weddings | Photocrati

Wedding Photography: Death of the Formal Portrait?

Oh Formal Wedding Portrait, we hardly knew ye.

It seems that lately I am beginning to see more wedding photographers who are “photojournalist only” or “natural light.” I don’t want to get into a debate about the merits of these specialties as I’m a big believer that whatever works for you and your clients is great. Everyone doesn’t have to do it the same way. In fact, it’s a good thing we don’t because then wedding photographers would be like gas stations: Whoever has the lowest price gets the business.

That being said, it still seems like we are starting to move towards a complete elimination of the “formal” wedding portrait. I know for a fact that many photographers hate to shoot them and some flat refuse to. I don’t understand that mentality. (more…)

Wedding Photography Lighting – Find the level that’s right for you

I was talking with a friend of my wife’s yesterday and she asked, “Can you help me pick out a new camera? I want to take better pictures of my kids.”

I get this sort of question all the time and it’s a tough one to answer. Most people don’t understand that good photography comes in levels (like Donkey Kong). Sure, it starts with a decent DSLR but then it moves up through many different levels of skill. The real question you have to ask yourself when you want to take better pictures is: How much time am I willing to dedicate towards learning to take good photographs? Then I can help you choose your equipment.

The same question applies to wedding photography. Search the web and you will find prices from $500 – $5000 for a wedding photographer. How can that be? Well, it’s all about the levels and like Donkey Kong there are several different ladders you can choose to climb if you want to reach the big gorilla. So, with that in mind, let’s talk about the “Flash” ladder. (I’m a wedding photographer in Tampa, FL) (more…)

Wedding Photography and the Zoom Lens

If you get a bunch of wedding photographers together in a room (like AA), talk will eventually come around to lenses. A bunch of photographers talking about lenses makes watching paint dry seem glamorous. Everyone has a favorite lens and everyone has a particular style and it can be tough to decide on what your style and lens choices will be. It’s really just trial and error. Eventually, you will find yourself reaching for the same lens again and again and suddenly, before you know it, you have a style!

So, let’s talk about the almighty zoom lens.

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How to get them to smile at a wedding

I’m going to reveal a little trick that I use… a super-secret weapon in the constant battle to get people to pay attention to me when shooting formals at a wedding.

Wedding photographers know what I’m talking about but for the rest of you I’ll explain. After the wedding ceremony, when the photographer is shooting the formal portraits, it’s very common for a lot of people to be loitering around. You’re shooting a lot of groups plus there’s just general mayhem. This can make it tricky because you’ll be trying to take a picture and the subjects are constantly being distracted. It’s important that you take the pictures as quickly as possible and frustrating when every shot is ruined by someone looking away from the camera.

Enter “The Magic Egg.” (more…)

Review: David Ziser Digital Wake-up Call Seminar

David Ziser is currently on tour with his Digital Wake Up Call Seminar. Last night he was in Tampa, and I went to see his presentation.

I’ll be honest and tell you that I’ve never actually been to this sort of seminar before. Occasionally, a big-name photographer will pass through Tampa running some sort of seminar and I’ll toss around the idea of going to see it… but usually I pass. I’ve been a fan of David’s work for some time and so I decided to lose my virginity with his seminar. (more…)

Is it live or is it Photoshop?

I find myself reading more and more discussions about technical skill vs. Photoshop. There is a certain amount of resentment from photographers who have spent considerable time and effort honing their skills only to see “poor” photographers cutting into their market by fixing their inferior work after-the-fact in Photoshop. (more…)

How many is too many?

I read somewhere recently that the fewer images you show your clients, the more sales you will make.

I think about this a lot. I think about it pretty much every time I’m putting together images from a session to show a client.

Let’s say that we shoot an engagement session together and from that session I have 200 images. On the first pass I’ll probably narrow that number down to about 80. On the second pass I’ll begin to drop images that are in the same style and the same pose ( there’s no reason to have 12 images of a couple sitting the exact same way.) By the time I’m done I might have 30 to 50 images left to show.

Is that too many? I think that if you asked a lot of photographers most of them would say “yes.” But, here’s my problem: I don’t think I have ever shown a selection of images to a client where the client didn’t pick out at least one image that I personally think is not good. (more…)

It’s time to say goodbye to the copyright

I wasn’t always a photographer. Back in the 90s I was a disc jockey. I can remember many times getting into heated discussions with young people who had called into the station about whether or not the record companies were within their rights to sue people who downloaded music. No matter how hard I tried to explain that music was a business and record companies as well as artists had a right to charge whatever they wished for the fruits of their labor, people just didn’t get it. They acted as if they had a right to the music. They believed that once they bought a song they could do whatever they wanted with it, including reproduce it and distribute it to thousands of people.

And so it was that last weekend I laid in bed unable to sleep. (more…)

What to buy for wedding photography

I recently was talking to an aspiring wedding photographer about gear. She has a ::amazon(“B0007QKMQY”, “Rebel XT”)::. I wrote her an email that outlined what gear I thought she should be looking to get. (more…)

No U-Turn

“So,” I said, “How do you feel about standing in traffic?”

A few weeks ago I had this idea for a shot. I wanted to shoot a couple surrounded by blurred movement while they stood frozen in time… in their own world. The first obstacle to overcome was how to shoot a long exposure on a sunny day. A neutral density filter solved that problem ( I used a 6 but really needed a 9). Next I had to get the couple. Lucky for me I was getting ready to shoot an engagement session at the University of Tampa which sits on Kennedy Blvd, one of the busiest roads in town.

So, after about an hour and a half with my clients I finally asked them to stand in traffic. They were totally on board with the idea and stood there without moving for about 15 minutes while I stood on my own little traffic island with my tripod, shooting away. (more…)