So one thing has been made abundantly clear over the last couple years — you guys love our Behind the Scenes (BTS) photos! And you know what, I am really starting to like them too. I am still pretty nervous and apprehensive about posting due to my self-conscious nature, but I really do think these are fun and funny, to put together.
I tend not to think about my posture or anything along those lines when I am shooting, so sit back and prepare yourself for some super unflattering images. So, similar to last year, here’s what you can expect in these photos:
- very unflattering angles;
- weird facial expressions;
- squinty eyes;
- really bad posture (including, but not limited to, hunched shoulders);
- shots of the back of my head (and my teeny, tiny pony tail);
- A few low quality phone photos;
- Dress fluffing;
- A lot of finger pointing; and
- of course, Dave (and Stephanie!) the light testing subject.
Let’s start with first looks.
They typically start with Dave prepping our groom, adding a boutonniere and both of us get in each other’s shot. We are actually pretty good at staying out of each other’s way considering we can’t plan too much for these as we don’t know exactly what our couple is going to do.
The last one here was a pretty fun first look actually as the Bride + Groom had wanted their wedding party and friends + family to watch the whole thing, which meant there were lots of people in the background.
As you probably already know, Dave and I light test for each other frequently throughout the wedding day. Apparently we no longer always tell each other when we are doing it though as Dave has caught me checking timelines on my phone, and each of us testing light at the same time.
We often get asked where we are during the ceremony, well let me show you.
I tend to stand at the front of the aisle and shuffle sideways as everyone gets to the front.
meanwhile, Dave actually stands at the rear and grabs shots of our bride being walked down the aisle showing off that gorgeous train, but occasionally he jumps around and grabs a couple shots from the side as well. Honestly, he tends to be wherever he knows I am going to need him to be – he’s good like that.
And when the end of the ceremony comes up and it’s time for the recessional, well that is where I cross my fingers and hope my years of practice of walking backwards down and aisle doesn’t get overridden by my innate clumsiness, haha!
After a little group shuffling and dress fluffing, and if you’ve ever been a part of one of our group shots you have probably heard me say, “If you can’t see the lens then it can’t see you, so we need you to shuffle your head to and from to make sure we get all your beautiful faces in”. I say it pretty much every time as I point up to Dave, standing on our ladder. But if it’s a particularly bright day I also add that they should wait until we count to 3 to look up so they don’t go blind in the process.
Dave’s also really good at gathering drinks for our couples during family photos and just generally making sure everyone is comfy and no Grandmas have walked off to find a drink of their own 😉
We don’t have a ton of photos of from our wedding parties this year apparently, but we do have a couple including this one of me seemingly pointing and generally being bossy and another of me picking leaves off of our couple after asking the wedding party to throw them…I probably should have recommended throwing in front of the couple but you live you learn.
And even though Dave finds lots of ways to keep busy during Bride + Groom portraits, like getting alternate angles and taking stand-alone bouquet shots, he also does a great job of getting shots of me fluffing dresses, just generally doing my thing!
If you have ever shot a wedding, or watched any courses on it you probably know the value of using the time between photos for more photos. Like taking walking shots as you move from one location to another. Well that only works if your husband doesn’t decide to creep up on your couple. But I guess it’s all good if he gets a kiss at the end, right Lucas, haha?!
And now comes everyone’s favourite BTS photos, veil photos, which is also known as Dave running away from our couples!
Seriously guys, I have so many of these. Although I am not entirely sure what he is trying to tell me in this next one.
Honestly, this isn’t even half of them as there are so many more than just didn’t get marked as a BTS shot apparently so they aren’t here. I guess I will just have to start sharing more of them on Instagram, huh?!
Dave actually got some air in this next one, pretty impressive really!
We had some suuuper long veils this year which made Dave have to figure out how to make them fly AND get filled with air in the process. He did a beautiful job each and every time and I am so thankful I have such a pro veil tosser around!
At every single one of our weddings Dave does a little dance for me to test my lights. He dances as he pretends to be the couple making their grand entrance, making speeches, cutting cakes, and during their first dance. Sadly I could only find a couple in the time I set aside for this post, but I promise to find the others and share them with you guys in the future.
I did however manage to find a couple rare appearances by me during the reception. They are rarer than shots of me earlier in the day as Dave tends to focus on details by this point in the evening and/or be working in the Photo Booth.
We changed up our reception lighting this year and it meant that at multiple times throughout the evening Dave would have to run and grab one of my off-camera flashes and become what I lovingly call my voice-activated-light-stand. The most common case of this was during bouquet and garter tosses. Fortunately he would stand in places where I could easily crop him out later.
Ooo, another rare photo of me post-reception entrance, this time ruining one of Dave’s wide shots during sunset portraits. Although I did manage to pretty easily clone myself out of all of these shots during the editing process.
If you opted for night photos during your wedding day then you already know about this handy-dandy tool we have, as our Icelight always gets a lot of questions and Dave loves answering them. He also loves pretending it is a lightsaber because it kind of looks like one (and has stood in for one in a couple nerdy shots we have put together in the past).
Opting for night photos means you have also heard me say “Sweety Out.”, which is quickly followed by, “Sweety back in”. It sounds really dirty and inappropriate as I write it out right now, but when in context with moving Dave in and out of the photo to be able to clone him out easily later on it makes a lot more sense and seems much more family friendly.
So Dave and I started taking selfies with our couples this year (sadly we missed a few because it was relatively new to us), and although I am not sharing those here right now, in pulling them all from our phones, I did come across these gems. Apparently Dave likes taking photos of himself without me knowing on the wedding day … smart ass.
And as payment for that I am sharing this compilation of images. They aren’t edited because frankly I don’t have time right now, but Dave likes to pretend he is a model from time to time!
I am ending this series with the most recent BTS we have. At Ruby’s newborn session (which will be shared relatively soon I promise), Dave apparently grabbed this gem. Our puppers, Kaylee, joined us in her official role as Assistant Photographer and once Kaylee had quite effectively tired out the new puppy and made it very sleepy for my posing needs, she patiently, and relatively quietly waited as I got my photos. She’s just the goodest little girl ever!!
Well there you have it guys, I think that about wraps things up for this Behind-the-Scenes post. I hope you have enjoyed scrolling through these photos and seeing what things are like from behind the lens during another wonderful wedding season! We had a blast all year long and I am so excited for our official 2020 season to start, which it will be doing real soon so keep an eye out for that!
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