Things to consider when choosing a wedding photographer

Choosing a photographer to capture the details of your wedding day is perhaps the most important part of preserving your wedding day memories. After the wedding cake is finished, the guests are home, the decorations are put away, the only thing left to remind of you this awesome day are the photographs (and sometimes video).

It's incredibly important to have the confidence that the person you have selected for this duty is a competent historian.

Here are a few things to consider when choosing your photographer/videographer.

Connection

You'll spend hours with this person on one of the most remembered days of your life. You'll look at these images for years, decades, generations. Your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will re-live this day through their eyes. You have to connect with this person in a good way. In a way that fosters trust and confidence.

Experience

Have you seen their work? Have you seen other weddings that they've done? I made this mistake with my own wedding. I hired a photographer that was great at portraits but didn't have any wedding experience. There are many intricate things in preparing for, shooting a wedding, culling the images after and creating a timeless keepsake. Hire someone with experience. I was a second shooter at many weddings before becoming the lead (and sometimes only) wedding photographer.

First Family Heirloom

This is your first family heirloom. This is the beginning of your family. Whether you have an elaborate or intimate wedding, this day should be captured beautifully. Your images should be full of emotion. This will be the part of your day that is always treasured. You'll have many beautiful images throughout your life together but you'll never be able to duplicate this day.

Budget
Choose the best photographer that your money can buy. Make it a priority. Stretch yourself a little bit, if necessary. It's better to hire a great photographer for less hours than to get a novice for the whole day. It's better to have fewer AWESOME images than lots of pictures that you're not thrilled with.

I love curating wedding stories. I am a historian. I love that for years and generations, your wedding day story will be told and re-told through my eyes. I love that I get to participate in the culmination of your story and get to be there for the start of the next phase of your life. I am keenly aware that what I do matters. I take my job seriously, from a technical standpoint and from an emotional place. It would be my pleasure to tell your wedding story.

Please feel free to call/email/text. I would love to answer any questions and hear more about your vision for your wedding day.

Pru is a wedding and portrait photographer based in the Atlanta area, but willing to travel to just about anywhere. 

You Gon' Learn Today

We all have it. That annoying, hurtful, depressing thing that keeps happening over and over again. Every few months, years it's like deja' vu.....and it sucks! Big time! Each time, you get angrier or cry harder. If you're lucky you realize that it's happened before. The players, the story might be different but the feeling, the summary is the same.

For me, it usually stems from trust issues, abandonment or self-worth. I'm keenly aware of my triggers (well, some of them) and do all I can to avoid them. But there are some stories that I know are going to replay because I handled it so poorly the last time. So, I just sit and wait and hope that the next time, that I'm kinder and gentler to myself. I hope that I see it coming and don't melt into a million little broken pieces.

#EmotionalNudity

Pru is a historian. Sometimes she uses her camera. 

She's a real woman with many hats and intense feelings. 

She's based out of Atlanta but will travel.

Finding balance (or searching for it)

Like every mom out there, I struggle with the juggling.....feeling the need to do it all and do it well....wanting to be true to myself and yet understanding that my children have one childhood and I get to mold its success. I needed to watch this ..... because I want to work 24/7 but I also want to do other things that feed my soul. ‪#‎MyWhy‬ ‪#‎Tears‬‪#‎EmotionalNudity‬ ‪#‎FindingBalance‬

Enduring Love :: Still Standing

Romantic love doesn't have an age or an expiration date. It's a choice...a choice to love with burning desire and to accept someone's else's sentiments of passion. Still standing is becoming a series of celebration. A celebration of marriage that has withstood time....1 year or 100 years or something in-between.

I've always loved watching old (or should I say mature) lovers. A few years ago I photographed two sets of widows and widowers. Each had found new love after grief and asked me to capture their wedding day stories. I find it awesomely fascinating to see people who no longer fit society's perceptions of perfection fall for each other. They are always authentic, always forgiving, always attentive, always grateful. Perhaps it's a lesson for us young-un's.

A few weeks ago I photographed a family. Parents, kids, grandparents. These are the grandparents. Still in love. Still standing.

Pru is a photographer based in Atlanta. She preserves memories, tells stories, preserves a legacy.

Atlanta Couples Photographer :: Still Standing

I've always believed in love, romantic love to be specific. We all love our children, mom, dad, cousins, friends, etc. But most, if not all, of us desire to be in a beautiful, long term, deeply vulnerable, romantic relationship. Generally, we are great about documenting the early stages of the unfolding of love. Those new days of building trust and exploring chemistry are exciting and refreshing and delightful. That concoction of intensity compels, even demands, to be memorialized in a photograph.

But there's something intensely alluring about love that has endured some years and built a history. There's something beautiful about love that has seen the good, bad and ugly and still sparks fly. There's something undeniable about love that has conquered the monotony of the everyday but deepens and intensifies. There's something amazing about love that has endured and is still standing....standing proudly and deeply -- full of laughter, inside jokes, deep vulnerability, trust, respect and a longing for each other.

Love that has endured, love that is still standing should be celebrated and documented, for our children, for their children, for society, for the world to see, for ourselves.

Gwinnett County Maternity :: Beautiful Family :: And then there were 4

It's pretty awesome to have your family go from two to three and then to four, five even six. This beautiful family is getting ready grow. The baby girl will become the big sister. It's bound to be an awesome time in their lives.

This sweet little moment on a beautiful afternoon was captured as a celebration of this short time when there were only 3 of them. Things will never be the same. There'll be more joy and laughter, more diapers and more fun.