So our first wedding of 2013 is just over a month away!
We are SO excited!
But we are also super excited to say we’ve been in business in the United States for 8 MONTHS!!
That’s right – full-time, bona-fide American photographers living and working in the good ole US of A since August/September 2012!
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We received a couple of inquiries a while back as to just what our wedding gear looked like.
Well, it’s… unique
We don’t have a steady 70-200mm 2.8 as a lot of wedding photographers do. It’s a great lens, albeit heavy, and we rent it sometimes… but there’s a story as to why we don’t have one..
Maybe we’ll write it here sometime soon, in case you don’t already know it. It’s quite a story!
We do however have some our own assortment of gear that fits our style and how we like to shoot.
Now, as we’ve said before, gear really doesn’t make a photographer.
All photographers know the innocent but misplaced remark, “Wow, you must have a really nice camera to take such good pictures!”
(which is kind of akin to telling a chef the soup tastes so good because he/she has such an awesome pot… though no one means it badly
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We’ve met some fantastic photographers who shoot with third party lenses, third party flashes, or 5 year old cameras, or even older, beat up cameras from the 80s and 70s.
Without a person to operate it, a camera is absolutely worthless. It’s just a tool, waiting to be used…
A $5,000 camera with a $2,000 lens is not creative.
I won’t say it never will be creative, because one of our favorite movies is AI: Arificial Intelligence… but for the time being, a camera without a photographer is pretty much a piece of junk!
That’s where we come in…
It’s not about the gear, but what you do with the gear.
But that said, here’s a sample of some of our equipment…
Some of it stayed in the closet (stands, umbrellas, a lot of batteries and CF cards)
But this is part of what comes with us to weddings and sessions and what helps enable us to create something beautiful.
I think that’s it but I probably forgot something…
Now it may seem like a lot…
It is…
And trust us, we know other very respectable photographers who are successful with A LOT more…
And we know other photographers whose inventory list is a lot shorter, but whose client lists are extremely long…
To each his/her own..
But just as the creativity of the photographer cannot be understated…
The right gear for your style, and even more so, knowing that gear inside and out, whether Canon, Nikon, Sigma, or Contax or Mamiya, is VERY important if you want to be a professional.
And we want to be professionals. Well, we are professionals. But we want to keep being professionals!
It’s so important to know your gear left and right, inside and out…
To know how it operates with this lens vs. that lens, or what kind of images you can make with it in this kind of light vs. that kind of light…
And here’s an important note: if you want to be a photographer, while it’s very important that you do learn your gear, we believe it’s better to do it on your time, not on your client’s dime.
Before you accept money for your services, you really need to know what you’re doing. Everyone has to start somewhere, but it’s unfair to charge someone for your learning experience.
Just don’t stop making photos. Don’t just take photos, MAKE them.
I like that in German, there’s no such phrase as “to take a photo.” There is only, “ein Foto zu machen” – you have to MAKE a photo.
Pour your creativity into what you do, into how you see light, into how you compose… That’s what photography is all about, not about how long your zoom is or how many red rings you own.
We were recently out with a friend, a photographer who is really passionate about what he does. He knows light. He knows his gear.
He had a 5D Mk II and a 50mm 1.8 – a hundred dollar lens. But to watch him work, to see how passionately he went about making images… it wasn’t a surprise when his images came back and just knocked us off our feet.
Just keep shooting, and watch yourself grow, and then watch other people come to you and ask you if they can invest in what it is you do… and then keep shooting some more…
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Our friends and family laugh that we always have a camera with us and we’re always taking pictures..
But that’s what we feel we almost have to do.
We call ourselves professionals. People, couples, invest in us to play very important roles in preserving precious memories.. they invest in our art..
We are constantly seeking to reward that trust by constantly improving, and knowing what kind of image we will get in what kind of light without looking at the back of the camera..
Okay, we’re still working on that last one, but we’re getting the hang of it
And yes, when you’re trying to take amazing images, the cost of the tools does rack up.. but it’s minimal compared to the value of the service we provide, and the investment our clients place in that service.
We are so thankful, to God, to our friends, to other vendors who believe in us, and to clients who invest in our services, for the opportunity to use these tools for good.
PS. If you made it down this far, and you could really care less about photography gear, you just love pretty photos, then this photo is for you. August shares your boredom:
If you’d like to contact us with an inquiry for your wedding or couple session, send us a message at [email protected], or call 757-401-2551.
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Wedding and fine art portrait photographers serving Central and Southeastern Virginia.