Choosing a Vermont Wedding Photographer: Why Their Approach Matters As Much As Their Portfolio

There are a lot of really talented wedding photographers in Vermont. Like, a lot.

And if you are looking for a photographer right now, you can probably find plenty of people whose work you think is beautiful. Maybe you love their colors. Maybe everything feels warm and earthy or cinematic or bright or whatever aesthetic you are drawn to. Maybe their photos fit the picture you already have in your head of what beautiful wedding photography is supposed to look like!

That matters.

You should like your photographer's photos.

But I (as one of those many Vermont wedding photographers) don't think just liking the photos is enough.

This is because the photos you are looking at are the end result of an entire experience you weren't there for! You don't know what was happening five seconds before that photo was taken. You don't know whether that couple wandered into a field and spontaneously started running around together, or whether their photographer said, "Okay, run toward me."

You don't know whether they were having an amazing time.

You don't know whether they felt awkward as hell.

You don't know whether their photographer spent the whole day quietly observing, gave them constant direction, or landed somewhere in between.

“Kiss her face all over”

And you definitely don't know whether you would want to be photographed that same way.

A beautiful photo doesn't tell you how it was made

I think this is particularly hard because so much of what we're drawn to aesthetically is wrapped up in our ideas about what beauty is supposed to look like.

We see certain bodies, certain couples, certain clothes, certain venues, certain landscapes, certain ways of touching each other, and we have learned to recognize those things as beautiful.

That's not necessarily a problem on its own.

But I think it's worth asking yourself whether you are drawn to the actual photography or to an aesthetic ideal that the photograph is giving you.

Because if the photos you love depend on you looking, moving, dressing, interacting, or performing in a way that is fundamentally not you... what's the point?

Your photographer isn't just making pictures of you, you have to actually live through the process of making them.

"Candid" does not mean nobody told them what to do

“get all snuggled up!”

This is one of those words in photography that has gotten so broad that I'm not sure it means much anymore.

I describe a lot of my work as candid but I wouldn’t describe myself as a fully documentary photographer.

And technically, I don't "pose" people very often in the traditional sense either. Usually I am giving people some kind of structure or prompt and then photographing whatever they choose to do with it.

I'm not playing Twister with your limbs and saying, okay, move this hand two inches down, turn your chin exactly this way, put your foot here, now look up, now look down. But I'm also not standing 40 feet away silently hoping something interesting happens.

To put this plainly, a lot of photos that look incredibly candid were in fact prompted in some way.

People do not generally find themselves spontaneously sprinting through fields together at sunset. A photographer probably suggested that part.

“Stand in a line and look around at all these beautiful people!”

What happens once they start running, though? The weird laugh, somebody almost falling over, grabbing each other's hands, the expression that happens when one person realizes the other is absolutely outrunning them? That's where the real stuff happens.

And this is why I think it is important to ask photographers what words like "documentary," "candid," "natural," and "unposed" actually mean to them. Because two photographers can show you photos that look similar and create them in completely different ways.

I don't want to be invisible at your wedding

There is a pretty common idea in wedding photography that a good documentary photographer should be invisible.

I don't really buy that. I am a person. I am in fact a tall and fat person, too.

I walked into the room. I have cameras hanging off my body. I am clearly doing something.

I didn’t tell them where to walk or how to enter. Anna chose to look towards me and we made eye contact and I cheered her on!

Pretending my presence doesn't change the environment feels about as realistic to me as researchers claiming they are completely neutral observers. We are there. Our presence affects things.

That doesn't mean I want to commandeer your wedding.

Actually, one of the things I would personally hate most is having a photographer who made my wedding about them. Your wedding is not a content creation opportunity for me. It is not an excuse for me to keep repeating something because I think it would look good in my portfolio. It is not my personal styled shoot with a marriage happening somewhere in the background.

There are times when I want to be really discreet.

There are times when I am just following you around, paying attention to what is happening between you, your family, your friends, and everyone else in the space.

And there are also times when I am going to talk to you.

I am going to check in.

I am going to hype you up.

I might help you advocate for a break.

I might ask whether you need water.

I might tell you the light is doing something cool and ask whether you want to go outside for five minutes.

I don't think my job requires pretending I don't exist. I think it requires knowing when my presence is useful and when I need to get the hell out of the way.

Your photographer is part of your wedding experience

This is probably the biggest thing I wish more people considered when choosing someone. You are not just buying photographs… You are hiring a human being who is going to be around you during a very vulnerable, strange, overstimulating, emotional day.

And weddings are a performance, at least to some extent: You are being witnessed, people are looking at you, you're probably the center of attention more than you usually are.

Even if you have intentionally built a wedding that avoids a lot of traditional bullshit, there are probably still moments where you become extremely aware that people are watching you.

“Hey Jules, can you fluff Hanne’s dress?”

Being photographed adds another layer to that.

I think being photographed is weird.

I tell people that all the time.

It would be kind of bizarre to me to pretend otherwise.

You are standing there while someone points a camera at you and pays extremely close attention to what your face and body are doing. Of course that can feel vulnerable.

You do not need to show up already comfortable with that.

You do not need to convince me you aren't nervous.

You don't need to perform being okay when something isn't okay.

If you need a minute where nobody is perceiving you, take the minute.

If something I ask you to do feels bad, tell me.

If you need water, food, quiet, your partner, a bathroom, five minutes alone, whatever... that matters more than the photo I could have taken during those five minutes.

Your experience is more important than any individual photograph.

I find myself saying that a lot lately.

And I mean it.

This is also why I care so much about planning

“go wander around together, you newlyweds, you”

I don't want you making 700 logistical decisions on your wedding day.

We will already have talked about what matters to you.

We will have talked about the people who matter to you.

We will have talked about the things you are excited about and, ideally, the things you are nervous about too.

We will have a timeline.

Not because I think your wedding needs to run like a corporate conference, but because I think having some scaffolding makes it easier to actually be present.

We know roughly where we need to be and why.

We know which things are fixed and which things we can play by ear.

We know what we might do if it rains.

We know what photographs actually matter to you.

And then Vermont does whatever Vermont decides it is doing that day.

“Just forget about me and enjoy the party!”

It rains.

The light changes.

Someone is late.

The field is muddy.

Dinner runs behind.

Somebody needs a break.

Whatever.

We look at what we've got and collaborate.

The plan exists to support the experience. The experience does not exist to satisfy the plan.

Your photographer probably does know more about photography than you do

I mean, hopefully… But that doesn't mean your photographer knows what is best for you.

I probably do know whether a certain location will photograph well.

I know what the light is doing.

I know how long family photos realistically take.

“omg you guys these lights are incredible, can you just go up the stairs and do something sweet?”

I know what will make a photograph technically stronger.

But photographs are only one part of your wedding.

I do not know your relationships better than you do.

I don't know what your body needs better than you do.

I don't know that spending 30 minutes taking sunset portraits is worth missing 30 minutes with your grandmother.

I don't get to decide that a photo is important enough for you to be uncomfortable.

Being the professional means I should be able to offer information, options, guidance, and recommendations.

It does not mean I become the boss of your wedding.

So what should you actually ask a photographer?

When you're talking to photographers, I would go beyond asking whether they have photographed your venue before or whether they describe themselves as documentary.

Ask what couple portraits actually look like with them.

Ask how much direction they give.

Ask what they do when someone feels awkward.

Ask what happens when the timeline falls apart.

Ask how they handle it if you change your mind about something.

Ask what they do if you don't want to do one of their prompts.

Ask how involved they are throughout the day.

Ask how they think about consent.

Ask how they balance getting good photographs with letting you actually experience your wedding.

And pay attention to how you feel while they answer.

Do you feel like you have to impress them?

Do you feel like they already have a specific version of your wedding in their head? Do you feel like you're being sold an aesthetic Or do you feel like they're actually curious about you?

There are a lot of photographers making beautiful work. I don't think you necessarily need to find the one photographer whose images are objectively more beautiful than everybody else's, because I'm not convinced that person exists.

I think you need to find the person whose work you love and whose way of making that work makes sense for you.

The relationship matters. The process matters. How you feel while being photographed matters.

Because eventually you'll have the photos but first you have to actually live the day they came from.