Free wedding photography!

As a wedding photography instructor, I get asked about shooting free weddings all the time. I spend a lot of time covering my thoughts on this in my class, but still I get asked. It normally starts off like this, “I saw an ad on Craig’s list for a couple looking for a free wedding photographer. They aren’t very attractive, and the location is kinda nasty, but I need to build up my portfolio. Should I do it? I really need to build up my portfolio”

At this point, I always need to take a step back, take a deep breath, count to 10, and try to find my center.

What exactly do you want to fill your portfolio up with? Ugly people in nasty locations? That is a great business model. I need my air conditioner fixed. So I am preparing my Craig’s list now. It will go something like this: “I don’t have any money, but I need my central air conditioning condenser replaced. For your services, I promise to write a glowing review here on my blog, and I will recommend you to my friends”. How soon before my phone rings? So why do we as photographers actually jump at this bait? Are dentists, doctors, plumbers, or lawyers responding to ads for people looking for free service, with no hope of a return on that investment?

And that is exactly what free photography services should be considered. An investment, and it better have some kind of return. Yes, I do free things all the time. But I always have to ask myself what the return will be. Will this look good in my portfolio? Is this a person or organization I can build a mutually beneficial relationship with? Can I turn this free gig into a paying gig? What will I ultimately get out of this?

I understand that you may be new, and looking to get some experience. But these people looking for the free photography are using you. How much can they possibly respect your work, your vision, your talent? And how much can they possibly value that work? You need to ask them if they are paying for their dress? The floral arrangements? The reception location? Food, cake, drinks, napkins, etc? Did their jeweler respond to the Craig's list ad offering up free diamond rings? Even if they are getting married in a friends back yard, they are paying for something. And guess what. When they wake up the next day, most of the items they have paid for will be used up and gone. The flowers are wilted, the cake has been eaten, the rental tables and chairs have been returned. But they will have something that they will cherish for the rest of their lives. Your images. And 30 years from now, their children will also cherish those images. If their house catches fire, they won’t go running back into the house to get their cake topper or her dress. They are going back in to get your images. How can that be worth nothing?

So, what should you do? Be a 2nd or 3rd shooter/assistant for a wedding photographer. Get some on the job training. Yes, you may be working for free, but you also won’t shoulder the burden or responsibility when things go wrong. And you will gain very valuable experience, watching and learning from someone who is really doing it. If you are shooting a wedding by yourself for free, to gain experience, what are you learning? Who is there to tell you what you are doing wrong? Or what shots you missed?

Do you need detail shots? Go down to your local baker, florist, jewelry store, or dress shop, and offer them your services. Offer to take some shots of their cake/dress/bouquet/ring so you can use those in your portfolio. In return, you will give them the images to use on their website, brochure, or marketing materials. Whoa, look at that, a mutually beneficial relationship. And you know what else? They have brides coming in all the time. Ask the owners to refer you. Leave them your cards. Free work that could convert to paying gigs!

If you need to build up a portfolio of brides and grooms, then how about this for an idea. Get some attractive friends or family members, maybe someone who still fits into her wedding dress. And spend $100 to rent a tux for the guy. Go out for a day and shoot them at all kinds of great locations, even the cliché ones. The beach, a park, downtown, Pasadena City Hall, in front of a beautiful church, eating at a restaurant. Get creative, and have fun. Images like that will be much more valuable to you, and book you more work than an ugly couple at a nasty location ever would. If your working for free, would you choose to shoot someone who looks like me, or someone who looks like Brad Pitt? Which one of us do you think would book you more gigs?

Or not. Go shoot the free wedding. Go post the images of the ugly couple at the nasty location you shot for free. And hopefully when you meet with your next potential client, you will show them that work. And then they will call me…

Is Warner Bros hurting too?

Originally uploaded by fwisneski

Things are tough all over part 2. Even the Tasmanian Devil has resorted to dumpster diving... :-)

iPhone shots

Hey Everyone!

Just a quick note, as I will be shooting all day tomorrow. Keeping up with the theme from my last post, all the images you see here were taken with my 2mp iPhone & all were processed with Chase Jarvis' Best Camera App . As Always, it's not about the gear, just always having a camera with you. Are these the best images ever? No, absolutely not. But I have them, and that's important.



The lower pictures were from earlier in the week, you can see the kids were starting to get a little scruffy. The top pictures were right after we all got our haircut. Unlike a lot of people, we judge the quality of a salon not by the actual haircut, the cost, or a fabulous location on Rodeo Drive, but by the lollipops they give out. (click the read more link below)

I got this!

Hey everyone!

I haven't posted anything from my Faded & Blurred 365 project in a while, So I thought I would remedy that. Our group is still going strong, with close to 4000 images in it. We have lost some people along the way, as the commitment to taking 1 picture a day, all though sounds simple, is still a very big commitment. Life has a habit of getting in the way, and taking some time each day to shoot, process, and upload just isn't easy.  We are on day 113, and I am happy to say I haven't missed a day. If you are interested in participating, we would love to have you!

With that said, I have also made it as easy as possible for myself to contribute to our group. Very few of my images for the group were actually taken with my Canon 5D MKII, The majority of them were taken with my iPhone, and processed and uploaded instantly with the apps I have available, or with my Canon S90, a fantastic little point and shoot that has big camera capabilities. The 3 images you see here were all taken this week with this little technological marvel. While it will always be the photographers vision, it helps to have a tool that you can rely on in tough situations. This is the first P&S that I would even consider using above ISO 400, and at it's widest end, the lens is f/2.0. It also shoots in raw, and in the manual modes, it is very easy to make setting changes. It just get's out of my way, and let's me shoot.

As a photographer, it is very important that I always have a camera with me. Whether that is my iPhone, a P&S, or my big cameras doesn't matter. I have learned how to use them all well, I know what their pros and cons are, and I have learned to work within those parameters, to help me create and reproduce my vision.

I feel like I have entered a "Zen" like state where I have really stopped obsessing about the latest gear, a lens that I don't own, or some other miscellaneous item that "If I only had" would make my images amazing. I have really been focusing on working with only 1 lens, forcing myself to get creative, limiting my choices, and really enjoying taking pictures. Expect many more posts on this coming up. And stop saying "if only". Start saying "I got this"

This post and my previous post this week about creativity are all leading up to what I feel will be a very long post about "Vision". Stay tuned...

Where did our creativity go?

Hey everyone!

This post will be an interesting one for me. A few weeks ago I finished reading Chris Orwig's beautiful book, "Visual Poetry". In the very beginning of the book, he talks of children and how their imaginations are limitless and unfettered by practicality and qualifications. I witness this everyday with my own children, as they pretend to be cheetahs, dragon slayers, draw and build things, dance, and are constantly awestruck by snails, ladybugs, butterflies, etc.

In the book, something Chris talks about really resonated with me. He speaks of walking into an elementary school classroom, and he asks the class, "How many of you can draw?" The entire class raised their hands. Then he asks, "How many of you can sing?" The entire class again raised their hands and began singing different songs.

Chris is a teacher at The Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara.After his experience at the elementary school, he came back to his own class and asked his college students the same questions. Only a couple of students raised their hands. The students added a self-imposed qualifier to the question. While Chris asked, "How many of you can sing/draw?", what they heard was, "How many of you can sing/draw well?".  Pablo Picasso said, "All children are artists. The problem is to remain one when you grow up."

So what do we do, if we have all of these self imposed qualifiers, filters, years of people telling us to "grow up" and get a real job, singing off key, drawing poorly, and staying between the lines? How do we work through all of those things, and start to begin being able to express ourselves in a way that pleases us? That allows us to be "creative"? What the hell does "creative" mean, anyway?

Dictionary.com describes creative as:  

Having the ability or power to create: Human beings are creative animals. 
Productive; creating. 
Characterized by originality and expressiveness; imaginative: creative writing

So, based on that definition, if you are making images, you are being creative. If they are also original and expressive, you are being creative. So stop telling yourself your not the creative type!

Now, what can we do to increase our creativity? To make ourselves be more creative? To practice being creative?

I think sometimes just by limiting our options, it forces us to be more creative. Take a cell phone camera, or a disposable camera. Stop wishing you had that 18-5000 f -22 and learn to really use what you have. Do you really think that if Van Gogh only had blue paint and a toothbrush, that he wouldn't find a way to make that work? Perhaps if you were to go out shooting for a day, with only a fixed lens, when you are used to using your zoom, you will force yourself to be creative. If you can't line up the shot you want because you can't zoom in or out, your forced to move your feet, and get "creative". I do this all the time. It also helps you justify having that little used lens in your bag.

What about lighting? How often have you had to improvise to get the look/feel you want? Have you ever shot your flash through a paper towel roll because you wanted a snoot? Used halogen work lights diffused with a shower curtain to look like studio lights shot through a soft box? Used a flash light or a Zippo?

Why don't you try this, grab a friend or family member, and go try some night time street portraiture. But don't bring any lights or flash. Try to find a street light, neon sign, car headlights, and improvise. See what you can come up with.

Bust out your old film camera and fire off a roll. Shoot for an hour setting your camera at 1/125 and shoot at whatever aperture your camera gives you. Cover up your LCD. Try macro shots. Go shoot with your 7 year old, and watch what she finds interesting. Give yourself a theme, like blue, or sad. Whatever you can do to get yourself thinking, and slowing down, and shooting. Have fun, relax, and be surprised by the results.

Spend an hour playing with 1 image in Lightroom or Photoshop. Find out what all those sliders or layers do. Download some free presets from Lightroom Killer Tips, or your website of choice. And let us see the results...

The images at the top of this post were going to be used for a post about vision, but since my experience at the Jerry Ghionis seminar, I have scrapped the original concept, and am working on something new. So what you see is the original scene, and how I interpreted said scene.

Creativeness often consists of merely turning up what is already there. - Bernice Fitz-Gibbon

Old Town Orange Car Show

Hey Everyone!

I hope everybody is having a fantastic weekend, the weather here in southern California has been beautiful! Spent the whole weekend hanging out with the family, and today we headed over to Old Town Orange for a car show. I wanted to go see the cars, but I was also curious about the neighborhood, because it will be the site of our next photo walk for Faded & Blurred. What a beautiful little town. You feel like you stepped into the set of "Back to the Future". Should be a fun, charming walk, with lots of architecture, antique shops, old town charm, and little cafe's to entertain us for the day. Plan on joining us on 5/16!

Coming up this week in class:

Monday night: Advanced wedding sales tips

Wednesday night: The sale, and we will start to discuss flash

Thursday night: Bring your gear, we're shooting! If you have models interested in participating in our class, let me know.

Testing lights

Hey there everyone!

As most of you know by now, I was at Jerry Ghionis' seminar on Tuesday, and he taught this old dog some new tricks. As my class was shooting models on Thursday night, I was playing around with some tips that Jerry shared with us. As a wedding/event photographer, quite often I don't have the ability of using off camera flash. Due to moving around, drunk people, space, often times it's just not safe or reasonable to set a light on a stand. This first image of Matthew was taken using Jerry's helpful tip of just bouncing your "on camera" off a wall at 90 degrees from your subject, vs using a ceiling or a piece of tupperware. So of course I had to try it. And then I needed to test it at it's limits. You see, Matthew is standing on a sidewalk, and I bounced the light off a storefront 50 feet across the street. And it worked! My settings were ISO 1250, f/2.8, 1/50 sec, shot with my 5DMKII, 70-200 f/2.8IS, and the original 580EX.

Here is another shot using the same set-up with similar settings. Again, this isn't about the quality of the posing, this is about testing out a new technique.

I also worked with Virginia last night, again playing with some ideas I had. She was lit with a rechargable flash light I got at Home Depot for $20 similar to this...

For the next 2 shots, I added the 580EX hand held by Virginia's husband to add a little seperation. These were shot with a tungsten white balance also. Just going for something a little different, and to show that class that you don't need a bunch of lighting gear to get creative.

There will be a tutorial coming soon on Faded & Blurred soon about the technique used on the first image here.

Jerry Ghionis Seminar

Hey everyone!

I had the amazing opportunity to attend a seminar by Jerry Ghionis yesterday. For those of you that know me, or have been in my classes, you know that he is my all time favorite photographer. I am a HUGE fan. I am probably writing this too soon after the event, as my mind is still racing with ideas, concepts, and inspiration to be able to put together a cohesive, or even reasonably informational post. But know that many ideas that were shared will be past along to my classes as the weeks go on.

The seminar was in 2 parts, the first part was a seminar given in a ballroom at a hotel by LAX. It was attended by over 100 people. The 2nd portion was a group of 20 photographers getting to shoot with Jerry.

During the first portion, which went from 10am to 6:30, Jerry talked a lot about how he shoots, and where he gets his ideas and inspiration. He is a pop culture junky, and gathers ideas from music videos, fashion magazines, and movies. He showed a recent shoot that was heavily inspired by a Katy Perry video, even going so far as to show the video and specific scenes from it, and then showing his interpretation. Great stuff. He also went through some of his familiar work and showed us the inspiration behind those shots. During this portion, he talked a lot about the inspiration, and holding on to it, a visual memory bank. He used the metaphor  of "having to remember where you put your keys". You've seen a particular image in your head before, now you need to remember how to get to the finished product. A lot of his shooting involves just taking his time. Slowing down. Working through his "Recipe" in order, which is:

Jerry Ghionis' recipe

1. Light
2. Location/Background
3. Concept/Action/Pose
4. Technique/Exposure
5. Finesse/Reaction/Expression

The most important element is always the light. Jerry talked a lot about being in amazing locations with bad lighting, which creates bad images, vs being in an ugly location with great light. The great light always wins. Always find the light first, and then move on to location.



He spent some time covering technique, marketing, selling, branding, posing, the schedule of a wedding day, people skills, album design, the list is very long. I will be covering many of his concepts in my wedding classes.

For the second portion, 20 of us headed over to the Proud Bird restaurant to watch and shoot with Jerry. We started off by just sitting down and chatting for about an hour. Then he fired up the camera, and we got to watch him work and see/hear his thought process as we went around the location with a model. What an amazing and unique experience. We got to see him work with on and off camera speedlights, flashlights, and available/ambient light.  Many people shot over his shoulder, but I choose to keep the camera packed up and just watch/learn/observe. I don't regret that at all. It was a fantastic way to learn what he looks for in his light, the direction of light, the quality of light, and how he shapes and aims his own added light. Many of you in my Thursday night lighting class will be the beneficiaries of several new ideas I picked up.

If you are not familiar with Jerry's work, he is a master at simplicity and finding/creating great light. He really does make it look easy. And he spends a great deal of time talking about not getting bogged down and tripping over too much extra gear. He shoots weddings solo, and generally with 2 lenses, his 70-200, and a 17-40. He also only shoots JPEG. Crazy, ain't it? ;-)

I'm feeling inspired, and a great need to get off the computer, so I will see you all soon.

Time to relax

Time to relax
Originally uploaded by fwisneski
What beautiful weather we have been having in So Cal these past 2 days. I've been off nights due to spring break at school, so I've been filling my nights working on content for http://fadedandblurred.com, walking the dogs with my daughter, and playing with my new iPad. (the iPad is amazing). As a matter of fact, this whole blog post is being done on the iPad. So here is my reward. Shot with my iPhone, and processed with Best Camera.

Next stop? San Diego on Saturday!

Action Sequences

Hey Everyone! A quick post today to tell you what's going on over at Faded & Blurred this month. We are starting our April photo challenge and this month is "Action Sequences". The winner gets a gift certificate for paper from Red River Paper!

I have included a couple of samples here so you can see what we are talking about. The image above is of a bride getting ready on her wedding day, and the 2 images below are of my kids playing in the water. These shots are actually pretty easy to do. The key is to set your camera up on a tripod to make this very easy to put together in Photoshop, or some other post processing program that allows you to work with layers.

These 3 shots were shot differently. The image of the bride was taken with a tripod mounted camera over a the course of 2 hours. Paying close attention to making sure she was never in the same place in the room when I took each shot. The images of my kids below were shot with a tripod mounted camera also, but I used burst mode and a remote trigger release to capture them quickly as they moved across the frame.

After the images were shot, I opened all the images I wanted to use for each image. I used the first image taken as my base, and using the move tool, dragged each sequential image onto the first. After I dragged the 2nd image, I used the eraser tool to bring up the parts I wanted to show from the layer below, and then I flattened each layer as I went along. It is much easier than it sounds, and there are probably better ways to do it, but remember, I am the lazy Photoshop guy, and I love doing destructive editing ;-) Now go try some yourselves, and register over at Faded & Blurred so you can get the info on where and how to submit your picks!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone!

No shoes required

Hey everyone!

Spring is here. And it is Easter weekend. For my family, this means Easter egg hunts, family gatherings, and time spent outdoors with the kids. All great opportunities to shoot images. The weather here in Southern California will of course be beautiful. Please take the time to capture/make/participate in memories!

I have been reading Chris Orwig's amazing book "Visual Poetry". A great read. Chris is a photographer and teacher at the Brooks Institute for Photography, and is a people shooter. This book provides lot's of inspiration and ideas for portrait shooters. While I was reading the section on shooting families, he was discussing locations, and something he said resonated with me. "The best locations require no shoes. They are simple, full of texture, and alive. These are the ones you visit and think, "Why don't I come here more often?""

I couldn't agree more, and especially with my children, if you don't need shoes, you are relaxed, comfortable, and playful. All great ingredients for a photo shoot. So get out there this weekend, and take your friends, family, clients to a spot where they can kick off their shoes, and relax. Have your clients ditch the Brooks Brothers suit and leather shoes and feel the sand between their toes. It's good for the sole, er soul :-)

 The images of my daughter were shot in my front yard and on our porch, with the Canon 5DMKII, and the 135 f/2L. No shoes were required...

See the light

20100331-IMG_0656-2
Originally uploaded by fwisneski

Hey everyone!

The image above of my daughter was taken in the afternoon sun light. I have a huge tree in my front lawn, and the light was coming through an opening in the branches. She never gives me much time to shoot her sitting still, so I had to be quick. The only adjustment I made in Lightroom was to increase the blacks.

Saw the light, put the subject in it, smiled at the capture later. Images like this are why I pick up a camera...