christophersant.com

Haven’t posted in a while, but we’ve been incredibly busy. Look for our new gallery of pictures coming soon!

And for you football fans, check out this guy for a videographer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzObxZbiaE0

Announcing our new location in Las Vegas! We’re excited to continue to expand our base of coverage to include Las Vegas and the surrounding communities. If you’ve decided that Vegas is the place to be, let us know and we’ll be happy to document your exciting times. Elvis impersonator not included!

Images from Jen and Paul’s wedding are available. Simply click here.

Some have asked if I do work other than wedding photography. If you’d like to see a small sample of my tropical work, generally based out of my Maui studio or my travels, you can check it out here: http://sant.imagekind.com/

We’ve had the pleasure of working with a fabulous calligrapher. She does beautiful work. If you want her contact information, send us a note and we’ll happily provide it!

By the way, email is perfectly appropriate for many things.  According to the new Emily Post guide, email can be used for:

• An informal “save the date” notice to close friends and family.

• Invitations to informal or casual engagement parties, showers, and other pre-wedding get-togethers. Just be sure all your invitees use their e-mail on a daily basis, and don’t send out a “group e-mail”—send invitations individually.

• Information on lodging or maps and directions for out-of-town guests. This is a great use of the group e-mail option and “Dear All.”

• Wedding updates. Use this judiciously and don’t overwhelm your audience with daily news flashes.

• An optional RSVP on your invitation. Just be sure it’s an option! Add the following on a line after the RSVP: “If you prefer, you may reply by e-mail to happy couple@rsvp.com.” This is a great choice for an informal wedding or if the wedding is taking place on short notice.

• Wedding announcements, particularly if you and the recipient are on informal terms or if the wedding itself was informal.

http://www.emilypost.com/weddings/wearwhite/inside_book.htm#Question4

But, for the real deal, invitations should be done by hand and that’s when a great calligrapher comes in.

I’d like to explain exactly what is meant by the term “wedding photojournalism” for those unaccustomed to that style of wedding photography.  This is what I practice.

Wedding Photojournalism is a type of documentary photography, designed to capture the actual events of your wedding. It seems to be what virtually all wedding couples that we’re meeting are looking for. This makes sense since photojournalism (in the right hands) captures a special day and all of its memories. A lot of the wedding magazines and websites out there have contradictory info, however, which serves only to further confuse an already difficult search for the correct wedding photographer.

What I do as a wedding photographer is to concentrate on authentic experiences, instead of staged ones. Rather than stopping your day to get a staged posed shot, the best shots reveal themselves when I stay in the background and look for genuine interactions to tell the story of the day. Of course the key events will be there, because the exchange of rings, the kiss, the first dance — these are momentous occasions.  But, instead of telling you where to go and how to be, I want to retreat into the background and capture the look between the bride and her mother, the goofing around of the ring bearer and the flower girl, the look of pride in the bride’s father’s eye.

These moments don’t happen when people are being herded around in some plan-a-grammed event.

Contrast this with what is going on among other wedding photogrpahers who call themselves wedding photojournalists. Once bridal magazines got word of the new trend, they made it the “hot” look for wedding photography. As happens in any industry, this caused traditional wedding photographers — the ones who are most comfortabel telling everyone where to stand and making you repeat the “first kiss” six times to get six angles — to get on the wedding photojournalism bandwagon as well, including those without the real skills or temperment to do wedding photojournalism. What they did was falsify the attributes of wedding photojournalism by arranging manipulated “authentic” expereiences. But who does this fool? Well, it fools the next client, but not this one, because this one will forever know that the photo in the wedding album above the caption “first kiss” actually wasn’t.

As we tell all prospective clients and remind everyone on the wedding day, we are more than happy to take groups shots and arrange shots. After all, a wedding is a wonderful time for people to gather and look their best. But the soul of our wedding photography is in our phorojournalistic style — and there, we are second to none.

If you’ve got a passion for photography too, and you’re attending a marriage ceremony, please bring a camera and take some shots! We certainly don’t mind — and, if there are any that the bride and groom love, we’ll include them on the CD, slide show and possibly the album. To gear up for the big day, you can always check out a photography book or search online to point you through the day.

Here’s one tip. For both the church and the reception area, grab a seat near the center aisle: you can really grab some great shots of the bride coming down the aisle. Naturally, you would not want to block the main wedding photographer (me!) since I’m the one designated by the happy couple to capture the day. But shoot away otherwise!

Also, try and bring your zoom lens to get close ups of the couple — and to capture their faces. Priceless! Whenever possible, remember to take your photos portrait style (with the camera held vertically). This really helps capture the couple and their outfits in all their radiance.

We’re proud of the high quality equipment we use. But as for the wedding photojournalism itself, it isn’t the instrument that’s most important. It’s what we do with it.

It isn’t even the wedding photography that’s the wedding photographer’s most important role. It’s the wedding story to which the photographs give life.

I adore weddings. I am invited to be a fly on the wall. My goal is accomplished when a bride says they didn’t even realize I was there… but they’re so glad I was.

The most significant thing is to get photos that friends and family can cherish. The heart and soul of picture taking is documentary in nature. It’s recording history. That’s why the interactions between the bride and her family and the groom and his are so important. It’s especially satisfying to capture moments when the bride interacts with some of the youngest or the oldest people at the wedding. Showing the interplay of generations is genuinely significant to me, and brides — even if they didn’t know I was taking the picture — are truly touched.

Capitalize on this special opportunity, whether you are marrying or have a family member getting married, a wedding is a great time for a family photo.

Families come together at weddings and people who haven’t seen one another in years reunite. A wedding is almost like a family reunion! But at a family reunion, many people are not even in nice clothes. If you decide to take a family photo at a wedding, you’ll know that at least the majority of your family members will be dressed elegantly.

If you are the bride or groom, then you are able to easily acquire a family photo done by the photographer. He may have ideas for wedding family photos that he can share with you. If it is a large family, you may need almost the entire front of the church to accommodate everyone. If you have a smaller family, you could be able to do something interesting with a unique idea for a wedding family photo. If there are just a few of you, you could do something interesting on a staircase or in front of the altar, for instance.

If you’re not the bride or groom, you may also be able to obtain a family photo from the photographer. While the priority is on capturing the couple’s special day, there is usually plenty of time to accommodate others. Just ask!

Be creative wherever you choose to have your family photo!