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

i dont mean to kinkshame but i draw the line at forcibly evicting ppl via home demolition

is a big cause of these growing the fact that everybody has a friend who is a photographer who's at least more than a hobbyist and has some decent equip+photoshop? i dont want to buy you anything but here have some unique fotos on me friends YOURE WELCOME

that last one is from a pretty pricey full-time wedding photographer's website - they start at $5k/wedding

http://i.imgur.com/4mtBhad.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/HDym6KB.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/A82dK0n.jpg

has;l;asdb

does a mini cooper even have anything in it that could smoke

this photog really thinks fire is cool

http://i.imgur.com/62348mv.jpg

what the

do the insurance companies know about him?

first one in the burning mini cooper series sets up a great many plots, none of which are "these people get married at the end"

insurance companies hate him

As we made our way through more of the buildings we stumbled upon a vagrant who was taking a nap in a train car. He didn’t seem to mind us shooting photos and continued to nap.

http://i.imgur.com/OuK4T4j.jpg

lolololol

o u want ruin well you've come to the right guy Matthew D Ruin at yr service let me *Ruin* yr engagement pics

omg the derelict settings

Eric and Alyssa
Joining Together upon the Ruins and Wreckage of Past Relationships

Something about that Mini Cooper series reminds me of the Costacos Bros.

http://i.imgur.com/64YrVDD.jpg

the stranded car scenes remind me a tad of David Lynch (eg Lost Highway)-- very auspicious for a marriage

^^ same era though, right?

How is it that some couples can nail a pose perfectly,

http://i.imgur.com/3jz3fGO.jpg

while others trying the same thing… wind up in here?

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

haha

the people who are obsessed with fire have a nice lighting setup, I bet

pp furiously otm

feel like the photographer could say 'wait, no. you're doing it wrong' or 'be gentle, juiceman' to that dude, though.

that is why having expensive gear and lightroom/photoshop know-how is not enough to make for a great photographer

also if i had to guess i'd say the first couple is used to holding each other like that and the second couple probably never embrace like that

& tbh that's why i started this thread; i have nothing against an engagement photoshoot but it should capture a couple as they really are

ok sorry back to the lols

is a big cause of these growing the fact that everybody has a friend who is a photographer who's at least more than a hobbyist and has some decent equip+photoshop? i dont want to buy you anything but here have some unique fotos on me friends YOURE WELCOME

― brosario nawson (m bison), Sunday, March 15, 2015 3:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that last one is from a pretty pricey full-time wedding photographer's website - they start at $5k/wedding

― gr8080, Sunday, March 15, 2015 3:40 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tbh i think the reason these are growing is because wedding photographers include the "engagement shoot" as a part of the whole wedding package, it is a way for them to make some more $$

like you could spend $2000 for just the wedding day photos or you could spend $3000 to include the "engagement shoot"

The second couple seem to be closer to each other's size/height. Thinking about it that way, it's a pretty awkward position.

i know this because my wife and i reenacted a mumford & sons music video for our engagement shoot

lol j/k

wedding photographers include the "engagement shoot" as a part of the whole wedding package, it is a way for them to make some more $$

thanks for answering my question; was wondering wtf purpose of these is

what do couples think is the purpose; how do they use these photos? put up on a website? shared on Facebook? saved for future children’s parent-mocking?

to me seems like some horribly humiliating frat hazing initiation but into marriage

I became fb friends with our photographer. As far as I can tell, she has been skiing at awesome places all winter. So I think I'll switch careers using the knowledge gained itt.

Jeff and I got engagement photos taken despite being very much not what one would consider the engagement photos type because we'd never done anything like that before and I thought it would be a good excuse for it (Jeff remained opposed to it but went along anyway because he's a good sport) and then we could give photos to our families, who were always hassling us about it. We got a real professional wedding photographer who was also a friend of a friend and did it on the cheap (we didn't have a wedding photographer at all, but we had a very low key wedding).

They are arguably not very creative (on the shores of Lake Michigan with the Chicago skyline in the background! So original!) but I like them a lot and still have one framed in our living room and an outtake at work because it's hilarious.

If I had it to do all over again, we might have gone for the haystack setting, though.

imo it probably comes from the pre-internet tradition of running an engagement announcement (typically accompanied by a photo) in your local newspaper.

the advent of internet + social media + digital photography has changed it in to something else

?

the nytimes still does wedding/engagement announcements (lower left at http://www.nytimes.com/pages/fashion/weddings/index.html) and they are totally a vanity thing. A friend's engagement was listed and it was completely because his wife's parents were very into token status things.

what do couples think is the purpose; how do they use these photos? put up on a website? shared on Facebook? saved for future children’s parent-mocking?

"shared on Facebook" is about all the explanation this needs IMO. Presumably the photographers talk up this angle to their clients, but I doubt most need that much convincing. It lets them post something NOW, get beaucoups of likes and comments and build the brand of their wedding months in advance of the wedding shots.

I also suspect wedding photos themselves feel less personal or meaningful in 2015 than years ago when you only saw the wedding albums of people you actually gave a shit about (well, and coworkers and such) and so it was kinda rare to see images of tuxes and white gowns in front of green grass or whatever. Sorta like baby pictures. Now virtually every day I'm brushing past the wedding or baby photos of someone I don't know very well on Facebook. 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).

every wedding is a theme wedding, in a way

ours was drunkenness

http://greenweddingshoes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/chocolate-engagement-party-09.jpg

I would like to think the groom was looking at a print of that picture of the bride

PiP typically used to show another thing at the same time

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