The BIGGEST box checked: Photographer - DONE!

I am so excited to share that today we checked the photographer box - the box that I have been working so hard on since the week we were engaged! I have now looked at over 50 photographers, and based on a list of 15 criteria we have chosen to go with Joe Photo.I found Joe a couple weeks ago through another photographer I was speaking with, and when I saw his website, I absolutely fell in love with his work. In essence the 15 criteria boiled down to these couple of things.....

Someone who:

• had a fantastic eye for capturing moments,
  
• was artistic and could turn any photo into an art piece
• could take glamour and high fashion shots
• was dynamite at post-processing and put just as much time and care into making a photo pop as the time it took to shoot the event
• knew the intricacies of an Indian wedding and knows what to capture
• who gave us ALL the images, including the post processed images (which not all of them do)
  
• was collaborative and a pleasure to work with.

Joe's work embodies all of those things, and Joe himself is a wonderful person who I was able to connect with over a long phone conversation. Joe also happens to be one of the top photographers in SoCal and widely publishes his work! He took the time to understand who we were, what we needed and what was most important to us. There are many good photographers out there, but it's the connection that you feel to a photographer that lets you know that they are the right one for your big moment. Joe, welcome aboard to the team!

Given that there were many wonderful and talented photographers we looked at, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the list of people who made the top of our list of Southern California photographers in hopes that it can be a helpful starting place for other brides on this journey.

• Ahmed from AA Creations (good at understanding your needs and putting together custom packages, good pricing, good amount of creative, good post processing, and all around positive, understands Indian weddings very well, everything was solid, and he was willing to give me all of his RAW files....which is HUGE for a photographer. At the end of the day, our choice came down to AA Creations and Joe.)
• Dina from Andrena Photography (extremely artistic, wonderful collaborator, beautiful work, but does not give post processed images on DVD)
  
• Megan from Megan Stark Photography (wonderful collaborator, very very good at the photojounalistic style and capturing amazing moments, works with real lighting and doesn't do too much post processing, more talent on capturing moments than the glamour shots)
  
• Tony Florez (awesome post processing, great shots, good follow-up, and can really get into the Indian market - just needs to do more and more of them to build a big enough portfolio)
• Yogi Patel from Global Photography (great artistic ability, but very Indian. He's won many awards for his artistic talents, but at the end of the day it just wasn't our style)
• Ryan Phillips (gorgeous photography in every way - artistic, photojournalistic, stylistic, you name it and he's got the skill. He wasn't available for our date, and dealing with the communications with him through the process left an extremely sour taste. This is where no matter how good the work is, you have to make sure that there is a relationship and a partnership)
  
• Eric Tom (new comer in the field, and is often a second shooter for one of the other photographers I mentioned, he's talented and has potential, but hasn't shot any Hindu weddings - only Paki and Afgan weddings)
• Jessica Verma (great eye, not sure how much of the post processing polishing I saw, but I didn't look into her too much because I didn't see Indian weddings, but worth looking at since she was highly recommended by my bhabhi)

So, that's that. I can't tell you the weight that has been relieved from my shoulders just in making this decision!

My piece of advise to any bride is to settle on your criteria based on what is important to you. There are MANY talented photographers out there, and if you don't know what you are looking for it will be a completely overwhelming process. The other side of it is - try to not be too stringent on what you are looking for (if possible) because otherwise, you will end up like me...completely stressed out and cross eyed after looking at thousands of photos!!!