On Campus Photos at weddings

Over the weekend I shot a wedding at Nathan Homestead. The weather was beautiful and the wedding was great. The homestead also offered a lot of photo opportunities and the bride and groom had elected to have their photos there.

This was good and bad.

The main advantage was that we didn't need to travel anywhere. Travel time is always a real killer for weddings as it involves more than just the journey from point A to point B. It also includes the time taken to get everyone to the cars (which may involve finding people who have wandered off or waiting for people to finish conversations) as well as the time taken to get in and out of the car. While this last point may seem a bit nit-picky it's important to remember that the Bride will be in a wedding dress. Chances are this wedding dress will be more cumbersome than normal clothing adding to slower vehicle entrance and exit.

The key disadvantage, which may sound a bit mean, is the tendency for some guests to follow the bride and groom around. While some people may view this as the photographer getting grumpy at people for 'stealing' photos this isn't the case. My issue with this happening is it makes the bride and groom more self conscious. When I take photos I like the Bride and Groom to feel really comfortable and just go with their natural emotions. Having people stand around calling out to them clearly stops this happening. Perhaps the only thing worse than this is when guests walk up to the bride and groom during the photo shoot and start having a conversation (yes, this does happen).

In any case those are just some things to keep in mind when choosing on-campus locations. As long as your guests are well behaved you should be fine and may actually gain some extra time.

Additional tips can be found on my wedding photography website under the wedding photography tips section or on this blog by looking at posts labeled with Wedding Photography Tips.