Friday Find: Photographer Promo Video

Friday Find: Every day on blogs we see weddings typically from the bride and groom's perspective. We read about what they felt that day, what they experienced, what they took away from it all. Very rarely do we hear from the photographer's perspective themselves, other than to say "I shot this amazing wedding today, check it out!"

This photographer made a promotional video for himself, but I think he does it in such a classy, emotional, and non self-serving way. I envy his love and passion for his job. If this doesn't make you want to go out and hire Kirk Mastin for your wedding, I don't know what will!

Mastin Studio Photography from Shep Films on Vimeo.

My sister and her boyfriend are visiting us this weekend to meet their niece, Zoey!! Have a great weekend!

Wedding Recap: Night Shots

Late in the night, our photographers took us away from the party for some night-time shots. These were taken in the same place as our bridal party pictures before the cocktail hour. It was just the two of us, and obviously everything looked different because it was at night.

I'm not sure if I'll really use any of these pictures for anything in particular. I feel like in most of them, I look really tired, and I've started to get that "I've had one drink too many" glaze over my eyes aka (slightly drunk). I remember them directing us into poses and just constantly thinking "Ok..what next? Where to next? Are we done now?!" We both really just wanted to get back to the party....remember my extreme FOMO? (Fear of Missing Out). 

 

 

 

 

This is probably my favorite of the outdoor shots. I kinda wish I was wearing my heels though!

Need to catch up? Check out my "Wedding Recaps" Page located in the bar across the top of the page! Or just click on it here!

Friday Find: Which is Worse?

Don't forget to enter my awesome Mixbook giveaway on this post! Open until Wednesday 8/17!
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Before I get to today's Friday Find, I am ready to share with you the most unfortunate thing to come out of our wedding. I had a whole long thing typed up about this unfortunate situation, but I'm really going to try and keep this as brief as possible:

Our photographer has lost about 45 minutes worth of photos that were taken of me and my bridesmaids at my house before the ceremony. I have about 9 different set-up shots that we distinctly remember taking that are just missing. These include me with my bridesmaids in all our matching zip up terry-cloth hoodies, and matching flip-flops that I worked so hard to make, as well as the pictures of my mom and sister zipping me up in my dress to name a few. They have no idea where they are, they are simply...gone. Obviously - this is a bride's worst nightmare. These are moments I can never get back. No one took pictures of these on the side because obviously, no one felt it was necessary.

Was the camera lens left on? via

I put off saying anything about it mostly because I refused to believe it was true. I kept hanging onto that hope that they would find them, or a memory card with all the photos would magically appear...but this week it has pretty much sunk in for me that they are just gone.

Obviously, the photography studio is very upset and doing everything they can to uncover them. Of course, they said this has never happened before (why me, right?), and they promise to make it up to us. I understand we're all human and this was a freak accident. We all make mistakes, believe me I know this, but deep down...I am so angry and upset at them. I don't even care to go there and work with them on the albums at this point. There's nothing I can do about it...what's done is done, and I'll just have to go on the memory of all those fun posed shots with my bridesmaids and the memory of my mom and sister zipping me up in my dress.

Friday Find: Sigh...I guess I should be happy that this didn't happen at my wedding though, right? Which is worse? having 45 minutes of wedding pictures missing, or having this happen to you on your wedding day?:

Good thing we nixed the Zip-line entrance! 

This is bad, but I think I win...

The First iPhone 4 Wedding

HAPPY WINTER YA'LL!

(Quick explanation on the "ya'll": I've been watching Friday Night Lights, which is officially the best show EVER, and have decided I want to be exactly like Tammy Taylor when I "grow up". I just love everything about her, especially the way she says "ya'll" so chipper and cheerful all the time. So, as part of my training/transformation I'm saying it now, too!)

Did you hear about this? Videographer Rainer Flor and wedding photographer Brian Adams (not to be confused with Bryan Adams) shot an ENTIRE Wedding through the use of a few iphones...and wow...it looks good! While they used a few added elements, (lighting assistants, change of lenses, etc.) they said the major advantage was that they were very unobtrusive since the cameras are so much smaller than the professional ones they usually use.

Check out their Iphoneshooters.com website where they post their personal challenge with this project, followed by the outcome (video below). My guess is this may be the first wedding to be done this way....but definitely won't be the last. Look for more iPhone weddings in the future!



Read the full Huffington Post Article here!

What do you think of the video? Would you hire someone to shoot your wedding using only iphones?

Brett Matthews

I had a great time in my web design class today! This post will also be my forum to show off some of the things I made in fireworks.

So, yesterday we had our first meeting with a wedding photographer,Brett Matthews. There actually is no "Brett Matthews." Brett and Matthew are the owner's sons' names. Chris and I were really impressed with the place. We met with Rich, and were with him for an hour and a half! I didn't think it would take that long, but it also went really fast. We looked through all the album options they offer, with tons of pictures, and techniques they can do with the pictures: sepia, high-def glossy, oil painitng, etc. etc.

Honestly, I could have sat there all day looking through the photo albums and videos they had. I actually got choked up when he showed us the video montages they can make. It all got me very excited for my big day...well only 1 year and 7 months! This was the first photographer appointment we had so far, so we don't really have any point of reference for comparison, but I will say that we were really impressed with this place. We'll probably look at 3 more to do some comparison shopping with both what is offered and price. But "Operation find a Photographer" is going so far, so good!


In other news, my mom is getting me really excited for the prospect of an engagement party in Schnecksville! I should give props to her co-worker Rae, who I've met once at my mom and dad's birthday party last year and immediately liked her. She apparently just threw an engagement party and wedding for her daughter, so she's gone through all of this and is eager to offer up her services with getting things off the ground! I realize that Schnecksville might be a little bit hard to get to for people in New York, but it will be nice to have something wedding related in PA, since the actual wedding won't be there. This will be a great way for my older family members to be involved and meet my friends and Chris's family, since it might be difficult for them to get to New York.

I also got to work on some monograms today. I like the second one better, but I think the C looks a bit more like a G. Oh well, this was just playing around:

Slow day at work...

Photography websites really slow down my work computer because there are so many images to load. This is frustrating me.

This site may just save my life...

While we haven't 100% decided on a venue, we are done looking and just need to have my parents see the places and ultimately sign a contract. At this point, I can see it being in all three places and I will be happy no matter where it is. We should have it settled in the next two weeks!! So, in an effort to keep things moving along, I'm onto the next step: Finding a photographer! Wow...how do I go about THAT?!?! I was kind of going crazy all day looking at photo after photo, website after website....but I came across this site through (C-Longo) Christina's Wedding photographer's website (Thanks Christina!)

WPJA

I can search by region (either city/metro or Long Island). This certainly gives me a HUGE amount of options. I think I would definitely trust any (or at least most) of these photographers and I like that it gives an idea of pricing for each photographer.

Again, just like with my reception hall search, I have to say how vitally important a photographer's website is in this process. I immediately noticed a difference by looking at the websites on the WPJA page versus a random "New York Photographers" google search. I've seen some baaaad things out there...and it's scary. Click on the following link: Example 1 Then look around the photo gallery, or just look below for the general idea. You're welcome:


Looking around at all the photos on that website and please, please tell me that all of these pictures are from 1982, they can't possibly be recent! You, as a photographer, are an artist. You, want me, to hire you...to capture my wedding day for all eternity. What, pray tell, makes you think that your website is visually captivating and therefore that your photos are visually captivating?? Posting pictures from 1982 DOES NOT HELP YOU!
Also, to other websites out there: Give me thumbnails! Give me a gallery! Give me Recent Photos!!! And a BLOG about what you are currently working on!! Give me this!

Lastly...if this is what my save the date looks like, please shoot me:


I guess I do know what I want afterall...