Wedding Photography In Arizona

1 of 4 Female photographer from Phoenix, Arizona, rehearses taking a critical wedding photo using her assistant here as a model, in later light on Morro Strand State Beach, Morro Bay, CA. This photographer had an amazing array of lighting tools including Pocket Wizards and off-camera strobes. 01 Nov. 2008. Michael "Mike" L. Baird, Canon 1D Mark III, 70-200mm f/2.8 IS handheld. The veil was placed in position by the photographer who obviously has a keen eye and knows what she is doing. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We used to do quite a bit of wedding photography when we lived in Minnesota. Now that we are in Arizona, we've found there is quite a bit of differences in the two wedding markets.  First off, in Arizona, 90 percent of the weddings will be outside. In Minnesota, not so much. The wedding season in Arizona is basically spring and fall with some in the winter and some in the summer in more temperate northern parts of the state. In Minnesota, the vast majority of weddings will be in the summer, fall and spring with very few in the winter months. In Minnesota you have more of the old traditional Catholic and Lutheran churches with lots of steps. The steps are very helpful when posing the wedding party. Steps allow you to be more vertical in the group pose rather than just one long line of people.  Arizona doesn't have multiple story buildings or basements so most churches do not have any steps at all. Also, weddings in Arizona tend to be less formal as with most things in Arizona.

In Minnesota, summer is the most busy time of the year for a photographer.  Summer is huge for weddings but it's also a time when most of the senior portraits are taken for the coming school year. Summer in Minnesota is always a celebration. When you are stuck inside most of the year, very few states celebrate summer like Minnesota. There are so many activities lumped into the three months of summer that it keeps all the photographers very busy. In Arizona, things pretty much cut back and close down for the summer. It's just too hot to do much of anything. I think you probably have the same amount of activities in Arizona is just it's spread out over most of the year rather than the summer months.