Admittedly a strange title, it dovetails nicely though with everything that this blog post contains, it’s going to be bold and ambitious. We’re going to cover Weddings, Photography, Relationships and a kind of life Philosophy all in one hit. Wait. That’s ridiculously ambitious, let’s just see how we go. Interspersed amongst the nonsense I write here will be photos from the delightful wedding I was fortunate to shoot for my clients a couple of weeks ago. So, as our American friends would say; “buckle up”:
You could be right in thinking that I’m not the best qualified to dispense advice on any of the those subjects. I’m going to anyway, maybe it’s just hubris dictates that I must, can and will. Who knows? No, now I think about it I am qualified. Firstly, I’ve photographed lots of weddings, so there’s photography covered. Secondly, I’ve been intimately involved in at least two weddings, when I say intimately of course that implies that I was the actual groom. Lastly, I’m 62 years old and so have some life experience. Don’t think of me as an old man by the way. As often is the case in this blog, I will reinforce what some say is my spurious claim regarding how old I look. On my recent holiday a man younger than me upon discovering my age exclaimed; “You bastard! I’m 52, you look much younger than me”. I always laugh when I write that sort of thing, but there it is and a cross I simply have to bear!
If my clients are reading this they’ll be wondering what the hell I’m going on about. Trust me, don’t give up just yet. There’s always the chance it’ll make sense by the end, the only caveat is that they often don’t. Now that we’ve got all that out of the way. Here’s a little philosophical or motivational story that is fairly well known. If you haven’t heard it, I think it’s a reasonable piece of advice...
Supposing someone gave you three dice and said to you that if you can roll three sixes they’d give you a million pounds/dollars/euros. There was no catch, you could roll them at no cost as many times as you like. How many times would you roll those dice? Infinite times is the answer of course, though probability dictates that it would just be a few hundred rolls, you’d keep going until you got it. As you rolled those dice you wouldn’t dwell on the outcomes that didn’t result in the goal. You roll 2,4,5 for example who cares, it’s irrelevant as there’s no cost, quickly pick them up and roll again. Now take that and use it in life. It could be a career change, relationship upgrade or even photography.
Here’s one example: Men are notoriously worried about rejection and denting their often fragile egos. It prevents them asking women out for a date who otherwise might be three sixes. Keep rolling the dice, there’s no cost, forget the ego and rejection, it means nothing, they’re just emotions and we know they should be left in the time and place they’re created, dump them there and then, don’t allow the past to poison the present. We’re just trying to get three sixes right? Ask away, think of those dice. Incidentally, when I say cost, I mean emotional. If that woman or man for that matter is stood with their partner, that could very likely involve considerable financial cost with the dentist after you’ve been punched in the mouth!
Photography is the same, you’re rarely punched in the mouth though. We have to roll those dice many times to get the three sixes. We will and do fail constantly, who cares. Eventually you’ll come up with the goods. No photographer sits and thinks about the 3,4,6 shots. Well, we do occasionally, usually when we’re about to show what we’re capable of. I can’t remember a single wedding or portrait shoot where I haven’t been a little anxious beforehand. Especially weddings, this is their big day, they’ve already thrown the three sixes now you need to do the same. The pressure is huge, they and all their guests will be looking through the results…
Self confidence, an exceptable level of self esteem and a little luck should help. Still, there are always doubts and you wonder why you set up yourself for a possible fall. Personally speaking I’d be totally confident if I was shooting with a DSLR, just fire it around, spray and pray, it’ll all be good. My Leica is a different proposition altogether. Exposure and focus is manual, plus it’s not really capable of ‘burst mode”. It freezes up after two or three shutter releases in “continuous mode”. Even if it didn’t (but I promise it will) it’s not my style.
That manual control is of course fantastic for those of us who wish to be creative, not so wonderful when the bride is walking up the aisle and you’re panicking that she’s out of focus. Especially if I’m using the Noctilux wide open at f/0.95 when I change lens for some portraits. I had a huge advantage with this wedding, it was outside. Plenty of light and so I could mostly fire away at f/8 or f/11with a 28mm, just as I would with my Street Photography, with no worries. And that genre was very much on my mind as it always is. That shot above was taken in between a change of personnel for the group photos. Far more interesting photographically, but of course the groups are essential as documentation of the people present on the happy day. I say happy, because this one was all smiles and laughter from start to finish:
Of course I am capturing those candid moments, documenting in a Street Photography style. I’ll show you a few of those in a moment. Our little bridesmaid in the opening shot, a photo of her running away essentially, was a challenge. She’d made her mind up that she wasn’t going to have her photo taken and that was that. It was a game of catch me if you can in parts, but I got some shots eventually.
I have to say that it was an absolutely fabulous day. The couple had clearly both rolled three sixes and the guests were all extremely happy in themselves and for the bride and groom. A group of friends and family that were genuinely lovely. I enjoyed it immensely, the atmosphere was superb as was the venue. Here are a few more shots that are more candid or Street Photography in style. Whereby I’m documenting with s Street mindset, not everyone’s cup of tea I know, but I liked them and I think my client did as well. We’re looking for expressions, gestures or layers and framing with Street.
And there you have it. I covered the topics I set out to with this blog post. That’s a first, I hear you. To finish and demonstrate that I can manage those kind of classic photographs all couples are going to want. With my take and remembering this was a very happy couple, I’m absolutely convinced they already knew that dice advice, they’d thrown three sixes :
Until the next time; keep well, look after each other and be kind.
All images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails and are made using a Leica M with either a Summicron 28mm Lens or Noctilux 50mm fitted.
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