And finally, on this, the last day of Wedding Photography Week, a very special multi-image edition of LOVE/HATE. Tell me, what do you think of wedding ring photography that features not fingers, but food…

By Todd Pellowe Weddings

By Choco Studio

By True Love Photo

By Luster Studios

By Cheyenne Shultz Photography

By Erin Langford Photography

By Ryan Brenizer

Love it? Hate it? Think it’s slightly ridiculous but overall okay because, hey, no one’s getting hurt? (That’s my take.)

Ah, the classic wedding ring photo...

Oh my, Wedding Photography Week II is winding down. And that means getting down to the nitty gritty – wedding ring photography. Love it or hate it, it’s one of those things I suggest letting your wedding photographer take since it’s a five second process and you may end up liking them. That said, I found a great set of wedding ring photography tips in a wedding photography guide for brides and grooms written by wedding photographer Glen Johnson. Here’s a taste:

This is one of the most difficult shots to get for a wedding photographer. Most couples are not aware of the fact that they are blocking it either with their hand positions or with their bodies. To turn this moment into a great photo opportunity, all you need to remember is that as you are putting the ring on, position your fingers on the top and bottom instead of on the sides of the ring.

One more tip is to avoid extending your free hand out to grab your partner’s wrist so that you can push that ring on there better. If you feel it is necessary to do this, try putting your hand UNDER your partner’s hand and grabbing on from below. This approach prevents your wrist from blocking the shot. Practice this couple of times, and you will see that it is possible to put the rings on while keeping your ring visible from your guests’ view, and photo capture.

Do you plan on taking wedding ring photos? Would you be terribly disappointed if your ‘slipping the ring on his/her finger’ shots didn’t come out?

Pssst… it’s still Wedding Photography Week!

So let’s say, apropos of yesterday’s post about wedding photos making you nervous, you’re feeling a bit or maybe a lot squeamish about having a wedding photographer all up in your business during your ceremony and reception. Now besides the fact that you can specifically ask your wedding photographer not to be so in your face – which many aren’t to begin with – you can also take some of the pressure to look good off your mind by making wedding photography FUN.

Would you rather write a thousand vows than take one wedding photo?

How? By thinking up some fun action shots and other poses that you can suggest to your photographer or ask her or him to do.

If you read that and thought to yourself “I’m not that creative,” say hello to my best friend, the Internet. And if searching through thousands of wedding photos for some creative inspiration doesn’t sound like fun – !!! – then I let me recommend David Pearce’s Wedding Photography: A Guide to Posing. It’s a wee book meant primarily for wedding photographers, but it can be a great inspirational guide for couples, too. It has 525 full color images of brides and grooms being photographed in various ways to give you all kinds of cool and doable ideas about body positioning, location, lighting, and more.

Should you try to be in complete control of your wedding photos from the processional to the last dance? No way – you’re hiring a professional wedding photographer for a reason, so let them do what they do best. But by learning a bit about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to wedding photos, you’ll be more confident about being the star of your wedding album, and you’ll be much better able to communicate the kinds of wedding photos that you want to your photographer so you can relax and have fun with it.

Confidence? Knowing what you want? Fun? Sounds like you just conquered those wedding photo nerves!

In today’s continuation of Wedding Photography Week, I thought I might address nerves. Most of us haven’t been schooled by our handlers in the fine art of mugging for the paparazzi because most of us haven’t spent all that much time being shadowed by professional photographers. Consequently, some brides and grooms find the notion of being followed around for six or more hours by hired photographers slightly disconcerting. And that’s on top of the usual worries that many people have about looking not quite right – or worse, just plain wrong – in photographs.

By Chris Hanley Photography

For some, the answer is to grin and bear it. For others, it’s to duck their photographer for as much of the wedding as possible. Others try to pose every time they see the photographer’s lens and end up looking awkward as a result. And still others do nothing, but spend what seems like the rest of their lives groaning over wedding photos they feel do not do them justice. (I was in the latter two camps, but I later assembled a wonderful album full of truly candid shots and reconciled myself to the fact that this is just what I look like.) With all this in mind, I’m curious to know what you’re doing or what you did to prepare for your wedding photos and whether you’re feeling nervous about your wedding photos in general.

Oh, other things I want to know: Do you like how you look in most photos? (I sure don’t like how I photograph!) Did you choose your wedding photographer based on her or his ability to make regular folks look amazing? (I sure wish I had!)

Well, hello, Monday! It’s still, yes, still Wedding Photography Week. Mainly because there are still lots of wedding photos and wedding photography tips I feel like sharing with you. As of next week, we’ll be back to the regularly scheduled programming here at Manolo for the Brides, in case you were starting to worry I’d gone snap happy.

To kick off the second week of all wedding photos, all the time – and don’t forget, you’re welcome to send in your wedding photos whether you’re a bride, groom, or photog – I wanted to talk a little bit about wedding photo TMIs. I’m not so much referring to sassy boudoir photography in the bridal chamber, but more to pictures like this:

Photo by Stacey Kane

And these two:

Wish I had a source for this one!

By Kathryn Brittain

Lest you think brides are having all the wedding photo TMI, grooms and their groomsmen sometimes get in on the action:

By Tim McPain

Whether or not you decide to let your wedding photographer take any TMI wedding photos is up to you – maybe you say no way, maybe you have some taken and keep them in a non-public album, or maybe you proudly show off your bride on the toilet pics and don’t care who sees them. Whatever the case, make sure your wedding photographer knows your preferences with regard to these kinds of photos AHEAD OF TIME. It’s totally normal and okay to say things like “Please don’t shoot until I’m dressed” and “Please don’t follow us into the bathroom” and “I’d rather none of my wedding photos be embarrassing so keep it clean there, dogg.”

Have you given your photog any particularly restrictions (or did you, once upon a time, for our post-wedding readership)?

Naturally, this being Wedding Photography Week, this edition of LOVE/HATE has to do with photos! Specifically, wedding photographs that are taken in such a way as to… actually, I’m not quite sure how you’d explain what’s happening here. Which I assume is happening on purpose.

Nice pair, er, pears!

The other assumption that I would charitably make is that the couple in question was the sort that would be okay with having a snap in their wedding album that was a play on the whole perfect pear thing. Perfect pear, perfect pair. You see? Or maybe it was just an accident? What do you think of cutesy wedding photos that are vaguely naughty?

In today’s Wedding Photography Week post, I’d love to hear about your outdoor wedding photos. And I don’t mean posed shots in the scenic gardens next to some reception venue’s parking lot, but rather brides and grooms hitting the streets in their wedding finery along with willing wedding photographers. Which is SO something I wish I’d done, but we weren’t nearby anywhere worth running around. I want to know how many of you went gallivanting in gowns or plan to!

By Craig Williams Photography

Also by Craig Williams Photography

Now, the only problem with taking your wedding photos to the street is that it requires some planning. You have to find the time to do it – as in, you need to schedule the time before your ceremony or before the reception if there will be a longish break after the ceremony. You need to have a destination in mind and some way to get there and back to your venue. There should be a contingency plan in place in case of weather, and you should have a reasonably good idea that you won’t end up being questioned by Homeland Security for taking photographs in your chosen location. And so on.

But don’t forget that you’ll still have your wedding gear for a while after the wedding – and if a tux rental is involved, it can be extended – so you don’t have to take your walkin’ around photos on your wedding day. You can even do what Rain and Peter did, and take your walkin’ around photos on your honeymoon! Easy? Maybe not, but it sure beats rushing around on your wedding day to stage outdoor wedding photos designed specifically to make it look like you’re not actually rushing around, no?.