Sameness Kills Enthusiasm! A Visit By A Friend - Part 3

Good Morning Everybody,

Things are pretty calm around here in DigitalProTalk-land with one exception, my 3 year old Sony Vaio laptop is acting very strange with messages saying it can’t boot up.  I thought I had solved the problem but after inserting a SDHC card from another photographer it did the same thing. 

With Photoshop World only 5 weeks away, I really didn’t want to get a brand new computer.  But considering we hit the road for my Budapest Master Class (Still a few seats left BTW) right after PSW and follow that up with two months of travel throughout Eastern Europe, I may not have a choice.

DAZNOTE: BTW, did you see the latest deal happening at the Photoshop World sight – they’re giving away a one year subscription to Adobe Cloud – that includes ALL the Adobe programs for FREE for one year.  AND, if you register now, you’ll save an additional $100!  Hey gang, that sounds like money in your pocket.  Check it out right here.

I saw a deal on a Windows 8 Touch Smart screen HP Envy i7 with 12gig memory, and 1T hard drive that looked pretty good – price only $850 at Costco – uhmmmmm….  The reviews look pretty good, anyone with personal experience on this machine?

Anyway, enough of my minor inconveniences, let’s get on with today’s post.

Sameness Kills Enthusiasm!  A Visit By A Friend Part 3

“There are two losers when this happens. One, of course, is ourselves, the other is the client.

“There is no greater personal or professional injustice than to compromise the client because we don’t like what we are doing - because we lost our enthusiasm. It is a disservice to our profession as well to have a client call a photographer for a particular service, the photographer to take the assignment, and then only give the assignment 50 - 60% of his effort.

“Photographers not committed to their clients are also not committed to this profession and should change jobs!

“But, in all fairness to some of these photographers, hopefully they recognize the problem and will select a different hallway of possibilities to rekindle their enthusiasm. I certainly hope so.”

The ducks had spotted the surplus seeds the squirrel and birds were inadvertently dropping from the feeder and wandered over to partake of the new menu items.

The wind had picked up a bit and the sun was brighter and slightly higher in the sky. I couldn’t help but smile as I noticed that in this more brisk breeze one old tree had assumed the role of conductor. One of its branches, missing nearly all its leaves, swayed more quickly when compared to the other trees with their leaf laden branches. It appeared our new conductor was enjoining the rest to follow his tempo. Our visual orchestra was now playing a completely different, and still thoroughly fascinating, symphony of colors, shades, and motion for our eyes.

We both paused to enjoy the new morning rhapsody and after a few moments I asked, “If this difference is the secret, then how do you apply that thinking to something like wedding photography which all looks pretty much alike?”

“You know,” he said, “Maybe they do seem the same on the surface. Sure, everyone gets ready before hand, then they have the ceremony, and then on to the reception. But a photographer feeling this way misses most of what the wedding is all about.”

I think the wedding begins,” he continued, “when one person proposes marriage to the other, and the other accepts. Now their fantasy begins. The good news is spread from family to family and friend to friend and everyone is really getting excited. The planning revs up faster and faster as they approach the big day. The attendants are asked. The gowns, tuxedos, flowers, and locations of ceremony and reception are selected. The showers and parties are given. The excitement is building.

“It’s these feelings of love, romance, anticipation, and excitement which this couple and their families have been sharing in the preceding months, and climaxing on their wedding day that make each wedding different! It’s these feelings that WE, the wedding photographer, have been given the responsibility to capture. “If we see all weddings as the same, it will be evident in our photography.

“I believe that if my client chooses me for a particular assignment, they are selecting me because of the difference in my work when compared to the alternatives. They prefer my style, or more specifically, my way of visual photographic interpretation.

“This belief gives me the motivation for what I do. I feel that I am there to do more than just capture the people, places and events of the day. These are the tangible aspects of the wedding that everyone can see. It is my responsibility to capture the love and romance the couple feels toward each other, and the warm feelings among all the families and friends. It is my responsibility to capture all the fun, excitement, and spontaneity of the day as well. All these things are the intangibles associated with the affair that must be made part of the photographic interpretation.

“To do that effectively, I must, on every assignment make the very best possible use of my creative ability and technical expertise without compromise.

“A wedding or any other photographic commitment we make is like having an uncut gem placed before us. It is up to us to work our photographic magic on it - to cut and polish it to its highest point of perfection within our current capabilities.

“A wedding is a particularly multi faceted gem to carve and polish. One facet is the opportunity to make beautiful portraits of a bride on her wedding day. They can be low key, medium key or hi-key and we can range the expressions from soft and demur to happy and exuberant.

We have that same opportunity with the groom. We need to give the groom equal billing in our photography as well. He is so often the forgotten element. Why do so many photographers miss this opportunity to create beautiful images for the groom and his family?

“Another facet of the wedding is how we show all the support people involved in the wedding. We need to make photographs of the bride with her mother and father, the maid of honor, brothers and sisters, flower girls and ring bearers, special friends - all the people that help make her day special. When we take these photographs, we want something more than everyone looking into the camera smiling. That’s is ok but let’s also take this opportunity to let this series of photographs capture the feelings and emotions between the people involved.

“Showing the bride with the little ring bearer looking at the groom’s ring is a good example. This photograph could easily capture a special moment between the bride and groom and that little person.

“If we can capture the real feelings between our clients in our photography and our clients experience these emotions again when they view our photographs, then we have captured something very special, lasting, and important for them.”

As I sat listening I realized two things: First, in his wedding photography he was actually becoming part of the wedding himself. He, too, was a friend of the couple and their families on their day. This rapport he was able to create with his clients allowed his camera to get closer and record the feelings he was talking about.

Secondly, he was one with the camera. The hardware was simply an extension of himself. As he got to know his new friends, it was easy for him to see their honest expressions and their real feelings, and he, as the camera, was ready.

Food For Thought

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Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  Still thinking about that HP computer ;~)

Have a great rest of the day and I’ll see you bright and early for A Visit By A friend Part 4 tomorrow.

-David

Announcing my 2010 Success Collection! http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/2010/05/announcing-my-2010-digital-wakeup-call.html