I take a lot of pics at weddings, ask any of my clients, you tend to hear a lot of clicking. A couple of reasons really and here I feel like I’m breaking some secret photographers code, lol (ok, for those that asked it’s a reference to an ad for hair products on SA tv). Firstly, I’m really uncomfortable posing people, the standard wedding poses are just so cheesy. I usually have the second shooter direct the couple or if I’m feeling particularly inspired I might direct them myself. This usually consists of stand over there or stand under there, can you guys hug or kiss. That’s pretty much it. If someone else is doing the posing I’ll usually shoot the moments in between, the moments when the couple aren’t concentrating on the photographer, when they are having a chat, sharing a joke or just releasing adrenaline – they just got married, they are going to be holding hands, looking into each other’s eyes, doing whatever it is that they normally do. I’ll let them have their moments and photograph those. Real moments, real expressions. I want my couples to remember their wedding day, not their photographer telling them what to do. I used to shoot a lot of bands PR photos and album covers, and the guys often used to say, is that it? Yeah, that’s it, I look for moments, I don’t make them.

Secondly, I shoot a lot because I shoot photojourn style, which means I don’t tell people to smile, say cheese or whatever photographers are supposed to tell people to do. So 60% of the photos will have closed eyes, funny expressions, lips being licked, you name it someone will be doing it. I look for the one where everything comes together, prefect expression, natural pose, real moment. Sometimes that moment is when the person is looking at the second photographer and posing for them. Mostly it’s the moments in between when people aren’t aware that they are being photographed. I’m not very fond of albums filled with people looking directly at the camera and smiling self-consciously. Having a second photographer frees me up to catch those moments. These are the moments that you see on the blog week after week.

Thirdly I shoot a lot because I use a lot of photos in my albums. An average package will have a 60 page album in it. A 60 page album is 120 – 150 photos. When I was a photojournalist at the Mail & Guardian, we used to look at one usable photo per six photos shot. So even by that criteria you’re looking at 900 photos to get 150 usable images. I’m looking for 150 great images. So I shoot closer to 1500 images per wedding. I’ve heard stories from clients who knew someone, everyone always knows someone with a wedding photographer horror story, anyway these friends had 200 pics as part of their package. Their photographer on the day shot less than 500 (the exact number was a matter of some dispute) and they had to pick the 200 prints that they wanted. They found less than 100 that they said were acceptable. I always tell my second shooters to shoot first, fiddle later. Always take three images in a row before looking at the back of the camera. There’s nothing worse than taking an amazing photo and finding out that the groom blinked at just that moment. Grooms are psychic that way, but they don’t often get it right three times in a row.

Lastly, I shoot for albums, and that means that although you may be able to tell a story with a single image, that image is going to get very lonely on a page on its own. There are some images that are so amazing that they just don’t need a friend, I call them the hero shots. My brother calls them a-boy-and-his-pony but he’s always been a strange child. Most pages though, have between two and six images on them, you need to create story with those six images and you can’t do that when they don’t work together. Sometimes its just a sequence of the couple packing out laughing at something only they know about, like that cool spread of Thandi and Tom’s wedding at Mokolodi. Those are the moments I look for.

Spent the day listening to my old Primal Scream albums. So many memories intertwined in those albums, Screamadelica will always remind me of Ms Willmers and Cape Town.

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These images are protected by copyright, no use of any images shall be granted without the written permission from Dror Eyal Photography.

This entry was posted Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 8:29 pm and is filed under Info.