Amy Atlas Feature

We are very excited and always honored to be featured on other websites...

One of our previous features was on the Amy Atlas Blog for an adorable 2nd Birthday Party!

Here is a alittle preview.  To see the entire feature, check it out here!

"Learning From The Experts"

This week we get to be educated on "Finding the Light" with photography.  Such an important topic...

Let's hear from Kate at L Photographie!

Let there be light!  Tips to help your photographer put you in the best light possible for your wedding photographs.

        What is the most important ingredient in the recipe for amazing wedding photos (besides you, of course!)?  LIGHT.  Ask any photographer worth their salt and this should be their fast reply.  For every wedding we shoot here at L Photographie, Both Liz and I spend the majority or our spare moments on a busy wedding day examining the light, and deciding how to use it best to make beautiful photos. Boiled down to it’s nuts and bolts, photography is the art of capturing light, so let’s talk a little about light and how you can be in your best light throughout your wedding day. 

         Let’s begin at the beginning… your getting ready location!  Most people haven’t put much thought into where they will get dressed and ready for their big day with regard to light, but all of the beautiful photos that you see of brides details and getting ready that look bright and warm and dreamy have one thing in common, and that thing is windows.  We, as photographers are in love with natural light and will seek out the area with the most window light we can find for you to get dressed in.  If you are in a beautiful hotel room or a big house with vaulted ceilings this is easy… if you are in a church basement or cry room it may not be so easy.  That is the primary reason your wedding planner or photographer may suggest a hotel room for getting ready.  Not only is it clutter free, full of mirrors, and big enough for you and all your girls… it also has windows we can use… big open spaces to hang a gown, pretty tables for jewelry and shoe shots.  Your makeup person will thank you as well… as natural light is also much better for applying makeup than tungsten (regular yellow bulbs) or the dreaded green glow of the fluorescent light! 

        After the bride and groom are ready to roll, the next lighting scenario we see is usually the ceremony.  Many times you have your heart set on a particular church or venue and we do the best we can with the light available.  Sometimes it is a little and sometimes a lot.  Big booming Catholic churches are gorgeous but often offer little light with the exception of colored stained glass and many modern churches are lit with stage lighting, or can lights that shine downward (hello dark circles!!) or fluorescent lighting, so we as photographers are constantly challenged.  In most cases flash is not allowed during the ceremony, so you may see us using flash during the processional and recessional and then putting them away during the ceremony itself.  As a side note, it is important to note that many churches and venues have strict restrictions on where a photographer can and cannot stand or walk, so all of this information, combined with the available light will determine the quality of images your photographer can capture of your “I do’s”.  If we are banished to the balcony, for example, close up shots that show your expressions are not in the cards. 

        Following the ceremony (depending of course, on your individual timeline) are the family group photos.  These are usually done with flash of some sort at the altar, unless you prefer them outside.  Outside clearly wins for lighting, but all photographers should come equipped with flash knowing that most couples want some traditional photos inside the church or venue of the ceremony. 

        Next we can talk about the fun part, the portraits of you and your bridal party!  The light plays a huge role here since you, your coordinator, and your photographer have the power to choose the time of day these photos will be taken, and their location(s).  The prettiest light of the day is in the few hours before sunset, so if you can time it out to land in that range you are golden (literally, the sunset light is golden and glowy and awesome!) If you decide to stray outside that time, some concessions will have to be made.  Without exception, high noon is the worst time for photos on a sunny day… there is no direction we can face you that you will not be shadowy and squinting (and nobody wants that!), so we head for shade.  This means that locations without shade available (such as outside Busch Stadium or the Arch, for example) do not work well at these times.  These are all things to discuss with your photographer and wedding planner when setting up the timeline, and also when choosing locations for photos on your wedding day… I am just trying to plant the seed here that light is important!  This can be controlled by adjusting the schedule, possibly adding a “first look” and doing some photos pre-ceremony for a late wedding, or limiting the number of locations so you have time to make it to that perfect spot!

        The reception, in most cases, is happening after sunset, so we employ flash once again to capture these moments.  Don’t worry! There are still a few things you can do to improve the look and feel of these images.  You can control the light in the space with lighting.  Your planner can help you choose from a variety of things like up-lighting for walls, pin spotting flower arrangements and tables, and candles etc…  All of these will all add light and visual interest to the room.  They also add a wonderful ambience for you and your guests! 

       So there you have it!  A look at your wedding day in terms of light and some thoughts from a photographer’s perspective on how to get yourself into the best light possible to get photos you and your family will love for years to come!  Happy Planning!

St Louis Wedding Consultants Couple of the Week! Katy & Craig

This is one of our most favorite couples ever!  Their wedding was AMAZING and made us feel like we were in a tropical paradise! These wonderful pictures were produced by none other than L Photographie!

Featured on The Hostess Blog!

Although we love love love weddings, we always enjoy doing other events as well!  And we are very excited to announce that one of our events was featured on Hostess with the Mostess.

Check out the link and let us know what you think!

Here is a Vibrant Fall Dinner Party!

Here is a little teaser...

"Learning From the Experts"

This week could be one of the most important topics of all! The importance of hiring a professional photographer! Time and time again I tell my clients that photography is going to be the only lasting impression you will have of your day and wouldn't you want to use someone you trust and someone you know will do a great job? Well this weeks Expert is Liz Sloan from L Photographie...check it out!

For my first guest blog, Shayna asked me to start with a basic question…why should you hire a professional wedding photographer?  My first thought?  Why wouldn’t you hire a professional wedding photographer?!  But I may be biased seeing as I AM a professional photographer.  Please read on accepting this self-proclaimed bias. 

Allow me to paraphrase the cliché which says something along the lines of “The cake will be eaten, the flowers will die and all you will have left are the photographs.”  That cliché’s got some good logic behind it!  The truth is you have more than photographs left.  If everything goes as planned, you have the love of your life to cuddle with for the rest of your time here on earth.  That is the number one reason you get married right?  (Piles of registry gifts coming in close second!) 

Your wedding day is going to fly by in the blink of an eye.  Don’t take my word for it, ask any bride.  No matter how hard you try to take it all in, so much of it will be a blur.   And if it’s a blur the next day, imagine how blurry that day becomes in say 5, 25, or even 50 years?   Photography shouldn’t MAKE the memories.  Your wedding day isn’t all about the pictures.  Photography should capture those memories so that when you look at the photographs you are immediately transported back to how you felt in that moment.  They should help you remember the blur of that one crazy awesome day in your life.  Even 50 years later.

It’s a one-time shot.  Wedding photographers don’t get do-overs.  I have shot hundreds of weddings, and this thought still makes my stomach churn with nervousness.  I spend days prepping my equipment before every single wedding.  Charging batteries, charging backup batteries and even backups to the backups.  I clean memory cards to make sure I have plenty of storage space (and yes, backups and backups of storage space) and that each and every one of them is working properly.  I have back up cameras, back up flashes and I have them in different bags incase one bag is stolen or lost while I am shooting.  I can’t tell you how many times I get in my car to drive to a wedding and pull over on the side of the road to double check one more time that nothing has been left behind.  I only have one chance to get this right. I personally wouldn’t gamble that one chance on an amateur. 

Equipment doesn’t make the photographer, but it certainly helps.  Especially at weddings which present some of the toughest lighting situations photographers ever have to deal with (candlelight ceremony anyone?!)  A professional will probably be carrying around a good $15,000 - $20,000 in the best of the best photography equipment available for what we do.  And it’s very specific to exactly what we need for weddings.  A wildlife photographer, landscape photographer, or even a studio fashion photographer owns completely different lenses, cameras and equipment than a wedding photographer.  Different situations present different needs and challenges, and we have equipment specifically suited to capture a wedding day.

Experience makes more difference than I knew until I had it.  I am so much better at what I do now than I was when I first started.  (Insert apology to early clients here!)  And I am still learning and improving nearly 10 years and hundreds of weddings later.  As far as photography disciplines go, wedding photography is certainly on the tough end of the spectrum!  It’s not as if we can set up the perfect studio lights and your photographs look consistently beautiful for the rest of the day.  Weddings move from place to place and settings need to change at the drop of a hat.  From you and your new husband laughing together in a beautiful window to grandma watching you lovingly from a dark corner of the room.  From your vows at the radiantly lit altar to your parents blotting tears in the first row of pews.   These tiny moments happen quickly and they are gone in the span of a second.  To actually get them right, that quickly, with one shot, takes practice.  And from my experience, a lot of practice. 

When it’s all said and done, you should rest easier approaching your wedding day knowing your memories are in the hands of the person best equipped to capture them.  And in my humble and somewhat biased opinion, that is a professional wedding photographer. 

Liz Sloan, L Photographie