There are hundreds of wedding photographers and folks-who-claim-to-be wedding photographers in the greater Knoxville Area…..so how do you pick just one for one of the most important days of your life?

Here are a few tips and things to consider when choosing your photographer:

BUDGET

It may surprise you just how expensive wedding photography can be. In the greater Knoxville area, your investment can range anywhere from $0 to $10,000. Woah! That’s a BIG range! Remember that you pay for what you get. Spending $500 on your wedding photography may look good on the budget spreadsheet, but…

• Are your pictures going to look good?
• Will the photographer have backup equipment?
• Will the photographer be able to handle very dynamic changing lighting situations?
• Will the photographer have an assistant?
• How many weddings have they shot?
• Does your photographer know how to edit?

Here’s an example of what a difference some very simple editing can make. It can really give the photo that unique, professional touch.

STYLE

Do you like more candid shots? Or are you expecting lots of traditional, posed images? These are important questions for thinking about your wedding photography style. Another part of style is the type of editing the photographer will do. Do you like a vintage look? Or do you like a clean, standard color process? Browse Pinterest and start saving ideas of what you like.

Example of two different types of editing:

RECOMMENDATIONS

Ask your family and friends who they used for their wedding photography, and find out what they liked and didn’t like. You may not want to necessarily use the same photographer they used, but just talking to them about their experience will help you think of ideas and questions you need to think about for your own photography.

and lastly,

MEET WITH POTENTIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS

You want to make sure that you and your future spouse can get along well with your photographer. After all, that person is going to be tagging along A LOT on your wedding day. If your photographer uses a second shooter, make sure you are aware of who that person is and what kind of work they do.

Check out our youtube video by The Bride Link for more tips!

Expressive Moments Photography

Back before Christmas my husband and I were hanging out on Market Square, and there were lots of local vendors set up with arts and crafts. We fell in love with this piece made from an old window frame by Lauren Crowley.

We didn’t buy it on the spot, but kept talking about it and decided to get in touch with her. We ended up working out a trade — the window frame for a photo session with Lauren and her dog. I enjoyed taking pictures of her and her sweet dog, Beau. I loved his typical, labrador cheery attitude. Please check out Lauren’s Etsy store! I’m really loving the wine cork/chalkboard combo!

I’ve been searching for something for my mantle for months now. I’ve bought several things and returned them. I’m happy to report that I’m loving this frame on the mantle! I’m not posting a pic just yet….I want to wait until I add a few small finishing touches to compliment the frame.

Check out her store! If you purchase one of her frames, I’ll give you 20% off a photo session! Here’s a few images from her session.

-Amy

If you love bridal shows but missed the Enchanted Brides Bridal Show, keep on reading.  We enjoy doing bridal shows to meet potential brides, of course, but also to meet other local wedding vendors around Knoxville.  We always see vendors in magazines, on Facebook, and in blog photos but it’s nice to talk with people in person.  Some of the vendors we had worked with on weddings and others we got to meet for the first time.  This bridal show took place at The Knoxville Museum of Art which is such a beautiful venue!  I love the light and open space!  Did you know they rent it out for weddings and other events?

We have been wanting to build a free-standing wall to hang our canvases on during bridal shows.  It’s always so hard to know what space we will have to work with for shows and how we will need to display our work (I say this as if we do lots of shows, but really this was just our second show…but we’re ready now!)  Building a wall didn’t seem like too hard of a task, and I was luckily able to get my husband on board.  I won’t go into all the details, but I was happy with the outcome.

And now for the rest of the great local vendors:

Big fat, diamond ring  √

Engagement party  √

Engagement pictures  √

6 months or more of wedding planning  √

Wedding Day Timeline…..grrr how long can I put this off?

It’s getting down to the wire. Time to plan the details of the DAY of your wedding. This part can be very stressful for brides and families.  You want everything to go perfectly. Unfortunately, things don’t always go exactly as you planned….but you can definitely still have a wonderful wedding day experience. Here is a set of ideas that we like our brides to think about when they start planning out the timeline of the day.  What time do the bridesmaids need to be ready by?  Remember, there is only one bride, but usually several bridesmaids. Think about girls getting ready on a normal day…and then times that by 5. A few times, we have had circumstances where we have been unable to take the photos with the bridesmaids before the wedding because they weren’t ready in time. Not a big deal in the long run (we definitely got the pictures), but just something to think about.

When the groomsmen are ready for pictures, will their boutonnieres be ready, and will there be someone who knows how to put them on? For some reason this is something that is frequently forgotten about. The groomsmen are dressed to the nines, but when the photographer is ready to start pictures, someone says, “Oh yeah, we need our boutonnieres!” And then, the second part of that is finding someone who knows how to put them on correctly.

What photos do you want to get finished with before the wedding ceremony?  A lot of brides say that they would like to get some family pictures out of the way before the ceremony. Make sure you have told your family where to be and what time, and to be dressed and ready! Most family pictures are done after the ceremony, so the bride and groom can be in the photos together. Another thing to think about is what members of the extended family do you want in the photos? You may not want every single family member in the photos, so make sure your photographer knows ahead of time exactly who should be in the photos. We like to recommend brides to tell family members to meet at the altar right after the wedding, so you can start pictures quickly. Sometimes the most time-consuming part is simply rounding everyone up.  You’ll want to get these over with so you can get to the reception and start the fun!

Another idea we like to recommend is doing the photos of the bride and groom together BEFORE the wedding ceremony. Yes, we know this breaks old traditions…..but it can help your timing flow better, and could possibly lead to better pictures of the two of you. By the time all of the wedding party and family pictures are done after the ceremony, brides and grooms are excited and ready to go have fun at their reception, and sometimes they tend to be a little more “hurried.” If you choose to do your photos before the ceremony, we always do a “first look,” where we will have the groom turn around and we will capture the faces and all of the emotions of that first look. Sometimes I think it can be even more intimate than the traditional ceremony first look because we always step away and let the bride and groom have a few minutes alone! Aww, so sweet!

A rough guideline of time that we like to allow for pictures:

• Bride alone = 20 - 25 minutes
• Bride with bridesmaids = 30 – 45 minutes
• Groom and Groomsmen = 30 – 45 minutes
• Entire wedding party = 15 – 20 minutes
• Bride and Groom = 45 -60 minutes
• Family = can depend on the size of the families, but usually around 30 – 45 minutes

Now, get to work on that planning….and don’t forget that it’s YOUR wedding day. Relax, and have fun, because it will be over before you know it!!!

If you missed my first blog covering the basics of what Instagram really is, be sure to check it out.  It was basically my beginning journey with Instagram.  I am loving Instagram and am getting a feel for how to give my profile a personality.  It’s fun to try all of the filters (I’m guilty of this), but after a few posts you start to go back to your favorite filters.  I think this is your Instagram “style.”   Does it change sometimes?  Yes!  Different pictures have a different feel and require a different filter.  Play around with them!  But it’s not just picking a filter, there are other simple options to help enhance your pictures.

Hopefully those are a few simple tools you can use to help make your photos look as cool as possible.  Once you are happy with your Instagram photos, you need to share them and get some followers.  I talked about this in my last blog post.  Basically finding friends from Facebook and Twitter, adding #hashtags, and joining Instagram groups are the best ways I know of to increase your followers and potential interaction.  Let’s be honest- everyone loves a little feedback when they post something.  It keeps me interested in posting more.  The best group I have found and have been participating in is the #photoaday group.  Each month has a new list of photos to post for each day (see below).  I don’t feel like I have to take a picture everyday but when I remember, it’s always a fun task.  For example, for March Day 2, the topic was fruit.  I took my picture and posted it with the heading Day 2- Fruit.  #marchphotoaday #photoaday.  These hashtags add it to a pool of other photos on the same daily topic.  It’s fun to look at the different ideas people come up with for the same topic.  I highly recommend doing the #photoaday challenge.  It’s a great way to get excited about using and sharing with Instagram! You can see each day’s topic for March below.

Another fun idea is displaying your Instagrams.  Stickygram will make personalized magnets, made from your Instagrams.  I didn’t think about how cool these magnets would look until I clicked on their website.  I like them!  You can order a set of nine of your favorite Instagrams.  Great gift idea!

For some more practical tips, check out the Instagram Blog tips here.  Thanks for reading!  Look for me on Instagram @kristysclicks.

We were honored to be invited to the Wedding Row Open House.  Lisa Foster asked if we would like to be a part of the event and take some pictures of it.  If you have not stopped by “Wedding Row” on Bearden Hill, you really should!  What a great location for brides.  You can stop and smell the flowers at Lisa Foster Floral Design, look for the perfect wedding dress at Wedding Wonderland, and shop for linens from White Table.  All in one stop!  All of these ladies do great work and have awesome products!  You can see for yourself below.  The Wedding Row Open House was such a great idea.  It allowed brides to visit these three shops, as well as many other local vendors.

Lisa Foster’s beautiful spring entryway

…and bouquets

Hello again, time for another mini lesson on your DSLR camera. So…….do you even know what “DSLR” stands for? It’s Digital Single Lens Reflex. Not that that actually means much….but there ya go. =)  Light travels through the lens and a mirror is used to reflect a portion of that light through the view finder. Enough technical jargon, let’s have a quick lesson.

Your camera has 3 main tools to consider before taking a photo in Manual mode: ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed.

Aperture: this is your “F” stop. It will range anywhere from f1.4 (very wide open shutter, letting lots of light in) on up to f22 (very small opening, letting very little light in).

Shutter: this will range from a very SLOW shutter speed (1/8 of a second or slower) to a very FAST shutter speed (1/4000 of a second).

ISO: Usually ranges from about 200 up to 6400.

Time to take a picture.

First, I set my ISO. ISO controls the light sensitivity of your camera. The higher you crank it up, the brighter the image will be. But, the higher you crank it up, the more grain and less crisp detail you will see in the image. So, it’s a love-hate thing. Let’s say I’m outside during the day at the park and it’s fairly bright out. I don’t need that extra light sensitivity, so I turn my ISO all the way down, which is around 200 on my camera.

Next, I want to set my aperture. What am I taking a picture of? Let’s say my son looking up at me from a piece of playground equipment. I would use anywhere from f1.8 to f5 for a single subject. Aperture controls “Depth-of-field,” which is a tough concept that took me a WHILE to totally figure out. I won’t, I can’t, go into it right now, but when you see a picture of something fairly close up in good, crisp focus and the background is blurry, that is a shallow depth-of-field, which usually requires a larger aperture, such as f1.8, f2.8, f3.2 and sometimes even f4. Notice I said “larger” aperture. Yes, the smaller the number, the larger the aperture. So confusing! So anyway, let’s say I pick f3.2.

Lastly, I need to set my shutter. If I already have my aperture decided on, all I need to do is start changing my shutter, looking at the meter inside my viewfinder until the little black tick mark moves to “Zero” like in the image below. When it moves to Zero, that is your camera telling you you have picked the right shutter number to match the aperture you have picked to make correct exposure. Camera is not always right, but this is a great starting point to learn. If you end up with a shutter speed that is below 1/100….then that is probably too slow and will probably be a little blurry, ESPECIALLY if you are shooting a moving object. If you end up with one that is too slow, you can turn your ISO up a notch or two and see if you can get a faster shutter.

Once you’re at zero, snap your pic! However, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when your kid moves into different light, you will have to re-meter, and possibly move your shutter again to get back to zero.

Clear as mud?

We would love to help you! Feel free to ask some questions. Happy Valentines Day!

What Is Instagram?

I’ll start with the basics- Instagram is a free app for iPhone users.  You can either take a photo like normal with your iPhone camera or take one directly through the app.  This part doesn’t make a difference.  Once you have your photo in Instagram, you have your choice of 11 cool filters that give your photo an edited or vintage-looking feel.  This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it really is!  It takes your boring, nothing-spectacular cell phone picture and makes it instantly cooler!!!  How do you choose a filter?  You play with them all until you find the one that gives your photo the right “look.”  No editing skills required!  These pictures will be saved to your camera roll like all of your other iPhone photos.  Done!  You now have cooler pictures.

Ok, that was the part about Instagram that I already knew and that was pretty much the extent of my Instagram knowledge.  If you want to stop now, that’s good enough.  Enjoy your cool pictures!  But I decided to find out what the whole Instagram community and social part was all about.  Basically Instagram claims, “Instagram is a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your life with friends through a series of photos.”  Sounds like something I would like…sharing beautiful photos and fast?!?!  That’s really the hardest part for me normally.  I can take a zillion pictures but getting them from my camera to my computer, editing them, and then uploading takes more work.  I don’t always get around to it.

How Are the Photos Shared?

So, with Instagram, you take the picture, choose the filter, and save it.  Unless you set your account to private, your photo will be instantly added to the Instagram pool of photos.  You also, at the point of saving your photo, have a choice to instantly share that photo on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Four Square, a particular email address, Tumblr, or Posterous (please don’t ask me what the last two mentioned are…that will take more research.)  This is awfully helpful!  Thanks Instagram!  Their take on it is, “Sharing on multiple platforms is a pain – we want to take a picture once, and have it shared (instantly) on the services of our choice.”

What an easy way to share your pictures with all of your Facebook and Twitter friends that care (or don’t care for that matter.)  Once again, this part made sense to me before, but adding people to follow and gaining followers- this is what confused me.  I didn’t solve the mystery, but I found several reasons this can be cool.  I’ll get to those points in just a minute, but speaking of followers, as of now, I have 14 followers!  Wahoo!  My photos, up to this point, have been me taking pictures of my kids or testing how it works.  My photo stream is kind of a mess, but I’ll work on doing better.  Did I mention how to find my mess of pictures?  On Webstagram  or search for @kristysclicks from your phone in Instagram…and I just realized I don’t even have a profile picture.  I will work on that next.

What Is a Hashtag?

This next part still blows my mind a bit- #hashtags. If you are a loyal Tweeter, you know all about this.  I have a hard time putting my mind around these hashtags (I am not proud of this and yes, it makes me feel really old and uncool.)  This is why I’m learning and trying to help educate you and myself.    You can add any hashtag to your photo by adding a (#) symbol before the word you want to tag.  You can put this in your photo caption or add it later as a comment.  For example, if you post a picture at the beach of a beautiful sunset, you may want to call it, Beautiful #sunset in #Destin.  These hashtags add it to a collection of other photos with the same hashtag and make it easier for others to discover it.  The collections of photos will also help you if you want to look at specific things.  If you are searching for bouquet ideas for your wedding, you can search Instagram for “bouquet” and voila; you can now view 6,825 bouquet photos that have been tagged #bouquet by other people.  That’s the simplified version. To read more about hashtags click Here.

I guess my problem is not knowing what words to tag.  You can add 568 tags for one picture if you want (and have the time.)  You can also make any word you want into a hashtag.  It may not have any others in the category, but you can do it if you want. While searching Instagram I found some more meaningful uses for hashtags (or at least they seemed exciting to me).

What Are Some Interesting Hashtags?

Something that caught my eye right away was the Weekend Hashtag Project.  It is basically a photo challenge given every Friday where you can post a photo pertaining to the week’s theme.  Last week’s theme was #somethingoldsomethingnew.  You could, for example, take a picture of a record and an iPod beside each other.  This is where you get to be creative and come up with a cool idea for others to see.  Each weekend is a new topic.  I want to do it!  Anyone else?  Looks like you have to follow “@jayzombie and look for a photo from her announcing the weekend’s project every Friday.”  Last week’s theme produced over 1100 posts.  That’s awesome!  I’m going to try it this week.  I would love to know if anyone else decides to join me.  Just leave a comment with your username so I can follow you.

One other neat hashtag I noticed was #photooftheday.  I think you can upload any photo and add the hashtag #photooftheday to it.  Then one really awesome photo will be selected and featured each day as the official “photo of the day.”  This could be another way to try Project 365 (taking a photo a day but that’s another topic altogether.)  I did see a hashtag #project365 and it had over 14,000 photos listed. Hmm…tempting.

  

This year we will provide some tips and things to remember when breaking out of auto mode and learning to start controlling your exposure. If you got a new DSLR for Christmas, or already have one but pretty much keep it on AUTO or PROGRAM mode, your New Year’s resolution ought to be to try to learn a little bit about using Manual exposure. (For simplicity here, everything that is discussed will reflect NO use of flash).

1. The first and foremost key to getting good photos goes beyond the functions of your camera. It’s learning to look at the light, and figure out what kind of light situation is going to yield a good picture. Have you taken photos in AUTO/PROGRAM mode that just don’t come out right? If you want to take a picture of your kid in your home midday with him or her in front of a bright window, more than likely your kid is going to be somewhat dark, and the window behind him or her will be super bright. Your camera does magical things but regardless of either Manual or Auto mode, it cannot expose for both situations….the dark kid and the super bright window. Here’s an example:

2. LOOK at the light and take note of what kind of light is on your subject and what kind of light is around them (ambient light). Most newer DSLR cameras will take decent pictures indoors without flash IF THERE IS SOME SUNLIGHT coming through the windows.  Some of your homes may have some super bright indoor lighting, and you may be able to use the light from that, but be warned that indoor lighting can produce some strange color casts on your photo. You can turn your ISO up on your camera to help your camera take photos in places where there is not a lot of light, but the more you turn it up, the more grain there will be in the photo (not always bad).

3. After you have FOUND THE LIGHT (insert church bells here!), you will want to try using a manual setting. For a single subject, try placing your aperture at f4, and then from there adjust your shutter speed until you see the little tick mark on your meter move to the middle, or at zero. READ your camera’s user manual for the section on Metering.  Be careful to not choose too slow of a shutter speed or your pictures could be blurry (especially with a moving subject.) A good shutter speed to shoot for would be 1/100 or faster.  If you can’t make it fast enough, crank up your ISO more.

For example, my home has small windows and I live in the woods…..so anytime I take a photo of my son indoors without flash, I pretty much have to place him near the window with the outdoor light hitting his face. Here’s a straight-out-of-the-camera example, where I placed him near the sliding glass door with light from outside hitting him. I used f2.5 and 1/100, with my ISO on 800.

Stay tuned for more mini lessons coming soon!

I know a lot of women out there hear the term “boudoir session” and they begin to sweat.  I’ve heard women say, “I don’t even like to look at myself in the mirror.  Why would I want to see photos of myself half-naked?”  Or others have said, “I could NEVER do that!”  Why not?

First of all, you aren’t getting any younger. Seriously!  You should not wait until you’ve lost those last 5-10 pounds you keep trying to lose either.  Hopefully it will happen but why put things off in the meantime?  One of my New Year’s resolutions is to start living more in the moment, not waiting for that next big “thing” to happen.  Celebrate who you are in this stage of your life.  You’ll be so thankful you did!  You are beautiful now and a photo session will only reinforce that.

Secondly, you will leave your boudoir session feeling like a star!  We’ve actually had clients use that term.  Lots of women show up, not sure what to expect.  You will be the center of attention but in a good way.  We try to give everyone an idea of how the session will work, but it’s hard to know how you’ll feel until you’ve done it.  Most women have more fun than they would have imagined.

During your session, I like to think that we’re both pretty fun and easy to get along with.  We try to share our personal experiences and help you feel comfortable.  We’ll give you ideas of what we’re looking for in the pictures (no modeling experience required.)

Lastly, you will look awesome in your pictures!  We are artists and try to consider what is most flattering for you.  There are tricks we use to hide your “trouble spots.”  We like to ask women what areas they want to focus on and what areas they want de-emphasize.  We usually have a pretty good idea of what women want to see and what they would not love about themselves.  We are women and know if something is not flattering, we wouldn’t like it either.  While editing photos, we ask ourselves, “Would I like that picture if it was me?”  If not, we delete it, and it is never seen again.  Of course, Photoshop does wonders too!  We subtly smooth skin and fix any minor problems for your edited gallery.  You will love them!

So, yes!  A boudoir session really will boost your self-esteem.  Trust us!  Anyone can do it!  We’ve had women receive their galleries and can’t believe that it’s them.  It will leave you feeling better about yourself and you may even start to look at yourself in a new and healthier way.

So what should you expect? 

The session will last 1-1.5 hours on average. You will provide the location for the shoot.  We have women use their own homes, a friend or family member’s home, a downtown loft, or a hotel.  You will want to get ready before your session (make-up and hair.)  Bring 2-4 of your favorite “outfits.”  A few accessories are good to have too. Maybe some heels, pearls, jewelry, a shirt of your husbands or a favorite hat or tie. Simple is sometimes best!  Once we have scouted out the location and decided where to start, you can change into your first outfit and open a bottle of wine if you wish!  Then the fun begins.  We’ll start shooting away as the ideas start to flow and the nerves start to calm.  We always seem to get carried away and have to remind ourselves that there are other outfits.  We will play with lighting and continue shooting until we have enough shots that we will both be satisfied with.

You did it!  Now what?

It typically takes about 2 weeks to get your proofing gallery of edited photos. This will be a password protected online gallery for you to view.  You will then decide what you want to do with your photos.  With boudoir sessions, many women choose to purchase a small custom-designed album. These albums are available in several sizes: 5×5, 5×7, 8×8, 8.5×11, 10×10, with over 30 cover options. Albums start at $150.  We have other women order prints or the full-resolution DVD to make their own album or scrapbook. Want to be a little bit bolder?  Order a canvas or a wall collection of prints!

A few words from past clients:

”I have to be honest and tell you that I got a little teary eyed!! Looking at those pictures made me feel so pretty. Just a wonderful feeling, THANK YOU!! They are beautiful, just an awesome job.”

[These are pictures]  “that I want to show even random strangers.”

“Thank you both, SO much, for an amazing experience! The whole reason I drove to Knoxville just for this, you guys provided, plus more than I could have imagined!!! I will definitely let others know & keep you in mind for anything in the future! I am more than excited to see the photos!”

Expressive Moments Photography/ Knoxville Boudoir Photography

(865)414-6330

info@yourexpressivemoments.com