An interesting\u00a0question I received in an email recently had me thinking about, and considering my style in photographing weddings:<\/p>\n
Do you sometimes feel as if you can’t be inconspicuous in order to get a certain shot during a wedding? There have been times I feel like I’m not blending into the background enough. How do you handle this?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (Regina Coble)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In trying to verbalize my answer, I came upon some interesting insights for myself.<\/p>\n
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Firstly, although I believe there is a strong sense of story-telling in my photography, I’m not particularly purist\u00a0about ‘photojournalism’ in wedding photography.\u00a0 I do interact with people \u00a0and during the portrait session, I do direct the bride and groom – \u00a0all in an effort to give my couples the best wedding photographs I can.\u00a0 Even when I interact with my couples and direct them, I still aim for spontaneity and genuine expressions.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/weddings\/Ingrid-Jason-1331.jpg\")
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But then how do I blend in and remain inconspicuous?\u00a0 For me this has more to do with being accepted within the group of family and friends – and in that way less obviously stand out – than the ‘ninja’ mindset that many wedding photographers try to hold up, trying to\u00a0become invisible.<\/p>\n
A comment on my blog by a groom’s mom gave me a key insight into something I hadn’t thought of before or tried to verbalize before receiving Regina’s email. The groom’s mom wrote:<\/p>\n
It was like a friend of the family taking loving pictures.
\nYou made the photo shoots actually fun and it shows in your work.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
As I already mentioned, I’m not a ‘photojournalistic’ photographer, although I do photograph largely in an un-posed, unplanned style through most of the day\u00a0…<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/weddings\/Katie-Pat-1228.jpg\")
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…\u00a0but during the course of the portrait session, I begin by directing the couple (and the bridal party), and interacting with them – and eventually they “take over” naturally and become themselves. At that point, they become spontaneous and act like themselves and in a sense I have become less of a distraction, and less noticed.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/weddings\/Caisey-John-2509.jpg\")
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Once you’ve build that rapport with them, you become less noticeable.\u00a0It does take confidence in working with people, and it does take time to build up that confidence.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/weddings\/Jen-Tom-0527-m.jpg\")
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.
\nDuring the portrait sessions, and engagement sessions, I try for a natural approach.\u00a0 I do want my couples to appear relaxed and look like themselves.\u00a0 To this end, I “take myself out of the picture”, by using a longer lens and having\u00a0talk to each other and just cuddle and walk, and just be<\/em><\/strong> together. This will definitely help with any nervousness in front of the camera – and give portraits which appear casual and relaxed.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/weddings\/Jen-Tom-e527.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
wedding photography: standing out \/ blending in An interesting\u00a0question I received in an email recently had me thinking about, and considering my style in photographing weddings: Do you sometimes feel as if you can’t be inconspicuous in order to get a certain shot during a wedding? There have been times I feel like I’m not Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,45],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"category-wedding-photography","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42456,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/42456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/weddings\/Iveta-John-0557.jpg\")
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