New Wedding Website in NYC - Studio1Weddings

Wonderful principal photographer!  OK, OK, full disclosure here, she is also known as my #1 daughter, Erin Derby.   Highly recommended for those of you near NYC. 

www.studio1weddings.com

On Understanding Wedding Photography Styles

(full disclosure - this was an article of mine that was originally published in WeddingPhotoUSA but it seemed to fit here, too)

Finding your photographer is like going through a visual/verbal maze. There are more labels than you can shake a stick at, as my dad used to say. One problem is that there is a belief that photographers' styles fall crisply into neat groupings, like traditional, photojournalistic, fashion, etc. Deb Carpenito of WeddingPhotoUSA has several nice articles two of the most ubiquitous, traditional and photojournalistic. I've added two more recently minted ones - Fine Art and Fashion - to put together a bit of a vocabulary lesson to help you through the maze.

The Details

When I was in college, my room mate (the architect) had a matra - "God lives in the details".  It means, to architects at lease, that if you didn't worry about the small stuff - the big stuff would fail.  Your wedding photos can be the same.  The small things give the day's story texture and fragrance.   Like those those little olfactory hits that remind you of something. Happens to me all the time . . . in a crowd, the smell of something long ago . . . sending my mind time traveling.  Probably why I love taking those detail photographs.  They do the same thing for you.

Sometimes they are things you went to a lot of trouble to create like Catrin & Tim's wonderful books and placards on each table of their reception (above).

Sometimes, it's hor devours.

The kiddush cup waiting for the ceremony.

The night's spent confetti.

One thing I know, these little things bring back memories that you will have long forgotten.  I'm often told that the photographs captured things that the bride & groom never saw.  That's very nice.  But sometimes, these little gems capture the essence of an event, the whole emotional scene, the story in a photograph.

The bride's shoes, signed by all the bridesmaids.  Wow.

Personal Wedding Websites

One of my couples, the irrepressible Heidi & Brian - had a friend build a website just for them.  I was surprised and privileged to discover they used some of the engagement shots we took on a 'shopping' trip to Portsmouth, NH.  I was even more delighted to note that they &/or their web designer went out of their way to give me credit.  Gee, makes me feel like celebrity. Pretty typical of Heidi & Brian.

One of the most distinctive things about their site besides my photography is that they got their own URL . . . brianandheidi.com.

This business of a personal wedding website is very cool for me.  Several of my couples for next year have them. Seems like they could be very handy.  I haven't done that many of them myself but then, you can get them free on the big wedding sites like theKnot.  I can, of course, provide them for a fee, including getting a URL and all the techie stuff.  They can be very custom while the Knot type are standard templates so you can't beat the price.

Here's Kurt and Michelle's.  They used the Knot's process and I think it was fairly easy.  Michelle's write-up on their wedding party is especially through and sweet.

 

 

(FYI - I didn't take this picture)

And another one - truth in story telling here - this my step-son and his wonderful fiance, M.K.,

along with Olie, the wonder dog.

 

OK . . . I did take this one.

If you are using a template based wedding website, consider having your wedding photographer combine an 'engagement' session with other kinds of shots (your venue, your family, etc.) to capture more of what writers call the "back story" of your marriage-to-be.   Could make for a really elegant way to share the love, as they say.

On Portraits

There are posed portraits and there candid portraits.   The latter are not something most people think of when you say "portraits".  Those are done without the apparent knowledge of the subject.  The former, posed portraits, are clearly with the participation or what is sometimes called the 'camera awareness' of the participants.  

Not many people take the latter...they are, frankly, harder to see - fleeting as they are - and harder to capture. 

Posed portraits can be fun or serious but there always seems to be a direct connection with the poser. They are, for the most part, what the subject wants you to see - what they project, not who they are. Not everyone projects well.  On the other hand, like the charming bride and her father below, when they do, it makes for a nice shot.

On the other hand, when a photographer captures a candid moment, a look, a gesture, it can be magic.  These can be an unintended revealing of something more personal, more intimate in a person or between people.  No amount of posing will create the subtle body language that speaks with such emotion...well almost no amount of posing, there are some masters of posing that can recreate candid moments, given enough time.

In any case, the picture above was taken in a graveyard, just outside the church, just before the bride and her father went in and down the aisle.  The time for chatting was over and their gesture were a very personal communication between two people. 

The difference is subtle but something is going on in the second shot that wasn't happening in the first.  Both were taken just before the ceremony.  One will be a favorite of the both of them for a long time. Guess which one?

Oh yes, it's not just couples.  The photograph below was taken when another photographer had been posing the bride for close to an hour.  Bless her heart, the bride had held up wonderfully.   While the other photographer was directing the groom to do something, I forget what, the bride became lost in her thoughts, lifted her bouquet and this quiet moment happened.

I don't think you plan these kinds of photographs, it takes trust and a certain attitude on the part of the photographer.  Maybe we should talk about that in the future. . . DD

Capturing The "Back-Story"

I shot a wedding a couple years ago, sent the pictures to the parents then waited and waited and waited.  Nothing.  No phone calls, no emails, no nothing.   I was heart broken.  These were friends of mine.  It was their youngest's wedding and I had been sort of a second shooter (there were three other photographers there).  I thought my shots were really good. 

I couldn't stand it, I called them.  The father got on the phone and said:  Yes they'd gotten the pictures.  Yes they were going to call me.  But, he said, every time he picked up one of the pictures and started to call, he started crying.

This is the picture.  He loves it.  I love it.  Everybody loves it.

Why?  Because to him, and probably many of the rest of us, that's not a picture of a bride.  It's not a soon-to-be Mrs. Somebody or a twenty-something having a glass of champagne.

That's his little girl . . . barefoot, just the way he will always remember her.

That's the day I realized that I was going to be a wedding photographer.  It's about the story that pictures can capture.

Why a Blog?

It's all the rage.  OK, maybe I'm not an "all the rage" kind of guy.  And it's not likely what I publish will be my latest wedding.  It also won't be what kind of dress someone wore or how delicious the cake was - I don't eat my clients' cakes, seems impolite.  Seems like there are other venues for that.

What I'll reach for with this blog is a kind of thinking out loud about capturing imagery, weddings in particular but not necessarily all.  I will also explore why certain imagery is special and some are not.  My hope is that, perhaps, you will become more comfortable with thinking about the imagery you want from photographers, particularly wedding photographers.

Oh yes, this is not about technical stuff - there are people out there far better at the techie things than I.  If I learn something interesting from harvesting those blogs and websites, I'll give you links to them.  I'm going to work at the art/imagery/organizing side of these human rituals - the aesthetic challenges photography gives us.

I'll use lots of examples mostly because it gives me something to talk and think about.  My own pictures primarily but others', too.  That way, those of us who are ADA visually oriented will enjoy the ride.

Since it's the visual that brings you and I here, let's celebrate it.

DD

My Name is Dan Derby

I'm a wedding photographer for the most part although I regularly sneak down to the studio and take product pictures (can't help myself, I was a product designer for . . . ever).

About me:  

• I am a designer by training and for a number of years did just that.  
• With degrees in design from NC State and Stanford University (an MFA),  I was a visiting lecturer at Stanford for nearly a decade.   
• Over time, I found myself doing more managing than designing so I eventually began the journey back to the arts.  
• Encouraged by a designer wife, Jane G. Derby - a  professional photographer daughter (NYC), Erin Derby - and cinematography student (SVA), Dan Derby III - it seemed like I was rejoing a family business.  
• In addition to photography, I write stories on a variety of subjects for a variety of clients.
• However, my wedding work is one of the purest forms of story. . . and it's fun.