Second photographer on wedding day {Auckland-Hamilton-Tauranga lifestyle couples-engagement photographer}

I have a lot of questions from my couples about second photographer on their wedding, do they need it, what coverage better to order and what actually the point to have a second shooter on wedding day?

Im shooting weddings around Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga and surroundings areas and can tell a lot of times I can cover wedding all by myself with all my activity, creativity, fast move around the space and try to capture all important for couple moments :).

But sometimes its just not enough, especially when you need a full day coverage, you having a big wedding with a lot of guests and events. So second photographer can capture:

• groom getting ready when main shooter capturing bride getting ready on different location,
• ceremony from different angles and sides (one photographer shoot bride with her father walking down the aisle, another photographer groom's reactions and even tears in their eyes, thats a priceless moments),
• one photographer doing bridal party shots and intimate session, another one shooting them  from different angle with different focal length of the lens or doing receptions details shots and wedding guests candid shots (schedule always running late and often bride and groom enter the reception with main photographer when guests already took their places (so there is no time to capture all these beautiful details of decoration, cake etc.).

Don't forget a peoples factor: everyone can miss the moment, be tired, and just be in a different spot when something important happening. Thats why the ability to have a second shooter can save the day. I can also tell you a secret: everyone love to have a buddy at work so you feel less tired, more inspired and less stressful, wedding can be a hectic event :)

So its totally your personal choice, but I highly recommend to have a second photographer on wedding day (most of our packages offering it).

Im also like to help out other talented photographers in Auckland-Hamilton-Tauranga areas with shooting their weddings and be a part of couples special day, take of responsibilities of main shooter, don't waste the time on post-processing and enjoy creativity and fun of the day (if I have any free spots in my busy schedule, of course ;).

Have a look at these few images what I took as second shooter with Erica Jane for Kelly Oliver in Ataahua Garden Venue, enjoy this gallery!

Contact me with any questions!

(BOOK YOUR WEDDING}

Wedding celebrant - Featured Guest in the Blog | Auckland wedding photographer

Meet a new guest in our Blog - beautiful wedding celebrant Valeria (Lera) Antipenko! 

I love to meet a new people in the industry and hope this information can help our brides to made their wedding day run smoothly. More surprises coming soon in the Blog ;)

First what I think when remember Lera its a high energy and passion: love to her profession, to dance and how she speaks and care about people. So meet Lera Antipenko (www.nzcelebrant.nz):

"Choosing a celebrant is an important part of your wedding planning process. These days, not everyone is after the same thing.

I am a registered marriage celebrant and have completed a celebrant course through the Celebrant School of New Zealand. I design wedding ceremonies with traditional international customs that are tailored to create special intimate moments for your ceremony.

Are you looking for an open minded, passionate, energetic, well organised, committed, approachable, flexible person who will guide you through your ceremonial process? Then I would love to assist you create your special day.

I'm all about creating a fun, relaxed but enthusiastic environment. After all, you're getting married and this should be one of the most special days of your lives! The only thing that limits you is your imagination.

This process is all about your dreams, your personalities, your relationship. Every wedding ceremony is as special as the couples with whom I work. A great deal of time is spent creating a custom-designed ceremony. 

In addition to being your celebrant I can also coordinate your special day and provide entertainment. As I am a professional Latin American dancer and entertainer I can provide dance lessons so your first dance will be one to remember.

Available for marriages anywhere in New Zealand. I'm contactable 24/7. Any questions or queries please give me a call 02102432052 or send me an email info@nzcelebrant.nz."

Thank you Lera! Look forward to our next meeting (possibly on another wedding in excited environment :)

Contact me with any questions!

{BOOK YOUR WEDDING}

Manukau Wedding | Auckland Botanic Gardens | New Zealand Wedding Photographer

LUKE & DEBBIE

Wedding in Manukau Baptist Church, Auckland Botanic gardens and Bronco's - what could be better!? Luke and Debbie decided to have a nice quiet ceremony with close family and friends and share these happy moments with me.

Need to mentioned this couple connected to me as relatives: Debbie is my husband's cousin, but I still been at work (shooting, trying to catch and capture all important moments, raw emotions, happy and crying moments during this day. So no talking just action :)

Its so important to see all these stages of the special day for couple: prepare the church, groom waiting the bride, bride with bridesmaids arrived on retro old cars, guest reactions, ceremony moments, crying and laughing, congratulations from friends and family, bridal party fun, quiet moment away from the guests, reception - emotional speeches (Debbie's dad in the hospital at this moment, so it was really sensitive moment to heard his speech and seen bride reaction and how groom supported her) and much more different events :)

What a great day, what a good place to be, what a beautiful couple!

Did I mentioned the wedding cake? It's amazing piece of art: two Minions, shows this fun loving couple character and they looks just gorgeous!

Congratulations Debbie and Luke!

Happy future together!

Contact me with any questions!

{BOOK YOUR WEDDING}

Spring and Summer Wedding Photography Package

Spring and Summer are coming and it's a beautiful time for a wedding!

We want you to save money on wedding photography package (save up to $500) and we will do something what we really love to do:

to capture natural moments of your wedding day, lifestyle candid shots and some formals, emotions and feelings, some fun and joy in flawless manner.

Would you like to tell us more about your wedding day, your plans and ideas? Feel free to contact us with any questions and ideas! info@levienphotography.com.

Use the opportunity to get a special price for your wedding photography (limited availability). Check our Pricing and Packages.

Elopement package is available on request.

Check our Engagement | Couples Pictures and

Wedding Portfolio

Look forward to hearing from you!

Lets make this Spring / Summer day special and treasure your memories forever with stunning images!

DO you have a wedding at different time of the year?

Check our Early Bird Wedding Package 2016 and Winter Wedding Special at Pricing page (limited availability)!

St Matthews Church Ceremony | Auckland Wedding photographer

Simeti & Faith

St Matthews Church Auckland City, Dream Centre - Wedding Venues

Every wedding is so special! I can't believe how many events, emotions and feelings you can fit in just in one day and how many different type of photography happens:  details, portraits, kids pictures, family formals, couples special moments, documentary and lifestyle shots, candid shots of everything around.

I just love all this atmosphere!

This day 26th of June was such a special for beautiful couple - Simeti and Faith! These guys been the most amazing couple! Hard to imagine they together since their first meeting at high school, what a romantic story (school boyfriend became a husband :) 

It was amazing to move through this day with guys: getting ready at their houses (bride and groom not seen each other till this special moment in church where all families struggle to hold their tears, groom as well - Faith been so beautiful walking down the aisle).

Its amazing moments when bride went down to the aisle and groom been waiting for her near altar. Need to mentioned they choose an amazing church for their wedding - St Matthews Church in the heart of the Auckland City near Skytower. The interiors and architecture looks great, amazing lines, shapes and proportions, make you feel you in Gods House.

It was a little bit rainy and we decided to stay in church after the ceremony to take amazing shots with bridal party. We had so much fun and some lyric sensitive moments as well. Been pity to leave this location but people been waiting for us in other place - reception at Dream Centre in Manukau.

Over 500 guests been waiting for bridal party, excited and happy for couple. Need to mentioned Friday traffic from City to Manukau was just terrible (we spend at least 1.5 hour driving), but guys had real fun inside a big Limo, singing and dancing as much as they could in the small space :)

Reception will bring to the day more touching moments, dance and fun. Some speeches from friends and family, cake cutting, special waltz by couple and bridal party with swapping partners and parents involved :) Beautiful island dancers. It was really sensitive moment when all groom family been dancing together (and need to mentioned its a really big family :) Even grand grandma was standing in line with everyone. Bride received some traditional presents, their was few performances and items. Bride and Groom was so shining and full of energy. It was fun moments when bride and all party been dancing together. 

It was all so special and treasured moments. It was really hard to cut down any picture, they all turned just amazing (around 1000 edited pics!)

Thank you so much for inviting me to your wedding and sharing these special moments with me.

Happy future together, SImeti and Faith! See you soon!

Thanks for help to my second photographer Sonja and to my husband who made me a favour and shoot in the St Matthews church from the gallery (it was really important shots to take for me, because church just amazing! and couple looks just great in this interiors :)

Contact me with any questions!

{BOOK YOUR WEDDING}

Winter Wedding Special.Auckland wedding photographers

Don't miss our Winter Wedding Special:

$800 wedding day coverage (from getting ready to the beginning of the reception) which includes plenty of pictures of the wedding party prior to the wedding, ceremony shots, group/family shots after the wedding (or before if desired).

All good images from 800+ photos will be edited, stylised, and retouched. You will have the rights to print your pictures.

Not interested in a full day coverage? We will set up a special package just for you!

All best images are edited and given to you in high resolution, saved on a beautiful wooden USB stick.

If you book your wedding with us, we have a special romantic offer for you - an engagement (couples) session for only $150 (two outfits, one location of choice).

 Contact us to arrange a tea/coffee, Skype session, or to enquiry!

021438887

info@levienphotography.com

LEVIEN & LENS PHOTOGRAPHY - Auckland based photographer specialised in natural light on-location photography. Happy to travel nationwide and international (for extra milage fee).

Wedding portfolio

Unitec Pumphouse | Auckland City Oaks hotel | St Therese Church traditional wedding {Auckland couples photographer}

Toni + Eddy - a truly amazing couple and a great wedding I was honoured to capture on the 28th February. I loved every single moment of it: the bride and the groom getting ready at the Auckland City Oaks Hotel, the ceremony in St. Therese Church (Three Kings), and the shoot at location near the reception area - Unitec Pumphouse

Make-up - Jun Chen from JC Makeup & Photography
Hair Stylist - Alan Wang from Perfect Hair Studio

Thanks for assistance to Olga Franco from Sugar Sugar Photography.
There were so many different emotions - from positive and peaceful moments to smiles and tears.
I was pleased to be with these open and beautiful people, and really appreciated the way they shared with me their special moments!
I would love to photograph more weddings! If you know someone getting married I would appreciate referrals

my work at Facebook and Website

Thank you!

Beautiful moments of Toni + Eddy's Wedding. Enjoy it!

And just bonus board -some of my favourite pictures with beautiful bride Toni:

And I'd love to put some lifestyle pictures what show emotions and capture real feelings, especially treasure family moments - mothers and daughters with 3 generations (bonus 2):

Wedding photography

Location. Location. Location! Place for photo shoot. Family photography

Good photographer could do a great job in any place and location, work with different lighting situation, composition, landscape etc. But its really important question for you - what location to choose, what best suits your personality, your style and photo session ideas?

Place for photo shoot can have a great influence for picture atmosphere. Look at this picture. Girls walking forward something. If we have it in usual place (road, grass field) its could be a usual picture. But look at this background - beautiful beach, sand, water, hill, rocks, moody atmosphere. And everything just looks so magic and unreal, what a gorgeous atmosphere! 

Location - Location - Location!!!

So lets talk about photo shoot locations! what the options we have? Here list some obvious places what you could choose:

1. Your house and garden/ back yard. Did you ever consider to take a pictures around your place? You could always find nice spots around and be in familiar place, what sometimes really important, especially with newborn, kids, family photo shoots, head shots etc. 

Here some snapshots from our dance photo shoot around the house :) 

and newborn and family sessions

Nature- is one of the best option for photo shoot. Freedom, natural environment, beauty around, natural light

2. Park / forest / gardens - 

3. Beach / seaside / rocks

4. River / Lake / Waterfalls

5. Field - good for family / couples photo shoot / kids and actually any session, especially if you have some hills/mountain or forest at background.

6. Barn - its a farm style feeling, country spirit. Go for it if you love it.

City, building by peoples places:

7. Church / office / and other official formal places

8. Show place (stage) - your singing, dance show, and any other entertaining thing, we capture all this on-stage moments!  

9. Sport place (field, ice rink, ) - competitions, matches, rounds, sets - all for shooting. Fast, passion, alive moments!

10. City buildings, factory and other industrial places - you could do portraits, couple session, engagement and any others in modern industrial style, with buildings around, lines, different textures and materials. Its also works good for black and white pictures.

11. Kids places - childcare / playground / play centre - where else to shoot kids - in their natural environment when they happy, love to play, and enjoy any second of photo shoot

12. Mix of natural and building environment - its good to have different options in one location - park near the beach, field and barn, playground and park, place near your house and your own rooms etc. So you can have different variety of shots with different atmosphere and outfits.

13. and Any others ideas - you can use any ideas what pop in your head, be creative and thoughtful. Where you feel comfortable, fun, what place connect with your soul and your photo shoot ideas? if you don't know the answer yet we can discuss different variants and choose the best option! And have fun!

Hope this post will help you with some ideas :)

Look forward our sessions!

Scouting venues. Wedding photography Auckland

Good advice for any wedding photographer - scout wedding locations, venues to get a feeling of place and be prepared to Big day (wedding photo shoot).

I prefer always check locations if its possible (hotel where bride and groom getting ready, church for ceremony, restaurant for reception and any other location). You could not only imagine how its all will happened, but also pre-check your camera settings and lens, lights, best points for shooting, good composition, where to do family shots etc. You can suddenly realise its a tight space and you need wide angle lens or its a big location and you need use zoom lens, or good mix of both. Maybe church have some restrictions for photographers with using their flash, or allow to shoot only from one point etc.

So you need to know exactly all photo shoot conditions for be ready to any situations. (of course you never knows what will happen at Big day. But at least you check all stuff and now could expect unexpected :))

Hope its all goes smoothly at your wedding shooting and day will be brilliant. Good preparation - half of success, or maybe 70%, lets leave 30% for go with flow and have fun!

I just checked few wedding locations and feel really inspired by view, ideas, feeling the space and place. I will post later on shots from the wedding so we could compare them, and Im sure during the session we will have much more ideas and interesting turns, even weather could give us a new direction :) I look forward to see my beautiful bride in wedding dress and elegant groom in suit and all their parties guests! :)

Wedding locations: Carrington Pumphouse, Coyle Park, St Therese church.

QUESTIONNAIRE. PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS. Family and wedding photographer Auckland

Questionnaire - its a fast and effective way to use to know your clients. I love to know more information about clients before the session. Thats why I always try to catch up with clients/friends prior and ask them different  questions. Not only about what type of photo shoot they would like to have, what shots and style of the pictures, but also to know their personality, what they love to do, what their favourite things, what make them happy. And what one dream shot they would like to capture. And its made us feel on the same page, what really important for not get any disappointed moments when you see result.

I heard menu times how people saying their Photographer been not good because not capture desperately needs moments (especially on wedding day when each moment - treasure!). Thats why we need to know what you want to capture, what mean a lot to you, whats your dream list or dream shot. Questionnaire helps with this, and boards on Pinterest too (really popular right now things to do, I love create all these boards for different shoots and look at clients board to see what pictures they like).

So I will share with you what type of questions I ask at my family/portraits and wedding sessions. Its just some of them, what make me understand what client want.

Family/Portrait Session:

1.List the names of everyone involved in the shoot. Ages of children (you need to know names and age for be ready to entertain and know psychology different kids age - lucky I have good psychology-pedagogical education and teaching experience. And wait - three own kids!)

2. What your family looks like? What you love to do at downtime? What you kids as individuals (are they shy, active, outgoing etc.) - its really good to be ready to meet different personalities and understand their needs.

3. If there was 1 dream shot you would love to have from your session with L&L, what would the shot be? - dream shot question helps with understand what type of picture client want and not miss the opportunity to make him happy!

4. Is there a particular image that prompted you to contact LEVIEN & LENS PHOTOGRAPHY? - thats connect with previous question and made you understand why client choose you, and what type of session he wants.

5. What style photo shoot would you like to have? (formal. lifestyle (documentary), mix of different ones... - that continue previous question and helps deeply go with understanding type of the shots to make.

all these questions and others helps with prepare to photo shoot and understand clients personalities and wishes and made them happy at the end

Wedding Shoot:.

You can get different type of questionnaire in Google search, I just point on some important questions at weddings.

In wedding shoot the main questions for me - schedule questions - for clear understand timing and locations. I love to be well prepared and organised and be ready for any situation. Good to know how many time I have for family shots and where they gonna take place, or shoot bride and groom on location, or for shooting reception details. Its all important moments. 

Contact names - you should get at least 2 names who you can contact during the wedding apart from bride and groom (they could be impossible  to reach during the wedding). And also could be great to get contact person who will organise family shots - move all guests in right place at right time (not so easy task to organise, if you have a friend policemen its could help a lot! sounds good - I had it at one of my wedding - great choice!)

Next important moment - type of shoot and pictures style. Often brides saying they choose me for my natural shots, what show emotions and joy. I love to shoot real life moments, do some type of documentary wedding photography. But pretty happy to set up formal shots, help with posing etc. I just need to know what the best way to operate on the wedding and to get type of shots what you want.

List of shots. Maybe its sound strange but I like creating list, planning everything. Even when I am going to travel List of things what I need take with me - its a main point! Yes Im a planning fan! Search travel places, sightseeing, hotels, locations. Its all applies to photography too.

What the main shots you want - dress and shoes, flower girls, bride with father (mother), or shot with favourite grandma. Happy not miss this moment if I KNOW I need capture it. :) This list just type of orientation. I not planning stand at the wedding with list and trying tick points while missing something important what happens exactly at this moment :) Ha-ha! But its really helps to be organised and plan ahead. Probably you still miss some moments - weddings could goes really unexpected way! But also capture something new and unexpected, what move memories back in time.

And we will treasure forever all these moments!

So ask the question,  Get the answer, Be Happy and make Happy everyone around!

Happy Valentine's Day. Couples, engagement photographer

Love-Love-Love!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! What a magic day full of love, friendship and freedom spirit!

Want to say to my clients/friends - I love you all and especially my dear husband! To the moon and back :) Thank you for all you support and love: tea in bed, looking after kids when Im shooting, feeding and changing nappies (not an easy task, especially put clothes back on), making yummy dinners or drive to buy take aways (curry forever!), and listening my talking (not sure how much percent information go through, maybe 10%? ha-ha :)

And thank you guys for share with me your special moments, love and feelings! I'm really appreciate to be part of something magical! :)

Maria+Taz

P.S.: Im planning to shoot two weddings soon, really excited, counting days - can't wait, more pictures to come in the blog and Facebook page. See you there!

And Happy Valentine's day!

Love is all around | Rose Garden Wedding {Auckland couples-engagement-elopement photographer}

Weddings - incredible emotions, exciting moments, feelings, looks, kisses, dreams...Love....Magic!
Love is all around! Truly magic atmosphere! I am so happy when a couple shares with me these special moments, these only "once in a lifetime" that will never be repeated – unless, of course, you have wonderful pictures that you will treasure forever.
I want to share with you the pictures from my November shoot - Sergey and Yulia’s wedding.
This couple had a simple and wonderful wedding in a church with a few guests. Yulia only had one month to stay in New Zealand and had to fly back straight after the wedding.
What a story! I feel a real connection with it as a while ago I had a limited visa too, but we had been amazingly lucky to have our local MP Morris Williamson help us. He did close to impossible for us and I was granted my extended visitor visa, so I could stay in the country with my kiwi husband and give birth to my first baby William.
But back to our newly-weds! Today we have received positive news: Yulia has received her new 9 month visitor visa (that can be extended) and just after a few weeks flew back from Russia to New Zealand! I’m so happy for these lovely people. Hope they will have a wonderful long life together, full of love, harmony and understanding.
As for the wedding - it was a simple and nice ceremony, quiet atmosphere full of magic and special moments. After the ceremony we had a short visit to the Rose Gardens to take a few pictures. I’m so happy these guys shared with me their wedding, unforgettable memories and a great experience!

Wedding Portfolio

contact me with any questions!

{BOOK YOUR WEDDING}