Re: [Leica] The wedding photographer rag

["Po-Wen Shaw" <po-wen@mindspring.com>]

At my sister's wedding last spring I wasted, er... spent so much time being
"posed" for so many "official" photos that I almost missed the reception.
Most of the photos reminded me of rudimentary "yearbook" poses, with an
interchangeable cast of characters; I started to think that perhaps we
should just have digital pictures taken of our faces before a wedding and
simply pay someone to digitally insert them into various fantasy scenes with
fantasy bodies and outfits. Then we can really enjoy the wedding (there were
some octagenarians there who REALLY knew how to dance!)

Having said that, I agree that people-skills are very important for the
wedding photographer and in this regard my sister's photog was pretty good:
decent sense of humor plus merciless field-marshal instincts. I did suggest
some PJ-style (i.e., more "natural", less "posed", less a fantasy of, say,
aristocratic fancies) B&Ws earlier on but to no surprise was politely
ignored.

I suppose that a good commercial photographer should cater to his client's
needs but when the "client" has many heads -- as it tends to be at weddings
- -- should one also not try to "educate" (sorry if this is too strong a word)
the client rather than simply accommodate them? This applies also to many
other professional fields -- architecture, for example -- of course. I
suppose it is a question of "art" vs. "reality", personal work vs. paying
work, the importance of making the "bride" happy above all else, but...

Recently at a friend's wedding I took my M6 (back on topic!) and tried my
hand at some naturalistic wedding photos. I managed to get a few good ones
although my darkroom instructor made me print one over and over to
compensate for some back-lit flare in the upper right corner (hmmm... I
thought the Summilux-M 35 ASPH is a flare-killer). After many hours in the
darkroom (I'm still relatively new/slow at this) I emerged with some decent
prints, only to see them literally mangled with joy by the appreciative
recipients. I suppose I should be happy, as later I showed them to another
married friend but she simply asked where are the pictures? It's depressing
that some people only "want" to see the "posed" styles, and nothing else.
(Interestingly, young Koreans who have wedding videos tend to have them shot
MTV-style, with music instead of voices).

I still find that focusing accurately, quickly enough, to be the main
problem in candid weddings. Ironic, since at weddings everyone expects
cameras pointed at them from all sides (no threat of angry people here!).

[Po-Wen]