My wonderful, beautiful internet has been restored! I've been in wedding planning withdrawl. I don't know how pre-1990's brides planned anything. It would involve so much work and so little fun. Almost all of my ideas have come from the internet. And I regularly visit sites that I've come to think of as wedding support groups. But enough about that.



L and I are hopefully doing our engagement photos this sunday coming up. I am alternately excited and afraid. I am not a photogenic person. I can not look into a camera and look normal. I look a)overexcited b)uncomfortable or c)dim witted. The flash almost always give me a squint eye. My future sister in law and I spend every christmas day taking pictures of the ourselves (you know the one where one of you is holding the camera and hoping that you both are in the camera's sites) and laughing at the results. We both have a squint eye; hers is the right, mine is the left.



I have high hopes for this photo session, and for all the photography for the wedding. Everyone has that one thing that they think is the most important thing for their wedding. For some people it is the dress, the food or the wine. For me, its all about the pictures. Its just unfortunate that L is just as unphotogenic as I am. L is as handsome as they come. And I'm am no ugly ducky myself. But put us together, and the unphotogenicness multiplies tenfold. It took us 16 tries to get a decent picture of the two of us this past christmas. And I'm not talking about the kind where one of us is holding the camera. We had someone acting as photographer, it took us 16 tries, and it was only DECENT. So I am afraid that I've set my expectations too high, and that I will end up disappointed.



I don't know how people can look into a camera an get pictures that fairly scream mysterious or sexy or radiant. Mysterious for me = perplexed. Sexy=dim witted. Radiant= well, normal dull skinned me. If I had to pick a super power, I'd pick the ability to give pictures that say something other than I have not slept in days'.



Take this picture by Hamed Saber (creative commons). The comments that were on the site that I found this on are about how striking this woman is. And I agree. She is striking. But what is it about her that is striking? I don't know. And that is what makes you want to look at the picture. It has something that you can't quite figure out. How do you do that?

Is it the photographer or the person photographed that gives people the sense that picture is not quite static, not just a piece of celluloid?

Okay, enough with the philosophical mumbo jumbo. How do we make sure we get some great pictures?!

Well, we went with a photographer who was very high energy, and had a similar philosophy as L and I. His portfolio was filled with people that looked liked they were having FUN. As we went through his portfolio he became excited and animated and I could imagine his excitement being contagious during his photo shoots. Maybe if L and I can forget about the process of taking a great picture and just enjoy ourselves our personality will shine through. At least I hope so.

And our lack of photogenic fiber is not even the only thing that stands in our way. We are taking our photo's at the Fort Whyte Center, which is a park/marsh setting. We want the trees to be changing colors, so that means that Sunday will not be picture day if the leaves are still mostly green. But the later we wait, the colder it may be, and I have my heart set on wearing this little black dress that I got in the spring and have yet not had a chance to wear. It seems like a strange combination but I like the contrast of the classy and elegant with the casual background. L plans on wearing a suit and having his shirt unbuttoned and no tie, and I'll be wearing black flats and plain straight hair. I hope this idea works as well in the real world as it does in my head.