The Photography "Kiss of Death"

Gus and I are planning to get married in North Carolina (my most excellent home state that is also within 200 miles of the nearly everyone in my extended family). As we've started to research various vendors, I've become an expert on one that's a major wedding priority to us: photography.

I've probably seen every website for every photographer that looks remotely interesting in the entire state.

In this research, as you might imagine, I've been able to quickly deduce whether I love the photos, if the pricing's on par, and really - if this is someone I might trust to shoot our wedding.

In this experience, I've developed a strange skill as part of the process- I can, in under 60 seconds, peruse a photographers' blog or site and determine if they sink or swim. And most usually, they sink.

Here my friends, is what I like to call - the photography "Kiss of Death" (for me anyway):

I'll leave the photographer's name out of this. Black and white with one thing in color. Okay, this was kind of cool circa 1997 when "Pleasantville" came out. And maybe some of you remember a little movie called "Schindler's List" that employed this technique? Not exactly something I'd like my wedding photos to be reminiscent of.

Another photography pet peeve? Out of focus and poorly exposed images! While the composition might be great, there's nothing worse than a photographer with a great eye but a blurry or grainy photo. You really need to look closely at this cause many photographers who do it are just as pricey as those that know how to retouch and to photograph crystal clear and wonderfully lit images.

I'm still in the midst of the whole process but I'm sure these lessons will come in handy.

I'll leave you on this last tip: once I find a photographer I like, I add their blog to my RSS feeds in Google Reader. I've created a "Photographers" group and I rename the blog subscription with info about the photographer, i.e. "Annies Awesome Photography - Wilmington - Starts at 2500." Easy peasy to go back and find when we're ready to pull the trigger (or click the shutter, mwaha) on our photographer.