Communication with Your Special Event Photographer

Being an event photographer is an honor and privilege. Our role as creator of life long memories is very important to us. It is a role we do not take for granted or lightly at AMC Photography Studios. 

There is a quote my mother used when I was growing up. She would say “children should be seen but not heard”. Similarly, here at AMC, we like to say “photographers should be seen but not heard unless directing” and there is a “time and place for directing.”
Here are some useful tips to provide to your event photographer:

1. Key Family Members

We will ask our clients to provide us with a mini family tree – a “who’s who” if you will. It allows us as the photographer to be able to recognize, ask and capture ‘key’ family members throughout the event. We ask for this information at least a month in advance to the big day.

2. Family Formals Breakdown

Providing a list of formal family arrangements prior to the date of your event will not only be the key to capturing photographs you are expecting to see afterwards, but also allow for them to be captured quickly and efficiently the day of your event. Your big day; wedding, b’nai mitzvah or coming of age event, should not be spent primarily posing for photographs.

Creating a list prior also allows you to inform family members that they will be in photographs. You can request they be present at a certain time and place accordingly. 

Tip: Tell them 15 to 10 minutes prior to the time they are needed. They can wait for you, but you should not be waiting for late comers. 

3. Planned Candids

Providing both your family tree and your family formal arrangements allows your event photographer to recognize members of your family. For us here at AMC Photography Studios, it allows us to zero in on key family members during candid moments.

For example: A great candid shot of your uncle watching his brother dancing with his daughter in the father/daughter dance or your cousin breaking it down on the dance floor are the memories we all love and cherish!

4. Special Details

We know so much heart, hard work and planning go into the small details that sometimes get taken for granted, but are important and special to creating the scene of your event. Especially important are those heirloom objects that are included in remembrance of family member or in religious/ heritage tradition. Make sure you stress to your photographer those special details, and when and where they are incorporated in your event. 
For example some of our favorites are:

• A mother of a Bat Mitzvah sewing the buttons from her father’s wedding suit into her daughter’s Tallis (Jewish prayer shawl) in sweet memory of her grandfather wrapping his arms around her as she recites from the Torah.
• Recreating a photograph in the same church where the bride’s parents were married thirty years prior will be an instant cherished favorite.
• A groom who worked tirelessly to find pennies in ‘new condition’ minted in ‘2001’ the year the couple started dating to provide as a favor of good future for each wedding guest in attendance.

5. Other Important Photographs

While we love photographing creatively and zeroing in on the guests of honor and key family members, there are other guest in attendance who are just as important. We advise not leaving it up to chance. If there is a photograph you are expecting to remember or see in your proofs tell your photographer before the event! It is our job to capture them and unfortunately we are not mind readers. Many of these are the photographs that can be taken at anytime during the event day, prior to the event, cocktail hour or at the reception.

For example: Groom with his Godmother, Penn State Girls with the Bride or Grandmother with her brother and sister.

6. Surprises

Our favorite! Basically… if you want a photograph of your surprise then you have to let your event photographer in on the surprise. Promise we won’t tell!

We hope these few tips are helpful as you plan your event and work with your event photographer. – Ann Marie Casey, Principle Photographer

AMC Photography Studios are Commercial and Event Photographers located in Bryn Mawr. The studio has been voted Best of Main Line in 2019 by Main Line Today magazine. For information about our event photography services please contact the studio at (610) 519-1890.

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