Thoughts on Wedding Photography

There are three things to remember about photography. A photographer is a story teller, the same way a filmmaker or a painter is a story teller. Here are the facts: not all stories are worth telling, not all storytellers are equal, and no storyteller can tell all stories equally well.

The first concerns the subject to be photographed. Think of a filmmaker seeking the subject of his next film. Some stories he finds would be captivating, others utterly boring, and the rest somewhere in between.

The second concerns the photographer. It’s about how skilled the artist can be when he's in his element and at his best. Does he have the requisite skill to tell a great story well? The painter has to know what to do with the canvas and the paint. Some are skilled, others are not, and there’s a whole slew in between.

The third is related to the second and the first, but a completely separate point. This one concerns theme – an area many don’t really think about. A filmmaker might be great at making a particular kind of film, and horrible when he tries his hand at another genre. This is true in every form of art. A good artist has his or her forté, and the truth is that a genius at landscape photography might be mediocre at weddings – and vice versa.

To me, each of those points is subjective. I believe that any story can be captivatingly told, if it fits within the area of competence of a truly skilled storyteller. But that’s the issue! It’s important to realize that the magic happens when all three aspects come together.

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What about me? I show up at events lugging a backpack, a Pelican case, and sometimes a Tuffpak. I want to run about shooting everything. I want real emotion and I have to fight getting flustered when I have to be stiff and formal. I do not really have a checklist of poses, I just want to tell a story, and I need a compelling story to tell.

When I pack my cleaned and checked equipment and head to the airport, I know what I have to do and how to do it. What I don’t know is how, exactly, it’s going to get done, and that is what my clients have to give me – the opportunity to give them the kind of images they’ll cherish for a lifetime. I need to be free to work.

It’s like baking a cake. No matter how talented a chef you are, you’ve gotta have the right ingredients.

So I try to screen my clients as much as they screen me. Now, I do work for some resorts and I never get to meet the clients until the wedding day itself. I reason that it takes a certain kind of personality to want to get married at a beach resort in the first place. So, in all cases the result is good, and in some cases, spectacular!

I went to Disney World for my tenth anniversary. We tried to pack as much as we could into a three day blitz of the place, and with the help of our experienced friends, we got most of it done. It was quite a feat, but we essentially saw Disney World in three days. The thing is, I do not know when I'll be going again, and it had to be considered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

I wish every couple would look at their wedding day in the same way. I wish that they'll resolve that they'll never pass this way again and give it their best shot. A few inconveniences here and there will be forgotten, but your pictures are "forever". Hire some talent, throw yourself into the affair, and let the story be told!

Truth Should be Glorious

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but it’s a fascinating thing to realize that those words do not have to be true. The impression that is formed in the mind of the one viewing a photograph is completely under the control of the skilled photographer.

The power to control where a viewing audience will forever focus their attention is an awesome one. A photographer compels the public to look at only what he wants them to see - in the way he wants them to see it. With skillful composition, selective focus, and the use of shadows and highlights, the power is his (or hers) to exclude the elements of reality that he wants to exclude, and to force the observer’s attention on the insignificant – if he so desires. He has the floor, and anything can be believed if one is given only selected facts.

Let’s consider an example of that power. A fleeting memory of a funny experience might bring a momentary smile to the face of a grieving widow at the funeral of her departed husband. That expression of “glee” can be frozen and transformed into a commentary by the skilled photographer. Think about the impact of a photograph showing a wryly smiling widow at her husband’s funeral. In short, a photographer can distort the truth, and yes, even outright lie! Every time you look at a picture, you’ve asked the photographer to tell you a story the way he wants it told.

Your wedding pictures should be beautiful in all of their truthful glory. The goal should be that the bride and the groom feel the sincerity of the images captured. You should be able to listen to what the photographer is saying with his images and feel the comfort of knowing that he’s telling the truth; and elation in the knowledge that he’s telling it well! You should not be looking at your own wedding pictures with the feeling that you’re looking at someone else’s story. Nor should you grieve over the memory of a sour wedding every time you look at your album.

The solution is to have a story worth telling truthfully. Let the emotion be yours and real. Let your own personalities come out. Plan the affair so that it’s a joyful and tender one, and hire a photographer to tell your story “without distortion”. He should not be asked to be freezing fleeting smiles on faces in a largely dreary and sullen affair.

The "Perfect" Wedding

I shot a wedding once where the groom tried never to smile and the bride, though quite beautiful, wore a dress that was about six inches too long. The groom stood stoically at the alter while his bride stumbled down the isle walking on the bottom of her dress. Both wearing embarrassed expressions but not quite for the same reason. Result - disaster for me! I made a few decisions after that wedding. Believe me, I’ve learned some of my lessons the hard way.

Shooting a wedding can be a very difficult thing and I truly feel sorry for the photographer who indiscriminately accepts every assignment that comes his way. I do not! People see my wedding pictures and choose me because they want their wedding pictures to look the same as the ones they’ve seen. Frankly, it’s impossible to do this for every client who comes my way.

So I ask strange questions. I want to know who’s planning the event and how the plans are coming along. I try to meet with the couple long before the wedding (when possible) to see how they respond to each other, and how they respond to me. I want to know that the story they want their wedding album to tell really is possible. Sometimes a bad apple slips through the cracks, but I try.

It’s vital that the couple provide the wedding photographer with what he needs to tell the story the way they really want it told. Of course, I’m going to prod, and direct, and suggest this and that. I’ll say what works and imply what does not. I crave the spirit of the bold and unconventional. I want time to run about laughing myself silly - if that fits, or time to be candid, dreamy, and romantic. The goal is to find the couple who can have the story I can enthusiastically give.

Should I Import a Destination Wedding Photographer?

The choice today is not between a local photographer and an international one, the choice is between locally based, and foreign based photographers. It’s no longer true in these parts that a local photographer is without international acclaim.

So, do you import your destination wedding photographer, or do you buy local? Well, You import your photographer if the quality of service you seek is not available locally.

And growing out of that issue is the matter of the cost-effectiveness of the importation. Let’s be frank about this, if a significant percentage of the cost of your photography is, in fact, the expense you pay for your photographer's travel, then the product must not only be better than what is available locally, the quality difference has to be significant enough to justify the cost difference to you.

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The difficulty there is accentuated by the fact that some packages available locally would, in some cases, be less than the cost of a foreigner’s air travel to the destination. Now it’s not all about money! Your wedding pictures are too important for it to be simply about cost. But one has to be wise. If you can get a comparable product - or better - for less, then the choice is a no-brainer.

That’s one of the realities I face concerning the question of my own travel into foreign markets. The knife cuts both ways. Now, I could try to use the old bait and switch routine - I could promote myself as if I’m local within a foreign market, bait the client and then hope that by the time they find out what they have to pay for my travel, they’re already sufficiently hooked and go through with it anyway. I consider that a dishonest thing to do. I’m local only to St. Vincent and the Grenadines; I’m an importation into every other market, and to claim otherwise is a lie.

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I think the solution is simply to provide a service and a product that soars high enough above the alternatives to justify the final cost to the client of getting me to do the job. And if and where I come across the photographer whose work truly justifies the cost of importation, I bow the head humbly and step aside – in a manner of speaking.