I find relief and peace knowing that I am not the right photographer for everyone. It makes me feel incredibly lucky that the couples who have chosen me have done so due to a love for my product. They don’t book me because I’m cheap (because I am not) or because I can teach wedding guests any and every dance of the times (Whip Nae Nae, Cupid Shuffle, Wobble- I got you), although I do list that under my skill set; but rather, they book me because of the photos I produce.
Now that seems so easy, right? Nope. Not even a little. I cannot just take a lovely photo of someone and call it a day. So much prep work goes into creating these photos, much of it started months if not a year beforehand. I cannot get results unless I have a relationship with my clients- call me awkward, but I know myself. We chat, exchange emails, grab pizza, work together on their engagement session, and even exchange Christmas cards. By the time we get to the wedding day, we have usually met in person twice and exchanged dozens of emails; 21st century pen-pals.
I know the style of photos I want, and I know that this is the same style of photos my client wants! We want un-posed. We want real. We want emotional. And honey, there ain’t no way to get that on a wedding day without a prior relationship—- and trust.
So why is this un-posed style the timeless favorite? And what even is it? Let me lay it all out for you- when I aim for un-posed, I am looking for the little fraction of a second shows true personality. Maybe I have just told my couple to walk towards each other and embrace. Awesome. Lovely! Beautiful photo. But I don’t have what I want. So I tell the groom to whisper sweet nothings into his bride’s ear– and I say it just like that!– and I get the most lovely, real life reaction of laughter and joy. Because come on, did you ever expect your wedding photographer to say that? So now I have the groom saying “ummm ummmmm” and the bride cracks a megawatt smile and pulls her face away, laughing with her twinkling eyes locked on her husband. And that is it. That’s the photo. It’s the one that has captured the essence of a relationship. And it’s the one that will bring all the feels.
This isn’t to say that every photo is laugh out loud funny, this was simply an example of how I work to capture the little in between moments— the ones my couples don’t expect me to capture! And for the sake of this post, laughter is what I will focus on.
At it’s core, “un-posed posing” is a way of bringing photojournalism to portraits and it’s just about my favorite thing.It’s not everyone’s style…. and thank goodness! I love variety. If every photographer was a clone of me, 1) I would be out of a job and 2) photography would be so incredibly boring. The way I see it, life is un-posed…. and it’s pretty great that way.
