When you search for "Photographers" on Google, you'll see your side bar and search results light up with sponsored ads with hundreds of photographers claiming to be "photojournalists". (I suddenly have this feeling I'm going to be using a lot of quotation marks in this blog post). This is because asking for photojournalists has become the trendy thing for brides to do. That style of photography seems to be IN these days. The reason, I've gathered, is that brides are no longer impressed with old fashioned "traditional" posing (i.e. groom behind bride with hands on waist, bride and groom facing each other with bride hand on groom chest, etc), and who can blame them. They want to look beautiful without LOOKING posed. That isn't photojournalism, that's a good photographer who KNOWS how to direct a shot. There's a lot of photographers who claim to be photojournalists because of this trend. All this means is that they have no idea how to pose people and aren't going to try to do so. Lets face it, if you haven't had a photograph in an article in a newspaper or magazine that you were assigned to shoot; you are NOT a professional photojournalist. I know of a photojournalist who used to shoot for the Washington Post who then did weddings. As the bride, he told you that you have no say in what he shoots. He will shoot only candids (no formal portraits) and only what he deems is interesting enough to shoot. If he is standing around and not shooting, that means there is nothing interesting going on. Oh yeah, did I mention he charged $10,000 for his services. Don't get me wrong, he was an amazing photographer, but is this the kind of photojournalism brides and grooms want? So if you want portraits and candids, you may want to ask for someone who specializes in natural posing or at least ask for what publication they've appeared in, if they don't have any, they are not photojournalists.
Another term I see and hear a lot from the photography students at my college is that they are "professional, natural light" photographers. This means that they only shoot on location 1. outside or 2. near a window, and only during the day when there is natural light. I think one of the judges from the youtube web series Shutter Wars said it best when she said, "All 'natural light photographer' means is that you don't know [anything] about lighting." All professional photographers should at least know a little bit about lighting; whether studio strobes, studio constant lights (hot lights), or at the very least an on camera speedlight, otherwise it seems pretty amateur (just my opinion). I'm not one to say I know everything about studio lighting, but Brandy and I have been shooting at Union 206 Studio for almost a year now and have learned TONS from a few of our mentors there and continue to learn as should all professionals. These photographers might be very good at what they do, but what they do is very limited compared to the photographers that have experience with lighting. Good lighting can add an ambiance to your photos that is far beyond what can be done with natural lighting. Here's an example of a photo I shot where I used a speedlight that could not possibly have been done with natural light.
This was done in a dark hallway that had very little light available, but am I going to not shoot here just because there isn't enough natural light? NO! That's a missed opportunity for what I think is a great photo. I guess you could boost your ISO (camera sensitivity for all you non-photog readers out there... think of it like film speed for old cameras) to 6400 or something to make the exposure better without a flash, but 1. you're going to have an overly noisy or grainy photo for no reason and 2. you won't get that great spotlight look that is hard to get without external lighting. So basically natural light is fine, but you're only using 10% of your photog brain.
Likewise, with that same photo I can go back to the photojournalism argument. Does it look posed? not really. They look pretty natural and comfortable. Was it posed? again, not really. It was simply encouraged! "Hey guys there's a nice quite corner away from the crowd... oh, don't mind me I'll be up on those stairs" True photojournalism means that I am in NO way influencing the photographs, but don't you want a photographer that has artistic ideas? Ok I think I've beat that horse enough.
The third and final term I'll discuss pretty briefly is "Fine Art" photographers. Now for a moment I'm going to talk directly to those girls out there wanting to start a modeling career and would love for a photographer to offer them free photos if you pose for them, so you go on craigslist or model mayhem to look for a photographer. STAY AWAY FROM THESE GUYS!
Now don't get me wrong, there's true fine art photography that is true art, but it's like 10% of "fine art" photographers that are advertising out there. Most of them are old creepy guys with studios in their basement that just want to take photographs of young nude women and say it's "fine art". Model Mayhem is FULL of photographers that take what I personally find to be absolutely trashy and disgusting photos for the sake of "art" and these models are basically selling themselves extremely short. 99% of fine art photography is all nude and some of it is just unnecessary, the photo would be JUST as good or even BETTER if the girl had a dress on or at least something. So, if you meet a photographer who claims to specialize in fine art photography, they may be legitimate but be weary of them at least.
So, what are we? Well you can be rest assured we have no interest in that kind of "fine art". Are we photojournalists? No, I have too much artistic vision for that kind of work. My influence needs to touch every photo I take. I would say our style is a "Naturalistic Dramatic Portraiture". Naturalistic meaning that although we encourage posing, we don't really pose. Brandy is phenomenal at encouraging movement and placement. Instead of placing your hands and tilting your head, she'll just ask "can we get a kiss?" "Hold her close." "Now, pretend you two love each other." (That typical gets a nice laugh or smile). The subject does each movement the way they naturally do it and it looks like there is no posing at all. Dramatic means we're telling a story, but instead of journalisticly we tell the story YOU want to tell. Also, it means that the photos are enhanced either through framing, effective lighting, or post processing to add drama and create a striking photo that is worthy of being treated as art; something worthy of being in a gallery or hanging on your wall. And portraiture because it's all about you... the subject and everything else just compliments you and the love you guys have or your personality if you're by yourself.
Well I hope you learned a little something today and hope that it helps you the next time you're choosing a photographer to take your photos either for your wedding or any other occasion. And if you're a photographer, like us, than I hope you'll think about these kind of things and do as much as you can to set yourself apart from the mass of photographers out there putting out the same product. If my history of working in Information Technology has taught me anything, it's that if you aren't trying to always be innovative you are very quickly going to become yesterdays news.
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