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The Lens We Love for Wedding Ceremonies and Portraits

We're Amy & Jordan
We're here to help you take amazing photos, build a successful business and live a beautiful life. We're high school sweethearts, parents of three and teachers at heart. 
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We’re in the middle of a series on the lenses we love. We’re explaining all of the lenses we own, why we decided to purchase them, and how we use them on wedding days (and on portrait sessions). You can catch up on this series here:

Today, we’ll be talking about the fourth lens we purchased, the Canon 70-200mm 2.8L IS II, and the three reasons why we couldn’t shoot a wedding without it.

1. Wedding Ceremonies

It’s all about moments. The groom’s smile as his bride walks down the aisle. The bride’s tear as her father gives her away. The grandfather’s reaction as his grandchild says, “I do.” More candid, raw, emotional moments happen during the ceremony than during any other portion of the wedding day and, as we mentioned in Part 2, it’s important for us to be able to capture those moments without distracting from them. This telephoto lens zooms far enough for us to get tight on our subjects’ faces all the way from the back of the aisle, the periphery of the guest seating, and even well behind the altar (for venues that permit it). Once we purchased this lens, our number of candid, raw, emotional ceremony moments per wedding increased dramatically. Instead of getting too close to someone and interrupting a tear or smile, we’re able to keep an appropriate distance from our subjects and capture real moments that most people don’t remember or even see happen. Our brides and grooms treasure them forever, almost as much as…

Ashley and Scott_0024

2. Bride and Groom Portraits

The wrong lens can make a portrait look worse than real life. The right lens can make a portrait look better than real life. As a photographer, knowing the difference can make all the difference, and this lens gets it done. We love this lens for portraits of individuals, couples, and even small groups for two reasons: the glass and the compression. First, the glass on this lens is simply superior, and it consistently delivers crisp, creamy images. Second, it flatters our subjects with some serious image compression. One of us always shoots portraits with this lens at 200mm. We position our subjects as far from the background as possible. We position ourselves as far from our subjects as possible. And we zoom with this lens as far as it’ll go. When we do this it compresses the image, which means it takes a small portion of the background and brings it all the way to our subject. This is super helpful if you don’t have much of a background to work with, because you can just pull in the small portion of the background that you like. You’ll also get that amazing blur, or bokeh, in the background that looks creamy and really pulls out and flatters your subject! Plus, everyone likes to look better than real life, especially during…

Calyn and Aaron_0034

3. Cocktail Hour

Whenever someone sees a camera, the natural tendency is to look at it. During cocktail hour (if we have time to photograph it), though, we’re trying to capture candid moments of guests talking, laughing, and having a good time without them noticing us. People get nervous around cameras, and nothing kills a moment faster than getting caught. Luckily, this lens is the ultimate sniper. It allows us to be sneaky and snag special moments without guests knowing we’re even photographing them.

Sabrina and David-7

This fourth lens took our photography to a whole new level of quality and professionalism. It’s worth the investment for anyone looking to do the same. You’ll fall in love with this lens at the first click of the shutter. We know we did. Have a great week, and let’s make each other better.

Alisa

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

meet us

Amy & Jordan

We're high school sweethearts who had no formal training in photography, but went from being elementary school teachers to making six figures as full-time photographers. We're teachers at heart (with over 30,000 online course students) and are here to help YOU take amazing photos, build a thriving business and live a beautiful life. As parents to three littles, we're all about making every minute count and love to share what we're learning along the way. We're so glad you're here!
 

Hey friend! we're

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