Wedding and engagement photography is a tremendously intimate art form. When you hire a Washington DC wedding photographer, you are essentially inviting that person into your private life. They are going to witness (and capture on film) some very personal moments that are shared between you and your beloved on your wedding day.
For that reason, we suggest that you think very carefully about which DC wedding photographers you hire to photograph you. For starters, you should be completely comfortable with their style of photography. You should love the way they document unguarded moments. More importantly, you should be comfortable with how they will interact with you and your beloved. You should feel at ease in their presence. Because if you are not, that discomfort is going to show up in your pictures.
Your Washington DC wedding photographer should also be skilled at drawing out and displaying the personalities the people they photograph. Not just their individual natures, but also the specific personality of their relationship. They should be able to see what makes you and your intended special as people and as a couple. More importantly, they should know how to bring that out in the pictures they take.
You should also look at the elements of themselves that a DC wedding photographer bring to their craft. We have learned from experience that taking wedding and engagement photographs is also deeply personal for the photographers. A little bit of ourselves shows up in every picture we take. Our individual life experiences inform the artistic choices that we make regarding color, light, posing and composition. The photos that we will take of you tend to reflect they way that we see the world.
Because Anji was born and raised in Hannover, Germany — a European city that is more than 775 years old — history and generation-spanning traditions have always been deeply important to her on a personal level. Even though she now works as a wedding and engagement photographer in a New World city that is barely 200 years old, she has retained that love of anything with a story that traces back multiple generations and tries to incorporate historical elements into the pictures she takes of brides and grooms whenever she can.
Washington DC is a relatively new city (at least as world capitals go), so it can be hard to find wedding venues with very much history. That does not mean, however, that you cannot find locales for your marriage celebrations that have a distinctly Old World look and feel. For example, the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, a publicly-owned space for large gatherings and events a block away from the National Mall in downtown Washington, is a stately and elegant spot that is perfect for future spouses who want a bit of European grandeur in the background of their wedding photos. The Mellon Auditorium houses an enormous Great Hall capable of fitting as many as 1000 people for a wedding reception, a beautiful old balcony that offers a stunning view of the majestically-columned ballroom below, ornate marble staircases and an outdoor patio that looks out on the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the US Capitol and the Washington Monument.
The Mellon Auditorium turned out to be a perfect spot for this particular couple to have their DC engagement photos taken. Like Anji, these two future spouses had Old World sensibilities. The clothes they chose to wear for the photography session, for example, were reminiscent of fashions that were popular in the early parts of the 20th century. As a result, this bride- and groom-to-be fit perfectly with the ornateness of the interior of the auditorium and looked great when posed inside the magnificent Great Hall. One of our favorite images from their engagement photo session was this one, in which they are strolling through a corridor of columns on one side of the ballroom, smiling at one another and seemingly lost in their own world. Because of the setting and the way that they are dressed, the picture looks like it could have been taken 100 years ago. It fit their sensibilities perfectly and captured the essence of their relationship beautifully.
Interested in learning more about our services? Please visit our Wedding Photography FAQ page for answers to all your questions! Ready to inquire about our availability on your wedding date? Contact us now to get the conversation started!
Location: Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, 1301 Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20240.
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