Life Update: We are Moving!

My wife have finally made a big decision. We have been carefully praying and seeking God's direction in our lives. We have decided to move back to Taiwan the beginning of August! 

This is a very exciting and scary time for us. We have lots to do in preparation. We don't have all the details now. However, we hope to send out a newsletter in the next month or two to inform those who are interested in praying for us and supporting us financially.

My First Wedding Shoot

I was finally asked to shoot my first wedding. I was pretty hesitant about it. I take pride in doing a good job and don't really try to sell myself because I think I could be a lot better. I told them I would do it. However they have to understand that this is my first wedding and if they had the money to go with someone who has experience.

Apparently the groom used to read my blogs about Taiwan when he was planning on going there. And I was also the bride's English teacher for a semester while living there. He already saw a lot of my work throughout the years and I think my work helped him learn a lot about his future wife's culture/country.

Seeing we had that connection and were friends I didn't really want to charge much. I charged enough for me to kinda break even on the flight. In the end I lost money however it was my first wedding shoot and didn't want to charge them much for taking a chance on me and giving me that experience for the first time.

This was a very nerve racking experience. I have never shadowed under another photographer in any sense, especially not for a wedding. I tried to do a few shoots for free to assist another photographer at a wedding but it never seemed to work out. I began studying wedding styled photography and tips from the web and youtube. Many photographers that I came across had very poor work which gave me some confidence going into it thinking "If people are happy with their work I should have no problem." and at the same time annoyed me because they would sell their work with such terrible results.

It was raining terribly for the rehearsal. So the rehearsal was inside. The space we had was very tiny and not optional. This allowed me to practice using my flash and getting settings right for an "indoor" wedding, however the actually wedding turned out to be outside.

So here it is...some of the photographs from my first wedding!

This is the "full" Flickr.com album. (only 65 out of 250 photos)

We started the day with taking photos of the groomsmen. I had a second photographer take care of the ladies for me.

The men prayed before the wedding, it got a little emotional.

The Groom's first time seeing the bride.

After the wedding we shot pictures of the Bride and Groom with family members. Then shot the wedding party.

The sun was super harsh but then quickly began to go away. We had to work quick to still get great photos of the bride and groom while also getting to the reception on time.

Overall my first wedding shoot was a really good experience. I wouldn't do it for as cheap as I did ever again. The day wasn't too bad but the post-processing work took me a good amount of time. It was defiantly nerve raking for the first time. I had no idea what to expect to come of my work. The hardest part of the day for me was posing the wedding party and the bride and groom. The other difficult part was having to quickly adjust my camera during the ceremony with the harsh sun glaring directly into my lens.

I sent 3 photos to the bride and groom the day after their wedding. This is something my wedding photographer did that I really appreciated. This aloud them to get a quick glimpse of the day while on their honeymoon. It then took me about 2 weeks to get them the rest of their photos.