Cowboy Caleb the liberal arts, grown-up stuff & random mischief

Cowboy Wedding Photos

My wife and I have decided that models deserve every single cent they make. We used to feel that these lazy beautiful women made easy money by getting out of bed and striking poses for worshipping photogs to shoot. Now we realize that they are hard-working mortals with deceptively easy-looking back-breaking jobs.

You see, we had our wedding photos taken over the weekend so our bodies are aching from too much preening and posing. The entire Saturday was spent in the photo studio doing indoor shoots. With seven costume changes, we were in the studio from 10am to 8pm because each costume change came with a new hairstyle and different makeup style for my wife.

After each costume change, we would spend like an hour contorting our bodies in a variety of angles for the photog, who progressed from formal to romantic to playful styles as the day wore on.I have never smiled so hard so much in my life. In fact, I think my teeth still hurt from all that smiling. My favourite shot was one we had inside a mock snowfield (styrefoam balls), where we had to blow snow into each others face.

On Sunday morning, we jumped into a swimming pool, fully dressed in wedding gear for underwater shots. Around the pool, gathered a bevy of curious onlookers. The photog would first submerge himself in water and then we would swim towards him. My wife was never a good swimmer and being dressed in a huge wedding gown made it even more difficult for her to move about. But all in all, we had great fun doing the underwater shoot.

After drying off and my wife got her makeup touched up and we made our way to Desaru Beach for our outdoor photoshoot. It’s interesting to note that photo studios use MPV’s for wedding shoots these days as the size of gowns have far outgrown the room in a normal saloon car, especially if it’s a 2 hour journey to the destination.

At the beach, we were made to pose in all sorts of akward romantic shots much to the amusement of holiday makers at the beach. The most difficult shot of the day was the one where we had to run dressed in our wedding gear by the sea shore (the waves are damn heavy) and roll about in the water.

All in all, it was an extremely fun and exciting but tiring weekend. I think the shots will really come out great because the photog was really talented, experienced and we got along really well with him. This really is a once-in-a-lifetime sort of activity, so you really have to make the best of it. Here are some pointers from me, in case you’re planning to sign up for a wedding package anytime soon.

Choosing a package

1. Work out a budget before you go shopping. Make sure you don’t go crazy and sign up for the most expensive package.
2. If cost is a factor, go shopping in Johor Bahru in the Sentosa area where all the best bridal studios are. You can save up to 50% and the quality is equal or better to the ones in Singapore. More and more Singaporeans are opting for this now.
3. Visit as many bridal studios and compare their packages. Don’t signup for one at the first studio you visit.
4. After looking at their portfolio, lookout for little things like the quality of paper used, workmanship in binding and general staff attitude.
5. Look at the selection of bridal gowns in the studio. If you don’t like what you see, then move on.
6. The most important factor in the selection process is the photographer. If you see photos that you like, ask to meet the photog and see if you can clique with him. Ask if he will be the one taking the photos for you. There’s no point in getting an expensive package if the photog is not talented or if you can’t get along with him.
7. When you finally do signup for a package, make sure everything you’ve agreed on is written down and signed by both parties so avoid any disputes later.

Preparing For The Shoot

1. Guys, buy lots of shirts, pants and shoes. New looks better when photographed.
2. Get enough sleep for a week so you won’t have heavy eyebags.
3. Don’t drink a lot of water before the actual day.

On The Actual Day

1. Bring everything you think you might need (shampoo, change of underwear, towel). Pack everything into a travel suitcase.
2. Don’t argue with the photog. He commands, you obey.
3. If you don’t want to smile, tell the photog so he can accomodate you.
4. If you don’t like something, tell the photog and his assisant because they can’t read your mind. If you want a Wong Kar Wai shoot as opposed to an Ansel Adams style, make sure you tell him beforehand.
5. Buy the photog and his assistant a good meal after the outdoor shoot to say thanks instead of giving them a tip.
6. Do not bring along a friend to take photos alongside the photog. This really pisses the photog off and he will lose all mood to work resulting in terribly ordinary shots. I actually saw this happening. This other couple who were also doing a shoot at the beach had a friend who was taking photos as well. The photog didn’t look happy and was obviously not making an effort to compose nice shots or ask the couple to pose properly.

*gulp* you’re the expert in this man. and doing all these for the wife as a keepsake of the wedding, thumbs up cowboy!! you get my vote for best fiance of the year.

wow. the underwater shots must be great! rarely get to see that in wedding shots…

i think models get it slightly easier because they don’t have to smile as much, or as often.

wah underwater shoot…. I didnt even do an outdoor shoot cos me and hubby were lazy to even go out in the heat of June just to make our photos look good. I really salute you!

i will save money and get chimpanzees to take my pics when the time comes. :)

i want to see photos! :D :D :D

Pity you are an anonymous blogger, but it would be really cool to see your underwater shots!

I guess you are right on all the advice, because being through my own wedding shoot, the posing can be a real pain in the arse. And the reason for the photog being really pissed with friends taking pics at the same time is because the flash and all interferes with his work.

I think I am inspired to take more wedding photos. This time outdoors. (My previous shoot was purely indoors because we were fraught with bad weather on the day of the shoot, so we canned it and got a discount off the package price.)

caleb, pls pls let me see one picture? :D

Yeah, ditto what ladyred said. I was very happy to stay indoors for the duration of our shoot.

Sounds like you had fun, despite the admitted awkwardness of it all ;)

eeehhhhhhh????
Wait a minnit. Did I miss anything? You’re married now !!! Congratulations !!!!! How does it feel now to say “wife” ?? I can never ever get used to the “h” word.

Don’t forget this one tip:

Save the wedding photography until the day of your wedding, when your family and friends can be in on it, too.

working in front n behind the camera is a lot of work man. congrat on wedding!

! I always feel so happy for you when I see such entries. Especially when they’re under “Happy Day”.

The different poses sound cheesy to me. Maybe because I’m just not in love. :) Glad you had fun at the end of it all.

juz rejoice that the cowboy is ald off the market!!

another one hits the dust. :D

hi cowboy, i’ve been wanting to take underwater shots with my fiance too.. how was it like? where did u go for ur wedding package? don’t quite understand wat u mean by “johor bahru in sentosa??” thks!

http://www.milanwedding.com/

Your wife is one very lucky woman. I bet girls who read this blog entry would be “demanding” this from the potential hubbies now.

If I ever have the chance to get married, I would like to take my wedding photos overseas - on top of a mountain, next to a grand waterfall in a beautiful vineyard or something like that. haha…..