wedding FAQ
What is your wedding photography experience?
I have been assisting weddings since I was 10 years old. Seriously. My father photographed weddings as a side business and in the rural farm community where I grew up, it was completely acceptable to have a 10 year old assistant.
After graduating high school, I moved to Chicago to attend Columbia College to major in photography. During my years at Columbia, I worked full time for a documentary production company. Have you ever seen the show Biography? Yup, we produced those, along with programs for A&E, National Geographic, The History Channel, and The Weather Channel. It was during this time that I was immersed in the field of story telling and documentary production. I graduated from Columbia with a BA in Photography and soon left the production company to work in school publishing for National Geographic.
During my college career and professional career, I photographed weddings for my father's company.
Eight years ago, I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl and I realized that I could not continue to run a wedding photo business and work 40+ hours a week at National Geographic Publishing. I left Nat Geo and put all of my energy into my business (and family) and rented a studio.4 00+ weddings and thousands of family sessions later, I still pinch myself to make sure that this is really my job.
What equipment do you bring to a wedding?
I photograph every wedding digitally with professional Canon cameras and lenses. My kit includes three camera bodies and many telephoto (great to get close up shots during a ceremony without being in your face. Also awesome portrait lenses), wide angle lenses (for that wide shot of the ceremony and fun shots on the dance floor) and - what I consider - work-horse lenses - that are great prime focal lengths for documentary coverage and low light.
My kit also includes flashes and studio lights that prepare me for any lighting situation.
Light modifiers, a gazillion batteries, enough memory cards to shoot 7000+ photos (although, I will never shoot that many!) and cards that serve as back up cards round out my gear.
How many photographs will we receive?
There are many factors that play into the amount of photographs that are delivered. How many hours will I be photographing? Are there a ton of family photos? Large wedding party? Are your wedding guests dance machines? I estimate that for most weddings I deliver 500-800 photographs.
Will we receive a disc of images?
No but you will receive the hi-resolution jpeg files of all the final images (the 500+ images mentioned above) but it will be delivered by email with downloadable links. I recommend cloud storage and this is the best way to get you the digital files for those archiving purposes.
Are you insured?
Yes. Occasionally a reception location will require proof of this and I can provide that (with a few days lead time.)
Do you travel?
Yes. If your wedding is over 90 minutes from my studio (located in the city), I do ask that my clients include a hotel room in the same hotel as guests. If your wedding is over 2.5 hours away, I ask for a room the night before and the night after the wedding. If your wedding requires a flight, obviously that cost would need to be covered, you get the idea. I work with each of my destination clients to find the most affordable way to include me in their day.