I had an intresting experience lately. In helping to plan my friend’s wedding, she was totally concerned about finding the best wedding photographer. She didn’t want to a pay a lot, but I kept telling her that “these are the pictures you’re going to look at the rest of your life.” Don’t you want them done correctly?
Her argument was that you could find “any idiot to point a camera and tell people to smile.” Whoa, whoa – I really didn’t think she was catching on. I understood she was under a lot of stress, but she really needed to find the right person for the job.
So, I began my search. In looking around for wedding photographers, it became clear to me that there is a huge difference. There were photographers that just kind of lined everyone up and made sure no one was blinking.
Then there was this Houston Wedding Photographer that had an entirely different perspective on how his shots were done. Sure, a bunch were what I’d consider “artsy.” He had pictures of just the dress, and pictures of a bunch of shoes. Interesting, but that wasn’t what caught my eye.
He had “real” shots. Stolen glances, surprised looks, and tears at just the right moments. I knew that those were the moments that I wanted captured (and I knew that’s what my friend would want too). She didn’t just want a record of attendance – she wanted to know who was there and the opportunity to bring back the emotions that were experienced.
That’s what you want to remember. It can take a photojournalist approach to make that kind of thing happen. I kept looking around for just the right wedding photographer, but we eventually settled on the best one. The one that brought out all the emotion – it wasn’t even close.