Lori Wong Photography

It’s hard to put into words how much I enjoyed the intimacy and beauty of this wedding. Amanda and Matt are wonderful people and I am so happy for them and their family.

I meet such amazing people. It is one of my favorite things about what I do. Noemie and James are charming and beautiful inside and out. It was such a pleasure getting to know them and documenting their love for each other and for their relationship.

It has been a blessing and a curse to shoot on windy days. There were times when the breeze would running through Noemie’s hair that gave moments of true insight into her personality as she tried to brush the strands aside. And watching James chuckle at those moments; even once or twice ready to come to her aid. It was telling in such a way it showed their relationship’s true nature.

I had a hard time picking a favorite, as you can tell. Haha! (:

Congrats to to the newly weds! Thank you James and Noemie, it was such a pleasure meeting you both!

…my life made an amazing shift. This movement changed me. It made me better. Part of that change was because of two wonderful people.

In 2010 I knocked on a hotel room door unsure of who exactly was going to be on the other side. I knew it would it would be a woman, I knew she was from England and I knew she was getting married on that day. When the door opened this gorgeous woman in a knee length wedding dress opened the door.

Her warmth matched her beauty. Believe me, I was nervous. She eased every fear and nerves I had the minute I saw her smiling face. She started talking a mile a minute in her fantastic English accent.

And then she handed me a box in the mist of her talking and said it was a small gift. I was shocked. I have never had a bride give me a gift. And to boot it was chocolate from Harrods.

I don’t know what it was, but I was beyond moved the moment I met Madeleine.

Madeleine then went on to tell me as we drove to the place they were getting married that I was basically their only guest. I remember her saying that ‘yeah, there would be the people there to work the ceremony, but I would be there too.’ I was no longer just someone paid to be at her wedding, but a guest, someone she wanted there. I was so happy to be there, more than I was before. More than before she asked me to shoot her wedding over email, more than when she opened that hotel room door and believe it or not, more than when she handed me that box of chocolate. (;

I had a few moments with Terry before he was about to get married. He was nervous. Even for someone who just met him, you could tell, it was an anxious nervous. The kind of excitement that is hard to contain. I rarely see a groom before he is married. I am usually with the bride and her bridesmaids. I absolutely loved being around Terry. I am a closet romantic (well not so much anymore) and to see a man in love, just makes me heart pitter patter with happiness. Terry was making me so happy my heart was about to burst.

There are people placed in your life for a reason and I was blessed to have Mads and Terry be just that kind of people. Their wedding day was magical. Not just for them, but for me as well. I made two new friends that day. It was a lot of fun and changed me as a photographer forever.

Happy Anniversary Terry and Madeleine. I hope your day is just as magical as it was two years ago!

We haven’t done fireworks like this in my family in years. Mostly just what happens when a family grows up, I guess.

We had Otter Pops out.

We had dud fireworks.

We had the chairs lined up at the end of the drive way.

We had matches that wouldn’t work.

We had the bucket of water ready, you know…for just in case.

We had Dad watering the lawn for practically 30 minutes, to protect the lawn and house from stray fireworks, until we told him to stop it and come watch!!

We had my younger brother trying to light me on fire…okay, that may be a slight exaggeration. haha.

We had love.

We had laughter…a lot of laughter.

We had an amazing time.

I hope you had a memorable 4th of July as well.

I had a conversation not too long ago. This is how it went:

“Lori what type of editing do you do in Photoshop?”

“I will edit blemishes, maybe lighten or darken a photo, sometimes bump up the color. If I am going to do any sort of  major Photoshopping it will be obvious. But for the most part, I edit a photo so you don’t notice it.”

“What do you mean, so I don’t notice it?”

That is when I tried to explain, I don’t edit photos to prove I have edited a photo. I want you to see the people and places in a picture, not any sort of heavy editing in photo. It takes away from the purpose of why I take pictures. I want to show the light in people’s eyes. To see the beauty I see. Personality and relationships and love. I try to edit in the way that though there may be editing, I don’t want you to think about your photo being edited.

If you would have never seen the “before” picture, you would you thought I did a lot of Photoshopping to the “after” picture?

My goal is that your answer is no.

Granted, this means, sometimes my clients wonder what they have paid me for (hahaha), but in this day and age, when photos are manipulated to the point of awful distortion and lack of realism and truth, I don’t want to be a part of that.

I have thought time and again to go back to film for that very reason. It keeps you honest and makes you work hard and think better. But I also enjoy technology. I love looking at a picture right after I take it…if I need to. I like the option to take 15 pictures in 15 seconds. I am able to capture some amazing real moments when I am able to hit that shutter button numerous times in a matter of seconds. If you ask any of those who have been in front of my camera, they have heard that shutter go off a lot at times.

So I try my hardest to find the truth that film brings by thinking about the photo I’m taking while still taking advantage of technology.

I hope this brings a little more understanding to my post work and the work I do in Photoshop, or don’t do in Photoshop. (;

I am happy to talk more about things related to photography, the things I have learned about having a small business and about photography in general. I have had the opportunity to share a meal or two with a few different people to discuss anything photography related…or not related and I just ended up making a good friend! (:

Shoot me an email lori@loriwongphotography.com. Or Facebook me www.facebook.com/loriwongphotography. Or my website www.loriwongphotography.com.

I have not posted these two session on the blog yet, they are coming soon.