Finally! I've been trying to register to this forum for the last couple of months but every time I tried, it wouldn't let me. And I couldn't find a contact email to ask what was wrong. >_<

Anyhoo, I've been browsing these forums a lot lately and am constantly blown away by the quality here. I really enjoy wedding photos and at the few weddings I've been to, have been trying to take whatever photos I can. As well as spy on the official photographers to learn their tricks. :P

One of my co-workers got married back in September. They didn't hire any photographers, so I volunteered to shoot for them because I wanted the opportunity (they also had another friend shooting during the ceremony and formals, and my cousin also helped out). I explained to them the quality of photos they'd get so we'd all be perfectly clear on what to expect since I have a lot to learn still. I prefer candid photos for the most part, so trying to take posed photos and directing people is pretty difficult for me at the moment. Also, I'm still not very good with my flash, so my ceremony and reception photos are actually quite crappy.

Here are a handful of my favourites from the ~1000 photos I took. >_< Criticism and advice appreciated.

1.

Shoot, I should've used a smaller resolution. Sorry about that. I thought it was going to post just the links and not actually embed the images.

These are really nice! I particularly like the earlier ones, don't like the tilted one though.

All of them are great photos...except the last one

Great job for a first wedding...I love your eye for photography. Its very fresh and modern. I wish my first would have looked this good. Number 1 is gorgeous!

Very nice. Man, I'm really jealous of those who live where the climate is warm

My first wedding didn't look this good. Great job. I love the biased to blow the highlights a bit, but a few could come down a tad. The tilt in 5 is too much for me, and have been known to lean sideways from time to time. 6 has a strange composition, imho, they get a little lost with the building and the flowers competing for attention. I fell like it would have maybe been a better vertical shot? Overall, very nice.

very nice! i like them!

what camera, lens setup did you use?

These are actually very good quality for your first wedding. Usually we all try to steer people away from "shooting for a friends wedding - just for fun" lol. Looks like you did them quite a service though I bet they will be very happy with these.

Thank you for all the comments! I think this wedding was leaps and bounds over the others I'd taken casual shots of. Well, except for my ceremony/reception ones... Those ones really look like amateur snapshots.

#5 I ended up liking just because it was a little bit different, reminds me of a movie poster or something. And yeah the last one, not a good photo, but it was funny as heck.

@Asparkes - I'm not very great at taking into consideration things in the background/foreground when I go to compose yet, more practice needed. Overall, I kind of stick with the rule of thirds for the most part and stay very square with my shots, so I don't actually end up with too many angled ones. I think I did like 3 or 4 passes in Lightroom of all of these photos trying to figure out what "style" I wanted them to look like. Also my monitor isn't calibrated. >_>

@Mineymole - Actually, I live in Vancouver and it's not too warm here right now. :P I was surprised it was still nice in September.

@Rema86 - I used a Canon 40D, Canon 24-105mm f4 and 580ex Speedlite (I was actually using it to fill for the outdoor shots most of the time). I actually rented a Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 for the day, but I didn't feel confident using it at all at the ceremony since I hadn't practiced at all with it. So I thought it'd be safer to stick with what I knew.

Heck of a job! All awesome exposures with great color, I'm sure the couple will LOVE EM

Excellent work on, 1,2,7,8 & 10. I'm sure they will be very happy with what you provide them.

I think you did a great job on these. Your ring shot is simply beautiful! Nicely done.

Wow- very well done!

for reception shots, I bounce my on-camera flash a lot. For tips on bouncing flash, see:

www.planetneil.com.

I haven't shot at an evening/dancing reception since may, but I use bounced flash when I can.

Thank you for the comments, again.

@Deb - Thanks for the link, I'll be sure to go through that. I try to bounce my flash where I can, but when the ceiling is high, it doesn't seem like an option. I guess next would be getting some light stands? I only have the Cactus V2 triggers which aren't very reliable or sturdy.

Good coverage. First one? I like the all the normal plained shots. I more and more I see tilted shots the more I don't like em. You had some awesome moments and good shots all to be killed with a tilted camera. You need a spanking early so you stop doing it later. It's very noob.

`Sam

^ I agree, they hurt my eyes lol

@Sam - lol, I'll keep that in mind. I actually much prefer taking very linear and straight shots, but I thought I was being boring by only doing that. Also, I thought angled shots were pretty popular so I tried to take them. I've seen great angled shots, but also a lot of bad ones. Is it just practice to get the right angles, or just cheesy? Hahaha.