When it began to snow, Kayla wasn’t frazzled and said she had considered having a winter wedding anyway!  The day was cold, windy, and beautiful.  Sorry, no ceremony photographs (they’re beautiful, we swear, but we aren’t allowed to show them :).  We had so much fun with the bridal party at the Art Gallery taking photographs.  Afterwards we headed to the Hotel MacDonald for some photographs of just Kayla and Steven.  We dipped outside for some photos which turned out to be some of my favourite from the day!  We wrapped things up on the High Level bridge where the wind gusts were so great, and my fingers froze so much, that I was in awe of our couple… willing to do something so crazy on their wedding day!

The reception was at the Millwoods Golf Course… and may I just throw this in here… the food was delicious!  The speeches were funny, and touching, but the ultimate time of the evening for me was the first dance.  You can tell when a couple looks at each other the way Kayla and Steven did, that this is just the beginning of an amazing life together!

For future brides: Bride’s Dress: Maggie Sotterro, Hair: Jenn Chivers, Makeup: Anita Gill, Getting Ready Room: The Fairmont Hotel MacDonald, Flowers:  Lynn Mcalpine, Ceremony: Robertson Wesley United, Reception: Millwoods Golf Course (Woodvale Community Hall), Linens: Elegant Touches, Cake Pops: Whimsical Cake Studio, Cake: Alyssa Watson, Decorations: DIY (by Kayla!)

Jana and Terry were up for anything, and went along with our quirky ideas, even the hilarious ones :).  They are two amazing people.  They have a very deep friendship and love, and have already travelled the world together.  When we were setting up lighting they would snuggle, and one time Jana looked down, and Terry leaned into her and looked at us.  I have officially named this pose the “Jana-Terry Pose”.  I quite like it!  We had a great day together that left us in smiles on the ride back home.  Here’s a look at some of the photographs from the day!

Tip for other photographers:  Photographers often look for a “clean” background without much clutter.  This is easy to find at some places, like in an open field or by a body of water, but in indoor spaces this can be tricky.  We always bring a ladder, which allows us to change our angle, and this helps us avoid clutter.  In the bottom photograph in this set we climbed a ladder, and still felt the background was too busy.  We applied a texture to the image, and extended the hardwood floor in photoshop to achieve a cleaner background.  We still left a little bit of architecture top left to make the photograph look believable, and not as though it was a studio location.

Some VERY exciting news!  Due to the success and wonderful comments from our last workshop in Edmonton, we have decided to host another workshop!  This time it’s going to be bigger and better!  Check out the details below!

Annie & Quinton were sitting on our couch during our first meeting together, and they mentioned the coolest idea for engagement photographs- they wanted pictures taken in the home they were building!  I actually always wanted to do a session like this ever since we took some photographs of a Calgary bride on the lot where her and her husband were going to begin building.  Then Annie mentioned a vintage look, and I knew we were a great match!  Timing worked out, and the builders granted approval, and I smiled all the way until we found their address.  We just love cool ideas, and locations that are unique.  This certainly was inspiring.

Inspiring…. and cold.  No heat yet in the home, and a snowstorm outdoors, we worked as quickly as we could.  Annie and Quinton were super cute and cuddly with one another, and photographing them was so much fun.

Afterwards, out into the cold we went while the snow fell around us, to a train yard.  This was meaningful, as it related to Quinton’s job!  We photographed until the shutters on our camera literally froze shut!  It took us hours to thaw out over some awesome Indian food (Punjabi Sweets on 34th ave in case you were wondering)!  Thanks Annie and Quinton for the awesome ideas, and for being troopers in the cold, allowing us to get some photographs we are in love with!

Small tip for new photographers: to show snow or rain in a photograph, use an off-camera flash from behind your couple or subject.

Okay, so these aren’t technically photographs taken the day after Christine & Justin’s wedding, but rather on their wedding anniversary, exactly one year after their wedding date.  Christine and Justin asked us to photograph their wedding which happened over a year ago, but we were already booked.  We promised to catch up with them for photograph though, and to celebrate their wedding anniversary, we re-visited the Universiry of Alberta campus where their wedding had taken place a year before in the Old Arts building.  The weather looked as though it may not work out for us, and during some of the time it rained, so we visited another location indoors for some of our photographs, but then, the clouds lifted, and we took some photographs with the last that fall had to offer outdoors by the U of A Old Arts building.

Why do we love Day After Sessions or Trash the Dress sessions so much?  We feel our clients can relax, and “feel” instead of stress.  Without large time constraints we can take the extra bit of time to get our light “just right” or to wait until people move out of spaces we wish to use.  Christine and Justin are a fun couple, a couple that likes to goof around, and a couple that is very much in love a year after their wedding day.  We had the best of times during the photo session and I think it shows :).  Happy Anniversary Christine & Justin!  May you always remain as you are today: two super fun people, very in love with one another.

We love doing our trash the dress photography sessions so much, that we usually photograph until there’s no more light… and even then it’s hard to stop!  Here is the sunset portion of our trash the dress photographs with Ashley & Cody in Mexico at the Grand Palladium Riviera.

If you are getting married by a beach, we think a day after session is a must!  Why not get some images closer to the water, or even in the water… and with some awesome lighting too!  Wedding days are sometimes hectic, and there are so many things to focus on… the families, the bridal party, ceremony and reception happenings, that time for photography of just the bride and groom seems to get a little squished out of the picture.  Day after sessions, or trash the dress sessions allow you that one on one time together, where the photography is only about you.  These can happen in a place your wedding didn’t take place, or somewhere you wouldn’t have had time to drive to on the wedding day, or they can be in the exact same setting as before.  Either way, we find couples are more at ease during these sessions, and so the romance is even more evident.  Whether or not you decide to get wet, go underwater, or just take some more “wedding pictures”, we definitely recommend one of these sessions!

What if you aren’t getting married at a beach?  Still a great idea!  If you are in Edmonton, we can go out to a farm, to Banff or some other cool locations we have up our sleeve!

The sunset ceremony was so gorgeous.  The light dropped quickly afterwards, and we photographed the bridal party in the dark.  Difficult, but a great challenge for us :).  The party was so much fun at the reception!  We partied along with everyone… though maybe a little less as we were photographing Ashley and Cody’s trash the dress the following day… (and we will show you that soon!).  Ashley did an amazing job on decor for her wedding.  I couldn’t believe how many personalized items there were.  The reception looked stunning.

Most of all, I can’t say enough about choosing to have a destination wedding.  They are always so much more relaxed, and the atmosphere is unbeatable.

The ceremony was very emotional.  Adam waited for Amy as she walked down the aisle, and I could tell he was stoked to become her husband.  I just love ceremonies like that.

The Rutherford House at the U of A was an awesome place for photographs, especially following somewhat of a vintage theme.  We hopped out for a quick spell for some freezing cold outdoor winter photos, but decided not to subject the bridal party to them also :).  The Rutherford is beautiful, and the rich mahogany is gorgeous.

The reception had some Ukrainian flavor (which I love, as I myself am 1/4 Ukrainian!).  It was party, party party, and so much fun to capture!  I will leave you with a couple favorites from the day.

One fabulous feature in Mexico to take advantage of are the cenotes – deep natural pits or sinkholes that expose groundwater underneath.  These places are so unique, and each one seems to have its own personality and beauty.  We LOVE photographing in them!  With Danica and Ryan we found one that was completely underground with the smallest hole to climb down and into.  I have to give Danica and Ryan props for being willing to go into and swim in this dark cave.  It was a little creepy, with dangling roots from the top to the bottom hitting our legs as we tried to balance with cameras and lights so as not to get our equipment wet.  Oh, and did I mention bats?  But that’s what we love about our couples, they are willing to do what it takes for some awesome photographs, and that is why we hire them -just kidding, we know it’s the other way around :).

Geeky info: With almost no light where we were photographing our cameras would not autofocus.  One of us held waterproof flashlights at the couple’s faces, while the other one auto focused.  Once focus was achieved the flashlight went off right away so as not to affect the lighting in the scene which was achieved by multiple off-camera flashes.

I am in love with trash the dress photography.  It is such a creative time, without a time limit, and we seriously would photograph these every day of the week!  Danica and Ryan’s trash the dress is special to me, as Danica has become a friend of mine!  Krister and I scouted out areas in the scorching sun in Playa Del Carmen for the beginning of the trash the dress session.  We hired an awesome cab driver who soon got used to us popping in and out of the cab for photos in places that aren’t typical for photography.  I couldn’t believe how gorgeous Danica looked while my sun tan lotion had sweated off minutes after I applied it!  Not fair!

For my tip section of the post, I decided to write about how we decide what locations to use.  First, we scout the location before if at all possible.  We try to go off the main “tourist” areas.  We look for things that are colourful, places with great lines, textures, and places that would be different than the “usual” wedding photographs.  We try to scout places at the same time of day that the photo shoot would be happening.  In this case, the first part of our session happened early in the dame (so the worst time for lighting) and we needed to find places that would be in the shade, or where the sun would be behind our couple for the most complimentary photographs.  Sometimes we cheat with big diffusers if we love the spot, but not the natural light.

Here are my favourites from the town.

1. Are their images sharp and in focus?

Many photographers are new, and are in photography because they love it.  And who wouldn’t love photographing weddings?  Being there while couples are their happiest, and every one around them is wishing them well, and excited… being at the reception with the music playing and the couple in the middle of the dance floor looking at each other with so much emotion… it’s addictive.  There are as many ways to photograph something as there are personalities, and you may see someone who has a “great eye” (you may love the angle they chose for a specific moment, or some natural framing they did, etc.).  The “feel” of the photograph is part of it, but is the image in focus?  Is it sharp?  Many new photographers make their images small on their blogs to hide the fact that it isn’t a quality image.  Also, pay attention to photographers putting their photographs together in collages… look at each photograph separately by covering up the others, and determine whether they are hiding a bad photo by making it small and putting it next to other photographs.  Does the photograph look great on it’s own (noise, focus, sharpness, light/shadows, etc?).

2. What does their lighting look like?

Great lighting can do many things… it can help create great poppy colour, it can help skies be bluer, it can add a 3D quality to a photograph, it can be used to “slim” someone down, it can add a bit of fashion to a scene, or it can simply be used in a necessary place to add light to a place that is dark.  Our eyes adjust to light, so we may not notice that places are dark, but cameras do.  Shooting at extremely high ISO’s is what happens when a photographer doesn’t add light in properly, so photographs are noisy (they look a little pixely).  Alternatively in dark situations photographers may use a slow shutter speed which means that movement is captured, and the image looks blurry, not sharp.  Some photographers will bring external lights, but not know how to use them, so you may see “bad shadows” (dark shadows from someone’s nose falling across their face, or shadows off of someone’s arm onto someone else… or the worst: shadow outlines of the bride and groom on a wall behind them.

2b. What does their lighting look like in dark settings? (Reception, Ceremony)

Lighting is super important to us, so this is why I would repeat this… look at receptions and indoor dark ceremony locations and check out the lighting.  See the WHOLE reception if you have any doubts… ask the photographer to show you an entire wedding.  Sit and look through 900 photos and ask yourself if you would be happy being this couple with the images you see.

3. Do they take enough photographs?

This is something that is important.  While many photographers don’t limit how many photographs they take, some give very few images.  If a photographer says they’ll give you 400 images, think about this long and hard.  If you have 200 guests at your wedding, and large families on either side, you will almost certainly feel the story of your day is missing if you only receive 400 images.  Look for photographers that will take photographs of guests dancing, people’s reactions at your ceremony, and the smallest of details… the little hand-made place cards or favours you put out.  I don’t want to give an exact number here, but if it was me, 600+ would be something I’d be looking for (and I’d be super happy around 800).

4.Do they edit all of the photographs?

There are many, many photographs from a wedding.  Make sure your photographer edits all of your images (brightness, colour, sharpness, cropping, etc.).  Look really close at photographs… if you see black circles or little outlines this is usually a dirty sensor.  You will be surprised how many people don’t even edit this in their photographs!  Make sure you like the editing your photographer does!  If you love saturated colourful photographs, don’t hire a photographer who desaturates all of their images.  Be careful when you see too many black and white images.  While photographers love black and white (and we really do!) it can often be used to cover mistakes (bad colour, etc.).  Last thing on the editing… be sure you choose a photographer who’s editing will age well.  Some things that are “in” now, will be very “out” four years from now, so choose someone who’s style of editing won’t be dated right away.  Natural editing is timeless.

5. Do they make the bride look great?

A technically great photographer is awesome, but wouldn’t it be great if you came out looking awesome with your best features accentuated?  People all have the things they love and dislike about themselves.  Ensure your photographer brings out the best in the people they photograph.

6. Do they seem to “get” the personalities of their couples?

Do you see the personality show in the photographs you are looking at?  Is every couple posed a little differently or in different locations?  Sometimes photographers get stuck bringing their clients back to the same place over and over again, or posing their couples the same every time.  What is great for one couple may look a little funny on another.  If someone loves vintage and is posed super modern, or vice versa, we feel this is a disservice to the couple.  So, obviously, make sure your photographer has photographs somewhere in their portfolio that represent what you want, but try to stay away from cookie cutter photographers that do the same thing every time.

7. Do they capture true emotions?

Does the photographer stay on their toes enough to captures things as they happen (big laughs, tears, surprise and all the rest).  It’s great to have a few lovely posed images, or some fashion-styled photographs if that’s what you want, but I’m guessing that when you are both 50 (or when one of you is 50 and the other is whatever age difference) you’ll be drawn to the photographs that showed who you were.  Who you really were.

Obviously, these are our must-haves in a photographer, so if you disagree that’s okay :).  If you really, really disagree, come talk to me if you see me at Bridal Fantasy tomorrow.  I’ll be the girl with the camera walking around :).

So did I already mention that we completely loved doing this sizzle session?  It was super fun to turn a regular couple’s shoot a little more intimate.

I thought about what tip I might share from this session for new portrait photographers and I couldn’t come up with just one.  Here’s a couple:

1. Make sure a woman’s hair is the “right kind of messy”… messy, not too messy.

2. Make sure there isn’t an overload of water droplets on someone’s face as it might look more sweaty than sexy.

3. Underexpose by 1 stop and use flash to compensate and add the 1 stop back in to have skies and ocean look blue, expose regularly and remove flash when you want a washed out background look.

4. Having two assistants for a shoot like this isn’t too many (if you do off-camera lighting and use a diffuser).

5. Bring a towel.

6. Clean every piece of your equipment after the shoot with a damp cloth (except the lens and sensor, which you clean in your regular fashion) to make sure the salt water doesn’t stick on there and cause erosion.

7. When people stop to watch you on the beach just roll with it and enjoy feeling popular.  They probably are looking at your couple, not you… but you can pretend!

So here is a couple that is totally in love.  And I’m still in love with their photos :).  Ashley and Cody booked us to photograph their wedding in Mexico last year.  We love destination weddings, so of course we jumped at the idea!  Ashley had a cool idea though… rather than doing engagement photographs, she suggested something a little more intense… like a boudoir photo session almost, but involving her fiancé too!  I have always meant to do such a session before, and it was as though it was meant to be.

So, here is introducing: Sizzle Sessions!  A photo shoot of a couple involving love and romance, but also some extra ‘sizzle’.  We offer engagement photographs with every wedding package, but should you want to exchange yours for a sizzle session, we are totally up for that!

Tip for new photographers: You might think this next photo is great, and so do I!  I like the pose, I like the location and how their outfits go with the background.  The one thing that happened in this photograph though, is the flash didn’t fire at the correct angle to catch the eyes.  Catch lights are something we really strive for in photographs.  While photographs are okay without them, photographs with them really stand apart.  Photographs with catch lights in the eyes make a person look more “alive” and dare I say, more beautiful as well!  Flash isn’t required to create a catch light if the sun is out you can catch the sun with a reflector or a reflective surface to have the light show up in someone’s eyes (though be careful as some people are very sensitive to light, so this isn’t for everyone).  If you are in the right location, even a building can be used to reflect light back into someone’s eyes.  We use flash as we don’t like to have to constrain ourselves to times the sun is shining only and can be reflected.  So is this photo a failure?  No, but the one after is more of a winner :)

Our driver and interpreter couldn’t believe we wanted to take photographs in the shabby parts of town, and tried to sway us towards more conventional beautiful spots (such as the hotel in our first photograph).  We loved being out with the locals, and portraying what Cuba really look like (not just what it looks like to tourists).  We loved the colours everywhere, the old cars, the wonderful friendly people… all of it!  Most of all we loved photographing Kandace and Curtis… they are so in tune with each other, so in love…

edmonton-destination-wedding-photographers-cuba-veradero-pictures-ring

Tip to photography students: When photographing in daylight between the hours of 11 and 3PM (a rough estimate as lighting is different depending what season, and where you are in the world) try to put your couple in the shade wherever possible to get nice, even lighting on them.  When shade isn’t possible in the location of your choice, pop our the largest diffuser you can find.  We generally try to have one extra person on hand to help hold a diffuser should there be guests of wind, etc.  When photographing non-destination weddings, we also bring a ladder, which may aid you on getting the diffuser higher up (where you will likely need it at those hours of the day).

Here’s a bit of a behind-the-scenes look…  (though Krister and I aren’t in the photo).  We attracted quite the crowd of onlookers as we were photographing in a place it seems isn’t really touched by photographers :).  The people were super friendly, some even came up with pose ideas and jumped in to pose our couple.  We only wish we could have better spoken the language!  Thanks to the bride and groom’s friends for the extra lighting assistance!

And here was what we were going for!

We thought it was so funny when some children started imitating our couple when they were posing!  Had to get them in a photo too!

We asked a random person on the street if we could borrow their bike for a few photographs.  A kind man obliged :).