Recent Wedding Articles

"Unplugged Weddings":  Preventing Guests From Destroying Your Photographs

As any wedding photographer knows, one of the most nerve-wracking events is when a guest completely destroys the picture perfect moment you've been hired to capture. Whether they stand up in the aisle during the first kiss, take photos with their ipad in front of your camera, or inadvertently cause half the family to look off to the side during posed family portraits, wedding photo bombs can be a real headache. Wedding photographer Corey Ann's suggestion is having an "Unplugged Wedding".

Wedding Tutorial: How To Photograph Engagement Sessions

If you've been hired to photograph a wedding, there's a very good chance your clients will also want you to take engagement photos. Recently we released our 14 hour long wedding tutorial How to Become a Professional Commercial Wedding Photographer which covers everything about how to start a wedding business. Lee Morris previously released a sample called How To Light Posed Photos In a Church but today I wanted to share a free excerpt on making the most out of your client's engagement session.

5 Things Brides Wish Their Wedding Photographers Knew

Guest Writer's and Dale and Jill Lempa of Lempa Creative are a husband and wife team of photographers from Cary, NC who specialize in wedding and engagement photography. If you're a wedding photographer, then you can understand how stressful or hectic weddings are. Sometimes it might not occur that the bride is just as, if not more stressed out than we are. Dale and Jill have taken the time to share these helpful insights in just what the bride is thinking and how you as the photographer can help!

Photographer Clashes with Weddings Unveiled Magazine Over Same-Sex Marriage Ad

At Fstoppers, we do our best to stay away from topics that are strictly political in nature. Generally speaking, it's not our place. We are a blog for creative professionals, not any number of sites that poke at hot button issues for the sake of sensationalism. However, once in a while, a situation arises that directly affects photographers and their decisions. One such situation occurred when Weddings Unveiled Magazine rejected a photographer's paid advertisement.

The Underwater World of Nick Pugay

Living in the desert, I don’t see a lot of water. And while I lived on coastline, I never really played with water for shoots other than the occasional beach photo. This is why I became fascinated by Nick Pugay’s work when I first saw it. That’s because Nick Pugay takes your wedding photos and engagement photos, underwater.

Lawsuit Filed Against Videography Company For Swindling Newlyweds

Earlier this week Mass. Attorney General, Martha Coakley, filed a consumer fraud lawsuit against a Millbury, Massachusetts videography studio for allegedly scamming several newlyweds out nearly $75,000 worth of wedding videography services and precious memories. The company, Sure Shot Videography is accused of taking newlyweds' deposits and either not showing up to the wedding or for never delivering the final product videos.

What is Really Behind WeddingWire's Bride's Choice Award?

My Facebook news feed is being littered with photographers today announcing from their soap box that they won the 2012 Bride’s Choice Award thereby putting them in the Top 5% of their industry. Some may call it an award, I call it a deceptive marketing scheme.

Free Online Wedding Workshop: 
Location, Posing, Execution

People often ask me "what is the most difficult part of shooting weddings?" One challenge I face at every wedding is having to pose the bride and groom in less than flattering sunlight or in a less than perfect location. Wedding photographer Roberto Valenzuela is tackling this very issue during his creativeLIVE workshop. Robert's free-to-watch workshop will air September 6-8th and you can ask him anything live through webchat.

Shooting A Wedding? Don't Eat On Camera

Shooting a wedding will wear anyone out and of course we all need food and water to keep going. Make sure that when you do grab something to eat, you don't walk behind someone giving a toast... and being filmed. Also, you may want to wear a shirt with a collar.

[Video] Same Day Wedding Videos By Antonio Domingo

Hi there F(stop)'ers! Today I am posting from the AFP Photo Expo in Caldas, Portugal. I must say this is the most fun and unique expo I've yet to experience. Last night during the Gala event, I sat across from wedding videographer, Antonio Domingo. During conversation he mentioned that upon his client's requests he sometimes shoot, edits and delivers the newly weds their wedding video the night of their wedding! more in the full post

[News] WTF!?  Another Reason I Won't Shoot Weddings.

It's no secret, I hate shooting weddings. I've always felt that way and then Lee took me on an actual wedding gig and confirmed two things. 1) I really do hate shooting weddings and 2) I'm pretty shitty at it. They are way too much work, way too many creative restrictions, way too little lighting options and way to many guys and gals running around with cameras, far better than mine, pretending to be photographers. Don't even get me started on the potential for having to deal with bride-zillas. And now this story caught my eye, where a client is suing a studio for missing the last 15 minutes of his wedding. Sounds reasonable, you say? Well get this: not only was the wedding done in 2003, but the client is also divorced and is suing to have the whole wedding reinacted for $48,000 plus the original $4100 fee. Studio owner Dan Fried says that the cost of defending themselves in court has already matched the sum demanded by Remis (the client), and calls the case “...an abuse of the legal system.” I can't wait to see all your comments on this one. For links to the full story, jump in and leave your comments below.

A Moving Moment, A Different Type Of Wedding Video

As many of you know I (Lee Morris) am a professional wedding photographer. I was never a big fan of wedding videos until I saw the work that StillMotion was putting out. Even if you hate weddings you can appreciate what they do simply from an artistic standpoint. Even though I loved their work, I actually found it discouraging because I knew I could never do their style of video as well as they could so I never tried to film a wedding. I had the idea for over a year of shooting a wedding video similar to how I shoot stills. If I could slow down the video enough I could deal with basically a moving image, something that I felt a lot more comfortable with. It finally worked out that Patrick Hall had a wedding on a day that I was free and 3 days before the wedding I ran the idea by the bride and then called my buddy Mike to see if he wanted to help me film it. Check out the finished product below and the walk-through in the full post.
A BTS Look At The Making Of A Modern Wedding Video

Visual Masterpiece is back with another BTSV of their latest wedding video and once again, it's top notch. Not only are these guys amazingly good videographers, but they also know how to make an informative video. It appears that the most used piece of gear was the Cinevate Atlas 10. I own and love the Atlas 10 but since I like traveling light, I prefer the new Atlas FLT.
It Was Bound To Happen:  The Iphone Wedding

For some reason people still like to send us videos of photographers using the worst possible camera the iphone for their photoshoots. It's been proven time and time again that you actually can produce some really great images with the most simple of cameras. As a wedding photographer myself, I'll admit, I was a bit shocked at just how good some of these images look in this video. Of course there is no super shallow depth of field, tight reaction shots, or reception strobe images but this still put a smile on my face. And I will even go as far as saying that this presentation even looks better than some wedding photographers' work I've come across during my own career. From the looks of it the bride and groom still had a traditional photographer on hand too so I'm sure the event was well covered. What do you guys think: are you confident enough in your photography skills to pull something like this off?
The Creation Of A Modern Wedding Video

Wedding videography is no longer the boring handycam crap it was a few years ago. Visual Masterpiece takes us behind the scenes on their latest wedding video and gives us fantastic details into what it really takes to produce a video at this level. Shooting the footage itself is hard, but the editing is really what makes their videos shine. Check out the full post to see the finished product.
R.L. Morris Weddings: A Quick Interview

For those of you that don't know, I am a wedding photographer. I have been a wedding photographer for about 6 years now and believe it or not, I actually like it. Wedding photography has given me so much freedom in my life and has allowed me to start new projects like Fstoppers.com. Patrick and I are going to begin creating behind the scenes videos that pertain to wedding photography in the near future and we plan to cover everything from starting a business from scratch to delivering the final product. I didn't create the video below for Fstoppers; I actually created it for potential clients that may not have the opportunity to meet me in person before booking me. I realized that I only get a chance to meet about 50% of my clients before the day of their wedding. That's the downside with booking weddings outside of the state. I hope that you enjoy taking a closer look at what my life is currently like. More wedding videos will be posted soon.

Lee Morris of R.L. Morris Weddings from FStoppers on Vimeo.

StillMotion Shows Us How To Shoot A Wedding Ceremony

Now before you decide that you aren't interested in wedding videography let me say that StillMotion's work is unlike anything you have ever seen before. If you are a fan of flim and story telling then you will be blown away by what this team is capable of creating out of totally candid moments. Watch the informative video below and click on the full post to see their last 2 wedding trailers.

an intro to shooting a ceremony with EOS // canon cinema caravan from stillmotion on Vimeo.