Sarah was stunningly natural, in her short white dress. Drew’s eyes lit up as he saw her.

After reading pages of comments on a professional photographers’ Flickr group I am part of, I thought I would personally address this issue. I will start off by saying that while the bride has some valid points, I think some of her photographers’ photos are absolutely lovely. I do hate to see a photographer bashed publicly so I am a bit hesitant about even posting the link above, but she does raise an interesting point.

Do photographers have to blog every wedding and everyone they photograph? No, I do not believe it is something that everyone should expect. However, I do get excited about each wedding I photograph and tend to want to at least put a few peeks here and there. I’ve discovered this summer though that some clients prefer the first photos posted to Facebook, and it is a lot quicker for me to do this.

Is a photographer’s blog there to serve as a marketing piece? If so, we should only blog our absolutely best photos, and those in the style of the weddings we hope to photograph in the future. In other words, we should use our blogs to target our market. Even if as photographers we say no to this question, the truth is that to at least some extent it is. Everything we write on our Facebook page, or on Twitter, and in our blogs goes into forming what our clients think of us, and is therefore marketing.

Is the blog a place to share with your clients and show who you are, as a photographer and a person? Photographers that think this way tend to want to blog every wedding and client they photograph. It keeps clients happy, opens up communication, and leads to the wedding couple’s friends coming to the blog. (This really leads back to it being a marketing tool!)

To my brides (future and past)… I see my blog as a place to share thoughts, and photos. I like to keep it casual. In fact, sometimes I feel it is too formal still. I see my portfolio as where you can see my favorite and best photos. My blog is what you should use to get to know me, and to interact through comments. I try to update my portfolio site a couple times a year so it is current (though right now it is due for a complete overhaul), but in the meantime I intend for my blog to help by having some newer photos.

If I do not blog your wedding, I am sure I have shared previews somewhere else. If I blog more of another bride’s wedding than yours, it has nothing to do with how you look or where you got married. It just has to do with the moments I captured and how a photo speaks to me, for whatever reason. Sometimes I have more time one day than another. Sometimes I want to show diversity and choose a wedding for this reason. For example, I photograph a lot of beautiful outdoor weddings. For this reason, I instead chose to do a large blog post on Kelly’s wedding recently, a formal church wedding. Because I think of my blog as a place for my thoughts, whether through words or photos, I often do not have a definite rhyme or reason to it.

A little peek at Sarah & Drew’s amazing McMinnville wedding… more photos to come soon.

Emily Hall photographed this wedding with me. Emily is just starting out with wedding photography, and joined me to as a second photographer. Her style blends seamlessly with mine, and I think anyone would be challenged to pick out which photos in this post are not mine. (I am no longer sure myself without looking at the originals!) Thanks for all your help Emily. Hope to work together again soon!