Bridal portraits

This picture reminds me of why I love doing bridal portraits. A bridal portrait is a test run.... it gives you a chance to make sure you like the way your hair and makeup come together PRIOR to the wedding, before it is too late to change it! How do you LOVE that poof behind my head?! That is not how it sat on my head when I tried it on when we bought it in the shop, but that is how my hair dresser made it fit that day, and I didn't want to say anything, she was a friend of the family and was doing it for free.... Boy, the things I have learned over the course of time!

I always include a complimentary bridal session in every wedding package, this gives you the chance to do a test run with your hair and makeup and gives us a chance to see how to best photograph you, when we can take our time and not have to worry that the ceremony is about to start.

Donna Gustin photography

Happy anniversary to me! 12 years ago I married my husband and set out on my career to becoming a professional photographer. See, had I not gotten married, I would not have hired a photographer to come to my wedding.... and being a new bride, I had no idea what to do (this was 12 years ago, mind you, you couldn't just google 'wedding photography' and figure out what best to do), so I went to the professional photographer in our art department and asked who he trusted to shoot his daughters weddings, and I hired them.

I ended up having some man, that I had never met before, come to our wedding to take our pictures and even though he had a big gun, he had no idea how to photograph me so I looked good. Never in my life was I so disgusted than after getting our wedding pictures back to find a double chin showing in most of my pictures and my bra strap visible in the rest. Now I know I don't have a double chin in every picture I've ever taken, and it was a mystery to me why it appeared on my wedding day, and he couldn't tell me or have me pose in a different way.

I was so mad I cried, thinking, I can't do this again, and I could do better than this.... when it hit me, I COULD do better than that. I went to the studio with some pictures I had taken and they hired me on the spot. After shooting one wedding with the studio owner, he sent me to shoot a wedding on my own. Not something that I would ever consider doing to someone today, but ignorance is bliss, I felt empowered. I spent the next three years working for that studio, building up my portfolio and then off we went to the North Carolina where my husband was serving his first tour as a Naval Officer.

We've since been all over the world and have made Bossier City, Louisiana, home as of late.

Picking up and moving that often certainly doesn't make it easy to be a wedding photographer, just about the time I would get a clientele established, we would be off and running again, with that in mind, I haven't priced myself out of reach. I like my job and love the opportunity to work.