Shoot for the primary shooter, not for yourself. Don't copy, complement: f they're shooting tight, you shoot wide; if they're shooting the B&G, you shoot the guests; etc. Work hard, smile, have a good time, shoot from as many different angles as you possibly can, try out new things, get creative!!

1) DON'T MISS THE IMPORTANT STUFF BECAUSE YOU ARE PLAYING AROUND WITH ARTSY CRAP. :)

2) shoot the details with your free time

3) bring 2x the amount of batteries and memory cards that you need

4) if it is intimate and small, make your photography intimate and small. match the vibe. show the smallness, even if it is in a big way. YOU have to figure out what that means.

5) don't miss the first kiss, be in a good spot before the officiant starts the process

6) get a picture of the bride by herself in the dress if you are given the time

7) wear comfortable shoes

8) don't miss the first kiss :)

9) scout out a handful of locations to shoot just before you are supposed to get there and start shooting

10) do absolutely everything in your power to keep the day as pleasant and stress-free for the bride as possible. i don't care of that means setting up chairs, running to the store and getting pantyhose for the mother of the bride, or whatever. make it peaceful. make great images.

Not at all. Not as far as "approach" goes. I shoot exactly the same. Is it different? Yes. When Otto and I shoot together, I am ten times the photographer I am on a normal occasion. Well, at least I think so. There is something wonderful to be able to shoot without any thought of "covering" the wedding or making sure this or that gets shot. The two of us shoot differently, but our vision compliments each other perfectly, as well as our personalities when dealing with guests or the bride and groom. I absolutely LOVE shooting with my main man Otto :)

because it's my book, and i did what i wanted in it. want to see sunny 16 stuff? google that shiz.

#seriously

empire strikes back, every time.

A camera, some Swedish caviar and a mexican midget.

i am 99% sure it is coming to brisbane and it would be probably june of 2013...take that as a 99% official announcement :).

Yeah, you raise a good point. When you look at family sessions, I think I'd be more expensive than most. Although people who I respect are telling me to up my prices. The number of images I deliver is unparalleled in the market, that's for sure. As well as that, I feel like the product I bring is so different to anyone else's.
I want to shoot more weddings before I raise my prices again.
I'll definitely be 'showing' my albums more, which I haven't really been doing in the past.
As for Jonas, I think he'd be uncomfortable being thought of as a hero. Unbelievable photographer and businessman, yeah.

Oh for sure. To name a few...

1. This may sound weird but the day I realized Isis or have to shoot everything straight. You might laugh but it never occurred to me that the camera could be tilted from anything than straight on. This literally happened about 1 year into shooting. Yeah, I'm not the brightest person...

2. When I not only discovered my voice but became ok with it. In college I wanted to do editorial portraiture. I shot bands, and shot them literally like 2-3 times a week. I was super embarrassed that I was shooting weddings. It was not the cool thing to be doing circa 1999/2000. And it was something i fell
Into not something i persued. Dont get me wrong, i love it, but i was not ok
With it at first. But it is because of weddings I've become the photographer I am today. It has literally prepped me to be able to shoot ANYTHING and not just shoot it but shoot it well. And regardless if something is not cool to the people around you, finding your voice and then being ok with it is monumental to any photographer...

3. The day I realized it does not matter at all what the guy down the street is doing with his photo biz. It took about 4 years into it to realize this. I blaze my own path and don't worry about what anyone else is doing.

4. Every time I get the email/call thanking me for
taking the time to take a portrait of someone's friend, parent, grandparent or whoever it is they've recently lost. Photography goes beyond just pushing a button, or documenting what happened or who was there.

5. Knowing that the workshop I teach actually helps people. Forget me trying to get film in people's hands. But seeing past/current/future attendees lives change for the better from the community we've built is pretty amazing.

There you go...

just get out and shoot man.

This might sound weird but I don't use other photographers for inspiration. I try not to, anyway. I'm sure it happens subconsciously though.
I'm just trying to do me, if that makes sense.
If you want to know whose blogs I check out the most that would be the following:
Jonas Peterson (who shot my wedding)
Sean Flanigan
Samm Blake
Jonathan Canlas (Film Is Not Dead)
Feather and Stone
Everyone who's anyone in wedding photography has told me that stalking other people's blogs is no good for your own creativity but I still check out what everyone is doing.

Why?

All in. We don't have many koalas in Vancouver though.

Dudei! This is Ozzy using Brians phone at the Canlas workshop in Miami. I shoot Portra 400 and 160! Hope that helps.

Ozzy Garcia

I have many ideas of what I would like to do, but I have not actually set any real tangible goals to venture in any other direction outside of weddings: it's the world I know, people keep inquiring, it continues to pay the bills.

As far as photography goes, I'd love to, and plan to, experiment with still life photography, studio (and more solo editorial) portraiture, fashion look books / catalogs, maybe even stock photography…

Outside of photography, I'd love to: open a neighborhood & online general store / mercantile, purchase rural land for a hobby farm (I like this idea, my wife Katherine likes the actual practice of farming), design cabins, open a bed & breakfast, design/branding consulting, live in Holland for a year+ … these adventures could still be done while shooting weddings (perhaps a select number per year?), but again, I haven't made any real investment in these ideas beyond talking about them with friends and family over and over and over again.

I'm forever curious. Which is one of the reasons photography, and especially wedding photography, has been a good fit for me. Weekend after weekend I am introduced to different personalities with their unique love stories, family backgrounds and friendship dynamics, all within new and interesting locations/settings. I am asked to encounter this honestly/courageously/lovingly, and make a story with my cameras. This really hits my inner anthropologist.

For the past few years I have only set goals on a one year basis: Creative, Financial, Family, Travel, Lifestyle, etc... and essentially put on horse blinders to accomplish them. It's worked out fairly well, but I may have lost some perspective on a larger scale.

I currently feel the need to set three or five year goals that includes more brave exploration outside of weddings, and could use some encouragement here. Or perhaps a slap on the wrist and be told to just focus on simply becoming a better wedding photographer.

I used to say that I was vocationally challenged and fell into photography. I still don't feel a real certain "calling" to wedding photography, but find it rewarding work.

-

Could I do this for the next 15 years? Perhaps. I'm taking this journey one year at a time. Each year has been fresh, and each year I've learned knew languages within my photography and business practices. The clients I had at 23 are different than the clients I have at 28, and these differences would probably hold true when I'm 37 or 43.

-

Well, that was long winded.

no way. i could teach you everything i know, TWICE and your images still would not look like mine. i can't teach you vision, that only comes with actually you know, applying yourself :)

Huh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DBuk91phkI

Play

As far as people, I don't know if I'm really inspired by other wedding photographers quite as much as I used to be, but I do admire some photographers for a variety of reasons. Off the top of my head would be Sean Flanigan, Jonas Peterson, Ben Blood, Sergio Mottola, Jay Eads, the dudes from Nordica, Ken Kienow, Kip Beelman, Jenny Jimenez, Gene Pease, Hugh Forte, and lots of others I'm sure. Each for different reasons and not always even because of their photos, but also them as individuals.

Looking at other's work totally helped me develop my own style in the beginning, mainly borrowing ideas/techniques that worked and not keeping ones that didn't.

I photograph for fun of course, but professionally I'm focusing on just weddings and portraits.

ha, no sweat :)

well... there are a few things i would say.

1) shoot a lot. if you shoot 20-50 weddings a year, you have a lot of images to draw from, and you only have to show a handful on your site

2) work hard. you know they do.

3) don't forget that many times those guys get a-mazing locations... and it's a lot easier to make a wonderful image on the top of a lush, active Hawaiian volcano than it is in the dank fireside room of a 70's era community church ;P so use a level playing field when you judge your work against theirs. i'm not saying they aren't good, they are, but that's a huge head start.

4) shoot some more

5) get your post processing nailed down. it's not all about photoshop, but once you get a nice vibe going, at least photoshop isn't in the way

6) LOOK FOR INTERESTING COMPOSITIONS. sometimes the quirky ones attract a lot of attention, also

7) check yo self, before you wreck yo self. use your head... think... plan... come up with ideas ahead of time, and someday, at some wedding, maybe you'll find a great opportunity

8) know your gear. like the back of your hand. back. of. your. hand. when you don't have to think about the technical aspect, you're free to get creative. let the right and left sides of the brain do tag team, take breaks, work together... and when all else fails. hit them with the steel chair! i think the analogy may have broken down just there

9) shoot like like you've got a pair. take risks, fail, succeed, thik outside of the regular wedding box. who cares if the blogs like it, heck, maybe your client won't even like it, but shoot for yourself at least once or twice a wedding

10) cull like like you've got a pair. (sorry, it's late, and i had no other snappy saying) get photomechanic if you don't have it, and be brutal when you choose which images to keep from a wedding, or any session. if it isn't sharp, it better be rrrrealllly good to bother keeping it. unless it wasn't supposed to be sharp ;) if it has no emotion, dump it like your junior prom date. if it isn't flattering to the person in the photograph, trash it, unless it is the good kind of unflattering (see Avedon). what you keep says something about you as a photographer. what you show the world says even more.

Lemon, Out!