Well I bloody forgot to send you an email yesterday didn’t I? Managed it 22 Thursdays in a row, but yesterday I forgot. I realised I’d forgotten in the morning, but I was on the way to a wedding, so I knew I wouldn’t get it written and sent yesterday!
These things happen. I’ve moved on, I hope you can too. It’s 1:30am and I felt compelled to sit and write.
So let me talk to you about pressure, and especially some ways you can take the pressure off yourself on a wedding day.
I rarely feel pressure at a wedding and when I do I have a little talk with myself and tell myself some or all of these things.
Think about it.
If the couple you’re photographing booked you a year ago, your portfolio was probably primarily made up of two year old work or older. That’s what they saw and fell in love with. They didn’t book you hoping you’d be better by the time you shot their wedding, they loved what they saw all that time ago.
Since then you’re more experienced, you’ve learned loads, you’re even more comfortable with your equipment, and you know for a fact you can at least create stuff as good as what you were producing back then.
I know you want to create your best work at every wedding. Brilliant.
All your couple are hoping for something as good as what they saw when they booked.
Possible? Exactly.
It’s the old adage that we’re not there to make a stop motion movie of the day.
You don’t have to click every single time anyone moves.
Breathe, slow down, stay calm. Pick your battles. Trust your instincts.
How many times have you framed up a moment, hoping for something to happen. I did it today. Groom’s mum had just hugged groom and I missed it. But they were still in deep emotional conversation so I framed up a nice composition, and was ready.
Then someone laughed to my right. I whizzed the camera round to capture the laughter…
The laughter had stopped. I clicked anyway and captured a dull moment.
Mum hugged groom again. I missed it because I’d abandoned my post.
By trying to capture everything you’ll really capture nothing. Again, your couple won’t have a mental checklist of everything that happened moment by moment, ready to complain if you miss any of them.
I wish I’d stayed ready for the groom-mum hug.
This comes from the pressure we put on ourselves to capture everything.
Remind yourself you’re there to capture what you can. Less is more.
This kind of goes hand in hand with the previous ‘tip’ but I truly believe, whatever the blogs and magazines say, there’s no ‘must have’ photo at a wedding.
I’ll talk more at some point about how I have absolutely zero must have shots in my head when I’m photographing a wedding. No ‘dad reaction’, no ‘first kiss’… nothing. Honestly.
I trust myself implicitly to photograph each wedding as I see it.
One time I had just photographed a couple walking down the aisle at the end of the ceremony.
A wedding magazine checklist would call it ‘the processional’ or maybe ‘the recessional’, I don’t know. Something like that. A ‘must have’ moment.
I call it the couple walking down the aisle at the end of the ceremony.
I ran outside to get ready to have them coming out of the door where a bagpiper was waiting.
My camera fell out of my spider holster, hit the floor, the battery door opened and the battery fell out.
The camera hadn’t finished writing those aisle shots and I lost them all.
Boy oh boy did I panic.
I edited and delivered the wedding, and wrote a big apology when I delivered it about why there were none of these ‘recessional’ shots. (It is recessional, I just googled it).
The couple replied to say it really didn’t matter and they loved everything I’d given them. They went on to say ‘we wouldn’t even have noticed if you hadn’t said anything’!
Now… clearly I’m not saying put less effort in or deliberately miss stuff. But also nobody is going to be demanding your resignation if you miss a magazine-must-have for whatever reason.
This mainly refers to portraits but can also apply to documentary.
It’s virtually impossible for your first shot to be your best shot, but to take your best shot you have to take your first shot.
These days the plan in any portrait session is that my first shots are simple and basic. Open shade or backlit, walking shots, penguin pose, close cuddles. Easy for everyone – me and the couple. Not mindblowing, game changing photography but good solid opening shots that the couple will love.
By starting simple and basic I’m getting some shots in the bag, but I’m also getting the creative momentum going.
Then the next shots happen, and the next and the next. Each one, without really trying will build on the previous one. Momentum – the underrated element of creativity!
Obviously you’ll always take the first shot, even if you’re putting that pressure on yourself for the first shot to be mindblowing. But wouldn’t you rather shoot without pressure by default?
I flipping love this job. I really do. I hope you do too.
I said this actually in last week’s email (sorry to repeat myself) but focus on enjoying the process of being at a wedding, wielding a camera for a living. It’s pretty special.
Two things have really helped me focus on my enjoyment of the pure act of photography.
The first one is stepping away from photography Facebook groups.
The second one is stepping away from the awards circuit.
So I don’t know what people are moaning about and I have no real awareness of what’s trendy or cool.
Result: pressure-free enjoyment.
I hope this helps you take a bit of pressure of yourself as crazy season continues at pace.
Thanks for reading.
Adam
PS – I haven’t proof-read this week’s email because it’s 2:30am now so if it’s not as concise as it could be, or there are typos, or it’s too preachy (the worst) then forgive me please. Normal service will resume next week with full quality control.
PPS – Good night.
