Wedding Tips

Arbonne Party!!!

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Arbonne Party!!!
My girl friend Erin Ferrell hosted a manager’s retreat for her Arbonne Team at her amazing house in Laguna Beach. I love what I do but I love what I do even more when I get to work with my friends. I always have so much fun teaching people how to pose and making people look great. I have a couple rules when it comes to posing people to say the least. I tend to believe that I’m able to make everyone look taller and skinnier then they actually are by using the camera lenses distortion. One thing that’s important to keep in mind is that whatever is closer to the camera looks bigger, which is why I always tell people to lean slightly forward. You never ever want to put your hand on your hip and point your arm to the camera (unless you want your arms to look really big). When taking a group photo you never want to create a horseshoe, you always want to be on the same plane; otherwise the girls on the end tend to look really big. (* People in the middle always look especially skinny). For people that are subconscious about their necks they should always lean forward and point their chins slightly down. I find it does two things their necks disappear and their chin creates a shadow on their neck. Another thing you can do is insist that the photographer take your photograph from a hire angle, either you sit and the photographer stands or you stand and the photographers stands on something.
I have lots of other tricks I use with relation to the camera angle, lighting, and lens.
Don’t worry your in good hands.
To see all the photos from the shoot go to.

Wedding Photographer, Wedding Tips

Detail in a wedding dress…

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Every wedding photographer get asked this question. Why doesn’t my wedding dresses have more detail in photographs? There are many different causes in play and is probably a combination of several factors. In photo 101 armature photographers learn that a good film exposure has detail in both its highlights and shadows. Digital cameras have a smaller range then traditional film cameras. Digital cameras capture about 4 stops of exposure where as negative film captures about 6 stops.
When I expose, I expose for a bride’s skin tone. If I have a bride that has fair skin and I expose for her skin tone, you will see more detail in the dress. When I’m photographing an bride whose skin is more olive and I expose for her skin tone, her dress will have less detail. If the dress is made out of a synthetic material it will reflect more light then natural materials and will expose lighter and brighter. If the lighting is contrasty (direct overhead sun from clear day) there will be a greater range of exposures which will also cause a brides dress to have less detail when properly exposing for the brides skin tone.
As a professional wedding photographer I can safely say somethings are just out of our hands.

Wedding Tips

Make Up Artist

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People are always asking me… Can you recommend a make-up artist?

Being a photographer I know the importance of a great make-up artist. Being that the case I want to share my latest find…. Gina Gracie. She is not only an extremely talented make-up artist she is also one of my brides this season. Since meeting with Gina earlier this year I have had the pleasure of working with her. I am floored by her talents. Everyone she done make-up on has been so very happy. She even gave me some great tips for my own make-up.

Here is her contact info.


Gina Gracia
310.8764424
www.ginagracia.com

Wedding Photographer, Wedding Tips

Albums

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There is nothing more rewarding then to deliver and amazing wedding album to a client. Queensberry is the main company I use for photo albums. Their albums are hand crafted in New Zealand and custom designed by my team and me. I don’t usually talk about wedding albums until after the wedding, because there is no point. Upon meeting my clients I will show my album sample so they can get an idea of the options available to them. As far as the design that’s all done after the fact. There really isn’t anyway to tell what an album is going to look like, how many pages are needed until after the fact.
Every album I’ve created for my clients has been unbelievably stunning.

Wedding Photographer, Wedding Tips

Professional Photographer

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Every year around this time I get flooded with inquires about my wedding packages. I lovingly call this time of year, booking season. Today I had two conversations one with a groom who was telling me that they weren’t happy with their wedding photographer (it wasn’t me) and the other with a bride on a tight budget.

To start, the two conversations go hand in hand. It breaks my heart to hear anyone had a bad experience with their wedding photographer. If someone uses another photographer you still want their wedding to be the most magical day. The bride that contacted me with the tight budget wanted me to drive 1.5 hrs each way, and shoot her wedding for $200.

$200 might cover my gas.

This is what is involved in all my weddings..

Time – Every time I shoot a wedding I spend time beforehand researching the location, checking my gear, checking weather, taking account the timeline and planning my shots. On the wedding day I will run around for 8hrs capturing all those magic moments. After the wedding I will spend about a week editing every single photograph.

Experience – Photography has always been my passion. I graduated for the top photo school in the country. After school I worked for the Top fashion and celebrity photographers in the industry. I started my own business and have been shooting weddings for YEARS.

Cost – I show up to every wedding with over 10k in equipment. I bring lots of back up equipment to insure your memories. I have to pay for things like insurance, advertising, computer equipment, etc… I spend a fortune on hard drive space to insure your memories are backed up in several different places. I even go so far as to store hard drives in multiple locations to protect memories from things like fire.

I’m sorry for the rant. I can’t tell you how much I love what I do! Its such a joy and blessing to be apart of so many special days. Its just so frustrating to think brides have no problem spending their entire wedding budget on a dress, and then they skimp on the photographer. Here is the ugly truth… That dress is going to look so amazing that day but your going to want to burn the photos.

This bride seemed pretty upset when I wouldn’t photograph her wedding for $200 but the truth is I could never offer her quality images at that price. As always I told her that if she did find a photographer that would be willing to shoot her wedding for that price… Please send me their portfolio and I’ll give you an insider perspective. No one ever takes me up on that offer. I guess they think I would rip the photographer apart so they’d hire me. Again the truth is I’ve been hired 4x to reshoot weddings. You can never capture those special moments on a reshoot. Its heart breaking!!! I would rather have someone hire a good photographer to shoot their wedding then hire me to reshoot it.

Just because everyone asks… when we do a reshoot the dress is dry cleaned, flowers are ordered, hair makeup done and a tux is re-rented.

Wedding Tips

Things could always be worse..

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As much as we all hope every wedding is picture perfect sometimes things do go wrong. Its important to keep in mind when planning your wedding that everything might not go as planned. From my experience if a bride rolls with it and keep a good attitude they’ll find the humor in it all.  Here is a list of the things I’ve seen go wrong at weddings.
–       Timelines are always the first to go….
–       Drunk Bridesmaids throwing up in the bathroom *only occurs with younger crowds and open bars
–       Names Spelt wrong on announcements, invites and information boards
–       Missing family members
–       Brides dress rips
–       Brides dress won’t bustle
–       Officiants show up late
o   Many times Officiants will do multiple weddings in one day and traffic tends to occasionally hold things up.
–       Bride dress day of wont fit
–       Strapless Dress is so heavy it keeps falling
–       People getting arrested for fighting
–       Public screaming matches between the brides family and grooms family
–       Rain outdoor ceremony no back up plan
–       Air conditioning broken and its about 1000 degrees inside
–       Jealous bridesmaid roast
–       Unity sand container breaks
–       Unity candles go out while trying to light it
–       Fist fights where location had to call in additional security
–       Flaky bridesmaids being flaky
–       Brides late
–       Grooms late
–       Groom at alter forgets his vow, awkward silence….
–     Groom refuses to take sunglasses off during the whole ceremony
–       Bride’s mom falls off the chair during the Hora
–       Really bad speeches
–       Mother-in-law after trying to plan the wedding, calling the bride a bitch, decides to wear a white dress to a wedding
–       1000 degrees in Redlands during August. Outdoor wedding not one umbrella or an ounce of shade.
–     Power goes out to the whole neighborhood
–     Sprinklers go off during a backyard wedding
–     Divorced parents getting upset at one another for bringing dates
When things go wrong I find brides handle it one of two ways.. They laugh it off and the party goes on or they get emotional cry and sometimes scream. Crying and screaming is generally a buzz kill. Guest tend to get freaked and want to leave.

Wedding Photographer, Wedding Tips

Unity Candle Tips

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Lighting a unity candle is an old wedding tradition. Typically there are three candles on a candle labra. Before the wedding ceremony the mother of the groom and the mother of the bride light two candles on either side of the labra. During the ceremony the bride and groom light the candle in the center using the two pre lit candles. The unity candle symbolizes two families joining together.  This is a tradition for an indoor ceremony.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen couples attempt to do the unity candle outdoors only to have the wind blow the candles out. Every single time I’ve seen it done in an outdoors ceremony the candles never stay lite. Trust me it’s a really awkward moment when a couple in the middle of their ceremony have their unity candles blow out because of the wind.
Which is why people started doing sand and wine ceremonies. Same exact concept except you don’t have to battle the elements and you avoid awkward moments.
I hope you find this helpful. I’ve been photographing weddings for years and have tons of experience in what works and doesn’t work for weddings.

Wedding Tips

Mc Weddings “I’m lovin it?”

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Last year a couple was married in a McDonalds in Hong Kong, China. Ever since this one wedding, McDonalds has been flooded with request from couples wanting a McWedding. So in China they put it on the menu.

McWedding packages include
– Personalized menu for up to a 100 guests
– McDonalds themed decorations
– and a special apple pie wedding cake

Prices starting at $1,280

Wedding Tips

Who’s dream wedding is this, anyway?

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Every bride should have their dream wedding, after all they’ve been planning this day their whole life. My approach with a wedding is only to help my brides dreams come true, as a result I spend a lot of time listening and helping them plan. Many times I find that I end up being the only person involved that wants whatever they want and I try and help them achieve it. Lately it seems like every one of my brides has someone else trying to take control over their wedding. Brides struggle not to hurt anyone’s feeling but there always comes a point where they simply have to say something.  I have a hard time understanding what so hard about simply just being happy for a couple and wanting them to be happy.