DC Weddings with Gillian

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Wedding Photography: Capturing Authentic Moments To Last Forever

Your wedding day is a special day that you will remember for the rest of your life. It is a celebration of love and commitment, and it should be captured in all its beauty.

And it’s going to be fleeting.

That’s why capturing the authentic moments that make it so special is important, and professional photographers like Nadine best capture those moments.

Wedding photography captures all of the authentic moments of your wedding and allows you to have lasting memories for generations to come.
In this article, we will talk about how photography can capture all those authentic moments of your wedding that you can have to take away for generations to come. Our guest today is Ms. Nadine Nasby of Nadine Nasby Photography!

Transcript

Gillian de Souza: Hello, everyone! Welcome to DC Weddings with Gillian. I am here again with another very special guest. Folks, authenticity at your wedding, I don’t know anyone who has come to us over the years who hasn’t said that they wanted something authentic. Something that felt like them to take away for their wedding for their special day, for the experience that they’re about to have.

I have a special guest who talks only about how her photography brings out all those authentic moments of your wedding that keeps saying that you can have to take away for generations to come, that she can capture all of those moments in an authentic way for you. And I am excited to introduce our next guest, Ms. Nadine Nasby of Nadine Nasby Photography.

Hello everyone. It’s Gillian again. Welcome, welcome, welcome to DC Weddings with Gillian. And as you know, here at DC Weddings with Gillian, we just love to find those wedding professionals for you that will help you literally do what you need to get done for your wedding. And I have a great — a lot in store for you here because we have with us today, Nadine of Nadine Nasby Photography.

Welcome, welcome, welcome, Nadine.

Nadine Nasby: Thank you so much. I’m just so honored to be here. I love talking to you.

Gillian de Souza: We are happy to have you, and not only just happy to have you here at DC Weddings with Gillian, but happy to have you in DC, in the DMV market because you have been doing wonderful work for many years in the Central Florida region.

And you have come up here to DC to share your expertise and your progress with DC, Maryland, and Virginia brides and groom. So tell us a little bit about yourself.

Nadine Nasby: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Yeah. It’s been a work in progress. My husband and I have been planning to move right here in DC about four months ago to expand my business.

And, I do have family here as well, that was a little bit of motivation and we just love the DC area. I am still doing weddings in the Central Florida area as well. But have been already busy since I’ve been here doing weddings here in DC and Maryland. So, I just love getting acquainted with all the beautiful historic venues.

Oh my goodness. And over at the Chesapeake Bay, so gorgeous. Yeah.

Gillian de Souza: Yes. Yes, indeed love the Chesapeake Bay and doing weddings down on the beach. Absolutely fabulous.

Nadine Nasby: Which is like Florida.

Gillian de Souza: There’s your connection. Water isn’t as warm and not as blue. But the beach is fine, right? For your photos. And so being an island person myself, I can relate to just doing anything on the — anything is better on the beach for me.

Nadine Nasby: Yes, Palm trees.

Gillian de Souza: So Nadine, I have been looking at your work and with great pleasure and actually anxious to be able to work with you. I’ll start off here with a quote that I saw on your website. It meant so much to me because I know if I had that experience, it would be everything for me.

So tell me about, I believe it was Madison and what she had to say about the work that you did for her at her wedding. And folks you wanna go to nadinenasby.com and see this quote from Madison that we’re gonna talk about now.

Nadine Nasby: Aw, thank you. Yeah, Madison was one of my favorite brides to photograph. Madison and Alec, they got married in St. Augustine, a beautiful historic venue there. And so I use my 20 plus years newspaper photo journalism experience to how I — my wedding style. And so, Madison just really loved that I caught authentic moments with her and their puppies. They had two — they still have cute, adorable, oh my gosh, little puppies that they brought to the wedding. And they were so adorable and just got authentic moments with them, run with the puppies, running around and she just loved that.

And, it takes a certain skill and I’ve had to perfect it over the years, obviously, but to me it’s all about anticipation. As a photographer, we all love to get those authentic moments, but you have to be ready and you have to anticipate and so that’s what I love to do.

I’m passionate about that particularly with Madison. I just remember a moment where she was getting ready with her bridal party at a small boutique hotel. And I knew she was getting ready to put on her dress. And she was off like in one of the little corridors with her mom. And they were just like sharing little whispers with each other.

And I was like, “Hmm, I think something might be happening”. And there was gorgeous light coming in the window. I was like, “Ugh, this has gotta be, you know, happening.” So I kind of put on a longer lens cause I didn’t wanna interfere and just kind of that fly on the wall and I just stepped back and sure enough, they were just like had the most beautiful moments.

Just tender, like she was kissing her before she put the dress on. That portrait is like one of my favorites. So, and I know it was for Madison too. So I love doing that.

Gillian de Souza: Absolutely. It just speaks to the experience and the memory of the experience that you could provide in those photographs.

Because I tell people all the time “Yeah, you’re gonna have the memory of the food, but it’s gone.” The only thing you leave is with your spouse and the photographs. Right? After your wedding. That’s it. Everything was just for the moment.

Nadine Nasby: Right. My couples, it’s common for them to say, in fact, I just shot my first wedding here in Maryland and they already said, “Oh my gosh, you took these pictures. I didn’t even know you were taking them.” And they’re like my favorite moments and see that’s what it’s all about. Letting the couples enjoy their wedding, be present at their wedding. And then I am just photographing what’s going on.

Fantastic.

Gillian de Souza: Fantastic. It’s so much in line with our principles here at Caribbean Caterers in terms of the experience that we are providing for the couple, for their parents, their family, their guests. Because this one day would be a day in for me that everyone would remember for decades to come. And for us to be a part of that, it’s an honor to even be chosen to be a part of that special moment. So that is wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing that.

It’s great because I am not person who likes to pose for photographs so I appreciate those kind of candid shots that people can just catch. And the fact that you can put on a long lens and not be in the mix of their personal moment and trying to pose them in their personal moment, but really just get that moment.

That speaks a lot, I think. Kudos!

Nadine Nasby: Thank you. I wanted say also I don’t just do unscripted moments, or those in between moments because obviously we have like golden hour pictures or we have the bridal party, the group shots. And so I do a perfect like blend of posing as well. I was just talking about all those other, like in between moments of getting ready and other things that might happen at the reception or even during the ceremony.

But, also I love getting guests, like the mother, the bride, or like parents, their reactions as they’re watching the ceremony. So it’s like a good blend of some real moments happening there. But I do love to do beautiful post portraits too. I really do. And there’s another thing that I love to do with that.

Like I start off posing my couples. In fact, I just did this, at the wedding I just shot a couple weeks ago at Herrington on the Bay. We were on the dock, it was beautiful, like sunset and I had posed them in such a way. And then I just kind of like wait — again, that anticipation, I interact a little bit as I’m talking to them with my camera, but — is nine times out of 10, if you just give them a few moments, like seconds even, real interactions come out, even in the pose.

Does that make sense? So I love doing that too. I’m like, “Oh, you got” and so we just have fun. And also, there’s another little thing I discovered, if I say, “Oh, I’m gonna change lense or something.” And they think that I’m not taking their picture, again, then the best moments come out and then I’m ready. So it’s fun.

Gillian de Souza: So Nadine, thanks so much for that last response. It’s so good to hear all about what you do for your brides because — and grooms, or couples as I should say these days, but this is, again, so in line with what we do here at Caribbean Caterers. I’m really very enamored with you, with your work, your business.

So, I wanted to. What inspired you to get into the wedding industry? I mean, coming from the background, as you told me as a — I have to get it right, as editorial.

Nadine Nasby: Oh yes.

Gillian de Souza: Yes, editorial photography or the newspaper and so on. What made that transition to the wedding industry? And what enamores you about working in the wedding industry?

Nadine Nasby: Well, it’s funny that you should ask that because I started out doing weddings when I left the daily grind of newspaper work and I was a freelance photographer. I was still doing some magazine work freelance in South Florida and I was doing weddings as well. And that style of weddings back then — I don’t wanna date myself too much, but anyway, it was before digital. So we were using film and it was very cookie cutter. Like the style that people expected was not really authentic, real moments. It was very much you shot the wedding, the ceremony itself, and then later when people are drinking and dancing, that was unscripted, but it was the group pictures.

Everybody was looking to go to the cocktail hour, like, “Oh, can we get done these pictures?” And so it was — I didn’t really like it too much. I still did beautiful portrait work, during the weddings. And then it was only until I started to see a number of years later that brides were really catching on to this idea of photojournalistic wedding photography, editorial wedding photography, black and white photographs from a wedding.

And that just like made my heart’s — like I was just like — finally, that’s what I love to do. And so I started doing weddings again. Now I feel like I can utilize the expertise, the skill set from all the years of being on assignment, and just using those same skills to covering weddings, cause I do treat it like I’m covering a story for a publication.

So you have to get all aspects of it.

Gillian de Souza: But you know, as a wedding professional here, you say that it is a story. It’s it’s their life story. And so for us too, as I hear you talk, it’s not about doing a job and getting this work done. It’s about being a part of this life moment that’s happening for this couple and their families and their extended families and generations to come.

And I saw it in your work. I saw it in your website. Now I’m hearing it in your voice and your expression, just how important to have this experience with your couple. So that is very enamoring to your business. So thanks for that.

Nadine Nasby: Yeah. And I actually get very involved.

When I just shot a wedding a couple weeks ago, I was crying myself at the end of the ceremony. Like I get very involved, especially, I love when the couples like write their vows to each other, and that’s what I was hearing. And I just was like, “Oh”, then I have to pull it together cause I have to get the professional shots.

That’s why I also love the toast because when the family members get up and then you just hear more of their story and it’s just special.

Gillian de Souza: That’s interesting. So what is it like working with you Nadine at Nadine Nasby Photography before the event?

How do you figure out what’s important to the brides and grooms? How do you translate that into a physical thing that you’re gonna give to them?

Nadine Nasby: Well, that’s a great question. And so it is a process. I do have a very detailed questionnaire. So when someone books with me, we go through that.

Sometimes it takes time for them to fill everything out if they’re especially in the new stages of their wedding planning. But it’s just communication. I talk to them all along the way. It’s not like they don’t hear from me again until their wedding. It’s we get to know each other.

And often, well, it’s part of my packages that I do engagement sessions. So I get to know them after their engagement session. I have like I one coming up where they’re gonna bring their dog, so more dogs. Each interaction I get to know them better. So by the time the wedding comes around, I’ve gotten to know a little bit about their family especially if there was some unfortunate, you know, someone passed away and they wanna do certain things to remember their loved one at their wedding. I know all the details and by then also, because I already have photographed them at least once at their engagement session, the ice has broken a little bit, usually on the groom side. Sometimes they’re a little like, “Ugh”, but by then we end the session laughing and I think they feel very much at ease with me.

Gillian de Souza: Fantastic. Well, if you had to give couples now some advice, a tip, one thing they should know. Something that other photographers don’t tell them or that you think they need to know going into looking for a photographer. What would that be?

Nadine Nasby: Just connection. Just make sure that you connect with them. Again, going for that authenticity that they understand that the photographer gets you and understands. Also I think, we all put our best work out there, right? Like on Instagram or obviously on our website too. But if you don’t see like recent work, I would ask. If you don’t see like a recent blog post from a recent wedding, if like the last wedding that you’re seeing is like from five years ago or maybe just all style shoots. I mean, I love style shoots too. But if you’re not seeing current work, I would ask, “Oh, can I see some of your current work?” That way you kind of know that they’re currently active in their business and they’re working.

But for me, I need to connect with my couples too. And you’ve gotta have that camaraderie like that relationship at least started at the beginning of the process.

Gillian de Souza: Well, wonderful. I can tell you Nadine, we are happy to have you here in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia market. Couples have a great deal in store to have you as part of the resource that they can have for their weddings.

So, we are the benefit. So thank you so much. Are there any parting words you would like to leave for our listeners?

Nadine Nasby: I just really appreciate the opportunity that you’ve given me and to learn more about your business and I hope we get to work together soon.

Gillian de Souza: We definitely will because our clients are always asking us to make recommendations. And so we are happy to do so. So indeed I am sure we’ll be working together very, very shortly.

Folks, we have been chatting with Nadine Nasby of Nadine Nasby Photography right here in the DMV.

We’ve got her. Good to see you have a wonderful evening.

Nadine Nasby: Thank you!

Gillian de Souza: Thanks for coming.

Nadine Nasby: Thank you, you too. It was a pleasure.

Gillian de Souza: Indeed.