Be a Better Photographer- #1 Adaptation

This is the first, in what I hope to be, A long series of informative articles about being a better photographer. I have been shooting weddings and portraits since 1996, and I am constantly being asked for, and giving advice to aspiring professionals, long time pros, as well as amateurs who are all trying to make better images. By following these articles I hope to give help to others. Lord knows I had plenty of help figuring it all out myself (and I'm still learning too) There just is so much to know on the way to becoming a great photographer that it can't be said that someone is entirely self-taught (even the camera manuals that came with your camera are full of golden rules, and practical advice).

A lot of what I say will be centered around wedding photography and portrait photography because that is what I do and know best. I also feel that a good wedding photographer can probably handle any type of photo assignment.

I was once asked, by a client, if I knew of a good commercial photographer in New York City. I told him to Google wedding photographers and pick a good one from their portfolio and that would be someone who could handle the job. My articles will be philosophical like this one, but also technical how to articles and creative ideas to help anyone who reads be a better photographer.

So, what makes a good wedding photographer? The answer to this is a lot different today than it was 10 years ago, and that is precisely my point.

A good wedding photographer adapts.

A good wedding photographer can be thrown into any situation expected or not, and they know their equipment and skills so well that they will come up with great images for their clients. That I call Adapting to the situation.

Imagine yourself at a wedding shooting the bride coming down the isle towards you. She is Beautiful and wearing a designer gown that is just stunning. Her father is smiling and brimming with pride. There is great sunlight falling on them from a frosted window, plenty of light on the background and you are shooting happily without a flash. Then, a scream from behind. The groom is about to pass out and fall off the stage, You swing around and see nothing but a brightly back lit scene with a silhouette of a Groom wobbling around as the groomsmen rush towards him to try and stop the imminent disaster from occurring. You have a warmed up flash on the camera, and you switch it on in time to flash him and freeze the motion as the groom hangs in mid air with an amazingly smug look on his face. You did it! The Bride won't want it, but all of his friends will buy a copy from you for sure, it might go viral on the internet and you'll be tuning down requests for weddings in Maui, "Oh I've shot too many there this year." How did you do it? Because you knew your equipment and you knew the lighting situation.
If you didn't you would have let your camera make all the decisions and you would have gotten a silhouette of a groom with a brilliantly well lit back ground, Bravo.

A good wedding photographer adapts to meet the challenges of their environment, but also of the times they live in. 10 years ago it may have meant having two or three cameras loaded with different types of film to make sure the photographer got a color, a black and white, and maybe a high ISO no flash shot of a certain scene. Today it might mean knowing how much room is left on their memory card during the bouquet toss (oops, I missed that just won't cut it, and neither will wait, wait.., let me get another card from my bag in the next room -or- We can do the cake cutting again right? Wipe the cake off the brides face and turn the cake around for when I re-load). It could also be how to remove an exit sign above the brides head in the best candid photo of her that as taken that night.

What brides and grooms want and expect change. When I was starting out in the mid 90's I found some photographers out there who claimed that my previous statement wasn't true. "I gave the bride and groom the same thing I gave them 20 years ago. I'm a traditional photographer. Or Brides will never accept a digital photographer. I will never change" But you know what? There aren't many of these guys around anymore.

This is especially true in today's tough economy. Brides now have an amazing amount of information to inform them about their photography choices. Brides are informed and they will get what they want, if you aren't following the trends then you won't be offering anything that will put you on their radar. And what is a Great photographer without any clients? A great photographer knows what their clients are looking for and how to deliver that to them.
When I started there basically wasn't a commercial internet, you had to choose your photographer by asking for referrals and viewing their portfolios in person, or going to a wedding show and seeing a few select photographers in one day (that's what I did when I got married, the wedding show, and boy was I sorry). Now you can view 10 different local photographers portfolios in 10 minutes, from the comfort of your own home.

How can you adapt your business to give Brides what they want?
How do you spot the trends? The same way the Brides do. Spend one day a month reading the wedding sites. Scan your competitions web sites (the ones that rank high on Google) and see what they are showing, what are they offering. Is any one doing something really fun and different? Don't be afraid to look outside your area. Look to New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Omaha, See what's happening all around you and be the first to offer some new service or type of special effect.

Go to http://www.flickr.com/ and search for these things HDR, Lensbaby, Infra Red, wedding photography, photobooth, and see what comes up. These are things I use to attract brides, and you can find things that you can implement into your photography that be the next great wedding trend. Start a Flickr account today and start posting your favorite shots. (Don't know what Flickr is> Go to it and find out. It is a a photo sharing site with more photos and photographers than you can imagine, many are very bad, but there are a surprising amount of talented people using Flickr to share images. There is a great search feature on the main page. Type in a subject and you will be directed to groups and individual images that others have tagged as related to your search term. Try it now! Type in "Lensbaby", If you don't know what that is you will find out.

Anyway that wraps up post number one. As always please email me personally with questions, at soren@fortunephotobooth.com and visit our main site http://www.blogger.com/www.fortunephotobooth.com to see what we are doing with our photo booth sales business. Photo booths are one way we are separating our wedding business from the competition.
Got an idea for the next article? Let me know that too.

Cheers!