I find it interesting that, since there are no barriers or requirements to becoming a wedding photographer, this genre of photography often attracts the least trained photographers in the industry. Yet, at the same time, there is nothing more difficult or more demanding than to photograph every aspect of a wedding. I have photographed countless fashion shoots, portrait shoots, boudoir shoots, pet photography shoots, engagement shoots, child shoots, even commercial shoots for popular TV shows. So far, I have not met any match to the demands that successfully shooting a wedding requires.

In addition, a wedding is a one-time event. Screw up, and there are no redos. To add to the mountain of stress, a wedding day is one of the most—if not the most—anticipated and important days of a person’s life. It is by far the most coveted rite of passage in most parts of the world, and it marks the beginning of a new family. My point is this: a wedding is never to be taken lightly! The wedding photographer bears the full responsibility of documenting every aspect of the most important day in a couple’s life; this should require a Ph.D. in Photography and People Skills! In a single day, we are required to be a photojournalist, portrait photographer, family photographer, fashion photographer, commercial photographer, a storyteller, part wedding coordinator, therapist, motivational speaker, cheerleader, task master, media manager, lighting expert, posing expert, technical master, and weight lifter (camera gear is not light)—all while working so fast and hard that in a 14-hour day it’s difficult just to take a short break. All of this activity is happening in a place that is not of your choosing and at a time of the day that is also not of your choosing. There is unpredictable weather and unrealistic time constraints. Furthermore, you are expected to predict the photographic needs of people you have never met, while being told what to do by the couple, the groom’s mother, the grandma, the “expert” bridesmaid, the guests who have had too much tequila, and the wedding coordinator who wants the photos yesterday. I am exhausted and overwhelmed just from writing that! But the sad thing is, I’m not exaggerating. This is a typical day in the life of a wedding photographer.

As you can see, wedding photography does not exactly benefit from a linear thinking process. There is no Step One, Step Two, Step Three, and so on. One minute you are a photojournalist, and the next minute you are posing the bride and her mother for a quick portrait. You must think of flattering light and be aware of their poses to avoid distractions and help them look their best. Immediately after that, you are photographing the wedding party, which is then interrupted by an unanticipated moment happening behind you that is worthy of capturing. There is no linear thinking here. For this reason, I began this book by saying that wedding photographs do not have to be perfect. You don’t have time for perfection. How could you, when you are constantly in survival mode?

But what you can do is be very skilled at the wedding storyteller skill components. The great thing about these skill components is that no matter how experienced you may be, you can always execute them differently and with more finesse than you did at the last wedding. Regarding the expert components, there is a mediocre way of applying them, and there is a mind-blowing way of applying them. It all depends on your decisions.

If you think about it, what separates one wedding photographer from another is the decisions they make throughout the course of a wedding. After all, most weddings all have the same parts. There is the bride and groom getting-ready segment, the ceremony, the bride and groom photos, family photos, cocktail hour, and finally, the reception. Naturally, there are some differences depending on religion, culture, etc., but simply stated, all weddings are made up of the same parts. It is how you photograph these parts that separates you from other photographers. Chapter 18 is proof that the most subtle decisions can have a great impact on a photograph. A decision as small as changing perspective can turn an ordinary photo into something truly memorable. Crazy, right? Having the forethought to place or include meaningful objects—such as a photo of a loved one who has passed away—within your composition of the bride getting ready can evoke powerful emotions from clients.

People say that their wedding photos are their most precious possession. Physically, a photo may be little more than a piece of paper, but the memories that the photo captured are very real to the person holding it. As time goes by, those memories you so carefully photographed will become more and more cherished. The emotional value of a physical photograph increases with time. So please, out of respect for what we do and the life-long value our work has, insist on printing your work for your clients. Do not let clients just walk away with an electronic version of their photos. That is truly a shame. It is our duty as photographers to ensure that people feel the emotional power of holding a physical print of their loved ones in their hands. Digital files on a USB stick just do not compare.

I want to tell you a story. Wedding photography has completely changed my life. Because of wedding photography, I have traveled the globe photographing the most amazing weddings imaginable. I have met wonderful people and have been exposed to great food, cultures, and most importantly, people’s lives. When I started this adventure, I remember crying at the sight of master wedding photographers’ slideshows. I felt a deep wave of desperation and frustration when I was photographing a wedding and, for reasons unknown to me at the time, I couldn’t achieve a single photograph that was nearly as beautiful as the photos of those masters. I would return to my computer after every wedding and create a folder with all my “bad” photos. It was disheartening to see that the number of images in my “bad photos” folder far exceeded the number of photos in the “good photos” folder. Some problems were technical, while others were due to the pose or the lighting. There were so many issues with my photos that I felt overwhelmed. The most elusive aspect of wedding photography that gave me the most trouble to figure out was the ability to take photos that contained great emotional impact. I yearned for the day when I would witness my clients experience a powerful surge of emotion when they gazed at a photo I had taken. That goal kept me motivated and on a never-ending quest to improve my skills as a wedding storyteller.

I want you to know that all the storyteller skill components in this book were created by discovering, through much tenacity, the nuances that confront any wedding photographer during the course of the day. With hard work and dedication, I began to discover a better way of counterpunching the countless challenges by using every element within the expert components.

This book will continue to grow with you as your skills improve. There are always more creative ways to execute an expert component, and later to combine multiple well-executed expert components in a single photograph. The journey must start somewhere, but it never ends. The photographs you capture for your clients throughout your journey will become more and more marvelous! Take a look at the following three photographs, which demonstrate my continuing progress over a period of 10 years. The images contain similar subject matter but are taken with progressively better skill and more subtle decision making.

Figure C.1: I took this photo when my decision-making and ideas were very primitive. The groom holding up the bride is a classic pose, but some photos of this pose are executed far better than others. The devil is in the details. I saw this golf course and thought that it would be a good location for a photo. Why? Because I didn’t know any better. No one had taught me about meaningful context, posing, or lighting. I also did not notice how uncomfortable the groom was from bending his back so much to lift his bride or how the bride’s right arm was blocking half their faces. I was also completely clueless that the lighting was terrible. It was just flat, ugly lighting. The white limousine on the right side of the frame was their getaway car. I had no idea what to do with it, so I did nothing. There were some trees on the left side of the camera, but they are just trees, right? What am I supposed to do with them? Little did I know then that the unused getaway car and the trees would become elements I could use to create a truly magical photograph using that very same pose!

FIGURE C.1

Figure C.2: Some time went by and I tried the pose again at another wedding. Because I took the time to analyze the pose from the first photo and noted what was bothering me about it, I was excited that this time I would be able to better address the pose. I instructed the groom to lift the bride from beneath her bottom so that he could gain much needed leverage. Due to that decision alone, he was able to keep his back in a much more natural position. I also remembered that the last time the bride’s arm was blocking part of their faces. That led me to my next decision, to ask the bride to always keep her elbows directed toward the ground. This is much better, right? My lighting knowledge was still quite primitive. However, I did notice and use the building light above the couple, which led me to discover how lovely her head looked when backlit by a light source. You can easily see the rim light around her head, and it looks beautiful. It is too bad that the light wasn’t powerful enough to create that rim light around their entire bodies from head to toe. The green branches on the left side of the frame didn’t add much to my composition, but I was still happy with the progress I had made.

FIGURE C.2

Figure C.3: Some ten years had gone by, and I was asked to photograph a wedding in Sarasota, Florida. The bride was incredibly friendly and sweet, and I jumped at the chance to work with such wonderful people. I flew from Beverly Hills to Sarasota only to find out that there was a hurricane warning for the day of the wedding. It rained fiercely all day. The weather was so bad that everyone had to move inside for safety, not just to avoid getting wet. The bride was in great spirits but sad that her beautiful outdoor wedding was completely blown by a hurricane-level storm. I was determined to make it up to her!

I may not be able to control the weather, but I can summon the skills I worked tirelessly for years to develop. It was the end of the reception, and the rain was still relentless. I noticed that the getaway car driver was outside under some cover smoking a cigarette. Then it hit me! Remember the first photo with the white limo getaway car that I did not use? I ran up to the driver and asked him if he would move the car and park it in front of this specific tree. Confused, he asked me, “Why that tree?” I responded, “Because the tree will work well as a compositional element that will add visual interest to the photo. Without that tree, there would just be empty darkness.” Actually, the main reason I wanted the car parked specifically in front of the tree was because, by utilizing my circumstantial light skills, I recognized that the giant white tent that had been erected to shield the guests from the rain would also be an amazing natural reflector if it was struck by a strong light source.

So now I needed a strong light. Helper light for the win! By this time, using off-camera flash was a breeze. The driver had left, so we couldn’t turn on the car’s headlights. Solution: I decided to use two off-camera flashes. One flash would backlight the bride, groom, and rain; the other would be pointed toward the car’s headlights to give the appearance that it was the car illuminating the couple and not some fancy off-camera flash technique. This gives the viewer the impression that the light is actually coming from the car. My assistant stood behind the coupe with both flashes pointed in their respective directions. When the flash illuminating the couple fired, it would send the light all the way to the giant white tent and then reflect beautiful, soft light back at the couple.

Then I noticed that the car had a wooden “Just Married” sign in the window facing the tree. That gave me the idea to implement the “Story Framing and Meaningful Object Placement” expert technique. I grabbed the sign and moved it to the window facing my camera knowing that the reflected light from the tent would be strong enough to illuminate it.

FIGURE C.3

Finally, I remembered all my notes from the previous examples about how to create a beautiful version of this pose without crazy elbows or unflattering postures. Once everyone was in position, the groom lifted his bride up perfectly according to my instructions, and they smiled. Magic had happened! The flashes fired at the perfect moment to capture their loving expressions. The tent reflected light back to the car, the couple and the rain were beautifully backlit, and I had created the most magical photo of my entire career!

Figure C.4: Imagine how I felt when I received a call from Dan Neri from Canon USA, informing me that Canon wanted to place this photograph on the homepage for Canon USA. All those years of hard work, trial and error, and a deep desire to continually learn and improve rushed through my head along with feelings of overwhelming joy, honor, and gratitude. Who knew that this young 26-year-old high school business teacher who had never owned a camera would one day be honored with his photograph on the front page of the largest imaging company in the world?

FIGURE C.4

The pursuit of learning never ends. Regardless of where I am in my photography career, I will always be a motivated student of photography. No matter how well you can execute the expert components, there will always be new, more innovative ways to do so, ones that haven’t been thought of before. Come tomorrow, we will all become even better wedding storytellers!

Stay curious.

— Roberto Valenzuela, Canon Explorer of Light