Photographer meet my Swiss army knife!
I am a firm believer that in order to excel in anything you must have a great many skills to accompany that one thing you are excelling at. That brings me to the title of my article “photographer meet my swiss army knife”. Many of you know me personally and many only professionally, I’ll dive in an explain the title. I have been told by many people “you are a great photographer, I love your pictures” Thus the “Photographer” part of the title, the rest “meet my swiss army knife” is a tribute to the many other skills I have picked up along the way in order to produce the results I am capable of doing. These skills include but are not limited to
Knowing where to get some of the worlds best cheese curds (Mauston, WI), Also Where to find such great props as lets say pink elephants, Or even how to change a flat tire in 10min so your not late to photograph a wedding, your actually early.
Now I’m joking a little bit, but thats just the kind of guy I am. Most people think being a great photographer is being able to frame the shot, and pressing the button. But what most people don’t think about is the preparation that goes into that shot. For instance our shot of the day, is probably not the most artistically pleasing but it captures the true emotion of the moment and made the groom and all who attended go nuts.
The number one skill is trust, if you can have your clients trust you they are willing to listen to you, CHECK.
Second is clear direction, I told Dylan to look at the camera after he threw the garter because (as has happened many times before) the bride and groom want to turn around a look, then you end up getting a picture of the back of their head, CHECK.
Three (here is the photographer part) setting up the flashes in order to create dynamic lighting and freeze the action, the room was really dark and if I had shot without flashes the action would have been blurry. I also had to make sure that the whole room was not lit because that just would have looked boring.
Four Love, as it says in the bible, without love you are but a clanging gong or banging cymbal. I get invested in my clients and I truly love them. This may seem a little weird but I get invested in their day and it becomes a part of who I am, in return that part of me is reflected in my work.
When I was leaving the wedding with the amazing Jon Good (an associate photographer for capfoto based out of Milwaukee) we were complemented by the parents and wedding guests on how awesome the photos were. Love the complement but they have not seen any of the photos yet. That is the sign of a job well done, our attitude throughout the day built a relationship of trust that in turn allowed us to take the amazing pictures we took.
this leads me to my last point of the article and the last blade on the swiss army knife. Personality is more imporant than skill. When I got home and shared this experience with my beautiful wife (and almost mother of our first child, due in about a week). We reflected on our wedding day and the wedding day of others and she made the comment that “if your photographer sucks the whole day is going to suck” which is true, we are with your from start to finish. If you trust and enjoy your photographer then taking beautiful pictures of you will be super simple, not a laborious process. Have a great week!
