DIY Wedding Photography: Shot List for the Traditional Couple

How can you save money on photography for your wedding? Do it yourself! DIY wedding photos won't sacrifice your precious wedding memories. Just make sure you are doing the wedding justice by creating a shot list before the ceremony.

As a traditional couple, you will want "classic" wedding portraits. Make sure you get the following shots for your do it yourself wedding album.

DIY Wedding Photo Shot List - Pictures of the Bride and Groom

Have the bride and groom stand in front of the church. Stand back from the couple so you can get their entire bodies into frame. Make sure to get the entire wedding gown in the picture.

Take a few steps forward, use your zoom, and take a close-up portrait of the bride and groom facing forward.

Have the bride and groom turn their heads and look into one another's eyes. Take a close-up.

Snap a photo of the bride and groom standing in front of the church on their wedding day.

DIY Wedding Photo Shot List - Photos of the Wedding Party

Every wedding album needs a picture that includes the entire wedding party. Line up the bridesmaids and groomsmen with the bride and groom in the center. The flower girl and ring bearer can stand in front of the attendants, but do not place them directly in front of the bride and groom. Doing so would block the bride's wedding gown.

Take some wedding photos of the bride with her bridesmaids. Then take some pictures of the groom with his groomsmen.

Make sure you get a picture of just the flower girl and ring bearer. These cute wedding photos will turn out great!

DIY Wedding Photo Shot List - Pictures of Family Members

Family plays an important role in any wedding. Make sure to include them in the wedding photographs.

Shoot the bride with her family and the groom with his family. Marriage unites these two families, so get a shot of them all together as well.

Make sure to get a picture with the grandparents as well.

DIY Wedding Photo Shot List - Photographs of The Ceremony

The ceremony is the most sacred part of the wedding. Don't be too intrusive while getting your shots. Here are some wedding photos you must get:

Each bridesmaid and groomsmen as they walk toward the altar

The flower girl and ring bearer as they walk down the aisle

The bride walking down the aisle and being given away

Close-up of the groom when he sees his bride

The bride and groom standing at the altar (from behind and from in front if you can manage)

The entire wedding party during the ceremony

Bride and groom's first kiss as a married couple

The couple lighting the unity candle

Bride and groom exchanging rings

Bride, groom, and attendants as they walk back down the aisle

DIY Wedding Photo Shot List - Reception Photos

The reception offers many opportunities to capture the spirit of celebration. Take a lot of journalistic style photographs during the reception of guests dancing, eating, and laughing.

In addition to these spontaneous photos, remember to snap the following pictures:

The bride, groom, and attendants in the receiving line

Groom removing and tossing the bride's garter

Bride tossing her bouquet

The wedding cake being cut and fed to the bride and groom (protect your camera from flying cake!)

The couple's first dance and dancing with their parents

The Most Important Tip for DIY Wedding Photography - Be Creative

This wedding photography shot list will get you started. It is not intended to limit your creativity. These are only the basic poses and wedding pictures a traditional couple would like to have in their wedding photo album. Take these basics and add your own ideas to create a unique wedding gift -- the gift of memories.

Sources

DFM Photography, Wedding Shotlist Helper, http://www.dfmphotography.com/wedding_shotlist.shtml

Personal Experience

Art in America: The Hudson River School

In the mid-1830s, when America was still a fledging nation, its first true style of landscape painting was born. This style was dubbed the Hudson River School. As with other art "schools," the Hudson River School was not in fact an actual school in the sense of an academic institution. It was, however, an artistic institution, in the way colleagues adhere to a similar style and enjoy each other's company.

The Hudson River School was so named because most of its adherents worked in that region, and the earliest landscapes in the style depicted the Hudson River, the Catskill Mountains, and the Adirondack Mountains (The Hudson originates in the Adirondacks and then goes down through the Catskills before continuing its way to New York City and the ocean.) The Hudson River School enjoyed considerable influence among artists of the day, and leaves a lasting legacy, as it flourished for 40 years, until the mid-1870s.

Members of the Hudson River School were friends, and often visited with each other, and also traveled together with their families. They would travel all over New York and New England, and even went to the Middle East and Europe. During the years of America's western expansion, the members of the school also followed the trend. 

They began painting landscapes from Nebraska, the Southwest, Yellowstone and Yosemite. Additionally, some of them headed to Latin America to paint the lush scenes afforded by the tropical climate.

The Hudson River School is thought to have been founded by Thomas Cole, a prominent artist of the time. Other influential and well-known artists belonging to the school include Albert Bierstadt, John Frederick Kensett, Frederic Church, Jasper Cropsey, Alfred Thompson Bricher, Asher B. Durand, and Sanford Robinson Gifford.

The elements and themes that characterize the Hudson River School are in keeping with the general feelings and optimisms of the time. There is a great attention to nature, and a loyalty to its accurate depiction. Favorite themes include those that make use of light at sunrise or sunset or skies that are clear blue. 

Thomas Kinkade's work today is reminiscent of the Hudson River School with regard to its use of light (though not often similarity of subject). Other themes include the evocation of a sense of serenity, presenting America as a new paradise, the incarnation of Eden. The main technical distinction of the Hudson River School is its artists' use of brush strokes that are practically invisible.

The New Britain Museum of American Art..A Wonderful Daytrip Destination

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New Britain, Ct  is a suburb of the Capital city of Connecticut, which is Hartford. For many years, New Britain, Ct has been known as the "Hardware City", because several large Hardware Companies have based their headquarters there. The most notable among these companies is Stanley Tools. New Britain, Ct is primarily an industrial, blue- collar town known for its large Polish community. Located on a bucolic, tree- lined street there, in a Victorian mansion, is a wonderful American Art Museum.

The New Britain Museum of American Art, at 56 Lexington Street, is located near Walnut Hill Park, a beautiful public facility lined with cherry trees. The museum's main building has housed its impressive art collections since 1937, but beginning in April 2006, after years of expansion work, the New Britain Museum of American Art  will grow by 43,000 square feet, to twice its previous size.

Upon entering the New Britain Museum of American Art, one of the first things that visitors notice is the cherry and oak woodwork present throughout the building. Large Abstract and Realist canvases grace the walls of the community area, where patrons gather for films, lectures and other events. A sunny Cafe', a charming Gift Shop and an information booth designed to look like a ship, are some of the features greeting visitors to the New Britain Museum of American Art. Works by Sol LeWitt, an internationally known conceptual artist and New Britain native, figure prominently in the lobby of the New Britain Museum of American Art.

Part of the museum's expansion is an attractive new stone and glass building adjacent to the original structure. The additional space, with its high- ceilings and abundant windows, provides a modern sensibilty to the contemporary museum visitor. Twelve new galleries are housed at the New Britain Museum of American Art. On the first floor, several small galleries are arranged in order of painting period. Many very old and famous paintings ranging from Colonial- era to late 19th century , are exhibited in these galleries. The upstairs galleries feature works ranging from early 20th century artists to examples of modern art. Works by Edward Hopper, Mary Cassatt, Jackson Pollock and Joseph Badger, among many others, are featured in these galleries.

With 5000 works of art, spanning 400 years, in its collection, the New Britain Museum of American Art is especially proud of its series of  Thomas Hart Benton's murals titled " The Arts of Life in America". The well- known series of images portraying a cross- section of America in the 1930's fill an entire room, or gallery. Other areas of note are the Colonial period, American Impressionism and the Hudson River School of Painting galleries.

The New Britain Museum of American Art is a very community- minded institution that provides many programs and services. There is a music series on Sundays, "Art Happy Hours" are held frequently and a host of children's and family programs are regularly offered. With an on- premises cafe' and modern- art diversions, the New Britain Museum of american Art  is an ideal place to bring well behaved children on a rainy afternoon. For art lovers of all ages, the New Britain Museum of American Art is a great place to stop and smell the roses and appreciate some wonderful works of art.

The New Britain Museum of American Art
56 Lexington St, New Britian, Ct    (860)229-0257        www.nbmaa.org

Open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday  11:00 am - 5:00 pm
    Thursday  11:00 am - 8:00 pm
    Saturday  10:00 am - 5:00 pm
    Sunday  12 noon - 5:00 pm

Admission is $9.00....$8.00 for senior citizens..$7.00 for students....free for children under 12.