Article by Chris Cummins, chief photographer/owner Glow Imagery.

The wedding is set, you found a talented photographer whose work you love. It’s a big day for you and you want awesome pictures but aside from looking gorgeous what is your part in creating great pictures?

After all, it’s not every weekend you plod around in a wedding dress and tux every weekend with a photographer in tow. How do you help your photographer achieve their best? Here are 10 do’s and don’ts when working with your wedding photographer

1. Do have fun
   Great wedding pictures reveal something special about the people in the photos. As a couple, the feelings you have for one another are unique and should shine through in your shots. When people have fun and are spontaneous great pictures easily happen.
2. Do feed your photographer
   Photographers are normal people too… they get hungry. Allow ten or 15 minutes for the photographer to eat at your reception. It is an extra expense to feed another guest but that’s preferable to calling an ambulance because your photographer passed out!
3. Do share your ideas
   Express your wants and needs with your photographer and bounce ideas with them. You are a participant in the creative process of photography so your ideas should be welcomed. How do you share your ideas without micromanaging? Share a few ideas but keep it relatively open ended for his or her talent to shine through. Collaboration is important, so don’t be afraid to share your ideas about locations, backgrounds and some poses you’d like to try.
4. Do consult about your schedule
   A good photographer can get the shots you want without endless hours of posed groups. Work with your photographer before the wedding to set aside the necessary time to do your groups. Be sure to include travel time and a little extra time for inevitable surprises and delays. Most photographers should have a shot list of the most popular groupings you can review prior to the wedding to see what you would like to do.
5. Do communicate
   Were you planning a sendoff after your ceremony? Uncle Mike who just received a liver transplant made it to your wedding! Don’t you think he and his wife deserve a picture with the couple? Tell your photographer! Your shooter will have a lot going on while working your wedding. They are trying to accomplish their work on schedule, do it well and make something creative you’ll adore for years. Make plain for them your expectations, needs and desires prior to your wedding, during and after as well. This helps them anticipate shots, meet and surpass your expectations.
6. Don’t be late
   A wedding photographer is responsible for getting the photography you want within the the time you set aside to do the pictures. If you are late, all bets are off. In the event your are late, a good photographer will try to help but it isn’t their responsibility to be your wedding coordinator and keep your entire wedding experience on schedule. If you run into a hitch and you know you are going to be late, immediately talk with your photographer about how to adjust your photography schedule to recover some of the time. It may mean you have to curtail some of the posed groups, do away with a third location or do some of the formal groupings at the reception. Communicate, be on your toes and be flexible.
7. Don’t micro-manage
   While it’s tempting to share your enthusiasm for wonderful pictures in the form of extensive shot requests and examples you have seen in magazines and on the internet, curtail your ideas to the few you love the most and share those with your photographer. Great photographers will not be able to capture every image you can think of, but they can deliver images you never dreamed of.
8. Don’t chase fads
   Photography, like most things, is vulnerable to trends and styles. What may be today’s cool thing often becomes tomorrow’s parachute pants. Photoshop tricks, trendy poses and dress trashing sessions date quickly but great pictures are timeless. Great pictures reveal how people feel about one another, expressions and what it was like to be there at a past time and place. They are done with with superb craftsmanship, good lighting and composition. These kind of pictures never go out of style.
9. Don’t procrastinate
   Be timely with everything. Try to get your picture selections in for the album sooner rather than later. This allows your photographer the maximum time to do their best. Let the photographer know if there will be any problems with payment, a change in schedule or any other obstacle. They are there to help. If you foresee a challenge that could impact your photographer before during or after the wedding, be proactive and let them know sooner rather than later.
   

10. Don’t stress
    Weddings are complicated projects with many moving parts that can go wrong. Take a deep breath, take many deep breaths. Focus on the positive and delegate the little details. It’s entirely possible to have a blast at your wedding and make great pictures. It is not possible if you are in a near panic most of the day. Tense photos just aren’t as good. Tense memories are worse.

Follow these tips and you’ll be on your way to an enjoyable wedding day and years of enjoyable pictures.

Tags: Add new tag, Kansas City wedding photography, wedding help, wedding planning, wedding tips

I wanted to share with everyone a new gallery of images I made from a couple of weddings we have photographed at Asbury United Methodist Church in Prairie Village over the last couple of years. This church is really lovely with beautiful light and spacious interiors not to mention a great location which is not far from many reception sites in the Kansas City area.

Click the picture below to see more!

Tags: Add new tag, Asbury United Methodist Church, Kansas City wedding photographer, wedding help, wedding planning

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Tags: Add new tag, Kansas City wedding photographer, Nelson Atking Museum of Art, Weddle Event Space

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Here’s a great idea for turning your wedding into an occasion for giving…

Recent brides can donate their dresses to Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation, an organization whose mission is to grant wishes, including memory-making events, for metastatic breast cancer patients, while continuing to support, educate and increase resource awareness.

The effort is titled Brides Against Breast Cancer. Here’s how it works, you donate your gown to the charity, the foundation turns around and sells it to a bride-to-be during one of the foundation’s nationwide tours. The proceeds go to the foundation’s efforts of helping breast cancer patients and fighting the disease.

Check it out here!

Tags: Add new tag, wedding help, wedding ideas, wedding planning, wedding tips

In case you wanted to know my answers to the 16 questions from my previous post, here they are:

1. (For self-described photojournalists) How much of your candid-looking work is posing and setting-up of shots or do you get shots as they happen without posing or reenactment?

I only direct action during the posed groups and formals portion of your wedding day. I believe very much in using my camera and abilities to find the genuine sparks between a couple and record the emotions, feeling and pageantry of their day as it truly happens.
Your wedding photos should be joyous celebration of your love and the momentous event you two are sharing.

2. Are you full-time? When did you start shooting full-time?

Yes, I have been a full-time throughout my career as a publications photojournalist (12 years) and an independent studio photographer (five years.) My career began during college at the Missouri School of Journalism in the mid 1990’s.

3. Why do you like to photograph weddings?

It’s about moments, and weddings are full of them! I’ve always been interested in telling stories through photos, particularly the stories of people. My greatest joy as a professional is to find those photos that reveal relationships and the feelings two people share. This makes photographing a couple’s wedding day a great thrill and tremendous honor.

4. Will you be the actual photographer to shoot our wedding? If not, who?

Yes, I will be your shooter. The only reason I would not be your shooter is in the event of my being physically indisposed or incapable of shooting your wedding due to events beyond my control.

5. What kind of input can we have on the shots? i.e. subject matter, shotlists and ideas from other wedding shots we liked?

Upon request, I provide a formals worksheet with the most popularly requested groupings. The sheet helps couples plan out this process and budget for the necessary amount of time to devote to what they want to have shot.

As a wedding photojournalist, I welcome a few ideas and suggestions but encourage couples to allow an open-ended approach to their wedding photography which helps me as your photographer find those genuine, real moments and memories to unfold and be recorded. I can’t produce every kind of photo you can think of but I can produce the photos you never dreamed of.

6. Are the digital files available on CD/DVD? If so, are they high resolution?

Yes, many of my packages are structured with CD/DVD’s of high resolution images. My images are recorded by 8.2 megapixel cameras which are sufficient for any variety of size of prints you would require. They also included a written copyright release signed by Chris Cummins which is often necessary to have before labs will produce prints of professionally created files.

I also offer discounted prices for CD/DVD’s after the first anniversary of your wedding.

7. What kind of color correction and adjustments do you make to the files on the CD/DVD.

I give individual attention to assure a decent quality print of each of the files on your disc. I color correct, adjust for exposure and other assorted adjustments to images which will help you produce a good quliaty print from a variety of printers.

8. Do you have a list of references with contact info?

Yes, this is available upon request.

9. Who do you carry liability insurance with?

My liability insurance is with Fireman’s Fund Insurance. Certificates of insurance are available when required.

10. What is the delivery time for the various products you offer?

I deliver CDs and DVDs within six weeks of your wedding date. Album first-drafts are completed within eight weeks of your wedding date or from the ordering date, whichever is later. The first drafts are submitted to my clients via an online proofing gallery.

All clients have 60 days from the time they are sent the online proofing gallery to request changes to the album’s first draft.

11. With the albums, how does the design and picture selection process work? Are there any fees for changes we would like prior to the album’s production?

I believe our clients should have ample opportunity to give us their input on the products they receive. Most clients receive their album first drafts by email and respond with requested changes by email. There are no fees for changes.

12. When will the proofs be ready? Is there a time limit for the online proofing galleries?

Online proofs are ready and posted to an online gallery within one week of your wedding. Your wedding gallery stays online for nine months from its first posting date.

13. What happens if the photographer is ill? What about back-up equipment?

I have a network of shooters I work with to help each other with assistant shooters and emergency shooters for such occassions. I have two Canon cameras and Nikon digital bodies as back-up plus film gear as back-ups for the back-ups. I also have multiple CF discs (go into my cameras and store the actual pictures throughout your wedding day) and disk recovery software.

14. Should our event last longer than scheduled? Will the photographer stay, are there extra charges?

All of my packages are built around a six to eight hour time frame. If there are major reception events we have not yet covered after eight hours, I will politely remind couple of the schedule we are on and see about completing the events in a timely fashion. Hours in excess of eight hours are handled on a case-by-case basis and may require extra hourly surcharges.

15. What associations do you belong to?

I belong to the Wedding Photojournalist Association and am a member of the Digital Wedding Forum. I have past memberships in the Nationa Press Photographers Association.

16. Why should we hire you?

I love what I do. I love people and telling their stories through images. What better story than such a momentous day as your wedding day?

Chris Cummins
Owner/Chief Photographer, Glow Imagery
chris@glowimagery.com

Tags: Add new tag, Kansas City wedding photographer, wedding help, wedding ideas, wedding planning, wedding tips

For many years, as a staff photojournalist working for daily newspapers across the country, I learned to dread opening the morning paper.

This dread did not arise from some need to avoid the latest roll call of bad news in the world. It was to avoid the enormous letdown of seeing my hard fought artistic efforts presented in horrible layouts that wasted good pictures. Most days it was best to not look at what became of my photos for fear of starting the day on the wrong foot.

Most publications photographers as visual communicators develop a very good eye for how pictures should be used on a page. They understand how to use pictures for the greatest impact and storytelling experience.

Truth be told, this understanding comes from years and years of watching good pictures run too small, cropped awful or ignored entirely.

My suffering was for a good cause. Now, as a wedding photojournalist with my own business here in Kansas City, my eye for good layout and how to use pictures has been a very welcome asset from my wedding clients. It is a joy to take the best pictures I can and present them the best way I can and watch couples react with glee, enormous grins and excitement.

Because of this I like to think of Glow Imagery as a truly comprehensive storytelling approach to your day. It is an excellent experience for my couples before, during and after the wedding.
I have some fun examples: here, here, here and here.

Tags: Add new tag, wedding help, wedding planning, wedding tips