Selecting the Best Wedding Photographer

Picking a wedding photographer is no simple job because there are so many variables to think about including who to select, what to look for, and how much it will cost. Many of these concerns are quite normal and throughout this article I will give you the suggestions needed in picking the best photographer for your wedding.

Last year my cousin got married and she was so surprised at just how many people responded to her ad to hire a wedding photographer. There were so many types of photographers, some were smart, some were impatient, some were clearly amateurs and some were just plain weird. The whole industry has become infiltrated with subpar photographers because of just how profitable the wedding niche is and if you don't select a professional experienced wedding photographer it will be a total nightmare. The pictures may turn out amateurish(or undelivered), he might come to the wedding drunk, he may steal your money and never return and the worst thing is you'll never get a second chance to do it again.

Plan ahead and take your time in selecting a photographer by reading the advice in this article carefully and acting on the information with precision.

Start off by going to your colleagues and relatives and asking them for a wedding photographer reference. While surveying them remember to inquire on the costs, their professionalism and their appearance at the wedding. Make sure you ask these three questions as they are very crucial. Whenever you get a personal reference you can consider it genuine as your friends want the best for you on your big day.

Remember Those Special Dates On Personalised Photo Calendars

There are several reasons why, despite the more hi-techs options now freely available, people still stay loyal to the concept of the good old fashion photo calendar. The fact that it is so old fashion, indeed, is the reason for this enduring appeal. Using a calendar is simplicity itself, so easy that absolutely no prior knowledge or experience is required. After all, no calendar ever came with a complicated book of instructions or a backup CD, and entering the vital information - i.e. the dates which you don't want to forget - requires little more than a pen or pencil and a few minutes of your time. At the start of the year you merely have to jot down major dates such as birthdays and anniversaries and then as time passes you can add the likes of medical appointments, holiday dates and when you have to pay the gas and water bills. Once the dates are up there, there's absolutely no chance of them getting lost due to a power failure or mechanical breakdown and accessing the information is as simple as flipping a few pages.

The only downside, indeed, is the fact that the vast majority of these calendars tend to feature images which seem to have been added as an afterthought - unimaginative subject matter such as meadows and forests or ponies and kittens. Whilst this may seem like a trivial matter, it's still an item which you're going to be looking at more or less every single day and, as such, it surely ought to be something which you'll actually enjoy looking at. The fact of the matter is that you can now create your own calendars using images selected from your own collection of digital photographs, creating something which not only does the job of organizing your time but also lifts your spirits each time you look at it and brightens the room in which it's hanging.

Photography Composition - Understanding the Golden Ratio

Improving your photographic composition skills can be a long and arduous task, yet there is one technique, developed thousands of years ago that can be put into effect in a matter of minutes, that can give you a dramatic improvement in the artistic value of your work almost instantly.

What is the Golden Ratio?

The ancient Greeks were clever people who were extremely adept at seeing the relationships between different things. For instance, they are the ones who discovered the relationship between different sides of a triangle and thus developed the Pythagorean Theorem. They also found the relationship between a circle's radius and its circumference pi: π. In the arts they noticed a similar relationship between great works of art and a particular mathematical formula (the longer part divided by the smaller part is equal to the whole length divided by the larger part) This formula actually derives at number, or more accurately, an approximation: 1.61803... the mathematical constant phi:φ. It is interesting to note that this constant is seen all through the world of science and mathematics as well as in the art world.

Over the thousands of years since the Greeks developed this theory, there has been a great deal of evidence to support it. What does this mean to you as a photographer? It means that there are certain areas within the frame where your subject is likely to draw the most attention. Photographers commonly call this the "Rule of Thirds" but it has its roots in ancient Greek mathematics.