Wedding Photography
It's the most important day of your life. Get good pictures. I shoot a lot of weddings, but I never forget that this is the most important day in the lives of two people. Sometimes people ask me how much time I work on a wedding day. The answer is "from the time I wake up, until I take the last photo at the limousine and say "have a long and happy life together." Long before I arrive at where the bride is dressing, I am concentrating on making the best visual record I can of the day. My checklist items begin two days before the wedding. They begin with charging batteries and end with loading the car. The task is not to produce a product, but to create a treasure. That is the foremost thought in my mind the entire day.
Pricing
This is no doubt what you came here for, and I must take this opportunity to point out something. Of all the things you spend money for on your wedding day, the only material things that endure the day are the rings and the photographs. You're not likely to wear that dress again. The venues (unless you had a home wedding) still belong to someone else. The flowers have returned to the dust whence they came. The DJ or the band have gone home. The less said about the food and drink, the better. That said, to simplify things, I have created a single, flat fee package** for the price of $1249 plus Virginia Sales Tax. This includes:
- My presence from two hours before the ceremony until the bride and groom leave. No time limit.
- A starter album of 4x6 inch prints of the best 300 images (my selection: no closed eyes, technical errors, etc.). These will be cosmetically retouched (blemishes removed, shininess powdered, under the eye darkness lightened, some slimming), and corrected for color, lighting and contrast.
- A CDROM of those same images.
- A DVDROM of ALL of the images I take unretouched (if you really want to see them that way).
- A copyright release that allows you to have them reprinted at will.
- An engagement or announcement session and four 5x7 prints
- In addition and optionally, I can place the 300 images that were included in the proof book in an online storefront for the convenience of friends and loved ones so the bride does not spend her first year of marriage at photo kiosks in drugstores.
** Of course, there are exceptions to everything. Discounts and surcharges may be available or applicable. Discounts may be applied in cases of "off-season" dates, short planned duration of event, "intimate" guest list, active duty military personnel or veterans, emergency workers (fire, police, EMT), and public school teachers - in other words those who put themselves at risk for the general good. Surcharges would apply for travel expenses, and other things that add costs above those that are usual for me.
This photo shows the environment more than the couple.
This photo shows the couple with enough environment to show the feel of the place.
I look for unusual angles from which to get more candid moments.
Sometimes the last dance of the evening is even more romantic than the first dance.
Digital photography allows the same photo to look good in color...
or in black and white.
Here is a formal portrait in color...
... and the same portrait in black and white.
That is the children's section of the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in the background. It seemed symbolic that the brides father was walking her away from childhood to a new life.
These two little girls in the bride's dressing room reminded me of the famous cherubs in Raphael's Sistine Madonna. 
The bride dressed in a building on the University of Virginia campus that included busts of various Founding Fathers. This one is James Madison.
When planning the group shots for after the ceremony, it is polite to take the photo of the couple with the officiant first.
An engagement or announcement photo is included in my base package.
Photos destined for newspaper use should have the faces close together. Most papers still use black and white for these images.
The groom's friends can usually be relied upon for some memorable images.
My only child is my daughter, so I know how the dads feel.