Anything Goes Wednesday: The Vision

Please don’t kill me over the fact that this post is going up on Thursday instead of Wednesday! I started this Wednesday posting as a means to get myself into a routine since I could blog about any particular subject while reserving Monday’s for photos. Even as I attempt to type this first sentence I am taking a break to feed Miles while Betty is off taking final exams today (Thursday). But it’s not Miles fault nor is it the client meeting at Starbucks we had Wednesday night with the amazing M* that got me so excited for her island-themed vow renewal/wedding/party/extravaganza that we are looking forward to shooting in a few weeks.

Quick shout-out to the “fabulous” Violaine of Andre Winfrye Events who I finally met in person on Wednesday night after numerous emails over the past few weeks/months. Thinking back to when we first were in contact with each other, it was right before Miles was born! I’m really excited to have the opportunity to work with Violaine because her events have the most amazing details in them, if you’re not a reader of her blog like I am add it to your wedding planning inspiration list.

Another quick nod to last weekend’s wedding that I am still editing, but the previews I’ve been sending the bride and groom and just amazing! This was another super fun couple that really rocked their photoshoot. Sneak preview:

Taken on the top of Ventanas Atlanta during their reception… amazing bride, amazing view!

Ok now on to the “meat” of today’s blog post: vision. While writing my application to the Leah & Mark Season 5 Internship I had to look back on myself and do some soul searching. Well, this is not something that I had not already started contemplating recently as my good friend Jim Duckworth and I were chatting about reinvention and this old Strobist blog post came up by Chris Crisman on “Self-Investment, Reinvention, and Reductive Lighting.” Sorry brides, you don’t have to read those articles as this relates more to the photographer as a visual artist.

The reason that this is relevant is because for the previous weekend’s wedding pictured above, I got out of my comfort zone and tried something totally different. I shot this wedding by myself with no assistant, much like I did for the Red Top Mountain Wedding I shot 2 weeks before this. That was my first wedding without Betty and I did okay, I had to push myself to really make sure I was getting every shot because I didn’t have a second shooter as an insurance policy. With that wedding successfully over I honestly was not personally thrilled with the photos. I got plenty of “safe” shots that look great don’t get me wrong, but they didn’t push the envelop and try new things that I had not previously tried at a wedding. Maybe it was partly the fear of not having a second shooter so I wanted to make sure I got shots that the clients loved (and they did!), but I didn’t push the envelope. This Saturday was a whole different ballgame. Shooting alone, which I just did and things turned out great, let’s push the envelope more this time… full manual mode all day long and using external flash here and there to enhance the bridal portraits and reception (which I had never tried at a wedding before). For the non-camera geeks reading this, your camera has basically three settings: automatic, semi-automatic, and manual. Previously I shot semi-automatic (Aperture Priority) with occasional shifts to Manual Mode in tricky lighting situations. Saturday was full on manual control where I was making every decision about the photograph myself and not letting the camera pick the settings for me. Isn’t that risky? Yes. Does it give you more consistent shots? Yes. Do you have greater creative control? YES.

So where am I going with this rant? I pushed myself to try new things to better align my photography with my vision, a vision for how I wanted the photos to look and a vision as to how my style of photography relates to the FengLong Photography brand. I want us to be visual storytellers, not just photographers. As I rewatch the Jasmine Star creativeLIVE course that I mentioned a while back, she reminds us that ultimately we the photographers are responsible for how our clients look and feel, it is our job to make our clients feel relaxed and beautiful in front of the camera, and then capture those moments with our camera to align with our vision. The vision is still a work in progress, but I feel I am finally starting to make some progress.

Whoa, you’re probably thinking, I’m a bride and I want a sane photographer… don’t worry here’s a little secret: if your photographer is not evolving and pushing himself/herself to improve their craft, you probably don’t want them as your photographer. I want your wedding photography to be timeless but unique to you as I tell YOUR story, that is my vision and that is why I want to work with YOU dear bride reading this. I want to work with the bride who trusts me completely to make her look beautiful because we have established that relationship and she understands the “method behind the madness” of a creative visual artist :). Shoot me an email and get ready to hang on for the ride… let’s make this happen! FengLongPhoto@gmail.com

Jennifer at Swan House Mansion at the Atlanta History Center seriously looking glamorous for the camera!

Coming up next should be more previews of Jennifer and Mark’s Midtown wedding as seen above and throughout this post. I was debating whether I should talk about wedding videography in today’s installment but maybe I’ll wait for next week or the week after. I am proud to announce that FengLong Photography is finally getting into video in a serious way! While you may have seen our “Fusion” slideshows that intermix video clips with photos, we have a dedicated professional video camera on order to compliment our Canon EOS 5D Mark II’s and Canon EOS 7D’s that shoot HD video already and produce all of the clips you currently see. This is a passion that I have wanted to explore for some time and cannot wait to talk to you more about it in a future blog post!