Tag: musings

Your wedding dress doesn’t belong in a tree

It doesn't. It shouldn't be hanging out of windows or dangling from big chandeliers in the middle of staircases. In fact, the place your wedding dress really belongs is somewhere damn close to where you'll put it on - probably your hotel room. Why? Because that's the only place it makes any sense for it to be. I see all these crazy photos of wedding dresses - inevitably taken before the bride puts it on, before she walks down the aisle, or sees her soon-to-be-spouse for the first time - in the most ridiculous of places. For some reason it recalls Dr. Seuss - would you wear it in a tree? Would you wear it by the sea? Would you wear it on the stairs? Would you wear it freakin' outside where it could get dirty as hell before you even get into the thing? No! So why do photographers insist on making "art" with this thing you've spent hundreds to thousands of dollars on? Because it's popular. A couple of people around the world do really cool stuff with the dress - artsy photos that maybe even their own clients liked. All the rest of us see that and think "hey cool, I want to take artsy photos of the dress too!" and now tons of brides around the world are subjected to this outrageous practice of dragging this huge, beautiful, white thing outside for a "dress shot." And yes, I've definitely heard horror stories about the dress getting dirty and/or irreparably stained through fault of the photographer. Yeah, it's his fault because why the frack is the dress outside in the first place!? Plus, it's just freakin' creepy. A headless body hanging from chandeliers and light fixtures? Weird. For almost everyone, their dress will be safe and sound. The photographer takes it outside, puts it in a godforsaken tree, takes it down with the utmost care. It looks just like it did when she took it outside. Except.... what the hell are you going to do with a photo of a dress in a tree? The major problem with this practice is it takes the photographer away from the action, away from the giddy getting-ready bit, to go do this silly, selfish thing that pretty much zero people would want. Even if the dress makes it back in the room unscathed, there's still this question lingering in the air: why? I must acknowledge the very moment I realized this was a ridiculous thing to do. I was at a local photographer meet up with wedding photo duo Justin and Mary giving a talk. They told the story of one wedding where they took the dress everywhere around the mansion, nothing was working, and eventually they just photographed it in the closet where they found it. That's the image that made the album, because it was the only sensical place for the dress to be. Then and there I decided that I wouldn't take these crazy "detail" photos anymore.What is anyone going to do with the dress-in-a-tree photo? For 99% of weddings, it doesn't make sense, doesn't add to the story. The same can be said of any detail at the wedding, really. Shoes, jewelry, flowers, even the rings. If we put them somewhere nonsensical, it's not going to add to the story, but instead confuse. Why on earth were those shoes in that light fixture? Let's keep it real, people. Shoes go on feet. And wedding dresses go on brides. Anything else is just silly. [And a disclaimer, of course: I have - just one time - photographed a dress in a tree. And it's in my sample album, that I show every single couple I meet with. So if you are a client of mine, you've almost certainly seen me show you a photo of a dress in a tree. But, hey, we all try out bad ideas some times and to my great relief, it actually made a bit of sense at this particular wedding.]  
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by Amber Categories: MusingsTags: ,

How to Choose a Wedding Photographer

There's a lot of advice out there about choosing vendors. And in my opinion, much of it creates extra work for folks getting married that's really unnecessary. For instance, some websites (I'm looking at you, The Knot) have enormous lists of questions to ask photographers: What gear do you use? What do you wear to the weddings? Do you require a meal? The truth is, the answers to most of these questions are totally irrelevant to the point of the inquisition: is this the right photographer for you? So I've put together this guide to help couples figure out if their photographer is the right one for them. I'm assuming here that we're getting down to photographers in your budget. As far as I'm concerned, there are really only three major things couples need to consider when choosing a wedding photographer:

Personality

Do you like him/her? When she cracks jokes, do they make you laugh or make you cringe? So she talks all about the "romance" of your "special day" - does that make you swoon or barf? Personality matters because you will be with your photographer all day at your wedding. If he is obnoxious on his website (or in a client meeting), it's really going to bother you on the wedding day. If you get the impression she is going to be rude to your family, that's a bad sign. It's not worth having someone your friends liked or whose images you like if you think he is going to be an asshole on your wedding day.

Imagery

Do you like her photos? Do you want your wedding photos to look like the ones in his portfolio/blog? I don't think most couples need to take it any further than this. They should consider images from the photographer taken under similar lighting conditions - outdoor ceremonies, for example, or hotel ballroom receptions. Some photographers are better than others at capturing certain parts of the day. But in general, it's plenty enough to like the photos and want photos like that. It's also fine to evaluate photographers on the worst images you see. Remember that we are choosing our very favorite images for portfolio and blog post. If some of those are no good, there's a good chance you're going to get a lot of crap in your final images (see questions below).

Approach

So the two above I consider sort of gut-level instinct things. Are you moved by her images? Does he make you laugh? The third is a bit more difficult to parse out and I believe should entail a conversation with your photographer. All photographers see, but each photographer has different things that they are looking for. This is approach. Some photographers do a lot of posing and directing, bring a ton of lighting gear and generally impose themselves on your day. Each one of your images is going to be stunningly beautiful... and you will know you are being photographed every second of your wedding. Some photographers bring almost no gear, barely talk to anyone and shoot everything from afar. Some photographers move quickly, aiming to capture as much of the party as possible, others request hours to get artistic bride and groom portraits. It's important for every couple to consider what they want their photographer to go after - each is going to have a slightly different approach. You want to make sure your photographer values the same things you value. You also want to choose a photographer who has a defined approach and isn't just agreeing with whatever you say. To be really good at one or the other way to photograph a wedding, a photographer has to be experienced with that style. We can't do editorial (fashion-type images) for one couple and super-gritty street-type images for another couple. That would result in mediocre images for everyone. Photographers perfect their craft through repetition - and if a photographer is offering any kind of style, any kind of approach (or using wording to that effect on their website), it probably means he doesn't have a speciality at all.

Questions couples don't ask their potential photographers, but should

- Can I see two full weddings? (Either albums or online galleries). Portfolios are a photographer's favorite 50 or so images they've ever taken. A blog post are their 30-40 favorite images from that wedding. You want to know what the whole thing looked like. You'll need a good 80-100 images for a wedding album. And many photographers don't show family photos in their blog posts, though they are some of the most important images from a wedding day. I wouldn't recommend asking for this from every photographer you consider - but once you nail it down to your top 1 to 4, ask to see full weddings and look at some images at random - you want to see a high overall level of quality. Pay particular attention to dimly-lit receptions. Professional wedding photographers light receptions in a way to both retain the ambiance of the room (for instance, not overpowering colored uplighting in a hotel ballroom) and maintain consistent exposures on the subjects' faces (the people dancing in the front of the frame are bright). If they're doing this well, the lighting will also be flattering to the dancers - you shouldn't see great big greasy bright spots on faces. This is also a style thing - some photographers blast the dancers right in the face, giving it a "tunnel" effect, others "drag the shutter" to create light streaks. These are stylistic choices. - Do you have liability insurance? Some venues require this. And it's probably not something you will ever have an issue with, but it's a good question to ask as it differentiates fly-by-night unprofessional folks from people with clearly established businesses. - What if you can't be there for the wedding? All photographers should have a non-performance clause in their contract - what happens if they are unable to show on the wedding day, because of debilitating illness, Act of God or the like (and go ahead and ask what those criteria would be for your photographer). Accidents happen and your wedding photographer should have a clearly articulated plan for dealing with emergencies. - How do you back up images after the wedding? Your wedding photographer should likewise have a very good answer to this question. If they don't talk about redundancy and offsite backups, your wedding images could go down the tubes because of hard-drive crashes, fires, etc. Again, it's almost certainly not going to be an issue for you, but we should be planning for the worst-case scenario. - Voice your concerns. What are you worried about on your wedding day? Give your photographer a chance to address your concerns - even if you're a little embarrassed about them. Maybe you gained a little weight recently and you're worried about looking heavy in the photos. Maybe your mom is super-domineering and you're concerned she'll try to run the whole show. Maybe you're worried your photographer will make everyone uncomfortable on the dance floor and they will be self-conscious and not have a good time. Don't be afraid to talk to your photographer about these issues - better they address them before you book.

What about budget photographers?

Not everyone can afford a professional wedding photographer and that's alright. I didn't hire one - I couldn't (and my wedding photos are pretty mediocre). Obviously, there are significant advantages to having a professional at your wedding, but it doesn't mean you can't have nice wedding photos. Let me break it on down for you: if someone in the DC area is charging less than $2,500, they are probably in their first two years of business. Why? Because that rate is not sustainable for a business. Professional, full-time wedding photographers need to charge quite a bit more than that to support themselves in this region. There's nothing wrong with wedding photography as a side job, but there is a difference in the product and service you'll receive. One of the major advantages to hiring a professional is experience. All kinds of stuff happens at weddings and your photographer should be able to handle just about anything thrown his way. The longer they've been at it - the more lighting conditions they've worked under, the more five-minutes-before-the-entrance bridal portraits they've had to excel at, the more broken gear and rained-on equipment and etc. etc., the better they are going to perform on your wedding. You won't find a photographer who has been doing this for 10 years charging anywhere near $2,500 - they bring so much more to the table than the first-year-in guy. But all that aside, some folks just can't afford a professional. And if photography is really important to you and you are in this boat, the one thing* you can do is look for the rising star. Because most of us start out our businesses charging much less than we intend to charge when we gain experience and perfect our lighting, our approach, etc. But sometimes photographers get very good at their craft before they feel confident enough to charge for it. And that is the key to finding a budget photographer. You don't want someone with more than two years of experience because if they are not charging enough after that time, it means they can't. The photographer three years in who is sitting at $2,000 for wedding coverage is obviously doing something wrong:

Experienced, technically competent, cheap - pick two.  Read more... (1820 words, estimated 7:17 mins reading time)

This is a preview of How to Choose a Wedding Photographer. Read the full post (1820 words)
by Amber Categories: MusingsTags: , , , ,

The amount of money spent on a wedding is not directly proportional to its awesomeness

Well, it's officially a trend with me.  Someone pisses me off, and I come online to tell everybody how I feel.  Today's targets are newbie photographers who complain that their work isn't good because they're not photographing "wealthy" clients,  dropping lots of coin on their weddings.  And that, my friends, is ridiculous. But let's forget the photographers for a minute, because I want to speak to a more general audience.  The wedding industry is, let's face it, pretty seriously evil.  At every turn, The Knot or whatever other incarnation of the "wedding experts" is telling you to buy more stuff and buy it now - you're behind!  The whole wedding will be a disaster if you don't have napkin rings!  How can you possibly not have hired a calligrapher yet!? I've seen a lot of weddings at this point, both with my own clients and in my experiences assisting other photographers.  I've worked very "high-end" weddings (Building Museum, anyone?) and much less expensive weddings.  And I can tell you right now that the amount of money you spend on your wedding has very little to do with its awesomeness.  I assisted at a wedding where the bride's mother was so stressed about everything going off perfectly (after all, they had spent a fortune on the event) that she barely spoke to anyone other than the planners and catering manager.  And I've seen low-key weddings filled with more joy and love and sweetness than any photographer could hope for.  And vice versa. And okay, maybe it's my niche.  My clients don't tend to spend big on decor, but they do drop coin on food.  They don't tend to have huge bridal parties, but still manage to fill their getting-ready hotel rooms with friends and family.  They get married in back yards and churches and hotels and vineyards and historic mansions and campgrounds - in other words, all over the place, at a huge range of venue prices - but they hire me to capture the spirit of their day.  I am, at heart, a documentary photographer.  I'm not going to spend ages photographing the details - there's much more important thing to capture, like people.  If you are primarily an editorial photographer, then I do suppose I could see how richer might equal better.  But, frankly, that seems really sad to me.  And backward.  And makes me really glad I focus on people and moments and emotions.  When wedding vendors stress stuff ("details") over everything else, I find it immensely depressing. The point is, the amount of money you spend on your wedding is not the determining factor in how awesome it is.  I could rattle off the things I don't think you should skimp out on, but that's beside the point.  You and your friends and family bring the awesome, regardless of the setting.  Getting all those folks together is enough, full stop.  Is this blasphemy from a wedding photographer?  Yeah, maybe.  But here's the rub.  I don't get hired by folks that don't care about wedding photography.  I don't get hired by the couple that figures they "just" need a wedding photographer, so they go with whoever.  I feel very fortunate that the folks who hire me are deeply invested in what their wedding photos look like.  It gives me great joy to exceed their expectations. So let me roll on back to the photographers for a minute.  The new photographers who think their images are no good because they're not shooting at the Ritz.  First, it is our job to make a wedding look great.  This is easier in some situations than others, but is no less true in a church basement than at the Four Seasons.  I'm going to go ahead and paraphrase Jasmine Star here, who said to shoot T-Ball weddings like the World Series.  And the fact of the matter is that if you can't make a church basement look good, you're going to have a hell of a time at the Four Seasons, too.  And here's one more quote, which I said, earlier today, in a forum where this subject came up and pissed me off and sent me to my own "make new post" page:

Treat your clients and their weddings with compassion, and it will show in your work.

If you can do this, you will have happy clients.  Respect, value and show compassion to your clients - regardless of what they've spent on their wedding - and you will produce better work. And PS: if this resonates with you, go check out A Practical Wedding.  It's a very active blog that talks about weddings in a way that almost no other wedding blog does - honestly, without a lot of frou-frou nonsense, and tackles the hard subjects.
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by Amber Categories: MusingsTags: ,