Are you drawn to the work of the most creative wedding photographers in DC? Does innovative use of light and color thrill your eye? Do you love wedding portraits with stunning visual effects? Do you want the pictures of you and your future spouse to absolutely blow you away? If so, you are far from alone. Many couples want to hire wedding photographers whose mastery of light and color leaves their jaws on the floor.
The good news for you is that finding professionals who can create that kind of wedding photography for you is not difficult. In the Washington DC metro area alone, there are easily dozens of photographers with the skills to give you portraits that will absolutely amaze you. And you do not need to be an expert in photography to know who they are. A quick look through their portfolios will tell you all you need about their skills with their cameras. All you have to do is figure out which ones you like best!
Once you have a short list, though, the task gets a little harder. Not when it comes to their creative abilities. You will know intuitively which photographers’ images speak to you most. No, the difficult thing is figuring out how each candidate goes about creating the beautiful wedding photos that you see in their portfolios.
Your first question at this point might be why you should care how your wedding photographers do their job. And you would not be wrong to wonder about this. After all, they are professionals that you are hiring to take beautiful photos of your marriage celebrations. You have them there specifically so that you do NOT have to worry about that aspect of your day.
The problem that many people in your shoes are not aware of, though, is that the way your wedding photographers approach their work can impact the rest of your plans. Creating stunning wedding pictures is not always simple. Creative wedding photographers almost always put a lot of effort into creating stunning portraits. The more visually delightful the image, the harder it probably was to set up. Great art is not usually simple or easy. It takes work and sacrifice on the part of the artists. But every minute devoted to creative portraits is time not spent doing other things.
So with that in mind, it pays to learn more about potential candidates’ creative process and how they do their work. As you interview different wedding photographers, we suggest that you dig into two areas in particular.
The first thing to look into is how efficient a given wedding photographer is at time management. As we said, if a photographer has shown they can set up an award-winning shot, then they can definitely do it on your wedding day. But how long will it take them? More importantly, can they do it in a high-pressure environment when time is tight?
In our experience, wedding-day schedules tend to be pretty packed. That means that time pressure is often a reality on your wedding day. The more things you have planned for you and your guests, the more likely it is that you will find yourself hurrying from one part of the day to the next. The unfortunate reality is that sometimes things run late. Your ceremony might not start exactly on time, for example. Or the speeches during your reception could take longer than anticipated. Or members of your wedding party could decide to hit the cocktail hour before formal portraits are finished. There are a million little things that could cause delays.
With this a real possibility, the last thing you want is for the people you hire to document your nuptials to hold things up while setting up a complicated shot. So as you interview the innovative wedding photographers whose work you love, try to get a sense of how quickly they work. Ask them how long it takes them to create some of their most spectacular photos. Run your timeline by them and ask them whether there will be enough time for them to do their most creative images. The way they answer those questions will tell you all you need to know about their time management skills.
Those delays we mentioned above? They will almost certainly happen during your wedding. And you know what? That is completely ok! Regardless of what happens, your wedding day will still be one of the best memories of your life. Any small hiccups will soon become things that you look back at and laugh about.
Delays, particularly during the earlier portions of the day, however, will force your photographers to react and adapt. This is because the part of a wedding that typically gets squeezed when time is short is the couples portraits. The end time of the ceremony and start time of the reception are usually nonnegotiable. So any time lost at the beginning of the day typically needs to be made up between those two events. Which means your photographers have to be quick with your couples portraits.
So another thing you need to know about the unique wedding photographers you are considering hiring is how flexible they can be. If everything is running late, will they be able to deviate from their plan and still give you the kind of creative portraits you want? Because the last thing you need at a chaotic moment is a photographer with the stereotypical “artistic temperament.” So when you interview candidates, ask them to talk about what they do when things do not go as planned. Have them tell you about a time when they had to adjust on the fly during a wedding. Get a sense of how they respond to pressure.
We like to think that we possess both of the qualities that we just talked about. Prior to becoming a wedding photographer, Pete was a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. State Department. One of the jobs he was frequently asked to do was planning and organizing VIP visits. That required him to develop excellent time management skills and a great ability to get things done quickly and efficiently when necessary. So having to create a lot of magic for you with even a few minutes at our disposal is no problem.
We have also spent a lot of our adult lives living abroad, often in places where life is a lot less predictable than it is in the U.S. Places where things not going exactly according to plan is the norm. That has taught us to always be ready for the unexpected. To be prepared for chaos and to deal with it. To keep cool in a storm and remain focused on what we need to. That means that on your wedding day, we can come to a portrait location, survey the scene, put together the necessary equipment and get the shot within just a few minutes.
That is exactly what we did when we captured this particular image. The bride and groom’s wedding ceremony at the National United Methodist Church ran a little long. Naturally, they were eager to get to their reception and start celebrating. And they also wanted to spend some time getting some “typical DC” portraits in Georgetown. So even though the church had some really cool places for portraiture, we did not have a lot of time to get them done.
As we said above, though, that is not a problem for us. We had already identified a spot with a lot of potential. It was a garden that was in a sunken alcove round the side of the church. We brought the newlyweds down there and got to work setting up our equipment. The color of the wall behind them was neutral, so we decided to splash that up a bit. We pointed one flash with a purple gel at one spot and another with a yellow gel at a different area. We really wanted those colors to pop, so we intentionally left the couple dark and silhouetted. The resulting image is one that is both bold and ghostly. It is bright and dark simultaneously. It is creative and beautiful. Most importantly, it is a portrait that they (and hopefully you) love!
Interested in learning more about our services? Please visit our Wedding Photography FAQ page for answers to all your questions! Ready to inquire about our availability on your wedding date? Contact us now to get the conversation started!
Location: National United Methodist Church, 3401 Nebraska Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016.
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