Advice from Donald Yeager Photography: Communication is Key to Maximizing Your Wedding Photography
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Weddings don't just happen, they take careful planning (as you're currently learning) and the orchestration of all your vendors, your family, your wedding party, and you and your fiance/fiancee. And when it comes to your photography, you want to ensure that you and your photographer are on the same page and that your details and the bigger moments of your day are captured.
We asked Don of Donald Yeager Photography, a Nashville wedding photographer, how a couple can best work with their wedding photographer to maximize their time and ensure they accurately tell your wedding story via photos. Here are tips for getting the best photos of your Nashville wedding...
When do you like to start the photography part of a wedding day?
I prefer to tell a wedding story through my images. Meaning there needs to be a beginning and an ending. The beginning starts with the bride getting ready, with shots of the dress, shoes, and the rest of her accouterments. Then, there is the emotional moment where she slides into her dress. The day progresses on from those starting moments that heighten the emotional value of the narrative of the day. It’s not so much of when the photography part of the wedding day begins as much as when the wedding day is beginning.
What's the best way for couples to utilize the time they have with you?
Planning and communication: both are paramount to maximizing time for images! Although some people may think that photography just happens, a lot of planning takes place on the part of wedding planner, couple, and photographer. First the wedding planner and/or photographer communicate with the couple to determine which images are the most important to them, or if they have any special requests for their pictures. Then, the wedding planner and photographer coordinate to make sure as much time as possible is allocated before the ceremony to ensure that the images that are important to the couple are captured.
How do you have your clients prepare for wedding day photography?
I don’t really. My objective is to capture the atmosphere and emotion on the day of the wedding and I am afraid that if provide too much direction, I might ruin that.
What information do you request from them to help make things more efficient?
One thing that has helped a lot is for the couple to make a list of the formal pictures setups with the family members’ names. This is useful, for I don’t know who mom, dad, or grandma and grandpa are. The list prior to the wedding allows me to organize the setups so there isn’t one person coming up for a shot, then sitting down, then coming up. It speeds up the process, which allows the couple to have some time after formals to take some images after just being married!
Ashley adds - At The Smart Bride workshop, Don also recommended that the couple designate a family member to help gather those for the family picture. We often forget that the photographer doesn't know your family; you will be in the photos or busy so when it comes to the formal photos, you need an assigned family member who is fairly familiar with the names on your family picture list. Maybe have one person designated from bride's side and one from groom's side
What would help you (and your wedding photography colleagues) the most when it comes to the wedding day?
Communication. I can’t stress the value of communication enough. We (photographers) love our jobs and know how important our images are to our clients. It's one, if not the most, important days of your life and the images are irreplaceable! If you have any requests, please tell your photographer. Did you put your grandmother’s charm on your bouquet? Tell me! Did you make all the pinwheels lining the aisle? Tell me! Are your groom doing a coordinated dance to surprise everyone? Tell me! Just in letting me know will help capture these details of your wedding that I otherwise wouldn’t have known about. My end goal is for my couples to be able to look back at their wedding pictures in 20 years and bring back all the laughter, tears, smiles, and emotion on the day that they were married.
So while you're trying to picture how your day's going to go, think about Don's words of wisdom and that should help you put your timeline together with a little more ease. Check out some more of Donald Yeager Photography's work on his site at DonaldYeager.com.
About the Author:
Tabitha
Blogging is something I’ve enjoyed doing for years. My interests lie mostly in lifestyle related topics like fashion, style, design, food and weddings. When I heard Ashley was looking to bring on new members to the ABG team, I jumped at the opportunity - I can’t think of a better way to stay involved in weddings than to write about them and to stay in touch with the trends and new ideas. Lucky for me, Ashley likes my blog and trusts my experience to bring me on and so far, it’s been a blast.
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Posted on May 30, 2012 |
Filed under: Advice & Planning, Photography
