I recently read a post from a local wedding professional that tackled the subject of what photographers really talk about when they "talk shop". This got me to thinking that I don't share enough of my personal experiences as a photographer on the blog. Every wedding creates a topic of conversation among photographers about something that happen that day or during the process. We share experiences all the time between each other, but I never share much on the blog.
I've always used the blog to showcase my latest work to prospective brides, for means of pinning a photo and for current brides. The truth is I'm a blog enthusiast. I relate to other professionals, photographers and personalities by reading their blogs, so it's only fair to share my own experiences, passions and lessons in return.
Experience learned today...the bride is always right. In the retail world, you hear the phrase: the customer is always right, but I never thought of that applying to brides. During the editing process, I always offer to change a photo or add a photo to a final group of photos, so why was I taken aback when I bride asked for more photos.
Recently, I presented a bride with her final wedding photos, and she emailed me back with a gracious "thank you...we enjoyed [the photos], but do you have more of this, this and this shot. My first thought was "wow, you weren't blown away by the edited photos I sent you". I'm not lying. Editing a wedding equals a full time job, so as photographers, we forget that what took us hours to create takes a brides minutes to look through.
With this I'm reminded that every bride has a vision of her day. From the moment she's engaged until she hits her honeymoon, she knows how she wants her day to look. She's chosen me to capture that vision, and it's my job to deliver. Even if that means sifting through thousands of photos (again) to find a possible outtake of her and her groom walking back down the aisle, or more pics from the quick stop we made at the Capitol on our way to the reception, or of the bride and groom both waving from their exit car.
Looking back through the photos cause me to exclaim...the bride was right. Not only did I find 3 out of 4 of the extra pics she was looking for. I also found the photo of the couple kissing above and a better pic of both the bride and groom waving from the car.
Here's the original shot I gave the bride. I thought it was nice to see them peeking out the window as they drove away.
Here's the shot I found after looking through all of the photos multiple times. Keep in mind this is a candid shot taken as they are driving away to the reception. I was almost sure we didn't have a clear shot of both the bride and groom waving out.
Sure as photographers, we could argue that the two pictures are essentially the same shot, but to the bride the second picture tells her vision of the day. The bride was right, and I'm glad that she thought enough about her photos to ask me to look for this car pic.
In this business, we don't have a time sheet to log or an agenda to follow. We make snap decisions, and try to capture both the expected and unexpected moments. Well, these pics were unexpected finds for me, and it's moments like this that give us photogs "shop" to talk.