Tag: wedding

2011-07-12

Yesterday, I was thinking out loud. With a bit more time to think as I talked with folks in the social-mediasphere, I see there are actually two issues here, both worthy of much discussion. One is the audience: the photos they take, the lines they cross. Two, and more at the core of the problem, the hired photographer’s approach to photographing the wedding. Here, we will discuss only the hired photographer.

What is the problem? Photographers following the couple down the aisle. Walking right up to the couple during the ceremony, not only blocking everybody’s view, but going where only the two being married and the one doing the marrying should go. Walking back and forth behind the couple, providing a distracting backdrop for the whole ceremony.

Now, having seen such behavior, new couples preparing for their weddings are afraid of the photographer, especially those who want that special day to be special…and actually about them instead of the photographer. The minister may say something, but often it is ignored, much like the teacher nobody respects yelling commands as the children run wild. What is at the root of this problem?

2011-07-11

I attended a wedding this past Saturday, and I had a couple thoughts. Now, keep in mind, this wedding was in Thailand, so this is not completely applicable to all weddings…as if it could be even if it were in the United States, because weddings are all so wildly different these days.

My thoughts were not just about wedding photography, as in the professional hired to photograph the event, but also all the photography which takes place in a wedding. Really, I took a couple snapshots which could say quite a bit in and of themselves.

2011-05-17
The Minister
The Minister

This is a little take-away from a wedding I helped shoot recently. The focus of wedding photography, fittingly, is the bride and groom, but there is so much more going on: relationships, history, feuds, and innumerable others stories in progress. As soon as I ran across this photo back at home when reviewing the whole set, I loved it.

2010-05-05

For a simple answer, I would say, choose a wedding photographer by looking at other weddings they have shot. If that work would satisfy your requirements, then you are done…assuming you can afford it. There are other details, for sure, and this issue can become quite complex and difficult, but if you have found a wedding photographer who has already consistently produced the quality and style of work you want, then you will most likely be very happy with the results.

I have one caveat to that. When checking out wedding photography, make sure you look through a full album from one wedding. A photographer’s “greatest hits” only tell you that they will have a couple keepers from each wedding. See how a photographer covered one full day. For something as important as a wedding, most of us want a professional who can consistently capture photos throughout the day.

2010-04-28

I am just now beginning to face the brute reality of setting up as a photographer here in the Temple-Belton-Killeen. When I lived in Asia, I did not really have to advertise that I did weddings: because I was not a local, I did not really have the style the locals like, and among friends and coworkers, those who wanted me knew where to find me. Not so here in the US. I have to make myself known, and figured it was a good time to create my first wedding photography portfolio:

the beauty of a moment - wedding portfolio

2010-04-01

So, here it is, the new, but totally unimproved, website. I have stuck with the ChinaCoop moniker for many years now, and I hate to leave it behind. “ChinaCoop.net” is not exactly a great way to market my services in the United States, though. Nothing against China, of course (I did live there for ten years, afterall), but clients back in Central Texas would pass right by the site thinking Google had gotten something wrong. So, as much as I hesitate to use my name, because is just feels conceited to do so, the name is the only choice I can see. And thus: CooperStrange.com is born.

2009-01-05

Do you need to shoot an event? A conference? Meetings? Even if you are not a paid photographer for some event, are you just the one folks turn to for that spur of the moment shot of a guest speaker that nobody guessed would be as good as he was?

Here are some tips, gleaned both from experience and a podcast which inspired me to write this stuff down. It has been so long since I have listened to the show, I cannot remember what from my notes was the guest’s idea and what was mine.