About Wedding Photographer Chris James

Get to Know your Photographer

I feel that it is important to know a bit about me. If you want to get to know me better, start by reading on to learn about who I am, and why I should be your photographer.

Wedding Photographer Chris James

My Values

Why Chris James?

Expertise & Gear

I have been photographing weddings for over a decade. To do it well, you need to spend a lot of time studying and perfecting your skills. A wedding is not something you want to trust to an amateur who just got a camera for their birthday. You need a professional who knows what they are doing. I’ve invested a small fortune in camera bodies, lenses, tools, and education to ensure that I can deliver amazing results every single time.

The Human Connection

You don’t want to be stressed on your wedding day. You want someone to make you feel relaxed and can get you to crack a smile at any given moment (honestly, the dad jokes never end). From our first call, I get to know you and find out what is important to you on your wedding day. I will work with you to ensure that you have the easiest, happiest, most awesome wedding a couple could ever hope for.

Quality Results

I’m very picky about my photography and my editing. Are there photographers who can get your wedding back to you in a day or two? Sure. Doesn’t your wedding deserve better than that? I spend the time to make sure that your wedding photographs are the best they can be.

Community

When I’m not photographing weddings, I can often be found out and about in the community photographing various events, such as festivals and parades. I often donate my time to photograph at local schools. I’m a life-long Rhode Island resident, having grown up in Woonsocket and currently living in North Providence. We get a lot from our communities, and so I try to give back when I can.

Photography Style

Everyone has their own style and preferences. Personally, I favor a blend of photojournalistic/documentary and fine art wedding photography, but I am comfortable and capable of working with whatever requests a couple has. My editing style leans towards vibrant, true-to-life colors and light & airy. I am comfortable with both natural light and off-camera lighting.

Being a sentimental kind of person, I tend to capture small details that many wouldn’t notice. I understand how much time and effort went into planning your big day, and I want to make sure that every aspect of it has been preserved in photographs.

Oh, and I LOVE candids!

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Questions about

Cameras & Gear

I often receive questions about the types of camera gear that I use for photographing weddings, portraits, and events. Here are some of the answers. This list is always changing, but it should give you a good idea as to what I’m likely to be using when we meet.

I currently use two full-frame digital mirrorless cameras for all of my shoots. Specifically, my main camera for wedding photography is a Canon R3. My secondary body is a Canon R6 Mark II with a vertical battery grip. I also keep a Canon R6 Mark I as a backup camera These camera bodies are weather-sealed and feature dual card slots to ensure that your data is backed up and safe from the moment the picture is taken.

Both, actually. It really depends on the circumstances and the type of photos we are going for. Many “natural light” photographers work only with natural light because they never learned how to correctly use their flashes!

I use Godox lighting equipment, including speedlights and strobes. I use them in combination with modifiers from MagMod.

It depends on what I’m photographing. I have a rather large collection of lenses (perhaps too many lol) to ensure that I am equipped for whatever the situation calls for. While I do have some of the usual classics, such as the Canon 16-35 mm, 24-70 mm, and 70-200 mm L series lenses, I also have a collection of wide-aperture primes that I love to shoot with. Among my favorites are my 85 mm f/1.2 portrait lens and my 35 mm f/0.95 manual focus lens (which gives an incredibly unique look). I also sometimes use a rather rare Canon 200mm f/1.8 prime for portraits if there is enough space available.

In the past, I have done some film photography, using my old Canon AE-1 and T-90 camera bodies. I haven’t shot on film in quite some time now. The “film look” is definitely trendy, but you can get it 99% there in digital through editing. If you have a particular film look in mind (for example, Fuji 400 is super popular for weddings) let me know!

No. Not at the moment. It is something that I’m looking into for fun, but I’m unlikely to offer it as a service for weddings at this time.

I shoot with two camera bodies, and both cameras record copies of the photographs on to two separate memory cards. Once home, copies of the photos are made on to several separate backup hard drives and also uploaded into remote cloud storage. I have additional equipment to ensure that I am covered and prepared no matter what happens.

Yes. Fully insured and can provide a Certificate of Insurance (COI) to your venue if required.

Get To Know Me

01. My guilty pleasure…

Good food

02. I dislike…

Strawberries

03. My favorite band…

The Beach Boys

04. I can’t live without…

Coffee

05. I have a cat named…

Dawg

06. Star Wars or Star Trek?

Don’t make me choose…

Education

I graduated from Woonsocket High School way back in 1998 (“Go Novans!”) and was very active in the arts community. I practically lived in the music department! My first time through college, I attended the Community College of Rhode Island as a music major.

When I went back to school for the second time, I completed two Bachelors degrees at the University of Rhode Island in Mathematics and in Computer Science. Additionally, I have a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from URI.

I’m a strong believer in life-long learning, and I am currently in the process of completing my Ph.D. at URI.

The image displays the text "THE UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND" in large, dark blue, capitalized serif letters on a transparent background.

Ph.D. Computer Science ABD
M.S. Computer Science
B.A. Computer Science
B.S. Mathematics

Computer Science Professor since 2013, teaching programming and web development.

The Etymology of a business Name

How did you become Chris James?

I’m often asked this question, and the answer is quite simple, really… I was always told that I was named after Christopher Columbus. Years later, the truth came out. The “CJ” actually came from a race horse named “Classic J.” The J for me became James.

Naming any business can be a tricky task. You want the name to be memorable, but it should also be short and easy to pronounce and spell.

I was blessed (cursed?) with one of those lovely French names that have lots of silent letters, and so rather than make all of you suffer with that, I opted to use my middle name of James. It just makes things easier 🙂

About my

Family & Home

I’m a life-long Rhode Island resident. I was born in Woonsocket, where I lived for most of my life (although I spent my first few years just over the border in North Smithfield). I love the history of Woonsocket, and have spent quite a bit of time photographing and documenting the local landmarks and historical sites. You can still often find me in Woonsocket, camera-in-hand, to capture all the various events that are going on.

I currently live in North Providence with my wife Hollie and our children. It’s a nice, central location close to all the major highways (always important when you need to travel to wedding destinations).

One of my hobbies is

Genealogy

One of my many other time-consuming hobbies is genealogy. I have been working on documenting my family history of about two decades now. I’ve become the unofficial family historian and custodian of many of our old photographs. My family has both French and Italian ancestry, and trying to sort it all out is always a challenge!

As I have all of the old family photo albums, I naturally became curious about photo restoration. This is something that I am quite skilled at, and hope to offer it as a service to others in the near future. Stay tuned!

The photos are absolutely stunning!
Chris is FANTASTIC. My wife and I hired him for our Wedding photographer and he blew it out of the water. He is very easy to work with and really loves what he does. Chris took the time to get to know us and captured every detail of the event. I could not recommend Chris more if you are looking for a professional photographer. I could not recommend him more!
Mitch & Sarah
2023 Rhode Island Wedding
These photographs came out beautiful!!!!
These photographs came out beautiful!!!! They are not just beautiful, but also captured so many moments that had me both emotional and sometimes laughing out loud. You made this process so easy from the beginning and made Jared and I feel like we were in good hands. I very much appreciate as well how adaptable you were to adding in the photo of my grandmother (and the attention you gave that photograph!!) and the photograph on the staircase. Both of these were referencing memories of my mother’s mother and she was blown away when she saw the finished products. These photographs have given her reassurance that my grandmother was there with her, which is priceless and means so much to me.
Kristen & Jared
2023 Boston Wedding
We’re very happy with our decision!
Hey Chris, just wanted to let you know that we love the pictures! Thank you for your help, and as we just said, we’re very happy with our decision!
Alex & Lily
2023 Providence Engagement Session

A bride in a lace gown leans toward a firefighter in uniform, creating a romantic scene during their engagement session at the fire station, with the fire truck marked "Ht. 11'5".

Now Booking 2026-2027 Weddings

While I’m now booking into next year and beyond, I still have a few select 2025 wedding dates available. Don’t miss your chance! Let’s connect today to see if we are right for each other.

Let’s talk!