Pro Photo Business Forum

Lets face it – wedding photography is a lot like your favorite meal, you love every bite and usually end up stuffing yourself. Before you know it that meal is on the weekly menu. It’s not long before you find that you don’t enjoy it as much as you used to and pretty soon your favorite meal is in the grip of the culinary doldrums. If you’re not careful, the same can be true of your wedding photography.

The problem? Simple, the more events you shoot the more you get into a groove, a comfort zone so to speak. You know what you’re going to shoot and how you’re going to shoot it before you ever arrive. You know the type of light you like and where to look for it. You know how you like your cake framed, the rings placed and what lenses you’re going to use. The brutal truth is you’ve gotten comfortable and for crying out loud why would you ever leave your comfort zone. After all it’s comfortable, it’s safe, it’s what your clients have seen and expect out of you so go ahead and give it to them. But honestly, how many times can you eat spaghetti in one week and still look forward to dinner? Okay, you really like spaghetti – I get that – but do you really want to eat it every day of the week?

Recently I was looking at a series of post on my blog and I noticed that I was really digging the spaghetti, and then I realized. “Hey, all I’m dishing out is spaghetti here.” Suddenly the spaghetti wasn’t sounding so good; in fact it was starting to look pretty boring. The longer I looked at my photos I began to see that I was getting into a rut; that something was missing and it seemed as though I was whirling my spaghetti on the end of my fork. Clearly it was time for a change. As I continued looking at the photographs I remembered that when I was taking them I wasn’t excited or motivated, hence the whirling on the end of my fork. Subconsciously I was thinking, “Didn’t I just have spaghetti last night? Yawn!!”

It’s times like this that I go on the hunt for inspiration. So I search the blogs of the photographers I admire. I study their work and seek to find ways in which to adjust my view of the world in front of my lens. Recently I came across a post that included a pose of the groom and groomsmen in the all too typical “flying V” stance. A spaghetti pose to be sure, but this spaghetti was different, this spaghetti had some Italian sausage thrown in it. Now I’m sure that most of you reading this blog have been to or heard of Strobist.com. If not you need to check it out. Anyways, even though the setup of the shot was all too generic, the lighting was exceptional. This photographer had learned to put something new in his spaghetti and it tasted good, really good…

So the point that I’m trying to make is this, you don’t always have to eat spaghetti, but if you do have to eat spaghetti throw in a little sausage instead of hamburger once in a while. You will find that you can put a new twist on an old favorite and your favorite meal will taste that much better.

Posted by Houston Wedding Photographer: Scott Villalobos

Houston Wedding and Portrait Photographer - Scott Villalobos www.rsvpstudios.com