Sure it’s OK to bring your own video camcorder to your Dream Destination Wedding; but before you assign a Loved One to be stuck watching your entire Dream Wedding through the camera’s tiny peep-hole… Consider This!
More often than not, that Loved one is not a professional and may not even get the thing turned on and recording, I’ve also seen numerous times the battery dies out or the memory chip runs out of space part way into the Ceremony.
The times the video is recorded, the tiny microphones built into most camcorders, iPhones or tablets can’t clearly pick up the softly spoken personal, heartfelt vows unless the camcorder is placed Obtrusively close to the Ceremony which also spoils the otherwise fabulous High Resolution still shots being taken.
Most couples tend to speak their Heartfelt Vows in a soft intimate voice, so using a Clip-on Wireless microphone ensures the best clarity while the Minister’s Ceremony, Conch Shell Blessing, Flute Blessings & the wonderful sound of the ocean is picked up perfectly with an Audiophile quality microphone. We highly recommend covering up this mic or any other obtrusive gear that needs to be placed in the Ceremony view with a mix of tropical flowers & foliage.
One consideration that seems to get overlooked with every wedding that does not include video is, the Ceremony Audio is often way more precious than most would expect! The Heartfelt vows, the quivering emotional little voice, sniffing back a tear, the relief of the “I do’s”, not to mention when couples have worked out special things to say adding to the vows and making truly a “one of a kind” True Love Story–like this Amazing line – “I only wish I could kiss you for each time my heart beats”. Wow, that’s sure to raise the bar for the ‘Romantically Challenged!’
Also consider whether you would like to have your otherwise grand professional pictures of the darling wedding couple with the priceless Destination Island views sort of ‘compromised’ by having a bevy of camera toting guests in the picture!
Oh sure, it’s cute to have Auntie Eagle-Eye workin’ a tablet video camera only to be forever captured as a headless wedding embodiment… just an iPad with a body in every picture at just about every camera angle – This is highly distracting. Hire a professional wedding videographer and let All your loved ones enjoy your Destination Dream Wedding on the Beach… and get better still shot photography as well!
A lot of still shots will capture all the honorary guests, whether or not they are hiding behind a camera or worse, the huge tablet video camera. If you would rather see their lovely faces instead of ‘camera holding human tri-pods’… Let your guest know they should take only an occasional shot & not stand there the entire ceremony behind a camera.
Be very aware of what the ‘not cheap’ Professional Photographer is shooting at so as not to compromise otherwise priceless pix with a highly distracting ‘Scene Killer’ view of an amateur videography “artist”.
It’s fine to have a loved one shoot video, but they need to become more of a ‘Camera Crew’ & less of a guest in attendance. They will need to coordinate their shots with the Professional Photographer – this way they both get great shots.
When getting both video and still shot photography, inquire about having a Photo Fusion Video created from the enhanced High Resolution wedding Highlight images. With professional high-res pictures, you can draw focus to inspiring details by zooming in, then out and panning… The moving picture that is created is a very unique production that brings great still shots to an even greater perspective. These Photo Fusion Videos can be edited into the regular video to create a longer version of the main wedding video, but often both the main wedding video and the photo Fusion Video stand on their own perfectly well. When showing these at a reception, it is best to have two shorter videos than one big one since attention spans decrease exponentially with each drink!
If at all possible, scout your perspective wedding locations beforehand at the same time of day as the wedding will be. The best video camera angle will be ‘the sun’s view’ so that the subjects are being nicely lit by the sun that’s close to directly behind the video camera. You’ll want to take note how the background looks with these considerations. Most people choose a great sunset beach for their wedding expecting glorious off shore views as the background of the video, but on west-facing beaches the video would then be pointing directly AT the sun with the wedding party subjects reduced to just dark shadows contrasted with an overblown sun that hasn’t set yet. With photography you can use powerful flashes shot closer up and heavy Photoshop to tame the brights & bring out the shadows, but most wedding Videos don’t normally use big production flood lights to spoil the romantic vibe and aggressive highlight/shadow modifications to video can easily add un-desirable side effects; so it is imperative that the video camera is positioned with the sun close to directly behind it.
Another aspect of wedding videos that is certainly overlooked is the Aerial Videos with remote-controlled un-manned ‘quad-copters’. This is still very new but rapidly gaining popularity. The main reason for having a destination wedding is because it’s so beautiful. Still shots and ground video capture the intimate close up detail of the wedding party and their view of the wedding site’s natural beauty, but the ‘Jaw Dropping’ Awe-inspiring views from above are breathless! The ‘quad’ can elegantly fly smoothly by the wedding party and rises to expose the dynamic beauty of the shoreline with rocky outcrops and clear turquoise water. These flying camera views are for the most part ‘never seen before’ and the real helicopters would not be able to get in that low to people.
If you hire a professional photographer that is there to capture every emotion and offer lots pictures there is no need for a beautiful wedding party to morph into a presidential press release event; just make sure your photographer will be shooting and offering ‘many to all’ the pictures taken to include something for everyone. Plus, most technically hip photographers offer to post the highlights on Facebook right away so this should take care of everybody in the wedding party trying to take their own pictures to post on Facebook. Let the professional photography pick out the highlights and apply the standard enhancements and post to Facebook, the entire wedding party is encouraged to jump in and tell all their friends by sharing the wedding highlights.
All of these tips are highly recommended to consider before hiring your destination wedding photographer and videographer. You can certainly have all of these amenities for a fraction of the cost that you would previously imagine. The average cost of a US wedding is over $30,000.
