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Finding a Photographic Style, Aesthetic, and Voice

During the break my wedding photographer david j since me and email from october eleventh, two thousand five and in this email I write oh d j I can't tell you how fast my slasher was passed around like wildfire, I tell you, before returning home, hundreds of people had already seen the slide show can you believe that? Bianca, my sister saw it on the forum and sent it to one friend at church one and then the show leaks everywhere. People came up to me at church last sunday and almost started crying when they recount, when they were recounting the slide show, I came home to find over one hundred emails in my account from people telling me how beautiful everything wass and this was because of you and him the second shooter yes, the hotel was lovely and yes, the weather was perfect, but come on, dej, you had something serious in your fingers. This was a bride who had no at this point time. This is october no point time of me thinking businesswise that this is what I was getting into. This ...

is just a pride saying thinking to a wedding photographer for providing her with a way to share images we had intent jd in height that intentionally chose a small wedding of twenty five people because we had gone through a lot at that time we didn't know if my mom was going to make it, so we plan to weddings for her to be their people wanted to be a part of the wedding, we are his standing, my daddy's church is like thirty five hundred people and, like thirty, five hundred people would want to be invited, so we kind of knew that we were going to run into the major issues. So what? That slide show enabled people at church to feel was like they were a part of it to see my mom walking down the aisle made them cry and what I was thinking him for that the ability for me to share that day, I loved my slide show because of what it represented, and I think that all our clients can love the same thing, and I'm coming home to one hundred emails in my inbox that's at minimum one hundred people who had not been at my wedding, who saw his work. If somebody sent me an email that said they got over a hundred emails in their in box, I would be like, yes, uh, that'd be great. So clearly, you know, I said the same thing in two thousand five that I'm seeing in two thousand eleven, right there we in eleven. Yeah, okay, I really I asked you a couple there was a client who requested information for october twenty second, two thousand eleven, and the emails rebecca said, I'm so sorry I don't book weddings more than a year from now, you know, here's my prices for right now, but they'll definitely changed lola and then she e mails back and says, um, my ways in, like, six months and I was like, are we in two thousand eleven? So in there it's so my gosh, so, yeah, I'm probably not with it all the time because I'm just running in so many different places, okay? So this is where we left off. The quickest path to perfection is procrastination always tried to move forward and do it. And in the process of you working that's, when I'm going to find your voice, what this will then lead us to is finding a photographic style aesthetic and voice in two thousand seven, as the business grew, I feel like I went through like a mix of emotions because then we were happy at the rate that we're booking the weddings, but then our work started toe look very. The same I alluded to this yesterday but I want to get a little bit more in depth about that because when I quit my job in two thousand seven um I felt like I was like yes, I finally have this opportunity and all of a sudden I felt like I hit a plateau and then to make things worse in february of two thousand six I went tio a wedding in portrait photographer conference in las vegas called w p p I it was my first conference there I was completely alone it was the most ice living experience I felt like I was like the pizza boy knew me by name because I was eating in my hotel room by myself every night like I'm just not again I'm not the wallflower on the wallpaper you know and so I couldn't go out and be myself and um I went and I saw a photographer by the name of kevin cambodia and he gave his presentation I was like oh my god this guy I'd sell me gold plated horse manure I'm buying whatever he's selling five hundred dollars later I bought all of his action sets yeah I was just caught up in emotion I was like I'll take one of everything on so when I got home I wanted to try all five of the five hundred action sets five hundred different photos so my post processing was yes ah hot miss I was moody for talking for one day I was dreaming for talk for another day I was my cool artistic cross processing photographer on another day it was like, oh god, you know, I didn't know what to do or how to move, and I knew that I needed to make changes because these people came teo looking at my work, they were like, oh, who is the jasmine that shooting today, if that makes sense, right? Because if I was processing in a certain particular style one day and then shot a a session a few days later and then process that with a different set of actions, all at like, one hundred percent capacity, which is clearly how you should be running photoshopped actions dripping with sarcasm here, people dripping with sarcasm, I just took a step back a year and half in and someone we had started the business of business started rolling, but I didn't like the photographer why I've become so I went back to the very thing that I found inspiration from, which was the magazines that book that I had created, I walked away from it it's kind of like always using something to calibrate, where are you and what you like and why do you like it? I went back and it wasn't just no longer looking at the pictures because remember I went back and I said, okay, I need to look at pictures to figure out the how now I had to go back and figure out the why how was the picture taken? But why did I like the photo in understanding the why it then empowered the how I want to get a little bit more into that right now process of day section this is the thing that I called what I did when I went back and revisit it had a real serious conversation with myself about what I needed to do it was known with how it then became the wife in figuring out the how, which is what we just spoke about yesterday was how the photo was taken, how they're opposed, how did the photographer get into that point? How was it illuminated? What types were they using? How was the picture taken? Remember we had that conversation now most of the photos that I like had very similar things in common they were naturally lit, they had relaxed posing and they had confident subjects those were the con, the continuous things and a lot of the pictures that I found so once I figured out why I like them, everything started to unravel from there because the y ended believing like figure leading me to the how so once I think you'd like, so if I liked natural light, then I had to steer my clients to a day that insured, they would be posing in natural light if I liked relax, posing within a needed to figure out ways to move them into the relaxed pose. And if I liked confidence subjects, I needed to understand the art of making people confident. This is a lot of thinking going on, because clearly I wasn't working very much, and I had a lot of time on my hands, but really, this is the this ended up being something I could look back now, and I firmly believe that everything in life happens for a reason, the struggles that I went through, and then me having to articulate the struggle and figure out how to make it work because I was completely on my own has now empowered me to share that with other people. I don't know, I don't want to have anybody wrong, but clearly, you know, my daddy's, a preacher group in the church, I believe in god, so I have that rubs you the wrong way. I believe that god had me go through this stuff so I could share with other people, however form whatever formed that god takes is okay with me or you or whatever, but I believe that that happened. For me so that I can help other people and if you think that you are struggling now if you could move through the struggle become a stronger person because of it a better photographer because out of it you better share that you have to because you're giving people the permission to do and feel the same way. So one thing I want to talk about was when we talk about the um the process of dissection and figure out the how and the why I want to talk about this notion of when I call the art of confidence because how do you take a girl an average girl most girls have self esteem issues I have yet to meet a girl who's like I love one hundred percent of me even the most beautiful girls the top models who are paid exclusively on their looks will dissect themselves and say the things that are wrong with them so if those girls who are getting paid to be hot find things wrong with them it's safe for me to assume that my clients may struggle with one thing or to things or three things it's my job to sense what they are not so confident about it squash that and highlight what makes them feel good about themselves that in it of itself is an art form it is a craft it is something that we need to work on it's not so much about shooting manual although it is a piece of it it is not so much about branding although that is a piece of it it is not so much about marketing although that is a piece of it another piece of it is learning how to create a dynamic within your clients to achieve the end results for me, I feel like I can hone in on what people this morning I called john to the carpet I woke up thinking about john maybe this is a skill set for me or maybe I'm practicing on hearing what people are saying in between the lines I believe that we can be a little bit more quiet and say you're not just saying x and why you're saying something else in between and when I meet with my clients it's my job to quickly figure out what does she not feel so great about what is he like? What does she like? It is something you practiced it is something that you home one thing that I wrote because clearly I like writing I've been working on that just like a like a writing project I signed up with friends. Her name is gail she's a photographer and she likes to write to and she's like, hey, do you want to take a thirty day talents right every day and stupid me? Yeah and then the next sales a crab s so I took the challenge and I'm really happy because I wrote for thirty one day straight, and it was like a minimum amount of things that he had to write. One of those things that I wrote about was just something that happened to think about that day, it was a little bit about my past, I'm going to read a tiny section of it right now to articulate what I feel has helped me in creating the art of confidence, which is what's coming now, confidence is a crazy idea, something foreign in my mind like unicorns and lavender scented mothballs. You see, I was homeschooled and became a voracious reader and often head in bed with a book as often as I could. As I entered my pre adolescent years, I arranged my day so I can maximize my reading time. I spent hours laying on a blanket in the back yard, reading with the pile of snacks tucked next to me in a cooler yes, a cooler it was around this time I developed an obsession with food. I was happiest in the mid when I read in the midday sun, eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and crackers and a granola bar and an apple and ships and hey, another sandwich, too. By the time my eleventh birthday arrived, I stood at five feet and weighed a hundred and seventy five pounds, which was more than my father. I was ridiculed for my appearance and instead of losing weight I turned to food for comfort. The neighborhood boys called me fat knees and avoid church call me a beast when they ran the basis for kickball. This is why perhaps this is why it confidence was such a foreign concept to me. What did it feel like to be confident specifically in front of the camera? Taking these ideas and experiences help me confront my personal issues and dissect them. I slowly realized that of the few childhood pictures I had, my favorites are the ones that showed me doing something, laughing uncontrollably, hanging from the monkey bars riding a bike because while the pudge still remained something else in the photo shine more brightly my soul the power we possess is photographers to bring out a person's innermost core is an art form and the best photographers do it well. In two thousand seven, after stepping away from looking at everyone else's photos and returning to my inspiration notebook, I realized I needed to make my client's confident after all, that's. What I found most appealing in the magazine clippings anyway regardless is a bride despised her large nose of the groom hated his receding hairline I needed a photo that possess the power to have the subjects and viewers see past insecurities and who better to coach clients to this point then meet ah girl who sees insecurities the way that superman peers through walls with ease? There are so many things that girls struggle with myself, so um um okay, so when people ask about my workout routine very self conscious about it, don't you know no, I'm not gonna take it to shoot, I have too much pride to take a tissue. Yeah, no, so I do stay away from it a little bit because I think that when I have to talk about those things, it brings up old things like old issues, I probably haven't resolved clearly. Um, so yes, I did lose a lot of weight, and I don't I lost a lot of weight than games, a lot of weight in high school and that's when I met j d was that a larger point again? And, um, he was with me every step of the way and still to this day it is massive struggle. So when I talk about my workout routine it's a discipline and that discipline has played in my life in so many different roles a disciplined photographer, a disciplined businesswoman discipline workout routine, a discipline, a lot of things about my life and that's just what it boils down to in so many different things. So when people want to talk about the workout routine we could talk about a workout routine you want to work out six days a week you want to eat rolled oats in the morning and half a banana and a half a sandwich for lunch and fruit as a snack? Absolutely and do I have to I have sweets. Yes I do I have dessert cut him in half now sharing with dd us coming secretive lives I felt extraordinarily self conscious because of the little bit of the video clips I had seen the last time I felt so big and I was like camera adds twenty pounds not ten and so it wasn't ice cream before coming here it was oranges at night and it was fruit salad it was just those types of decisions so it's just discipline in every aspect of my life. So the art of confidence for me comes in so many different layers because I can approach a girl saying oh I'm not how I look on the outside the wallflower is still here I it's my job to bring that out of you and again I firmly believe that god made me that way to help other people as I approach him it is to my benefit now that I have gone through everything that I have gone through so I think that whatever anybody has gone through in their past life use it to their advantage as they approach photography definitely use it as a leveraging point e we're ending the conversation right there it's still a very difficult thing for me to talk about um I cannot get into a bathing suit on the other side of the world and I just couldn't get out from under the umbrella and ladies like listen you never seen these people ever again will you please just be okay? It's a struggle but I still see the ten year old girl who's made fun of again and again but thank you for that that's where the conversation I will end this is about photography I'm like thie people who endorses or weight watchers so no no this is not photography but discipline I guess that's the overarching thing discipline and a lot of decisions of my life but bringing this back to where it is it's the art of confidence and how we could bring confidence not only in ourselves but through our claims as well. Now one thing I want to get to is the next light, which is how do we create confidence subjects? Oh, I needed to great power that that I needed to create a photo that possess the power to have subjects and viewers see past in securities and again the how do they see past those insecurities is not by posing him in a way that they can self criticize again and again if I think that she self conscious of her nose because she had made comments about her nose or perhaps to her culture or her lineage, I'm not putting her in a profile where they're kissing side to side never would you do that? I might turn her face for the camera never walked with me and laugh because it's not about the nose, it is about the emotion that's what I think our art is as a photographer to dio people might say that I'm not so much of an artist that's okay, I don't care if I make girls feel good about themselves I'm very, very happy about that. So then this moves us into how to create confidence subjects because I can't just say do it without kind of giving explanation, so what I'm about to say is gonna piss you off and please forgive me for speaking my mind if you are not happy with your photos, it's your fault if your clients look awkward, it's your fault and if you feel stuck, it is your fault as artist, we carry the responsibility ofthe executing our vision if you don't have a vision, you will never know if you got there, what are you doing? You can't just look at a shoot and say it's loss, you get to the chutes and the girls not as cute as you expected the guy's wearing a wrong shirt, they're both in flip flops and like and all right, we'll just shoot it, it won't get posted, we'll keep it under the radar. Um we work with un professionals. It is our job to make them look professional. This is my belief that I hold ardently and staunchly to this day I do believe that this has become a defining marker of my business and it is something that anybody can do. A client is not a loss. A client is an opportunity if someone is unfold a genic if someone doesn't isn't your ideal of beauty that is your job as the director of photography to make it work. It is your job and it is stinking hard. Get over it! Stop complaining. I have never been more offended. And I said this yesterday a photographer should post his or her work because as a paying client, I know what it feels like not to see not to see it did I do a bad job? Was I not cute enough? Did we not work it enough? What was it, there's too many questions leaves a sour taste in your mouth. I would never ever make my client feel like that I am the director of photography I have to make it work and if I do not have those pieces to go on the block, I do not have enough to make it a slide show I'm not doing my job it is not my client's hold it is my own gotta make it work and I challenge you I challenge the industry to do that again and again even if you're not even if you're not posting your pictures online are you holding yourself to a higher standard to make sure that your clients feel amazing because I try as the director of photography to put people at ease? This is a conversation that happens at the engagement session I need to put people at ease in by putting people at ease I'm telling them they have mmm I use it by creating conversation so as they get their probably I'm probably talking about traffic again you know I was traffic whatever how are you guys doing? Isn't the weather great? This is perfect if they're saying like oh it's cloudy I'm again using that this is so great this is perfect light if it's blazing hot I'm like, oh, this is so great great you guys are gonna have like, shimmery skin it's gonna look really tropical whatever you know, like we're doing it up whatever the case, maybe we want to make sure that all of this stuff is working right, and by doing this I want to do is I want to release them from responsibility that's the main thing because people come and they feel at least my clients and maybe your clients, so maybe they're not as vocal, but they feel like they're responsible to get these really cool pictures that's like me showing up to the dentist saying I'm so sorry, I'm not sure if I can do my own root canal, I'm paying them to do their job and I told my clients we're gonna have fun there responsibility is to happen to look good to feel good, I will do the rest in an hour to an hour and a half. I want you to think that you are having a great time with the person that you love. I also manage expectation again by bringing up candace meet alluded to this earlier. What we want to do is like, oh, I can't wait for you to see the sixty two, sixty five images at the at the end of the session, I told oh the sixty two, sixty five images will be posted online, two to two and a half weeks again and again managing expectation. If a client I remember distinctly early on in my career, I drove out to this really cool location but he was so so so bright and she wanted teo the bride wanted to stand on a log in the middle of the field she had no affinity I thought because we walked out to this law that maybe he proposed there they had picnics there no, it was just a log in the middle of a field and she wanted to stand on a log and she wanted to him stand down here and I'm like, this is like a totem pole picture I would never take official but I mean this is my this is my next light take suggestions so in the beginning I told her tell me what you guys want to dio but in the same vein I'm like if it works that's great and if it doesn't work we didn't lose anything at all I should digital I've plenty of memory we just have a good time and so she's like hey so she took this is that can I stand on this log? And I told her I'm like it's really bright I don't know if this is gonna work what am I doing at the outset before the picture even taken because I can look at that location right son terrible pose not so cute everything is blown out I am gonna be realistic manager expectations when I sent her the disk she did ask about the log photo she's like hey did with any of those but she's asked did any of those pictures of me standing the law turnout and I responded no none of the pictures on the log turned out we are editor we are controllers of the brand because our luck my luck I'm not lucky my luck would be that she would choose that one too in large at like you know the thirty by thirty for campus print outside of her reception hall if you do not stand by that image it should not be in that my clients are expecting sixty five, sixty two, sixty five inches from her engagement session because we're out there quite a while she's getting seventy five but none of from the log so she couldn't complain that she didn't reach that I didn't reach the minimum in fact superseded her expectations by ten but that one didn't make the cut but I told her in advance, I'm not so sure if it'll work cover your bases have that conversation it's better to have too much information out there did not enough more than anything I think that what helps me is pre visualization when I talk about pre visualization I want to talk about this idea of thinking about things in advance when I showed yesterday when I did that slightly awesome demonstration where jd and I which was totally planned I know judy and I we moved it to into that pose. Well, I thought about that in advance it's I think about things in advance I think about poses like we're judy and I were flying to a wedding in arizona and our flight was delayed but we had already formed a line southwest gotta love it you know, I was like, I'm not losing a sixteen you know? So we both sat down where we were where we were but I was hunched over and I was kind of tired so j d's like, why don't we lean both our backs against each other? So he was sitting next to me kind of like lean this way and I was like, oh, I like this pose so nice clothes I was like if I ever get a chance to do this at a wedding this is what I would do where in scottsdale at a wedding the bride tells me she wants to lay down and she wants to sit down if you've always dreamt I'm having this opportunity because not every bride want to do this if you have this opportunity you better have a go to pose if she's going to get in her dress, you better sell those pictures a thousand times over she is what she's telling you I'm willing to teo dirty or soil this dress for you to get a good picture. Oh, you better deliver. When she said that I was like, I want you, selene your backs against each other two days before a day before I knew exactly how I wanted her sit, and then I had her lean her head on his shoulder. Great. Then I had her laid down and I shot down on her that's, a pre visualization in the rawest form. A lot of times like you talk about pre visualization, but I want him show us quick little video clip about a new idea that it had for an engagement session and the actual execution of it, both me missing the mark and then me executed before we proceed. I want to tell you a little something. The night before brain and in kristen's engagement session. I had this idea come into my mind. It was this idea of, like, a really playful pose where kristen would be on brandon's back and she would have got her hands over his eyes and he would be peeking through. I saw this photo like I felt the photo and they really wanted to make it happen so once I was given the opportunity I was then challenged to see it come to life and just having fun so instead of just doing like the traditional like on the back pose like think of it as like that j crew kind of like oh hey keeping the face is extra nice and light okay cool they prayed a good ok love it good no brandon face me head on person getting a little closer to his head you default kind of play around his kind of touches face like do like a little like peek approved it maybe because like doing q peek a boo peek abu who says peek a boo okay, what I meant to say was peak through not peekaboo but that is not what came out I'm like so embarrassed whatever I'm over it this's really really really good, beautiful, beautiful anyway brandon and kristen were doing a great job with my instructions but I didn't really feel like they were getting the shop that I had in my brain so what I had him do was try teo do the pose again but I had to say in a way that wouldn't make them feel like they weren't doing it right the first time so chris you cover his eyes and then look here at the camera like you're being a brat yeah get good yeah yes that was the photo I wanted that was the photo I saw in my mind's eye and to be able to see it come to life was the coolest part of my day so that was really like how it happened that um that morning I had woken up and I don't I think everybody dreams but I have zero recollection of any of my dreams jd has eighteen dream tonight and you want to tell me all of them over breakfast I don't care that obama was chasing you I didn't have any so anyway so I want this one morning and I said this kind of photo that I want I had in my head and I knew and here's the thing with professionalization you need to have a litany of poses and ideas because not one pose will ever be good for every client or even some clients sometimes I can go to a shoot and I can do zero pre visualization poses because it's just not working for me and that's okay? And then there are some times where I could do one or there sometimes I could do to with this particular client branding and kristen are also photographers so I knew that I could push them a little bit further although like anybody there not in front of the camera they're not they've never they weren't in front of too many people's cameras except their own so by the time they came to me, I needed to ensure that one I had my a game to I had to have my stuff together, right? This is another photographer who knew what to do and I had this idea and the first time they went through it wasn't right it wasn't what I wanted, so how could I then make them do that again in a way that I thought was most effective without saying you're doing it wrong the minute you tell somebody you're doing it wrong if they feel insecure like I really liked it but can we try it this way now that was the second time so I had the idea then I had to think about what I was going to say to move them into that if you jump on his back and then I said god peekaboo really peekaboo I was like, oh my god and you know what? It's like it's hard to watch yourself on video and I was like, oh, wait it go that's a winner peekaboo used that line on your next shoot total winner anyway, so peek through and what I had her do leaning in it was shooting, shooting, shooting kind of moving in with them as the ending and the flowing there was a lot of mistakes because you have the hee haw mouth or two scrunching or they were out of plane of focus whatever the case may be, but the minute I got the shot that I wanted I was really happy with it and that photo to me is more like a signature image, an image that I want to feature out in print and on my website because I want planes who can act like that in front of my camera at future times you want to show clients what they want to do that they never knew they wanted to dio great so if we were in a move past that point and we were to go into how to pre visualize because we're walking yes and you know I'm hogging the questions here there's no and you're connecting the dots weekend I'll tell you that's a second question I'm just giving that sucks or moving on I'm just kidding I'm just curious what what the video was all about me and uh I don't think I've seen any of these before is this part of like, some product you put together is it he knows uh let's talk about mistakes no uh uh I thought about doing videos we made a big investment um to be honest, I don't know about the vehicle of distribution for us at this point you know it's about branding it's about reaching out to people we have him in there done it's going to be the right time we did this a long time ago. It's okay like it would I have to tell you that driving with jd a couple weeks ago I said finally have come to a point where I'm ok to let it go you know, I was a was a jacket killed swallow and I do I think that there is anything as a mistake. Yes, so I think that what I made was mistake no, I should have made a better decision. Maybe I should've waited whatever, but we're gonna use those in some capacity and they're going, they're going to help people. We don't know how white you just did, teo mistake it was all intentional for that thirty seconds. Yes. So okay, okay, great. Yeah, it was a terrible, terrible question. Okay, so how did pre visualize what I try to do is to think of ideas in advance. So we said this again and again, um, not only thinking about the ideas but knowing them and digesting them and thinking about them so that when you come to the shoot because how often have I heard again and again and I felt especially when I first started shooting would have all these great ideas and I would get to the chute like ribbit ribbit and you're like, oh, dip her you know, so think about the idea is to think about him in such a degree that you kids think about them all the time and even if it's helps to sketch them on a note pad I am so not an artist terrible awful stick people drawing but either way, when you could just sketch something down, it helps keep it in the back of your mind you may never revisit that sketch it's okay it's helping you stay right there where you need to be I personally like collecting magazine advertisements that I find that I could maybe use a source of inspiration maybe that will help you, um create actions for your clients. We spoke about this yesterday remember we spoke about using the action to get them into the pose teo get the types of photos that you want to get the type of clients that she wants to give them actions to do. You can't just say stand there that is the hardest thing ever both for you and furthermore for the claim. Um, I haven't blogged about this a little bit ago it's telling a story to narrate the ideas and I know that this sounds like an absolutely absolutely ludicrous, ridiculous thing, but I sometimes will tell a client especially eiffel stuff and I'm doing a bad job opposing them or I'm doing a bad job creating actions for them and they're not getting it it's not their fault. I'm doing a very bad job, so sometimes I'll create a story, so sometimes I say, ok, so this is the story right now if we're like at a wedding like us just left the church and let's just pretend everybody's throwing rice at you and you guys just want to turn the corner. You guys want to run away to get away from it, it's ridiculous, but I can't tell you that there are certain people that khun deal with posing. There are certain people that can deal with actions, and then there are certain people who deal the stories all of a sudden it specifically and engagement sessions because we're working which let's just synthetic type of hey let's, be in love and laugh and run through a field for an hour and a half, right? Giving them a story helps get you to get in all of a sudden when they turn the corner there like we just went from the church and the rice and all of a sudden it's a very different picture. If that helps, then this great desire just reined him tips that I found that worked if they don't work for you that's really okay, start finding things that work for you in your type of client. Practice in advance that's going to be the main thing if you're practicing with a friend if you practice your boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, anybody who's body you can lean against and see sometimes I'll grab jd and we have fully mirrors in the house and I'll be like, okay, this not because we're vain because I when I go listen, sometimes I have twenty five minutes to pose a writing room and get the kind of shots that I need, the kind of shots they want and kind of shots I'm proud of that's a lot of pressure, I'm not gonna go in and I hope for the best I'm practicing in front of the mirror I want to know how his body works in regards to a male formacion I'm not a guy, I don't know I want to see how to place a girl I want to give a girl a strong pose and a guy in a different pose those things just don't happen. They practice the same way that a golfer practices every day the same way that a tennis player pics of his racket every day what are we doing? Are we picking up our cameras? Are we learning to pose? Are we working on raining? All of these pieces are the things that move us together I think that we have celeste we have ten minutes for questions oh great yeah okay like yeah totally they're like the teenager whose parents after the weekend totally uh okay let's go for ten minutes yeah that's right I have a question from g bugs from brunei which is far far away ok um what would you do if the bride's maid parents or anyone else tries to take control of posing the bride and groom I've never encountered that because I don't let that happen so here's the thing one thing two I think that the personality that I have right now is a personality did he take with me on the wedding day kind of like a no nonsense no onassis half on rocket oh no nonsense half fun in control kind of girl right larger I'm not like this like all the time at home but I'm not I'm just quiet like focused whatever on a wedding day nobody's in doubt with who's in control even if I am stuck nobody's knowing that I'm out of control it's what are you doing harassing oh great move their mom dad if the bridesmaid it feel is like trying to encroach like what if there's always a bride maid who gets the dress and places it out I'm like oh my god get a bouquet and put it at the end to will you please do me that favour sometimes I like when the dress is messed up because that's that's life it's not perfect I like that the organic realism of the photo either that's that's okay I'm like I always find out her name because that's a girl's best friend you think I'm gonna diss her friend or make your friend feel stupid we'll be like oh gina thank you so much I'm like actually judge it up let's kind of give it some funkiness okay that way she knows she doesn't have to keep on doing that awesome oh gina, come back over here come back over here get gina behind you look at gina guys look a gina oh my god, I love this oh, gina get her out notice that she's there highlight gina make tina feel awesome but what am I doing? They're gonna laugh a gina you get the laughing photos by looking meat oh, good, good ferris love it great you guys look at j d so what I just thought there was three different looks them laughing at gina the traditional portrait at me them looking at j d now I have a photo journalistic appeal oh, thirty seconds you gotta work so fast you know a lot of him feeling given our with your bride and groom. Oh, I wish if I did they'd be great sometimes I wish I mean, sometimes I think if I had an hour with my bride and groom I wouldn't know d'oh oh my god no, but yeah so yet nobody's ever tried taking control because if you feel like people are trying to take control it's because you're not in control and again I just said something to piss you off. Sorry. No, I guess another question from this as following up on that was the same thing with brides with brides themselves who are bossy, might be bossy and know what kind of photos they want. I get my answers the same, but the answer's the same. However, if the bride wants get bossy during family pictures on mike run it, girl. You running the girls like mom? Dad, uncle let's go! You take and run. She knows everybody. And janey and I all of a sudden become facilitators. Grandma good. Great. I'll grab you look so handsome. Where? Like the good good cop bad cop. So, yeah, that's just got a question for you on posing when you approach a shooting, you're thinking of poses in advance. Do you base it on the client? I mean, there's, some people are different personalities, you know, you you want to pose them in certain ways. Or do you say, oh, no, I have disposed of mine, and I just want to do it with this couple, even though their personality didn't mesh with that does that make sense? Yes, it makes sense and no, I wouldn't pose in like I don't have ever have an affinity to oppose I have an affinity to a client and if that client worked to the post and that's great that's how it works because I could never put a client in a pose that there was just not their personalities because they make fun of me I have clients were just like oh yeah we really snuggle the minute somebody is like oh, come here sweetie, let me look longingly into your eyes what there what they're really saying is we don't do this this isn't us but I don't have enough courage to tell you listen to what they're saying if they're not the snuggly warming for any people put them at a distance giving something edgy in editorial if that's them everybody loves differently that's the kennedys for the couple do you mean what is that something you figure out on the day of the shooters? Yeah, absolutely. Because even when the client comes to a meeting and then when they come to the shoot there is a very different clients you come a little skeptical too um eating a little unsure right? And the minute they invest in you they have a sense of ownership in the chute anthony you've kind of tied admissible but but how do you deal with people that might be at just other people the way and try and take photographs over your shoulder while you're doing set up stuff like that like the people least first started out it had like five d's and the long lenses how do you deal with those people? Um well let them shoot the guests at the wedding are more important to meet in the clients they invited them and they're paying for their meal to be there their their uncle's their cousins, their of their coworkers uh just recently at a wedding there was there was a guest who had a nice camera nice flash innit and a nice lines any kept on getting in my grill and I was like, dude, you're in the thick of all my first dance pictures not fun but the client knows who that person is if that was jamie, I would have a very different opinion about that but that's their friends and they shoot I whenever possible I will extract the bride and groom immediately from crowds if I need them to be folk if it's writing room time crowds I'm out crowds amount cards amount I yeah move them away strategically be very, very smart about harder doing that him down there's so many questions about I guess making people comfortable if they don't want oppose if they don't they're not smiling I mean what what is your magic as faras people? They're just not feeling it at all. It's, your it's a photographer's job to make him feel it, okay? It is not the point. I'll say it again and again in the first created live that he did um the five day we did almost a full day imposing and what I did, and it makes me so uncomfortable. I'm glad I never saw it because I will show my bride's the pieces I want them to give me. It is so embarrassing, I will say like, can you do this? Can you do this? Great? Oh, how embarrassing I don't care, because what I just did was again, I'm talking about the permission to feel beautiful. This is a notion I wholeheartedly subscribed. Teo, if this idea is after we made her come our client's confident and comfortable, then I believe that I must give my bride the permission to feel beautiful and I talk specifically to girls because guys have not so much of a less issue with this for some reason, primarily because most of them they don't care as much for the engagement pictures as the gruel does, and when the girl is so into it, the guys marrying her, clearly he likes her, he wants to make her happy ah lot of my guys showed his engagement session and they're like all I do is because she's happy good guy bad boy loving you make her happy that's what this is about and whatever she and so I know that this is usually the case for me not all that not for everybody's clients for my clients and if I know that she is the nucleus of this shoot I'm giving her the permission to look at me and feel gorgeous girls are constantly barraged with this idea that you're not told enough you're not thin enough you're not short enough enough, but even if you're not cute enough, you're not smart enough on this photo shoot she's with a man who thinks she is the bee's knees I took that from she he thinks she's beautiful he's marrying her regardless of how she feels about herself but on this shoot I look at her, I'm shooting and shooting and shooting I'm seeing what she's going to give me I'm getting a poles with how much is gonna open to me? Um I was shooting a plane in los angeles and they flew into los angeles for the shoot and she's like beautiful and all done up and clearly she has a cute dress, her hair did her makeup and she has cute shoes she wants to be there and he wants to be there for her and she's not giving it to me and I feel it and I'm telling I'm telling okay okay then I stop and look at her and I said, you know what? I can you just open up to me I want you to look at me and I want you to let mike I want you to know that we're okay between you and me, your gorgeous he thinks your gorgeous so on my camera I want you to let it go I want to give me different looks I want you to feel beautiful. I want you to meet this look this like me show her what I want to do. I want you to get back in the car and say I left it out there. I want you to go to dinner I want you to toast thinking I felt good. I look good. I done brought it. Ok, what happens there? I said I and I tell them I am not looking behind my camera thinking, my god, what does she do way? Uh, no, because girls are catty, right? Girls? Who does she think she is? I never want my client ever to think that I'm a I'm a camera thinking she's doing it wrong, you are gorgeous, you are beautiful, bring it to let me feel how beautiful you are the minute you say that to somebody, they bring it, they bring you like the smile, eyes, smiling fries. Yeah, you know, it's, like when girls feel like they're around the man that loves them, they have their hair make it done. I tell them in an email in advance, feel free to get your hair big, you know, ideo, because it makes them feel done up. If I'm the director of photography on a shoot, what am I doing? I'm making sure the model has her hair and makeup done. I'm making sure my model has her hair or make it done. Um, those types of things, I think, work very well, hand in hand again, with not only working with the clients that you have, you're also working for the clients that you want in the future, those have two things.