We love doing engagement sessions because it gives us an opportunity to get to know the couple and work with them before a wedding.  It sounds silly but it really adds up to the end result of better wedding photos.

Before Audrey and I got married we realized that we hardly had any photographs of us together without a drink in our hands or at some random party or bar.  That’s another reason why we love doing engagement sessions - giving couples photos that are “nice” and are the type you’d be happy having sit on your dresser without a plastic cup of beer in your hands.

So, the first couple that send us an aweful photo with some sort of cup/beer/drink in their hands will win a free engagement session.  Free.  Yep, it’s true, good things DO happen in this world.  E-mail your photos to info@olryphotography.com with a mention in the subject that you need an engagment session.

While it is supposed to be good luck for it to rain on your wedding day, there is a part of you deep down inside that doesn’t care and just wants it to be really nice, sunny, and beautiful.  That’s exactly what Eric and Jessica got for their wedding in Bloomington, a bright, beautiful sunny day!  Here’s a few photos from their wedding but you can see more in our galleries…

Best wishes to you both for a very long and happy marriage!

Ok, they didn’t really have their wedding on a boat but they did have their wedding at the Four Winds Marina on Lake Monroe just south of Bloomington.  The couple joked that they had tossed around the idea of having their ceremony out on a boat on the lake but then their head started swimming with logistics and details of getting family & friends out on the lake and that idea disappeard as quickly as it came about.

Ben and Andrea were a great couple to work with - we had a great time with both of them.  Andrea gave Ben a guitar for their wedding and he spent his free moments playing on it before the ceremony (see below).  Andrea’s great smile lit up the pictures that she was in… wow!

Congratulations to you both… we wish you the best for a very long and happy marriage!

Your pictures are important to us… really important.  Perhaps you don’t fully understand exactly how important we’re talking about here.

We take extra care to make sure that your photos are safeguarded and nothing happens to them.  We want to make sure that you’ve got a lasting image to remember every detail of your special day and so we go to some great lengths to make sure that everything is nice and secure.

First of all, we quickly get the images off of our camera’s memory cards and get copies put onto our image processing computer’s hard drive.  During this import a special file know as a DNG, or digital negative, is created.  I won’t go into the details about what a DNG is and why it is good but we’ll say that it is a file format that has been created to ensure that in 10, 25, 50 years from now we’ll still be able to open that file (have you tried to open a really old file anytime lately… it’s a pain because no one thought to create a standard file format).  Once on our image processing computer’s hard drive the images are backed up onto a separate external hard drive that is kept safe in our studio.  At this point we have 3 copies of the original images from your event (1 - memory cards, 2 - computer hard drive, 3 - external hard drive).

At this point we spend a substantial amount of time going through the images weeding out shots with eyes closed and general editing of the photos.  After going through all of the photos several times (the last wedding we did had over 2,400 photos) we’ll start going through with a fine tooth comb to make color corrections, add artisitic effects, and do final editing.  One of the greatest things about our editing process is that we never actually change the original file from the camera.  Changes are saved separately as modifications to the original so we can go back to the original or any iteration of our edits with no problem whatsoever!  Finally, at this point we’ve narrowed your photos down to a manageable number (maybe 200-400-ish). 

After reviewing all of the photos with our client we put up an online gallery of the final images (making a 4th copy).  We also give a final copy of the photos to the client on CD or DVD (a 5th copy).  We then make two copies of the final edited images for ourselves in addition to DVDs burned with all of the original files on it.  One of the final copies is keept in a fire-proof lock box in our studio and the other final copy along with the DVD of the DNG files is taken to a safe deposit box at a bank.  All in all there will be 7 copies of the images (but the memory cards will be erased after this process is complete and the backup copies are safe at the bank).

What does all of this mean and doesn’t it seem like a bit of overkill?  Well, yes, it is overkill.  Have you ever been working on a school project and something happened with the computer where you lost all of your work - what did you do?  You probably tried to recover some sort of edition of your work or had to start over from the beginning.  When you have wedding photographs the only way to start over is to have the wedding again which isn’t a great option.  So, we take extra care (even to the point where it seems to be a bit rediculous) to make sure that nothing happens to your photos.

So what happens if fire and brimstone rain down from the heavens and all 7 copies of the photos disappear?  It depends… but we do have an extensive insurance policy that does cover us in the case that we did something wrong and messed up the photos.  If that’s the case then our insurance company will pay to have your wedding over again (at least enough to get the pictures that were lost).

I feel comfortable saying that you should rest assured that we’ll take care of the details  to make sure that you’ve always got your lasting memories…. forever.

We’ve recently partnered with a company that prints on canvas producing a large and wonderful artistic print of a photo.  We’ve been very impressed with the quality of these canvas prints - so much so that we want to share them with everyone.  Anyone who books us as their wedding photographer before the end of 2007 and mentions this blog post (or any of our other advertisements) will receive a free canvas print with their final wedding photos.  The canvas is stretched tight around a wooden frame and looks great hanging on the wall - we think that you’ll really enjoy one for yourself so the first one is on us!

Here’s a stock photo that hardly does justice…

We’ve got a sample in our studio to share with you when we meet to schedule your wedding!