Wedding Photography - Frequently Asked Questions
WHAT RETAINER IS REQUIRED? WHAT ARE THE PAYMENT TERMS?
A 25% non refundable retainer is required to reserve our services for your date. Bookings are not confirmed until both the retainer and a copy of the signed contract have been received. The remaining balance of the package is due 30 days prior to the wedding date. Payment of the balance by installments is always welcome. Payments can be made by Cash, Check or Credit Card.
CAN I PRINT MY OWN PHOTOS?
Of course you can. After editing we will upload your photos to a password protected gallery. From there you can download 1 or all of them. At that point you can print and share them however you would like. Please feel free to contact us for printing options as well.
Yes, we typically choose a handful of photos from every wedding we photograph to display on our website. If you would prefer we do not use your photos just let us know ahead of time.
DO THE PHOTOS WE RECEIVE HAVE WATERMARKS ON THEM?
Of course not. These are YOUR MEMORIES of your wedding.
DO YOU USE A SECOND PHOTOGRAPHER?
In most cases yes, Scott will be the primary and Sherry will typically assist. This allows for full coverage of the Bride and Groom getting ready, as well as making sure we cover your ceremony from every angle.
CAN WE RECEIVE THE RAW, UNEDITED FILES?
The RAW, unedited files are not available for viewing or purchase. This is very much like asking your caterer to give you the leftover ingredients used to make your dinner. The images selected for editing and final delivery reflect our very high standards.
CAN WE SEE THE OUTTAKES AND ALL THE IMAGES THAT DID NOT MAKE THE "FINAL CUT?
The images delivered to you are very loosely culled, taking out only eyes-closed, flash didn't fire, person walked in front of the lens, true outtakes. If there are a handful of images of you together with your grandmother laughing, for example, we are going to include everything that is not an absolute duplicate. Please note that when we are "editing" we are not striving to hit some magic number to deliver and throwing out "good" pictures. The images not selected are not archived and therefore are not available.
WHERE ARE YOU LOCATED?
We have our studio in the small town of Sandy Oregon, which is only 30 minutes east of Downtown Portland. We enjoy the piece and quite of not living in the city. However we travel the entire state of Oregon and beyond into Washington, California, Montana to cover weddings, and that's only listing a few of the places ..... we will travel the world if asked to.
WHEN SHOULD WE BOOK?
As soon as you have your venue booked we suggest booking your photography package.
CAN YOU HOLD A DATE FOR ME?
We do our best to hold a date for a couple days to give you time to fill out and return our contract and make arrangements to pay your retainer. However, it is our policy to accept the first booking that returns their signed contract and retainer.
WHAT IF OUR WEDDING IS RUNNING LATE, WILL YOU STAY LATE?
We offer a 30 minute grace period, if you need us to stay longer our rate is $150 an hour, billed in full hour increments. The first hour starts from the original agreed upon end time, not at the end of our 30 minute grace period. We will always get your permission before going into overtime. Payment for additional coverage must be received before any images will be released.
WHAT TRAINING / QUALIFICATIONS DO YOU HAVE?
All of our professional credentials have nothing to do with photography, but our life skills have been focused on it for decades. Our photography skills are entirely self-taught through years of events and milestones, and a genuine love for nature, travel and photography. We have a goal we strive to reach in every project we do, it is our passion for producing that perfect shot to capture the very best of your wedding day memories.
DO YOU HAVE A REPLACEMENT PHOTOGRAPHER IN CASE YOU BECOME UNAVAILABLE ON THE DAY OF THE WEDDING?
The nice thing about hiring us is you already will have booked two photographers, should one of us become so ill we are unable to make it to your wedding you can rest easy knowing your day will still be fully covered. We also know several other photographers we can reach out to should something prevent one of us from attending. We have never missed a wedding we were both scheduled to cover.
WHAT EQUIPMENT DO YOU USE?
We use Canon cameras, and have backups of our back ups. Why? Because we don't like to take risks with your precious memories. We always have a bag full of lenses and lights with enough backups to make sure we never miss a thing, even if we run into equipment failures (it happens do not let anyone tell you otherwise).
WHAT IS YOUR POLICY ON TAKING BREAKS? DO YOU REQUIRE A MEAL?
Here is another example why having two photographers is so great. During most shorter weddings (6 hours or less) we only take one or two quick breaks to chug some water and eat a granola bar, we typically will each do this at different times so there is always a photographer on hand in case something amazing should happen. We time our breaks to fall during the slow times of the day, like when the Bride and Groom sit down to eat (no one likes a picture that shows them eating). On a longer day we might both take a short 5-10min break together to grab a sandwich out of our cooler, but we always stay in eye sight of the Bride and Groom, again we tend to take this break while everyone else is eating as well. As for requiring a meal, we always pack a small cooler with drinks and snacks to keep our energy level up throughout your wedding, should you decide to provide a meal we will never turn it down (wedding food is always so good).
WE'VE SEEN ANOTHER PHOTOGRAPHER'S STYLE WE LIKE, WILL YOU COPY IT?
We all have our own style, it is like our signature and is uniquely our own, so we prefer not to. If you want us to capture a certain pose that you have seen in other photographs, we are always happy to follow your suggestions and capture any pose you would like.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STYLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY?
We cover weddings in a very journalistic style, however we don't think photography should be limited by a "genre". While we are very hands off and unobtrusive in our coverage of the day, we do like to have some time with just the bride and groom together, bringing in their wedding party at the end. So while we won't stop and make you pose while cutting the cake we do like to have an hour or so for some casual bridal party photos without your guests looking on. We also believe very strongly in preserving all of the small details of our special day, from your shoes to your cake and flowers, our work is full of detail photos.
DO YOU TAKE POSED FAMILY PHOTOS?
Absolutely we do, family is everything in our book. These shots are generally quick and easy and largely informal. Its easiest to gather everyone and start swapping people in and out of the group. Each group we try and take a couple photos to ensure we get one where everyone has their eyes open and and a good expression.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE WEDDING?
Our day doesn't stop just because we have left the wedding. When we get home I jump straight onto the computer to download and backup your photographs. It isn't the quickest job as we normally have 100 gigs or so to download from our cameras. Once downloaded we immediately create 2 backups. That means your photos are in 4 places before we even start editing (Camera memory cards, computer hard drive, external hard drive #1, external hard drive #2 that is located off site).
WHEN AND WHERE WILL OUR SNEAK PEEKS BE?
Your sneak peeks will be available within 2 days after your wedding, we will upload them into your gallery on our website.
WHEN WILL THE REST OF MY PHOTOS BE AVAILABLE?
After we have culled the photographs (removing shots with closed eyes etc) we then edit them which involves cropping, color correcting, exposure balancing and quite a few other little things before uploading them to your online password protected gallery. This usually takes about 2 weeks. As soon as your photos are uploaded and ready for your viewing we will send you an email with login details.
I HAVE DOWNLOADED MY PHOTOS, NOW WHAT?
PLEASE, make a backup of your photos, either onto a CD, DVD, USB or external hard drive and store them in a safe place. Better yet make two copies and keep one offsite (a parents house is a great place).