Maui Wedding Photography


	Why You Want Our Affordable Maui Wedding Photography You are about to enjoy the most romantic day of your life. Cherish it always with exquisite photography by a Maui wedding photographer who knows how to capture those special moments, as they happen. This page explains our photographic philosophy and approach to shooting our Maui beach weddings. John Souter, who is the owner of Affordable Maui Weddings, is a very busy wedding photographer. Because of his extensive wedding experience, he knows how to get the most from his camera equipment and from our couples. If you want great Maui wedding photography at a reasonable price, you will want to use Affordable Maui Weddings. Unless he is already booked for another wedding, John will be your photographer. John has shot over 2000 weddings. His work is as good as photographers who charging way more than what we charge on this website. Most of the photos on the Affordable website were shot either by John or one of his assistants. As you look over this website you can see the quality of his photography. When it comes to your wedding photography, we really want to give you the best possible romantic images. John shoots with high-quality 18 megapixel Canon digital cameras. He also uses efficient zoom lenses with a very wide range so that he can catch wide angle shots of your entire group and long telephoto close-ups of the two of you at sunset. Unlike the old film cameras, digital allow us to tell — right on the beach — if we've captured our shots. We strive to shoot at the minimum with a 3 to 1 coverage ratio compared with the number of photos in your package. That way the quality of the final images you receive will be top notch.
Our Maui Wedding Photographic Style The Lenses We Use. John shoots with a zoom that has a 28-250 range. That's a wide angle capable of getting very wide images, married with and a long, long zoom (and of course everything in between that range). Compared to the lenses we used back in the 35mm film days, these new zooms offer an unprecedented range which allow John to work fast and obtain a lot of different shots and angles quickly as lighting conditions and wedding action rapidly change. We've all seen extreme wide angle shots which cause facial distortion on close-ups, like when someone's nose looks unusually large compared to the normal size of their face. A nice wide angle is great for shooting candid images and catching the couple in their more unguarded moments. They are also excellent for shooting the wedding party. Because a telephoto tends to be much more flattering than a wide angle lens, John will use the longer telephoto range to back way up and to shoot portraits from a distance, throwing the background out of focus and emphasizing just the bride or groom (like the photo on the right). A long telephoto lens can also be especially helpful when the sun is setting. Portraits of the couple shot from further away, enlarge the size of the sun in the frame and emphasize the color on the horizon. This is a technique John often uses when the sunset is not real strong because of overcast conditions and he wants to emphasize the color that is available in the sky. Flash or the Natural Look? We try not to have a single approach to our photography. Sometimes natural lighting is perfect for what we want to achieve. Again, look at the photo of the bride above. This image was taken under the shadow of beachside trees so it produced a nice natural look. At a Maui beach wedding, the conditions often change quickly as clouds move to block the sun and then moments later retreat allowing sunlight to flood the beach. A outdoor wedding photography must be prepared to quickly alter the settings on his camera as lighting conditions change. Strong sunsets behind a couple generally calls for a fairly strong fill flash. Cloudy or overcast skies can allow for both a milder flash and natural light photography. Whatever conditions we encounter at your wedding, we like to mix up our approach so that we can achieve a varied range of pleasing wedding photos on your final CD. Maui Beach Wedding Conditions. We have been shooting Maui beach weddings for so long we definitely have developed our own style and "bag of tricks" for achieving consistent first class results. Good photography on our beaches starts with having the right beach. Sure, all of our beaches photograph nicely, but for weddings, some beaches are just more effective to get the kind of results we like to provide to our couples. This is why we have a top group of beaches from which we consistently choose — depending upon the conditions — so that we can give you top notch images. We always try to use beaches that are not crowded on the day of our weddings. Less people in the background makes it easier for us to get you isolated on the beach. There are almost always people — as all of the beaches are public. But we are very conscious of them and work at keeping them out of our photos. We often position our couples in front of bathers in the background and aim the lens in such a way as to avoid having someone pop up in the frame. Our goal is to make it appear that you were the only people on the beach during your wedding. A Maui beach wedding provides the perfect natural locale for wedding photography. And we know how to blend our couples into the incredible backgrounds provided to us at all of our *Maui beach wedding* sites.
	Our Maui Wedding Coverage We do shoot for 3 to 1 coverage, meaning we like to have at least three times as many images to choose from as the number of images in your package. (But we often shoot many more). And that coverage tends to keep the level of quality high of the images you receive. But its also important for you to understand the three main content areas of the photos we shoot for you in order to complete your package: 1. Recording the Experience of Your Maui Wedding. You want a record of this very important event which is your union as husband and wife. But we also try to be artistic in our choice of shots with creative angles and close-ups of the wedding party, the leis and ring exchanges. We want our photos to "tell the story" of your wedding so that you can look back and remember it vividly just from our images. 2. Catching the Romantic Moments. These intimate and fun stages in the event are both before and after the wedding. They include candid moments like the toast and cake cutting, posing behind "Just Maui'd" written in the sand, a possible sit-down on the beach, and capturing your interaction right up to and after the sun actually sets. We're looking for spontaneous smiles, and interplay between the bride and groom. 3. Group Shots of You, Your Family and Friends. While this includes the more static shots of your family and wedding party which almost every wedding has, it also involves capturing some candid moments that you have with your family and guests. We are always on the look out for those moments that define your new life with your new spouse. Capturing the Maui Sunset For those Maui beach weddings that take place at sunset, we believe that capturing good sunset images is one of our major priorities. You've come all of this way to Maui to enjoy the unique experience of being married on a beach in Hawaii. And the sunset (assuming with have a good one) is the final moment to complete your Maui dream wedding. So we think of these photos as "the money shots" so to speak. And that's why we have devoted a lot of time over the years to perfecting our skills and equipment so that we can capture for our couples the best possible images of them right before the sun sets. Over the years we have watched what other photographers shoot during the limited minutes available right before the sun disappears and have been amazed how they treat these important golden photo opportunities. In many cases these are well established photographers who just don't place any emphasis upon get decent sunset photography. Often it seems that while we are concentrating on shooting these shots quickly and effectively, we can look up the beach and see our competitors just talking to their couples. It seems that shooting the sunset is not much of a priority to many Maui photographers. Most modern digital cameras make shooting the sunset fairly easy. But when you are attempting to shoot a couple in front of that sunset, the challenges go up dramatically. Shooting the sunset is both an art and a technical discipline. A photographer must not flash the couple in such a way that the sunset washes out. Neither can he allow the color on the horizon to overpower the couple so that they become silhouettes. We know from years of shooting Maui beach weddings that mastering sunset photography takes practice, testing and a lot of on-the-job experience. There are a lot of different tasks that we perform when we shoot a couple at sunset. We are constantly adjusting the camera and the flash in order to get just the right mix of light on the couple and sunset color on the horizon. This is all the more true as the lighting conditions change. Of course, all sunset are not created equal. Sometimes the light from the sun is overbearing, which doesn't allow us to shoot that globe without putting someone's head in front of it. At other times the sun's rays are muted by a cloud coverage. We look at each evening's sunset photography as an exciting fresh challenge and we work hard at giving you awesome images while the sun is offering its last praise for the day you've chosen to for your wedding.
How Our Maui Photography "Works" The Image Editing Process. After your wedding, we download all of the images our team has shot and place it onto our computer. We then break down these images into three groups: 1) All of the images that we are going to upload Online, 2) The extra images that don't make the cut and which will not be edited or uploaded Online, and 3) The images that you have paid for and which will end up on your CD. We lightly edit all of the images that are put Online for you to view. This involves straightening them, limited cropping out unwanted objects or people, lightening and darkening as needed, and making them look as good as possible. We do not use Photoshop for our editing; nor do we do edit extensively. On the whole, the images you receive will be pretty close to the images as they are taken in our cameras. We do lightly edit all of our images, tweaking them so that you get the best possible quality. (We do also perform some creative special effects on a few images, see below). We select from that group the number of images you have purchased in your package which we think are the "best." These will go onto your CD Rom (or onto a DVD if the number is over a hundred images). Even though you don't get all of the images that we consider to be top notch, you can see all of the images Online that make our final cut. If you see images which you like Online (but which are not contained in your CD), you can order them directly from us. You don't have to order additional digital negatives beyond what's already in your package. If you prefer, you can order regular prints and enlargements through the Online service that we are using. If you choose to let your family have access to these images, they can also take advantage of this service. But all digital images (which can be reproduced in any way you see fit) must be ordered directly from us. You can simply send us a list of the image numbers, authorize us to recharge your credit card, and we'll send them to you. Your Wedding CD. The images you receive on your CD may be made into prints, enlarged, or even edited further by you or someone for you. In most cases they should have enough pixels to be enlarged to much bigger sizes. You will have all rights to duplicate those images in any way you see fit. After your wedding and once the images have been edited, we will put them Online and send you a link to where you can view them. We will also mail you your CD as soon as we can. If you are still on Maui it is sometimes possible that you can pick up the CD from us. Artistic Creative Editing of Your Images. For all of our Maui wedding packages we offer a certain number of artistic and creative image editing. With this editing we will turn some of your images into black and white, or sepia tone, make part of the image soft focus leaving the faces or flowers or some other object in focus, make part of the image color and the rest into a black and white, etc. You can see on the Wedding Package Comparison page how many images we will do within each package. If you choose not to have us edit your images in the way, please let us know upon booking or before your wedding. On the other hand, if you would like to have extensive editing done for a larger number of images, we can also do this for a fee. Just be sure to let us know what you want. When You Have Special Needs. Over the years we've had many different requests from our couples about their photography. Some would prefer to see all of their images, even the ones that don't make our cut. Photographers or graphic designers can often take just about any image (even if it has some imperfection to our eyes) and turn it into a work of art. So if you have special needs that don't fit into the scope of how we normally do things here, please let us know and we can talk about other options.
	Check Out Our Maui Videos Videography and photography are closely aligned. In fact, when we have a separate videographer at our weddings we are working together (sharing our time with you) so that we can both create top notch quality media for you. If you are interested in having both a video shot along with your photography, be sure and take a look at our video page:
	To talk about Your Maui Wedding or Maui Vow Renewal call Toll Free: 800-791-2299
Maui Weddings \| Maui Wedding Packages \| Maui Wedding Services \| Ala Carte \| Beaches \| Ceremonies \| Vow Renewals \| About Us \| Site Map AffordableMauiWeddings.com is Copyright 2012 Maui Me, Inc. All rights reserved. Kihei, Maui, HI 96753