shooting my own elopement photos
i chose to take my own wedding photos for a number of reasons. as a family friend teased me- yes - it was difficult to think of handing the camera over to someone else for the day. but also my now husband and i are both (funnily) pretty camera shy and didn't want to spend any time during our trip not being relaxed and alone together. i've gotten a lot of questions on how i pulled this off! and i wanted to write a little about it here for anyone who might be thinking of doing the same
(or just if you're curious because i thought it was pretty cool)
the short and sweet answer is that i used a tripod! and the canon remote shooting app on my phone, which i use for a lot of my self-portraiture. the app allows you to see the viewfinder, adjust focus along with a few other basics, and press shutter. for most of these photos, i had the camera set to continuous shutter and one of us would hold the app shutter down out of frame or in a pocket. it worked best to check the framing, set auto-focus, tuck the phone away, and then just spam the shutter to have lots of options to pick from.
i should say that, while i'm so glad i have my remote shooter, it definitely comes with its fair share of challenges. for one, the app requires both the camera and the phone to be connected to the same wifi source and, though thankfully my husband found a creative solution to getting signal in this field in the middle of nowhere, it was obviously still spotty and definitely slowed us down throughout the day. with all the setting up and over-shooting, we spent around 4 hours on photography all-in-all, even as someone who uses this method for self-portraiture regularly.
these portraits of my husband were some of my favorites of the day since i got to take a moment to have more control over the images and hold the camera in my hands and also shoot one of my favorite subjects for a bit
these were also easy handheld photos where i could keep my aperture really wide (down to f/1.8) and have more control over the focus and framing. i love jewelry details after working in that industry for many years now so this part of the day felt easy and fun.
i did a lot of preparation for this session by curating a shot list & reference images for what i knew i wanted to get out of the day. i love wedding photos that capture the feeling and the memory without fixating on the superficial details and appearances. i didn't want to be checking hair and makeup for perfect glamour shots, and i love the more creative portraiture look we landed on.
some of my favorite shots were taken at a slower shutter speed for slight motion blur. i also switched the remote shooter to manual focus for a few to ensure that our beautiful view of the mountains would be in focus and not us. that one (the header image for this page) ended up being my very favorite of the day. it captures the feeling so perfectly.
i felt so happy with the decision to shoot my elopement photos as a camera shy girl who wanted to keep the moment private and lighthearted. and i was so excited to share these as not only a happy memory but some art i made about me & my love.
