CHRIS WINEINGER / PHOTOGRAPHER
Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life!
A common phrase I hear from brides after the wedding is, "oh my god the day flew by so fast! You got pics of things and people I didn't get a chance to see"
And I hear this from guests at weddings, "I wish I had hired a better photographer for my wedding" or,"our photographer was grumpy all day!" It makes me feel so bad when I hear stories like this!
Think of it this way... after your wedding day is over, you have a couple of things you can keep over time, your ring, your dress, your husband, and your photos! The photos will give you the ability to go back in time just by looking at them and feel the same way all over again! I really feel like photos are so time tested because they are our only way to travel back in time! The better your photographer is, the better your trip back in time is!
I've been a photographer capturing beauty and weddings for 18 years. I graduated with an Environmental Science degree in 2001, and became a full-time photographer in 2004. While in college I photographed actors and models. I like to capture beauty and personality. Weddings, big or small, all have their own personality that makes each one unique and a challenge to capture. I'm always hunting for that unique shot, that will be one of my all time favorites!
To be a wedding photographer you need to have the right equipment. You need multiple camera bodies, macro, fixed, and telephoto lenses, to capture landscape, portrait, action and close-up shots. To be a "good" wedding photographer you have to know what to do in a variety of lighting situations. You need to know on-camera, and external artificial lighting. To be a "great" wedding photographer you need to have good people skills, know how to direct people, be friendly but firm and know a few things about psychology. You need to know how to compose cool shots, pose couples and organize group shots. You must like all kinds of people! You must like kids and be a bit of a kid yourself to get them to like you! You have to have a calming personality, to minimize stress, not create it! Most of all you must like what you do and have fun doing it!
Other important skills that will be required in this line of work -
Good herding skills, (moving people from one place to another)
be able to move furniture, pick-up up trash in your shot, lace up wedding dresses, understand the physics of zipping up wedding dresses, how to put a veil on, how to put on a bouteniere, how to fold a pocket square, how to tie a tie and bow-tie, how to put on cuff-links, how to trim the stems of the brides bouquet and prune unwanted random weeds from it, piggy-back brides over water, mud, or whatever they don't want to step in! Know when to offer your back-up camera to people that constantly ask you if you've taken a picture of this, or that, know a variety of line dances in case you have to show people how to do it in order to get dancing pics, know first-aid for dance-floor injuries.