After reading the blog post, looking at some of his website portfolio and reading the About page on his website, I'd say the post is a thoughtful essay by an accomplished photographer about a kind of photography he has no "real" experience doing. As he freely admits in the post. With those caveats he make some valid observations.
I expect that most of what he observes is appropriate for most of the "profession" only because digital cameras have made just about everyone an at least part-time wedding photographer. As a contract wedding photographer working for several booking sources, I have seen a wide variety of wedding photographers and videographers. Many could benefit from reading MT's comments.
Well he does have his pulse on the "over processed, unreal, over the top " production part. But if that's what clients want, and we are in this to make money, isn't that what we give them if that's our market ?
"It seems that in the last twenty or so years – perhaps even less than that – wedding photography has moved from ‘capturing some memories of your (hopefully) once in a lifetime event with family and friends’ to ‘create an overprocessed hollywood epic composed of thousands of pictures with you and your other half in unlikely, impossible and completely out-of-charachter poses in which none of the protagonists at all resemble each other!’. How? When? Why? More importantly, doesn’t anybody who’s actually paying for the images realize that in twenty years, if you look at the images again at all, the first thought entering your mind will probably be ‘ugh, what was I thinking?’"
He is way off base here.
Ask yourself when will a girl be wearing a $3000+ dress again in her life. The whole idea is that it is a fairy tale and as long as the images are well executed and make her and her partner look amazing then they will not regret it in 20 years.
Now certain trends on the other hand that are not timeless sure. I think in particular desaturating and dropping tone in images is one thing that will make brides regret their choice.
The advice is what i would expect an inexperienced photographer to make. Not saying that is all bad but just capturing moments is not a greater form of art it is simply letting yourself off of the hook for having the required skills to get the best images you can on the day as well as the moment images.
It's easy to say be prepared when all you have done is reduce the exercise to capturing moments.
Emotions are important but the most important thing anyone looks for in an image is how good they look.
One thing i have learnt over time and that is brides will cut off friends who they asked to shoot their wedding photos simply because they were disappointed with the results later. I would be wary of advising anyone to do it without assisting on ten weddings with a competent professional first.
marti.g3 wrote:
Well he does have his pulse on the "over processed, unreal, over the top " production part. But if that's what clients want, and we are in this to make money, isn't that what we give them if that's our market ?
Should we adjust our styles to fit the market or define our styles to create a market? I hope I'm doing the latter.
canerino wrote:
Should we adjust our styles to fit the market or define our styles to create a market? I hope I'm doing the latter.
Well put. That's my philosophy as well. I'd like to think my clients (at least in part) choose me b/c of my style. If we all are going for the same look, it just becomes a race to the lowest price point to snag clients...
7. Images don’t take a month to deliver, especially if you’re running them through filters or delivering JPEGs. There is NO EXCUSE! If a guest can find time to process each shot individually and deliver in a couple of days, and it isn’t even his job, then as a ‘professional’, it’s just embarrassing.
So basically this guy is an uncle bob, admits he would be scared to death to be responsible for delivering images of a client's one day non-repeatable event and openly claims he's only done one or two weddings as primary and the rest as uncle bob, then has the balls to criticize the pro's that do this every weekend and ARE responsible for delivering images they often times have one change to get, while he's busy hanging around getting emotion shots while under no pressure to perform and with no business or professional reputation on the line?
I could get amazing, emotionally connected, abstract and artsy wedding pictures too if I didn't have the pressure to perform and get the standard shots that clients always want, even if "just to have" in addition to the more artsy coverage.
Most of the stuff he mentions is common sense, and I can see what he's talking about if his experience has only been with the unprofessional "professionals" that tend to be prevalent in the industry and the run and gun paparazzi style that I've heard is common in Asian weddings.
My main point, is that this guy has no business giving such criticism of an industry he has no pressure to perform in, especially when he freely admits to being scared to death to do what he criticizes.
KibblesNbitz wrote:
I could get amazing, emotionally connected, abstract and artsy wedding pictures too if I didn't have the pressure to perform and get the standard shots that clients always want, even if "just to have" in addition to the more artsy coverage.
i would consider making "amazing, emotionally connected, abstract and artsy wedding pictures" and clients who do not want "standard shots" will find you.
Marcus Watts wrote:
"It seems that in the last twenty or so years – perhaps even less than that – wedding photography has moved from ‘capturing some memories of your (hopefully) once in a lifetime event with family and friends’ to ‘create an overprocessed hollywood epic composed of thousands of pictures with you and your other half in unlikely, impossible and completely out-of-charachter poses in which none of the protagonists at all resemble each other!’. How? When? Why? More importantly, doesn’t anybody who’s actually paying for the images realize that in twenty years, if you look at the images again at all, the first thought entering your mind will probably be ‘ugh, what was I thinking?’"
He is way off base here.
Ask yourself when will a girl be wearing a $3000+ dress again in her life. The whole idea is that it is a fairy tale and as long as the images are well executed and make her and her partner look amazing then they will not regret it in 20 years.
Now certain trends on the other hand that are not timeless sure. I think in particular desaturating and dropping tone in images is one thing that will make brides regret their choice.
The advice is what i would expect an inexperienced photographer to make. Not saying that is all bad but just capturing moments is not a greater form of art it is simply letting yourself off of the hook for having the required skills to get the best images you can on the day as well as the moment images.
It's easy to say be prepared when all you have done is reduce the exercise to capturing moments.
Emotions are important but the most important thing anyone looks for in an image is how good they look.
One thing i have learnt over time and that is brides will cut off friends who they asked to shoot their wedding photos simply because they were disappointed with the results later. I would be wary of advising anyone to do it without assisting on ten weddings with a competent professional first. ...Show more →
