This past weekend we traveled down to Tennessee to photograph 2 wedding photographers getting married. It was an honor and a pleasure to be asked to be a part of this celebration.
Lately, I feel like we've been getting knocked for our consistency, so with this wedding we tried a bunch of new things, new poses, new focal lengths, had a little more fun and experimentation with our lighting....
Really really good set.. much more organic than usual and I like that.
I see hints of new stuff but you provided really nice classy images as normal which is amazing.
nicely nicely done
Rich, I've always said you were the most consistent shooter here. And I think this is ultimately a good thing for business. I don't want you to think that is knock and I'm not suggesting that you "stop being consistent".
One thing I'D like to see from you is to be a little less formulaic in your presentation. I looked back at your last 10 sets posted here (not including this one) and I'm seeing virtually the same formula. Forgive me, I'm on my phone at the moment, but I see the same types of images in the same places in your presentation (ie, shoes, flowers, dress, cuff links, etc) in the same places. It feels like you are going down a checklist as you make the blogpost. All of this gives a feeling of sameness (different from consistency) to the sets.
It'd be interesting to see you post your top 20 images (regardless of type of image). I'll try to post more on this later.
mineymole wrote:
Great set Rich. Personally I would ignore those who criticize consistency. Imagine for a moment, if our favorite brands were inconsistent.
I don't think Chuck is knocking you here. But I do agree with Diane. If consistency is a big part your brand, which to my eyes it is, I can see that every potential client looks at your posts imagining themselves at their wedding with this type of stellar work. This wedding is hands down the best I've seen from you. Lucky clients for sure Its been a joy watching your work progress over the last 3 years.
I would agree with Diane and Jeff that consistency is your selling point. It's a huge part of what makes you and Anne so damn good. I bet if you look back at your work from the past 2 or 3 years you'll see leaps in improvement along the way. I know I've seen it. The fact that your work was so good from the outset tends to trick people into believing that it hasn't changed much. In reality it's changed a lot. Your style is still there, but the work has gotten better. Not only has it gotten better, but it's more crisp and cleaner than I thought was possible.
It's one thing to mix things up just to be different and another to have it all fit together. There's not a photo in the bunch where I thought "he chose that lighting or focal length just to be different". They all work together. Lovely work. I just love the shoe shot!
robertqi wrote:
Great set! I would be happy if I were the client.
Thank you..
maxwell1295 wrote:
I would agree with Diane and Jeff that consistency is your selling point. It's a huge part of what makes you and Anne so damn good. I bet if you look back at your work from the past 2 or 3 years you'll see leaps in improvement along the way. I know I've seen it. The fact that your work was so good from the outset tends to trick people into believing that it hasn't changed much. In reality it's changed a lot. Your style is still there, but the work has gotten better. Not only has it gotten better, but it's more crisp and cleaner than I thought was possible....Show more →
Thanks Alan...
dmacmillan wrote:
It's one thing to mix things up just to be different and another to have it all fit together. There's not a photo in the bunch where I thought "he chose that lighting or focal length just to be different". They all work together. Lovely work. I just love the shoe shot!
Thanks.... I agree. To me, there's not much that sticks out like a sore thumb as "we did this differently" I would say that over time we got into a more traditional way of doing portraits, using longer, more flattering focal lengths because we found that they just looked better. With this wedding we definitely tried to mix in some different looks.... some things that we maybe haven't done in 2-3 years, but refined them with the things we've learned since. We pulled out the tilt-shift, which hasn't been out of the bag in probably 8 months or more.
I will also say this (after having a pretty extensive talk with Chuck on this topic earlier today), I'm fairly certain that we view and use our blog much differently than most photographers... IMO, most photographers view their blog as an extension of their portfolio, only hosting the absolute best of the best from each wedding.... We view our blog as a means to tell each couple's story, so yes there are shots that make the blog in order to complete the story, that might have otherwise been cut if we were looking to just show strictly our best work. IMO, if you view your blog simply as a means to show portfolio work, then simply put those into your portfolio and be done with the blog format.
Consistency only "bothers" other photographers. When a prospective bride comes to your website and is giving you their precious seconds of attention I'm going to bet she will get wrapped up in whichever well covered storyline is your latest post of the week.
Your branding is working for you. My clients are all over the map. Your clients (or at least your coverage of them) seem to be similarly fun, enjoyable personalities to photograph. Every single one of them.
Consistency only "bothers" other photographers. When a prospective bride comes to your website and is giving you their precious seconds of attention I'm going to bet she will get wrapped up in whichever well covered storyline is your latest post of the week.
Your branding is working for you. My clients are all over the map. Your clients (or at least your coverage of them) seem to be similarly fun, enjoyable personalities to photograph. Every single one of them.
Its been a joy watching your work progress over the last 3 years.