Category Archives: Sweet Threads

Sweet Threads: Cherishing Every Stitch Of This Precious Life
Personal Posts by Andrea Dozier

I get really excited to meet new couples and work with so many inspired people. Many of these talented couples are surround by talented creatives.  The question comes up pretty often about how I feel about their family or friends bringing cameras to weddings. My answer is based on my own beliefs, so it’s always best to run this by your own wedding photographer before your event.

In my contract I do state that I am the only commissioned wedding photographer. I believe that for order and to omit confusion, you really do need to pick one official photographer. However, many people have friends or family who are either enthusiastic hobbyists or up and coming photographers in their own right. If anyone ever wants to take pictures during unscripted events, I really don’t mind! I feel like it’s a great way to have even more photographs at your wedding since there’s no way my assistant & I can be omnipotent! There are three things I would encourage couples to consider:

  1. What is the goal of the images? Does your good friend just want to give your family extra photographs {what a good friend, right?!} or is someone wanting to mislead others into thinking they were paid to shoot this wedding? It is easy {and free} to set up a Facebook page and slap a logo on a few images, and therefore mislead fans into thinking they were selected to shoot this wedding. Can you see a difference? It’s easy to snap a picture or two out of the whole wedding day that is amazing. It’s a different situation if you must operate your own business, coordinate all the moments, shoot in many different types of light, and guarantee to process hundreds of outstanding photographs.
  2. What type of wedding are you having and what space will the photographer have to work with?  Weddings comes in all shapes and sizes, they are each getting pretty unique! This is actually an important aspect to think about. Are you having an outdoor wedding in the summer with a lot of natural light? Or are you having a small intimate evening affair in the late fall in a small dark chapel? If you have spacious grounds and guests won’t have to use their flashes, the photographer will barely notice they are there. It’s very unfortunate when a couple is exiting a church and a guest unknowingly messes up the shot by having their flash go off at the exact moment the official photographer is taking the picture. Although some heavy editing can help salvage an overexposed image (the photographer’s flash + the guest’s flash makes the image too bright), it’s not quite the same as if the photographer had been able to take the image as they had originally exposed it. On the other hand, there can be completely opposite experiences. I had a gorgeous outdoor wedding in Toledo a few months ago. A friend of the couple photographed some of it too, (the bride ok’d it with me months beforehand), and he was incredibly kind! I was not intimated at all, and he was able to give them some beautiful images in addition to the ones I took. I didn’t notice him at all since we were both using natural light and he was very respectful. It was also nice for me to “talk photography” with someone else. I have actually met some really amazing photographers that are guests at weddings I’ve photographed!

    The other part of thinking about your venue is the space available. Is there room for someone else to be there, or is it cramped even for the photographer & assistant? This goes for the dressing room, the ceremony, and the dance floor at the reception. I typically shoot intimate weddings and am used to the challenge of working in close quarters. Adding others can make it difficult to get a clean shot or move around like I need to.

  3. Do they want to shoot portraits with the couple?  This is the part where I don’t really compromise. During the intimate portrait session with the couple, where I am working on a tight timeline & posing them in a very specific way, I must insist I am the only one who can photograph them. Not only does it take longer to add another voice asking for types of shots, the couples portrait session is a big reason they hired me. I have to produce images under pressure and I have a lot to do with the body language, location, and light of the images. During family or bridal party formals, I honestly don’t mind if other people have cameras and take pictures. I just ask that they allow me to get the shot(s) I need, then I scoot over so they can shoot a few. I completely understand how exciting it is to see all your family together and I feel like you should get as many images as possible of that rare & beautiful moment! I want to encourage good energy at weddings and not have anyone feel apologetic for wanting to take a picture!

 What do you think of my line of thought as a bride or colleague? Extra cameras nay or yay?

This is one of those subjects that can get pretty touchy and to be honest every wedding is different! I think that a lot of amazing and positive things can come of being understanding & respectful of each other. As I mentioned above, I’ve met and gotten to know some really wonderful and TALENTED photographers through weddings I’ve photographed! If anything, I will probably ask for a business card or Facebook name so I can follow your work! ♥

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I’ve never met a summer I didn’t like, and Summer is aging beautifully here in Dayton.

Quickly, but beautifully.

This year has been one of personal growth. And if not growth, then certainly change. And if not change, then certainly reflection.
And isn’t time spent in reflection the seed of growth & change?

While I’ve worked very hard to perfect my craft of how to measure light & button manipulation in my camera, behind the scenes is very much a work in progress. In some ways I didn’t think it was as important to nail down the quickest workflow, because I wanted the BEST images. I wanted to create artwork with my photography.
In other words, I felt that the time I spent in post production was ok to sacrifice because it was part of the process of aiming for perfection. I shot in JPG format & opened up every image in Photoshop. Of course at times there were ways I could batch a couple images, but I didn’t like not being able to control each effect or change on them so I didn’t use that method very often. I created customized actions for every wedding and went to great lengths to achieve a standard that I thought was only possible with two or even three weeks of “editing hell” after a wedding.

Of course I heard of other programs, but when you are doing something that produces the final product you want… you kind of want to stick with it {even if it’s clearly inefficient}. For anyone reading who might not be a photographer who “develops” thousands of images at once & doesn’t understand how time consuming this is… Let’s just pretend it’s like being a chef who singlehandedly runs the farm that produces her ingredients. As the single owner & employee of this operation, I was running myself ragged and barely keeping up.
Yet I was proud of what I was offering on the plate that went out.

I was not proud that spending so much time editing can make it hard to keep up with emails & phone calls & tracking taxes & the hundreds of other little things that were neglected or postponed. The only good thing about making mistakes is that you start to hunger for what will make you change for the better. All the pain & frustration of failure fuels your motivation to find a better path.

This summer I’ve been working up  the courage to address my weaknesses {oh yes, there are many more}. I tried a couple new methods of post-processing and have, with all certainty, converted into a Lightroom enthusiast. I had tried Lightroom before, several years ago. I didn’t like it. I didn’t spend the time to make it work for me. After some new friends encouraged me to try it out again, I finally “bought” the bullet.
At the same time I sent out a few weddings to a third party to sample their method of editing.

HANDS DOWN, I AM PROUD TO KEEP MY PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESSING IN-HOUSE.

I’ve been working to find a way to achieve the same high standards I had before, but to edit much more efficiently & quickly. Now that I am using RAW images & working with a much better platform for hundreds of images… I feel the final results are even better than before. I didn’t feel that the other option of sending out the files created the same trademark that I try to use when I’m processing images. I requested my images be sent back & happily edited them myself. Very very pleased with the process & the final results.

It might not be typical to admit such things here, from the person who is “so put together” {not true at all!}.  However, I had always defended my judgement that I could shoot JPGs with accuracy and liked the control of opening each image file separately. Now I feel that I kind of owe it to the other photographers who heard me say that, because I’ve made such a drastic change in opinion of it all. I love being able to connect with people and the idea that we all have something to share & much to learn.

I wish that someone would have told me sooner, but now I’m telling you and I hope it helps someone!

Lightroom 4 has replaced what Photoshop, InDesign, Action Runner and Photo Mechanic were doing for me.
Much faster and with much more accuracy.
And my carpal tunnel isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be {true story}.

Of course I wish I had started sooner, but I am excited to see how this improves my ability to help my little business bloom. ♥

bohemian ohio engagement session

I have a lot of beautiful weddings & sweet couples to share with you from this past year,
stay tuned for this collaboration with Lovely Rentals!

 

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  • Briana - July 27, 2012 - 8:47 am

    This is so funny, because this could be my story exactly–except I was shooting in RAW, doing RAW edits, then editing each file individually in Photoshop with a mess of different actions, because (I thought!) I liked having so much control. I just switched to (mostly) Lightroom this year, too (after also trying, and not liking, it once before). It has made all the difference! Thanks for sharing your experience–it is nice to know other people go through similar transitions! 🙂

  • Andrea - September 6, 2012 - 7:27 pm

    Briana,

    Thank you so much for sharing! I am glad that someone else can relate, it IS very encouraging! Now I’m not sure how I ever got on without it ;D

I’m a “little” bit of a Bravo junkie. I do have my favorite shows, but on a {rare} slow day I’ll watch almost any of the Real Housewives. I’ve watched a few sporadic episodes from “Don’t Be Tardy for the Wedding,” and when I heard Kim mention her wedding planner Colin Cowie, I remembered to finally share this link. It is a really helpful article on Engagement Photos that his office interviewed me for & used some of my images a while back! Some other really talented photographers added some good tips & as you all gear up for summer & fall engagements I hope it helps a bit!

You can find clips from that interview on Clicking with Engagement Photos via Colin Cowie Weddings.

 

You can see the full vintage winter inspiration session here.

It was a giant collaboration & labor of love with my friend & photographer of Simply Photography, Caitlin Buck. You can see her work here.

I guess I’ll have to watch this Kim & Kroy wedding at some point, I’m a sucker for weddings on tv.

{My absolute favorites are the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills… Pandora’s wedding was gorgeous! ♥}

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Today my grandparents are celebrating their 65th Wedding Anniversary! ♥

vintage wedding party_andreadozier.com
An image from their honeymoon in Atlantic City!

Always remember there was nothing worth sharing like the love that let us share our name” -Avett Brothers ♥

I love everything about these precious photographs & wish I were lucky enough to have more of a glimpse of such a beautiful time in history.
My Grandpa, John Bell, is a World War II Navy veteran and my Grandma, Kathleen, had eight children {seven of them boys bless her heart}.
I love that they are the original “vintage wedding” couple and leave us such a rich legacy of love.
Always loved how they both set to work in the kitchen together & make the world’s most amazing spaghetti & meatballs {that I now make for my family}.
Grandma always has a pot of coffee warm for my dad & homemade waffles that make the house smell of anise.
It wasn’t until I grew up that I even began to realize what a treasure it is to know people like them.

This weekend will be spent photographing a much anticipated Toledo wedding & then celebrating my grandparents milestone anniversary with my huge family!

{How lovely are the kids in their wedding party? And Grandma’s dress… sigh.}

* I was able to find these images on my Uncle Dan’s website. Thanks!

 

 

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  • Alli - June 14, 2012 - 7:49 pm

    Oh wow, congrats to them! Q’s grandparents celebrated their 65th as well last month – it’s an amazing thing to see.

Oh hi there!

I realize that it’s been a bit since I’ve been posting but I’m happy to tell you there’s been a lot of good things going on in between. Watching Kevin as a shark in the school play, celebrating a year of Kindergarten, catching up with old friends, meeting new brides, beginning wedding season {yay!}, and soaking up family time during Memorial Day weekend. Although I have intentions of posting more often, you can follow me on Instagram {@AndreaDozier} for fresh{er} updates.

Can you believe that our lovely peonies have bloomed and withered since this post? Oh my.

They smelled even more amazing than they looked. ♥

 

 

 

 

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