Wedding: B+K <3 (Lake Moogerah)

Lovely Katelyn and Benjamin <3

What a delightful couple! We met up with Katelyn and Benjamin for a Grill’d lunch date. We had a great chat and time flew. We left looking forward to working with these two.

B&K chose Lake Moogerah for their wedding. It was the perfect location and suited them and their story perfectly. Some things to note:

  • We have included 190+ of our favourites from across the day

  • Benjamin doesn’t like being in front of the camera; we tried not to be obtrusive with him - as we do with everyone! - but, for what it is worth, we think that he killed it

  • Golden hour portraits were important to B&K; they allowed plenty of time for this to take place and, from the resulting images, it was <in our unbiased opinion ;)> time very well spent

  • Benjamin and Katelyn worked closely with Ann from Ceremona Weddings and came up with an excellent timeline that was seamless on the day; Ann is one of these people who has great intuition with photography (from time of day to removing things from the background) and so works really well with whoever you choose to capture your day (B&K mentioned how much they personally recommend Ann)

  • We highly recommend inviting/incorporating little ones into your day but don’t be surprised if they take some of the attention away - the little ones at B&K’s wedding were adorable and hilarious… as you will see below

  • Katelyn was very impressed with Ellen Munro Makeup & Hair - here is a shoutout for lovely Ellen

  • The vehicle is super important to Benjamin. We covered this point during their initial consultation. We made sure to capture it in plenty of shots and pushed ourselves creatively, too

Enjoy!

Information :: What Makes an Image Important

Narrowing down the options when choosing a wedding photographer is typically multifaceted. You want to love the photographer's work. You want a personality that "gets" you as individuals and as a couple (put simply, you want someone relatable!). You need to be able to afford them. With this in mind, some of the most important reasons for why we blog regularly (FYI: we blog once a week and this is our 128th post) are:

  • to tangibly demonstrate how passionate we are about our role as wedding photographers

  • to show who we are and what this means to you as our client

  • to share tips and ideas

Essentially, the kind of information that we are hoping will be important during your decision-making process. Today, we are sharing a little more about us & some food for thought for our clients. A recent discussion about some of our most memorable & personal images to date was the catalyst.

We work really hard on perfecting our craft. We focus a lot of attention on people skills, composition, chasing the most ideal light, depth of field... have we lost you yet? ;) We decided to strip all that back during our discussions and we challenged each other to think of our personal favourite images (rule time: we could only pick a maximum of 2 images). Of course, we both gravitated to ones that have all three of us in them. However, we currently do not share images of our daughter, Chloe, online. So, we started again. Naturally, our minds drifted to favourite shots of the two of us - mostly taken during travels. With that in mind (and as the exercise was beginning to feel too easy!), we narrowed the criteria down even further: Pete had to choose two images that featured only him, and I had to choose two that only featured me.

{Try this for yourself! You might surprise yourself with what you end up choosing. Actually, why don’t you stop reading now and pick out your two all-time favourites. We’ll come back to yours in a moment.}

In the end, Pete settled on one image. He felt that this one summed up everything for him:

I chose two as they are from a similar time period (same year) but during very different experiences and I find the polarity striking:

Interestingly, all three are “okay” images (definitely not terrible). However, are they perfectly composed? Was the lighting nailed? Honestly, does it even matter? All three tell a story that is important to the subject. Pete chose his representative image for a range of reasons. Skydiving was a dream come true. He was proud of himself for taking the risk. Pete experienced freedom that comes with… well, jumping out of a plane with all risks carefully calculated. I chose my graduation image as I was (and am) so proud of this achievement. It is something that was the result of hard work & dedication. I chose the one from my first time experiencing snow. This moment features in one of the top 10 days of my life to date. Experiencing snowfall was (in my case, anyway) a magical moment. I don’t usually take selfies, but this was a moment I wanted to freeze forever - literally.

When you selected your two images, did you think anything along these lines, “I really like x one, but I can’t possibly keep it! If I took it again, I would make sure I was a little more off-centre. If it followed the rule of thirds, I think I would be more inclined to keep it”… “Hmmm, this is a good one but the shadows on my face are too pronounced. I think I will scrap it. Shame really as it always makes me feel happy when I look at it!”… “Oooops - the highlights are blown! Forget it! …

Correct me if I am wrong but I am guessing that you chose based on how looking at those images makes you feel?

Capturing an image in such a way that the subjects feel something for the rest of time is at the heart and soul of wedding photography.

In conclusion, we wanted to take this opportunity to re-frame the importance of capturing the moments that are important to you. Yes, we will strive for perfect composition, image processing, lighting, timing, & storytelling. However, we will not compromise storytelling & capturing raw emotion at the expense of perfection. We want the resulting images to tell your story; not be representative of our “brand” per se. We want you to love your wedding photography for a lifetime.

Information :: Why We Provide a Second Shooter

We introduced ourselves here. We shared a little about our personalities here. We included a list of 10 random things about us here. Today we want to share 10 reasons for why we provide two shooters on your wedding day. It has been well-documented that many couples regret not spending more on photography (base assumption being that greater value would equate to higher quality). While the appropriate compensation for photography services is subjective and dependent on key factors such as experience & expertise, there is one thing for sure at Poppy & Sage Photography: we want to go above and beyond to ensure that you love your images. We want to exceed your expectation for quality. One way we strive to meet this goal is through the provision of two shooters. Why exactly? Well, here are 10 reasons:

  1. One of us is responsible for the shot list provided by the client & meeting standard composition requirements; the other typically focuses on candid photography & creative composition (everything comes back to our questionnaire, though, and the priorities that you have detailed!)

  2. Second set of eyes = different perspective (for example, height differences; there is a foot between us!)

  3. Bride & groom are at 2 different locations? No problemo! (In the event of one photographer, it would be necessary to stack getting ready sessions = adding extra time to the day)

  4. Ability to split up timeline so one can focus on the bridal party, for example, and the other on the couple portraits (especially useful when timelines can run behind on the day or we need to meet specific criteria, such as couple portraits at golden hour)

  5. Technology can fail; nice to have built-in back-up with a second shooter as part of risk management

  6. Bigger wedding (100+) with a lot going on (getting ready, a first look, details, family portraits, and so on)? We’ve got it!

  7. Larger venue where you can’t possibly run back and forth to see from both side (or if you did, it would be pretty distracting)

  8. One can focus on the couple and the other on guest reactions (while walking down the aisle, for example)

  9. Two photographers typically shoot with different settings, such as aperture - this can make a huge difference to the overall feel of the image

  10. We have different strengths and interests - this is represented in our individual work and complementary perspectives

  11. We enjoy working together… oh, wait - that’s 11! We’ll stop. ;)

Information :: Ten Things About Us

A little while ago, we shared a few things about each of us on Instagram:

Pete:
1) is half-Czech
2) moved 8 times during childhood
3) has visited 3 continents to date - 4 to go

Em:
1) played competition tennis for approx. 7 years
2) has rural roots (small town of Chinchilla, Queensland)
3) was in a tambourine ensemble... don't ask haha

It was a fun exercise (for something different). We figured that we would continue the theme a little with 5 things for each of us:

Pete:

  • Is yet to find chilli so hot that he can’t eat it

  • Will talk about the behaviour of light when you ask for best-lighting-on-the-day advice (geek alert) but will come up with Dad jokes as prompts for posing (talk about hitting the jackpot) :D

  • Has been on 64 flights to date

  • Has held a baby crocodile

  • Makes the absolute best prosciutto and rucola pizza (and vanilla slice, while we are at it)

Em:

  • Misses the Nokia 3310; those were the simpler days

  • Has waved to the Queen

  • Mapped out Parisian adventures around sweet tooth: self-dubbed “Tour de boulangerie”

  • Bumped into Steve Irwin at Australia Zoo (he was carrying Bindi - a baby - in a duffle bag)

  • Is scared of heights but has also been skydiving (along with Pete)

From a recent wedding (image by Pete from Poppy & Sage Photography)

Information :: Wedding Budgeting Tips (The Photography Version)

Wedding Budgeting. Two words that are almost certainly guaranteed to induce tachycardia in brides & grooms the world over. Where do you start?!

Figure out your priorities and budget accordingly.

Is it the dress? Is it car hire? Is it the honeymoon? Only you two as a couple can figure out what should be at the top of this list.

Of course we are biased. ;) We could regale you with all of our personal reasons for why professional photography should be somewhere in the top 3-ish, but we will limit ourselves to just a few (please do not think that any mention of other vendors serves to minimise their contribution to the day - all vendors are equally important!):

Plan for the event that the budget could be blown due to unforeseen costs.

We have listed the cost of photography with us on our website. If the numbers line up with how your budget looks, we’re happy to meet up and have a chat in person. The next step is to see if we’re a good fit personality-wise. Feel free to contact us here: