roll again at a wedding!  I enjoyed making this contact sheet style grouping of images for the blog.  Rebecca Barger, former Philadelphia Inquirer photojournalist,  joined me as a second photographer and shot digital while I was shooting B&W.  It is always a pleasure to work with my long time friend Rebecca and she added some wonderful images to round out the day.  We go way back to the days of all film!  You can see more of Emily and Judah’s wedding in the slideshow below………..

first friday five banner

 

Welcome back to First Friday Five. Here are five more useful tips to help you plan and have a successful photography experience at your wedding.

fff_thumb_1  White chalk.  It’s bound to happen that your white dress can get some dirt on it by the end of the wedding.  I’ve learned to bring along some white chalk because it works wonders as a temporary cover up for those spots.  I can always photoshop a mark out for a picture, but you may want to have a bridesmaid carry a piece in her purse as well so you can do a touch up throughout the day.

 

fff_2  Second photographer.  I have stressed the importance of a second photographer before, but now I have a perfect example of why I never leave home without one!  We are at a very festive wedding shooting the hora – I’m down on the floor and the second photographer is on a ladder. Things get crazy and the remote to my flash flies off the camera, leaving me with only one camera to shoot with.  The second photographer on the ladder captures the wonderful faces of the bride and groom as they are raised in the chairs.  No one wants to miss that shot – and we didn’t!

 

fff_3  Need more time?  If you have contracted with me for unlimited time – Great – I love to shoot, however if you budget is tighter and you have only contacted for part of the reception, rest assured that you can always request I stay longer while at the reception.  If you are only part way through dinner or the cake hasn’t been cut, you just need to ask!

 

fff_4  Copyright.  This is one of the most misunderstood parts of any contract.  Many people contact me and say they want the copyright.  Once we have a conversation about this, what they are really wanting is the ability to reproduce images if they buy a DVD.  I never give up the copyright but I do give you permission to make enlargements for your personal use.   

 

fff_5  Formal family pictures.  You need them and you will be sorry if you don’t have them later.  While I love to approach weddings in a documentary fashion, there are certain groups that need to be photographed.  We outline this in the planning session and I try to help you not go overboard with this.  When ever I have shot a wedding without at least photographing the bride and groom with their immediate families, we were all sorry later.  You can’t go back and repeat them (well you can but this is hard and expensive) and I have never made an album for a client where they have not included a sampling of these pictures. 

First Friday Five – 3