the science behind our passion for weddings: oxytocin

Paul Zak gives us the science … and tested it at a wedding … watch the video…
now it all makes sense!

A great resource/link I have to share

http://www.boxofcrayons.biz/

This is a great, inspiring and helpful site. Michael Bungay Stanier points out valuable insight. Check it out … there are lot’s of pointers to the way of becoming a powerful creative and doing good business! In my opinion essential to a creative photographer that tries to make a decent living with a conscious.

We are back. Here are two lists:

10 myths about wedding photography

1. the pressure of a wedding is too much. no, a 5 minute portrait of a c.e.o. is much worse.
2. photojournalists make natural wedding photographers. not necessarily so.
3. the most important person to please is the bride. nope. it is yourself. (then the mother of the bride)
4. you have to cover every aspect of a wedding
5. you must bring an assistant
6. you should stay detached and just observe
7. you need to buy the newest equipment
8. you need to spend a lot on marketing
9. giving a bride a huge number of images is important
10. wedding photography is a low art

10 things i have learned at weddings

1. pace yourself, it’s gonna be a long and bumpy ride
2. always bring a backup supply of food to weddings & childbirth
3. you need to make the technical aspect 2nd nature
4. if you miss a big shot, don’t wallow in it, move on, there will be others
5. never leave the bride. (for the most part at least)
6. One cliché that is true: It’s all about the you know who.
7. be aware, you are making the pictures that people grab when their house is on fire
8. how you behave affects the photographs. Sacrifice a picture rather than be a jerk.
9. weddings are weekly lessons in poignancy and human nature. Take notes.
10. if you find yourself dancing with the bride at the end of the night, it is usually a good

digitizing negatives – a technical post (part 2 of “the lucky dilemma…)

Okay, I don’t really want to go into too much technical stuff here – that’s not what this blog is about – however, workflow, and shooting film are very important creative issues.

As I mentioned before in previous posts, shooting film is important to me (and PC and JD)! But how do you add it to your efficient digital workflow?
shoot film – develop it – scan it

Now that can be tedious and time consuming. There are great labs that will process your film and digitize it for a reasonable cost – for some a perfect solution. (Richard Photo in LA for one).
But I just love processing my own BW … and I like the way my negs look and print when I process them. It’s not that they are of higher quality (necessary) it’s more a style thing – okay enough of that..
Now, if you develop yourself how do you digitize it efficiently at high quality?
You photograph your negs with your digital camera! Sounds crazy … but, it was done all the time when people used to “dupe” slide film to protect the precious original. There are great resources on the web of how to do it. Google “camera scan”
I liked Peter Krogh’s great advice on the subject: http://www.dpbestflow.org/camera/camera-scanning

I was asked to show some samples – following is a detail and the image of a TMZ 3200 negative that I shot recently and digitized using my EOS 1DS.

Disclaimer: I like the quality of my neg and the digital file I got – It’s a 22mb file and it serves my purposes great. This is all very subjective (in my view). I am posting this because I was asked to show an example. I am not claiming this is the best way or the best quality – it’s my personal favorite workflow right now.

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION: BE MORE LIKE SCHATZBERG!

Using the winter months to retreat and reflect I came across this amazing book by Jerry Schatzberg: “Paris 1962″. It’s his wonderful vision of “Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior – The Early Collections”. Published by Rizzoli. His way of seeing and capturing is powerful and inspiring.

Here are some (very crude) shots of 4 spreads from the book… apologies for the reflections…

A Laundry List of How to Refresh Your Eyes

-Turn off your phone & computer and go shoot in a rainstorm, or at dawn.
-Hang out in a diner at 2am and shoot a portrait.
-Look at old snapshots from the 30’s or 40’s and ask what made them so good and honest.
-Shoot a portrait of your kids right before bed in their pajamas on a calm summer night.
-Put new pictures that you like next to your bed so they are the first things you see in the morning.
-Watch movies for lighting inspiration.
-Unplug your strobes, there is more light than you think.
-Play with kids before you start shooting. Play with adults too. Photography is not work.The less hard you try, the better the photographs.
-Learn to guess the light reading before you check your meter.
-Find the sweet light first, then place your subject there. Then turn around 180 degrees, it might be even better.
-Enter as a neutron. Go into a situation as an empty vessel, get filled up by the people and the place and the light and the moment, then shoot.
-At a wedding, pace yourself, it is going to be a long night.
-Don’t take photographs, make photographs.

The lucky dilemma of film and digital

Some random thoughts on the subject, apologies but this is a blog.

It’s been a headache … it’s been a blessing, adopting the digital work-flow. I started shooting digital in 2003 and now, finally, after more than 7 years I start to fully embrace it and letting it carry me creatively.

When I started shooting digital I realized that it can add a lot – not replace. Open up new possibilities while continuing with film. However, creating a digital work-flow was frustrating and time consuming. I neglected film (because I couldn’t incorporate it easily) and felt at times that I had lost a clear direction. Digital made me lazy and comfortable. Fortunately, I never gave up on film and always tried to keep shooting it, searching for ways to incorporate it into the digital work-flow – speak, quick and cost effective, high quality digitizing.

Aperture and Lightroom gave us incredible post production tools, cameras got better and more affordable – as well as computers, memory and harddrives. Online archives are a tremendous help with image storing and delivery.

Now, that digital seems more mature and extremely efficient – I am back focusing on film. Shooting film adds a whole separate spectrum. An important component that is essential to photography.

Both are pillars of photography that need to be mastered in harmony.
Both fertile tools of creative expression.

We are lucky to have these incredible tools at our disposal – but it’s asking from us to show discipline, curiosity, patience, focus and to be humble.

Fall Training: review, recharge, renew

This is a great time of the year to sit down and review our work. Harvest.
I look at all the weddings I shot this year (and previous). Find images that are new … good old classics … bad, unresolved … cliches…killer. Where am I? Where am I going? What should I do more? What should I … finally, stop doing?

This is a great time of the year to take long walks and snap pictures.
I try to clear my mind, wander and take pictures without thinking. I pick up a camera that’s all dusty and didn’t get any love recently … try to find things that I didn’t know about my photography (and me). I try to find new images by not searching, only by doing.

This is a great time of the year to be alone and still.

Thanksgiving

Thanks to all the great masters that show us the way, inspire and humble us.
Thank You!

©Martín Chambi, The Wedding of Don Julio Gadea, Cuzco, 1930

3 things every photographer that shoots weddings should know how to do (kind of)

While Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert were conducting their historic rally in DC, I was right next to the National Mall photographing a wedding. The bride just send me some images she and her best friend had taken. The images capturing a wedding photographer performing extremely important, challenging tasks (the photographer did change into more formal attire before the ceremony).