Fiance2wife.com recently posted, on June 29th, 2008, some typical questions that you should ask a photographer. I’ve probably have answered some of these already in my own posts. I’d like to build a dialog; thus i’d like to answer some questions that the blog addressed. Keep in mind their blog is local to the UK so things might be a bit different; Regardless, these are some typical questions a bride would ask.

Questions provided by fiance2wife.com. Many of these are specific to our practices. I just wanted to respond to these questions because they’re commonly asked throughout the internet and you never know who is searching for these answers on the internet.

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Bridget and John Neam got married on June 22nd, 2008. I’m just catching up to their photos right now. I have been busy working on something big. You all will see!

Here Bridget is dancing with John.

I absolutely love this photo. Bridget’s ladies were amazing on the dancefloor. They’re so full of energy  and fun! They were ubiquitous on the dancefloor.

This photo is definately a Kodak moment. There’s so much emotion going around toasts. Here maiden of honor gives a speech right after bridget.

This is Bridget and john walking down eastern market. We were lucky that the rain had stopped that day and we’re lucky to find our way to eastern market with enough time at the end. It was not the most sunniest day but it made for beautiful dramatic wedding photography. As a photographer you have to make good use of unplanned tangents that life throws at you. Another reason why i love my job!

Here they  caught a moment of playing a game that i’ve instructed them to do. They’re pretty good at it. No posing at all! This is actually all natural light shot in front of a metal panel in eastern market. Eastern market is such a great stop for photography. It’s like a playground.

Here Bridget is laughing at some instruction i’ve gave her. I can’t remember what it was. She knows i’m funny. Shes such a fun bride. Here we were shooting under the awning of the Fox Theater to take cover over the rain that day.

Brides and grooms for some reason love photographing jump shots. I don’t blame them they’re fun watching them jump up and down. it’s their wedding day they have lots of reasons to jump up and down. Here John and his crew is doing the same as I instructed Bridget: To jump up as high as they can. This is a great thing to do to build rapport with your client actually. It is all about subject management: which i thank Craig Tanner for teaching me.

Here we see Bridget the bride in Angelo’s (i think her step father’s) Corvette. It’s a beautiful ivory colored corvette. I’m not a car buff so I wouldn’t know what year it is. We decided to have her hop in and take a photo right before she was leaving her mother’s house in Fraser, Michigan.

Here we see Bridget posed right in front of her favorite tree at her mother’s house.

This is from a Taylor Wedding I did a while ago. I’ll have to catch up. I’m really behind in the blogging process. Recently, I’ve moved to Ferndale to be closer to things. It’s made life more convenient and I’m very happy about my new place.

But check out this one photo I took in Taylor while shooting with Mary Potts Photography:

Forget Posing:

Being a portrait/wedding photographer gives you too many variables to remember to control. Lighting, your camera settings, how your subject is working with you.

Recently, it’s been a very favorite photo of mine. Very simply executed as well. I’ve noticed brides usually love to hear stories about how you create the photo to give an idea of how you work with people. In this photo it was very simple. This is something inspired by another photographer: Jerry Ghionis (an internationally renowned and very distinguished award winning photographer that i’ve had the pleasure of listening to in Las Vegas). Jerry emphasizes directing your subject and not posing them: giving them an activity. Fluidity of the action relinquishes your subject from thinking about the act of photography. Thus, eventually giving you more possibilities for what artists call, “happy accidents.”

Giving them an activity while also communicating with them is essential for subject management ( a term coined by RadiantVista’s  Craig Tanner ).

I second shot with abby rose photo.  Last wedding that’ll I’ll shoot for her this 2007 year. Boy it’s been fun.She let me tag along. It was a great wedding. The reception was held at the yacht club down in by belle isle. It got dark quickly but the yacht club is a very beautiful place to have a reception. The catholic ceremony took place at Grosse Pointe Academy’s Chapel. The chapel was very beautiful. The alter was ornately done and it looks like the chapel has aged well.

The tricky part of this chapel is finding it. It’s right next to St. Anthony’s Church.

I have some favorite photos from this Detroit Wedding to share:

This is the chapel I’m talking about. The high catholic church ceilings are seen. It’s style and ornate hand-made finishes that you wouldn’t see in architecture today.

This is the couple Jennifer and Rob’s best man Michael.

This is the Father Paul Ballien, from cancun signing their marriage license. At the left edge of the frame is the Matron of Honor, Maria and to the left i think is Rob.

This is the couple cutting the cake. Their cake was tasty. It was a chocolate raspberry and some layers was this lemon tasting flavor. I liked the chocolate better.

I’m a big fan of swing and big band music. So I was pretty excited to photograph the band while the guests were eating.

I usually don’t do black and whites that often. But heres one that I loved that works out very well. It’s pretty classic looking i’d say.

This is the Jennifer and her father dancing. They drew quite a crowd. It was pretty silly at one point they stopped moving and just sang the song together.

This is the band during the dance.

This is Rob and his mother dancing. With luck and my cat reflexes i was able to capture his mothers expression.

Turns out after the dance is that Rob’s Grandmother used to be a singer. Rob had never heard her sing until this point. It was quite a beautiful moment. Shes a great singer. You wouldn’t expect it from her. Rob’s grandmother is probably one of the reasons why they got the big band to play. She used to work with them.

This is one of my favorite non-bride/groom shots. I caught a candid of these guys dancing and having a great time.

Last Photo is of the singer of the band. He sang very well to Bobby Darin’s tunes. His voice sort of sounds similar to Bobby Darin.

Tagged along for Jonathan Thrasher Photography. I’ve never seen a more perfect autumn wedding. Every detail was very well thought. The wedding took place inside the historic Henry Ford Musuem in Dearborn, Michigan. I haven’t visited the Henry Ford Museum in ages. Now that I’ve been back I had a chance to recall everything I haven’t seen in ages while also being able to photograph a wedding there.

This is one of the bridesmaids getting ready. This makeup artist actually did a great job. Everyones skin looked very beautiful.

This is Erica the bride in her most beautiful Gown. She totally looked like marilyn. Very perfect for the theme of feel of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Meet the mischievous ring bearer. He was pretty excited and wanted to show me his little dance. So I just snapped a couple frames and get the perfect shot. He’s a handful but very adorable. It was difficult trying to keep him to stay still.

This is the groom Donald or Donnie right before the Wedding

This is Donnie and his best man right before sunset in front of the church.

Their ceremony started a bit late and with the autumn sun coming down faster and faster it was quite difficult to get enough light. Luckily, it worked out with well my fast new 2.8 lens. Erica looked so happy the whole time.

This was immediately after the ceremony. I shot this by foofing off the wall for those technically curious. They couldn’t resist some time together alone. With my luck, I was able to sneak this photo without being noticed. I did zero prompting or directing. They just look very good by themselves.

This is their first dance together as a married couple. This lighting technique of crosslighting was learned from Bruce Dorn. I thank him very much for that.

Heres a close up of their first dance. I’m sorry i’m a big fan of the first dance. I feel like thats my favorite part of the wedding to photograph.

This is another one of them dancing a little later. Not their first dance. But of their second dance.

This is a photo of her father and her dancing. I love the moment of this photo.

They hired a polka band and was asked to do a wedding march after the dances. It was something different just puzzled me.

Check out the huge plane that they were dancing under.

This is the bouquet toss. All the women got pretty excited for the boquet. The maid of honor had a huge height advantage. Surprisingly, she didn’t get the bouquet.

This past weekend I went out to Ontario to shoot with a friend, John Lyons from Chatham, Ontario. Their ceremony was held at St. Rose of Lima Church and their reception was held in Windsor’s Ambassador Golf Club. They had hor dourve hour at the Bethelbaum Bed and Breakfast in Windsor right off of Chappus. Which is shown below:

This is Lovely Nadia at the Bed and Breakfast. The Bed and breakfast was very ornate and was a great place for her to get ready. She was super nice.

This is the Groom, Scott.

This was at the church. I’ve never noticed the great impact of violinists in a church until now. It was way better than hearing chatter or piano music.

Here are some guests arriving at the rose

Another Violinist at St. Rose of Lima Church.

This is nadia walking down the aisle of the church with her father. I’ve never seen a bride smile that much. This is what she looked like all day. Her photos were boring because shes so happy in every picture that all her expressions look the same. Ha, no not really. A happy bride is a great bride.

This is nadia and scott downtown windsor walking around. Probably my favorite photo. I screamed at John, “I told him we gotta shoot here the building is a huge reflector. The light is beautiful here.” So we did for a moment.

This is Nadia and Scott listening to the best man speak at their reception in ambassador country club in windsor, ont.

This Dessert was amazing. It was all chocolate flakes around it with a crispy outside and mousse on the inside. very rich. It was awesome with coffee but then I got busy with shooting the dance that they stole my cake away before I could finish it. I was pretty unhappy. oh well so it goes.

This is their First Dance; Their song was sting. See! Look what I mean shes so freaking happy its awesome. It made my job very easy.

Shot this wedding for Abby Rose photo. Another wedding at addison oaks, Michigan. This one had a totally different twist. They had different food stations for the dinner, different carnival games it was pretty amazing. The couple were theater people and everyone who did a toast about tommy, the groom, mentioned he was a creative genious.

The usual Addison Oaks Ceremony Site

One bride Michelle Leroy-Didimenco

They played bocce ball after the wedding. Immediately after getting married.

They made a lego box for their gifts. They loved Legos.

They had carnival games at the wedding. This one was fill or bust.

Card sharks. Sort of like from the price is right. I think thats where it’s from.

This one was a throw the ball in the cups game. The prizes would be in the cups.

Dancing with the father.

Night Photography is one of my favorite things to do besides wedding photography. Every once in a while one needs a departure from doing the same type of photography.  It’s taught me a plethora about how to see light. In a way with night photography, the outdoors is your studio.

Titled, “Plastic Knife Fight.” Copyright Chris J. Lee 2007.

So I thought I’d share some tips.

1. Be Careful - Make sure you bring a friend with you. Your safety is very important.  It’s dark, you’re carrying expensive equipment and it’d be easy to just get your things stolen.  Also, never leave your camera unattended. If you can try to have a car around for your get-away. So you could run like a ninja. Hey, I’m a wuss I get scared easily. If you run into cops it might be useful to bring your business card too & always have a cell phone on you.
2. Bring a flashlight - When you’re doing night photography you can always add light to the scene. This can be helpful if the foreground is really dark. If its cold make sure you bring several flashlights. I’ll explain at number 9.
3. Keep warm - Usually it’s colder at night. Make sure you have some way of keeping warm. It’s not an issue in the summer but in the winter I’ve faced some harsh conditions. I’d definately suggest getting gloves. If you do get gloves make sure you’re able to push buttons with your gloves on.
4. Check the scene first - Shoot at 3200 ISO and a faster shutter speed before deciding to commit to a 10-20 minute exposure. This way you can check the frame.
5. Use a Tripod - If you’re going to use a long exposure make sure you have a secure tripod. It might even help to gaffer tape it up. I love my Bogen Manfrotto Tripod.
6. Take multiple exposures - If your camera has a bracketing try to bracket your properly exposed photo. Expose for the highlights then shadows and then use multiple layers to create one photo in photoshop. This way you don’t blow the highlights out of light sources.
7. Turn on noise reduction - On Nikon and Canon cameras there are  functions that turn on noise reduction for long exposures. Usually with long exposures, areas where the scenes are dark but continue to be exposed will add more noise. But beware usually the photos will
8. Shoot in raw - I guess this is very debatable on your workflow. But I love using raw because I can change the white balance in scenes where you will not know what the color temperature of the photo. Mixed lighting is very common in more urban scenes. Plus the file size provides you the ability to print very large prints.
9. Bring extras - Bring extra batteries. When it’s cold the batteries for your camera and flashlight usually drain much faster. I suggest using a crank flashlight. Those are helpful when you’re in a jam and can’t find batteries for your flash light. Also bring extra compact flash cards if you’re shooting raw. Sucks when you have a great shot but
10. Start shooting at sunset - Usually if you want really  super blue skies the best time to do it is right after the sun gets down. See below photo. This was shot right before sunset when the skies were orangish. Thats at least what my photo professor told me.

Congrats to all the winners:

Weddings

Cakes : Cake Nouveau

Caterer : Catering 2 You

Flowers : Viviano Flower Shop

Invitations : Gourmet Invitations

Limousine : Checker Sedan

Music : Mike Staff Productions

Photographer : Arising Images

Rings : Pat Scott Jewelers

Tuxedo : President Tuxedo

Venue : Crystal Gardens

Videographer : George’s Video Productions

Wedding dresses : The Wedding Shoppe

Source: wdiv.cityvoter.com

I even got to see Prem’s award on this past Monday at our monthly Detroit Photographers Get Together. It’s pretty neat. From what I can recall it has these church windows on the top of the award. A very unique looking award. Nice to have!

The Hyatt in Dearborn, Michgin is definately a very nice place to have a wedding. Anil & Vu totally went all out and had their ceremony decorated very well. As I said before I shot this for Jonathan Thrasher out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The day started at 8am when we got breakfast. The breakfast at the Dearborn Hyatt isn’t too great of a value. It was rather overpriced but the cook to serve omelets were pretty tasty and their options are quite limited.

So the next day I woke up early and drove to the Dearborn Hyatt. It’s about a 45 minute drive from West Bloomfield, Mi. Jonathan and I had breakfast and then we were off to shooting. The day turned out to be pretty awesome.

This is their ceremony site. Up in the center is a platform where they set a stage fully decorated for their wedding. I’ve never seen a more elaborate and beautiful setup than this. The setup was primarily a stage used for a traditional indian weddings. I’m not sure what it’s called.

Grabbed this mirror shot of Vu getting ready. Rarely do I get to see brides to get ready mainly because I’m a guy and they don’t want them watch them in their scrubbed nature.

This is Vu after the transformation. She looks great!

This is another shot of vu. This is after she saw the ceremony site. She was pretty pleased.

This is their horse trainer. They had a horse take him from the parking lot into the dearborn hyatt.

Here is anil right before mounting the horse. Hes pictured here with his mother. I guess it’s indian wedding tradition for the Groom to ride into the hotel from the parking lot.

This is Anil and Vu tying the knot, literally. They tie a scarf to each other and they walk around in a circle after each different phases. This is toward the end of the phases of this tndian wedding tradition.

This is Anil and we’re doing a portrait that Jonathan preplanned. He was shooting Vu and I shot Anil. We had about 30 minutes to produce portraits. Most of the day was spent changing and taking formals in different outfits. They had three different outfits: indian, vietnamese, and a western one. This photo was shot in front of the elevators of the Dearborn Hyatt.

This is a shot I preconceived. I liked the soft quality of ambient light. With a little flash and made this photo. Remember we had little time but at least we prepped out all the locations.

I previsualized this photo because from scouting out the cake. It was huge and very tall! So I set up my lights right behind them. I did immediately because I wanted to apply what I learned from Bruce Dorn’s recent seminar. He said that he worked with this cinematographer and he would always light the background first. Therefore, I thought that would the first thing I’d do. I didn’t expect the light to flare like that but it was a happy accident. Probably my favorite photo of the day. Either that or the horse photo above.

This is Yanni. I spotted this right by the piano in the Reception hall of the Dearborn Hyatt. Vu likes playing Piano.

I have a lot of reception shots because these guys all really know how to dance. But there were two that I stuck out. This one. i just love her expression and the mystery of Vu (the brides) face and the stark geometric lines everywhere.

I also liked this one the most because by luck his fingers are right where my strobes fired off as well as the vantage point. It’s hard to get good random photos shot from above because I don’t know what I’m aiming at. This photo reminds me of Jesh De Rox. Primarily because he uses that light magenta palette in some of his photos. But you can’t really pin Jesh de rox to one style.

Wow that was a lot of photos! Primarily because I did shoot for that long. I’ve never shot for 13 hours.