Think Like A Spectator And Shoot Like A Pro

Issue #23

[Read Time < 4 Minutes]

A significant part of being a successful wedding photographer is the mindset behind your role. You’re a wedding professional.

There’s a lot of power being the one with the camera, and if you enjoy being the point person at an event, you’ll LOVE being a wedding photographer.

Look, I know you’re an artist. Artists want control, and artists want to create their way, with their style.

Let’s start at the end - This is NOT your day.The bottom line is…as the wedding photographer, you’re documenting this day for your couple.

Let’s start at the end - This is NOT your day.

This day belongs to everyone except you. If you can accept that, you’ll be just fine and quite successful.

I’ve met some extremely talented photographers, brilliant artists and masters with a camera who talk about weddings as though they’re a canvas for them to pour their brilliance upon...they are NOT.

I know weddings are amazing, and some weddings are more amazing than others, but this day is about the couple and their families. Your job is to preserve that day for THEM, not you.

If, in the process of your pictorial preservation, you capture something amazing that will help in the future marketing of your services, that’s fantastic, but please don’t go into the day looking for that.

Try to picture yourself as a spectator, not a player - but a spectator with a camera.

If you approach this day as an observer, you’ll not only see more, but you’ll see things differently.

You’ll find yourself LOOKING at angles, reflections, and details - light and shadows and the almost magical interplay of all these elements.

You won’t just be standing waiting for the next thing to happen - you’ll be hunting for something to shoot.

This is what makes weddings so much fun!

Now, as a caveat, when I talk about looking for things, I’m not necessarily talking about shooting “the things.” You know what I’m referring to - the invitations, save the dates, etc., that the bride brings for you.

Those are cool to shoot, too, but I see those more as requisite details, like the dress and the rings.

I’m talking about the personal items - notes, gifts, mementos, personalized glasses and robes - all those cool things that set the scene without being too obvious.

Those things that won’t be special tomorrow.

There’s also the endless supply of activities happening around the wedding day, completely away from the bride and groom.

A wedding day isn’t just an event people attend.

In every wedding, family and friends are working behind the scenes to make everything perfect. Sometimes is just little touches, and sometimes it’s the entire event.

These are the moments that are so easily forgotten (or completely unseen in the first place).

Imagine the couple revisiting their photos years later and seeing a favorite aunt and uncle helping to put the finishing touches on the reception decor, a moment they would’ve never seen.

Or seeing Dad ironing the groom’s shirt because it got wrinkled the night before, and he didn’t want his son-in-law-to-be to look less than perfect on his wedding day.

It’s the little things that make a wedding day so memorable…and these are the things you look for.

In no other photography work (or any other career, for that matter) do you get paid to explore and find something quirky or funny, touching or mysterious.

It’s like your job is being a professional scavenger hunter, and yes, the clock is ticking!

This hunt is for one day only!

In about 10 hours, all these little emotionally charged details will go away, and you’ll never see them again.

I’ve mentioned it before, and I tell every bride when we meet that a wedding isn’t something you buy as a package (not counting Vegas, of course).

A wedding day is composed of a hundred little things, each personally selected and carefully chosen, assembled and crafted to create the perfect day. That’s why each wedding day is uniquely special.

Hunt for these things. Have fun. Move around and look for the unexpected moments that make this day personal and memorable for the couple.

Excel at this, and you’ll be more than just a photographer. You’ll be the one who brought this entire day back to the couple through your photos.

“The moments are out there waiting to be captured…you just have to find them.”

– Chris Humphrey

Selling with confidence is one small part of the “inner game of wedding photography and THIS is what I write about each week in this newsletter.

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