But! A word (or three) of advice when you are meeting with photographers: be wary of the less seasoned ones (read: new wedding photographers) who go on and on and on about how they are "solely photojournalistic photographers who take none of those boring traditional posed pictures blah blah blah". I know you probably hate those pictures too because you're so non-traditional and edgy, but unless both you and your fiance are orphans: YOU HAVE TO GET THE MOM SHOTS. (sidenote: I think I just made up that term, because I've never heard it before)
The "Mom Shots" are the family portraits. And if you don't get family portraits at your wedding you will never, eeeever, hear the end of it from your mothers, grandmothers, aunts, et cetera. And, unfortunately, to get the Mom Shots, people have to be rounded up and put in a formation that will allow the photographer to capture everyone in one picture. So they all have to be squeezed together facing the camera....and that makes it a posed traditional picture. Boring, I know, but when it's over you and your new spouse can go back to all those awesome pictures of you running through downtown LA. But guess which picture your Mom is going to have framed and hanging in her livingroom? Yup, the Mom Shot.
5 comments:
Soooo true Amber. And that's what I call those photos too! But you put it on your blog, so you get credit as inventor. Whenever I'm taking those ones of the bride and groom where they're just looking at the camera and smiling I say "okay, these are for your moms". Makes them smile more, cause they know it's true : )
Raya, uh oh! I stand corrected! I even Googled "mom shots" and saw some random stuff, but not wedding related! Great minds think alike, I say!
you are right, amber. it's gotta be a blend of traditional and modern!!
I think a conversation with the "Mom" in question is necessary before deciding with your photog about group shots. Group shots don't necessarily have to be everyone clumped together, turned 3/4, clasped hands in front and smiling. My own mother would actually probably think that was boring. There can be a happy medium between unnatural poses and the modern, "arty" candid shots. I don't think we need to tell people it's one or the other.
Emilia,
The family photos are the least fun and the most annoying part of the day for me and the photographer, and I'd do without any formal portraits if I could. But I KNOW the ramifications of not getting family shots. This blog isn't to say that you need to take boring shots, the point of this blog is for brides & grooms to talk about what family portraits need to be taken. Newer and less seasoned photographers who brag that they don't do "any formal pictures" have not dealt with an angry Mother of the Bride (or Groom) who did not get a picture with the whole family.
But yes, I definitely recommend talking to family to ask what photos are important.
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