Bridal advice in under 5 minutes
What would I tell a bride & groom about their wedding day if I only had five minutes with them.
So this is a little advice from all across your wedding day board. Some of it is stuff you know and some other stuff you don't. Hopefully this is helpful and you can incorporate some of this into your day.
This is a blog i've wanted to do forever. I'm usually working or if i'm not doing that i'm working, so I haven't had a chance yet to actually sit down and pen this one. What would I tell a bride & groom if we were trapped in an elevator and I had five minutes to tell them any tips for their wedding day. I’ve attempted to write this in a coherent way which follows the timeline of a wedding day but some of it may only be snippets of a thought. Regardless, I hope you enjoy this.
Your wedding day goes fast. The more moving parts you have, the more details, the more planned mini events you have for the day, the more stressful. If you're a bride put someone in charge of checking on flowers, following up with the guys to make sure they're on schedule.
If it's possible don't get ready at multiple locations. Okay hair and make-up, then we go to moms for the bridesmaids to get their dresses on and then we go to the location to get my dress on. The guys are getting ready at Mark's and Tim is getting ready at Donny's house and we'll all meet at Rob's house and head over. I kid you not, this happens. Your friends and family will be late if you're counting on them to be in a certain place at a certain time. So if you can get your hair and makeup done and dress on at the location, do it. Relax. Netflix and chill....? Okay wrong phrase, that's how you got into this. Second piece of advice on this, get ready at a hotel. You can save a few dollars by getting ready at home but you’ll have to contend with a dozen or more people in your house before your wedding and guaranteed that after the wedding you’ll both be the ones putting everything back together and cleaning up. Stay in a hotel, make everyone chip in if you want. Wherever you choose to get ready don’t forget to bring some tunes, better yet a bluetooth speaker to compliment your spotify playlist.
Where you get ready will be a mess, a disaster, the opposite of organized. Keep your stuff together. Keep the important stuff together even more so. If you're the bride then it really helps if you have the rings, flowers, shoes, and any details with you. The photographer will be with you most of the morning (like me, if you're lucky). This means you can get all these detail shots done relatively quickly and have more candids taken of you.
Buy a nice hanger for your dress. Most places will only give you a plastic hanger (.14 cents) for your priceless wedding dress. If you went to a higher end wedding boutique they will most likely give you a nice one. So back to what I said, buy a nice hanger with your names and date on it or a pearly one.
The bride should get her hair and make-up done somewhere in the middle of the all the bridesmaids. If anything needs to be corrected you will have plenty of time to do so. This also leads to more photos before the wedding. Also consider doing a first look for photos, google it. This basically means you can do a majority of your photos before the wedding even begins and have a special moment with your spouse and maybe your mom or dad. You’ll also be able to enjoy a little bit of cocktail hour with everyone.
If you're the groom then make sure all your guys get to where they need to be on time. You only need about twenty minutes to get ready. Make sure to check your tux the day before to make sure you have pants, shirt, shoes and that everything fits. There is a popular mens wear provider that I have noticed regularly forgets something or messes up. I've seen nightmares happen.
This is one day where you could potentially put your friend in charge of your phone and actually relax. Do it, take advantage of having a secretary for the day. They can take messages and do your bidding. Don’t try and take charge of your day by running around and fixing things, make calls, ask friends, tell people what you need, this is your day!
If you're the bride or groom's mother, chill. Let them enjoy the day. Sometimes a task-master shows up to your wedding day and will work up the bride or groom. I’ve had mothers of the bride and groom stand there and ask me questions throughout the day which is fine but takes away from my time coordinating with the bride or groom, a wedding planner or the venue’s coordinator. Another big thingI want everyone to know on their wedding day is someone will drop the ball (a tiny ball usually), there will be a small mishap or two (lost pin for a boutonnière or the color of the napkins is off or a microphone cuts out for a second during a speech) but at the end of the day you will be married and none of your guests will know anything happened. BTW, have a little present for your parents on your wedding day, i've seen this happen and it means the world to them. It's your day but it shows when you take a moment to reflect and say Thanks! :)
Write a letter, scribble down those feelings and make your significant other cry. This will make their day a little bit more special. Maybe include a gift, a bracelet they've wanted or a watch he eyed before. The letter are great because you can save them or have a photo taken of them and have this little moment bottled forever.
Booze will take the edge off, if you're nervous then have your favorite drink; make it a double. It's your wedding day and you can get away with murder. But seriously, ice cream for breakfast, do it; it's your day.
You want to try the dress on ASAP and put it through a little stress test to make sure it doesn’t fall apart, go over every inch. Dresses will come undone in certain areas or glue isn’t enough or a loose stitch here or there. You don't have to have your dress on two hours before the wedding but you want to make sure you have enough time to go over everything before it’s game time.. You should know that everything fits the way it's suppose to. Make sure you have enough time for error to happen, stitches to be made, pins to be pinned. Make sure your bridesmaids know how to hook a button or do a corset type back. Make sure you and a friend know how to stitch before your wedding day. I once watched a bride spend fifty minutes having friends attempt to stitch a problem area following the wedding, it was cringe-worthy. Bring scissors and a sewing kit and know how to use it.
Wedding time
We're not teenagers anymore and having a flask bulging through your pocket during a wedding or subtly showing it to your friends during the wedding is tacky. If you have a flask or bottle make sure it's not showing through your pockets for photos. Make sure cell phones are turned to vibrate.
While we would love the phone and iPad free weddings we know people are not always going to abide by your rules. Buy some silk and use it to keep friends and family from stepping into the isle during your wedding. Just string it down the altar closing off people from entering and exiting here, they can enter elsewhere. This works for backyard weddings and churches. I've had plenty of times where a kiss is about to happen and an aunt or uncle or friend steps into the middle of isle and holds up an iPad. This will only prevent everyone from stepping into the isle, cell phone and iPad free weddings just translate to the guest sticking their phones in the air to record the wedding. This may be very annoying but in their minds they’re just doing it so they can send you a nice video of your wedding or a nice picture afterwards most likely.
Keep on schedule as much as possible but remember that you are the bride and groom and what you say.. goes. You can be late here and there and the vendors will work with that as best as possible. If the whole day runs behind though then maybe the food has already been cooking now gets dry or the DJ & photographer's schedule is off. I have seen a minister start a wedding before the entire bridal party and guests had arrived because she had another wedding to attend. I've seen a reception on the opposite side of the building kick off during written vows, both weddings were suppose to happen at the same time but ours ran late. I'll always remember the Valquez wedding that was opposite the wedding I was shooting. It took the employees who worked there about four minutes to get the music turned down for the wedding to continue. This venue did make up for it and they redid their vows
During the ceremony take your time walking down the isle, soak it in, smile, get awesome photos , look at your dad, take a peak around the room briefly. Once you’re standing up there don’t forget to keep a smile on that face (shouldn’t be that hard). Don’t think about other things while you’re up there, look in the mirror at your face when you’re thinking about something (it looks like you’re concerned or pissed at the worst). Take your time putting the ring on your spouse, don’t slip it on and let go of their hand. Hold their hand and slowly put it on, more photos!
Formals & Reception
If you want to have good photos during the formals then smile, make sure the bridal party is smiling. Make sure everyone is having fun. Most people's default face is not smiling, it's thinking, worried or aimless. We all know the resting bitch face, this also applies to the guys. They only have to smile for a little bit. Do shots before, give everyone candy, promise a five dollar bill, get that smile happening. During group photos or any formal photos… stand up straight! It's not time for selfies and if you angle your neck or arch a certain way because you think it looks good when you do it in selfie then your photos will look like you have a medical condition. Focus on my camera and not the Ipad or Iphone next to me, I promise that my photos will be much better. If you focus on the phone camera instead of me, then you might look a little wonky in the photo. One more big thing, stop talking and look forward when the photos are being taken. It’s easy for me to get the bride and groom to focus because we’ve spent time together the whole day and also during the engagement session and have a report, but family members and friends sometimes want to joke around and look around the room during these photos. When I sort through the photos the biggest thing i’m looking for in formal photos are the bride and groom smiling, looking forward and making good eye contact. If your family member happens to have their mouth open in four out of the six pictures then there is a good chance that it will make the final cut… an open mouth.
During the reception, the bouquet toss, cake cutting, garter belt.. it helps break up the night. Otherwise it's eating and occasionally dancing. A fun DJ will keep things going but get everyone involved with games when possible, the DJ will usually work in a few fun things.
Yes, cake smashing in each others face. At this point the wedding is eighty percent over. All the formal photos have been taken and you know that heavy duty make-up that you put on is meant to last the day and also repels cake. This will look awesome for your photos, highly suggest it. How this works is he feeds you first and then you feed him followed by a kiss. Somewhere in there work out who's smashing but keep in mind there is the kiss afterwards. Your friends and family will appreciate this.
You have to options for thanking everyone, receiving line or visiting everyone at their tables during the reception. Both take time, you don’t have to do both or either if you don’t want. If you’re going to visit tables then have the photographer go with you and be the bad guy (photographer: okay guys, move it along we have to get photos over here). This way you can visit everyone, get a photo with everyone and eventually be able to sit down eat or go and dance.
Last piece of advice. Relax, enjoy your wedding day. Big picture, you're getting married and the flowers, the favors, the seating and the schedule don't matter in the end. It's you and your fiancé tying the knot. (drop the mic). But seriously i've had just as much fun at a backyard wedding as I have had at a top floor hotel wedding on Boston.
Additional notes
If you do a photo where your dad or mom is giving you a kiss on the cheek or vice versa then make sure to actually give them a kiss or have them give you a kiss. If you don't connect then the photo literally looks like your smelling someones face.
When your doing group photos don't put your arms around peoples shoulders unless their a good friend. Family and loved ones put their hands on peoples lower backs. Shoulders are for friends, backs are for loved ones. Think about a bride and groom with their arms around each others neck and shoulders, they look like buddies not a bridal couple. If you put your arm around someones back then make sure your hand doesn't poke out around the opposite side of them. This makes your hand stand out and looks like a random phantom hand.
Once reception starts you can switch to some flats. If your feet hurt then switch out the heels for flats, all the formal photos have been completed. You can always keep them on for the dance with your groom or your dad but enjoy your day and be comfortable. Most of the photos taken at a reception aren't of peoples faces.
The next day if you have wedding photos to post, you do not have to post every single one. Enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame and post over the next few weeks. As far as anyone knows you are being fed pictures from the photographer, friends and family and just want to share the photos, they don’t know you are sitting on a mountain of fun wedding photos. Not going to lie, it’s pretty fun to brag about a wedding by trickling out photos.
Don’t try new skin treatments before a wedding, you don’t want to be orange or have a rash on your face or super shiny skin on your wedding day. Think twice about spray tans also. If you want to be tan then start working on it the natural way or a tanning salon.
During the reception if you’re getting your photo taken then hide the booze. You don’t want a beautiful photo ruined by a bud light can or your arm around someone with a glass of some brown liquid.
Your photographer, DJ, wedding coordinator can be your. personal bad guy. If you don’t like the way someones behaving then you can have the DJ or MC make an announcement to stop a certain behavior or the wedding coordinator to pull someone aside. I have on plenty of occasions been told about “trouble” people and given authority to be a dick to them if they acted up.
Guys, if you have a pocket square then learn how to fold them before hand. They don’t all have to be perfect but they should all match. If you have a bow tie and are going to be fancy then do a clip on bow tie. Learn how to tie a tie though, that’s easy and you should know how to do that.
Moms, the girls most likely don’t need huge sandwiches before the wedding. Snack food is the best, cheese, grapes, hummus. This keeps everyone feeling light and full.
Moms, the guys will eat whatever you out for them. :)
If you have kids then plan on things not going according to plan as far as smiles, tantrums and regular behavior. Have a treat for them, a cool new toy and something to preoccupy them with.
Advice from a Make-up Artist.
Melissa Macgrory extension cord. I bring one but some may not which can be a life saver for airbrush or hair people. The hotel will usually bring one up for you. - Usuallly the guys are in one room and girls in another... girls should pick the one with the better natural light. I did a wedding once and the bride was in a room facing the inside of the hotel that had no good light but the grooms men’s room was bright as could be
For information on booking call 508-471-0069 or visit my contact page
What's in Mike's bag
Way past due for writing about this photographer favorite topic. What's in my bag will shock, amaze and surprise you, kidding of course. I just though you might find it interesting to find out about some of my equipment that I use at a wedding. I pretty much bring everything in the photo that I posted minus maybe one or two lenses.
So this blog entry will be nothing but gear lust with the exception of me actually explaining "What's in my bag" a little bit deeper than other posts i've have seen. So just for you to keep in mind, I do not bring every little piece of equipment I own for each shoot. This would be very very hard because I have a lot of equipment. I really love having lots of different lenses and equipment for every situation. I don't rent equipment usually, I would much rather purchase and own the equipment for the next time I have a similar shoot.
The equipment i'm listing here is equipment that will come with me to a wedding. I do have different breakdowns of equipment for each type of shoot. I'm not going to give a breakdown for each shoot I do and what I would bring. It all depends on the client and what they're looking for. Sometimes I'll bring just a 50mm 1.2 lens and my backup body and no flash.
This should be interesting for brides, grooms and fellow photographers. Feel free to post any questions below and I will make sure to follow up with the questions directly or by editing this post to include that information.
Sorry for the low quality of this photo. With all my cameras in the photo i was forced to use my iphone and some harsh post processing on a random photo app.
Canon EOS M3
So this little camera is always with me. This is a backup camera to have with me in case my shutter box or mirror assembly fails on my main camera. Those are the two parts that will F up any photographer's day. Just means it's time to spend seven hundred dollars to have your camera rebuilt. This little mirrorless camera has an adapter so that I can attach any of my L (luxury oo la la) lenses with complete autofocus. This camera can also fit in my glovebox or pocket.
Canon 5D MKIV
This is my work horse, my main camera to shoot events and weddings. The picture quality and pedigree now surpass the top of the line Canon. This camera also incorporates two card slots which allow me to have redundant data or an overflow for data. I don't even use the battery grip attachment most times with this camera because it feels soo good in my hand as is. Excellent in low light and very reliable.
Canon 50mm 1.2
I love this lens for the fact of it shooting at 1.2. Lots of beautiful bokeh and also the fact of being able to pull focus of subjects in a scene and the ability to shoot anywhere. Light will not affect where you shoot with this baby. One of the reasons I like using this lens is even when there is a scene that's not exciting to me, I know a bride will love the photo because of the bokeh (the blurriness in the background). Great for detail shots and portraits. This is also awesome for street photography.
Canon 85mm 1.2
Still getting use to this bad boy. I've found this to be an excellent lens for portraits and details. Some photographers don't think this lens pairs well with flash and I don't really get that. The aspect ratio that it shows is so tight that it has a unique feel to it when you see it. It stands out is what i'm trying to say. This lens will break subjects from their backgrounds and performs admirably in low light conditions.
Canon 16-35mm 2.8
Okay, this should be in every photographer's bag. Most times I only have two or three lenses in my bag but this is always a constant. This is a wide angle lens that is great for architecture, group photos and perspective. When i'm using this lens I always have it right at 16mm a hundred percent of the time. I'll use this in abandoned buildings as well as weddings. When you use this for dance floors it makes the room look amazingly huge. With a fixed 2.8 aperture you can also use this in a lot of low light conditions.
Canon 200mm 1.8
So you might be googling this by now, but yes a 1.8 aperture on a 200mm lens. This lens is a unicorn and I own it. I use this for portraits and also sneaky shots during receptions. The bokeh in the shots you'll get are buttery and smooth. I also love this lens because it lets bystanders know that a serious photographer is in the room and don't interrupt him. This isn't a lens you can pick up at Best Buy.
Canon 90mm 2.8 TSE
Okay, what's a TSE? Tilt shift lens! This is basically a fifteen hundred dollar instagram filter ready to go. I can get magical photos during ceremonies and during the right conditions I can make everyone look miniature or odd. The way that everyone may look a little but odd is because this is a perspective control lens and it you can manually correct people, buildings into the correct aspect which your eye is not accustomed to see in photos. This piece of kit makes me stand out from other photographers because the only other way another photographer can compete is to photoshop an image. This is a manually focused lens and it tilts, shifts and you can also rotate these two functions for a variety of compositions.
ENELOOP AA batteries
I highly suggest these batteries. They are low discharge which means the last forever in your bag and also don't pull too much battery when you're firing your flash non-stop. I can get almost a complete wedding on one set of batteries if i'm being careful with my usage. But usually i'm bringing around fifty batteries with special battery holders that allow me to designate empty or full batteries. These batteries are recognizable by their white exterior. I use rechargeable because I don't like throwing away batteries constantly and they work well with my Titanium 16 bay battery charger which will drain and refill all my batteries. I have close to a hundred AA Eneloop batteries at home in the event that I have three weddings on a weekend which does happen a few times a year.
Canon 5D MKIII
This is my secondary camera on a shoot. It still holds up despite it's age. This is a full frame camera which means lots and lots of data and pixels captured. This will also perform in a rain storm (at least for awhile as i've found out).
Canon 70-200mm 2.8 II
A photographer's must have. This lens is a tele-photo which means I can get in nice and tight for portraits. This allows lots of different options for composition and also sneaking those special moments that unfold at weddings. The built in stabilization on this lens means I can get to twentieth of a second and still get some sharpness two out of three shots. This is built tough and made to last a lot longer than the camera bodies that will trade kisses with it over time. I do suggest buying top of the line when it comes to purchasing a 70-200 as there is a version I and also optional variants without stabilization and an f4 version which won't let in as much light and additionally won't have that sweet bokeh.
Canon 35mm 1.4
This is a new addition to my gear closet. Similar to my Canon 50 but it allows for even closer focus with the same level of sharpness and close to the same aperture. I like this lens for detail shots, food photography and the occasional group photo. I prefer this lens to my Canon 16-35mm when shooting at 35. Wonderful for low light as you might imagine. This lens is usually on my camera because I shoot such a variety of subjects throughout the week and this is a good walk around lens.
Canon 100mm 2.8
This lens is soo much fun that it feels like a toy. This lens can double as a portrait lens and macro. Most time's i'm using this lens which does have built in stabilization for detail shots like wedding bands, flowers and anything else miniature that is within reach. Paired with a flash you can get tack sharp images. This is an ultimate lens for food photography.
Canon 8-15 f4
Okay, this lens is a toy. The only reason I have this lens is because i've always wanted a fisheye and a cheap Rokinon fisheye lens wouldn't cut it for me. So here I am with a twelve hundred dollar fisheye lens. This lens also has a correction in Lightroom where you can correct it to a non circular or warped image. I have this lens because I have some brides and grooms that go nuts over how this looks in their photos. It's great for when you have unique architecture and also when you have too many people in a group. I also love using this for dancing photos at the reception because I can hold the camera in someone's face and no one can get in-between the lens and that person. I also have this lens because it does attract new customers because everyone seems to love a fisheye for it's distortion. It's a fun lens to let people play around with. It's also great for dance photos because of how close you have to get it to your subject, no one can get in-between you.
Canon 135mm f2
This is the king of the red rings. Amazing portrait lens with aspirations to be a marco lens. I throw this on during wedding ceremonies sometimes because of it's low light capabilities. I'm pleased with the bokeh on this and sharpness although I need to spend a little bit more time with this lens. I bought this because soo many photographers rave about this lens. This is a relativity inexpensive lens as well.
Canon 600EX-RT
I'm no natural light photographer, i'm pushing my boundaries and adding flash to my photography. I want to create the most amazing photos and sometime's that takes a little bit of flare. The reason I love this flash is how powerful it is and also the ability to control other flashes by radio signal. In the past you could control another flash by infrared, optically slave or using triggers like Pocket Wizards and CyberSyncs. I have two of these flashes and they are on top of both cameras during my wedding seasons.
Yongnuo 600EX-RT
This name looks a little familiar to the Canon 600EX-RT because it is exactly the same thing Maybe minus a few internal components which make it a little less expensive. This flash unit also works with radio signals and will communicate with the Canon 600EX-RT. These are a little nicer for me to put in various places at weddings without the worry of having them break, tip over or any overuse. I have six of these flashes and they are my work horses at wedding receptions and anytime a flash needs to be placed in harms way.
Yongnuo YN-E3-RT
This is a controller or trigger for the Canon & Yongnuo 600's. The reason why I use the knock off brand of Yongnuo vs the Canon brand is because this particular unit has a infrared assist beam allowing focus in dark areas. Basically an invisible beam shoots out, hits it's target and relays the distance back to the camera and focus achieved. I use this during some shoots where I'm using more controlled light.
Spyder holster
So this is a holster for your camera. You attach a small ball to the bottom of your camera and this allows your camera to be placed into a holster either on an incorporated belt system or a belt add on for your own personal belt. I like this because my camera sits a bit closer to my body than the R Strap would typically. There is a bigger margin of error if you're busy, tired or careless when putting your camera into this. I highly suggest picking up one of these. This allows me to look suave at weddings and always draws a little bit of attention to my new fangled toys.
Memory cards
So this may go without saying but memory cards. Every wedding season I purchase new cards because I am so worried about card failure. I have procedures that prevent this like multiple cards in my camera to record redundant data, backing up photos asap and additionally new cards every season. I take the old cards and retire them and use them for personal use or sell them outright. Every card also has a custom label on it in the event that it gets dropped. The label has my phone number, name, website.
Business cards
I always have business cards for future brides and grooms. When i'm at a wedding i'm not only taking photos, i'm also performing for the guests. Part of getting your photos taken is not just someone slinking around the background, it's someone who will take charge and get you the best photos. When you're taking charge and organizing people for photos or spending time with a little person to get a cute photo of them, people notice. So I always have around fifty or so business cards with me. I use ninety nine cent clear plastic business card holders from the Container store. I put multiple packs of business cards in each bag because I never want to be without these. Please put some thought into your business cards, make them memorable. Here's a little bit about mine.
R Strap
You really need free hands at a wedding and for this reason I use an R Strap. The main reason I need my hands free is usually organizing people and that's with big hand movements, kidding. But I regularly will do mirror posing to show a bride how to stand or i'll need my hands free to move things. The R Strap also allows me the freedom of letting my hands take a break from holding the camera. You do have to make sure that your mounting screw is tight in the bottom of your camera and that the carabiner is locked in place. Myself and friends have had a drop before of our gear, nothing serious, but it happens.
So all this gear is fun to own but getting it from place to place requires a bag, a padded bag, a padded bag with locks on it, a padded bag with locks and wheels on the bottom with a luggage handle, a hiking bag for rougher terrain, a shoulder bag for more low key events, a bag that hugs my back for urban locations or exploration. I'm not going to include all of my bags, only my most used.
Thinktank International V2 Airport security - This will hold most of my gear and also has zippers that will lock into a special area on the bag with a combination. This bag also has a metal leash which I can wrap around posts to lock my bag into an area. Wheels on the bottom of the bag and a retractable handle for dragging it through airports. This is great for weddings as a base station for my gear.
ThinkTANK Airport Commuter - Basically this is the same as the Airport security minus the extra security options. This is my main bag, black and low key and able to hold most of my gear. Fits my fifteen inch MacBook Pro as well. So two bodies, two flashes, five lenses and a few accessories.
ThinkTANK Retrospective 7 shoulder bag - I love this bag for planes because I can put all my gear in another carry on and use this as my personal bag. Once at my location this can be used as my bag for venturing around the city. I usually will only put three lenses and a body in here but also comfortably fits my 15 inch MacBook pro. The front flap can be adjusted to lock with velcro or without velcro for more stealthy removal. The side pockets fit a water bottle but are better sized for smaller accessible items like a flash light. In the middle my camera and a lens such as the 70-200 and the orbiting interior pockets will hold a 16-35mm and maybe a 50mm.
Wedding workflow
So this post is geared towards photographers out there, specifically wedding photographers. This is my workflow. It's simple and it works. I basically import, sort and process. This is a little bit technical and you'll appreciate it this only if you know Lightroom or are planning on getting Lightroom.
So this post is purely for photographers, maybe geared more towards wedding photographers perhaps. This is not going to be a blog where I incorporate lots of visual aids, i'm not a Buzzfeed article. If you know Lightroom or have just started using it then you will be able to follow along. If you're a bride or groom and don't know what Lightroom is then this probably isn't for you.
So what I concentrate on is keeping things simple. It can be very easy to misplace a photo if you don't know what you're doing in Lightroom. You can add a filter that doesn't show certain types of flagged photos or you might not have photos from 2016 or 2015 included and miss a photo that you needed asap. Okay, so i'll go through everything from the beginning.
So first off, any of my edits have usually been thirty seconds or less on a photo. I'm working with four thousand photos when shooting a wedding and between sorting, processing and delivering I have gotten pretty efficient. I'm mentioning this because I want you to understand that I don't treat my catalog like a golden goose. If my catalog becomes corrupt or has an issue and I have to restart from scratch, it won't be the end of the world. I may lose all of my edits but i'll always have my photos which is the most important part.
I sort my photos by YEAR, MONTH, DATE. If I need to get photos of a race from two years ago all I have to do is search my calendar on my computer or phone for RACE. Once I have the date I just look through my catalog for these photos.
I do have two catalogs, one on each computer. My main computer is used for managing storage between two eight terabyte external hard drives. This catalog has everything from 2007 to 2017. I'm currently teetering around five and a half terabytes but it goes up and down each year depending on how harshly I treat my past work which i'll explain more about in the next paragraph. The second catalog I have is on my MacBook Retina, this is my workhorse. It's fully loaded and meant for travel and speed. I'm able to take all my wedding photos and work through them non stop without being confined to my office or apartment. My favorite place to work is actually Starbucks. So this catalog of photos and edits on my MacBook is stored on a Lacie Thunderbolt hard drive. I'll talk more about what I do with these photos later in this blog.
Another benefit of having everything in one catalog is access. You can keep doing triage on your photos, sorting through them and pulling out the bad photos. When years go by and you get better at photography you will be better equipped to judge your past work more critically. Every year I spend a few weeks to go back through my old photos and trim out the chum. God forbid I expire before i'm suppose to and someone is charged with sorting through my photos and see all my bad photos (I mean bad composition, blurry and other issues). I've heard other photographers talk about how inexpensive storage is, it's not trust me. I upgrade my hard drives every year due to concerns of proper backups. Hard drives fail so you should regularly upgrade. I use my hard drives pretty heavily as well. If I have a bride or past client that wants photos from their shoot I don't want to give them any bad photos. If you even show a client a bad photo there is a chance they may think it's great. Here's what happens when you show that bad photo, they say it looks great and you know it doesn't. They start showing that bad photo and telling everyone who took that photo. So I really only want my good photos out there. If it's something important then yes, save the photos, no biggie. But for me I don't want to have sixteen terabytes of good photos mixed with bad photos.
Sorting, yes, no. It's that simple. Yes to a photo, it's good and you like it and want to share it and you want people to know it's on of your photos and i've used too many ands in this sentence. No means that you don't like the photo, it didn't come out good, bad composition, un-saveable, blurry, unflattering. When you get rid of a photo you're also saving the environment. You're also saving your wallet from having to get a bigger hard drive prematurely. So for those of you not in the know... P is for Pick or YES, X is not Reject or NO. While in the library module you have to make sure Auto Advance is clicked on under the Photo menu at the top. Okay, so now that we have all the photos and we're selecting P or X and working through the photos we realize it may not be going as fasts you would like it. This can be for two different reasons. You have to make sure all standard previews were built for the photos. Otherwise you will have to wait a second for the photo to render each time you click through the photos. Control A and then Library menu, Previews, Build Standard Size previews. Now wait and once it's finished restart your sorting process. Another reason the photos may be going slower as you pick through them is you're in the DEVELOP module. You will be able to sort while in this module but it will be a little bit slower.
The best part about sorting with P and X is you can do it with one hand. The more you do it the faster you'll get with it. I promise once you've done it with a half dozen shoots you'll be a master. Now here's what you do once you've selected all the bad and good photos, once you've flagged everything as a YES or NO. Now you can DELETE REJECTED PHOTOS. Now keep in mind once you've deleted these files they are moved to your trash bucket on your computer or Mac. Please please please make sure you don't have deleters remorse over your photos. This is just how I work and if it works for you then it works for you. Lightroom really allows everyone to process and do their own workflow the way they want. This is just how I work. Okay moving on.
Once you have deleted the rejected photos by clicking the Photo menu at the top of the screen and scrolling down to it you can repeat this whole process again. So what you'll want to do is go through all of the photos and repeat this process of saying yes or no to all of the photos. I will typically do this several times if not more just because I want to make sure that my client or bride & groom get the best photos they can. You'll start to notice that you now have just really nice photos in your catalog. It will be a pleasure to show, friends and family your photos without having to delicately explain why some of the are bad.
Now that you are down to just your good photos you are ready to start editing. I don't use presets btw for anything. I process my photos a little bit differently and don't want everything to look exactly the same as every photographer on Instagram or Pinterest with a yellow decontrasted light flared photo. So here's what I do next. I take one photo and I apply a few general edits on it. First I add anywhere between +5 to +15 on contrast (This helps give enforce a more sharpened look) and then +5 to saturation (You should be shooting RAW and your phot may be a little flat because of it) and then +1 or +2 on clarity just to add a little bit of edge to everything. I'll also make sure Profile correction is on and sometimes i'll add increase sharpness and add a little bit of noise reduction. Once i've done this singular edit to this photo i'll want to apply it to all of the photos. I move back to the main Library loupe view by hitting the G key. Select All (Control A or Command A) and i'll mouse over to the side triangle to reveal the window to the left where it says Sync Settings. I select Sync Settings and I make sure everything is applied. Keep in mind if you decided to adjust exposure on this first photo it will apply to all of the photos. So once all these basic edits are applied to everything I can start going through with more edits. if you've noticed I don't do much with my editing. I really try to get everything correct when I actually shoot the original photo. I don't try and follow up my work with corrections. It makes my life a lot easier when I take a good photo and work from that to make minor adjustments. I'm not huge on filters, fake looking scenes and such. I would much rather get the correct tonal range and add some lights in the scene to break a subject from the background or add a dynamic little flare by using my flash a certain way. It's way too easy to add all these afterwards. I wrote about that a little more here.
While in the DEVELOP module you can navigate your mouse over to exposure and it should change the color slightly from Grey to white notifying you that your cursor is selecting this certain option. While the mouse sits over exposure you can now use the arrow keys to adjust exposure and also move between photos. This means you can go through all of your photos with out having to move around your mouse non-stop. I like to apply all of my exposure edits to all the photos like this. I'll eventually go back and do cropping on all of my photos to make it more pleasing to the eye. Some photos may require additional adjustments like Shadows or adjusting highlights.
Once I have done all my edits and i'm happy with my work i'll export the photos to a custom named folder. Once the photos have made their way to where they're suppose to be. This is usually my website IShotYourWedding.com which is made through Pixieset.com. Any photos that I really like will end up on my Facebook or Instagram. I'll also take a few photos that i'm happy with and put them in a separate folder called "Images", I know i'm super creative. This is just a folder that links to my Wallpaper and Screensaver that allows me to keep seeing my good photos. When i'm done getting the photos to where they need to be I delete the JPG files. I have no use for them. I have a finished copy on my website if I need to show them and the really good ones I have in a folder and on social media. I find it's much easier to get rid of them and it also keeps my desktop very clean and provides a really nice focus for me to get work done now.
After most shoots, always weddings I take my photos and back them up to my Lacie thunderbolt hard drive. I sort through them as quickly as possible and then those get backed up to two eight terabyte hard drives. When I am no longer using the photos on my MacBook or travel drive as much I delete them because I have them backed up in two separate locations. This allows me to keep my computer relatively clean. If my computer ever gets stolen I don't lose out on photos and because I have a MacBook and good practices it's very quick to get back on my feet as far as editing goes.
I hope this is helpful to the photographers out there with a massive workload. This is a little bit of the magic behind my smoke and mirrors. This is not a shortcut to work, this still takes a great deal of time to do correctly. I'm not breezing through any photos. In fact most weddings I take four to five weeks because I'll work on the photos every few days that way I'm looking at them with fresh eyes and processing everything in my head on which is a good photo and which is a bad photo. I always want to make sure my best foot is forward. If you don't have Lightroom yet i would highly suggest you go and sign up for Adobe's photographer plan which gives you Lightroom & Photoshop for only $9.99 a month. Feel free to leave me any comments or criticism on this post.
Little home runs
This is how I explain wedding photography to other non wedding photographers. I always want people to give it a try because it really is fun once you get used to it. It's a day where you can practice everything you know about photography.
I could never be a wedding photographer! I hear this from every photographer who talks shop with me. I get it, it's stressful, it's daunting and scary because there are no do overs. I want to go over a small way I work through a wedding day. This is only a small piece of the puzzle when it comes to shooting a wedding day.
Little home runs. Imagine you're playing baseball, you don't get up and hit a home run and then next person comes up and does the same and repeat until you've won. You have to play the game, sometimes that means only getting to first base, then second and then waiting for a bit before making it home. It's the same when you're shooting a wedding.
When you shoot a wedding you can't expect to walk into the bride's house and have the rings, flowers, shoes, wedding dress lined up for you to shoot and then follow that up with her doing makeup, hair and promptly after her ceremony. So you're going to have to root through the day to get these little moments capped, finished, completed.
So let's break up the wedding day into four sections. These are your little home runs that you have to aim for. If you look at the wedding as a whole it can be a little too much. But if I told you to get photos of the details like shoes, rings, flowers and everyone hanging out getting ready that seems pretty simple right. So that's the first home run.
The second little home run is the ceremony. You're showing up to the ceremony whether it's at a church, synagog, backyard or wedding venue. You have to stand around and capture what's going on, walk back and fourth and capture as much as you can. Afterwards you're getting photos of them walking up the isle and a few photos of the venue on top of that. Not too hard so far right?
The third part is the formal photos. You find a nice location and take a few group photos of the bridal party, family and the bridal couple. You try and get everyone to be as fun and creative as possible. You take the bride and groom around to different areas and pose them and get those iconic photos that they'll have forever. Okay that's a home run. This part can be a little stressful because you are under the gun as far as time goes. You have the span of cocktail hour minus any travel time as well to the reception location. You really have to keep on time because the venue is cooking food as well as the DJ has a playlist which is timed out with speeches and songs and dinner.
The final little home run is the reception. This is the easiest part of a wedding. Myself I arrive and set up any lighting I might be using and from there on in i'm just doing candid / journalistic photography. I don't have to pose anyone if it's not needed. Photos of speeches, toasts, dancing, cake cutting and couples at the tables. Home run.
So hopefully i've made wedding photography sound a little less scary to you. There's a number of other factors that will help your success in wedding photography. You need the right equipment, you need the right attitude, being a people person helps greatly. You also have to want to do a good job. If you're showing up for a paycheck and don't give a shit about how the photos come out then you won't make a very good wedding photographer. You'll end up pissing a lot of people off and you'll be found out pretty quickly. I know photographers that have tried to use weddings to make money and not put in the effort. I truly want to get the best photos for my brides and grooms because it's the photos that they'll have for the rest of their lives. I don't want to be a horror story that they tell. I want my brides and grooms to brag about me before, during and after the wedding.
Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments section and I will either answer directly or amend this blog and notify you.
I accidentally went on vacation.
I went to Hawaii for work and I accidentally went on vacation. It's a slippery slope to relaxing when you're out here. Wanted to write a little bit about my journey even though I still have a tad bit of jet lag. Feel free to leave comments.
Black Sand beach via my magical flying powers
Okay, this isn't my best writing. I just got home yesterday but wanted to take this time to get back to work and that's meetings and writing and working on my website as well as blogs. This is all fresh in my mind and I wanted to get it out. I'm a little bit jet lagged and tired and malnourished (my version of malnourished is not enough salt, chocolate and fatty foods). Anyways here's a little bit about my latest exploits.
So I recently went to Hawaii for work. It wasn't a wedding, it wasn't a model and macadamia farms didn't hire me. I was actually working for the government, the Army in fact. I was there with Shawn Pacheco shooting a military ball with nearly a thousand people in attendance. So all I knew going into this was I was going to be shooting couples, the formal photos portion as Shawn made his rounds taking video of the event and ceremonies. The event was huge, I hoped I had brought enough equipment when I arrived there. I brought some Yongnuo flash guns and some compact Manfrotto nano stands in addition to some umbrella mounts and some Neweer modifiers for the lights. I had no idea if my luggage would get lost so in preparation for a few thousand lost in gear I opted for the cheaper gear. I purchased a nice grey and white backdrop from B&H which arrived just in time. To get everything out there cost a bit as well. I actually did a little research after talking for a friend and was able to create a media pass for my gear which dropped the price of the luggage to fifty dollars instead of a hundred dollars. Anyways the logistics of planning and implementing all this equipment to land alongside me in Hawaii was a little daunting.
So i'll jump ahead a few days into my trip when I'm actually doing work which is the real reason I was out there in Honolulu. We arrived at the Warrior's brigade ball at the Honolulu Convention Center and had the pick of where we would set up. Luckily the sun wasn't out and there was plenty of overcast which allowed me to get an amazing spot. I set up my backdrop stand and lights while couples approached me with the inquiry to be first for photos. I didn't have time to even do test shots on my friend Shawn to get everything tuned in. I immediately started doing photos as soon as everything was up, a line forming to my left. Each time I looked back I would see more and more couples until I realized I couldn't see the end of the line. I was sweating and not because of the pressure of performing at these high stakes, it happened to be eighty or so out which was giving me that sweat. Each couple got their own treatment and time with me. As long as the line was I was able to say hello to the couples and pose them a little bit, a little different each time. I shot for around two hours straight before the ceremonies began which offered me some down time. Each time I would turn someone away because the ceremonies would start I would reconsider, mostly because each person that came through looked like they outranked the last. I was later explained most of the ranks by Captain David Fowler.
Towards the end of the event I was beat and we packed up and headed out. Driving back to our host's home at Ewa (Pronounced Eva if I remember correctly) I already was receiving e-mails asking about the photos. The best part of doing these photos was giving some of the couples the chance to sneak in an engagement session or maternity photos or just to show off how good they looked that night. I did have to do some minimal corrections, a few of them had obviously worked hard a few days prior and had scratches on their faces. I got to meet a lot of nice men and women at this ball. Here's a few sample photos from the event, i've also provided a link below to check out all of the photos.
The video above is Shawn Pacheo's cinematography from the ball.
So here's where the story begins now that I prefaced it with work. Work work work, that's what i'm always doing, I don't mind it. In fact it's my natural state most of the time and it's pretty normal to me. I actually feel anxious or weird if i'm not working. Part of working for yourself means that if you're not working then you're not making money which is essential to surviving. So I was pulled apart from my documents, my computer most of the time and also put in places which I was not always taking photos so I actually was removed from most of the components that usually curtail me into productivity. So here's what I did instead of work, I relaxed. I hiked, swam, snorkeled, ate, flew my drone, ran, explored, saw lava.
It was lovely not working, our hosts David & Beth provided us with daily rituals of Mai Tais and healthy food. Shawn who brought me on this "vacation" was also into the healthy food and exercise, which I swayed him from by the end of the week. We spent a lot of time visiting waterfalls, exotic locations and checking out some pretty awesome spots for food. I highly suggest Monkey Pod, awesome food and desserts as well as a very modern atmosphere. We had our own room at their housing which happened to be a two minute walk from the beach. Our beach was actually on the backside of Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. One of the awesome benefits to our hosts and our housing was the inclusion of having a big dog named Girl. Girl was a pit bull that won me over. She loved treats, being lazy and was very attentive in exchange for some petting.
hiking to Manoa waterfalls
One day of our days we took a plane over to the Big Island where we visited where Captain Cook was murdered (turns out the locals who thought he was a god weren't convinced he was a god after giving the local ladies STDs). Our journey down to this location involved a two and a half mile hike down a mountain side to a small lagoon. We snorkeled there for awhile and fed many mongoose (I want to say mongeese). The waters where we swam contained lots of sea urchin within the coral and rocks which meant flippers were a necessity. The hike up the mountain was pretty tough, dry, arid weather in addition to loose gravelly trails. So David and Beth are both in the Army. Beth in the reserves and David full-time. Shawn is into MMA and has owned his own school and still trains people weekly. Myself, I like visiting places to get donuts, sandwiches or various meat dishes. The hike was tough for me but I couldn't really tap out so I had to take my time. Later that day we visited black sands beach, I can't recall the exact name of this beach. There are actually a few black sand beaches in Hawaii. These beaches have this soft black sand derived from the lava rocks being pulverized in the Hawaiian surf. The views at this beach were amazing and even more so from my drone. So currently we are at about five miles give or take for the day plus some swimming and snorkeling. We are heading south towards active lava fields. We start a five mile hike down a paved road and then a gravel road and finally onwards through a cooled lava field. Okay, the five miles actually ended before we hit the lava fields but because of a recent collapse of the cliffside and lava fields we had to trek around the active lava which was about a mile and a half. Oh yea, it's dark out too; in case I didn't mention that. We didn't know how long our walk across the lava fields would be, for all we knew it was a half hour. Each person we passed told us various distances and estimates as we conversed this sharp, treacherous path alongside a thick singular rope which stretched into the darkness. When we arrived at the final location it was raining and crowds dispersing. Our view wasn't as spectacular as previously observed by our hosts. Despite our current view we had an additional option of seeing a better view of the flow. On our trip back we stopped and set up the drone and managed to fly it within shouting distance of the red and orange stuff. We all had our iPhones out lighting our way back and I did take a nasty spill on the rocks but we made it back to the gravel road. We took this endless trip back to the car, each of us carrying out own burden of tiredness. We made it back to our hotel a few hours later and slept, only to wake up before any actual rest had occurred to fly back to Oahu. We did around eighteen miles that day and I will never ever forget it, because I'm out of shape and it's bragging rights for me ;).
This is David and Beth
So the rest of the trip we visited beaches, snorkeled, had close calls in the water between waves, water and snorkeling mishaps. My friend Shawn at one point swallowed a good deal of water a few hundred feet out and was towed in by the lifeguard. I was held down at one point around sixteen seconds in the surf of a big wave, go ahead and hold your breath for sixteen seconds now add getting rolled around while that's happening. We had an awesome time doing it all regardless of the danger. After a few days of this "vacation" I actually realized I was vacationing. I wasn't taking calls non stop and answering e-mails in a timely manner. I did however manage to book five meetings for when I returned home. Future Mike will appreciate past Mike's initiative.
We had many other days that are worth mentioning but sometimes it's nice to not share every little bit of my day. If I didn't do wedding photography or photography and didn't rely on attention then I would absolutely love being a bit more private. But honestly it's nice to share my travels with everyone too. I had an awesome vacation and it was nice to have the opportunity to shut down and enjoy the moments. I accidentally went on vacation and I liked it.
I do want to take a second to write about my experience with United airlines. I booked with them before their recent choices to overbook and literally drag a paying passenger over their plane. I was hoping that they would be over the top trying to win everyone over with service and maybe a little bit extra. It was a plain experience on this plane, cramped seats, no complimentary meal on our six hour flight from Honolulu to Denver. I only found out about paying for food as they went through the plane at that exact moment they were taking orders. There was also no display units on the back of the seats which meant all I had was my phone to watch movies after connecting to their wifi. I had enough battery to last me a movie and then I had to reserve my battery so I could call my ride when I reached my destination. I typically fly Delta because of their upgraded economy class and meals included. I won't be flying United again because of their treatment of this passenger and also it's nothing that stands out as far as service goes. I did however get a lot of suggestions of social media to try out JetBlue, so that's in the mix soon.
P.S the naked guy in the waterfall is me. Check that off my bucket list.
Marketing
So every once and awhile i'll ramble on to people about how I market. I really don't mind giving away my secrets if that's what you can call it. If i'm giving away my secrets and someone copies me then that only means I have to get better which I always welcome. Anyways here's some of my marketing plans that I usually work with.
Okay, I probably don’t know that much about this… or do I. I may be a marketing genius or maybe just incredibly lucky when it comes to getting business. I really favor the later in this but i’ll tell you some of what I do to market myself anyways. This is a blog post for photographers or other people in similar businesses.
First of all I really suggest being yourself. You’ll never have to put on an act or be someone who you’re not. I am myself when I go through my day, my week. If there’s a chance to do good I do it, sometimes people are watching. First off, everyone is going to want to throw a nice guy some work. I also don’t mind doing charity either, it makes me feel good and helps other people as well as karma brownie points. People pay attention when you’re consistently doing the right thing, the honorable thing and helping out where you can.
Another strange thing is following your passion. PEOPLE NOTICE! If you’re into candles and constantly posting about new candle making techniques or a new fragrance you made and how excited you are people may think you’re strange but they know you’re genuine. If you dig something, if you’re over the top in it for the passion then the money will come. I’ve never made my focus about the money, it’s really just a nice symptom of having a passion for photography. I’ve also turned down money as well which I suggest once and awhile, pay it back. You never know when that person who you hooked up is going to have an even better way to hook you up. Quick story, this year I had a call from a waitress who said I took her photo seven years ago. I was at place on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester (basically forty restaurants within a mile stretch), I was hanging with my friend and I was taking photos of my food and then I asked to take a photo of this waitress. I asked for her e-mail and sent her the photo. She called me up this past December and booked me for a wedding in January. Another story just for an example. I was shooting a wedding a few years back and took the time to chat with one of the guests about cameras and then handed off my very expensive camera and let them try it out for a few minutes… he booked me for a wedding last year. So by being friendly and sharing my passion I’ve landed work.
So now the more practical things you can do for marketing. Post about what you’re up to on social media and act excited about it, hey maybe you are? Maybe post on Instagram or Google+ because there are sects of people that still use these platforms. If you post on Google+ then you might get featured as a news article when people search for certain keywords which essentially draws people back to you. Instagram I use to post my best of the best photos. I don’t post any chum there, it’s all my processed work or things that I’m proud to share. Instagram isn’t for my photos of Starbuck Mochas or cell phone photos. Everyone treats Instagram a little bit different and some people even go as far as to color grade against everything they already have up there. A big thing is following a theme, at least thats what I hear. Myself I post what I’m really into, travel, weddings, food, abandoned buildings, building facades. There’s a lot of people who will have the best ways to gain followers and how to make the best Instagram, but I believe you can do it just for you.
Okay i’ve started a new paragraph so this must be a pretty good topic. USE FACEBOOK! Use Facebook for the free advertising of you and your brand. Your friends may know someone who’s looking for someone just like you. You can also maintain a business page as well as your personal page. I’m sure we’re all over posting about what we do on a minute to minute basis but why not include a little bit of business in with that pleasure, right? I also use Facebook as a tool get to know my clients. I can figure out their personality a bit and hopefully fit in better with them at the wedding after we share a few dozen memes. I also encourage my friends to share the posts that I really need them to, such as information about my business or deals I might be having.
One more thing on Facebook which i’ll give away to you. I only share all this information in the hopes that some of you will get really good and force me to up my game even more. So Facebook has that awesome algorithm that fits all you most important friends in and if a new person comes into your life you might start noticing them more on Facebook as well. Facebook judges how long you look at someone’s posts or how quick you scroll over someones post, if you’ve clicked on their page or their post. Facebook will now think that they should include more information in your newsfeed about this particular person, get it. So if I’m out there posting photos of abandoned buildings or amazing photos of cupcakes then I bet some of you may slow down or even click on my posts. This means you’re more likely to see my future posts, my future posts about my wedding photography business.
Another one of my tricks is simply posting all the photos that I really like, Europe, traveling, food, abandoned buildings, hiking, cityscapes, landscapes and then peppering in wedding photography. This works wonderfully with Instagram and Facebook. So start doing it. People notice when you have a passion. I know this because I continually get told this by brides.
You can market yourself like a bad ass but the question is if you can keep it up for years. I do this non stop. Day and night, vacation or laying in bed I think about how to get my business even bigger and better. There's a lot of times when I make a purchase and i'm thinking if it will benefit my photography. Even when I buy food i'm thinking if I could take an awesome photo of it.
I don’t always look at what everyone else is doing, I look at what they're not doing and then I see if I can fill that gap. One of the biggest things i’ve had to deal with and figure out was not listening to other people. I’ve listed to too many people who had ideas about my business who in all actuality knew nothing about my business. Other photographers have told me how they do things and what has really helped is to be different from them. I’ve gone in the wrong directions way too many times from people telling me that “it won’t work”, “you can’t do it like that”, “the way you’re suppose to do it is…” and a million other negative or non helpful comments. When you’re starting out you have the freedom to throw it all against the wall and see what sticks. I still change the way I do things regularly, be adaptive, don’t have a set policy on anything. If your customers are all asking for something or expecting something a certain way then go with the flow.
So I don’t want to give away anymore of my secrets but I hope this helps you. I help a lot of people out with other businesses because some of this marketing advice really can translate to other fields. Feel free to leave me a comment.
Procrastinating is when I do my best work.
I get a lot done when I procrastinate it just may not be the work that I was working on at the moment. As a kid with ADD I was always told to sit down and focus. As an adult I am pacing around my apartment but finding many different outlets to conquer. We're always moving forward even if it isn't on the specific tasks that you've started.
So i'm pacing around my apartment right now. I'm leaving for Hawaii in a few days and I have multiple deadlines to hit and also three meetings in the next three days which will all require follow up work. I put on a fireplace tv app on my Apple TV to help me focus and hear myself think. It's an optimal environment to finish up the work I have to do tonight. While pacing around I have my Polar seltzer and decide I need a salty snack. It hits me that i'm procrastinating even in these ideal work conditions which i've set up for myself.
I tell myself "Sit down and focus", a phrase that was repeated to me very often in elementary school and high school. It never did help though, the phrase, a mantra, I just couldn't focus. I was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder as a kid and took pills off and on again into college years and beyond. You may not believe it's a real thing, I know people out there can fake having this or just say that famous phrase of "I have ADD". But it really does exist and it sucks. My cleanliness at home is thanks in part to it because I am soo good at procrastinating that I have to take away ways to procrastinate from work. I will stop what i'm doing to clean, so if I keep my place clean I can't rationalize stopping work for that. But I find other ways. Stay with me, this blog has a quick point which you'll enjoy.
What I'm trying to relate to everyone is that we're always moving forward even when we procrastinate. Sometimes my procrastination's have led me to meet new brides and grooms or to just find a deficit that I should be correcting in another area. I always felt bad as a kid when I couldn't sit down and focus and that just came back to me a few minutes ago. What I told myself to sit down and focus it just brought me back to elementary school and high school when I had my parents or teachers telling me that I need to focus. Pacing around my apartment theres a fireplace on my TV and it may feel like a wasted moment I guess but it was allowing me to work things out in my head as far as priority goes. When I think back to elementary school in high school all of my grades were predictable. I would not do any work in the beginning of the semesters and at the end when I was threatened with failure I would rise to the challenge and pass that semester and with high enough grade to bring up my failing grades from the previous semesters. I don't really do this much in life now, I don't do a crappy job in then make up for it later but what I do well is work under pressure. I found that working under pressure really helps me focus.
So when I say I get all my best work done when procrastinating I really do mean it. It just may not be the work that I was working on.
I hope you enjoyed this, this phrase just really brought everything back from me and I felt like I should write about it. As a kid with ADD I was always told to sit down and focus now as an adult I am pacing around my apartment but finding many different outlets to conquer. We're always moving forward even if it isn't on the specific tasks that you've started.
Business cards and why mine is the best.
So I posted the design of my new business card and everyone had great feedback on it. I wanted to write about my design choices a bit more and explain myself and not have it get lost within the thread. So here's some of my marketing choices and design choices wrapped up together. This blog has cost me two Venti Cafe Mochas from Starbucks btw.
Here's a few business cards i've put together. You can see the evolution of my design.
Brace yourself for a long winded rant about my business cards. You kinda asked for it... those were a lot of Facebook comments.
So Zazzle who I typically use for my business card had a little bit of a trimming mishap when producing my cards. They upgraded some of their behind the scenes editing software and it ended up pushing some of my text outside the cut lines. So this mishap meant they took care of me with credit and that allowed me to go back and readjust the cards. Additionally the thickness or weight of the card was so thick that during the cutting process the sheets shifted slightly. I had text very close to the edge and it showed any slight deviation. I only noticed it while dropping off a set of business cards.
I do want to preface this all with Zazzle is awesome. I've used other companies and I really have had good experiences with this company. The customer service is always top shelf. There has been times where I've made a mistake and other times where they've made a mistake. They have humans who work there and it turns out humans can make an occasional mistake, totally okay with that. I've had soo many people message with me various other companies that they use and I have to decline the help because I really do love this company and the fact that I have everything all ready and designed for print here. So with this current mishap Zazzle took care of me and just recently sent me an additional box of cards which was done unpressured and just a show of appreciation. So I ended up with double the amount of cards. I've been using Zazzle since I started my photography business and it's nice to have a steady supplier like them.
So I've put this out to my friends on Facebook, the designing of my card. I was mostly looking for feedback on my red hat that I want to include. I've spent a lot of time designing my card to stand apart from everyone else. Typically everyone does the same exact thing. Name, Phone, E-mail, logo and maybe a slogan. Think about how many business cards look exactly the same.
The design of my business card has been the same with minor adjustments over the past five years. One side is always a large image of my logo, large enough to read if it's on the ground or a table. I've chosen the chubby size cards instead of the standard for two reasons, it stands out and doesn't fit behind other cards nicely. The second reason is it's different, it's usually been a tear-proof material which is always an interesting challenge to my clients to tear it up.
So I appreciate everyones input for the cards. Some of the advice I totally understand. Use a beautiful image you've shot, use this font, why is the phone number so big. This is not a card which I've put together quickly. It's been made to stand out from the pack. A thousand cards will probably last me most of the year. Brides and grooms who typically end up with my card end up with it because they are in my office. Most people are finding me on Google, Facebook, Instagram or a random phone call. If these were being used for a wedding expo I would probably have something a bit different.
One of the biggest things with photographer is everyone happens to use a camera aperture for a logo (myself included, guilty). So I changed my logo a year or two back to something a littler bit more reflective of who and what. It now includes the words wedding which is my focus. I also have the dot come in the logo as well so now I don't have to do any additional dot come references elsewhere in the card. The main goal of my card is for it to stand apart from everyones no matter what business's card it's next to. My business name was believe it or not an AIM handle back in 1996 which was unity1818. Unity is an Operation Ivy song, not a Queen Latifah jam. It ended up as a placeholder for my website because I eventually needed one. Unity happens to work as a name for a business name but unity photography is actually taken by another photographer named Ken who I've actually met in real life. Anyways the reason I mention this is logos are hard and also very much essential to pull together a website, business card and any branding you may want to do. I didn't get to do anything cute like Two cranes photography or jumping cat photo. I based mine off a teenage Aol Instant Messenger name.
The giant phone number is something that takes people a second to grasp sometimes. I've had lots of people pick it up and say what is this and then it clicks. Then I have a few different sentences fit above, in-between and below the giant phone number. So whoever has already picked up my card because they don't understand the giant numbers at first and now they're reading all these sentences i've put on my card which is done is a very small font. So they've spent anywhere from fifteen seconds to twenty seconds reading this side of my business card. I just times myself doing it from picking it up and skimming through everything.
TEXT LISTED CURRENTLY ON MY BUSINESS CARD
Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and Facebook. Visit my website to find all my social media links.
Wow, this is a very impressive business card. Thank you, I agree. If you find this impressive then wait until you see my photos.
The number on this card is my phone number. Please visit my website to send me a more formal message.
Don't lose this card. Int has your future wedding photographer's contact info on it.
There is a rhyme to my reason.... is that even a saying?
So think about how long it takes for you to usually comprehend information on anyones business card. You look at a logo, an address maybe, hours possibly, phone and e-mail. I've already gotten almost twenty seconds of someones time. I've told them where they can find my social media links. I've directed them to my website to send me a message. I personally don't like a random e-mail from someone with a simple sentence "HOW MUCH" "WHAT ARE YOUR PACKAGES". So I love to direct people to my website where I have a proper contact form and more importantly all the information. I've also included a little bit of my humor by saying how impressive the business card is. If you didn't get what the numbers were or skipped over the numbers in favor for a full sentence then it's explained here with the above text. I've also told them how important the card is and not to lose it, it has your future wedding photographers info on it. Okay, that last sentence is a little cocky but it's cool, I know I rock.
So if you found this card and and saw all this information you would be able to get a quick snippet of who I am, personality wise possibly. As a wedding photographer i'm the person you'll have the most contact with during a wedding day. I'm literally with a bride all day long give or take some distance. The big thing I try to convey when I meet a bride and groom is the attitude of easy going. I'm very easy going, in fact most of my meetings i'm wearing that red hat and a hoodie. More meetings happen in the winter time. I'm also friending all of my brides and grooms on Facebook at some point. Since i'm spending the entire day with someone it totally benefits me to keep them in a good, relaxed and happy mood. Some of that comes from the informality of most of my approaches. I have brides contact me at eleven at night with a simple question or on Facebook on a Sunday afternoon. I'm very accessible and I make sure the bridal couple knows this. My goal is to have it feel like a friend is shooting your wedding.
With my current design i've chosen to remove some of the text to focus more on branding myself with my favorite object, a red hat. Affectionally worn for the past six years solid or so. I'm regularly recognized everywhere for this hat. Currently it's a red winter hat from American Eagle but i've also had many other variations of this red hat. I can't really wear baseball caps when I shoot outdoors and fedoras or these winter caps have always hung around me. I've actually gotten to meet a lot of my Facebook friends in public because they spot me somewhere in Worcester, Boston, NYC. It's a very bold color and my attire doesn't really have to match the hat. What i'm doing by including the red hat with my business cards are training anyone who ends up with this card to eventually be able to spot that exact red hat. Think about it. You have this random card with a red hat, phone, name, wedding photographer and you see a random photographer with the same exact hat. Chances are you are going to come up and say hi and tell me about how you ended up with the card.
I'm going to meander a bit, follow along.
So beyond wedding photography I actually do a number of things. One of those things being web design. When I meet someone who asks for photos or video the first thing I ask is what it's being used for. They tell me they want to put it on their website or Facebook. The next question I ask is to see their website and from there I see their website is angelfire or geocities hosted (antiquated reference, totally worth googling). So from there I talk to them about web design in addition to photos. So I can put togethers someone website pretty easily with a few photos and rearranging information. Here's the other thing I do, consulting work.
What is consulting work as it applies to you? Okay, thats a question being asked to me if that didn't make sense there. What I do is interview a business owner and pull out content to add to their website. Often times while explaining things it leads to other questions which inadvenrtuly conclude with a change in their own business's infrastructure. One of the best questions you can ask someone is "What would this look like if it were easy". It's a question you can ask any business owner. It helps them identify a problem area and provide the easiest solution and then we can work on the actual route to getting there. I also will call out an weak areas in their dealings and suggestions I may have to changing routine.
So I deal with many different businesses and these owners all happen to be around Worcester and Boston and every once and awhile I get recognized in a Starbucks or while on the job shooting somewhere. I'm training everyone as well as brides, grooms to recognize and associate the red hat with Michael Hendrickson, wedding photographer.
I have time.
So hopefully everyone will understand my reasoning a little bit better now. It's not simply a harsh design choice. I've slowly evolved it from the very simple to the more complex. My goal with my cards are to stand apart from everyone and I fear being similar to everyone else will make me blend a little too much. I've spent a few minutes to design some of what everyone's asked for in a business card just to appease some.
I've made a few quick mock-ups of what some think would make a good business card. I've also reverted the size back to a standard business card size. This is not a dig on anyone. This is suggestions i've gotten on the initial thread on Facebook as well as in private messages.
Okay. So here's my final design. I did put some thought into this. If you've read this entire blog then hopefully you've fell on my side of the wall.
What a photographer's day is like.
So I thought this may be interesting to some of you out there. Being a photographer is awesome but most of it is the hustle. You have to work your butt off and throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. On top of that is communicating with anyone who you may come across on social media, phone, e-mail, text message or smoke signals. It's being proactive and taking risks at times and other times playing it safe and doing things by the book and also knowing the difference of when to do which. A typical day in most full time photographers lives means being flexible and nimble. Here's what a typical day looks like for me, give or take a few details.
Wow, you take photos for a living, that's soo cool. It must be awesome traveling and making your own schedule. Did you get to eat that after you took the photos! Wow did they pay you to fly there and take photos of that? That's an awesome camera, it must have cost a lot. You have that many lenses.
So I get a lot of the same things repeated to me time and time over. People remark at how amazing and fun it must be to do what I do. But the fact is, it is. But... taking the photos is really only ten percent of what I do. Marketing, post processing, phone calls, e-mails, spending money on things that are and aren't tangible as well as hoping clients make their way to you if you're doing everything the correct way. I'm going to run through some of the basics of what I do and dive into some of it and gloss over the other parts.
I do get to make my own schedule. I wake up whenever I want, in fact I don't even set an alarm anymore. I just happen to wake up as soon as the sun comes up and my brain automatically activates and goes back to whatever I should be working on or left off on. When I wake up it's a shower, slide on my stylish clothes and Apple Watch and off to Starbucks to have a Venti Cafe Mocha. I wear the same red hat everywhere I go so that i'm easy to find, recognize and meet. I also wear a unitymike.com t-shirt on the off chance that someone wants to talk to me about hiring me. On my way down to Starbucks i'll call my photographer friends and we bitch to each other about the business. We all run into the same problems, clients who don't want to pay, clients that we're still waiting for them to pay and the clients that say they can pay less somewhere else. This topic is rehashed every few weeks or months as time dictates. This photographer friend and I will talk sometimes several times a day. We run numbers by each other and situations to get another perspective. We also share a lot of information such as negotiation tactics and we talk a lot of gear.
Once at Starbucks I sit down and play on Facebook. I have my noise canceling headphones on which are absolutely necessary to focus on tasks. So, when I say play on Facebook I really mean sort through my business page's messages or posts and find people who have tried to contact me. Clients contact me through, text message, phone calls, Instagram, Google+, my personal Facebook page, a Facebook thread or my Facebook business page. While on Facebook I'll also post a link to my website which I really need people to visit. I'm also taking a nice selfie photo or photo of my drink. I need likes, I need people to follow me and be remembered when they or their friends get engaged. Some of my marketing strategy is to go exciting places, eat amazing food, have fun experiences and share these. Facebook's algorithm will note if someone hovers over a photo a bit or clicks on something you posted and adjust it so you show more often in their newsfeed. This means when I post things people are seeing it. I write out a blog or two to put on my website because it actually boosts me up in Google, makes my SEO a little bit better. I also schedule a post or two for my Facebook's business page. I sort through my photos on my computer and pull out a few photos and send them to my phone so that I can post on Instagram a little bit later. The Instagram photos will have to include a nice description, location and some relevant hashtags.
I send a few e-mails, responding back to anyone who has asked me anything. I'm very prompt with this. If I have an e-mail from a potential bride and I don't answer with in short few hours they will move on to the photographer who does answer. My futuristic tech that I wear around my wrist is not so much to show off a toy as it is used to get e-mail notifications and text messages. I hate staring at my phone for any length of time.
I have to swing by my office to drop off some flyers that came in. I straighten out my office which comes at a nice discount. Other people have been in my office to use my giant tv. I clean up desk, arrange everything for new clients coming in. My forms are getting a little low in stock and I have to sit down and revise and reprint a new stack. I keep adding more to my forms to help me. While at my office I also have to visit with my landlord of sorts to go over his projects and what he needs done. I help out where I can.
I have to take a drive to a clients house now because they need a family portrait. Everything is loaded into my car, lights, camera, action. I head to the clients house where I set up, pose, photograph and repeat half a dozen time with various locations on their property. We have a good time, i'm paid and now everything needs to be packed up and brought back home and deconstructed back into it's case. On my way back home i'm calling a client of mine who I help out at their office. I do everything from ordering supplies to photo and video and web design and consulting work. I check and see if they need anything or if theres anything upcoming that I need to get ready for. Nothing to do there, so no problem.
I'm having clients in my car later in the week which means that my car which is also used to transport gear from Maine to Florida is nice and clean. Also, earlier I got a good deal of dirt in my car because the clients driveway was muddy. So wiping the seats down, vacuuming, sorting the contents of my trunk space as well as topping off fluids are on my to do list either today or another.
During lunch I may eat at my dream place, Coney Island Hot Dogs or go down to The Fix. I'm going to pig out and enjoy it. I've earned it. I've been up since seven working on things. During lunch i'm browsing on Amazon looking for little things that I've been putting off ordering and finally plunge into my wallet to accommodate myself. I also take any phone calls during my lunch time throughout the week. My phone rings about a dozen times a day with clients and also telemarketers. I can't tell the difference between a safe number and unsafe number because local numbers have been bought up to get a better hit rate. The reason I mention this is I get to go to my favorite places to eat but a majority of the time my food gets cold. I don't let calls go to voicemail when possible because no one wants to wait and I also depend on clients coming in regularly. I still manage to take photos of my food which more often than not leads to my food losing it's ideal temperature.
After lunch I'm beat, worn out and ready to quit. I usually take a nice two hour nap or more. This is interrupted by the occasional phone call and I also wake up at some point and roll over and check my phone for reciprocated e-mails from clients. If I get a call from a bride or e-mail from a bride my goal is to set up a meeting asap, that means later in the day or early the next day or whenever they want. Once I'm awake I recharge again with coffee and a snack. I'm editing photos now for a gig I shot the night prior. I've spent a little part of the day making sure I have everything backed up, previews loaded and basic adjustments made across the board. I get a phone call from a print shop saying the custom frames I ordered are in, i'm still waiting to be paid for them by the client. I have to head over and pick them up and then notify my client they are in and softly nudge them to be ready to have their wallet ready. In case of any questions I have to go back to my computer and dig up the original invoice I sent them. I have several invoices out in fact totaling enough to pay my incoming bills, rent, subscriptions, insurance.
I'm also waiting on my insurance agent to find me a more affordable insurance for my gear which I pay almost two hundred dollars a month for. I pace around my apartment, straightening things out, organizing my equipment and staring at my giant three by four foot white board. I regularly fill this board up with upcoming tasks, notes, reminders and dates. Anything that i've taken a note for has to be put into my phone and computer for redundancy, thats on my to-do list. I put on my nice Bose noise canceling headphones and pace around my apartment conquering small and mundane tasks to the bigger ones. I have a phone call to make and I spend thirty minutes circling my couch talking to a bride and narrowing down a meeting time. I have to cross check my calendar with a list of weddings to make sure I have time to meet later this week and have her wedding date free. She can meet today in fact which is wonderful. This was a good phone call. About seven or eight times a year I get a phone call from a bride who loves my photos and she's very excited to meet with me and then tells me her wedding date. I cross check her wedding date and i'm already booked. I have a couple go-to photographers which I send brides that I cannot take. I'm careful who I send brides to because it will fall back on me if anything goes wrong. I send most of my brides to a photographer friend out in Boston.
I head to my office for the second time today, I'm early. I turn on my tv, my apple tv, bluetooth speaker, set Spotify to modern wedding playlist, set up my Macbook to connect with the TV and get the form out and write out all the information I have at the moment. She should be here any minute, okay ten minutes ago, thirty minutes ago, text, phone call, nothing. I get a text message letting me know she'll be late. I've now been here for an hour and it's dark out by now. She arrives, we hit it off and I go through my entire pitch, I feel good about it. I head home and after dinner I sit and write up a contract and send a follow up e-mail regarding our meeting and everything we talked about. I don't know if she's going to go with me or not. I don't typically do follow up messages because it can easily put someone in that awkward position of saying they're going with someone else but thanks for... you get the idea.
I'm now uploading photos from the gig I shot the day prior. There's a lot of photos going up so It throttles by data which means Netflix and Hulu won't work on my TV. So shower and head back to my TV to be reminded of this. I end up sitting at my computer browsing through Facebook's newsfeed and get lost in Instant Karma videos on Youtube. I'm also kicking myself to be productive still at eleven at night. I'm making a circuit between my workstation where my Macbook and main computer are to my white board looking for more tasks to finish. I write a few more things on my board that need to get finished. There's a lot of things that just require sitting and writing or following up with people about projects. The rest of my time is spent sitting on my couch with my cats swiping through Bumble to meet someone. It's hard to meet someone when you're schedule is composed of the entire day and night. Basically this app leads into a huge time suck of non productivity which re-guilts me into a productive whirlwind.
Sleep either can be wonderful because i've accomplished so much or terrible because I still have so much to accomplish. I've disallowed any news on Trump before bed because that makes my sleep even worse. The best part of my day though is having my cats follow me onto my bed and lay next to me. They have no idea what I've done today or the day prior no matter how many times i've tried to explain it to them. That's a very calming thing, two little cats who's day tomorrow is packed with sleeping and eating. Maybe i'm in the wrong profession.
So this is exactly how any day goes for the most part. The details may change, some days are less and some days are more. The tasks are different but each day I get thrown a puzzle and have to put it together. If I ever clear my white board of things that I should be doing that I feel uneasy and anxious because there is something I can be doing and I have to figure that out asap. There is no rest. But the best part of any of this is whenever I want I can take the day off. I can shut down and do nothing. But most every single day goes from seven in the morning to past midnight. It means I can take a vacation wherever I want on a moments notice but I also better keep a watch on social media and e-mail during that.
Headshots
You may hate having your headshot taken or you may love it. A good headshot can be used to identify you across many different social media platforms making you much easier to locate. It also lets people know that you take your image seriously enough to have taken the time to have professional photos shot of you. This process doesn't take long, anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour. It all depends on you and what you want to put into it.
So this is a brief dive into headshots. A quick two minute read about why you want an awesome headshot, the process of getting a headshot and how to get the most out of your session.
Like them or hate them head shots are great for a number of reasons. They are typically used for social media from Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ to more personal items such as business cards and company identification cards as well as e-mail signatures.
A good headshot lets you know the person you’re dealing with. Making interactions more so with a person and less with a name in an e-mail. Another benefit of having a headshot done is the fact that you can use this photo across many different platforms making it easier for people to find you. The more connected you are across platforms the better the chance is that you may talk to these people in real life. "Hey I saw you on LinkedIn and I like what you wrote on your blog there". Whenever I change my headshot I always, always, regardless of how minor the change is, change it across all platforms. Think of yourself like McDonalds, how easy would it be to find McDonalds if the logo looked different in every town. I like to consider that i'm my own brand and I always want to be represented well.
There are a few standards when it comes to headshots. We can adjust the picture slightly, blemish removal or maybe soften a wrinkle or two but facial reconstruction gets into weird territory. That means elongating a neck or removing all wrinkles or bringing someones ears to a point aren’t going to happen. The blemishes can be anything from a pimple to scratches and scrapes, marginal teeth whitening also makes your photo pop a bit more. If you're sensitive about something that will be in the photo and want some extra work done then all you ever have to do is ask, usually it's something very easy for the photographer to take care of. A headshot is an honest representation of that person, no crown of flowers instagram filters. A headshot should be serious, represent you and not look like a glamor shot from an 90's teen magazine. A headshot is typically done with a plain paper roll backdrop or somewhat neutral muslin (fancy word for cloth backdrop), although you can do yours outside for a warmer, more friendly natured image. The clothes are professional and should represent who you are, if you're a landscaper then something more casual, in finance... maybe a suit would be better. Bring a few options if you're indecisive, different ties, coats or tops. Headshots are typically chest up, once we start involving legs and arms more then we are in portrait country.
What makes a good headshot is more to do with you than it is me. My side of this process is a slightly meticulous process of setting up the backdrop stand and lights and make sure that the lighting looks amazing, otherwise it might as well be a passport photo. It's a lot of work for a few photos but highly worth it. I’m going to talk to you a bit and pose you so that the lighting looks great and you have good posture. I want something that you're happy with and will use. I can't stress though how the photo ends up really depends on you. I can’t contort your face or know that you only like photos of you smiling ear to ear or you don’t like smiling at all in a photo. I always suggest that my clients practice a few of their smiles and serious faces in a mirror so that they can be prepared for then it’s time for their photos to be taken.
The goal of a head shot for me is to end up with three solid photos. I say three because it gives you options for different platforms where you may use the headshots. The first photo will be smiling with teeth, this shows that you’re a happy person. The second is smiling without teeth to also show that you’re a happy person or easy to deal with. The third photo is a serious face or focused look, this shows that you’re a professional or focused professional.
A quick story to wrap things up. I recently bought a house and my realtor was wonderful. She taxied me to many many different properties and dealt with late night phone calls to baby me through the process of buying a house. One of the houses I was interested in had a brilliant brochure. This pamphlet showed photos of the house and various facts and information about the house. On the backside was a photo of the relator, a women in her early forties with a tiny bit about her. I made an offer on the house and eventually ran into their realtor, she looked like she was in her late sixties nothing like her photo. I'm not trying to be judgmental but if I was using a business card with my high school senior portrait I hope that might raise some red flags. The point is stay current. :)
Hoodie and winter cap.
Meetings should be casual. Imagine if you went into a bank to discuss a mortgage which is a very serious matter. If the person across from you was wearing similar clothes to you and was able to sit there and walk you through the process of a mortgage wouldn't you feel a bit more confident and relaxed? That's what I think at least. When I meet a bride and groom I want them to be relaxed and honest with me so that I can give them the best price possible and also get to know them a little bit quicker because I'm going to be spending an entire day with them later in the year.
Have you ever been forced to wear a tie or dress shoes. Sure, you look good in them and it looks good from a clients perspective. But is it really necessary?
Whenever I meet with a client I usually am dressed as comfortably as I can be. I have sneakers on, a hoodie and my favorite winter hat. This is just something that has worked out very well for me. By dressing down I think I might be giving our meeting a little less high stakes feel and more relaxed vibe. My clothes don't sell me as much as my reputation and my photos do. In ten years and countless clients i've only had one objection to my clothing and that was from a single guest who was a bit oppositional and probably just had a bad day. Most of my clients are dressed in their everyday lounge clothes and the occasional Sunday best but ninety five percent are dressing comfortably so why would I be?
My meetings are also the same as my dress, very informal and relaxed. I'm not pitching to anyone as much as i'm casually interviewing a couple to see if we're a good fit. I usually ask a dozen or two questions and click through a couple hundred photos. Spotify is playing a modern wedding playlist and the bottles of water are flowing.
The first question I have for any couple even before they meet with me is their wedding date. I often have people who get to me a week or two late and I'm not able to shoot their wedding. But in most cases I have the date open and we end up meeting. My office is in the second floor of Gerardo's Italian Bakery, it's a long story of how I got there. I have my books, some forms and a big tv to show my portfolio.
I do have a set package but I regularly adapt it to the couple sitting in front of me. The biggest thing for me is to be fair. I can't charge someone who has fifty people coming to their wedding the same I would charge with two hundred people coming. If I have an easier day ahead of me then the price can reflect that. I walk you through a typical wedding day which is usually from hair and makeup all the way to the last dance. Now you probably weren't interested in any books but I'll show you a few anyways. They're not as expensive as you thought in the end, most times.
So there is three things I hear from every bride and groom. We're really relaxed, our wedding is informal and unique, we're on a budget. I agree to all of these, you don't even have to tell me in fact. I'm going to capture beautiful memories regardless of budget or if you're a ball of stress. I like hearing about peoples visions for their weddings.It's easy to match someones enthusiasm about their weddings because I really am excited to shoot weddings.
By the end of the meeting I run across the price and I've gotten enough information to build a contract. I don't need an answer right now, i'm not a monster. I hope that we clicked and I leave the ball in their hands.
By the end of the meeting you never saw my dress shoes and we might have had on the same exact hoodie so you know we both have amazing taste. I send off an e-mail later in the day with details of our meeting and a contract with some instructions attached with it.
Hope to have you booking your wedding with me in 2018. Have a great day / night. :)
Filters are for the lazy.
Going to be pretty straightforward in saying that filters can ruin weddings. Look in your phone at the photos from a year for two ago at the filters you were using on your photos, some are pretty cringe-worthy. Some photographers use filters as a crutch or use it because they're lazy. Photographers who de-contrast and play with highlights / adding a yellow filter over a photo are a dime a dozen. The goal should be correct color reproduction and using your skill as a photographer to produce compelling images through composition, knowledge and also being in the right place at the right time.
Believe it or not, no filter. This was shot with a Canon 90mm TSE (Tilt shift) lens
WGBH Live on Boylston Street
Government Center MBTA Canon 8-15 Fisheye
I just got this question recently when meeting with a bride and groom.
Why don’t I have black and whites, sepia tones, filters on my photos? This is very simple to answer, look back in your phone a year or two. Do see all the random filters that you were using on your Instagram photos / Facebook posts; they’re awful.
Tastes change, styles adapt and people move on from trends. These are some of the most important photos that you’ll have of yourself, why would I put a trendy filter on and especially one that is so overused by Pinterest focused wedding photographers. De-contrast, playing with the highlights and adjusting the color temperature to be a bit more yellow doesn’t make a classic photo in my mind. I’ve also seen a lot of photographers use this as a crutch when a photo is mediocre or missing something.
Sometimes converting a photo to black and white looks great provided you do it the correct way and know what you’re doing with levels, curves and also saturation of colors and a number of other things. But here’s what we photographers know, this doesn’t make any photo a classic or immortalized image. Being honest, the only time i’ve actually made a photo black and white in recent history is when I absolutely couldn’t do what I wanted with the photo due to a number of reasons. I reluctantly changed it and adapted it because it was a moment that I did not want to throw away. I will never myself change a color photo to black and white though just to wow someone. One more example, white or black vignetting on photos… cringe.
Now here’s the part where i’m a dick and say mean things about other photographers. I really do try to be positive, like way too much.. usually. I know a great number of photographers that are shooting the exact material they were two or three years ago. Most photographers that I know get better every few months, years or just plainly have breakthroughs of creativity that make me very jealous. But I see some wedding photographers that never try new things, never purchase new equipment or develop their post game (editing). Wedding photography is simply put a gym for photographers, you’re regularly pushed to adapt, learn and get better, faster, stronger at your photography. I can look back every year and see my deficits or where i’ve made improvements. So here’s where I tie that back into what i’m saying, filters are a huge crutch for someone trying to hide the fact that they aren’t developing themselves. For the sake of the bride and groom you should be taking the payment and rolling a good portion back into your own development and/or equipment. This is your one chance to capture someone’s wedding and why would you put an ugly filter on such a beautiful day.
What I try to accomplish with my wedding photography is creating accurate representations of what the scene actually looked like. I use different lenses and compositions to showcase different moments. I’m trying to achieve as close to as possible correct color profiles, your flowers are rarely neon or muted colors; it’s somewhere in-between I hope. It would be too easy to add filters to my photos and claim that I’m an artist and that this is my art. What I do is document and record moments as beautifully as I can. I don’t have a particular unique skill that no other photographer could ever attain. What I bring to the table is knowledge, personality, skill and a pretty good amount of equipment to back it up. I do use some creative editing techniques that highlight certain aspects of a scene or cast a cold blue morning as a more warn and sunny one. The best editing in my opinion is the kind you can’t detect.
If you want to add a filter on your photos you’re always welcome to do so but as I started out saying, look at your images with filters and effects from a year or two ago.. cringe. :) Imagine your parents wedding photos and imagine what it would look like with correct color or your grandparents images if it wasn’t shot in black and white (yes, I know that may have been all that was available at the time).
I shoot weddings and would love to shoot your wedding.
Click here to see my website and learn more.
Moore State Park, Canon 200mm 1.8
My cafe mocha. Shot with Canon 35mm 1.4
New Years Resolutions
So in 2017 i'm going to open a bakery. Just kidding. I'm really going to focus on moving forward just like I always do. I wrote a little bit about my thinking of negativity and how I get past it.
2016
So everywhere on social media i've seen everyone putting down 2016. I can't sympathize with that in the least bit. Personally it's been an amazing year for me. I've traveled to twenty two states, shot lots of weddings and ate a lot of amazing meals with friends. I'm not going to list everything good that's happened to me this year, that would be a little self serving. What I wanted to get at with this post is the silver lining that accompanies any difficulty you've had this year.
So i'll be speaking from my own personal experience of course and not hypothesizing scenarios. I always try to look at everything in a positive way. It never serves me well to dwell on mistakes, misfortunes or any negativity. Have you ever felt great when recounting a mistake or error? Most of us will say no, but what if you think about it and then just move on or think of it in a different way. Okay i'm going to run through some things that happened to me.
I left my job to do full time wedding photography, a month later I totaled my car, pretty crappy right. So the positive of this is I get to get a new car but have to pay for it. This was an amazing opportunity to have a visual representation or landmark of a new start in my career. I'm not focusing on higher insurance or a car payment at all. I know i'm going to have a surcharge and it was a huge hassle to have to get a rental and also search for a car. How I looked at this is I have an early reward for leaving my job and all my future success. I always just assume the success is coming and it usually does by the way.
I also think of all the times i've gotten hooked up with jobs, gigs, shoots or a freebie of equipment or gotten to see something that's typically forbidden (abandoned buildings). I consider the possibility of having to pay for these and usually it all evens out. Okay to simply what I mean, imagine someone gifting you an amazing winter coat just at the beginning of the winter; now imagine that two weeks later you get a random bill you weren't expecting in the mail for a hundred dollars. So let's say that you can reimagine the bill to be fifty dollars and maybe you paid fifty dollars for that coat or maybe the coat was hundred dollars and you don't have that bill. Basically I like to resort the bad with good in my head and even things out, it makes it easier sometimes and I hope I explained that properly and don't sound like a crazy person.
So for me 2017 is exciting. I have weddings and I have adventures already lined up for the new year. I said above that I really just assume everything will work out for me and it usually does. My business relies on chance and hard work. I put in the hard work of marketing myself and posting content and through chance someone mentions me, messages me and hires me. Some of it's luck and some of it's me putting in the work. If things don't work out I can always get an adult job (that's what my friends and I call any job that isn't a job where you make your own hours). This job feels like a dream, like i'm getting away with murder being able to make my own hours and do whatever I want.
I guess every year whether it's the beginning, middle or end i'm working on myself and my business. I have some great ideas on what I want to do with my wedding business and i'm also working on getting a bit more fit. I won't make any proclamations or declarations or pretend to know the difference. I find that setting goals is too stagnant or concrete, my goals are evolving every day and I always have a new focus or path. I think that's the same for everyone. It also doesn't feel good to fail at anything and setting a goal and having anyone point out a failure or just knowing that you failed can really suck. I'm going to the gym a lot lately and I really want to try and keep that up but in reality i'll probably get busy with another aspect of my life and it will get shelved. I'm okay with that though, i'm okay with flip flopping.
Anyways I just wanted to write a bit and go over my 2017 New Year's resolutions as not really having any. Just going to keep doing my thing and getting better wherever I can.
6 hour wedding photography sucks, here's why.
So you want to save some money on your wedding. Where can you make the cuts in your budget? Photography and videography are what you're walking away with on your wedding day. In two months, two years or a decade you're not going to pull out the cake or the two dozen songs that play at your wedding. What you will look at is the photos of your wedding day. Wouldn't you want to tell the whole story of your wedding day or just six hours of it.
When you're a kid, somewhere in the back of your mind you know you're getting married someday. That's a pretty big deal, think of other things that you've know for certain that would happen someday; theres few and far moments that you can say for certain will happen. You know that you want to get married, maybe kids, you want a house or condo, maybe you've thought about a career; everything else is minor details. This is a big something that you've known for a long time coming and you're going to want to remember that day, through photos and maybe video. Do you think that six hour is really enough to tell the story?
I'm writing this to tell you that you can just book six hours of wedding photography and you can save a few hundred dollars but is it really worth it?
First thing to consider when you book your six hours of wedding photography, when is the photographer or photographers showing up? Do you want them to get photos of you getting ready. Your family hanging out, the guys horsing around, the ladies drinking mimosas getting their hair and makeup done. You could have them show up before the ceremony and capture that and then leave half way through the reception or near the end, best case scenario.
Most weddings that I have shot are eight to ten hours of coverage. That sounds like a lot but here's why that makes sense. Full day's coverage is you and your bridesmaids getting ready, hair and makeup. The guys getting ready and the dressing being put on and some photos in the backyard are standard fare with full day coverage. The coverage of course covers the ceremony, formals and reception. But here's the best part, at no point do you have a photographer coming up to you and asking you for more money on your wedding day. There is no conversation stating that "I'll be leaving soon, unless....... I get paid for more time". Most weddings are a few thousand dollars for a photographer, if you're nickel and diming a bridal couple on their wedding day I consider that bad form. I know there's polite ways to ask for more money on a wedding day, but really.
A bride and groom have no idea what coverage they will want on their wedding day. The same goes for if I called a plumber or electrician and told them what I wanted, I have no idea what goes into it. A responsible photographer should walk you through all of this and hopefully recommend full day's coverage for your wedding. The day speeds by and there is so much going on that you will miss some of it. Part of being a wedding photographer is an unspoken act of guidance throughout the day. The photographer is with you throughout the day and is able to tell you if you're on schedule or what's next and how you're doing, essentially a personal cheerleader.
Think of the time that's actually not covered when you book. You may book for six hours but it's not broken up for when they're shooting. Time booked is typically when the photographer shows up until the time they leave.
We're not going to get everything.
You're going to have your dream wedding, you've even selected what your wedding photos will look like via Pinterest, various wedding blogs and Google image searches. So you can have all of this but you may have to spend some time doing during your wedding. If you're getting married you'll want to read this. I'm writing this through my own personal experience. My number one goal is to make a bride and groom happy and also being very truthful with what I can offer.
A photographer can work off a list or just capture a little bit of everything. When you work off a list you are trying to remember what is not important to the bride. In fact the bride may not even know what is the most important parts of the day, this is her first go at a wedding. That’s why I think it’s best to just cover every aspect.
So before the wedding you have loaded up your head with amazing images from Google and Pinterest and featured Buzzfeed articles. You’ve forwarded these links to your photographer and informed them that these photos are to be captured. This is all very doable, but when it comes to your wedding day and you incorporate this into the mix it’s sometimes impossible. So I say impossible, it’s not really impossible; it’s undoable for you as the bride and groom. The photographer can most certainly do this, but he won’t be able to do all of these requests in the twenty to thirty minutes he may have with you following bridal party photos. I can only speak from my own experience in this of course. I would love to recreate photos and make the bride and groom happy but often during a wedding day you're busy with friends and family. Another thing to take into account is that some photos you see on the internet are purely circumstantial or in fact not even from a wedding. Some photographers will have models pose as a bride and groom just to create breathtaking photos. For the bride and groom I really suggest trusting their photographer and let photos take a backseat to being in the moment.
So to follow up and summarize. The photographer is going to do his/her best to capture everything. We want to immortalize your wedding day in photos. We want to provide a seamless, enjoyable experience and not get in the way. If you’ve hired a photographer because you like their work then the best thing to do is trust that they’ll capture your wedding day so you can sit back and enjoy it.
Here's the reality of it.
When you hire a wedding photographer you sometimes have these amazing expectations. You’ve seen their photos, their work, their great attitude. You’re hiring them to capture the one of the most amazing and memorable days of your life. Here’s what he/she is going to be able to capture, not everything.
Another reason to capture everything is you don’t know what’s important to the bride and groom. Sometimes they might not know what was important until after the wedding. Let me give a few examples of this. Let’s say you take the time to get photos of all the cousins, maybe they move away in three years and aren’t reunited until a family reunion in ten years. How about an Aunt and Uncle who come to your wedding that move away the following year. The most common thing i’ve come across is my focus on grandparents. Not to sound morbid of course but we do expire and these photos are a huge trigger for your memories. One more thought, how many times does your family get together. I’m talking about everyone, not just for the holidays which sometimes can be tough with visiting everyone. You have everyone in a room so why not take advantage of this.
Here’s the upside that you can really work with. If you have a great photographer who is willing to be adventurous, persistent and do a little bit of poking and prodding; he/she can liberate you from your wedding reception for a few minutes to take some amazing photos and give you a moment to breath away from everyone. During the formal photos for the bride and groom you’ll also be able to get some of the shots you’re looking for but to reference or have those same exact circumstances to recreate can sometimes be tough. The photographer is going to pose you a bit and move you to different locations. What i’ll do typically is run through all my tried and true poses that work. We only get one shot at getting your wedding photos and I do experiment and innovate but before I do that I make sure to get the memorable photos that you’ll hang on your wall. I only have a short amount of time and it would be selfish of me to ask more of the bride and groom while they’re trying to enjoy their wedding day. The same way a DJ wouldn’t keep asking for suggestions for playlists on your wedding day or a venue wouldn’t be consulting with the bride about sides during before the meal is served on the big day.
Thanks for reading. I've been a wedding photographer for around ten years now and every year means a little more experience and a lot more equipment to play with. I would love to meet with you if you're getting married in 2017 or 2018. 508-471-0069 or www.unitymike.com to see more of my work. Have a great new year.
Is this a sign?
Seeing the signs? I've had this forever and now i'm not so sure I should sell it.
So first off, here's the ad. But really i'll take $450 for it. I have another toy in mind for this winter.
I've had this lens for sale for maybe three months. No real bites on it, not even the scammers. It's kind of disappointing.
I bought this lens with money from a wedding several years ago. I shot a wedding ceremony on a hill in Worcester and I only worked for two hours to buy this lens. I have taken it to thirteen different countries and found it to be pretty amazing.
So this lens is a super telephoto lens, meaning a really big zoom. The best part about this lens is capturing different framing of subjects, I also love capturing sunsets, buildings and generally far away subjects. So here is the best part of this lens... capturing photos of people in their natural environment. The Sigma 150-500 will keep the distance away where people are just unaware of you.
I became a pro at stalking people in Europe, following them around in various cities. It sounds creepier than it really is. Here's how it goes, you find an interesting looking person or situation and basically subtly put yourself in an amazing position to capture a truly candid photo. Most of what I do though is walking a bit slower than the average person. Blending in and slowly stopping and focusing on something with a similar distance while keeping a loose eye on what i'll really be shooting is the next objective. Doorways, alleyways and sometimes just leaning up against a tree all work.
So what i'm trying to figure out now is if I should really sell this lens. I have had it on craigslist and offerup for three months now, no bites. I'm wondering if this is the universe saying just keep it. The natural upgrade for this lens for me would be the Canon 200-400 f4, go ahead and look it up. It's crazy money but that's just an investment for me. I'm thinking in the next three years I would like to own that lens.
So maybe this blog is the tipping point for the lens, maybe not. Here's a few photos i've taken with it.
Building an amazing wedding portfolio
What to include in your wedding portfolio to show your brides and grooms what you're all about. Showcasing your top photos is great but what about everything else, where does that fit in? I go through everything that has worked for me in my portfolio. Enjoy!
Building a wedding portfolio.
I’ve been working on my new wedding portfolio, it’s tough. My natural instincts tell me to just include the cream of the crop, the best of the best, top one percent. That looks great right?
I think that by only including the best of the best that can be deceiving. We all like Starbucks right, but sometimes not every Cafe Mocha is created equally; the same with photos. Some are going to be amazing, epic, one of a kind and others are of uncles and aunts or flowers and you and a friend who you haven’t seen in years. So that’s why I keep my portfolio varied as much as it is. I’m totally confident in my photography skills and more than happy to show everything. Sometimes when you see amazing photos with a beautiful location and gowns flowing and three or four lights used for the photo, that’s either because they have a team of people putting this together during a wedding or it’s not an actual wedding photo, it’s a couple dressed up as a wedding couple for a shoot.
Some of my portfolio is what I know looks good. These are the photos that I would eagerly show other photographers to get their approval. But there are parts of it though that I know the average person who is not a photographer will see and love. Do you know those photos where everything is black and white and the rose petals are the only thing in color, yeah… we hate that. Huge white vignetting on a photo, that’s another gross thing that we hate.
So I want to reiterate that this is just my opinion. This is what has worked for me. I also have enough photos in my portfolio that by the end of a presentation there is not question about my skill or devotement.
Here’s a summarization of what I include in my portfolio. By the way, I currently have close to eight hundred photos in my wedding portfolio. I’ve been working for a long time to bring it down but I really do love all the photos and memories that are attached to each and every one of them. Okay, here it is….
Messy room photos. It’s going to be a chaotic day, no lies. I want to show that the reality of a picture perfect wedding doesn’t always happen behind the scenes.
Getting hair and makeup done. There’s a path to your beauty, this is how that looks. Before and after is great and is really just for the bride and groom and rarely makes it on social media.
Table shots. Photos of the guests at their table. This is something I capture at the wedding, So I like to show it off here. This is also a great way to connect with each guest and maybe even meet a couple who’s thinking of getting married.
Kids. If someone is hiring me to shoot a wedding and they have kids then I want them to know that they are not excluded from the wedding. Plus the best way to work a room is to play to the kids. Parents, friends and family notice when their shy little kid is all of a sudden enamored with you and your camera and come out of their shell. I also usually will sit on the ground with most kids and let them fire off a few photos.
Parents. I want to include everyone thats present. This is a big day for the bride and groom but sometime bigger for the parents watching their kids grow up. Additionally, who doesn’t mind getting their photo taken, right?
Details. Couples spend a lot of time working on their wedding details and It really makes the wedding look amazing. This is to showcase that but also gives my new couples ideas.
Funny and ugly. Sometimes people make funny faces or horrible ones. These are moments for the bridal couple to look back on and laugh or just have blackmail material for later. These are also the best throwback Thursday photos for future posts.
Cake smashing. It happens and it makes the wedding reception soo much better. It shows that the bride and groom can take a joke and also provides some entertainment and tension at that moment.
Locations / venue. Sometimes I might have a staircase from a certain venue in my portfolio twice. That’s because the bride and groom hiring me may have selected that venue. Seeing how different arrangements on the stairs and also the fact that i’ve been there a few times may make me more appealing to hire.
Group photos. Throughout the wedding day I capture tons of group photos. I want the bride and groom to know that family, friends can get whatever they want for photos on the day of their wedding. I’ve done many family photos at weddings because everyones there together. :)
Rings. You spent a lot of money on this symbol of your love. Let’s show it off and brag a little. I’m also showcasing my skill in macro photography and creativity with these photos.
Table decorations. Someone took the time to put this altogether and somewhere, sometime they might be bragging about it. What phrase would be better heard than “the photography took an amazing photo of it” when referring to the table setups.
Creative lighting. Every wedding I try and do new things with lights. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, sometimes it does. But the average person sees this and knows this isn’t something they can do by going to Target or best buy and getting a few things, it’s special. So I include anything that’s out of the ordinary in this department.
Jillian & Jarrod
Jillian & Jarrod at Revere Beach. Engagement shoot. www.unitymike.com wedding photo
Spent a little time on Revere beach and afterwards we got some Italian subs at New Deal Fruit.
Jenna & Paul
Jenna & Paul's engagement shoot. www.unitymike.com wedding photo.
Jenna & Paul live in Sturbridge which happens to have lots of exciting places to shoot an engagement shoot in addition to being located somewhat close to B.T's Smokehouse.
Here's some of our shoot at their house, the town common and Old Sturbridge Village.
A thousand images!
What's an apprioate amount of wedding photos to receive? I talk about the upside and downside of what the client receives when the wedding is over. All wedding photographers and future brides and grooms should read this.
So this just popped into my head, this idea of a thousand images or more for wedding photos. This is something I support, I've always support this from day one. I am writing this for brides, grooms and fellow photographers.
There will always be criticism about the amount of wedding photos you share with clients or on the other end of the spectrum receive from a photographer because more often than not you wouldn't mind a few dozen or hundred more to look at or a bunch more to share.
So originally I would give upwards of fifteen hundred images because I felt like I was holding images captive. If I had fifteen hundred images but only gave them five hundred, why? I prided myself in giving this extra value to my brides, grooms, clients, friends and family. Everyone was very happy after all at all the extra photos.
So the images that are completely cut from a wedding that are not used are the following, peoples backs, unflattering faces (not to be confused with a funny face or two which the bridal couple will enjoy), bad micro-expression, unflattering light, blurry photo, obscene, unflattering photo of bridal couple, duplicates of same pose unless there was a significant change in facial expression or posture possibly, bad hand placement during group photos. This is only a small multitude of examples of reasons.
The remainder of the photos are variations of moments, different angles, views and composition. These are the usable photos, the ones that can be saved, shared and looked back on. Some of the photos are a series of an event happening and not just the pinnacle of the moment.
So i'm going to start with the downside of sharing this amount of photos. We as wedding photographers typically take more photos than we need. We do this because we don't know who's going to blink or if someone will suddenly have a horrible twitch in their face or move their hand to look like a t-rex's arm. Lots of photos, lots of options, lower risk of fucking up, better chance of getting something damn near close to magical. With all these photos you have to go through and perform triage, saying yes or no to which photos live and which ones die; a very important responsibility. More photos to look through can mean longer wait times for clients and also longer processing time for photographers.
Now when you give someone fifteen hundred photos that means they have lots of options, maybe too many options. The first dance photos maybe two dozen instead of a select six. When you have two dozen photos verses six that means that the most outstanding, perfect photo will take a bit longer to catch your eye or stand out. It also creates the perception that you quickly edited the photos and are giving them everything without selecting the bad ones to get rid of. You are also putting your photos up against your friends photos or other bride's photos where they have gotten the top fifteen percent of the wedding photos that were taken that day.
Let's use a box of donuts as comparison. I'm going to present you with a dozen donuts, some are chocolate frosted, a few chocolate frosted with sprinkles and maybe a chocolate glazed as well as the jelly, a french (You actually only capitalize french if it is a product of said country) cruller, and an additional complement of donuts. Now lets take that nice looking dozen and put it up against six good looking donuts, jelly, chocolate frosted, french cruller, blueberry, glazed, old fashioned. So you have a perfect assortment but maybe not a bunch of variations on donuts.
So here's the upside of sharing as many photos as is reasonable. The most important reason first, you don't know who is important to the bride or groom. We don't know if they've seen their uncle or aunt in the past twenty years. We don't know if they don't get along with their parents and have reconciled for the sake of family and wedding. We don't know if their parents are divorced and this si the first time they've been in a room together in ten years. Their parents may live on the other side of the country, their sister may be in the army and home for the first time in two years.
So when you make the choice to not include a photo of Uncle John giving a hug or crying at the wedding then you forsaking a once in a lifetime moment. You are the judge, jury and executioner when it comes to the selection of photos given. Why not lessen the risk of incorporating beautiful moments that you might not realize are happening right in front of your lens.
I once had a wedding where I was going through the routine of getting all the moments, all the guests and performing top notch wedding photography. I spent around a month editing the photos and ordering the flash drive and finally presenting the photos. I found out that the bride's aunt had died shortly after from cancer and she was only in maybe three or four photos. She asked if I had more. Apparently the aunt had raised her since she was a preteen, she had meant more to get than her own mother in some sense. I had no idea and this killed me that I couldn't do more for this bride. I'm only sharing this because I want to really impress upon you that we don't know who is special to the bride or groom and we have no idea the great history in everyone's relationships. The wedding guests are chosen very carefully and they're there to witness a huge landmark in a person's life.
So when you give variation, option, choices you are allowing them to choose the best version of themselves in photos. You are giving permission for them to remember moments that they will most likely have missed on their wedding day. It's a little bit extra work to edit a few extra hundred photos, but you get better and faster at it. Is it all worth it, sharing this many photos? Damn right it's worth it and I don't regret it for one second. Those extra photos usually mean that everyone who attended that wedding can find a flattering, fun and amazing photo of themselves or someone they love. This means they share, they brag and hopefully they say who took their photo.
I always argue about this with fellow photographers, I think I always will. I started giving out these extra photos as an added value to my product but through the years i've learned that this added value isn't quantity, it's beautiful moments that I didn't know were happening.