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Creating a Stress Free Timeline Part 1

Before we do get going I know that you said you had some are har moments yesterday but it can't all be one hundred percent good you have to have some sort of questions that pertain to what we chatted about yesterday so from the four of you here and anybody online, any questions that we need to go over with regards to yesterday so that we can use stay up to speed with you I just want to make sure that yesterday was covered so we can move on to today. So any questions from you guys when you go through your posing okay uh thought process when I go through my posing like I like I said teo yesterday I don't think I was born creative so I've had to teach myself how to structure the way I shoot so that I never get into a position where I feel like I don't know what to do next because I think it's so important that when you are with a client that the client has total faith in your ability that you're not, you know, shooting a couple images and go okay, well, what are we going to do next? You n...

ever ever say to the clients, you know, what are we going to do next? I mean, you'd never want your accountant to be, you know, working out your your texas and going like so what do you think we should do? You know that's why that's why you're being employed as a professional so in my mind I have a siri's of poses that I'm going to work through on dh that's not that difficult to to to generate imagery like that in your mind have four or five poses that you need and remember you only need four or five options for you know that side of the page and then you're going put another image on to the other side of the page off the album as you're thinking about it so you don't have to shoot thousands of images and I think when you've got the shot acknowledge you've got the short and go while that's fantastic we've got it let's move on it's not it's not a case of the climb things the more photographs you take, the more value that they're getting it's not about that we're not you know it's not a buffet we're not selling as much sun like eat a cz much as you like remember we're going on to fine dining here so quality food on your plate make sure you've got it and then move on so in my mind I'm while I'm shooting I know what pose I'm going to do next so I will say to her tenure your chin into your shoulder okay good got it now hand on your hip and then it's you know, so we in my mind I've already got three or four poses working like that so I think it's really important to have structure in your in your thought process and I think that um yeah articulating it to your client try and do that at home with your boyfriend or husband or friends instead of instead of maybe showing them talk to them and try and say put your right hand on your hip or put your left hand to your shoulder or something like that so that you learn how to communicate effectively with people and I think it's really important to be positive all the time I don't do it all the time yesterday I tried as much as I can a cz much as I could to remain positive but if somebody is doing something wrong, let them do it instead of breaking down their confidence let them do it and then say there was great maybe let's try this trying not to say no no, no that looks terrible or you know, so try and stay positive ii wasn't one hundred percent perfect yesterday, but I'm trying you know, I'm learning just as much as you are and I'm on a journey as well it is as soon as you think you know everything that sze all over for you, so I'm still evolving and I'm still learning and my one of my main ambitions is to give positive instruction we'll talk about positive language and positive instruction a little later but yeah I think that that's really important thank you carlos maya and sean were fantastic yesterday they were dressed fantastic look great what do you do when you have a couple that maybe she's not made up that way and maybe he's not roy we're in the right clothing how do you make sure that when they come to the set yeah, they look the way you want it to look before you shoot him. Okay? First of all by default you are alienating a certain segment off the market anyway by the brand image that you've projected just like a fine dining restaurant can intimidate certain people that you know they wouldn't want to go to that restaurant just because it's an intimidating environment I do alienate a certain segment of the market however you do still get people who are not as engaging or is not as easy to work with. However, what we need to understand is that they still will look their best in those images better than they've ever looked before. So it's our perception ofthe normality when you're working with someone and you're going I don't really feel this this is not really working for me there thinking this is the best thing that's ever happened to be you know a lot of people have have negative sentiment towards people that society would dictate as not so beautiful not so attractive or maybe slightly overweight on her wedding day or when you're telling her how beautiful she is and she can feel the genuine, you know, chemistry between you and her as a photographer and she feels beautiful she she's just on cloud nine so you know, for you and I to say, well, that girl's not so attractive all that guy's not so attractive, they're beautiful, they're feeling beautiful and that's all that really matters, I need to make sure that I might give them the best experience possible so yeah, um judging that judging the way people behave in front of the camera is not always, um, it's not always going to give you the correct impression of what they're feeling they think this is the best thing that's ever happened to me. So yeah cool as you saw yesterday and I already mentioned it about three times this morning structure and the reason for me it's about structure is because everybody is working on a specific timeline, and what I have to acknowledge is that everybody in the production ofthe awaiting because we all know that it's a big production everybody they feels as if their job is the most important job around if you speak to a caterer so what's important part of a wedding that's definitely the food you know you speak to a deejay that's got to be the music if you got bad music that waiting falls apart the videographer they think that the video is the most important part the florist the dress designer so you've got a lot of egos dancing around and I think that it's really important to respect all the other suppliers and understand that the makeup artist her ambition or his ambition is to be the best make up artist on the planet just like I'm trying to be the best photographer around there trying to be the best make up artist around if I can facilitate that they are successful in their career, then I think that in terms of that respect, then it's going to work so nicely to teo get a good great finished product for the client at the end of the day so structure, structure structure if you look at how wedding works in general and I'm saying in general because you've got many cultural differences you've got, you know, in south africa alone we've got I mean it's a melting, but I suppose it's the same as in america is a melting pot of cultures. We've got a huge indian population from india and pakistan, we've got chinese port I mean I don't have to go into it but is a huge cultural mix off people, so they are different cultures and customs so obviously different weddings are going to work differently I know that here in the states I've shot two weddings in new york and I arrived at the reception and I thought okay, well this is cool I can relax for a couple of minutes and set down and suddenly they're dancing what you know what is that about because in europe they dance at the end ofthe the reception not at the beginning of the reception so learning about that is kind of important but from from what I'm going to give up but I'm going to chat about today's an average wedding on and this is the kind of scenario that I would be dealing with on an ongoing basis so how do we how do we create a stress free timeline because we don't want this to be super stressful we don't want to be freaking out and rushing for you know to make sure that we're on time we want to have fun at the wedding because as soon as you make it less stressful for yourself if you take away all the other dynamics that make it stressful then really it's it's exciting instead of being anxious a couple days before the wedding you like cool I'm going to try this new technique I saw this prison so there's president technique want to try that out that type of thing so I think that it's really important to create a stress free timeline now a stress free timeline also means great time management. So you have to be good with time. I shoot all my own work. I explained that yesterday I do all my own work. So what I do is I start with the groom and one of the things that I do to ensure that the groom is relaxed and having fun with the guys is I make sure that we do something in the morning that is a relevant activity to what the what the groom enjoys, you know, the kind of activity that he would be doing with this maid on a saturday afternoon or something that's pertinent to him. Now, the reason I do this is well is because as we spoke about yesterday, guys are a little reluctant, their little apprehensive. When it comes to the photography, they are not as cooperative as the as the girls are, the girls are really into it, and the guys are like, do I really have to do this photo shoot? Although they kind of want to do it, but it's a whole nother thing s so what? What? What we do here is we get the guys together and we're going to do things that are completely that has got nothing to do with the wedding. So off we go, we're going to maybe temp in boiling this chapter's a fly fishing over here, these guys we're playing touch rugby on the beach, you know? And you spend it on our fifteen, twenty minutes, twenty minutes with the guys, it relaxes the guys, they think that I'm a nice guy because I'm allowing them to play in the sand pit, you know? So I know that later on post wedding when I'm doing the bridal party, I know those guys are gonna be putty in my hands it's going to be too easy because they think I'm a nice guy and I will be able to control them if if the first time I see them is at the church or just after the ceremony and now I'm trying to control them, it might be a little difficult because I won't have that connection with with the with the guys with the groomsman that's, the best man and the rest of the groom's party. So this is ahh yes, that in it seems like on the day of the wedding time is limited, okay, let's say for example, this waiting this way this waiting that we're talking about let's say for example that the ceremony is going to start at three o'clock in the afternoon, so with this here I would I would start this at seven eight in the morning, I would say to the guys, right, eight o'clock down at the beach or eight o'clock we'll meet it's at your favorite mountain biking spot and we're going to go on and take some cool some cool photos so I would be with the guys that that activity might be half a hour an hour max for that and then after that and that's a that's, a great question we'll go through the timeline as we going so right you've just started eight o'clock in the morning, just order with a boy's mountain biking through the sugar cane they usually into getting up that early on the wedding day, they have seen my images before they very keen to do this also also they feel empowered because I'm saying to them, what do you like doing let's go and do something that you like doing and just say for example, this gentleman here craig he's mountain bike he doesn't have cool shots of him mountain biking like that, you know, he might have images from races and things, but it's not specifically set up a suit for that just to talk very briefly about this image that's over here at the moment, it's raining, obviously you can see the rain's coming down over here, it's raining over here, and I've used the ranger rx a cz back light to illuminate the rain from behind to give you that splash effect otherwise it would just be gray and dull and we've got that nice highlights on his on his shoulder over there so yeah maybe I could talk about the lighting and stuff as we're going through that as well that might be quite nice right? So this gentleman loves his tennis so let's go down to the tennis court we can have a shot with all your groomsmen we've even got the dad's involved there the father of the groom and I'll do something perhaps that's a little bit comical in away like this is shot as if these guys are the a t p tennis to it you know the tennis stars, eh? So we're doing a shot day that you know it's a little bit of it's a lot of off a fun shot and then obviously got him doing the activity by himself and I'll shoot a ll the guys doing that as well because when I create the story I'll explain that to you and I get to the bride but we're not create the story that all the guys are involved and you can see that you know they're having fun on the morning of the wedding it also relaxes them completely because as you ladies nor it takes a while for ladies to get ready and for guys if you're getting married at three o'clock you're getting dressed to thirty, you know it really is just put on your your trousers and your shirt and off you go to the wedding I mean that tight but yeah, for guys that it doesn't take as long to get to get ready so they're sitting around the whole day waiting for the afternoon to come so this is a great way to get them nice and relaxed and then they go until all their friends ah, this photographer he's so cool we were playing tennis in the morning or we're in ten pound bowling. You know, I thought it was going to be all horrible and stiff and formal, but here you know, he came a long way did some really cool fun stuff. Yes, collars like thirty minutes with the groom, but that's is getting ready for tommy arrows. Are you with the groom from when he's getting ready. So since when he's playing until yes, we're ready maybe two hours so we do this for forty five minutes on then, depending on obviously where he lives, then we will go on to his to his home he's just being playing tennis or he's got all dirty martin marking, so he goes and takes a shower while he's taking a shower I shoot all the little details all the details that make him him so I'm going to look for things like the watch, the fragrance, a nice close up of the tie cufflinks, all the little things that define him. And then when I put it in the book, when I put it in the album, I introduce him in, you know, to the viewer introduce him, you know, this is this is him, and this is what he stands for, and this is what defines him. So I'm giving you an insight into his personality, and then we go and and carry on with the rest of the rest of the book there. Okay, so he comes out of the shower, slips on slips on the show, not totally dress, because I want to get some sort of progression going on over here. I remember, I think, was in the late nineties, there was a tv commercial with andre agassi hey brought out his fragrance life, and it was all very nice close up shots of him getting dressed, and you didn't even know it was him until right at the end. So I like to shoot little things like that as well, putting on the cufflinks, but nice close up shots on dh, then, you know, building up to this is all this activity getting ready, this is what it took to get to this in terms of the when I'm looking at the pages so yeah probably around about two hours in total so maybe from eight until ten okay but we're not there yet we're only at nine o'clock now okay so then I am going then I'm going to get some really cool shots off him perhaps he's got his tie over his his unbutton shirt you know bit of a geek nice backlit kind of shot going on there you must remember it's not for me it's this is my opportunity now that I'm not shooting all natural things that are happening now I'm shooting structured stuff and my influence needs to come in so something like this over here where he is being he is being instructed and it is stylized and it is posed it's done intentionally this shot over here shot outside you can see that it's in an urban environment shot with the ranger s o that I've got the light coming from above there and that you know this kind of ticking thing if you if you go and have a look at the packer rabban million fragrance advert the guys like you know not everyone is gonna pull it off but I think david do a writer okay then this sort over here often you'll still go on a location to go and shoot this shot over here was shot at an old turbine I went up to like a mezzanine level it is quite industrial and I shot from a above I shot down on the groom who was walking this this gentleman was quite short and he had a bit of a thing about being not as tall as everybody else and that angle that I shot him at made him look like, you know, standing on the shoulders of giants, you know? So what I did as well here to create that shadow, I've got the villain crime ranger off to the side so that I'm shooting that and then if you look at that in terms of your rule of thirds well, that's working really nicely there, you know, I don't have my subject right in the middle and it's it's a nice shot and can you visualize it in the album double page spread and see that really, really nice that's it the same that that's the same gentleman at at the turf at the old turbine incorporating the ambient light, those those lightbulbs were on over there, and I know it might not be one hundred percent technical technically correct, the image on the right is a little bit dark, but it's dark on purpose on as long as you do it on purpose and this intent, I think that you can start to pull things off that start to break the rules look at fashion magazines so many fashion magazines break the rules if you had to take affection shot that maybe annie liebowitz shocked or mario testino patrick marcia leah and you submitted it into a photo competition it might not do so well because when you entered into a competition isn't that brand awareness people don't know who shot it and I think as soon as assumes that brand legitimacy comes onto it you look a shot and really I'm not I'm not here to be I'm not implying anything but let's just take say, any liebovitz for instance if she shoots a shot out of purpose out of focus and she doesn't on purpose it was so brilliant you and I shoot in the air like a focus okay? So you've got you've got to have intent we have confidence don't go start shooting pictures out of focus now, but you've gotta have intent there's got to be an intent to what you're doing yeah similar shot to what we did yesterday afternoon art on the rooftop with the with the ranger a little bit of a boy band type of shot a little cheesy but you know it works that that actually was my my assistant he's probably watching our stories and I didn't mean to say that I was a little cheesy yeah shot I shot my assistants waiting it was it was good fun I think that would be a great time. I wanted to let you know what the internet was saying just during that last port of all the portrait of the groom and this is from trish it's also seems to be good psychology to make the groom feel special. Since the bride has so much focus during the day I've experienced unhappy moms of the groom due to their son not getting personal time it looks like you really do take your time with the groom on the day of the year is that sounds very emotional and very I respect that and I think that it is it is nice but there's also a reason for that financially because and when we get to the pricing structures tomorrow afternoon the reason I shoot the guys is because they've taken my second package which includes treating the guys so there's a financial reason tio a cz well, you know, if you want me to shoot the guys then you're gonna have to pay for me to shoot the guys but yeah, it is that element off making sure that the guys do you feel do you feel included any other questions from the internet? You know, we did have one regarding the bicycle photograph from hardware photography have ever had a groom get injured right before the wedding on no, no, not me personally, but I have heard off I have heard of other things that have happened and then also very sadly about a year ago, that bride that passed away with the trash that withdrawn the gallon station up in canada? Yeah, really, really terrible, but I haven't had any I haven't had any injuries good on the day, not not, not, not not caused by me and that caused me right? I need to just go back to the slide because it wasn't an instruction for you guys to take a break. It wasn't instruction to take a break on the wedding day, so you finished with the guy's you've shot from eight o'clock until ten o'clock maybe you had to wake up, but six or seven so you have been up for a while now you go and you shoot the guys, you know, eight a a m to start eight forty five you finished with the activity nine o'clock you get back to his place where he's getting dressed ten o'clock you're done with the guys, give yourself a break because what's gonna happen. And this is a common problem that a lot of photographers are moaning about on forums we never got fed at the venue or, you know, we've been working eight, nine hours today, and, you know, we didn't get, you know, nobody thought about feeding us we're grown ups, you know, make sure that you you've worried about yourself and make sure that you've taken care of things like that as well, because if you're shooting the guys, they're not going to think we need to feed them because they're off now, and when you arrive at the girls, they're thinking they've just come from, you know, they've had something to eat, we don't need to feed them either, and you know, when you go to work in a corporate job, you're working at unilever, procter and gamble don't feed you, so make sure that you look after yourself as well. I understand that you are going to have a meal at the reception, but in the middle of the day, if you're working at ten, twelve, fourteen hour day, take a break after shooting the guys because the girls it's a different story, it's going to be manic it's gonna be a lot of frenetic activity. You're not going playing to go and play tennis with the girls, you know, and this is a it's, a it's, a it's a a lot different is a lot of anxiety involved is a lot of emotional expectations, so take a break and our maybe goto goto a sandwich bar, got a local coffee shop, have a sandwich, have a coffee just take your head out of the out of the game so that when you get to the bride it's almost like two separate shoots you're not working the whole day you've got two chutes no on or even in your mind you've got three shoots on we've got the bride and then we've got the wedding so you know break it up like that so take a break in between the guys and the girls so you should be sorry guys hanging out when he's getting ready is it him and the guys that just him alone you can do him on his and his groomsmen because that that's a good question because you then are going to save time later on in the day because when you're shooting bridal party you don't have to shoot the guys then because you've done the guy's already and then another question that might come up online but I can answer it now quickly anyway because I know I get asked this question all the time it's like okay so then do the guys stay dressed for the rest of the day? I don't care it's got nothing to do with me if they want to stay dressed they can stage race they want to you know get back into their casual clothes that's fine, I don't care I've got my shots I'm out of here ten o'clock if you want to stay dressed and yeah, so um what was your question again? Answer that right ok, so now you arrive at the bride's house the hotel where she's getting where she's getting ready one of the most important things when you arrive at the at the venue is she's getting ready? I don't want to see people walking in with the camera just starting shooting and it's going to freak everybody out is a lot of stuff that's going on you need to be that calming influence your under control you've had good fun with the guys you're coming there and it's just confidence and I'm so excited to be shooting awaiting and when you enter don't even have a camera with you you know your assistant is carrying your gear, your assistant stays in the living room or or because it's a lot of people in that room and you don't want to add to the chaos remember right from the beginning of this this whole discussion that we've had here you are the calm amongst the storm you're not the guy who's advertising with hundreds of little images you the one who's one image I'm calm and know who I am I know what I'm about you enter you bring that with you hi there so good to see you congratulations are you must be so excited talk to the other suppliers were going teo talk about that tomorrow in depth but talk to the other suppliers you know, say to the makeup artist so great to work with you again you know you did such a good job on the last wedding we worked with together. What am I doing there? I'm instilling confidence in the bride she's thinking I chose the right micah pontus because brett said so and I mean that's what that's kind of thing that we're talking about so she's feeling better about herself she has confidence in the in the makeup artist the makeup artist you know she's she's feeling good about herself and you develop a rapport with other people in the industry. What I would do then is I'll just quietly get a bridesmaid you know, say to the bride's maid, could you please just assist me? I just need a couple of things from you quickly could you please get me the bride's perfume, her shoes, maybe the rings, her necklace or jewelry? Anything that is small, that defines who she is exactly the same way that we did with the boys so she's gonna go off and she's going to bring the bridesmaid's dress and also also going to ask you to bring the bride's ministry is I'm starting to do other things as well now, which is quite exciting for me in terms of the detail shots because I think detail shots can become a bit repetitive so I'm trying to mix it up but I've got to put it out there before people will embrace what I'm trying to do because it's got to do with naked people again but I'll show you a couple images of that innocent but I'm going to go now I'm going tio take images off her shoes her rings that kind of thing now for some people who look at that images are my gosh what's that the red soles underneath what was that all about? That's christian labaton you know these are very, very expensive shoes the signature is the reed underside of the shoe she wants you to see that she wants you to know that she's wearing expensive shoes you know thousand dollars thousand five hundred dollars parachutes okay, so this is what I'm is take a picture of the rock take a picture off the off the engagement ring because as I said in your mind you working out how that how the album's gonna work details on this side of the page bring on that side of the page this is what I'm trying to do now for details where I've got you know, maybe a couple of areas sorry not that one a couple of getting some some nice skin going on over here so you might see just a little bit of the panty line I've had I've had brides holding the bottle of perfume over here with the bare tummy eso shooting details on naked body parts I don't know how that's gonna work out for me but anyway we'll give it a bash okay then I'm going to shoot stuff like this where I'm shooting this specifically for the makeup artistas well, I'm getting some beautiful makeup shots over there you have to understand ladies will know this collars it's about the eyes and the cheeks and that obviously it's the lips but it's mainly about the eyes so the makeup artist wants a shot of her looking down so you can see her islands make a martyr is probably going to use that as her advert in a bridal magazine or she's at least gonna use it online for her advertising. So really important teo get some shots for the makeup artist end for the hairdresser a lot of people don't like whoa what's that about I'm she needed for her she's gonna love that shot you know I'm bringing in the boudoir aspect to it as well. Now a lot of people said, how do you get them to do that? You tell them to do that, you don't ask them you tell them you say this is what we're going to do next and then like okay, if you give somebody a choice, they can then say no, so be confident in your instruction know what you want and you know, articulate that to your client directly so this is what we're going to do next not in not in a knot in a sergeant major kind of way but in a in a convincing way convincing and firm this is what we're going to do next. How do I wear that? Go take off your clothes take off you okay? Okay, what what I would say to her there is okay what we're gonna do next I'm gonna take this truck of you up against the window it's going to be beautiful trust me, I'm not going to show anything that's that's goingto that's going to embarrass you what I'd like you to do is turn your body a little bit sideways you're gonna take your top off, you know turn your body a little bit sideways make sure that your breasts are covered work the shoulder in a little bit I'm going to get a beautiful highlight down your back I'm gonna go out of the room the bridesmaids gonna help you and then I'll come back in a soon as you're ready. Okay? Making sure that I get shots of all the bridesmaids having their makeup done as well because what I'm doing here is I'm telling a story and in in my mind when I'm putting the album together I've got all this frenetic activity going on on this side of the page and then a com image of this is what it took to get teo thiss so I'm telling a story it's not just random images that you just throwing into the book? This is obviously something that we're going to talk about tomorrow because I talk about the great disk debate, but given your client's images, they don't think like this, they're not going to put an album together like this, so I don't give my images to the client to design their book or go off and printed themselves or anything like that, but that's a whole other discussion, we will talk about that tomorrow because they're they're employing me for my vision and my vision includes as I'm shooting, I'm constructing the album, so you know, um, a good friend of mine, jim ghana, I listened to him at w p p I a couple of years back, he also mentioned don't ever shoot just one great shot, it can't only be just one great shot because what are you going to do with that what's going to go on the other side of the page? So when you're shooting, keep the album in mind, keep the book the storybook in mind and keep the storyline in mind okay? So as you can see, we've done all of this, he still hasn't got into her dress shoot the dress by itself you might develop your own style in terms of the way you want to construct your detail shots I drew inspiration from vera wang commercials very wearing advertising that she did in a bridal magazine probably four or five years ago where no models maybe she was tight on budget or something which are highly, highly doubt jacking but no models there was a dress that was it looked like it was just hanging up in the in the you know, just suspended there and you can do this pretty easily by using windows and backlighting indoors where you've got it on a coat hanger, you shoot the shot backlit and you're overexposing to compensate for their heavy backlighting and then in post production you're retouched guys and touches that all out yes, a quick question oh, and you're good at a so we have ah few questions regarding working with the people that you're collaborating with aaliya wants to know regarding the florist, the makeup artist and all those people do you charge them for the pics? Not at all not at all tomorrow afternoon segment three an hour and a half off hard to work with other supplies because it is that important so and an hour and a half dedicated solely to that topic awesome we're big fans of jim gardner and here tio refuse this cool guy he's awesome he's a good guy