I love running, and probably have saved thousands of dollars in therapy sessions by getting out in the morning and pounding the pavement.  It's also where many of my ideas and epiphany's in life happen as well. Monday morning was one of those mornings!  Usually our blog postings are filled with lots of pretty pictures and not so many words. This time I'm not going to use any photos because I want you to focus on the words. 
     Pinterest has become such a big thing, and don't get me wrong I LOVE it for so many reasons! Recipes, home decor, outfits, my daughters' birthday parties, and inspiration.  The top 3 overall uses for Pinterest are weddings, recipes, and home decor. I've actually been told it looks like Pinterest threw up all over my house (which I take as a complete compliment:-).  It's also become a big thing with wedding photography and we all know those popular "pinterest-y" photos that brides request.  When I was running the other day, words of how to explain the effect it has on your wedding photos came to mind, so I felt it would be a dis-service not to share.  So, I'm going to get a little Pinterest-y on you!
    When you hire a professional wedding photographer you should be hiring them for their experience, talent, creativity, style, and personality.  After all, every wedding is so different, the location, colors, people, details, emotions, it's all so unique.  There are so many amazing moments to be captured and some of the best are always unplanned photojournalistic moments. If you give your photographer a Pinterest board of photos that you like, we can use that as inspiration to spark our own creativity, but the expectation to capture that same exact moment or expression is just not realistic. Talented, experienced, photographers know what moments to look for and given the freedom to, many times we can get a more epic shot then you could have ever imagined! 
     After all that time you spend creating those unique details, why would you want the same type of photos that everyone else has?  Pinterest is great for physical things you can buy like clothes, types of flowers, jewelry, etc.  It's also great to see the kind of poses or style you like, but here's why there are so many Pinterest photo "fails" out there. You can't have, or replicate, someone else's emotions, feelings, or moments!  The location, lighting, personality, interactions of people are all different, as they should be.  I think I speak for most (if not all) professional wedding photographers, when I say this, it kills our creativity and prohibits us from doing our best, most unique work for you.  If there are photos you really like on Pinterest the best thing you can do is to go find that photographer who shot those images and hire them. Which, by the way, we've had happen a number of times.  One of our brides in particular told me she kept pinning photos we had taken so they had to have us photograph their wedding:-) Think of it as hiring an artist you love and trusting their instinct, not wanting to copy a specific photo that already exists.  THAT is a Pinterest win!  Just some little nuggets of truth to chew on!