2009 WPPI Album: Accolade of Excellence

We recently submitted one of our albums into an international competition against other wedding photographers from around the world. Our album was one of the several that made it into the finals, winning an accolade of excellence for creativity, album design and professional excellence.

Every album we work on is different, and no two are exactly alike. We hope you enjoy seeing the creativity we put into your special day, along with the presentation of the album design itself.

the rings

Wedding rings. Physical symbols of a verbal vow. beautiful, eternal, final.

We believe shooting one of the most important symbols of the whole event should not be considered a mere snapshot. Creativity, for us, plays a central role in all we do at GetzCreative. And yes, that involves finding beauty in the mundane, humor in the dull and, epic grandness in the simple things.

Below, are a few examples of what can be done to create moody atmospheric shots of the wedding rings. In this example, each shot is from the same wedding, just shown in different ways, stretching the canvas of creativity to find that perfect shot.

the bride and maid of honor

Behold, the bride! She is the queen, it is her day. She's planned every part of her day to perfection and as photographers, it's our responsibility to show off her beauty, the love she holds for her man, and the grandness in which she's planned her day around.

For the bride, it's not just about the importance of the oath she's to take, but it's enjoying it with those close to her. At GetzCreative, we try and capture the relationship between the bride and groom and their friends, which is why it's important they allow us the emotional access to their day. For us, capturing the emotion of the day, is just as important as capturing the physical characteristics of the day.

One relationship we focus a little more attention on, is the friendship between the bride and her maid of honor. We try and capture some special dramatic imagery that highlights the bride and her maid of honor, as well as some striking images of the maid or honor herself. Below you can see some examples of both.

the guys: getting ready

Getting ready is a great way to incorporate detail shots into your wedding images. The bride (and some grooms) have spent much of their time over the last year planning every detail of their wedding day. Throughout the album you can show these details in various ways. One way we like to incorporate detail shots, is by breaking the items down to time and place.

Many detail shots can be captured while the bride and groom are getting ready before the ceremony. Other detail shots are captured during the ceremony or reception; each place can potentially be an integral shot to the day, depending on the details the couple have created for their day.

As a photographer, it's important to talk to your bride and groom and find out how things are going, and what these "detail treasures" look like. It will help ensure you capture the important elements that not only look good, but that are important to the bride and groom as well.

Regardless of whether you talk to the bride and groom beforehand, it's important to stay vigilant throughout the day and look for opportunities to show off details that they may have forgotten to mention. After all, that's one of the many differences between a professional photographer and just having "uncle joe" shoot the wedding.

the guys: grouping options

Two posts ago I talked about creating dramatic imagery with the groom and his groomsman. Today, I want to show other options for creating dynamic group imagery on the wedding day. Group shots in general can be a challenging task. Working with multiple heads that need to be visible and recognizable, can lead one to take the easy way out of lining them up in a row or two rows and take a straight on shot. But one thing you have going for you on the wedding day, is the hierarchy of importance is set each and every time. In every wedding the groom is the main man, the prince, the honored one.

Putting the groom in front and making him prominent, is not only a good idea, but expected. No one is vying for attention above the groom, unless he wants a good lashing from the bride; and a smart man does not get in the way of the bride and her perfect day.

Even if you get married in a church, I'm constantly searching for a setting where I can shoot some interesting group shots. I love shooting odd numbers in group shots. The images below show five guys in total. This was a wonderful number to work with, and opened up a number of possibilities.

Sometimes we'll be asked to shoot a wedding that has 7 or more on each side and that can be significantly more challenging, but generally, the same rules apply regardless of size. Remember, if the answer was easy, everyone could do it. Finding the angle and poses that best fit the size of the group is one of the many value benefits of using a professional photographer.