Weddingbee Blog

After I opened up to the idea of looking at photographers outside of my area, I was searching left, right, up, and down all over America for the right person for us. I wished someone would just hand me the perfect choice on a platter, because searching for photographers under rocks (also known as “flash websites”) was so time consuming and vexing! There are so many amazing talented photographers in the world, and I just wanted to find someone to love and trust!*

*Am I talking about a photographer here or a lover??

(Made via Cheezburger.com)

It only took a few weeks of crazy photographer searching before I was absolutely sick of flash websites with their godforsaken automatic music players interrupting my tunes. There’s not really a quick way to go through a myriad of flash portfolios, but when you open up a dozen portfolios in separate tabs and they ALL start playing their lame “heartfelt” music simultaneously, it’s enough to make a bride scream. I was already annoyed that it was taking me ages to flip through flash galleries with images loading at a snail’s pace, but the stereotypical mandatory music just pushed me over the edge. Sometimes if the song was bad enough, I would just close the portfolio and cross that photographer off the list like a stubborn baby.

“I’m not looking at that portfolio for one. more. second!” / Image via tvgasm

If I made it through an online gallery without giving up and I really liked the photographer’s work, I would contact them to see some entire weddings that they’d shot so I could really get a feel for what they could do. After I sorted through a few weddings with hundreds of photos…I realized that I would often judge a photographer mainly on their ceremony shots (the kiss) and the cake tasting. Lovely detail shots like shoes, rings, and centerpieces are wonderful…but they are also a lot easier to take than critical moments like the kiss and the cake tasting. Are these two shots the most important to me? No, not really…but I kept gravitating towards these images and thinking, “Oh no, this photographer didn’t even get a cake shot! Pass!” or “These ceremony shots are all dark and blurry. Skip!”

I had a pretty clear idea of my price comfort zone and had no problem telling a photographer that they were beyond my price point. But sometimes I would tell a photographer with a $2.5k package that they were too expensive for me simply because I didn’t think their portfolio was good enough for me to spend that much money. Another photographer could be two thousand bucks more and I would consider them if their photos were truly breathtaking. Like I said previously, I wasn’t afraid to pay for something I loved…but if the photos weren’t what I was looking for then the price point always seemed way too high.

Fiiiinally, I was close to making a decision between two photographers. (And you were hoping for some photos in this post, right? Well get ready…) I’m not saying these guys are the two best photographers in the world, but after all my searching, these are the two I was deciding between when I wanted to make a decision. I could have searched for many more months and stressed over it continually, but I wanted this decision to be taken care of, so I got down to business.

Ed Pingol Photography: I’m not sure how exactly I found Ed, but his imaginative photos made me really, really want a cathedral-length veil. Even though I’m borrowing a veil from my sister-in-law, Ed’s photos keep me second guessing this idea! One year later…I’m still not sure if I should get one. Sigh. They are so pretty!

Ed is a master of light who shoots every wedding with an assistant who works as a second shooter and helps Ed with lighting to get shots like the one above. He’s also super friendly and Skype-knowledgeable!

Ed’s photos can be described as modern, bright, sharp, and very colorful.

Cake-cutting photos? Check! (Look at her slam him above. Priceless!)

Ed has a crazy-safe backup system for his photos, and I was beyond excited when he said he has not one, but TWO Canon 200mm 2.0 lenses in his arsenal. Uh…drool. Crazy long and wide lenses like that mean that he’s able to get in close during the ceremony when he needs to keep his distance and still take sharp photos like the ones below.

I’m really bad at narrowing down photos, but here are a “few” to help you get the idea of his photography style:

Ed gets all the details of your wedding as you can see in his flowers gallery.

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Ed also takes some amazing ring shots. Go check his rings and blings gallery out!

Ed also does some pretty banging TTD shoots, which is what first caught my attention when I saw his site. They have me fantasizing about our own TTD possibilities…

Timwill Photography: Someone in the hive mentioned Timwill, and I stumbled upon his portfolio. It is possibly the ONLY wedding portfolio website in the world that I have listened to, loved, and appreciated the music on the site. In fact, you should start playing it right now before you read any further. Really. It is perfect.

“The Winner Is” - Mychael Danna and DeVotchKa (As I know it from Little Miss Sunshine)

Tim works out of Charleston, North Carolina and sometimes works with his wife, although less now as they have two young boys to take care of. (Aren’t you really enjoying the music by now?) When he travels, he works alone with his trusty Nikon. Gasp…the other camera company?!

Tim’s photos have some kind of quaint nostalgia surrounding them. He combines something old and new with his genius ability to capture emotions on camera.

And yes, don’t worry…he has adequate cake photos, too. I don’t know why…I get upset when photographers don’t have any cake pictures in their gallery. They’re not even that important to me!? But look how darn cute the couple is below. Timeless!

Tim also pretty often and strongly uses tilt shift lenses in his photography, which I’m a huge fan of. Shortly after this whole photographer search was started, I broke down and bought my own TS-E because I love the blur so much!

Tim also shoots fashion work pretty often, which I think is pretty dang cool. And explains why so many women in his gallery are model-like gorgeous…!

Do you have any key shots that you wanted to know your photographer was good at capturing? And does automatic music on websites drive anyone else completely nuts??

*Photos by Ed Pingol Photography or Timwill unless noted*