The ceremony is over and I have my posed shots. The wedding party is leaving the venue and heading home for an hour before going on to the reception venue. I speed off to get to the couple’s home before they do and get set up. I think wedding photographers get short changed, and I’m hoping after you read this, you’ll have more of an appreciation of what we do.
It’s about 3pm now and I grab a sandwich while I set up. Now I change cards and batteries and make sure everything is working. I take pictures as the wedding party arrives and document as much of the action as I can. The family plays a big part in these shots and I try to capture the moments in their rawest forms. Emotional images make for great memories, and parents of the bride and groom can always be counted on to provide a few tears for posterity.
I wander round taking shots as I see them. A few of the bridesmaids chatting in the garden, the children running round or wiping food of their face. I do my best to capture the day as it unfolds and give the couple great memories of the occasion.
Around 4.30pm I’ll leave to go ahead to the reception venue to capture guests as they arrive. I meet the manager, check the place out and go through the rules again. Most of the venues I have been to before, and sometimes know the staff involved so can skip that bit.
I get set up, change cards and batteries and prepare again. I shoot the venue empty, and get a couple of good ones of the cake. I then get the guests as they arrive. I mingle shooting what I see until the happy couple appear, where I go outside again and shoot the entrance.
I work the crowd as they stand around talking, the bride and groom as they do the same before sitting down. When they do sit down, I circulate getting shots of the family and friends, the speeches, applause and all the happy stuff. I leave them in peace to eat their dinner and then rejoin them as they mingle afterwards. I get a few shots as the bride and groom mingle with a glass in their hands and then bid my farewells to them.
I get home around 8pm, have some dinner and maybe a glass of wine and relax for a bit. Then head to my studio in the basement to offload the cards and charge the batteries. I download all the images to my computer and make copies. I store the originals on an external drive and disconnect it. All the work I do is on the copies.
That is a typical day for Naples Wedding Photographers, and we haven’t even got to post-production yet!