Engagement Photos

In the last year and a half or so, I have been looking for photographers for the
wedding. The standard has always been a Wedding Story Photo by David Song.
David was the photographer for my friend C’s wedding and my sister eventually
hired him for her own wedding. When I was with David in my sister’s wedding, I
was impressed by his methodology. He has difficulties speaking English, but he
is able to show the bride and groom how to pose. When I finally saw my sister’s
wedding album of 16” x 20” I was blown away by the images.

I have attended many weddings in the last year and I am very persnickety about
the photographers. One photographer hired many teen-agers to help him out, but
I don’t think they knew how to take photos. Another photographer had the big
strobes in the church and the hotel, but those lights were very painful to the
eyes. Another photographer did not bring the right lens and thus could not take
a picture of the statue of Mary along with the bride and groom. Mary’s statue
was about three stories high.

I learned from my sister’s wedding that the only thing you have of the wedding
in later years are the photos. The flowers, the decorations, the guests can and
will be forgotten. But if you have the photos, it will be there to remind you
of the day.

Before the wedding, the SO went to the salon to be done. I got the distinct
impression that the person she had the appointment with did not show up. The
salon manager kept speaking in Korean with the other hair and make-up
specialists. The salon eventually had to call some people to cover for the
appointment. The SO had her hair and make-up done. What pains a woman must go
through just to get the right look. One thing that the SO mentioned was that
her eyelids were blackened with a black liner. I said that they do that to
everyone. The SO said that the inner eyelids close to the eyes were covered
with liner. OUCH! I could have never been a woman. I can’t stand that type of
pain. Jab! Jab! Jab the eye! Well, I guess I could have been, I would just
have been one hell of a lesbian who was a fag hag.

No matter, pain was not a problem. The SO managed to get through it all. Next
up was the photo session itself. After finagling with the studio because we
both had misunderstandings about our appointment, etc, we ended up doing studio
shots and the city street shots. I never realized how silly the poses are in
the studio shots. No wonder I have always had problems doing it. The poses are
never done by real people because they can be difficult and without purpose.
For example, nose to nose pose. Well, if you did that, it would be for about
four seconds. In our poses, we were like that for twenty to thirty seconds.

The SO had most of the photos. I should have told David the ff: Ako si
Maganda. Siya si Malakas. Ako dapat ang maraming litrato. Three outfits.
Formal with barong and gown. Southern Philippine with malongs. And, Hawaiian
themed with my blue hawaiian shirt. The photos are fabulous. I even managed to
look regal in one of them.