Weddingbee

Note how I look like I have a weird, uncomfortable smile in this picture:

It’s because I felt weird and uncomfortable! There were a couple of tourists checking out the view from the cave behind James, and suddenly I looked up and realized one of them was taking my picture!

Me: “Why are you taking my picture?”

Him: “Because you don’t see this every day!”

Me (thinking): “That’s really weird and uncomfortable.”

After awhile at the Sutro Baths, we decided to move on. The cold was just too much to take…so we went into Golden Gate Park and got some more pictures done there. Here are a few:

Getting on this log was harder than it looks:

Rolling over on this log was even harder!

Whoa! I’m smiling! One of the few!

James described the photos as “moody,” which I think is a really good description. Considering I am generally very wacky, it was kind of cool to do something different! And of course, James was really great. Thanks for this opportunity, James!
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I was fortunate enough to stumble upon Travis’ Photography Blog surfing the internet one day. He was photographing a bride I happened to be blog-stalking that day, and if you’ve ever met a Hoehne, it’s not a name that you soon forget! Travis and I happened to grow up in the same hometown, went to middle and high school together and even swam on the same summer swim leagues, and once I saw his work I was floored! Travis has grown to become quite the most amazing artist. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t the only one who’s noticed. I called him to shoot my wedding but he had just been snapped up by another lucky couple for my wedding date.

Despite the fact that he won’t be our wedding photographer, Mr. Penguin and I had the wonderful opportunity to have Travis shoot some engagement photos of us in the city we love most in the world, San Francisco. It was quite the harrowing weekend - my trusty old Subaru broke down, and I left all my makeup at my parents house in Sacramento! With it being Easter Sunday, no one was around to give me a professional makeover. I had to scrape by with foundation, a set of false lashes, eyeshadow, lipgloss and my own clumsy hand….wow!

Mr. Penguin laughed because he said I looked like I had 2 sets of eyelashes (because I didn’t have a curler for my real lashes). It was quite the blow to my confidence not having my trusty old arsenal of primping products, but luckily, with a photog as talented as Travis, who needs makeup?
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I can’t really express how much I appreciate and recommend my photographer, he has been nothing but sweet and honest with the Caramels. It’s not just being a great photographer, but it’s also really about them wanting the best pictures possible for your special day. The process of wedding photography can be really aggravating with the wrong person, especially if you lack communication and end up with pictures that you didn’t like.

Some sample pages of the Caramel album:

Here are some examples of Before & After shots with my suggestions.

Before: (Boooring….but you need to have these pictures!)

After: (I loved showing what a crazy big family I have and also what a crazy day it was!)

Before: (I really wanted a fun looking album with our BMs & GMs and not have this page focus so much on the bride & groom)

After:

Before:

After:

Did anyone else ask for changes on their wedding album layouts?
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Here’s a sunset shot of where I sometimes go to experience primal fear and terror. As you can see, the Leica does nicely in low light, still capturing the palest shades of pink:

I had a long-standing love affair with my old APS Elph, partly because it had a wide angle option. So I was psyched to find that the Leica D-Lux has a 16:9 aspect ratio (along with 4:3 and 3:2). This should come in very handy taking in the landscapes on our Irish honeymoon (la-tee-tee-ta-ta!):

Can you believe how much snow we get in Tucson? Ha. I wish. These are from a quick ski trip we snuck in last weekend.

Barns are exotic to me, ok? Don’t hate. Also exotic are treescapes:

Something else I’m loving about this camera is how fast the shutter is. It captures action shots even when the subject is one who absolutely never stays still because she’s so busy hopping around being so cute it’s redonk:

I’m coming from a Canon Powershot that always seemed to take dark, blurry, poor quality pics. So the stability of the Leica is a huge bonus for me. And speaking of action shots, check out THE MADNESS that is this next shot. We gave our English mastiff puppy a few licks of lollipop, hoping to generate a good drool pool. Well, um, we got it:

I can’t believe how sharp the shot came out. His tongue was on flick overdrive!

What’s that? You want yet another gratuitous cute pet photo? Ok, fine. BUT JUST ONE MORE.

I call this “Interlude”.

Overall, I’m pleased as pickles with the Leica, though I’ve still got loads to learn before the honeymoon. I should also add that the super crisp detail shots I took of our invitations were taken with it. Plus, I’m a sucker for design (especially German), and I love the aesthetics of this bad boy:

Note the nice, big display. The Leica also has over a dozen special settings, including the yet-to-be-tried “soft-skin” mode (but I call it Barbara Walters mode).

Anyway, so far I’d have to say top (deutsch) marks all around for the Leica!
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Because our budget has… ehem… blown way out of proportion as compared to its earliest conception, I haven’t scheduled a boudoir shoot. Taking some pictures before getting dressesd seems like a wonderful alternative - I just wouldn’t be able to give Mr. Shortcake the photographs as a wedding present on the day of.

What do you think? Do any of you know of any affordable (and awesome) boudoir-shooters in Vancouver?
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Since we booked Sam on an impulse, she’s won two WPJA awards, a Brides magazine award, and- justifiably- raised her prices. She’s a bargain at any price though, and she travels- check her out!

Here are just a few of my favorites:

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I will have these babies printed as postcards through Vistaprint, but I’m waiting until about a month and a half before the wedding–I’m paranoid that Yahoo! will change their uploading methods and then my instructions (which will be printed on the back) will be useless.

I feel like a super big jerk, though, because I got my inspiration from a girl on the knot, but I cannot for the life of me remember what her bio name was! Please, someone remind me and I will post it. This was her card:

For those of you who are looking to do something similar, here’s the text I wrote on the back, with the upload instructions:

“To Upload Your Photos:

1. Go to http://www.flickr.com (don’t forget, there’s no “e” in flickr!). Click “Sign In” on the top right.
2. For Yahoo! ID, enter “USERNAME” and the password is “PASSWORD”
3, Click “Upload Photos” at the top of the right column.
4. Click “Choose Photos” and browse your computer for your images. Upload as many as you are willing by clicking the “Add More” link.
5. Click the “Upload Photos” button. You can describe the photos if you’d like to, but if you don’t have time, don’t worry about it!

Thank you!

To check out everyone else’s photos from the proposal, rehearsal and wedding, visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/USERNAME“

Sometimes it can take awhile to get your pro photos–hopefully this will make the wait a little easier!
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I have a great love for candid photography. Here are a few of my own shots, and I love how even candids can have almost pre-meditated composition and portrait-type feels to them. I try to convey to people that I don’t want every photograph of my wedding day to be serene and picture-perfect, like the photographer is holding their breath and waiting for that moment that conveys the bride’s tranquility while she’s in quiet thought. I want photos of me being stressed out. I want photos that convey tension, that accurately convey all the emotion that is going on throughout the day. But they just don’t get it.

My parents look at the image below of my aunt and uncle at a wedding, a photo which I love because it carries such emotion in a way you might describe a painting or any piece of art, but they think it’s just terribly unflattering. I think a photo like this would have likely been tossed out in the editing process from a wedding collection that a photographer presented to the bride. But I still love it, and hey - my wedding photos are for me, and I’m sure at the 500-1000 some odd images that photographers are able to pump out throughout the day there will be plenty of “normal” photos to satisfy the parents.

Photojournalism seems to be a big bridal craze, but more than one book I’ve read has touched on the fact that many brides think that they want a photojournalistic approach to capture the day just as it unfolds and don’t see the merit in posing against a fake backdrop with the studio lights set just so, but then they are let down when they realize they missed out on the “formals.” Granted, I think most seasoned wedding photographers out there that tout a photojournalistic approach do allow time for formals, and do manage to pull them off wonderfully in more natural settings; it’s something to keep in mind to make sure of and to allow time for even if just for 20 or 30 minutes.

And just to prove that not all my candid shots have the subject doing a stare down of sorts with the camera, here are a couple more, again with a bit of an emotional charge to them, but in a more light-hearted sense:

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I don’t even know where to begin with researching, now that there is just so much out there to choose from. I’d like something somewhat compact that I can fit into a purse, and speed, zoom and clarity are my next big priorities. Can anyone out there in the hive recommend a great camera that has met your standards, and may just meet mine?
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