Poster

I created a poster in Illustrator advertising an imaginary Wedding Expo in Philly! I brought in some of my own images and altered them using the effects and live paint. This event is meant to be a huge expo where lots of local businesses would come to advertise their services to prospective brides. There would be jewelers, bakers, florists, dress designers, event planners, and of course, photographers!

Illustrator illustration

The other part of our assignment was to create an illustration completely in illustrator. I really liked going through all of the effects in this program to see what they could do for my shapes. It's pretty neat!

Logos

So we began using Illustrator and we had to make some logos to go with our topic. Since I am trying to begin my own photography business, I made logos to go with my future business, under the name, "Memories by Melissa". I messed around with a couple different effects in illustrator and this is what I came up with:























After looking at my first logos, I decided to take out just the Ms and create something I could use as like a little stamp that went with my logo but didn't have all the writing the others do. Here it is:

Creative bomb?

This image was created in Photoshop for a "creative freedom" assignment. I started out just really liking the image of the bride and her beautiful bouquet...I'm not sure if I ruined that image by doing all this or not...

Here are the links to find the images: bride, table, and cakes clockwise from bottom left are cake 1, cake 2, cake 3, cake 4, and cake 5. (Flower petals image was mine.)

Background

The second part of that photoshop assignment was to take 2 images and replace one's background with the other. I got the image of the men from this site and the gorgeous rings came from here. Taking the rings off of their boring background and placing them in the sky above the men, adds a little intrigue to the new image, I suppose.

Changing perspective...

Here is an assignment we did focusing on working in Photoshop to alter an image to change the perspective around a bit. Using different layers to make multiple copies of a particular part of the original image, we created totally new images. What I created sort of gives the idea of the couple here making their way down the beach on their wedding day.

The original image was taken from this UK photographer's website.

Share with your neighbor!

Another really interesting site I found while wandering around theworld of wedding photography was this forum, called Wedding Photographers Forum. Creative.
Upon further inspection, there actually is a good bit of info here that is shared between aspiring photographers, professional photographers, and scam artists. Of course, it's an open forum, an invitation! Anyway, there actually isn't that much junk here on the posts. They've got sections for posting marketing tips for your business, technical techniques for shooting, equipment reviews, and then just a bunch of other stuff related more to weddings than to wedding photography.


my photo ;-)

The best part about this forum is that you can actually have dialogues back and forth with other members and it can really give you a chance to talk to people already out there in the field to get some answers, hints, and secrets of photographing weddings and being a successful wedding photographer. It's nice to know that other people are out there doing the same thing you are doing. And it's good to know that not all professionals refuse to give out info to up and coming individuals in fear that they will lose business. What's the worry? People have been getting married forever, and it seems to be a continuing trend! There's enough room for everyone out there with the motivation and talent to pursue it.

Tips, tips, tips!

There are quite a few websites out there that I found with tips for photographing a wedding. They are all over the place! i.e. the knot.com, answers.com, and other bridal reference sites. Most of them entailed a looooong list of "must-have shots" for brides to check off and bring to their photographer. Helpful? Yea. But one of those "tips" sites seemed to me to be more helpful on more levels. Christopher Maxwell, a Kansas City photographer, has posted on his business website, a section on tips and how-tos for photographers. As a beginner, I saw a lot of relevant info for me in terms a lot of technical questions that you NEED to know the answers to in order to be a professional photographer. What's also cool is that he links you to other FAQ sites on the web about including wedding photography book reviews, and links to other informative question-answering sites. The more information the better!

History

I've been researching wedding photography and found a bunch of information online at answers.com. Included was a pretty interesting description of the historical progression of wedding photography as a major portion of a wedding celebration. Here is a snipett of info from there :

"...for a long time wedding pictures were usually limited to a studio portrait of the bride or bridal couple in formal attire, with the bride often identified as such by a bouquet rather than a wedding dress. The studio portrait remained popular until the Second World War, but with the group often enlarged, from the 1920s onwards, to include the best man and bridesmaids. By the 1900s, in England, outdoor group photographs had begun to appear, including members of the extended family. Church-door pictures proliferated from the 1920s, especially when the groom was in the forces, entitling him to an avenue of comrades making an archway of swords, bayonets, or even police truncheons. There might also be a picture of the bridal couple leaving for their honeymoon. But for most ordinary town dwellers until at least the 1950s, weddings were unpretentious affairs in which photography played a modest part. After the Second World War, wedding photography (and eventually videography) became increasingly elaborate, to the point, sometimes, of hijacking the proceedings. From being the record of an event it became a major lifestyle statement, at a cost to match: in the early 21st century, photography may absorb 10 to 15 per cent of an American wedding budget. Growing affluence made weddings key success indicators and occasions for conspicuous consumption, to be documented as lavishly as possible. "

Wedding photography really has come a long way, and we don't really realize that I think when we consider it. It has become such a staple in weddings, much like the cake or flowers, or even the rings!!

Wedding Photography

So narrowing down my topic brought me to Wedding Photography, since that is the type I am currently doing. There is soooo much information out there about it, but most of the sites are just photographer's business sites which mainly host some pretty pictures. Which isn't bad. It's just finding the information you want that takes a little digging.

I found a great site with tons of articles on Wedding Photography published by The Wedding Photojournalist Association, http://www.wedpix.com/articles/. Unlike most, they are not just for the prospective bride and groom, but also for the PHOTOGRAPHER! How nice! They post different articles every month in a magazine fashion, linking you to "current issues" and "past issues" of the mag. The types of articles for the photographer range from very general wedding photography to nice technical investigations of photographic equipment. Very informative! However, the articles supplied there for the Bride and Groom are actually helpful as well. They discuss questions, problems, concerns, and all types of things couple encounter when looking and working with their wedding photographer. It's extremely helpful to be able to see what your client is looking for and thinking about, so you have a better chance of scoring the job! And with new articles to read every week, there is a ton of really good, reliable information here :-)

Photo shown here courtesy of Utah Wedding Photographers.

Digital Photography

My main interest right now is digital photography. I spent a few weekends this summer working with a local photographer as a second shooter at weddings. Having graduated collage in May '06 with a minor in Photography, I was comfortable with taking pictures, however, our program at school was based in fine arts which uses film, not digital cameras. It took a little getting used to using the DSLR cameras, but I found my way and I just love it! I want to pursue a career in photography and somewhere down the road, open my own business. Therefore, I'm interested in researching, reading, and learning all I can about the field.