My significant other learning photography

Now my significant other is not going to be my second photographer anytime soon (I already have a trained photographer for that) my significant other had to learn for the sake of my mom's wedding. My mom didn't want any strangers at the wedding, so she asked me to photograph the wedding. That in and of itself is not a problem except for one thing... I am a bridesmaid. It was important to my mom for me to be a bridesmaid and to be an active participant in the ceremony. 

That being said I cannot photograph the ceremony and be a bridesmaid in it at the same time. That is where my significant other comes into play. He gets probably the most important job as he only has 15 minutes  of time comprised of moments that cannot be recreated and usually the ones people want. He is taking this pressure really well though despite our challenges. I had the challenge of taking my significant other who literally knew nothing of photography (he did not know even how to just take a photo/what the shutter button was). 

I was not originally going to be the photographer, but due to having to downsize their wedding (thanks COVID-19) from a big wedding at a winery to a small backyard wedding, they decided to go with me to keep the numbers down and that they liked my photography. 

My significant other has had a practice 1x a week for about a month now, as the change was some what last minute. I wish I kept his first photos to compare to now, but unfortunately I did not. But I will show you guys and talk you guys through his most recent practice session. This practice session is the last practice before the dress rehearsal where we will be doing a pretend ceremony and that will be his final practice before the big day. 

I will warn you in these photos I am not in any way flattering as I was talking to myself and other stuff that I will talk about more later. 

The photo above is the equivalent of the bride walking down the aisle if he were taking the photo from the back. He did good. He is following rule of thirds and if my mom has her dad (my grandpa) walking her down the aisle there is room for him in the photo above as well. I am well back lit, and in focus. none of my body parts are cut off (my boyfriend in beginning had trouble with cutting off my feet during full size shots) 

The reason why I chose this location is because (most likely) my mom is going to have the ceremony facing the lake so this gives us the most accurate lighting and background situation. Lakes can be a hard background as light reflects off of the water making it easy to over expose the lake and making the background not pure white. Which my significant other did good at capturing while not under exposing me. 

This next photo above represents during the time my mom and step dad may be holding hands as the officiant talks. It is had to imagine where the second person will be, but I think he did a good job having it zoomed out enough for two people while still not being too zoomed out. This is one of those things where until we are able to practice with two people it will be hard to judge. I will probably force my brother to help us to give my significant other a chance to practice with two people. 

The two photos above represent the sand pouring. This is one of the important parts of the ceremony to my mom. Each child, my mom, and step dad will be pouring a different color sand into a jar to symbolizing us coming together as a one blended family. I wanted to practice him getting the shots of each person pouring the sand into the jar. we practiced waist up and then full body. we practiced waist up in a different practice so I do not have those photos. I think both look good it will be a decision to be made day of depending how it is done.  

I love this photo above. Ignore my weird facial expression as I was mouthing "duh duh duh duh" (the typical bride walking down the aisle music) my hands are where they are as I was pretending to hold a bouquet. But from a technical aspect this is good. the background is blurry, I am in sharp focus, good layout, lighting etc. This photo is equivalent to the bride walking down the aisle if he was taking photos of the front instead of the back of the ceremony.  it is also a good representation of when the bride and groom exit the ceremony. 

We did practice posed photos as well as my significant other will have to take some posed photos as I will be in some of the photos. Those were in previous practices so I don't have them. For just practicing 4 or 5 times I think my significant other really has improved and has quality I am not afraid to share. Although we cannot practice for every situation and variation I think he has a good grasp on changing settings in manual mode to get good exposure, framing, lighting, and posing to do well on the wedding day. If you want to see his photos that he takes on the wedding day I will make a blog post for that once I edit the photos, but right now all there's left to do is prep for the wedding that is to be taking place this coming Saturday! (10/17/20)