Experience

Toby Ogden has created a creative approach that is unique and has the client in mind all of the time. We have had the opportunity to photograph thousands of people and making the photographs speak to each person is very important. The creative approach is to listen and understand a clients needs first. Knowing a bit about our clients will allow us to focus in on their personalities.

If you look at a wedding day in sections, here is how they are usually and we apply our approach differently throughout the day.

Pre Ceremony 

- When we start photographing, we come in and we ease our way in. We will start with some details. We then will start getting candid photos of people doing their thing. We are always using the most creative angle to capture moments no matter what the size of the room or lighting. We are ready to capture real moments happening. At certain points during this time we may prompt you to do some things like have someone help you with the dress, to put on ear rings, or have someone help putting on a jacket. We want the couples we work with to really have an experience without us orchostrating your day for you. We only will make suggestions to help out if needed. We really want you to look back on your day and remember it as it would be to you and not remember it as something you were directed to do. Not to worry, we will always help out and be there for anything you need. Your experience and authenticity is at the forefront of us capturing your memories and we are also there to help make your day be as smooth as possible. Paying attention to timelines is also important as the day does go by quick and our experience is your asset to help in those ways.

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Ceremony

-The Ceremony is your time. When we capture your experience in your ceremony we honed in on expressions, We are looking at family member and all your guest expressions. This is all candid and we are scanning the entire ceremony to capture what people are feeling. We are getting all angles that are possible and looking for the best light to capture these moments. 

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Family Portraits

-Usually during a wedding we will get a designated time to get some family photos. This can be as simple as just a few family photos of immediate family or it could be including all extended family and everything in between. 

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Wedding Party Portraits

-Wedding party photo are usually with groomsmen, bridesmaids. Some people call it the bridal party. The photos are taken though out the day and are a priority as these are some very important people and part of your wedding day

Couples Portraits

-The couples photos can be so impactful showing you both in your element on your wedding day connected on this magical day you have been planning for months or years. Yes these are super important and our approach for these images will be intentional to portray your connection.

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Cocktail Hour

-Usually the time after the ceremony for your guests to enjoy some mingling, appatisers and drinks. This time is also a time that the couple will want to get all their portriat photos with family, wedding party and the couples session. Although an hour of time to do all of the portraits is ideal, there are ways to structure your day to make sure you are part of your cocktail hour

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Reception

- The reception has a number of formalities usually that are planned out ahed of time. Those might be a Grand Entrance, First Dance, Parent Dances, Open Dancing, Cake Cutting, Garter Toss, Bouquet Toss, Toasts, Grand Exit, Shoe Game, Table Touches, Open Dancing. Some weddings might do all of those, or maybe just a few of them but they are part of the reception time and sometimes a DJ will help with the flow of when these happen. As your people that are there to capture these things, we are working closely with the DJ or Planner or Coordinator to be ready for the formalities to happen. Some of the formalities happen very quick like the bouquet toss might only take 2 minutes. We are ready for that ahead of time to make sure we are in position for the best angles and have best lighting too. Other formalities might be the grand exit where we will also assist in finding the right spot or angle for the grand exit so that your photos can be optimal in creativeness but also be accomodating to the couple and guest. 

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1. Either by phone, text, email, zoom we go over your needs and we come up with a plan of services that makes most sense for your day. If the services and price all makes sense and you are feeling good about it, we move to step 2.

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2. We send you a contract/ proposal with the services we have gone over. Please look it all over, we can make changes if needed but if it looks good, you as the client will sign the contract and there is a 30% downpayment. The downpayment and the signed contract will lock in your date and services. This is all done through our online client management system.

From the experience we have had with weddings we have found that communication can be a great asset. Through out the journey of booking with us till the day of the wedding and then the days following and even months following we are here for you. Along the way we will have a handful of touch points to just be sure all is on track and if there are anythings we need to move around or change we can assist with that.

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On The Day Of

We will be with our couples for most of the day. We are there to photograph the moments happening but we are also there to lend a helping hand. We may be helping with questions about bouteneers, or how to put a veil on. We will be suggest angles for optimal photos.

After you have signed the contract and paid the 30% downpayment, we will touch base 2 weeks prior to your big day to send you a questionnaire so we can collect all the details of the day like official times, locations and other details. We get this information at this time because schedules and details may be changing with your day of plans. We will ask for your final timeline at this point too.

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Reach Out

-We understand that things may be changing around with your day of plans and things might come up but we want you to know that you can always reach out to us to give us updates along the way. We keep all our conversations in the Client Management System so that we can keep everything organized. 

Color

Our editing style is consistent with our brand. For color we are true to color with a hint of warmth in the images. We like to bring out contrast as well. We use a preset to bring out the consistency when we edit all images and then each photo gets special attention to adjust correct exposure, blacks, shadows, contrast. Our details is set to a bit lower allowing the image to have more of a painted look and softer skin look.

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Distracting Objects

While shooting we are avoiding distracting things like trash cans, light switches, cars, other people, road signs, exit signs and other things. The special moment will take priority every time though and in that case we will remove distracting things from images. If you find a photos that you love and see a distraction that we missed, please let us know so we can take a look and see if can be removed. If we can, it will be removed and resent. We rarely need to do this for clients since we want you to love all your images and start sharing them right away.

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Skin Distractions

Things happen like a cut on your nose, a bruise on your arm, In that case we suggest that we do our best to hide or minimize the distraction with makeup but if it cant be fully hidden we will be doing the touch up on those too and you wont be seeing those in your gallery.

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Not All Things Can Be Fixed Easily

We do get the comment, oh just fix it in photoshop a lot! We can fix things and will do our best but if something can be fixed in that moment, it is much better to fix it before we take the photos. For instance, people in the background of a photo can be fixed but sometimes it might be more complex and take a long time to remove the people. We just don't want to rely on editing always to fix thing. While we are photographing we keep this in mind and we will make the call to fix in post if we are on a time crunch or if there is a special moment happening. Moments always get priority. For instance, we did a portrait session at Balboa Park and there was an image I knew would look amazing but it would just take too much time and there were some things that we just not going to be able to move like poles and things. See the photo below as the example. We will remove things when we need to.

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We are ready for a lot of things that may not go according to plan and although we are absolutely not anticipating a problem. We just want our clients to know that if a problem should come up, we are prepared to solve it. This big days are full of moving parts. Everyone is playing a role in making this day perfect. Here are a few problems that we have encountered and how we solved them.

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Weather

We lean on our experience when it comes to weather. We are prepared for all kinds of weather situations. Rain, Fog, Extreme Heat, Humidity and even Hurricanes like in 2023 we photographed and filmed a wedding during Hurricane Hilary At Botanica in Oceanside,CA.

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We are prepared by looking at forecasts and knowing what the weather will bring us on the day and also preparing with the right equipment. We are prepared on a creative standpoint to embrace the weather we are given and use it to our advantage and or prepare to pivot plans to keep our clients in m

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Timelines

On the day of your wedding, there may be a timeline that should be followed in order for your day to runs smooth as there are many events happening and even in  6-8 or even 10 hours on a wedding day, it still goes by quick and things may change. In the case that you would 

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