By LEANNE ITALIE

NEW YORK (AP) — Like all brides, Elana Goldin had high hopes for her wedding photos and video.

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“I loved their images,” she said of the company picked by her dad and future mother-in-law. “They were award-winning. They were in a ton of magazines. I really liked the vibe of the owner.”

The feeling didn’t last.

The photographer, who showed up 45 minutes late with a team of two, wasn’t the owner, as the company had promised. She was someone Goldin had never spoken to. The fill-in had a bad attitude from the start, said Goldin, who lives in Chicago and got married last May in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Among other things, the photographer criticized Goldin’s bridal shoes, jewelry and perfume as second rate for traditional close-up shots, and she picked apart the bouquets without permission to get images before the ceremony.

“She and the florist got into a fight. There was friction from the moment she walked in,” Goldin said.

Looking back, Goldin said she would have done a few things differently.

We asked wedding planners and photographers to also weigh in on how they think photo disaster can be averted.

Don’t be afraid to voice concerns

Goldin wishes she had been more assertive. She had provided a shotlist ahead of time, but the photographer assigned to the bride and bridesmaids started making demands on where she wanted Goldin to pose.

“I’m in my dress and she said let’s take a picture in the shower, because it was a very big, glamorous shower. My sister was like, absolutely not. Not happening,” Goldin recalled.

At the venue, the photographer insisted on taking photos outside. The weather was rainy and windy, and the lighting was dreary.

“It was disgusting outside. My dress got all dirty at the bottom. My hair starts frizzing. The bridesmaids came out and our hair was blowing everywhere. The pictures were awful,” Goldin said.

Don’t hire friends or family unless they’re pros

You love them dearly. But New Jersey-based wedding planner Danielle Rothweiler of Rothweiler Event Design advises against it.

“I always tell my couples, stop hiring your friends and family because if something goes wrong, think of that conversation that you’re going to have. No one wants that,” she said.

One client took up an uncle on his offer to shoot her wedding as his gift. He missed half the shots and didn’t understand the importance of timing. He also spent a good amount of time just being a guest and not taking pictures at all.

“She never said anything. The pictures weren’t great,” Rothweiler said. “I have a wedding coming up this year and half the vendor list is friends and family and I’m terrified. I’m so scared about it.”

Read up on the process and get technical

Michelle Jackson, who owns the photo vendor Bambino International based in Cincinnati, Ohio, said some basic questions about equipment can go a long way.

Make sure your photographers have back up camera bodies and other crucial equipment of the same quality as their primary gear, she said. Cameras with dual slots for SD cards or XQD cards are optimal.

“Everything’s being copied onto two cards,” she said. “The worst disaster for a photographer is you have no pictures at all because of equipment failure. Couples don’t think about that.”

In the same vein, San Francisco wedding photographer Oscar Urizar, the proprietor of Red Eye Collection in San Francisco, said couples should ensure they have the rights to personal use of their photos. That allows them to print, share and display them for non-commercial purposes.

“I started in the film industry. If you didn’t get your negatives, you couldn’t print your photos. It’s kind of that same thinking,” he said.

Plan group shots meticulously ahead of time

There’s nothing more chaotic than organizing group shots at weddings. The larger the wedding, the more chaotic it can be.

Wedding planner Tirusha Dave, founder of the luxury market Bravura Brides, serves South Asian couples around the world with guest lists up to 300 or more.

She puts together a shareable document and asks couples to list every person expected in each group shot, but she doesn’t stop there. She has them designate one person to serve as wrangler. The wrangler must know every person in the group by sight so they can be chased down if necessary.

“I tell my couples, I’m really great at what I do but I don’t know your second cousins, your extended aunts and uncles,” Dave said.

Each group is assigned a number that’s announced when it’s time to gather.

Good photos mean a schedule must be kept

Dallas-area photographer April Pinto, founder and co-owner of April Pinto Photography, has a stable of shooters. They can juggle up to four weddings a week.

They sink or swim by how well the timeline is observed. Not an easy task, Pinto said, “when you have a coordinator timing you and the mother of the groom who wasn’t on the Zoom call making her own agenda and stressing out the bride. We’re in the middle of all of that.”

But that’s just part of the challenge. The other part?

The rowdy bridesmaid, Pinto said. She’s somebody who might have had a bit too much Champagne and feels like she should be in charge.

“If a bridesmaid is feeling a little too spicy, we try to give her tasks,” Pinto said. “I find that keeping people in general engaged and involved can go a long way. You can turn all that stress into a happy time.”

A former contract employee for the city of Lakeland charged with stealing – and then pawning – several items from the city was given 18 months of supervised probation on Wednesday and put into a diversion program.

Shane Lawson Jacks, 44, of Lakeland, was charged with felony theft in Washington County District Court in August for stealing three chainsaws, two trimmers and a leaf blower from a city building on June 10 while working for People Service, the company that operates the city’s water treatment plant and also provides public works-related services.

The stolen items were valued at $2,180, and officials were able to identify Jacks by pawn shop surveillance video and his Minnesota driver’s license. The pawned items, with serial numbers that matched items missing from the city, totaled $1,410, according to the criminal complaint.

Jacks, who was fired by People Service, was accepted into Washington County’s diversion program, which allows first-time offenders to avoid convictions by successfully completing the conditions of probation. Jacks must complete 24 hours of community work service or three days on the county’s sentence to service program and pay $1,479.98 in restitution to the city.

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By Milena Malaver and Jay Weaver, Miami Herald (TNS)

When entering the United States through an airport or seaport, your electronic devices — laptops, phones, tablets — can be subject to search by Customs and Border Protection.

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A basic search involves an officer manually reviewing the device’s contents without using any external tools.

An advanced search uses specialized equipment to access, copy and analyze the data on your device. This more invasive search requires reasonable suspicion of a law being broken or a national security threat, and must be approved by a senior Customs or Border Protection official.

But border agents do not need a warrant to conduct either one of these searches.

An electronic device subject to search is any “that may contain information in an electronic or digital form, such as computers, tablets, disks, drives, tapes, mobile phones and other communication devices, cameras, music and other media players,” according to Customs and Border Protection.

The issue has made headlines in recent weeks after a Michigan attorney was detained in early April at the Detroit airport by Customs officials, who told him they would confiscate his phone unless he gave it to them to look through his contacts. (Because he was a U.S. citizen, he was given back his phone and eventually allowed to reenter the country after a family vacation in the Dominican Republic.)

“We say everyone should have a plan before travel,” said Sophia Cope, senior attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation nonprofit focused on civil rights in the digital age.

The EFF created an extensive guide on how to protect your digital privacy at the border. Cope said the foundation does not “discourage people from handing over the actual physical device,” as federal agents have the right to inspect it.

However, Cope said to be aware that an officer may ask for a device to be unlocked or requests the passcode: “The traveler has to know what they’re going to do in that moment, either they’re going to comply or they’re not going to comply.”

Here are key steps in protecting the data on your device:

Minimize your phone’s data

Before you travel, delete sensitive data on your phone or move it to secure cloud storage (and log out of those accounts).

If you’re a journalist, attorney, doctor or other professional, you have a special responsibility to protect sensitive data —whether it’s confidential sources, privileged client information, or even personal content like photos or private messages, Cope said.

The EFF also suggests leaving behind electronic devices such as laptops and computers, if possible.

Use strong passwords and encryption

Enable full-disk encryption — on an iPhone, go to Settings and Face ID & Passcode, where you should see the phrase data protection is enabled at the bottom of the page. Also, set up strong, alphanumeric passwords and disable facial recognition and fingerprint identification, as these may be easier to compel.

CBP and other law enforcement agencies can use advanced forensic tools to recover deleted files and reveal past activity on your device, even if it’s not visible at first glance, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

But the EFF discourages people from trying to hide data on their devices. “We recommend against using methods that may be, or even appear to be, calculated to deceive or mislead border agents about what data is present on a device,” she said.

Back up your data

“Backups prevent your data from being lost if your device is seized, stolen, or broken — risks that are significantly heightened during international travel,” according to the EFF.

The EFF has a guide on how to enable advanced data protection on IOS and a Surveillance Self Defense Guide.

You may choose to safeguard your data at home or work or use an online backup you can access while traveling.

Power down devices

Turn off your devices completely and make sure they’re disconnected from WiFi before arriving at Customs. This ensures that full-disk encryption is active and adds a layer of protection.

Get a temporary phone

For especially sensitive travel, consider using a temporary or burner phone with only the essential data needed for your trip, but be prepared for any questions that may arise from agents.

“Sometimes having a completely wiped phone or that kind of very clean travel device might itself raise suspicions,” said Cope.

She suggests that travelers be prepared to give an honest answer when using a travel phone.

“You don’t want to be in a situation where what you’ve done or what you’re saying could be interpreted as lying to a federal agent, and that’s a crime,” Cope said.

Know your rights

You have the right to refuse a search — even if there may be consequences, such as having your electronics confiscated. Assert your rights calmly and ask whether you’re free to go. If a device is confiscated, ask for a receipt.

Cope said if you choose not to comply with a request, border agents might let it go if it’s just a routine inspection and you’re not a specific concern, but there’s also a chance it could upset them.

“You kind of have to hope for the best,” she said.

Be prepared to seek legal support

If you believe your rights are violated, legal organizations like the EFF can help. Document the encounter and seek assistance as soon as possible.

What about social media?

Under its 2018 policy, “CBP expressly says that they are not allowed … to look at live cloud content,” Cope said.

To make sure officers don’t access any information stored online, CBP officers will either ask the traveler to turn off internet and network connections or they’ll turn them off themselves, according to the CBP website

This includes both public and private social media — whether it’s a public Instagram or a private Facebook account, Cope said. Previously, she said, officers were able to open the apps and scroll through the accounts.

This rule also applies to other devices like laptops or iPads. Customs agents are only permitted to review data “resident on the device,” which means information that’s physically stored on the hard drive, Cope said.

However, she notes a technical caveat: Even though data like emails or social media content live primarily in the cloud, “copies are downloaded onto the device,” so agents might still see remnants of cloud content.

She recommends that travelers “delete social media apps” and “clear the cache” in browsers as a precaution.

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Brooks Lee had struck out in each of his first three at-bats on Thursday, had made a critical error in the field and was quickly in an 0-2 hole in his fourth plate appearance.

But with a pair of runners on and a pair out in a game that had been tied for innings, Lee took ball three before unleashing on a Gregory Soto fastball, flipping the narrative of his day.

The ball traveled over 400 feet and Lee settled for a two-run double, one which broke the tie and helped lift the Twins to a 5-2 victory in the series finale on Thursday afternoon at Target Field. With it, the Twins have now won a season-high five straight games, taking this one after the Orioles frequently looked like they were on the verge of breaking through.

Working a day earlier than expected, starter Bailey Ober gritted out a start where nothing seemed to come easy, yet still put his team in a good position to win a ballgame.

Because of Joe Ryan’s illness, Ober’s start was bumped up a day — he was still on normal rest because of Monday’s off day — giving him the day game against the Orioles instead of the night game against the San Francisco Giants on Friday that he had been planning on.

The Orioles clogged the bases with at least a runner on — sometimes two — in each of his five innings. But they could do little to turn those runners into runs, scoring once in the second and again in the third (an unearned run after Lee’s error).

After each of the first two runners of the fourth inning reached base, Ober got a critical double play. An inning later, the Orioles had a pair of runners in scoring position to begin the fifth and Ober worked around it, letting out a show of excitement as he walked off the mound for the final time.

And while he was doing that, the Twins’ offense did just enough to keep them in it.

Though Byron Buxton did not have a hit in Thursday’s win, snapping a seven-game hitting streak, his fingerprints were all over the Twins’ win. He drew a leadoff walk to begin the first inning and came around to score on Ty France’s RBI knock — one of two on the day for the first baseman. He scored again on Lee’s hit and also threw a runner out at the plate in the sixth inning to keep the Orioles’ lead to just one at the time.

The Twins erased that lead in the bottom of the frame when Trevor Larnach blasted his fifth home run of the season, and that tie remained intact until Lee’s big hit innings later.

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