My plan when I started this blog post was to highlight one picture from each Treasure Island beach wedding that I photographed in July. I have one more wedding this month before I fly to Atlanta to host the International Photographic Competition’s live webcast and I thought it would be nice to write a quick post with one picture from each wedding. But it didn’t work out the way I planned.

I never got past the first wedding.

Spencer and Karlee were married in Treasure Island, a small beach community that attaches to St. Petersburg. I do a lot of weddings there because it has a couple of my favorite beaches for wedding photography. Perfect Florida Beach Wedding did the decor and planning complete with a reception. This particular location, which happens to be The Lion’s Club, is one of the few spots in the county where you can have a beach wedding and reception without having to pay the high food and beverage minimums that the hotels charge. There’s even room for a tent if you want to have the reception outside. Perfect Florida Beach Wedding provides everything, food, decor, ceremony, DJ, lighting… everything.

So, here are a few favorites from the day with a little commentary:

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

It was a perfect day for a beach wedding. From a photography stand-point I could have used a few more clouds to tame that sun but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. More on that later…

treasure island st pete beach wedding

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

It wasn’t long ago when I rarely saw a sign being carried down the aisle. Now I see them all the time…

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

Without a doubt one of my favorite pictures to shoot at a wedding. After the Bride passes me, I shoot over her shoulder or in this case, between her and her Dad to capture the groom looking at his bride. In this case, I couldn’t have hoped for a better moment.

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

One of the interesting things about wedding photography is that we photographers don’t tend to show a lot of group pictures on our website. When a couple are looking to book a wedding photographer, they are mostly thinking about the romantic, stylized pictures so that’s what we tend to show. No one ever calls and says, “I’m looking for someone who can take a really nice picture of me and Aunt Judy.”

What’s funny about this is that taking good group pictures is hard under the best conditions and can be extremely difficult on the beach. The sun is too bright to have people face into it so it requires the right equipment and the experience necessary to figure out how to tackle the problem.  In this case, it took 2 flashes for me to be able to light them. It’s funny that we beach photographers rarely showcase these images but a good beach wedding photographer will judge another by whether or not they can do it well. Also, while many young couples will cherish the romantic pictures today, as time passes it’s the pictures of friends and family that are re-visited again and again.

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

This image is a perfect example of what I was talking about above. While it’s a wonderful, romantic picture… it’s about a hundred times easier to do than the group shot. When you hire a beach wedding photographer, make sure they can show you images shot with flash.

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

She makes it look easy..

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

Beach Wedding Treasure Island St Pete

One last little education snippet and then I’ll stop, I promise. The picture above was taken after the one above it. I was done with romantic pictures when the couple decided they wanted a jumping picture. Another way you can tell if your photographer is any good is by their ability to manipulate the light with their camera settings. You would never guess that the jumping picture was shot after the others.

Okay, enough teaching… I hope you enjoyed the images!