Endless Variety

I know you've heard it before, but i do love weddings. They are like a major theatre production, full of bustle, colour, excitement... there is drama and comedy, High Art counterpoised with low farce, solemn moments offset by the bawdy; emotion overflowing, the Sacred and the profane  - and binding it all together there is deep Love and the promise of lifelong commitment.

All this is mine.  Mine to capture, interpret, and commit to eternity - or at least, for as long as pixels last and people still gaze at the images. Bright images of their parents and grandparents in the flush of youth and joyful love; memories of times that were once and will never be again, except in the pages of a treasured album or perhaps its electronic equivalent.

The complexity of human belief and hope is reflected in the wedding ceremony. Faith and Culture provide the template, and people - brides, grooms, their parents, families and friends - make it their own. I have been privileged to attend Protestant, Catholic, and Civil Services. To photograph Vietnamese, military, non-religious and religious weddings in many traditions: a Filipino Street Wedding in Manila; a Salvation Army marriage "Under the Flag"; solemn Catholic and High Church of England masses, rollicking, noisy evangelicals, and outdoor weddings that were more like a party than a ceremony. Traditional, arranged marriages, and services where the children gave their parents away, first-time brides and grooms and "third-time lucky" seniors.

It doesn't matter how many years or how much experience you have had: you still need to research and prepare, because it is too easy to believe you know what to expect and so miss the novel and unanticipated details that make each wedding unique. No danger of that for one upcoming event: In a few weeks, I am going to photograph my first Macedonian Orthodox Wedding.

When I mentioned that to a colleague, he assured me I wouldn't want to do it too often. Having done a number of orthodox weddings a few years ago, he now just says "no thanks" - it is too much work!

I understand what he means. A typical wedding lasts 3 days, and the dozens of traditions that are observed all need to be faithfully recorded.

In addition to my general research, I have had lots of input and support from the father of the bride, Bill, who has even sent me videos of a couple of weddings to make sure my team and I are well prepared and know what to expect. Just watching them is exhausting! But you know what? I think I am looking forward to this more than Nicole and Steve (the bride and groom). Matter of fact, I think the only person more excited is Bill!

A Camera Full of Memories

I was helping my friend Lynne move house today. Cleaning out the garage I came across a camera in a leather case. A 620 Roll Film device with a fixed lens and inbuilt filters operated by slides on the body of the camera. If that sounds like a rather sophisticated Medium Format device let me disabuse you. I used to own one of these cameras, and if you are over 40 years of age, you probably did, too. There was one in your family, anyway.

The Kodak Box Brownie, in various guises, was with us for nearly 100 years, the first cardboard bodied camera hitting the market in 1900. Mine was a Brownie Flash II, an Australian model with a built-in close-up filter, fixed aperture of  f/14 and flash contacts (hence the name). I was never able to afford the flash gun, but the possibility was there.

It was my ninth birthday, and the camera was a gift from my dad and mum. I don't think they had any idea how much it was going to cost them to keep me in film! On the other hand, as they shifted the burden of film and processing to me, they may have wished they had gone on bearing the financial burden, because, of course, I decided to develop my own photos.  But to be fair, they never once complained about the chemical smells that permeated the house, the loss of the bathroom for hours at a time (it was the only room with running water that could be blacked out), or having to fight their way through coils of drying negatives to get to the loo.

I learned a great deal from that simple box camera. I leaned to process and enlarge film; I learned to compose in the classic rectangular format; I learned what features I wanted in a camera, and how to take the photographs I wanted even though the Brownie had none of them.

I have owned many cameras since, every one of them far, far better. But only the Kodak Box Brownie set me on a path that I have followed now for more than  half a century.

Lynne offered me her old camera: I accepted it with a gratitude she will never quite understand..

The Ninja Wedding Photographer

I know that there are a couple of photographers who include the word "Ninja" in heir studio names, and I am not commenting on their work or style: but in an article I wrote in 2008 for Qondio.com I used the term to describe an approach to taking pictures at a wedding, and I thought I'd like to explore it a bit more here (you can read the article at http://www.qondio.com/photographing-a-wedding).


In effect, I was advising aspiring photographers to become the Ninja Photographer - to be present but unseen. That is a skill to be cultivated. It requires timing to be in the right position for key moments without calling attention to yourself. Why is this important? Because it helps you avoid disrupting the flow of the wedding. 


Some Wedding photographers seem to believe they are there to manage the day, to direct it like a movie - dare I say Video cameramen are even more prone to this form of egocentric attitude? Certainly the photographs are hugely important, but it is not our day! It belongs to the Bride and the Groom. 


Respecting the bride and groom's ownership of the day is easier if you know  a great deal about weddings in general and about this wedding in particular. Meaningful consultation with the minister or celebrant, the planner and, especially, the couple, allows you to be invisible  when you should be. 


Invisibility is partly about timing your movement around the ceremony to coincide with the movements of the congregation (standing, sitting), songs (yes, you should have had a chat with the organist!), sermons or longer readings. 


Some of it is about selecting the right equipment - lenses that are fast enough to provide noise-free images without flash, and long enough to capture that first kiss without imposing yourself between the guests and the wedding party (or worse, between the celebrant and the couple). 


But a lot of it is a question of the routes you have planned around the venue and not leaving your shooting position to chance - suddenly realising that you need to be there rather thah here to get the right angle and rushing to get into position is often worse than giving up on the shot. The way you move is also an issue. 


There are times when it will be your responsibility to manage the bridal party, the guests, the props - to actively direct your subjects; then it is not just appropriate to be visible: it is essential! But for many of the key moments, one of the greatest compliments you can receive is the delight on the faces of the newlyweds, their family and friends will realise, from your beautiful, intimate images, that you were actually there!

Who Ya Gonna Call...

If you ask me to photograph your wedding, I'm going to say "Love to!"... usually. I could already be booked, of course (I have weddings scheduled through into November 2010), and sometimes I have other priorities that are not "work" related. For instance, I decided that my family wasn't going to appreciate it if I accepted the request to photograph a wedding on Christmas Day (true - the wedding was scheduled for 25th December 2009, and in a Catholic Church!).

I do not like to say no - a flaw in my personality, I suppose (one of many!) but I don't like letting people down, especially someone who has singled out my art for such a special day from the hundreds of other wedding photographers vying for their business.

I get anxious about who the couple might go to, especially if it just just a few month before the event. Short-notice weddings are the hunting grounds for amateur and cut-price photographers, and the photographs they deliver show it.

Is every cheap photography package a disaster? Of course not. Some are very good; every professional was an inexperienced beginner once. But I thought, if instead of just saying "sorry, can't do it", if I could refer the client on to someone I knew would deliver the goods, I would feel a lot better about it; even better still, what if I could personally introduce them to a great photographer?

So, last week I started a network for trusted wedding professionals. It is by invitation only, no one gets any kick-back for sharing in the community, and all the members are locals.

So  far there are just 4 photographers, a planner and a celebrant in the community, but already two couples have been supported by our members: we were able to find them a great professional and saved them all the stress of starting their search all over again. That not only made them very happy, but it made me feel pretty good, too!

If Wishes Were Horses I'd be in Two Places at Once

Pardon the mixed metaphor, but I have been looking forward to Sam and Angela's wedding in April with a lot of anticipation: and then on the week-end I got another of those calls that seem to come in too often: please help - my photographer just cancelled on me. My wedding in in April! Not just in April, but on the same week-end as Sam and Angela. It isn't a simple wedding, either: there is to be an Indian ceremony on Friday evening, followed by a Catholic Wedding Mass of Saturday.

I would love to be the one to document this wonderful blend of tradition and culture; of course I can't be at both marriages, but maybe you can help. If you have the skill and experience, contact me via this blog and if it seems that you and the bride are thinking the same way, I could put you in touch with each other... or maybe I could sub-contract the job - you shoot, I'll handle post production.

Is there something to be taken away from this?   It is the 4th or 5th time a bride has come to me in the last 12 months after being let down by a photographer. Can you do anything to guard against such disappointment?

It is no use asking for references: unreliable togs will not let you talk to UNhappy customers; it doesn't mean much that somebody has been in business for a long time - that just gives them extra time to "hide" their poor work amongst the more satisfactory jobs. Having a beautiful portfolio is evidence of talent, not of trustworthiness or reliability.

 I don't mean you shouldn't look at all these qualities, because you should. But what else should you consider?

Well, membership of a Professional body can be a good guide: the top Australian body for professional photographers is possibly the Australian Institute of Professional Photography. Members have to provide evidence that their business is properly run and provide a portfolio that reflects an professional photographic knowledge and skill.  Likewise, membership of the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers is an International recognition based on the submission of a Portfolio judged by a panel of experts as if the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International.

Applying for membership of a professional organisation does not guarantee you will be accepted, the annual membership fees are high enough to discourage people joining just to be able to put a few letters after their names, and it gives dissatisfied clients someone to complain to... You do not jump through the hoops of peer review and evaluation, pay your annual fees, and then risk the humiliation of losing your accreditation very readily.

So, given a choice between two photographers, go with the one who cares enough about his clients to have invested the time, study and money to become an accredited member of the professional photographic community.

Photography and Mental Health

I generally aim to shoot no more than 20 weddings in a year. That leaves me free for other projects like Golden Wedding Anniversaries and other special occasions. It also means I can commit a week twice a year to a charity or community  event. Last year I managed to fit in a 5 day event for kids in Cabramatta, a Village Fair at a Retirement Home and a couple of Christmas Carols services.

The variety keeps me fresh and more than compensates for the loss of income, and doing these voluntary assignments is good for me and for the community. To me, the most important of these "community services" is the photography competition which I have organised and run for the past 5 years for the Senior Mental Health Nurses Committee in south west Sydney. Sadly, the Committee was disbanded last year due to  reorganisation of the State Health Service.

The competiton might well have ended too, except for the urgings of many interested parties. Instead, Practicaps Photography and Imaging (Practicaps Weddings) will continue to sponsor the contest at least for 2010 with the support and involvement of Odyssey House and the GROW Residential Rehabilitation Community. I'd be more than happy to have other community organisations and individuals get involved.

The competition has nothing to do with wedding photography, of course: it  is a mental health promotion, designed to focus people's minds on positive qualities that support good mental health. We have tied it to Mental Health Week, which is celebrated each October, and to the theme of MH week, which for the last 3 years has been Resilience. This year we want entrants to use their cameras to illustrate a particular aspect of resilience:  the idea that getting or staying connected helps people stay flexible and cope better with stress, anxiety and trauma. Being connected can refer to family relationships, community activities, being a member of a club or association, friendship networks or even being connected to your own beliefs and ideals.

The competition is open to people throughout the country with a connection to mental health - Last year it was won by a mental health consumer, the runner up was a carer ( a mother whose children have a severe mental illness) and prizes were also won by health workers (a psychologist, mental nurse and schizophrenia researcher were all successful). You can see some of the entries from last year by clicking on the Title of this post or by going to http://picasaweb.google.com/DavidA.Rich/BouncingBack?authkey=Gv1sRgCP6vzObd2_Sc4AE#.

Sold! - Well, given away, actually.

The promo has gone to a really lovely couple who will be celebrating their wedding next August. That's a relief.  But it still makes me wonder about the effectiveness of my website. Ads on Facebook, promo via Twitter, 6000 views and the couple who finally took it home only saw the offer after they had spoken to me on the phone and I directed them to the site to look at some sample images.

This week I took my G11 out to test its low-light capabilities before adding it to my gear bag for weddings. With this new camera, Canon has replaced the 14 megapixel sensor on the 2009 Expert Camera of the Year with a 10 megapixel device and added a flexible, rotating screen among other refinements. Thankfully, they kept the optical viewfinder.

The only real criticism that could be leveled at the G10 was its poor low light performance - too noisy from 400ISO . Hence the revised megapixel count.  Does it help? Yes.. but the optical viewfinder is a disappointment. Better than nothing, but not really as good as it should be..

In the "season to be jolly" the Christmas lights are spectacular, but somoething of a challenge for a compact camera - even one with an oversized sensor like the G11's 1.7 incher. It is going into the bag, but I don't see it getting a lot of use on the Big Day: on the other hand, when something unobtrusive is required, it will be useful, and for preliminary and test shots, I think it will pay for itself sooner rather than later.