[Matt]

Share your wedding photography tips here.

[Matt]

Are these the worst wedding pictures ever? bungling photographers miss out faces and forget groom's parents

Person + SLR ≠ photographer.

Please, people.... don't do weddings unless you have a lot of experience shooting events in a lot of conditions. Stop ruining people's most memorable days!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... rents.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picture ... -ever.html

[Kelly]

If only couples would do as much research on their photographer as they do on their sugary, lard-laden cake and silly bridesmaid dresses with matching shoes - this would happen a lot less frequently. Couples, for whatever reason, think that an appropriate place to cut costs is on the folks with the camera.

What a mess!

The 2 things I get the most sick of being asked.....

1) OMG! Why are you so tanned? Have you been on vacation? NO!
2) Photographers are so expensive - would you do our wedding? NO! And an extra special dose of NO - based on the words you chose to ask me!

[Matt]

I probably get asked for every family/friend wedding... and I say the following...
I won't do it, because I just don't have the experience it takes to do the task justice. But I will help you find the right person for the job.

[cbobcat49]

We spent more time finding the right photographer than everything else combined. ok, that could be a slight exaggeration but we realized that nobody is going to remember what the food tasted like 30 years from now, but we'll still have our wedding album.

[Kelly]

We spent more time finding the right photographer than everything else combined. ok, that could be a slight exaggeration but we realized that nobody is going to remember what the food tasted like 30 years from now, but we'll still have our wedding album.

Cameras hadn't been invented when I got married, or I would have done the same.

[Matt]

but did you at least hire someone to chisel illustrations into a stone tablet?

[Brenda]

but did you at least hire someone to chisel illustrations into a stone tablet?

[Kelly]

but did you at least hire someone to chisel illustrations into a stone tablet?

The great thing is that the tablets can double as our headstones.

[Brenda]

You are so clever, Kelly!

[Kelly]

You are so clever, Kelly!

I don't know about that, but after an incredibly shitty week, it was a nice diversion to dig out the old tablets and amuse myself.

[Matt]

Recently, I have seen "photographers" (people with cameras that take great pics of their pets who decide to charge money to shoot weddings disappoint newlyweds) lug those wide angles to wedding and shoot away with it. Although I can write on and on about how bringing a wide angle to a portrait session (and despite large wedding parties often requiring group/family sized photos, the purpose of the wedding, and primary photos of the photographer should be around the number 2) there is one particular habit that drives me nuts. Not only am I seeing people shoot the bride and groom with a wide angle lens, I'm seeing these "photographers" get creative or sloppy with angles and they are doing the one thing you NEVER should do to a bride: put her in the corner of a wide angle lens.

Trained photographers know that wide angle lenses are great for fitting an expansive scene, through optical distortion, into the fringe of an impossibly tight frame. Distortion in the center is generally mild, often barreling slightly, while the edges.... expand, stretch... and MAKE BRIDES LOOK FAT AND UGLY. No bride wants to look this way, or see the printed memories of this day with her skull stretched out like martian. Essentially, wedding photographers being paid to flatter the bride. Although there are some exceptions, 99.9% of wedding jobs don't need that wacky creativity and are not times to experiment. They are times to use the right tool for the job-- the paid job. The bride didn't dress in the traditional way, the groom did not wear that traditional tux, and the wedding isn't following a tradition of centuries old western weddings, so the photographer can take out that near-fisheye he/she has been itching to use and try some new things.

The bottom line is: for capturing those "most important day moments" the photographer's job is the make the memory as wonderful as possible. Know your most flattering lenses and focal lengths. Of those, wide angles should be far away.

[Kelly]

Don't ask a bride to dip her toes into rushing water.....

RAWDON, Que. - A recently married bride wanted to be photographed one more time in her wedding dress.

The photo shoot on Friday wound up killing her.

A Montreal-area woman, married just under three months ago, dipped her toes into a river northeast of the city near the town of Rawdon.

The water wasn't particularly deep or turbulent. But it began to seep into the dress, making it heavy.

Eventually, the 30-year-old woman slipped from the rocks and was carried away by the Ouareau River.

"The photographer put down his equipment and tried to save her. He grabbed her with his hands," said provincial police spokesman, Sgt. Ronald McInnis. "(One witness) tried to help, but they couldn't save her.

More....New Bride In Rawdon, Quebec Plunges To Her Death