Professional Photography
From Devlin Photography
I've been ruminating lately about having or not having a professional photographer for our wedding. Does it fit with my whole diy wedding ethos? It does not appear to. It's easy to want some amazing professional photos of the day, especially when I spend so much time looking at stunning, creative photos like these on gorgeous wedding blogs.
But the cost (starting at around $3,000) for me personally is too high for a few pretty photos. I guess to some people 3k is nothing right? But if I had that as small change, I think I'd prefer to build a well in Africa or put solar panels on a Nepali monastery or something. Also, the style of most wedding photographers, especially around here, is just not at all what I want.
So here we have another challenge- to get some great photos of the day without spending a fortune. Now to do this I need a plan. The plan so far is this...
Photo Booth- We will set up a photo booth with a good digital slr and a remote, with a beautiful backdrop, and maybe a gorgeous couch and some nice handmade cushions etc. So people can take photos of themselves. A great way to get group shots of people- and I imagine the later it gets, the funnier the photos will be.
Polaroids-
I absolutely adore polaroids, I always have and I always will love the they look and feel. So I have cameras and a stack of film stashed which will be trusted to selected friends.
Photographer friends-
Friends with some level of photographic genius will be allocated an hour in which to capture what they can. I figure this way it won't all fall to one person, an hour is do-able, we won't miss any important bits and we will get photos in a variety of styles over the course of the weekend. A few of us have good digital slr's and the joy of digital is of course that you can correct and manipulate them, shoot, delete, shoot again etc. Right?
So if you fancy yourself handy with a lens, do feel free to put your hand up oh wonderful friends of ours...
i love the whole photo booth idea. I have seen some weddings where they even add some 'dress ups' - and as you say, the photos get funnier as the night goes on.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you have, but it sounds like you've read this article:
ReplyDeletehttp://apracticalwedding.com/2009/05/what-happens-if-you-cant-afford-wedding/
I simply cannot afford a photographer. My uncle is an amateur, but he isn't going to make it to my wedding. So I'm totally bummed. We're probably going to end up having our camera-savvy friends take a bunch of photos too! :)
Great article Brina thanks! I hadn't read it but it's reassured me I'm on the right track with my plan. Love the Holga camera tip... I'd love to invest in one of them. We have a Lomo fisheye which should take some interesting shots too!
ReplyDeleteHi The hour slot sounds great. You could also give out some of the disposable (not very green I suppose) cameras to the guests. I always love the informal shots far better than the professional ones !
ReplyDeleteSue x
Just another suggestion, call up your local community college or university and see if there are any interested students who want to expand their portfolios with wedding photos. You may be able to get a bargain or get it for free. One thing to remember, though is you cannot redo this. Once the day is over, you can't recreate it. So you should have at least one person you can trust to get the shots. Also, if you work so hard on your wedding, you want to remember it and photography is THE best way to do this. You may have guessed, but I'm a pro photog who loves your blog :)
ReplyDeleteSue I agree with you there!
ReplyDeleteLindsay, thank you for the suggestion.. I think that's a great idea!
More of my thoughts on this....
I know that photos are important, I do, I love photography and I totally respect and love the photographers, But for me personally, photos of my wedding just aren't worth THAT much. I feel like there might be a bit too much emphasis on getting perfect fashion shoot type photos of the event. Maybe it's taking away from what the wedding is all about.... getting married to someone you can't live without... forever after and all that...
Photos are not the only thing I will have after the wedding- I will have an amazing husband and I will be reminded of that day whenever I look at him :)
And hey, I may not have perfect super fashion wedding blog worthy photos, but there will be pictures of people having the time of their lives, in a beautiful place.... and couple who are so in love and happy it will shine through in everyone's photos! Yay for love!
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ReplyDeleteHei Tanya!
ReplyDeleteThe photobooth idea with the couch - I love it! If I ever get married - I definitly gonna to that! :)
Good luck with the weddingpictures. I'm sure you'll get cool pictures one way or another! :)
Trine
-from Norway