behind the scenes Archives - Photos by Amanda Wilson

Feb 08

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Ask to See The Rain Plan – Choosing a wedding venue for all weather

By Amanda Wilson | Armstrong Farms, Behind the Scenes, Lingrow Farm, Wedding Planning, weddings | No Comments

Venue shopping tip: ASK TO SEE THE RAIN PLAN – so important! Especially if plan A is an outdoor ceremony or cocktail hour or the primary plan for photos is the outdoor space. Make sure the rain plan is something you will love just as much and not be a hastily thrown together poor substitute. Ask yourself if you had to have your day with nothing but the rain plan – where would everyone sit, what would it look like, how is the lighting, can it be decorated, if you have no ability to go outside (maybe it’s hurricane season) where will you be able to take photos? And then make sure you’re not just worst case scenario “okay with those options” make sure you are still excited about them ! Be realistic and be prepared!! There are lots of opportunities for photos with the “good shoes” – your jimmy…

Jun 06

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My WHY am I a photographer

By Amanda Wilson | Behind the Scenes, For Photographers, Personal, weddings | No Comments

There’s a lot of things you don’t know about “old photographers” – I don’t just mean the retired ones or the ones who did photos before photos were digital. I mean the ones who have been doing it for more than a decade maybe a few decades. That’s “old” in a a creative industry where thousands of new “photographers” get their first camera for christmas every year and lots of “professional photographers” burn out and change jobs like a comet flashing across the universe into darkness. For those of us who have been at this so many years it’s not just what we do anymore, it’s who we are – sometimes we get to do one of those jobs where we call up our photog friends like I did and say “I got to shoot one of those jobs today, the ones that remind you why you started all this…

Feb 01

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Wedding planning on Pinterest

By Amanda Wilson | Wedding Planning | No Comments

So I’ve been hanging around on Pinterest a lot lately and I have noticed some disturbing changes that I want to address. Pinterest has been a game changer for anyone planning ANYTHING from a wedding to a recipe to decorating your fantasy house. Wedding planning on Pinterest has been FUN. Like Whose Line is it Anyway – where all of the pretty things are possible and the prices don’t matter. Even though this is my 16th wedding season coming up this year, I’m still excited to experience all of the events my couples are planning and see what surprises might be on the horizon for the new decade! It’s the off season and I want to fantasy plan too – so I typed in “2020 wedding trends” and while a lot of pins and posts popped up heralding the coming of things like “wedding charcuterie” (OMG YES PLEASE) “the return…

Feb 12

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Working from home – Real Talk

By Amanda Wilson | Behind the Scenes, For Photographers | No Comments

We’ve all heard it. “It must be SO nice working from home!” I cringe a little when that’s the biggest impression people have of my job. It’s like telling someone who works in an office “you’re job is sooo easy, all you do is type!” OR telling someone who works in a hospital “it must be soo nice to never have to go outside!” Let’s get real. No matter what your occupation is or where you do your work, there are parts that everyone assumes are great, but might actually suck. With career fields changing and commerce shifting from stores to online, more people than ever are working from home. Contrary to popular belief, unless you have the flu, staying in your pajamas till 4pm is usually a sign that you may be overwhelmed and prioritizing everything and everyone else before what’s best for you. I’ve spent too many years…

Apr 20

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Pittsburgh Makeup artist, Julie Marckisotto, helping women find their glow.

By Amanda Wilson | Behind the Scenes, Meet the Artist, weddings | No Comments

Good morning! Today, I want to share another profile from my Meet the Artist blog series! I’ve known Julie Marckisotto of Pittsburgh Makeup for many years. We met behind the scenes on a wedding day, and I knew right away that she was fabulous. These days, when I walk into the bride’s getting ready space on the morning of a wedding and see Julie quietly at work, I know it’s going to be a great day. She brings a calm vibe to every situation and her work is absolutely flawless. When a bride hires Julie for her wedding day make up, I know she will look just as beautiful at 9:00pm as she did when she got out of Julie’s chair first thing that morning. Julie’s got an outstanding resume that includes big names like NFL Network, Discovery Channel, American Eagle, Aerie, Rue 21, and UPMC, but those bright lights…

Mar 23

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Our 2017 Shoot & Share Contest Results!

By Amanda Wilson | Behind the Scenes, Personal | No Comments

In parts of the world where the weather gets brutal, photographers have a lot of downtime in the winter months. One of the things we do to keep ourselves in the zone and gear up for the following year is to enter some of our favorite images into contests like Shoot & Share. What is the Shoot & Share Contest? It’s a completely anonymous photo competition hosted online that anyone can enter, and anyone can vote on. That way no one knows whose photos belong to who when they’re voting and the playing field is level from celebrity photographers to local small business owners. Submissions opened in January and when voting opened it went on for a month with photos receiving the least votes being eliminated and the ones with the most moving on to the next round! Throughout the duration of the contest, (12 rounds in all!) over 49…

Feb 16

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Making Words Beautiful – An Artist Profile of Victoria Fiaretti of Wood & Grace Handlettering Boutique.

By Amanda Wilson | Meet the Artist, weddings | One Comment

Greetings! Today I want to introduce something special, a new blog series called Meet the Artist. In my line of work, I’m fortunate to get to meet and collaborate with a ton of amazing artists, small business owners and creative professionals. Victoria Fiaretti, of Wood & Grace Handlettering Boutique is all three. I first heard of Wood & Grace when my sister, Ashley, was gifted a beautiful hand painted wooden sign at her bridal shower with her wedding date. It was such a unique and special piece that stood out among the common registry items in her shower gifts. (*Disclaimer – brides still definitely need and appreciate their registry items! I know I needed and am still using the silverware, plates, towels, and sheets that I got at my own shower!) After Ashley’s shower, we had the pleasure of photographing a ton of Victoria’s work popping up at weddings all…

Jan 31

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Imaging USA 2017 – San Antonio!

By Amanda Wilson | Behind the Scenes, Personal | No Comments

Every year I run away for a week to a photography convention called Imaging USA. It’s hosted by an organization of which I am a proud (though not loud) member; the Professional Photographer’s of America. It’s hosted in a different city each year that’s easy to get to in the off-season winter months. Recently, we’ve been to Phoenix, Nashville, Atlanta, and this year San Antonio. What happens at a photography convention? Think of it kind of like Comic Con for people who love making images. We all get together nerd out over new camera gear, new ideas, rehash old problems, make new friends, etc. This year was no exception. The count was estimated to be ten thousand photographers in attendance. That’s a lot of selfies. When we show up and take over a city, it seems like there’s a pop up photo shoot on every corner complete with lighting assistants…

Sep 21

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What to wear for family photos

By Amanda Wilson | Behind the Scenes, Milestones | No Comments

Fall is coming. The end of the year is coming. The pressure to make your Christmas cards is coming! This means that time is running out to schedule your annual family photos. One of the biggest reasons I hear from people for why they don’t have their family photographed is that it’s too hard to get everyone together and dressed. Here’s some tips for what to wear for family photos that will help everyone look and feel their best and have you loving your images for years to come. Remember department store portraits in the 90s? Everyone wearing the the same color and matching outfits? A lot of times people worry that if they don’t match their outfits that they won’t look like they “go together”. That’s not true. Great family photos are when the relationship shows through the posing which is MY job 😀 😀 After all, baseball teams…

Jun 07

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Surprise proposal revealed!

By Amanda Wilson | Behind the Scenes, Engagements, surprise proposals | No Comments

This story starts with a ring under the Christmas tree in station square on New Years Eve 2015. Megan had been working as a wedding coordinator for Lingrow Farm, that’s how she and I met, but she met Johnny in Station Square years before that. They were both attending St. Vincent University and working for the Event and Conference Services Department. If I remember the story right, Megan was driving the shuttle and saw Johnny waiting to be picked up on the curb. It wasn’t long before they were back at Station Square on their first date, and three years later I got an email from Johnny that he had a plan. These two St. Vincent alumni were getting married, Megan just didn’t know it yet. Johnny explained that he would be home from DC for New Years and was going to take Megan out to dinner in Station Square…

behind the scenes Archives - Photos by Amanda Wilson

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