 When I started my business back in 1998, I tried shooting like all the other wedding photographers I knew: I staged and posed things, I brought props…it’s what I thought I was supposed to do. I learned very quickly that it didn’t look or feel natural. I was actually bothering my brides by stopping them in the middle of their event and staging things that weren’t real. My weddings started looking alike, and that bothered me because the people and events weren’t alike at all.
I decided to do things differently. I needed to do my events justice. I wanted to show my clients what really happened at their event…the things they didn’t get to see because they were in the middle of it all. Classic formals are important, but some of the best stuff happens in between the posed shots. (And frankly, people photograph better when they don’t realize they’re being photographed.)
I started studying photojournalism. I learned to shoot an event as it happens…no staging, no prompting. I had to learn to anticipate moments from people I’ve never met before. Not an easy task: A good photojournalist does more than shoot in black and white. They have to know where to be and when to be there. They have to know their equipment and make split decisions in a short amount of time: which lens to use, which angle is best, which technical settings….and most importantly they have to nail the shot without altering it, before something changes!
more » |
