OLLO Photography - Wedding Photography in Dallas

Valentine's Day is here, and it's a big day for me and Ed - we got married on Valentine's Day last year.
Our photographer Michael Albert was absolutely great, and since it was a destination wedding, we got all images immediately - unprocessed, but looking fantastic. Michael did not want to risk traveling with all the backups of the images just on his person, so we got a couple DVDs right away, and we made a few copies for our friends to carry back in case our stuff got lost or stolen during the remainder of the trip.
When we came back after the wedding, it only took a couple of weeks to recieve the best retouched images.
I have been making prints throughout the year - some framed on the walls of our house, some pinned to the walls in my office. Since I started my official wedding photography business, I've been using our own images to test various professional labs. So far, WHCC is my favorite for large prints on specialty paper, and Mpix  does a fantastic job with everyday small prints (and I love thier affordable foam core backs!)

But I digress.. this post is really about our wedding album. As a gift to ourselves for our anniversary, I designed a coffee-book album using Michael's photos. It was partly a test of how the album design works, as it's something that I have never done before. I'm happy to report that it was an exciting and exhausting exercise, but now I may be ready to add albums to my list of services!

I ran across this article on the Digital Photography Forum site and I thought is was a very good read. It clearly explains why photographers charge what they charge, and how a 2 hour photo session is really a full 8-10 hour day of work for your photographer (or, in my case - 2 hrs every evening for 4 days after the photoshoot!).

http://www.caughtonfilmphoto.com/costofphotography.html

I had the pleasure of photographing a very exotic wedding in Weatherford, TX yesterday. It was a delightful blend of cultures, foods and pumpkins. I loved the orange/brown theme that perfectly matched the natural fall setting. Enough words - let the preview speak for itself! 

I get asked that a lot, so I decided that a post on this subject will be a useful addition to my blog.

Comfort: The single most important thing is for you to be comfortable during the photo session. If you are not comfortable in what you are wearing, or in how it fits, it will show in your facial expressions and body language. Some people are comfortable in stilettos, and that's great! But if you are only comfortable in flip-flops, please wear the flip flops!

Matching outfits: when I say 'matching', I don't mean identical. Identical sometimes looks ok, but most of the time, it's an overkill. It is important to have the same level of "dressiness"  - if  one person is dressed for an upscale wedding reception, and the other one is wearing jeans and t-shirt, the couple will not look like they belong together.  It is also good to think about the colors - do all colors in both outfits coordinate to some extent? Are the patterns complementing or confilcting?

Color and texture: I generally recommend wearing solid colors, preferably muted (not too bright/saturated). I advise against stark white or deep shiny black. Bright colors detract atention from the faces, and bright white and deep black do not photograph as well, because they bring a lot of shart contrast to the images. I also advise against patterns or large details and logos on the clothing - they will also detract attention from you. Having said all that, these are my recommendations, not requirements. If you love bright pink Juicy Couture tops, and they express your personality better than a muted dress - go for it!!  

Change of clothes: I recommend bringing 2-3 different outfits along for the shoot, or at least 2 tops to change into. It will give some variety to the images. Extra accessories work well for women -  some jewelry, a scarf or a shawl - these can instantly change your look without too much work. For men, it is not as easy - but if your woman has a dressy outfit packed, consider bringing a tie - it can quickly dress you up from the waist up for some close up shots (and I'll make sure that your jeans are not in the frame for those shots!)

Some inexpensive clothes: why does this matter? Sometimes, the mood, the weather and the environment set us up for some real fun creative shots: rolling in the grass, wading in the fountain, sitting on the pavement, and so on. It's a real shame if your nice clothes prevent you from having fun and getting those unique images that express your character. So wearing something that you don't mind getting a little wet and a little dirty is often a good idea. 




 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of photographing a beautiful wedding at Fairy Tale Manor in Frisco. It's my first wedding at this venue, and I was very impressed with the efficiency of the staff and lightning fast turnaround. I only wish the wedding lasted longer - it was very fast paced! 
I did engagement photos for this wonderful couple in the summer, and this time I got to meet their 3 year old son Carter. What a cute and well behaved kid! He was a real trooper running down the aisle with the ring pillow! 
Here are a few photographic highlights from their wedding:
 

My husband and I took a quick weekend trip to Ohio to visist my parents a couple of weeks ago. I did not take my camera with me - what a mistake! The fall leaves were absoultely astonishingly beautiful, and my pittle pocket point-and-shoot did not do justice to the fall colors. This would have been an unbelievable setting for enganement or wedding portraits... But, this time l am featuring leaves only - no people! 

On Sunday, I met Lori and Jerry by the garden entrance for an introduction and an engagement photo session. What a lovely young couple!  They were a little shy at first, so we started our warm up by rehearsing some first dance moves on the lawn, and then things only got better...

We found this wonderful pond with a fountain. I asked the couple to go to the far side of the pond and just be themselves, occasionally remembering about the camera.. and here is what we got:

Then, things were getting steamier and sexier by the moment:

Both Jerry and Lori are very photogenic, so it was easy to find a flattering angle.. My favorite individual portraits are here... note that Jerry actually smiles all the time, but I wanted to get a serious look out of him for this one portrait.

And at the end of the session, we added some Cowboys themed fun at Jerry's request: 

Thank you for a great session!

Here is to the new beginnings!