little help and insight from experianced photographer's please

[sphelps]

Look into the resort photographer and see if you like the portfolio. I'm doing the same thing in May and I found that most of these resort "photographers" are just locals with SLR cameras and no special training. On top of that it often costs around $1200 for an hour. I've been to two destination weddings and both couples just had a friend or relative take pictures, and they both just used auto settings. In the end they weren't professional pics but pictures none the less which seemed good enough for them.

The real professionals don't live on the beach, you gotta fly them down which gets fairly expensive.

Personally I would go ahead with your plan, get yourself a decent camera and lens kit combo, practice, and shoot in raw. As long as the person can frame the picture and focus correctly you should be OK, later on you can add those typical wedding effects with photoshop. There's also lots of wedding photography tips online that would be worth checking out.

http://digital-photography-school.co...-photographers

http://digital-photography-school.co...tography-shots

http://digital-photography-school.co...-photographers

http://digital-photography-school.com/weddingbeginners

http://digital-photography-school.co...-wedding-shots

http://digital-photography-school.co...mposition-tips

and so on

Chances are if you're the destination wedding couple you're not as picky as the typical couple. Ask yourself what you want from your wedding pictures, chances are you don't need a professional, just a guy with a camera

Congrats BTW!

[kien]

If you google around you might be able to find a local photog that you can fly down to your wedding. Sometimes you can get great package deals with them.. like this guy (www.kientranphotography.com)

At any rate, as suggested above, it depends what types of pictures you want. If you just want "pictures" from your wedding, any camera will do (SLR or point and shoot). A camera is only as good as the person behind it. A crash course in Photography will definitely help you or anyone else for that matter, handle that SLR better. Putting an SLR on auto just turns it into a big, heavy, expensive point and shoot. The whole point of an SLR is so that you can change the lens and the settings. If you have no need to do this then get a really expensive point and shoot.

-- quote--
Chef: "Your photos are great, you must have an expensive and awesome camera"
Me: "Thanks, dinner was awesome, you must have nice and expensive pots and pans."

[OceanicCorals-Ian-]

In my opinion, photography is an art. Your images and how they are captured are dependent upon the person behind the lens.

When I was in school for photography we spent a lot of time learning about juxtasposition as well as the golden rule of thirds. Amazing photographs are created by artists who see our world in a different way.

For this reason, I believe a good photographer is well worth his fees.

[robert]

Well, after viewing Kien's website, very nice btw, I think you should hire him and pay with frags He does fabulous work.

Cheers!

[Kryptic4L]

$2500 just to get him down there, not a chance.

ive looked into the pakages they offer at the resort

$1200*
B(36) 5x7 prints

(6) 8x10 prints

Large ivory & gold matted album

(42) Digital negatives

sounds like a great deal

28 dollars per photo .....

[RuGlu6]

holy sh*te, i did not know the price range of these beach "pro's"
I just based my opinion onthe "local" prices.
Obviously research goes long way.
In that case i guess make sure you get a good lens with your new slr
and good luck with the wedding, have fun !

[TheMikey]

If you decide to go the DSLR route instead of hiring a photographer, I'd recommend buying a smaller body and adding some decent glass.

For portraiture, I'd say go with a 50mm fixed lens with an aperture of at least 1.8. They go for about $150 from both Canon and Nikon (the 1.4 lenses go for $350-400, iirc - though the $150 should be good enough). There will probably be little telephoto shooting going on as well, so I'd suggest picking up nothing more than probably a 90mm lens, if you're looking.

One of my favourite lenses is for Nikon, it's the 60mm Micro lens. Shooting with a 2.8 aperture, you'll get some nice depth of field as well as a very fast shutter speed, especially if it's on a beach. You can use it for macro shots, obviously, but it also converts to a decent portrait lens if need be.

You might also want to take advantage of some retailer return policy. London Drugs has a 15-day no hassle return (so long as you don't break the item). So if you want to pick up a very nice lens for the wedding alone and then return it, you could probably do that as well.

Best of luck and congrats!

[globaldesigns]

I agree with the others, and as a photographer... Yes, I even use to do weddings with the ole 35MM SLR and Medium Format cameras... Now I have a Canon 30D, don't do professional work anymore, but enjoy that hobby also.

A DSLR is all dependant on the quality of the gear, especially lenses... An entry level DSLR probably will give you a good pic, but from someone that has been at a beach wedding in the Tropics, using the Resort Photographer will probably be a better choice. I have found these guys to use OK equipment, by no means professional, but what they can offer is that they should know their environment. What I mean is that they should know what settings to use for daylight, sunset, water refraction/reflection and so forth. So they most likely will give you a far superior photo's. And they are not usually that expensive.

Lastly for those candid shots, take some disposable's for people to just point and shoot... They won't be great quality, but would add some fun to your wedding album.

Have fun in the sun!

[leenco12]

Originally Posted by robert

Well, after viewing Kien's website, very nice btw, I think you should hire him and pay with frags He does fabulous work.

Cheers!

$2500 just to get him down there, not a chance.

ive looked into the pakages they offer at the resort

$1200*
B(36) 5x7 prints

(6) 8x10 prints

Large ivory & gold matted album

(42) Digital negatives

sounds like a great deal

28 dollars per photo .....

[Slick Fork]

Hiya,

I got married 9 years (almost to the day!!) ago. We paid for fancy portraits and a wedding photographer and to be honest, after all these years the ones we like the best are the candid ones that friends and familiy took. They are the ones that really captured the spirit of the day.

I think taking the money you would've spent on a pro photographer and spending it on a nice camera is an awesome idea. You'll do some "formal" portraits and you really don't need a pro to do those... especially if you make sure he/she is shooting raw and can touch them up in photoshop later on.

One idea a friend of ours tried is to put disposable cameras on everybodies table, and they had an enormous amount of candid shots by the end of the night... turned out really cool.