Weddingbee Blog

When we talked about hiring a photographer we were certain we’d go the friendor route. Since Mr. Sunbeam works in advertising, he has no lack of friends with sick photography skills. For instance, here is a photo by a coworker, Jess, taken on a random boating trip.

I love it! With friendors in mind, our photographer was checked off the list. Fast-forward to February, 7 months until the wedding. I ask Mr. Sunbeam when he’s going to workout the friendor thing. Suddenly, he had a change of heart and thought we should hire someone. After restraining myself from shaking him wildly, I did too.

We decided we want our friends to enjoy the day, and not have the weight of capturing all our special moments singly on their shoulders. Heaven forbid if something went wrong and we’d have had to swallow our frustration or take it out on a coworker! So, at seven months out I hunted for a photographer like a mad woman and finagled some numbers to fit it in our budget. Let me tell you, it was really difficult to find someone near Western PA with mad skills at 7 months out. Book early! Finally, the clouds parted when RAD Photography in Cleveland replied, saying that they had an opening for our date. Here’s a peek at some of their work. *All photos are taken from RAD’s site.*

RAD Photography was started up by a husband and wife team (I believe his initials spell R-A-D). Now, the husband and wife were booked, sigh, BUT they had another trusted photographer, Mark, on their team that we could hire, along with a second photographer/assistant for a slightly discounted price. Well, we needed a photographer, but was Mark as RAD? I’ll save that for another post!

Let me leave you with one more thing from RAD that was really awesome. They sometimes use these special effects for editing photos. Here are some *screen captures* from this site.  And don’t forget to try this set out, too:

Original photo:

and now with the “Cinnamon Toast” effect:

Cool, right? It’s fun to see how all the different effects change the mood of the photos. I’m definitely picking out my faves to point out to our photographer, whom I’ll be introducing you to later!

What’s your take on friendors? Did you have a change of heart about hiring a friendor? If you’re playing around with the photo editing site, what’s your favorite effect?