I am proud to say that for several years now I have been a wedding photographer and have been capturing unique love stories in Ohio and surrounding States. I am also a pediatric Nurse which, I suppose is a rare combination of skills. You may be thinking, "why a wedding photographer if I am already a Nurse?" Let me tell you how it started.
It all sounded like a great idea in the beginning. My Fiance and I still had many things to decide on for our October wedding. At the time, we were still new at our careers. To save money in some areas, we decided to hire a co-worker for our wedding photographer. My now wife, had worked with a woman that said she was a photographer on the side. She had some nice landscape pictures she showed us, and her wedding rate was very affordable. We were quite young and I didn’t know much about photography at the time, and being naive, agreed to hire her.
We never asked how many weddings she did or other really important questions! Her camera broke at the beginning of our wedding day, and her back-up camera was not very good quality. She had no experience posing people. Long story short, we were less than happy with our wedding pictures. I just learned a hard lesson and knew I would one day try to help people not make the mistake we did.
I enjoyed taking pictures from a young age. The digital cameras were just coming out when I really got into taking artistic pictures and portraits for family and friends. The more I did it, the more I loved it! I couldn’t get enough of trying to create an image wherever I was that was amazingly pleasing to my eyes. Once social media became popular, many people complimented my fine art photos. In 2012, I decided to enter a few photo contests. I ended up winning grand prize for two out of the three I entered! One of my art pieces was also at the Chicago Photography Museum for awhile. This is when the gears in my head started to turn. I thought, why couldn’t I use my fine art photography talent to photograph weddings? I started to shadow some great wedding photographers and before I knew it, I was creating beautiful images for couples myself. I have now photographed over 30 weddings over the last several years and am still super excited to see the next one.
I like to include unique and bold architecture in my wedding photography. My style is known to be photojournalist with natural coloring, fairly strong contrast, and vivid colors. I use lines and shapes of the environment to draw your eyes to the main subject wherever they may be. The finishing touch to my style is to add candid emotions between the people. That is where the magic really happens. This is the most important part I feel as a wedding photographer. Being able to capture the tears of joy or laughter of the friends and family in a unique perspective as the bride and groom begin their new life together.
One of my favorites was in Covington, Kentucky. As a wedding photographer in Columbus, Ohio, I was quite excited! I love exploring new places. Covington is very urban just a few miles South of Cincinnati, Ohio. Old movie theaters and other unique buildings surrounded us. I asked the couple if they wanted to do a “first look”. For those of you who have not heard of that, it is when the groom goes to a secluded and stunning area and waits to see his beautiful bride for the first time in her wedding gown before the ceremony. She walks up behind him until they are both ready to see each other. I think what makes fun picture moments is to ask the bride to cover his eyes from behind or tap him on the shoulder.
The ceremony was held in a building with indoor exposed brick, gorgeous lighting, and colorful floral arrangements. It was pretty dark to create a romantic mood. For photographers, low light is a challenge but, an experienced photographer is prepared to shoot in any environment!
It is important to me that the couple knows I am not just there to capture their love story, but to help take some of the stress away from the day! I always ask them ahead of time to assign one of their friends or family members to help me gather people the formal pictures after the ceremony. That way the bride and groom can relax a bit and don’t have to go searching for people.
After the ceremony, many people are getting hungry so, it is crucial for me to be able to take great pictures quickly. A great idea at this reception was a doughnut table with many varieties for the guests to pick on until the dinner course later.
At the reception, I have an optional group photo booth that is always a huge hit. It is fun to see what people will do with the props!
The bride and groom deserve to have someone that is patient, professional, and flexible. It is their day, and I am always happy to be part of that.
- Matt Cangelosi Photographer
WEBSITE: http://crimsonleavesphotography.com SOCIAL MEDIA: facebook, instagram