How do you distinguish a professional wedding photographer from an amateur?

( ... and what to look out for when evaluating wedding packages)

Professionalism in wedding photography involves a number of items that need to be in place. And funny enough is the camera almost last on the list.

Relaxed atmosphere

Wedding photography is much more about the bride and groom being relaxed on their wedding day. The professional wedding photographer will first and foremost focus on ensuring a relaxed an happy atmosphere. If the couple is not relaxed, this will show in the final images. We start this process from the moment we start communicating with you. Our written text is prepared to provide you with the detail you need, when you need it. When we have our initial meeting, we handle you with courtesy, listen to your needs, provide you with confidence in our ability and finally provide you with a no-obligation quotation according to your needs (yes, we offer packages as a baseline to develop your unique package).

To further enhance your comfort level, we include a free pre-wedding shoot with all our packages. This allow us the opportunity to get to know each other. We, as the wedding photographers can check your poses, test your reaction and identify the best look, and you get the opportunity to see the way we work and the end-results we achieve. This also allows us to provide you with customized cards and guest books as optional extras.

And lastly, we do not cause you extra stress due to a time limitation we place on our packages. All our packages include 12 hours of our time, which is MORE than sufficient to capture every special memory.

Once the professional wedding photographer has ensured that the couple is relaxed and understand the process, the next important item is how the photos/images are captured. This is again a combination of several items.

Photographic approach

Firstly, the pose is very important. Classical wedding photography requires the wedding photographer to pose the couple. To get a relaxed and elegant pose consistently in all your pictures is not easy! A photojournalistic wedding photographer will focus on capturing the moments and emotions as they happen, leading to very relaxed, natural photographs which will bring the memories flooding back for years to come.

Ultphoto focus primarily on the photojournalistic approach, as this also helps to keep you relaxed. However, there are moments where we use the classical approach, for example where we see an superb location which will make an excellent fine art image and also for group photos.

Understanding and "painting" with light

Both photojournalistic and classical wedding photography requires a very good understanding of light. This includes natural light such as daylight, lighting in the hall, candle light, etc. In addition to this understanding of light, the professional wedding photographer also understands "painting" with light. This involves the use of lighting added by the photographer to improve the natural light. A proper understanding and implementation of this "painting" process, dramatically improves the quality of your pictures and this is where the professional photographer can really showcase his creativity.

Protecting your images

The professional wedding photographer will have a complete process in place to ENSURE that your valuable pictures are not lost during the whole process of capturing, transporting, editing and delivering the final process. There is nothing like an angry bride when she discovers the amateur lost part or all of her pictures!

Required tools

The tool used to capture the moments and memories created by all the above is the camera. Almost last in line! We do not want to have you think that the camera is not important! If this was the case, we would not invest thousands of rands to ensure we have the very best equipment! What we want you to know is that a good camera does NOT make a professional photographer.

We make sure we have the best equipment for the job, to ensure that we can focus on creatively capturing your memories, instead of worrying about our equipment.

And then ...

Photo books, prints and canvas

Excellent quality wedding pictures means nothing unless it is well presented. We offer the top of the range prints, canvas prints and photo story books (also known as coffee table books or photo books). This means that you have something exceptional to store and display your memories, guaranteed to make you the envy of any bride to be :)

We print photos, canvas prints and photo books at selected printers only, where the equipment is calibrated on a daily basis. The layout of our photo books are done with care and precision, creative editing to tell the story of your special day. This in itself is an art form that is only acquired through years of experience by the professional wedding photographer.

Many satisfied customers have entrusted their special day to us, and we know that you will experience the same PEACE OF MIND when you assign your special day to us.

So, contact us to arrange a no-obligations visit to our studio where we will discuss your unique requirements and show you our quality and range of products.

______________________________________

Click here to request your PACKAGE CALCULATOR ...

______________________________________

Photobooks:

We offer a wide range of photo books, canvas print options, multimedia presentations, etc as options to our packages.

We recommend Furi Fine art books for their quality and reliability.

Click here for more detail ...

We also offer optional guest books based on the FREE pre-wedding shoot included in EVERY package.

Optional Parents photo book (size depends on package) - Optional on all packages

Click here for sample albums ...

______________________________________

Videography:

We specialize in still photography, but can recommend a number of videographers with which we have worked in the past, and whom we trust to deliver the same quality product we deliver.

______________________________________