Grading the E-Pic Experience

Hey all!

Well, we are officially done with our engagement pictures! It was a very exciting experience. It feels like a huge thing to have checked off of our list, and makes the wedding seem more real and like it's getting closer!

Lol. I've been measuring our progress on wedding plans based on school breaks. This Spring Break is the last break I get until the summer, when we have our wedding! I'll update you on our progress in a bit.

For now, I would like to tell you about our engagement photo session to hold you over while we wait for the pics.

We did two shoots. One at the Phoenix Civic Park, and then we drove about forty minutes to a family friend's ranch and took pictures with a set of matching horses.
I wore two outfits at the park, two at the ranch. My fiance wore two at the park, one at the ranch.

Allow me to list the pros and cons from the day.

Pros:

-PERFECT weather. Blue skies, puffy clouds. Everything I could have asked for on a March day.
-Great outfits, thanks to me. I hadn't even really pieced them all together until the day before and day of. I actually ran to Target the morning of to get a "cow girl" hat for the horses shoot, and came out with two shirts for me and my guy plus a great hat.
-Hair and make-up were done. My skin was great!
-We had perfect timing and got on our horese at our second photo shoot right before sunset.

Cons:
-Started an hour late. MIL was holding up the process. She did my make-up and was our ride for the photo shoots, so it could not have been avoided. And she brought her man and her daughter with us.
-Photographer needed a ride! He didn't have his own car, something I did not know about. There were six of us in one four door car. (Me, MIL, her man, her daughter, fiance and photographer. This is when my small frame comes in handy, cuz I sat up front between MIL and fiance and at least we weren't cramped.)
-Horses were not glammed out like we were promised. Not to point the finger, but I'm positive that planning is not a strength of my MIL. We've known about this date for how many months now? And we show up to the ranch with the horses and they didn't even "know" we were coming? Okay. Whatever. Horses are horses, whether they have flowers and jewels braided in their tails or not. (sad face)
-Photographer was a little unprofessional, a little moody, and a little lazy at times.

Overall grade for the day: B+/A-

Hmm. Looks like there were more cons than pros. But I'm pretty critical so I guess those would stand out in my mind more.

Let me rant about the photographer! Okay, how are you a professional photographer by telling us to do whatever and laughing at us because we don't know how to take pictures? After awhile we need some ideas, and that's where his help could have came in. All he knew how to do was direct us for posed pictures. I ended up pulling a lot of inspiration from what I've seen other people do. Thank goodness I had looked at E-Pics before. I don't think our photographer has done candid shots in a public setting, he's used to studios and models who can really ham it up for the camera. In other words, not us. Grr.

My next issue is I had some ideas of places I thought would make a good photo and he said no like three times. Um, your camera should be good enough to take pictures of us wherever we want to go! And if you're going to tell me "No" I want it backed up with your expertise.

He would say three in the afternoon was a horrible time to shoot pictures. Um, don't let your client know what is wrong! Make it right. And you're the one who said we HAD to do two shoots in one day, so one of them had to be at three p.m. if the other one was going to be at sunset. Grr!

So after the park, and two outfit changes, we headed out for the second photo shoot at a ranch. And if I sound mad, allow me to reassure you, I really wasn't that mad. Lol.

When we got to the ranch, we had to sit and wait for the kind folks to get the horses washed down and saddled up. We sat for maybe twenty to twenty five minutes talking, catching up with the family who owned the horses. I hinted that we should take pictures instead of sitting around, but he said something about waiting for the horses. Okay, great. But we can take pics without them too. I let it pass, but before long I had to pick up the photographer by his boot straps and say "Okay, let's take pictures now." I mean, we were dressed up so why not get more photos? I'm glad we did. BTW this guy is older than us! Like almost thirty! Get with it! No wonder you don't have a car. How does laziness earn money?

And then, to cap it off, when we got on the horses, we wanted to do multiple poses and I heard him say "That's enough now, it's getting to be too many shots to go through." Are you kidding me?! I ignored that. I said out loud "This is the only time we'll do something like this, we need to take pictures while we can." Lo and behold, we get off and the next thing I know he's riding the horses and taking pics with the family. Oh. Kay.

(Side note: If he isn't used to doing e-pics, shouldn't he be happy to have a lot of shots with a GREAT looking couple-lol-in a GREAT setting? Don't you need to build your portfolio so you can attract clients, make more money, and maybe get your own car some day? Geez).

I was happy regardless because the photographer at least had the decency to try to be sly about his attitude so I never felt like I had to actually confront him. And my fiance and I were having a great time. I was just happy because the pictures will speak for themselves. And we're not paying a lot at ALL because it is a packaged deal with the wedding, so. I'm happy to have these pictures at all. He showed us some on the camera and they looked great already.

He said we'd get them in about a week. In all, I just think this experience has been really funny. It's nothing for me to get stressed about because in this situation I feel like as a couple, we're coming up. We aren't paying, it's a greeeaaat deal (you get what you pay for!) and pictures are pictures. We'll keep them forever.

If you're wondering why we used this guy, it's not only the price but our friends also another couple (and "models") recommended him. He already knew MIL by coincidence, so all those factors made us feel like it made sense. I think that is WHY we are getting such a good deal. Plus no one elese would give us the deal he's giving us, all the rights, a few prints, etc. for around $500 total. Yes, TWO SHOOTS and Wedding day, $500 total.

Notice none of the issues involved my mother in law once we actually made it to the shoots. She has played a big part in this wedding but she is not pushy at all. So that was a positive. And she was there to tell me to move my hair out of my face and other stuff the guys wouldn't have noticed.

I brought snacks with us that day which really came in handy because after the second shoot we were starving! I also brought along lotion, a lint roller, make-up bag, hair brush and comb. I would suggest bringing ample snacks and the only thing I didn't bring was wipes for my face. I usually use dry napkins, but I will look into those oil wipes other brides rave about. But my skin was pretty good anyway.

Whew. It was fun telling you about my experience! Hopefully you laughed and did a few "Uh-uh, no he didn't!"s with me. Good luck with your engagement photos! And if you've already had yours, hope it went well!