WHO ARE YOU? WHO? WHO?
Hello! I am Lynn, the first-person narrator of this, my little piece of the internet. I’m one of those people you can’t really sum up with words. I think I might actually require a sound.
I am a certified professional photographer (CPP), which means so much more than a logo on my website – it means that I have been officially recognized by my peers for my commitment to quality, consistency and photographic excellence (it only required a full portfolio review and a complex photographic exam, phew!) I also have a computer science degree, which I use extensively to build my own computers and solve complicated Tetris puzzles.
I have been a professional photographer for over 20 years, but that doesn’t mean my style is old-fashioned. In fact, I stay far, far away from things that will make your photographs look dated and instead focus on the things that will make them look gorgeous now and in the future. I call it classically modern wedding photography and what that means is that the images feel clean and natural, like a big warm hug.
It also means well-lit, fun formal portraits. I embrace portraits as something that you will look back on and cherish but don’t want to spend hours shooting. And I make the process quick and painless, while showing real smiles and family connections. But more than that, I make connections with my clients, who love both my quirkiness and ability to deliver them to the reception on time.
At the heart of everything, I believe in love – in all of the unique ways that it can be found, shared and celebrated.
Vivian is my right hand – another primary shooter on your wedding day. You’ll find her everywhere I am not because, like a cat, she is drawn to shiny objects and light.
So how does a regular second shooter differ from a primary second shooter? A primary has an extensive wedding photography background (I’d call over 10 years and 400+ weddings extensive), can shoot in any lighting situation, and can deal with anything that a crazy wedding day throws at her- sometimes literally. Our images are virtually indistinguishable which leads me to the most important word a photographer can say to you – consistency.
The answers to your next three questions:
* Yes, she’s a freaking fantastic photographer.
* Yes, she’s my sister and can read my thoughts. It’s freaky.
* No, we are not twins.
I know that I interchange the words “I” and “we” a lot here, so I wanted to introduce you to a small part of the crew behind Lynn Michelle Photography. These are the associate photographers and lighting assistants behind every image that we produce. It’s the glue that holds the whole operation together, the WE.
We are a pretty fun and social bunch, so do not be shocked if they follow you around with a camera or try to dance with your Great Aunt Mildred.
(^This is Hugo Hernandez)
(Josh, our 2nd favorite lighting assistant)
Together we have fun. A LOT of fun. So much fun, in fact, that we have our own “caught“ album of images. It captures what we do best : getting caught doing amusing things at weddings.
We also have an awesome video of us in action (created by the lovely Daniel of Lynn Films).
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SHOOTING WEDDINGS? HOW MANY HAVE YOU PHOTOGRAPHED? HOW DID YOU GET HERE?
I shot my first wedding in the winter of 2000 for a longtime friend named Yury and his beautiful wife Galina. (You can actually read about it here and see a few of those very, very early Lynn Michelle images, along with my hideous first watermark!) At the time, I was working for the UT Dallas Mercury college newspaper and I owned one Minolta camera, 2 lenses and 1 flash. I had never photographed anything that moved faster than a chess player. (If you are a UTD alumni or know a UTD alumni, you will totally get this joke. And you will laugh. I promise.)
I don’t remember how Yury talked me into it, but he did, and I handed over the images and somehow decided to do it again, and again, and again.
I have shot well over 600 weddings. I honestly stopped counting a few years ago – let’s just call it 500+ because that looks like a nice, pretty number.
WHAT EXACTLY IS INCLUDED IN YOUR PACKAGES? HOW MANY HOURS OF COVERAGE DO WE GET?
If you haven’t found the nifty tab called ‘pricing’, then click here for the direct link. This has my most popular packages and it’s pretty forthcoming in regards to hours, photographers, and additional fabulousness.
WHAT IS THE DEPOSIT & TOTAL FEE?
1500 American Dollars (via check or credit card) secure the wedding date, with the remainder due two weeks prior to the wedding. All rates are subject to Texas Sales Tax – that’s 8.25% for weddings taking place in the Lone Star State.
WILL YOU BE MY ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHER, OR WILL IT BE ONE OF YOUR ASSOCIATES?
It’s meeeeeeeee! It’s meeeeeeeee!
DO YOU HAVE BACKUP PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO WILL SHOOT THE WEDDING IF SOMETHING HAPPENS?
Is this where I admit that I have photographed at least two weddings with multiple Kleenexes shoved up my nose and a handful of cough drops shoved in every pocket available? *Knocks on wood* I have not missed a wedding, but should something occur here’s Plan B … my second primary shooter, steps up as the primary and we bring in a solid additional photographer (should your package include two).
Now, if you have been reading along and paying attention – Vivian is actually my sister. So if it’s a family emergency, I will work closely with my clients to secure some rocking photographers that will most similarly match my style, commitment to fabulousness and personality (you know, a dash of silliness, a pinch of sarcasm). Luckily, as an active member of several local wedding industry organizations, I have a tight network of superstar photographers that I can bring in. Let’s *knock on wood* one more time that we never need anything other than Plan A.
WHAT EQUIPMENT DO YOU USE? DO YOU HAVE BACKUP EQUIPMENT? HAVE YOU EVER HAD TO USE IT?
I’m a Canon shooter, and I have been since I went digital. Why did I choose Canon? Well, because the lenses mounted in the same direction as my Minolta film camera. (True story: Nikon lenses mount in the opposite direction and I was scared of fumbling and dropping them!).
Both myself and Vivian use the Canon 1DX II – a full frame professional camera that has dual card slots to record images. Over the years, I’ve had a handful of memory cards render random corrupt images and one fully and completely fail. Having two card slots is a MUST for me and keeps me sane and happy.
We also use all Canon L series lenses (the ones with the sexy red band around them); because the glass is beautiful and renders colors exactly the way I want to see them. Throw in some Canon speed lights (also known as flashes), miscellaneous do-dads that we have found useful, and two backup cameras … and there’s our full kit.
Unfortunately, I have had to use backup equipment. One such time involved equipment failure – that was when my shutter fell out of my camera during a lens change (don’t worry that was many years ago and I’ve been assured that it’s not a ‘normal’ thing that occurs). The remainder of the cases involved either myself or Vivian tripping over an uneven surface and falling on our cameras or setting the camera on a table and walking off with it still attached to our battery packs, causing them to meet an untimely demise with the floor. While we stopped using external battery packs many, many years ago, uneven concrete is still our greatest enemy on a wedding day. Well, that and drunk guests … more often than not, we lose a poor, harmless flash to a drunk guest that stumbles into one of our light stands at the reception so we carry a small army of extra flashes and we make sure that light stands are neatly nuzzled up against the DJ/band’s speakers.
HOW LONG AFTER THE WEDDING DO WE GET TO SEE PHOTOS?
Within a few days of the wedding – usually called “Monday,” I share a heaping handful of preview images on Facebook. From there, all images are available for viewing online within 6-8 weeks. Your USB of hi-resolution images are then lovingly placed in mail within a week after the images are online (and you approve your current shipping address because so many of my clients move and forget to tell me about it!).
HOW DO YOU COORDINATE WITH MY VIDEOGRAPHER? HOW DO YOU ENVISION WORKING TOGETHER?
If I have not had the pleasure of working with your videographer before, I will drop an email to say hello and/or shoot the sh!t a bit on the phone. The conversation usually goes like this :
me: “Hello, this is Lynn! (I always say my name as if there is a permanent exclamation point at the end). I am so excited to be working with you on <bride> and <groom’s> wedding on <month> <day> <year>! (This really needs an exclamation point as well). I love working with videographers and I’d love to coordinate with you on the wedding day as to where all of the cameras will be so we can both get the shots that we want! (Let’s just keep the exclamation points going at this point!)
videographer: “YAY!”
(All of my exclamation points have paid off!)
If you have not yet secured a videographer, I am so very happy to suggest some amazing ones in just about every price range and style. Feel free to ask!
HOW MANY WEDDINGS DO YOU DO IN A WEEKEND?
Back when I was younger and crazier, I photographed three weddings in a row (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). Every inch of my body was sore for the next two weeks. Now, I rarely do doubles – which means two weddings in a weekend – but I will definitely inform my clients ahead of time if this is the case. I will NEVER EVER shoot multiple weddings in one day. I’m definitely too old for that!
HAVE YOU EVER SHOT AT MY VENUE(S) BEFORE?
To be honest, I probably have. If not, I may have recently attended a networking event or open house there and I have a good lay of the land. Either way, I am happy to share full weddings at either your location or a similar location so you know what to expect. For example … your church is white inside with red carpet and I can only shoot in the balcony while doing the stanky legg? I’ve probably got some images that showcase that.
WILL YOU FOLLOW A SHOT LIST? OR DO YOU PREFER FREE REIGN TO CAPTURE THE FESTIVITIES AS YOU SEE FIT?
I found these questions online so believe me when I say I would never use the word ‘festivities’ without a glass of wine in my hand. Right … so the question was about shot lists …
I do ask the names of your immediate family, wedding party, officiant, and anyone else you HAVE to HAVE a picture with or otherwise you will come after me with a very sharp object. From there, I will build a shot list of suggested groupings that you can review and modify.
Here’s what I need to make it all happen: time. With that in mind, I can give you a pretty darn good approximation of how long those portraits will take and we can build your wedding day photography schedule from there. Here’s a hint: small groupings of 4 people or less take 1-2 minutes each. Larger groupings can take up to 5 minutes a piece. If your calculator says that is 2.5 hours of photography, please don’t tell me your sister’s photographer did it in 15 minutes. It’s not humanly possible.
WHAT ARE THE RESTRICTIONS FOR SHARING PHOTOS ONLINE OR FOR PUBLICATION? DO YOU OWN THE COPYRIGHT TO THE PHOTOS?
You are most welcome to share any (or all!) of your images on social media provided that you keep my watermark on them. The watermark is there for two reasons. One, it tells all of your friends how much you adore me and want them to use me for their wedding photography (Yay!). But, most importantly, it keeps dishonest photographers from stealing your images and passing them off to unsuspecting clients as their own work (Boo!).
PS. Only images online have watermarks. The ones that you get on your USB are watermark-free and are perfect for printing.
We share the copyright to the images. That means you can print them in any size and quantity that you want and I get to share them in my portfolio, in promotional materials and social media outlets. I always love seeing my images get published, so let’s work together so that the newspaper/social media/magazine that you want to submit to gets perfectly manicured set of images.
DO YOU BRING YOUR OWN LIGHTING?
What I do bring: All of the light that I will need to take portrait & reception images – for the times that I am not using the available light from the sun.
What I do not bring: colored room up-lights, flower/cake/centerpiece pin spots, candles, sparklers and/or spotlights. You’re probably laughing, but I’ve had least two brides seriously think this was included. If you’re not laughing. Um …
Either way, hit up LeForce Entertainment for all of your up-lighting (and DJing!) needs.
WHAT WILL YOU WEAR?
Clothes. Probably.
Our caught images (here) will give you a good idea of our fashion sense and the silly things we get into on a typical wedding day.
I ask the following of my crew:
- always cover your naughty bits
- NEVER wear something predominately white or ivory
- always wear comfortable, non-smelly shoes
Other than that, everything else is on the table.
WERE YOU SERIOUSLY ON THE TODAY SHOW?
Yep, proof here:
ANYTHING ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW?
If the answer is not 42, I’m probably stumped.