Tamara Kenyon Photography's Blog

Guest Post: My Wedding Photos Made Me Cry – by Allison Kaptein

I was doing photos for some clients and we came to the conversation of wedding photos. This poor couple had an awful wedding photography experience and were gracious enough to share it with you.

I mainly want to share this because I feel that it’s super important to really get to know your photographer and do your research. These guys were married ONLY 3 YEARS AGO. Which means this was totally recent. You hear lots of horror stories with people getting married 10+ years ago, but it still happens today.

Thanks again Allison for sharing your story.

PS. If you’re reading this in Google Reader you won’t notice the issue, but I apologize if my blog doesn’t look like there much formatting (spacing, paragraph breaks). Still working on fixing that. Bear with me.

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My wedding photos made me cry, and they weren’t tears of joy.

Hello Everyone! I am so excited to guest blog for Tamara! My first guest blogging experience.

A few weeks ago Tamara did a photo shoot for me and my husband. The reason? We didn’t get engagement photos taken and our wedding photos are terrible. No really, like the worst wedding photos you have ever seen.
Before we get to the photos, I’ll give you a little bit of a back story…
I was living in northern Idaho, and our wedding took place in Reno Nevada (no I didn’t get married in a drive through chapel, Reno is my hometown). Because I was far away my mom was doing lots of the leg work for the wedding. I would find vendors and locations online and then she and my aunts, cousins, and maid of honor would go check them out, I think they actually quite liked this part, and then report back to me, and we’d make a decision on each particular item. It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t that stressful for me either!
When it came time to look for photographers, my mom told me that she had been talking with some ladies at her gym, and that she had a couple of names for me to check out. Most of the photographers had websites, but one woman didn’t. We both checked out the websites, and my mom went to the office of the woman with out the website, but I didn’t. I took my mom’s word that her photos were good. My mom and I narrowed it down to two photographers, the woman who didn’t have a website, and a guy who did.
Through this process I discovered that one of my friends from high school who had recently been married had used the woman photographer. I sent a facebook message to my friend asking about her experience, she responded that she had had a great experience and pointed out to me which photos on her facebook page were taken by this photog.

The photos all looked nice. My mom told me that she preferred the woman’s style to the mans, and that the woman was a bit more reasonably priced. So we went with the female photographer.

Biggest.mistake.of.my.wedding. Seriously.

The worst part? She was great on the actual day! She was personable, yet directive enough to rope the bridal party and families to where they needed to be for
our “requested shots.” Almost. There were some key shots that we don’t have. We have zero pictures of: just me, the entire bridal party together (bridesmaids,
groomsman, the two of us), and only one or two of just the two of us. Even that could be forgivable to me, if the photos were good. But they aren’t. They are
terrible. Photos have weird shadows on them, all of the pictures of the ceremony are blurry, the pictures of our reception are all dark. I have better pictures taken by my aunt who has a basic DSLR camera that she uses as a hobby.

It was a huge disappointment to receive photos like this after our wedding.

Awful Wedding Photos - Wedding Photography Horror Stories

Fast forward a few years to our photo shoot with Tamara. I was really hoping that the session would capture “us” in a way that our wedding photos didn’t. And it did. I LOVE the pictures. Even though we aren’t wearing our wedding attire, I already want to replace every wedding photo in our house with these photos.

So moral of the story? Seriously research your photographer, and if they don’t have a website? Forget about it.

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Stay tuned tomorrow for pictures from the Kaptein’s photo session with Tamara Kenyon Photography.

Latest Playlist

I am a music lover. I’m always tagging songs that I hear to download later. I eventually get a nice little collection in a period of time and I put it together into a play list. Some songs are old songs that NEVER get old, and some are new songs that I’ll eventually take out and move on.

Here are my latest.

Dog Days are Over – Florence + The Machine

If I Ever Leave this World Alive – Flogging Molly

Sound of Sunshine – Michael Franti & Spearhead

Paper Planes – MIA

Black Betty – Spiderbait

Boom Wuk – Tanya Stephens

The Outsiders – Needtobreathe

Monday Morning – Melanie Fiona

Don’t Worry – Playing for Change

Sealion – Feist

Skinny Love – Bon Iver

Black Bird – Evan Rachel Wood

I Run to You – Lady Antebellum

Supermassive Black Hole – Muse

Assassin – Muse

Someone Like You – SafetySuit

Out of Our Heads – Sheryl Crow

Detours – Sheryl Crow

Diamond Ring – Sheryl Crow

Motivation – Sheryl Crow

Doctor My Eyes – Sheryl Crow

Your Winter – Sister Hazel

Champagne High – Sister Hazel

And just for fun…. here’s an oldie but goodie:

Ps. Another random note. Has anyone else noticed how awesome the music selection for the Twilight movies always are? I own every soundtrack because the music is great. Also, the TV show Chuck has great music. While we’re at it Grey’s Anatomy usually has good tunes too. I own several of the soundtracks.

Ghostly – Boise Photographer

This was a photo that was taken on 4th of July by the our friend Andy.

Ghost Images

We’re pretty sure that this is what was keeping us up all night. We kept hearing these strange noises in the forest. Come to find out that we were walking distance from a cemetery.

Okay just kidding. I know as convincing as my story is *sarcasm*, I really had you going. Though we were walking distance from a cemetery.

We were slowing down the shutter for some fun shots and came up with this one. Little did we know that the reflection from the campfire was going to make my head look like it was floating.

Do you have any crazy photos like this? Just goes to show that you shouldn’t believe everything you see that is on the internet.

Also, you can find more images from this camping trip HERE taken by both Alecia and Andy Hoobing.

Eat, Pray, Love – Boise Photographer

A couple weeks ago I went to go see Eclipse a movie with my mom and sisters. During the movie, this trailer came on:

I remembered my friend Heather had this book sitting on her desk one day. After seeing the movie clip, I was inspired to read the book.

I just started it and am already totally in love. I’m hoping to finish it soon so that I can catch it while it’s still in the theatres.

Have you read this book?

Yard Sale Props – Boise Photographer

I’ll admit it. I love going to yard sales to find photo props. Usually that’s where I can find old kids toys and blankets that make perfect backgrounds and such.

Here are some sweet finds from today. The rocking horse was $5 and the blanket was $2. You can’t tell from the gross iPhone photo but he blanket is SUPER soft and the rocking horse is adorable.

Yard Sale Photo Props - Boise Idaho Photographer

Firework Photos in Anne Morrison Park – Boise Photography

I’ve never really photographed fireworks before but lately I’ve been on a time-lapse kick. This kick has also made me realize how extremely my camera sensor is too! Will be taking care of that one soon.

Anyway, here are some of my favorites from the 4th of July fireworks display from Anne Morrison Park. A group of us decided to camp out at the top of a parking garage.

Boise Fireworks Display in Anne Morrison Park - Boise Photography

Fireworks Display in Anne Morrison Park - Boise Photography

Fireworks Display in Anne Morrison Park - Boise Photographer

Fireworks Display in Anne Morrison Park - Boise Photography

Happy Independence Day – Boise Photographer

I hope you’re spending your day with the people you love.

Tamara & Matt in front of the Trevi Fountain

Blooming Yard! – Boise Photographer

So remember back when I posted photos of my yard in the EARLY spring?

Well I’m excited to share with you what it looks like now. Before you judge, just ignore the big fat yellow spot in front of the shasta daisies. Apparently they weren’t getting enough water because the sprinkler was messed up. We’ve fixed that problem.

Some stuff is taking over more space than others, but the point of this post is to show how well everything is finally blooming.

Idaho Flowers

As you can tell from this next post, I still have lots of seeds that are coming in – hence the small green plans you see.

Idaho Flowers

See what I was saying about the yellow spot? The sprinklers were being blocked by the shastas. That’s what they’re so huge. Shasta daisies are out of control. Some of them are even falling over.

Idaho Flowers

Peace Through Music – Boise Photographer

I really love renting documentaries. It drives my husband crazy because he doesn’t prefer them. My Netflix is getting really good at picking ones out for me now.

So when Playing for Change: Peace Through Music arrived, my husband wasn’t surprised. Not only was it a documentary but it was a MUSIC one. I love music so it was a good mix.

Here is a basic description of the documentary:

This compelling documentary features musicians from across the globe playing songs in their distinctive style, which directors Mark Johnson and Jonathan Walls then weaved into a single musical whole that speaks of humanity’s deep desire for peace. Proving that music can transcend race, class, politics and other divisions, the musicians in this virtual collaboration range from obscure sitar players in India to international rock star Bono.

It could be the hippy girl deep down inside me, but this song was (by far) my favorite. It gave me goosebumps and I’ve been listening to it a lot lately. In particular, the female vocalist’s part was my favorite. Take a look, I promise it will boost your mood a little

Trees – Boise Photographer

I have a fascination with trees. I love how every tree is different. While looking through honeymoon photos I found this one that I never edited. It was taken in Malta.