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Wedding/Travel Photography - One and the Same

Robert Watcher

Well-known member
Many on the OPF forum may only have exposure to me through my Travel Virgins posts of my extended stays in Costa Rica and Nicaragua for the last four years or so. While I take many images and create many stories while there, my main interest in photography is the professional end that provides me with my family income. That consists of commissioned wedding, portrait and some commerial and magazine work - primarily including people.

Last night I was going through the 2,000 plus images from a wedding I photographed in beautiful Northern Ontario - to narrow down to the roughly one hundreds shots that I wanted to include in a slideshow for my potential wedding customers to view. For some reason it occurred to me, that there is a very close relationship to being a wedding photographer and being a travel photographer that focuses on PEOPLE and DETAILS.

In reality, I attempt to provide the same level of ease with either my clients and their family and guests (none of whom have met me previously) - and those I come across on the streets I travel each day while looking for photo opportunities. For me, the pace of shooting is roughly the same and surprisingly I tend to shoot about the same number of images per hour with weddings or when traveling the communities in Central America. I require the same set of technical skills with either - whether that be compensating for the changing light conditions, the aniticipation and getting myself ready and in a good space to get my shot, or the way that I am able to so often have people appear as if they barely notice me even when I sometimes am very close right in their space. In both scenarios - - - I only have one crack at it and that moment may be missed.

It was just something I hadn't really thought of or appreciated before. And so I came to realize that it may be my thirty plus years of successfully photographing weddings with my mix of documentary and casual formal styles - that contributes to the reason that I am so comfortable when documenting people and lifestyles in other countries such as I have done these last years.

The wedding image video that I finished off this morning, is an edited story that I think displays the comfort level my clients feel when I am photographing them as well as the way that I wish to record the event. This complete wedding photography coverage, lasted around 4 1/2 hours in total (as with all editing processes, tons of great interaction shots must be left out)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3jSXzjRzNo



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