Guillermo over at GXU Images is putting together a Fave 5 collaboration. Here’s mine for 2011. Click here to watch fullscreen.
One photographer that I admire – Bryan Bartlett – inspired me by his images. When he posts images, he seldom posts more than a dozen images. No matter if it’s a wedding, a senior portrait, or just some family event. In that spirit, how many pictures is too many?
Within the wedding photography, you often hear it referred as almost a badge of honor when someone shot 1400, 1800 or over 2000 at a wedding. That only makes one question: are we photography artists, or an image insurance?
Can a bride trust the skill of their photographer enough to only take a fraction of those pictures?
Taking it further, what if the bride were to only want one image of the entire day? What would that photo look like? Would it resemble the attached photo? Would the photographer be trusted enough? Would they be able to deliver that one image?
Why not just one image?
When you boil that day down to one take-away, couldn’t it be distilled into one image?
As wedding photographers, we should look for those sole images that sum up the entire day. If we get bogged down with thousands of images to process, let’s reduce that number. If the bride and groom believes in you, why could you not deliver just one image? What would you miss that all the other guests would not have captured as well?
There’s probably no immediate answer, but I ask that you embrace the question. Would you remember your wedding day with just one photo?
When you spend a lot of time photographing weddings, you notice things. One of those things is bridesmaids.
“Chris, you perv, you’re married!”
No, it’s not like that. The thing that I’ve noticed about bridesmaids is how they seem to be the emotional outlet for the bride. Being overwhelmed with the day and the emotions, most brides are almost catatonic. Bridesmaids seem to express for the bride. Joy, anxiety, fear, happiness, giddiness.
There’s a good reason that certain ladies are chosen by the brides as their bridesmaids. Consciously, they’re close and they often look good in a dress. Subconsciously, it’s their emotional connection that supports her during the day. When it comes time for the first kiss, it’s their celebration that is the best expression of the bride’s joy.
