OVERVIEW
A LOVE STORY.... written by you and captured by us
More than anything we want you to be absolutely thrilled with the result.....
"....I can truly say no matter how many weddings I attend, no other photographer can create, enhance and produce Helen's quality. She is truly an amazing artist! As the years go by our jaws still drop at the album she produced and as we attend more and more weddings and see their results, my husband and I keep poking each other and whisper that our album is still the winner!!" - Another happy client!
As your wedding photographer, you can expect us to…
We are committed to the value we provide for the quality of our services and products. We were voted ABIA Wedding Photographer of the Year for Queensland because of our expertise, our attitude, commitment and the outstanding service we provide to our couples.
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About
I am frequently asked "How do you create such stunning images?" My answer, "It's easy when you are on your right path, doing what you are meant to be doing, and loving what you do!" I was born into a very artistic family with my father being a World Renowned Master Potter & Artist. I wasn't much into painting or potting, but put a camera in my hand and a couple in love and I am in my element. You only have to see our wedding albums to see how much we love what we do!
Ms Helen McConnell
Business Owner
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Book one of our album packages (prices from $2200) and receive a $400 Studio Portrait Gift Certificate & a leather mini replica album exactly the same as your main album, only smaller and cute!
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I have been photographing weddings professionally for over 15 years and have photographed over 500 weddings. Our other main photographer has been photographing weddings professionally for nearly 10 years and has photographed over 300 weddings.
At Helen McConnell Photography we have two lead photographers. Unlike many of our contemporaries, we will never subcontract your wedding to another photographer who may work in another job and only photograph weddings on the weekend for a bit of pocket money. We recommend that you always ask to meet the person who will be photographing your wedding well before the actual day. It is important that you ask to view lots of examples of their work, including completed wedding albums, to ensure the consistency and quality of their work. Be aware of some so called “professional photographers” with a fantastic website and offer. They may only undertake photography as a part-time job on their weekends. You should never compromise on the quality of your cherished moments.
We will work out a timeline for you so that everything runs to plan and you don’t have to worry it. Once we confirm the timeline with you, we can send it to your other suppliers, e.g. makeup artist and hairdresser, florist, limousine etc, to make sure everyone knows what times they are required.
There are many different styles of photography that we employ on your wedding day, making your wedding album an extraordinary work of art that you'll cherish forever. Now this may sound like a weird statement to make, but there’s more going on behind our lenses than just point and click.
So what are these different styles...
?Reportage Wedding Photography- also known as documentary or photo-journalism photography. It is best described as minimally invasive photography that documents the event without disrupting the event as it happens. This style results in amazing candid photos that give a true representation of your wedding day as it happens. We use this type of photography for the ceremony and congratulations so as not to disrupt the proceedings and be as non-obtrusive as possible. We also use this style of photography throughout the day, for instance when the bridal party are mucking around or your new husband/wife whispers something in your ear.
?Traditional Wedding Photography- this style is more structured. In fact, you’ve no doubt seen this style before, it’s where the photographer will line up the wedding party and their guests and family for traditional staged photos. We use this type of photography for the large group shot of all your guests and smaller family and friend groups etc. Usually these are the type of images that the parents and grandparents cherish the most.
?Contemporary Wedding Photography - this can be described as glossy, magazine style photography. It’s generally regarded as trendier than traditional photography. We use this type of photography throughout the day for the Bride's preparations, Groom's preparations and location shoot.We also use special lighting equipment for this style ofphotography. These are the fun and artistic shots. We also use this technique for romantic shots of you and your new husband. It's usually these shots that our couples cherish the most as they may never have seen themselves so beautifully portrayed.
We include up to 30 hours of digital enhancements, which includes removal of blemishes and touch ups as well as changing images to black and white, sepia, colour-toned, and black and white background with a colour foreground.We also do a little nip and tucking if needed.
We will take up to 2,000 photographs of your day, depending on bridal party size and number of locations. This ensures that we don’t miss any candid or spontaneous moment. I then personally go through every single image and select the very best images for you to choose from, normally this will be between 500 to 800 fantastic images, again depending on how long the coverage.
All our packages include one professional photographer except for our Prestige Package which includes two photographers. You can add another photographer to any of the packages for $500.
Yes, all our prices include GST. If you are comparing other photographers, make sure you check that GST is inclusive in their prices.
We go through all 2,000 or more of your images, picking out the very best and culling out the duplicate ones etc. We then go through every single image, usually between 500 and 800, doing white balance correction and lightening or darkening or whatever we feel needs doing. We also do some amazing enhancements including changing a selection to black and white or sepia or other artistic applications. Then we design a highlights slideshow as well as send the proof images off to the lab for printing of the proofs. All of this takes approximately 2 weeks. Therefore we make an appointment approximately 2 weeks after your wedding for your album planning consultation.
Most definitely yes. Approximately 2 weeks after your wedding you will come to our studio to view your images and choose for your album. Firstly we have a chat about your day and your honeymoon. Then we watch a musical highlights slideshow of your wedding on our big screen...we have a box of tissues ready as this can be quite an emotional time, reliving your beautiful Wedding Day!Then you will go through a proof print of each of your photographs (approximately 600 to 800) choosing which ones you would love designed into your wedding album. Your choice of proofs are then laid out onto layout boards to show you how the story of your Wedding Album will flow.
Most definitely yes. After you’ve chosen your proofs and any other extras you’d like, we design your album using the images you’ve chosen in the order that you’ve viewed in your album design consultation. It takes us approximately 2 weeks to design your album, retouching what is needed to be retouched as we go. You then come back to the studio to view your album on our big screen. We go through it one page at a time to make sure you’re happy with the design. If there are any changes, for example swapping the order of the bridal party photographs etc, these are done before the album goes to manufacture. You then approve the design and your album goes to manufacture. All our albums are handmade and take approximately 5 to 6 weeks to build.
Yes, we go through your images usually on the Monday after your Wedding Day and post a couple on our facebook business page for you to share with your family and friends.
No, not if you don’t want them to be posted. Most of our couples love to see that sneak preview while they’re on their honeymoon. However if you don’t wish them to be, you would ask us during your pre-wedding consultation and we would make a note on your file. You would then have to wait until your album design consultation to view any of your images.
Yes, you can definitely print the images you receive on your USB and they do not have a watermark on them. There will be three folders on the USB. One folder has the images that you can print up to 76cm x 50cm (for wall prints). The other folder has the images resized to print smaller prints, e.g. 18cm x 12cm...these make great gifts for bridal party and family. And the final folder has the images resized and ready for use on social media. These files for social media will have our Logo on the bottom corner so this satisfies Copyright Law.
November 2019
September 2018
Helen McConnell Photography
Aww darling we had an amazing time at your fabulous wedding in Samoa! And "windy" is an understatement! Lol! Some amazing photos though of your veil blowing out! And I particularly love that at the end we took your wedding dress for a dip in the water...some gorgeous photographs of that!! Your beautiful wedding album and wall art will be here any day now and I can't wait for you to collect them and put them on display for your friends and family to enjoy! xoxo
September 2018
Helen McConnell Photography
Thank you Jodi, you're so sweet!! My team had a great time at your lovely wedding! xo
Expert Advice
As a wedding professional, Helen McConnell Photography offers expert advice to help couples plan their perfect day. Ask a question or read their expert advice.
Get Expert Advicewhy are some photographers price double what others are?
Helen McConnell Photography
There is a very good reason there is a big difference in prices for photography....firstly is experience. There are many photographers who have little experience with photographing weddings so their prices should be a lot cheaper. If it were my wedding I would never engage a photographer with little experience (less than 5 years full-time photography experience) as you can't photograph the day again when they don't capture the beautiful photography that you would love to have that shows the story of your day. We have over 15 years professional wedding photography experience so we really know what we're doing and are ready for anything. The next is gear. Some photographers go to a wedding with just one camera and one lens. What happens if they have a malfunction? We go to weddings armed with at least 4 cameras, 6 lenses, lighting equipment, this is how we capture those amazing sunsets that everyone raves around. The next important thing is quality of products. There are wedding albums and then there are WEDDING ALBUMS! They can vary from tacky little albums with tissue paper between the pages or you can opt for the gorgeous albums that we offer....bookbound leather albums with acrylic cover and gatefold pages plus some of the pages in metallic. They're amazing...or so everyone says when they first see them...they say they've never seen anything like them before. The next is Awards. We are an award winning photography company having won Wedding Photographer of the Year for Queensland a few years ago as well as many other awards for our wedding photographs. At the end of the day you really only get what you pay for. If you're investing quite a large sum into your wedding and what it captured beautifully and have a wonderful experience with your photographer, you really should put the investment into the photographer as you will either cherish your gorgeous wedding album for the rest of your lives or you will regret that you didn't put enough importance into it when booking and went for the cheap option. I hope these words help you make the right choice.
what does the standard photography package include?
Helen McConnell Photography
It is important not to choose your Wedding photographer on price alone as there is so much that goes into capturing your Wedding Day. Unfortunately there are a lot of photographers out there who have little experience, go to shoot a wedding with only one camera and limited equipment and obviously the results are very ordinary. We are not the cheapest photographers around however we offer a very high quality service at very affordable rates and all our couples say we are definitely worth it. We even offer interest free payment plans so that you can achieve the wedding album of your dreams and be able to pay it off over time. We have 3 different wedding album packages to offer. We've developed these over the past 15 years of being professional wedding photographers and find that couples really love the products that are included. All our packages include 4 to 7 hours of coverage, depending on which album you're looking at, a gorgeous album, some with an acrylic cover, the initial 16 page sides in your album, a piece of wall art, some art prints, all the images on a USB for social media, all the images you choose for your album as printable files, a password protected web gallery and your very own app for you to show off your album design. These album packages are between $1800 and $2600 for the standard package with an opportunity to add extras or we can adjust our packages to suit our couples. We can also add an engagement session to your package free of charge. I hope this has helped. :)
do photographers already know the good photography opportunities at your venue?
what if they havent been there before? wont we just waste lots of time looking for the best place to take photos? is this the kind of thing they should research prior?
Helen McConnell Photography
Hello Brides & Grooms to be,
For us, we are familiar with most wedding venues in Brisbane, Gold Coast and surrounding areas having photographed over 500 weddings. However if we're booked for a wedding at a venue that we haven't been to before, we would do lots of online research plus talk to the wedding coordinator of the venue to see if there are any rules they have at that venue and also to see what time is their usual time for the commencement of the reception. We would then visit the venue a month or so before the wedding so we're well perpared. However if for instance we're booked for a destination wedding, e.g. next year we're flying to Samoa to photograph a wedding and there's no time to be able to do a location search beforehand, we would do lots of online research of the area and talk to the wedding coordinator on the phone plus on the wedding day we would arrive earlier than planned to quickly check out the location. We've been photographing for over 15 years so it doesn't take long for us to work out exactly what we'll be doing on the day.
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Thank you too darling! You and Eric are the sweetest couple and we absolutely loved capturing all the special moments for you! Especially those funny wink wink nudge nudge photos we took at the gardens! A whole lot of fun! And your album is absolutely breathtaking!! xoxo