Every Saturday we wake up to a new wedding … well I wish it was every Saturday.

Every time I know that I must do my best.

That is what my clients expect and what I would expect also.

How do you make each day your best?

I started writing this thinking that there was an answer. There is, but it is personal to each photographer.

Having great assistants makes the best more achievable.

Do your homework, have a safety net, have the skills to stay out of danger, underpromise and always overdeliver.

Be stimulated by your work and by your clients.

Have fun.

There was a time when I would have told people the real answer was, ‘Drink more coffee and eat more chocolate.’ It worked for me. In truth it was a front for the excitement of shooting a wedding, ‘being in the zone’.

An undeniable truth is, ‘Look after yourself’ in body and mind.

Some days it’s harder to turn it on than others, but as professionals that is what is expected … your absolute best, and nothing less.

Cheers
Johannes

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When a bride comes to you and says, “Can you make me look slimmer on my wedding day?” we say “Yes”.

We say “Yes… but we need to work on this together.”

Often the dream comes with an expectation. Anything that is not ideal will somehow miraculously correct itself on the day … or at least we, as the recorders of the day, will create the truth that they, the happy couple, hoped for.

So when the bride says, “I want to look thinner on my wedding day” we tell them they need to help us out. (Sometimes this is the not so subtle difference between our roles as dream keepers and miracle workers – Photoshop jockeys).

We say to them that they need to “think thin” in the build up to their day. We say they need to have the right dressmaker making the right dress for them. We say that we will help them stand in ways that look great, but we never promise them that the magic of Photoshop will be the answer to their prayers.

We want them to be a part of the process and make the effort to get it right. It certainly makes our job more realistic.

Cheers

Johannes

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You, the photographer, are entrusted with telling the story of a couple’s day … not any old day … it’s the BIG one.

The bride and groom

They want it told with beauty and creativity. They chose you because they saw your work and figured that you would be the best person to tell their story. Or was it that they fell in love with your prices, and assumed that all photographers were equal (except for pricing)?

Ultimately we are telling a story … we need to know whether we are the authors or the observers, and apply those principles to our album designs. BUT then in spite of all of our creativity and hard work THEY want to change our creation! How dare they!

We were employed as the trusted story teller … so what happened to trust! The truth is we were possibly employed as an image maker over being the story teller. You own the images, because they are your vision, but in truth the story is theirs.

If we do our homework right we know this from the beginning. We remind ourselves that the story being told is theirs, and we try to build the trust that lets us tell it our way. But every now and then we need to concede that, in 10 years time this story is what paid for a new camera for us: for them, the bride and groom, it is a memory of something big that happened long enough ago to be easily forgotten, if it were not for the story in their album. For that reason the story is truly theirs.

Cheers, Johannes

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I had the privilege of being the photographer when Queensberry’s pinup boy/metrosexual, Nigel, tied the knot with Kayla a few months ago, and I learnt a lesson.

Pretty much at the beginning of the day I unintentionally upset the bride’s parents. They had organised that I would shoot photographs outside their neighbour’s property. I took half a dozen images and ticked the box for family pics at home.

But I also wanted to do a quick family photograph in their own garden, in a spot that from my point of view, between rain showers, would do the job well.

The bride’s mother was able to conceal, through good manners, her horror at my photographing in their unweeded garden, but managed to mention it to some of the guests as a potential photographic catastrophe.

I regret not realising her concern at the time so that I could put her mind at ease and nip any damage in the bud. Too late I was. The opinions had been expressed.

The lesson is about heightened awareness. Sometimes people are so polite.

Cheers, Johannes

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I recently held a small workshop in the UK at the studio of Zoe Richards just out of Liverpool.

It was intimate (there were only nine of us).

We discussed album design and particularly spoke about the Musée. One of the ideas of that album is to create a feeling of intimacy.

The resounding lesson from our discussion was about that and simplicity. Too often people cram images into albums to the point where there is no room to rest your eyes. The Musée design uses space to reinforce the luxury and quality feel of the product. There is something exciting about an intimate moment in a cupboard but it does not really compare to a moment of intimacy out in an open space.

What I am trying to say is that cupboard sex is not the stuff of long term relationships, and that building intimacy into your designs creates longevity. Even though busy designs might suggest a sense of energy they seldom create a sense of occasion and have less impact than fewer but stronger images.

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We won an  award, we shot weddings, my parents came to stay, and there were taxes to pay.

In the middle of all the chaos and celebrations we have clients with needs.

These needs are as immediate to them as those of the tax department are to us.

We also  had a bride declare on the day of her wedding  that she had lost her groom and that there might not be a wedding …. and it rained.

Out of this chaos is the expectation, from each client, that you are there to meet their needs, and sometimes our own entitlement to a personal life is overlooked. It is overlooked by our clients and by ourselves.

We convince ourselves that the happiness of our clients is paramount, and it is, BUT at some stage we must pause, close our eyes, and revitalise.

Cheers, with my eyes briefly closed.

Johannes

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I was thinking about this the other day as I was driving back from a wedding out of town.

We need to try to find ways for our brides and grooms to commit to being photographed.

I have seen both extremes, one where the bride is expecting you to pull rabbits from hats because she paid you a lot of money to do your magic, and the other extreme where she almost dresses as a rabbit to make your life easier, and the magic more real.

One bride came to me telling me I had the job (of shooting her wedding) if I could make her look skinnier in the photographs … I said to her we could but I needed her help. I needed her to at least think skinny and do some work to get there. I needed her to have the right dress (and dressmaker). I said we would use the right lighting and would get her standing in complimentary ways. At no time did I mention The Skinny Filter in Photoshop.

This is all about investing in the outcome.

Many people do this already …

The real magic only happens when everybody (including the magician) believes. Walt Disney was particularly good at this.

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He arrived at our place at 11am. We (the boys) were all in the lounge playing Playstation. He didn’t mind that. In fact he quite liked it.

He clicked away. I lost the game. We played another.

Forgetting he was even there, I found him later in my room shooting my hanging suit, the rings on the dresser, my arrangement of perfumes and our shoes. Just doing his thing.

Then he turned up at Kayla’s place and made himself at home… ideal.

He shot the girls getting ready – the chaos, the nerves, the details, the family. I wasn’t there but that’s what the photos told me.

Mrs Mother-in-law felt a little embarrassed when he wanted to shoot out the back … in front of the only gardens she hadn’t had spruced up for the big day. Looking at the resulting photos though, she was glad she didn’t stop him.

When he arrived at the ceremony I relaxed a little… Maybe it was because he knows how it works. He’s been to so many. Not sure. But seeing him there smiling at me from the back of the garden calmed me.

The bridal photos were a breeze. He’s got this way of explaining where he wants us to stand, the expression of love he’s looking for, the emotion he wants to capture. It’s poetic. And the girls loved it…

He tells us we’re doing well, so we feel good. I know he’s doing most of the work in making us look good, but he doesn’t make you feel like that. It’s not about him – It’s about us.

I left that night with a greater understanding that pointing and shooting is only half the art of being a great photographer.

The other half is the art of interaction and presence. With the couple, the guests, the families, the venue. There’s a true art in having a couple express themselves in a way that allows you to get that beautiful shot. To, in seconds, relax a bunch of people you’ve never met before. To make taking the bridal photos just a special as any other part of the day.

I feel, as I hope every couple feels about their photographer, that we had the most talented artist in the world shoot our wedding. Thanks Johannes.

Cheers, Nigel

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Wedding Photography and the Difference Between Good and Great Wedding Photos

By David Freund

A couple of days ago I was involved in an online discussion about wedding photography and what makes great, soulful wedding photographs. I thought I’d share my thoughts on what takes good wedding photos and makes them great wedding photos.

A couple of years back I had 5 out of 6 straight weddings at the same location, same celebrant and same reception venue. My wife asked how I was able to do different work for each couple. It’s simple. I’m taking photos of two people on their wedding day. Not the venue, not the locations.

I believe there are 3 kinds of wedding photo. Who was there, where it was and what happened.

Old school ‘posed’ photography is often little more than a pictorial record of “who was there”.

The stuff that gets published in magazines and makes photographers famous is “Where it was”. The magazines want to see details of the decorations and locations so other brides buy the magazines for their own wedding research. When they show photos of a bride it’s normally only so they can illustrate what the dress looks like.

Great wedding photos are “What happened”. Photos that capture the unique nature of the couple. Their emotion, their personal connection.

It’s why people put awful, blurry photos of them drunk and stupid on Facebook. Those images have true meaning to the people in them and they feel an emotional connection to the time and place they were taken.

Same with wedding photos. The connection evoked by great wedding photos is one of love between the couple, their families and guests. Not a memory of a photographer telling them how to stand, where to look and how to kiss.

I’m looking forward to taking more great wedding photos this year and putting together stunning wedding albums that become the treasured heirlooms of generations yet to come.

Originally posted at davidfreund.com.au. Thanks David.

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Somebody asked me for a way to create a better, more consistent look for their imagery.

It was a trick question really. They were asking me how they might better use software to get consistency and classic styling.

I thought about it and the answer was what we might call pre-emptive image manipulation.

When I go to a flash restaurant that knows their stuff I am always amazed by what a great chef can do with the simplest ingredients.

They start with fresh produce … the fresher the better (usually – cheeses are a different story). They don’t beat the living daylights out of it or season it beyond recognition. They use subtlety and finesse.

It should be the same with our photography.

Fresh ingredients, already rich in flavours of their own, cooked with a minimum of fuss and a flourish of presentation.

If the produce is a bit ‘off’ the seasoning gets stronger and the cooking becomes a bit more intense.

Pre-emptive image manipulation is keeping the image simple, lighting it, and getting the emotional energy happening, before it gets taken. All these things reduce the need for ‘overcooking’ later to get something special.

Cheers, Johannes

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