Hakone Gardens/ Saratoga
July 7th 2019
PLANNER | Blooming Wed
VENUE | Hakone Gardens
PHOTOGRAPHER | Catherine Liu
VIDEOGRAPHER | Yuqiao Han
FLORIST | Rust and Flourish
CATERING | Caterman Catering
RENTALS | Bright Event Rentals
CHAIRS. CHARGES. CUTLERY | The Chiavari Guys
CAKE | Lavie Douce Design
photo by Catherine Liu www.catslens.com
Back in November 2018, I found myself in the middle of my own wedding prep whirlwind. As a wedding photographer who has both taken and viewed a tremendous amount of wedding photos over the years, I thought it would be easy for me to pick my own wedding photographer. When it came to the search, however, I was totally overwhelmed.
It was a valuable experience and I would like to share my top five tips with other brides-to-be who are looking for the perfect photographer!
#1. Define Your Vision
It all boils down to what you want your wedding to look like, everything from your signature color palette to the architectural style of the venue. Once those decisions are made, dive headfirst into the portfolios of photographers that match your style. Narrow down what draws you to them specifically and dissect what feels most authentic to you and your partner. Define key words that describe the feel and pattern of the images you love, and then seek out that style. Is it candid, unexpected, shot in natural light, posed, fleeting, artistic, journalistic, editorial, soft, modern, timeless, in color or black and white? Personally, I love FINE ART style and FILM photographers. Years of experience shooting film has taught me that a digital camera cannot compete with a film camera when it comes to creating creamy skin tones and airy imagery. To me, that style is the most timeless and earnest, with an aesthetic that will last for generations.
#2. Quality & Value
Wedding photography immortalizes the entire day for years to come. Once dinner has ended, the dancing is done, and the last piece of cake is gone, all that remains of the event are the photographs. Wedding photography packages begin at varying price points, but the most important consideration is the VALUE of the final gallery. Once you have evaluated how significant these images are to you and your family, determine your budget and compare the offered packages. Wedding photographers charge between $2500- $60,000 for their services. Just like anything else in life, the price of photographs for your event reflects many things: experience, expertise, brand, deliverables, and needs. When comparing packages, it is important to have INSIGHT into the factors of each package: hourly rates for additional coverage, whether a complimentary engagement shoot is included, etc. Understanding the effort involved for each package helps clarify the value behind the numbers. Keep in mind one simple rule: quality over quantity. One thing you never want to compromise is QUALITY—quality is the difference between 1,500 mediocre photos or 600 stunning images. All your photographs should be consistent in style, carefully composed, well-lit, meaningful, and flow in unison to tell the story of your wedding day in an effortless way. When I review a photographer’s portfolio, I pay attention to the composition, lighting, color and style of each photo, and determine whether the photographer tells a story with their craft. Fine art photographers pay careful attention to these aspects. More importantly, they tend to infuse images with profound meaning, because their works are meant to be appreciated as visual art.
photo by Catherine Liu www.catslens.com
# 4. Understand Your Rights
In accordance with U.S. Copyright law, photographers own the rights to the photographs they take. This extends to wedding photography, and most contracts will reflect that. This means that your wedding photographer may use those images promotionally on their website or blog, submit them for publication, or even place them in ads. This copyright extends to the digital proofs that you may receive, so most photographers have a policy that you may only share images that are watermarked or otherwise display proper credit. I normally grant clients the print rights to all images, which means you can physically print the images or order an album from another source. Any reputable vendor asked to create a product from another photographer’s prints should verify who holds the rights to those prints. I have done so myself and am very glad that I did; in some cases the photographer had not relinquished those rights. If the photographer that you choose does not grant print rights in the standard contract, you may work with them to negotiate the rights to the images in order to print them yourself or order an album from another source.
photo by Catherine Liu www.catslens.com
#5. Post-production Enhancements
You may wonder why it normally takes six to eight weeks or longer to see your wedding photo proofs. The reason is that your photographer shoots raw files far bigger than a typical image file, providing greater creative freedom to STYLIZE the images with corrections to color levels, lighting, and other enhancements. Your photographer may offer additional retouching and special effects options such as white balancing, beauty retouching, and stylized art effects such as super-saturated colors. Although it varies by person, many photographers say that they spend an additional 40 hours or more performing post-production enhancements to images from a single wedding. For a photographer with a busy schedule, it can take up to two months or more before delivering your wedding proofs.
Work with your prospective photographer to understand: How many images should you expect? Will they be high-resolution or low-resolution images? Will you be able to make your own prints, or does the photographer retain the rights to the images? Will the proofs you see be the retouched versions, or does that happen after you select the photos you want? What retouching and special effects options are offered, and what is the additional cost?
As someone who takes pride in the craft of wedding photography and who has gone through the process of hiring a wedding photographer, I am certain that the advice above will serve both you and your photographer well, capturing the essence of your wedding day and providing you and your partner with wedding photographs that will be enjoyed for years to come.
A pond in Kyoto Gyoen, (peeking through shrubs)
Last November my husband Rolf and I vacationed in Japan, the city I called home during my college years. We visited during autumn – that awe-inspiring season when maple leaves are a vivid crimson and the sky is as tranquil as a mountain lake. We spent ten wondrous days touring Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuyama and Kyoto, enjoying every moment.
Nanzenji in Kyoto. November 2018
Kyoto, one of my favorite cities on earth, was formerly known as Heian-kyō (translates literally to “tranquil and peaceful capital”). This was during the Heian period (794-1185), a time when the Japanese imperial court was at its peak and noted for art, poetry and architecture. It is difficult to find the right words to describe the unique beauty of Kyoto; everything about it is subtle and serene, as if time is flowing more slowly than anywhere else. Everywhere your eyes land they behold exquisite and precise beauty, crafted and presented in its most perfect form.
Late one afternoon in Kyoto, Rolf and I visited Nanzenji, a Zen Buddhist temple built during Japan’s late medieval period. Dramatically draped in the red hue of late afternoon sunlight, the temple brought to mind an uta (a thirty-one syllable poem) composed by Jōben, a monk of the Kamakura Period (1185–1333) whose poetic style is informed by the medieval aesthetic of sabi-yūgen, a combination of courtly charm and melancholic beauty. “A shower passes by— and the rays of the evening sun make the crimson leaves of Ogura Mountain shine with a brighter glow.” (Translated by: Steven D. Carter)
The timelessness of Kyoto’s beauty, unchanged from my time as a college student, was the pinnacle of our visit to Japan. We recall our experiences there fondly and will certainly visit again, but most importantly we have brought Japan, and especially Kyoto, back with us in our hearts.
Cat , osmanthus tree, and roof. 2006
I have been asked by many people how and why I got into photography; I would love to share the story of how my camera and I became “hitched”!
My interest in photography began when I was 14 with my dad's PENTAX medium format camera. It was a bit too heavy for me to hold steady, but it didn’t take long for me to overcome that challenge and discover the joy of capturing life around me. What was previously mundane now seized my imagination: my grandpa’s quiet garden, a curious stray cat peeking through rooftop branches, birds flocking elegantly overhead, grandpa’s beautiful calligraphy scattered across his library desk.
Second small garden and grandpa’s bonsai in snow. 2011
I will never forget how I felt the first time I held my first developed photographs; it was truly magical. I had tangibly stamped a moment that would survive forever through intangible time. Years later I was able to give words to that magical feeling when I read Susan Sontag’s On Photography: “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge—and, therefore, like power.”
The camera gave me a new way to see the world, and my curious interest quickly bloomed into love. From that moment on I borrowed the camera from my dad so frequently that he gave into my persistent badgering and gifted it to me. To this day I am thankful to him, thankful for his gift to that persistent and curious girl who never gave up on doing what she loved.
These old photos have been scanned many years ago, therefore not in high-res format.
Photographing my surroundings enables me to create distance between me and the world, to observe and recreate it with emotion and imagination in exactly the way I wish. Photography lets me fiddle with the scale and the look of the world; images are reduced, blown up, cropped, and retouched.I can take a transient moment, pin it down with my objective observation, and relish it forever.
As a wedding photographer I continue to draw upon the original vibe and chemistry that drew me into photography. There is a visual pleasure in photography that continues to thrill and obsess me. I visit museums frequently for visual inspiration. I devour books on art criticism, photography criticism, and photography theory. I continue to learn from the masters and apply those lessons to my work; Rubens of the Baroque tradition, Paul Cézanne of post-impressionism, and Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard of Les Nabis are all my inspirations and soul ambrosia. They each inspire me to approach photography with romance and a fine-art sensibility.
All these experiences have led me here and continue to feed my love of capturing the intimacy of those in love who have decided to spend the rest of their lives together. I especially enjoy photographing couples that are attracted by my style, for I believe we are kindred spirits.
