On the other side
We are going to start this blog post off by thanking Tracy Bentley. She has been our second shooter for most of this wedding season and we can not say enough about her… She has truly become a part of Kayla Colvard Photography. She knows how to read both of our minds, has gotten shots that we never thought about, and been such a huge support to us on the BIG day! Tracy has an amazing eye and a lot of talent. You are going to get to see her talent all through this post. She is just INCREDIBLE!! So Thank You Tracy from the bottom of our hearts and we can’t wait to watch you grow with us!!!!
We are super excited to do a behind the scenes look at Kayla Colvard Photography. This first post will be “pull backs” of Kayla shooting the Branson wedding along with some information on what Kayla shoots with and what we bring to most shoots. With each shot we will have a pull back and final image. We will also tell you all the stats about the image, and if there is any other information on each picture.
Kayla’s Camera Bag:
Nikon D7000
18-55mm 3.5
18-105mm 3.5
SB 600
Gary Fong Diffuser
32g of memory cards
Batteries
Keys
Event list
Contract
Melissa’s Arms
Step stool
extra props
Cell phones
Water
Anything Kayla doesn’t need to loose 
We bring extra off camera lighting to most of our weddings along with everyone’s contracts.
Tips on Gear: Always bring extra batteries and have more memory then you could dream of using. If you think you’ll need it… bring it!
This first image is of the rings and Laurens flowers. We try to get as many detailed shots as we can and we love to take the rings and do different things with them. Kayla’s method of placing the rings… place them till they don’t fall:)
This next shot is of the bride getting ready. There a few things we always do during the time our bride is getting ready.. first off is de-clutter… Everyone likes to put their things EVERYWHERE… but the problem with that is everyone’s things are in the pictures… You don’t want bags and clothes being a distraction from the bride. So try and get everyone to put their things in a place where you wont see it in the pictures from any angle. Also we try to make these pictures include important people such as the mother of the bride, sister of the bride, and bridesmaids. We make sure that our bride is the last one to get ready so that everyone else is picture ready. We typically get the bridesmaids all around while she is getting on her dress and then get the mother of the bride to zip or tie the dress and then the sister of the bride to put on the garter. In this image Lauren’s mother is putting in her veil piece.
In this image, Kayla is capturing the ceremony. We always ask our couples if they are okay with Kayla moving around doing the ceremony. Everyone on so far has said yes. Don’t be afraid to get up close to get the perfect ring shot… or right in the middle of aisle. Try not to go directly in front of the bride and groom for a long period of time. It is much easier to move around in an outdoor wedding so if you are indoors make sure to be more quite and unseen. A few key places we have learned over time to be is first, be behind and to side of the groom and bride for the exchange of rings. If you are directly in front their hands typically block your view. If you have a second shooter decide before hand who is going to get the grooms face when the bride walks down and who is going to get the bride as she walks down. Don’t be afraid to tell the bride and groom to hold their first kiss… Always be directly in front for that first kiss and shoot as many pictures of the kiss as possible to MAKE SURE you got it.
Family formals are all about being prepared. We require every bride to have a list of EXACTLY who they want in their family formals. We have it in our contract they need one, and if they don’t have one we are not responsible if someone doesn’t end up in a pictures. We are very military style about family formals. We do all family formal after the wedding and try to do them as quickly as possible. I (Melissa) am in charge of making sure everyone that the bride and groom have listed is in each photo and Kayla and I both work together to position everyone. We pose in a Triangle format if they are not in a straight line. This is a shot of the bride and her new brother in law.
After Family Formals we take around an hour to do the wedding party and the bride and groom alone. These pictures are always super fun and we try to do new and creative poses for each wedding along with doing some of our standard pictures. With the wedding party just make sure you can see everyone… gaps in between people always seem bigger in pictures… make sure girls flowers are level… if one guys has their hands in their pockets make sure everyone does. These images are typically easy and fun to do because you are working with so many different personalities.
We did our traditional pose of all the guys holding Lauren. Don’t be afraid to bring people in front and change things up a little.
Well I hope you enjoyed a few of our “pull backs” and some tips and tricks that we do at most of our weddings.
Our second post will be on Editing! Also if you have any questions, about photography… weddings… the images posted… or tip we posted feel free to leave a comment below. We want our 3rd part of this series to be Q&A.
Thank you so much,
Kayla, Melissa, and Tracy
