In the last few months I’ve gotten a lot of repeat questions via email and from my website. I have hesitated to write an FAQ post because I don’t want to be presumptuous. I don’t know everything (or much at all, really).  On the other hand, I DO want to respond to people and not just leave them hanging…so just know that I don’t consider myself to be an expert. I only know what has worked for me, and I can only speak to my own experiences. I thought that the most efficient way to respond would be a blog post…and also I think its true that if there are a couple of people wondering about something, there are usually others who’d like to know too. If you’re not interested in this, just skip on by…I won’t be offended, and there will be a new engagement session posted SOON.

First and most common question: Do you use Nikon or Canon…and what kind of lenses do you have? (Also, what is your favorite lens?)

I am a Nikon person – all of my lenses are Nikon and I shoot with 2 Nikon D700’s at every wedding. I LOVE my D700’s.
Below is pictured one D700 with my favorite lens, the 50mm f 1.4 IF I had to choose one lens, and one lens only to shoot with for the rest of my life (I know, dramatic!) I would choose this little baby. My favorite by far. Although it is admittedly not all that impressive to look at, the images it produces are to die for.

The runner up favorite lens is pictured here on the left: Nikon 24mm f 1.4 – Wide and sharp and 1.4, one of Nikon’s best lenses.
Pictured right is my macro lens (or, fondly also called the Ring Lens) the Nikon 105mm f 2.8. Its great for detail shots.This lens makes people ooh and ahh. Its not a fisheye, but its incredibly wide…just with much less distortion (which I find distracting anyways)
Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8My most recent purchase: Nikon 180mm f 2.8
I use this during ceremonies a lot, when I need to get nice and close but don’t want to be invasive. I used to have the 70-200mm but I just love prime lenses, and I like this one a lot better!
On the right is my best flash, the Nikon SB900. Disclaimer: I almost NEVER use flash. Like, never. That is why I love the D700…because I can almost always get away with nice bright, clean images without a flash.
Why I don’t like flash? Because, it doesn’t look natural….it creates harsh shadows, and its distracting.That said, sometimes it is just necessary to have an extra light source. That is where this light comes in: Comer CM-LBPS1800 LED
I put this on a light stand during the cake cutting, the first dance, etc…whenever its just too dark to shoot without a flash, and it creates a really nice bright extra light source without looking unnatural. Well worth the investment, even though it doesn’t make an appearance at every wedding.

So, there’s my lovely line up….a lot of prime lenses, because that is what I’ve found works best for me….oh, and a big assortment of these Compact Flash Cards in 2, 4, 8 and 16 gigs.

Ok next question:
I would love to know what you think makes for the best lighting?

Well, I already mentioned that I don’t use a flash (almost) ever, so that gives you an idea to start.
My favorite time of day to shoot is about 2 hours before sunset. The other day I did a family shoot at around 4pm and the light was gorgeous…obviously this varies depending on the time of year. When the sun starts to drop it gets all sparkley and golden and everything looks more beautiful. I also love to shoot indoors with filtered natural light coming through big windows.
As a wedding photographer though, you almost never get your ‘favorite’ kind of light or the best lighting situations so its key to have experienced  and practiced shooting in all different situations so that you’ll know how to respond to anything thrown at you.

Last question for today:
And, how do you make your pictures to be so clear and not ‘over-edited’? I know a large part of this is lighting, but are there any photoshop techniques that you like to do to get the beautiful colors and clarity that your pictures resemble. (for example, the post of your latest travels, I Love how those pictures look.)

My photos don’t look over-edited because I don’t do much to them! I post-process every image using Lightroom, but it is minor adjustments…I don’t use a lot of filters or fancy techniques. I made a conscious choice not to over-edit my photos for this reason: I want my wedding images to be timeless. There are trends in photography, like everything else. Trends are great, but they are just that…trends, and they don’t last forever. I try to be creative with poses, to use and play with the light and shoot in interesting locations to create my style. I try to shoot it using the right settings on my camera so that the images look the way I want without any major adjustments, and then I don’t have to over-edit at the post processing stage.

I attribute the clarity of my images a lot to Nikon…that is one of the reasons why I love Nikon, that nice crisp focusing – you can’t beat it.

About the color: Some people think that I up the saturation on my pictures, but I have not touched Lightroom’s saturation feature in over a year, I don’t like the look of over saturation (but that is just my personal preference!) I love the colors of my D700, so that is one aspect of the color in my images. Its possible that another is having an artistic eye and knowing the principles behind the Color Wheel (Thank-you Mr. Turnquist…one of my favorite art teachers of the past!)

One more thing. I Blogstomp in Photoshop all of the images you see on my blog, and part of that program optimizes images for the web (and I learned the hard way that watermarking is a must, so Blogstomp is a really easy way to watermark and web-optimize your images all at once.) I first learned about Blogstomp by reading the blog of one America’s best wedding photographers – Jasmine Star.

SO! There you have it…my first FAQ post. Hopefully I didn’t bore y’all! If there are things I left out, or more questions percolating after reading this please just comment below and I’ll probably include those questions in my next FAQ post! If there are no questions, I’ll take that as a hint and never write another one again, I promise.

PS I met with Charlene from Sweetchic Events this morning at Molly’s Cupcakes – AMAZING. It was well before noon and I had two…ok, they were minis, but it was breakfast so I felt like it would be wise to hold back. I am a cupcake lover, and these were top-notch. I tried the carrot cupcake (thought that was a nice breakfast-y option) and then the Red Velvet (for dessert) and OH my, were they delicious.