Wedding Photography...What are you looking for?

You are planning to wed within they year. Already you are looking for an affordable photographer to capture your day. What are you looking for? What do you expect? What will be your role before the camera?

Brides (and sometimes grooms) cover a broad range from laid back mellow to bridezilla self-defeating. What they want or expect from their photographer also has a broad range of potential. Some want a simple documentation of the experience. They stay out of the way, trusting that the photographer will capture the emotions and honesty of the day. Others prefer something more structured and formal, wanting more control over what the photographer produces. Some are actresses on a stage, acting out a childhood fairy tale or fantasy wedding, a complete production event with elements of honesty and innocence sneaking in around the edges. The final group wants the photographer to capture their relationship as a sextravaganza, almost a boudoir shoot with guests. (It is entirely possible that they style that you choose from these ideas will affect the price you pay for the images because of the manipulation and editing that may be required of the photographer.)

I shot a civil wedding on Saturday. The couple did not like the images. They were straightforward documentary. During the experience the couple was stiff and bored. Getting married did not seem to be their idea. I tried to make something meaningful out of the event, and I was pleased with my shots. They got their monies worth, but they did not like them. They realized too late that this was how they looked to the camera...and to their guests.  Oops!

Brides and grooms do affect the final photographs. It does not matter which style you prefer, but your choices and expectations can affect the final product you receive or the price you pay. If you come away unhappy,you may need to consider the "role" you played in front of the camera, before you go after the photographer.

Wedding Registries

Nearly all of our nieces, nephews, and and children are all married off, and it is too soon to deal with the grandchildren. Most of the wedding announcements we receive nowadays come from friends, co-workers, and church members. Many include a small card telling where they have made a list of things they could use.These a are called Bridal Registries or Wedding Registries. The most frequent ones we see includeTarget, WalMart, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond. A few brides toss in  Nordstrom's, but our neighborhood is a few steps beyond that side of the tracks.

Since everyone expects a gift nowadays and givers often fear the old jokes about receiving five toasters and three blenders, it can be a good thing to know what the couple needs. Not a bad idea.

Well, the wedding process is expensive by the time the caterer, venue, florist, wedding garb, limos, photos, honeymoon, etc. have all been figured in. When all is said and done, what tangibles will remain on the dawn of the next morning?  A wedding dress and photos of the event. Of course, there will be the couple's booty which may actually include more than one toaster and more than one blender.

Here is an idea. See if the photographer will set up a registry so that guests can contribute toward your photo package and videos. Shooting the event is pricey. Settling on prints and albums afterwards is pricey, even in a package. Allotting money for this one item knocks more than a few dollars out of the budget. Perhaps, family and guests might just as easily contribute toward this one expense instead of trying to find something on a registry list after all the good stuff has already been taken. Think about it. Nickels and dimes add up.That could leave the couple a little more money in their budget to spend on their honeymoon or apply to their new living circumstances.

Shy People

Sometimes, people are naturally shy. Sometimes, they just do not want to be the center of attention when it cannot be avoided.

Lorraine and I were married 33 years ago. I did not like being in the middle of it all, so I  probably shut out a lot of memorable moments. No regrets. I smiled once in a while. The pictures people took bring back pleasant memories when we look at them.

A beautiful young couple got married in a civil ceremony on Saturday. Both were shy to the extreme. Expressions ranged from straight faces to abject boredom. Even the officiator had minimal success in generating relaxation or a smile. Laughter was minimal. Out of the 60 plus images that I culled from my photographic duties, only one had the hint of a smile.

I wonder what they will think when the get back the proofs? Will they have pleasant memories when they revisit  the pictures as the years go by? Maybe, I should be glad they paid me up front.

Learning new things.

This weekend I attended the AzPPA Convention in Phoenix.I enjoyed myself but it left me tired.

I was cynical about going. The event was better than I expected. There were good speakers and really entertaining ones. There was motivating instruction and just so-so instruction. I came away informed, encouraged, pensive, and challenged.

One undeniable observation was that individuals, professional or not, view photography, digital or film, through different filters. The attendees and judges of the print competition did not always see with the same eye. And when I watched the slide shows of various speakers, who had been introduced with resumes full of accolades, I was happy to see some of there "lesser" works included as well as the "show stoppers". I left believing I could equal some of their examples.

Time to get to work, I guess.

Event Photography

Today's MLK parade.

I call myself an event photographer. That is, I prefer to shoot events. Events involve people, and I like the vitality that humans add to an image.

Event photography is a documentary process.  It catches memories as they are being made.

Events are activities: celebrating, participating, observing. Someone receives an award. Someone does something stupid. Rituals and incomprehensible events occur: birth, marriage, death, pain, suffering. The job of the event photographer is to help you remember, even in the midst of trying to make sense of it all.

One does not have to be a professional to do event photography, although some people get paid to do it. People usually pay when they cannot do it themselves or they want a certain quality or kind of image. (Remember your wedding pictures or the time you wanted a photo so you would not forget the beauty of your child as a baby?)

So, nowadays, I photograph events: weddings, funerals, baptisms, quinceaños, even something as simple as a young couple sitting on the couch and holding their first child. My job is to capture the memories that you make.

Memento Mori or Remembering the dead.

Funeral Pictures. Whenever I mention to people that I photograph funerals as one of my services, they respond with a grimace of uncertainty. I suppose people forget to acknowledge that a funeral is a dual event: a saying of goodbye to a loved one and the gathering of those who remain.  Sometimes, the reunion is just the prelude for another one's leaving, so it becomes a record of family unity and change. A third validation is to photograph the ritual and memorial. Sometimes a burial is accompanied by pomp and honors, as it was for our Border Patrol veteran.  In the old days, funeral photography included shots of the deceased, but now that is done only at the discretion of the family.  It was common and referred to as "memento mori", or remembering the dead. Finally, sometimes a family just wants images to share with others who could not attend but want to participate in their own way.

Funeral imagery is not created to be gruesome or to cause nightmares but but to document a reality of man's existence. One does not have to shy away from it.

Things just are not the same anymore.

Today's iPad, iPod, MTV, and wii generations have been cheated. I grew up in the era of Life and Look Magazines, National Geographic and the Saturday Evening Post. Their photographs and illustrations made me think and laugh, wonder and sometimes wince. I still use their images to decide whether or not a photograph I take is acceptable or not. They left lasting memories.

Last week I photographed the funeral of David Wright. He had only recently retired. His Border Patrol comrades honored his passing with respectful ritual and caring. I wanted my viewers to connect with the solemnity and respect at that event. Like it was in those old magazine images, there was a story to tell.

On Christmas day, I had the privilege of shooting Ken's family that has grown since he married Judy. It was a rare time when everyone was there. That circumstance demanded documentation and could tell a story.

Two major shots mattered:  one of Ken and Judy and everybody else and one with only the grandparents and grandchildren. Those two experiences created mental and physical memories for all of us. It was events like these that sometimes ended up on the pages of Life.

Framing grandparents and grandchildren together is a challenge. Parents try to get their children into some kind of position (not pose) that won't embarrass them in the final print. It works or it doesn't. The attempt is sometimes more photogenic anyway, but you really cannot shoot those struggles. It would not be nice.

It was the "everybody" shots that brought back memories of those old magazines. There are pockets of where visual storytelling is taking place. Other groups look like something out of a Norman Rockwell cover for the Saturday Evening Post. His pictures, with their down home Americana and innocent whimsy, made me want to be an artist.  The placement of some faces, interactions of bodies and individual expressions reflected what I saw in his paintings. They connected memories from fifty years ago to new ones that are only beginning to ferment in the mind.