First wedding! (Picture heavy)

[BrickHouse]

So, I've made it very very clear that I am only a hobbyist, and a slow-learning, untalented one at that. I got my D3200 1.5yrs ago and shoot maybe 2-3x/month, and almost always my daughter. Somehow though, it got out at work that I like to take pictures and of course the inevitable happened. I was asked by a coworker to photograph his wedding. The first words out of my my were literally "dude, hell no". However, after further explanation, it turns out that this will be his legal wedding to get his wife military benefits and allow her to be on his next set of orders. Their formal full wedding will be next summer with a payed professional photographer. So this was family only, approx 20 people, the backyard of a beach house followed by dinner at a friend's and finishing with pictures at sunset.

Well, after much assurance that even snapshots would be fine and that their alternative is to have Great Aunt Sue take pics with her iPhone, I agreed. Of course, they wanted to have it in San Diego, in summer, at 3pm. Great light right? Then of course we all got to having too much fun and missed sunset at the beach so we have some photos in the near dark on the beach. Anyway, thought I'd share some of them as this was a milestone in my photography "career". These are not in order because I can't figure out how to manually order pictures in Flickr. I'd welcome any general thoughts or C&C, though I won't tell you I will ever do this again so your tips may go unpracticed.

1)

Scott and Ari Wedding-2-12 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

2)

Scott and Ari Wedding-0142 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

3)

Scott and Ari Wedding-0166 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

4)

Scott and Ari Wedding-0272 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

5)

Scott and Ari Wedding-0314 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

6)

Scott and Ari Wedding-0327 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

7)

Scott and Ari Wedding-0428 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

8)

Scott and Ari Wedding-0613 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

9)

Scott and Ari Wedding-6580 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

10)

Scott and Ari Wedding-6622 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

11)

Scott and Ari Wedding-6627 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

12)

Scott and Ari Wedding-7214 by Bolt x4, on Flickr

Thanks for looking!

 

[BGeise]

I think in general they aren't too bad. The only thing i notice is that some of them are a little washed out. May be ok for a few but i know i would want some pictures that had very vibrant color even black and white should have blacker black and whiter white

 

[EOV]

5/12 of the shots are of her with a wine glass in hand. Not a comment on your photography, just an observation.

Also, you have more guts than I do taking on that kind of situation.

 

[BrickHouse]

5/12 of the shots are of her with a wine glass in hand. Not a comment on your photography, just an observation.

Also, you have more guts than I do taking on that kind of situation.

Yeah, she was pretty uncomfortable with the camera and I couldn't get her to put it down. Every time I'd pull the camera up she'd take a sip. Was driving me nuts. Of course, this was only 12 of 420 shots so there are definitely ones without it. I've never done much with formal portraits or anything and I realized how lacking I am in the knowledge to direct a model. I usually just shoot candids of my toddler and she doesn't listen to me anyway.

It was actually a pretty amazing experience and I learned so much about my personal deficits and working in varied light. I had a blast doing it! Encourages me to branch out and continue to try different stuff.

 

[mmaria]

Considering the situation there is no reason for them not to be pleased with these pictures (I assume you shot the groom one or two times )
Out of all you posted here, I would not show them 6 and 9. They're not flattering for her.
Also, try something else in pp with #12. It would be great if only his feet weren't cut off.

 

[frommrstomommy]

I think the two biggest standouts for me as far as CC goes is I think many of these need more contrast.. and then trying to get them to be more cohesive as far as editing goes too. Your b&w images don't seem consistent. Some of the color ones have more punch to them than others also.. the last image was a really great opportunity but the feet are chopped and the horizon line is wayyy up at the top of the image.

 

[robbins.photo]

Well since most everything has been covered already I'd say all in all you've got some good shots here but personally I'd probably toss #6, her facial expression just seems to say "I swallowed a bug"

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

 

[SamiJoSchwirtz]

Love the light- washed out feel to these. Beautiful.

 

[IzzieK]

I like #5.. she's got a nice expression in that one.