Frequently Asked Questions:
On this page, I have placed answers to the most commonly asked questions about my photography business and services. For any reason you have a question that is not listed here on this page, I encourage you to contact me at your convenience and I will do my best to provide you the answers you seek.
My clients tend to love my use of lighting. I love using creative lighting, unique perspectives, angles, and compositions to bring out our client’s personalities and beauty while telling their wedding story. Don’t be surprised if you see me climbing a tree, laying in the grass, or even up to my neck in a pool to create a shot that I see in my head!
- I keep my photo colors crisp and clean so down the road, you will remember your wedding exactly how it was!!
I typically start booking weddings 1 year in advance. For destination weddings, I book as soon as the information is available!
The reason we include a complimentary engagement shoot with all of our wedding packages is that it lets us get to know you before the wedding. It’s definitely a great way to start building a relationship. Also, it gives you an opportunity to practice being in front of the camera and learning some key tricks before the wedding day. Finally, you can use the engagement photos for the wedding guest book, invitations and thank you cards.
I shoot with Canon DSLR cameras. My main camera is a Canon 5D Mark 4, my second body is a Canon 5D mark 3.
I generally bring 5 lenses to all my weddings:
- 70-200 F2.8
- 24-70 F2.8
- 50mm F1.4 for those situations where you need lots of light
- 16-28mm F2.8 for the really wide shots
- a 90mm macro lens for rings, and detail shots!
- I usually carry about 4 flashes and some flash accessories for creative lighting!
We bring backup equipment for everything we use, including backup cameras, flash equipment, and lenses.
The number of photos depends on the amount of coverage. For weddings, we typically deliver 50-60 fully edited, hi-resolution, unmarked images per hour.
Not anymore.. It’s 2018 and DVD’s (and soon USB’s) are on their way out. I deliver all my client images via online gallery. Clients galleries are password protected, and can be download from anywhere, at anytime (with internet connection) as many times as they want. The benefit of this is that the photos can be very easily shared with family and friends!
Totally, your friends and family are welcome to take their own pictures throughout the wedding day. I just ask that they are mindful of being distracting, or in the foreground/backgrounds of the images. Let’s face it, my images are going to end up better, so there is no sense having them in the way 😛
If you have any unique ideas, please feel free to share them with us, we will make every effort to bring these ideas to life.
Great question! I have yet to miss a wedding day that I was hired for. I can only hope that this doesn’t happen, but in the event of serious illness, injury, or family emergency, I am involved in an awesome group of talented photographers who would gladly help out and take over the wedding for me!
Yes. We are a fully insured business both in Canada and out of Country.
No, we do not. We eliminate duplicate images, test shots, shots with bad expressions and other images that may dilute the overall product delivery. My goal with each wedding is to tell your story in the best way possible, so there is always going to be some outtakes!
Possibly! I have shot in many venues in my local area! That said, if I have not, I make sure to research all new venues prior to shooting at them, and always go to the venue (and other photo locations) prior to each wedding to make sure I am fully prepared for your upcoming wedding!
Yes! I love destination weddings! In fact, I had my very own destination wedding in the Dominican Republic (Punta Cana) in March of 2012. I have since shot in the Mayan Riviera (Mexico), Cabo San Lucas Mexico, Runaway Bay Jamaica, Ocho Rios Jamaica, and Punta Cana – Domincan Republic!
- I would love to discuss your destination wedding, and share some of my own information/experience from my wedding, and others that I have helped plan the wedding day timeline in!
Not necessarily. While I could talk about this for a long time, here are some quick pointers:
- Many popular destination wedding resorts go through 4-5 weddings on resort per day! The resort photographers often show up for only part of your day and are using nonprofessional equipment. Not to mention they don’t know you at all until you see them on your wedding day!
- Bringing a local photographer from your home location allows you to get to know your photographer, and their style long before you even head off to your location. Chances are that they have already photographed you as part of your engagement session! They will be there with you during the entire wedding day, and work with you both before, and after the wedding to ensure your wedding photos turn out awesome!
- Communication plays a huge role in making your wedding day perfect, so having an experienced wedding photographer that you already know will help ease your mind when you are so far from home!
Unfortunately, at this time we do not. I am a firm believer that by specializing in weddings and couples, I can provide my clients with the best overall quality and experience. That being said, I have some friends who do a great job with newborn photos, and I would love to send you their way to capture the new addition to your life!
Of course, you may! We pride ourselves on the consistency of our work. We understand all photographers post their best shots from each wedding on their websites so it’s hard to determine how well he or she will perform on the wedding day. That is why we encourage all of our potential clients to view full events from all photographers they meet with to see how well the photographer performs throughout the day.
I pre-scout every venue before I shoot at it. This gives me a heads up before the wedding as to what I can expect on the wedding day.
- I have dedicated lots of my time to learning how to properly use flash so I am able to shoot in darker venues without making the images look overly “flashy”.
My cameras and lenses also allow me to shoot in fairly low light conditions without sacrificing image quality!
Yes. Every image we deliver is post produced with our unique signature style of post-production. This involves color correction, exposure adjustment, black and white processing, clarity adjustments, tone-mapping, and other corrections.
You have the right to reprint images whenever you want. However, you may not sell your images for profit or publish your images without the written consent of Mark Willis Photography.
For the most part yes, I generally have an assistant photographer with me during weddings to make sure we capture all parts of the wedding day!
All weddings are different in terms of timeline due to the clients wants and need on the wedding day. Sometimes we do all the photos before the ceremony, sometimes they are all done after the ceremony. Let’s figure out what you want, and together we will build a timeline that makes your day awesome!
Do you have other questions that aren’t in the FAQ section?
For all other questions, please click here! I will do my best to get back to you with your answers in a timely manner.