There is a new updated blog!

go to http://michaelnesmithphotography.com/blog for the latest photos….

Angela & Chris

Angela and Chris had a great day and perfect light for their wedding at Candia Woods Golf links in Candia NH.

…….every wedding should have a covered bridge!

…. every wedding needs a good sunset too.  The 2010 NH wedding season is off to a good start. Thanks Angela and Chris!

Jenn & Pat

These are some shots from Jennifer and Pats Engagement session. The wedding is in June and we all can’t wait, it promises to be a fun one!

Why a wedding album

I get a call like this all the time.

You did my wedding five years ago; do you still have my negatives? Can I still do my album? My answer is always yes, of course we can. Then even after that it is still months or years before the next step happens. Perhaps it is because of money, maybe it is because after a year or more of planning brides and grooms are burnt out with wedding activities, maybe there is suddenly a new baby or house to deal with. It is very true that after the wedding life happens.

Many of my clients choose to wait…

to order an album after the wedding.

This does make the package less expensive up front but it also makes the chance of never getting an album very real!  Life happens and before you know it your first grader is asking to see where you got married. You have a CD…. someplace. The photos are on your laptop, the one in the closet that you haven’t used in two years because it had too many viruses. You had them online for a while but you lost the password or their time ran out years ago.

New technologies have made it possible…

to share, view and copy images easier than ever before. They have also made all of us less careful and riskier in our storage of the most important images of our lives. Even without knowing it. It is so easy to take and save an image that we don’t give the long term safety of those images a second thought. Digital images are lost forever every day and it doesn’t take a house fire to do it.

One wobbly hard drive or lost CD…

without the proper back up and they are gone. We all easily forget what is online and where, and how to get to it. I fear that in ten to twenty years the call will be “My old CD doesn’t work in the new XYZ drive, how do I get to my wedding pictures to show my grand children?” Do you remember the  1.44 floppy disks or 8-track tapes… do you even know what they are?

Fact is that technology is moving faster every day…

and there is no telling where we will be in ten short years (and they get shorter all the time).  The one thing that has stood the test of time is the book. Big, bulky, collecting dust on the shelf, they always work if the power goes out. Their OS doesn’t change. They don’t get viruses. And they are harder to lose. They do burn but hey, that is what the CD is for… the one you copied and gave to your mother… you did that too right?

So think carefully about getting an album as soon after the wedding as you can. The truth is that great photography is the only thing that you will have after the wedding is over. Centerpieces and cake toppers are gone, the DJ has packed up and left, the fancy catered meal and all the alcohol is… well….. you know where that went! The Tux is returned to the tux shop and the dress is off to the cleaners to be packed away forever.

What do you have left?

If you chose a good photographer you have hundreds of photos. Now you need to put the same care into those as you did with all of the planning before the wedding. They are all that is left… except the rings of course!

Mt. Washington Hotel wedding

It’s springtime (almost!) and wedding season again. Nothing like starting it off with a bang at one of the most picturesque locations in NH. Natasha and Vincente did a great job and had a wonderful time in the New Hampshire north country.

Baby Braylon

One young man with lots of growing to do! They change faster that you think.

Russ and Meghan’s Wedding

On January 2nd Russ and Meghan tied the knot (and Russell knows his knots!) in North Attleborough MA at Sacred Heart Church. Their reception was at The Francis Farm in Rehoboth Massachusetts. Russ is an Old friend from my Boy Scouting days and it was a great honor to be a part of his wedding. I wish them both many years and lots of luck!

Nicole & David… New Years Eve!

Here are some of the photographs from Nicole and David’s wedding on New Years Eve at the Atkinson Country Club in Atkinson NH. There was a snowy start to the day but everything went off without a hitch. The country club did their usual great and efficient job, this was my third wedding there and I always come back with something special. Winter weddings in NH are always a surprise!

Kristen & Mark

We got lucky and had a great weather day in Boston….. in December! It was a little cool to start off with but it warmed up enough to walk around Boston Commons and the Public Gardens without our teeth chattering. Shots in the subway were fun too….. and warmer.

Pulpit Conservation Area

It’s amazing what you can find in your own back yard……

Just about a mile from my house