You Hate Having Your Photo Taken. That’s Totally Fine.

A letter to every couple who cringes at the word “photoshoot.”

If you’ve ever wondered how to feel natural in your wedding photos when you don’t even like having your picture taken — you’re in the right place.

Here’s something I hear in almost every inquiry I get:

“We’re not really camera people.”

Sometimes it’s a disclaimer at the bottom of a contact form. Sometimes it comes out during our first call, almost apologetically, like they’re warning me about something I should know before I agree to work with them.

And every time, I want to reach through the screen and say: you are exactly who I love photographing.

The “camera person” thing is a myth

Here’s what I’ve noticed after years of photographing couples: the people who say they’re awkward in photos? They’re usually the most genuine, expressive, wonderful-to-photograph people I work with.

Because they’re not performing. They’re not thinking about their angles. They’re just… being themselves. And when you pair that with a photographer who isn’t going to ask you to do anything weird? That’s when the magic happens.

I don’t do the stiff, chin-down, hand-on-hip thing. I’m never going to ask you to stare dramatically into the distance while your partner gazes at the back of your head. That’s not my style, and honestly, it probably isn’t yours either — which is maybe why you’re here reading this.

What it actually looks like when we work together

Most of the time during a session, I’m just giving you something to do. Walk toward me. Tell them that joke you told me earlier. Fix their collar. Now look at each other and try not to laugh.

(They always laugh.)

It’s less “hold that pose” and more “keep doing that thing you were already doing, because it’s perfect.” I’m paying attention to the light and the composition. You’re paying attention to each other. That’s the whole system — and it’s why my couples end up with natural wedding photos that actually look like them.

The engagement session is where the nerves go away

If you’re reading this and your palms are already sweating a little, I get it. That’s one of the reasons I’m such a fan of engagement sessions — not because you need practice being photographed, but because you need a chance to see that it’s not what you think it is.

Every single couple I’ve worked with has said some version of the same thing afterward: “That was actually… fun?” Here’s what that looks like in real life → Destiny & Zach’s engagement session at Holmberg Conservation Area

Yes. It was. Because we weren’t doing a photoshoot. We were going for a walk, talking about your dog, and I happened to have a camera.

By the time your wedding day comes, I’m not a stranger with a lens. I’m someone you already know. Someone who already knows how you two are together — who reaches for the other one first, who makes who laugh harder, which one of you gets a little teary when things get real. That connection is the single biggest reason people feel natural in their wedding photos. It matters more than any posing guide ever could.

What your photographer believes about you shows up in the photos

This is the part nobody talks about.

If your photographer sees you as subjects to be posed and arranged, your photos will feel like that — technically fine, but a little hollow. If your photographer sees you as two people who are so in love it’s almost ridiculous, and their only job is to be in the right place at the right time? That’s a completely different photograph.

I believe that you don’t need to be “fixed” to look good in photos. You don’t need to lose weight first, or figure out your angles, or practice smiling in the mirror. You just need someone behind the camera who already thinks you look incredible — because you’re laughing so hard you can’t breathe, or you’re slow dancing in a field, or you’re looking at each other like nobody else exists.

That’s what I’m here for.

So if you’re “not camera people”

Good. Come as you are. I’ll handle the rest.

If you want to see what this looks like on an actual wedding day, take a look at Maya & Kyle’s wedding at Mukogawa Fort Wright — twelve years together, a first look at Manito Park, and a day that felt completely like them from start to finish.

I photograph weddings and couples across Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, and all through the Pacific Northwest. If you want to feel natural in your wedding photos — not stiff, not performing, just you — I’d love to hear from you.

Let’s talk about your wedding →

Kristina Corbett | Arch & Elm Photography
Documentary wedding photographer for couples who’d rather be living their day than posing through it.