Category: Wedding

Like other aspects of wedding a wedding cake owes something to both art and tradition.  There is a tension here, but probably a good one. Art never exists in a vacuum. Rather, it makes something new out of the materials and influences of the past. A wedding cake can be original by using domestic and foreign traditions and the personal history of the happy couple. Any design that the couple finding appealing is worth considering.

As with everything we should consider what happens in the long term. How will the photo of the wedding cake look? I do hear a few people talk about how the cake tasted, but far more people talk about how it was decorated. This is reinforced by the number of people who latter see the wedding photos. The cake is meant to look good.

Of course the design should be remembered for all the right reasons; it should be impressive. Many people are still reasonably young when they marry, and may hold iconoclastic views, or still be attached to some passing fad. Consider how the photos of the cake (and of the whole wedding) will look in a few years’ time. The last thing you want is something that makes you cringe. If in doubt it is better to be a little more conservative. And remember that the idea is to be artistic and maybe a little innovative, not outrageous and countercultural.

In reality most people don’t design a wedding cake from scratch; they look at various other designs and ask for a few changes to be made. This is not a bad approach.

If the cake looks too good to eat, you’ve probably doing something right. Remember, this is supposed to be a once in a lifetime event; you don’t get a second chance. Feel free to be a little indulgent.

A Few Point to Remember:

– Make arrangements for your cake several months in advance.

–Beware of the weather. You might need to talk to the cook if the cake is to will survive a hot summer day.

–Find a tablecloth, table and decorations that match, compliment or somehow suit the cake.

–Some venues charge a ‘cutting fee’, ostensibly to cover the cost of extra plates and cutlery for cake. $2.oo per head isn’t unusual.

–The group that makes the cake should delivery it. Delivery is a tricky job, and mistakes are unthinkable!

–Some individuals may wish to keep their piece of cake. Little boxes are preferable to folded napkins (that remind you of children’s birthday parties). Unfortunately there is no way to know these things in advance.

–  Arrange for some really great photos of the cake.

Photography needs vision

Skill for any art must be intuitive. But intuition is not instinct. An instinct is something we are born with; intuition is the result of accumulates knowledge with some sort of order. We have learnt from experience, we tend to know what works without having to think about it.  Amateur photographers learn that you can’t just point and shoot to get good results; the object gets in the image but not in the right way. Strangely, professional claim they just point and capture the image; they don’t realize how much processing goes on unconsciously. Once something is grasped intuitively it is like speaking; we don’t usually consult the rules of grammar when we speak, we have learnt to simply say what we mean. Good photography is like this.

PRE-VISIT VENUES

If you want those Blue Mountains wedding Photography you will need to be well versed in these kinds of images; you need to know what works and you will need to know the location(s). Knowing what is at the locations will help on the day when you need to grasp images in a hurry. It will also help if you know some good backgrounds for the staged shots. After a while this will become second nature.

ADAPTABILITY

This applies more and more to every job today. The specific couple will have some specific ideas in mind. At least a few ideas will be poor ones. It is an art to be able to accommodate all these different styles, requests and individuals couples. It is an art to be able to turn down an idea when you know it is a poor choice.

Get a list of images the bride and groom want. They will be impressed if you manages to get images that outdo their requests.

THE BACKGROUND FORMULA

Do any research into classic paintings and you will see rough drafts and diagrams that divide the images up into boxes. Our brains see certain proportions as appealing, and value things like symmertry. If we see these proportions in images we tend to like what we see (though factors like lighting and colour are also important here); we are not consciously looking for it, we simply like the result.  On the other hand this might be consciously put there by the photographer. Some modern cameras can overlay nine equally spaced boxes on the camera screen; they divide the screen into thirds both horizontally and vertically. Images that fit in with these boxes are off to a good start. Practice putting the desired image into this type of grid; you can use any part of the main subject, foreground or background to achieve this patterns. Then again, if an image looks great for no discernable reason, keep it anyway; it probably obeys some rule even if you haven’t figured it out yet.