Over the past 2 weeks I had two cousins that got married, and so I wanted to share some pics that I took at both of their weddings, and see if you have any opinions on them! How to improve, what's good, etc... :) I was not the hired photog at either of these weddings...just a guest. So, not wanting to be disrespectful to the hired photog, I just shot from wherever I was and stayed out of their way!

Nathan & Barbara

 <- not really crazy about this one

Aaron & Kelsey (I know I overexposed all shots I took that day....GRRRR)
 <- that's the color of the paper, not white balance issues lol

Thanks ladies! I highly value ALL of your opinions! Anyone else have images from the weekend?! :)

I think these look great! And I thought the exposure was fine, but I'm also partial to more brightly exposed pictures...I love shooting into the light :) It all just depends on what style of photography you're going for.

As for the aisle decor, I don't think it's a bad picture at all. I would have pulled out from it slightly so you didn't cut off the buds and then just would recommend waiting until all the background traffic has moved.

Good stuff!

Ditto Andie, I prefer more overexposed shots too... they just look prettier to me!!!  I really like your B&W conversions!!  Some of my faves are the candlelight shots in the 2nd wedding, so elegant!!  I like your angle/focus on the cake in the 1st wedding!!

I think most shots are well framed and balanced. With a good use of blur to keep the focus on the bride and groom. I'd be interested to see more detail shots or shots with tighter framing. For example, the shot of the 2 mothers (maybe?) It might be nice to be able to crop to focus on them and the moment of their participation and cut out some of the background to the left.

Nice work!

On my monitor they don't look overexposed at all.

The blur in some of the ceremony pics are interesting though. What lens did you use?  Or did you do some of them in PP?

I like photos from the first wedding better.  I can see what you were trying to do with the aisle flowers, but I agree with mrs. green that maybe pulling out a little bit will achieve the look you were looking for. 

From the second wedding, my favorite shot is the detail of the cake and the flower together. (Oh I love the cake shot of the first wedding too.) The dance shot is awesome, too bad the groom was half cut.  But as a guest it's hard to get to the optimal position, without obscuring the paid photog's view.  You don't want the bride to see the back of your head in every important shot haha!

At any rate, I think both brides would LOVE your pics!

thanks for all of the compliments - it's good to know I'm, hopefully, headed in the right direction

& don't get me wrong, I LOVE shooting into the light and having the lighting over exposed. I just mean that for the second wedding, I had to do some major fixing PP to the cake and bm dresses. You were almost blinded when you looked at parts of them, and that was what I wasn't too happy about

I did the blur in PP. My lens is 35mm 1.8. I'm not a HUGE fan of blur like that all the time, but I thought it was my best option giving my equipment and location at the time lol. I wasn't sure what else to do with them?!

Thank you for the feedback on everything. Gives me things to watch for next time :)

I think you did a great job :)  I really love the cake shots!!  Lovely B&Ws too!

How do you like the 35 1.8?