WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Couples can also submit their photos to magazines like this one: http://engagedri.com/category/engagements/ for some nifty pub.

also some half-baked theory abt the secularization of middle class american culture/ 15min of fame/ capitalism making ppl consumers of everything (even when what was once tradition)

idk

I haven't been to a "cool" wedding but of friends-of-friends who had one, they had much less cool divorces

I could imagine couples having some (not necessarily articulated or voiced) desire to have something that feels more "casual" or "like us" or with "real reactions" to each other and/or some quirky scenario. Something with "personality" - which is tough to do in the wedding shots unless you do a theme wedding (something still way out on the fringe).

that makes sense. also gr8080’s social explanation: it’s a public statement/ performance not just for family but larger community, which (for many) is now expected.
photogs & couples imitate the look and tropes of on-trend engagement photos, some also (ostensibly) try to stake out some uniqueness/ originality/ authenticity.
also maybe the personal family “photo album” with candid pictures has lost its aura— world inundated with e.g. stream of flickr/ Facebook images; hence need for patina of “professional” photography to mark out these photographs (and what they commemorate) as special, as an “event”

(imo the professional sheen just flattens & drains the photographs of any aura-- makes most look like stock photography)

anyway, the props

http://www.theochoink.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/IMG_7473.jpg
http://stylesbyanndiary.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/13-SF-Bay-Area-Engagement-Session-Photography.jpg

(imo the professional sheen just flattens & drains the photographs of any aura-- makes most look like stock photography)

This is also because a lot of the photographers aren't very good though! Like very little of what's been posted in this thread really seems like it's done by photographers who (a) know their shit and (b) care about getting good photos out of their subjects (c) have the slightest idea how to do that. Not to say any of that would make them immune to photography zeitgeist and trends and so on, or that you could even really avoid that if you tried - - - most wedding photographs from the 70s (or 80s, or 90s) kinda look alike, cause of different film stock and hairstyles and so on. That can't be helped, but a good photographer should know when they're looking through the lens and seeing something awkward, stagey, inadvertently loveless, or otherwise worthy of this thread.

I know a married photographer couple in Columbus who do really solid engagement and wedding work, I think because #1 they take their craft as photographers pretty seriously and #2 they seem to actually like the couples and want them to look good.

This is also because a lot of the photographers aren't very good though! Like very little of what's been posted in this thread really seems like it's done by photographers who (a) know their shit and (b) care about getting good photos out of their subjects (c) have the slightest idea how to do that.

True! Takes great skill & sensibility to be a good portrait photographer.

Yet I think something about the genre itself (at least current incarnation of it) is intrinsically... pitfally. But this may be my (photographic & psychological) biases talking.

Soon-to-be married couples are generally pretty awkward anyway. It crosses the line when somehow the photographer emphasizes that awkwardness.

I mean, of all the goofy shit that's been posted here, I think this thread still could be summed up by this one gr8080 posted four years ago.

http://i.imgur.com/Ow1M7cC.jpg

I mean, why why why did the photographer make those people do that?

xpost Sure - for one thing, the whole impulse ("our engagement is different from all the other engagements") is fallacious, and so there are any number of ways that the photos can founder. But this is true of lots of "special" events that are only special because they're happening to you or your friends/family. Maybe what's changed is just the quantity/visibility of strangers' images; realizing just how many billions of beardos are doing the same woodland authenticity photos as you are surely has to make it harder to pull off the affect without the photos collapsing into self-awareness and/or irony.

I mean lawd…

http://i.imgur.com/2Kkdgvc.jpg

photography is so weird, you can get the lights and exposure and shutter time right, but if you're taking pictures of people, you have to have an entirely different skillset

my friend (an architect) helped this dude who is a professional architecture photographer one time and it's amazing what you can do with technique. however, the same photographer also does portraits of people who work for the studios, and I kid you not, the people end up looking like buildings

i could 100% believe that - - - over the past half-decade i've shifted to mainly shooting architecture, from primarily doing friendly people-pictures and candids and i've lost a whole set of skills related to the latter, even as i've improved as "a photographer" generically.

did I admit on another thread that I had yr building pics as the screensaver on my appletv for a while? good stuff

I mean, why why why did the photographer make those people do that?

Yeah that’s… unfortunate.

Problem with the genre is, what is it a photograph “of”? At least wedding pictures document and commemorate an event. Engagement photos aim to represent, what… a couple’s “love” for each other? A symbolic representation of their commitment?

It’s so hard to do that without falling into awkwardness, staginess, cliche.

In a way it’s safer to half-ironically play on pop culture motifs than— have them look into each other’s eyes.

a picture of the young couple filing a joint tax return

or rolling a joint

now that's more like it

taking their first tax return and spending it all on one really big joint, which they light using a mini cooper that's caught fire

I'm all about the story a picture tells

this one couple's epic engagement night

or one year anniversary i guess

reposting this from upthread 5years ago

http://i.imgur.com/nRZMYVw.png

I hope that is their actual wedding

god

pipe dreams really do come true

i went to high school with that dude & yes it was his actual wedding

that makes me really happy

u got more pictures from that wedding?

i don't think so, lost to the sands of myspace

so are the days of our lives

a friend of mine had a photography sideline for a while...everything was suuuper processed and filters up the wazoo but what was striking was how even when they were people i knew, mutual friends we both hung out with & knew well even, everyone looked so stiff & awkward! i swear every shot looked like those bad stock photos they put in cheap wallets
it was kind of a bummer

when the people get a little older all the couples photos look like big pharma ads

the mini cooper 1, not that it makes any sense, is kinda cool. idk id pay 2 be in a greg crewsdon photo prob

mh, i do recall you saying something like that and feeling very flattered/bashful - thanks again though, for real! I gotta get back into a regular posting groove.

Your Flickr is all-time, Dr Casino. I believe that means "very good".

http://i.imgur.com/DlpVSlQ.jpg

^^ dude is stoned and proposed via video game, a+

proposals

nadam had em

http://www.snaphappyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lindsey-logan2%28pp_w950_h707%29.jpg
http://www.snaphappyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lindesy-logan1%28pp_w950_h707%29.jpg
http://www.snaphappyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lindsey-logan3.jpg

realized what many engagement photos remind me of— not portraits, but tv show promo pictures

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luh4eny0Dm1qc30y1.jpg
http://buffycomics.hellmouthcentral.com/covers/spike_dru01.jpg

http://www.snaphappyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lindsey-logan3.jpg vs http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luh4eny0Dm1qc30y1.jpg

FITE

FITE

vampire & buffy on the left much more fearsome imo

and fierce

I honestly can't tell if her eyes are saying "I'm only doing this to free my family from his dungeon" or "I'm going to finish absorbing his life force as soon as the photographer leaves."

dunno but his eyes are saying 'my dad owns a dealership'

lol, I see both things (xpost: all three things). also, the two are seconds away from pouncing, ripping open, and draining the photographer of his blood.

http://www.snaphappyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/lindsey-logan3.jpg https://hewholaughs.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/bear_shining_costume.jpg

another pro photoshop job
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1484956/shining%20new%20couple.png

lol at drash's observation and everything since

"Don't shoot until you can see the whites of their eyes!"

…

"Okay, looks like they're about 10 miles away! Can I shoot now!"

I think if you've ever asked to pose with your palm slapped up against a wall, you may need to reconsider the aesthetic vision of your photographer.