Author: Good wedding photography is all about energy. For this you need a really good breakfast. Low calorie cornflakes just won’t do! The photographer has to plough energy into the day, in order to make a real contribution. They need to justify the faith and financial investment of the couple by returning the compliment of their booking with energy and effort. You cannot beat a proper English breakfast before charging around with no break, from morning visit, right through until sometime in the late afternoon or early evening: Fried bread, bacon, beans, toast, eggs, black pudding, with orange juice and plenty of tea. Proteins, fats and vitamins are key to performance.
Blimey, don’t some people waffle. I started as above, not to illustrate a rule but to open a discussion about both ways of working and dogma. Whilst I benefit from a good breakfast before cracking on with a day’s work, some people are in fact quite happy with a coffee or a bowl of cereal. And even then, I only use this to demonstrate a broader point about ways of doing things.
Quite a number of the photographers I meet seem to feel the need to have a variety of burdensome philosophies, when in fact they would be better off responding to their customers’ needs and even their own needs. It’s probably true of so many walks of life but it has become a bit of an unnecessary mantra in some quarters. They have worked out what works for them and then they want to talk about it a lot and tell everyone else that this is the only way of doing things. There are in fact many ways of working and different photographers suit different clients best.
My personal way of working on a wedding day is presently pretty high energy. That is to say that I run around, exhausting myself, so that other people don’t have to. It’s all part of the service and I do tend to make sure I eat well before beginning a day’s photography. However that is not the only way of doing things and I know some very nice photographers who offer low-key photography for people on a budget that really hits the spot for their clients.
People get tied up with their philosophy and it can even get in the way of their business. Some photographers will not use flash and even refuse to photograph afternoon weddings in the winter. This seems a bit barmy to me, when there are some great flash units out there, there is plenty of winter and dark days in the autumn. With good flash equipment and competence, a photographer can photograph a wedding in the dark. I strongly suspect that they could learn flash but choose not to, as it can be scary for some, to begin with. It is therefore easier to “have a philosophy” against flash or only in favour of natural light and this saves learning a new competence.
The future will bring many changes, advances in technology and as a result of those, I assume that I will change my ways of working and the kit in the bag.
David Day BA(Hons) LBIPP is a professional photographer and business owner based in Nottingham
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/visual-art-articles/the-wedding-breakfast-942821.html
Technorati Profile
