What will you get if you book me for your wedding?

It may seem unnecessary to spell out in words what I believe my ‘style’ to be, as there are galleries on my website, as well as many, many more images on my blog, but I’d like to talk about why I shoot the way I do now.

When I first started my photography career, I was wrapped up in the ‘look’ of the image.  By this I mean the colour, the technical aspects of exposure and composition and where the light fell onto the subject.  While all of this is, of course, important, I realise now that I wasn’t concentrating fully on the emotion of the moment. The more photographs that I took, the more I realised that I needed to shift those priorities.  More important than all of those aspects is the moment captured.  The eye contact between the subjects, the story the image tells and the physical contact between people.  If an image isn’t perfectly sharp or perfectly lit, but tells the viewer something about the subject or about the feel of the wedding day, then it’s a valid and important image.  Please don’t get me wrong, I always strive to get beautiful, sharp and appealing images, but they must also contain that certain something that makes you remember the image afterwards.

For example, take this photograph of me as a child, with two of my three sisters.

 

 

It isn’t technically perfect at all.  There’s a light leak over me on the left and it’s underexposed, but it says all you need to know about our three characters.  Tanja loved biting her nails, Tamsin was always curious and I was a big reader as a child.  To me this image would not have said as much about us if we had all been staring at the camera with polite, fixed smiles on our faces.  The only deceptive part of the image is that we aren’t at each other’s throats like we actually were most of the time 😉  It’s an unusually peaceful moment in the Mavric household, but an equally important one to capture.  It’s also an example of how eye contact isn’t always necessary.

So, having said all that … how will I shoot your wedding? My aim is to document your day as truthfully as I can.  As far as possible I will try not to direct you or the action (except for a handful of necessary group shots). However, in order to provide you with images of the details of your wedding that you’ve spent a lot of time and effort on, like the table centre pieces, bouquets etc, I will be slightly more hands on. There may also be instances when I might move the bride into better light while she is having her make-up done, but I will do my best to keep this kind of ‘interference’ to an absolute minimum.

It’s my opinion that the best wedding photographers are the ones whom you barely notice during the course of the day.  We’re not there to be ‘important’ and to bark orders at guests.  The less involvement we have, the truer our images.  What does this mean for ‘couple portraits’, though?  It’s my experience that even if it’s only thirty minutes away from your guests, you will look back on those photographs and be happy you did them.  Of course, if you’d rather not do this, I completely understand. Remember, it’s YOUR day, and you don’t have to do anything photographically that doesn’t suit you. This is even more reason to choose your photographer carefully.  It’s one of the few areas of the stressful wedding planning process where you might actually get to have some control. Fortunately, I believe it’s the most important decision you’ll make!

So, if you would like to contact me about your day, please feel free to call me on 07866 596 333, or contact me by email at kirsten@kirstenmavric.co.uk.

xxx

 

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January 16, 2012
Well said, I could not agree more with this article and this is exactly how I strive to be. Great image :-) Beautiful memories
January 16, 2012
Very well put. That picture is adorable too!
January 16, 2012
Your comment about the best photographers being barely noticed is so true, these are often the one's that capture the best moments of love & tenderness! Love the way you talk about shooting weddings :)
January 16, 2012
Very wise words! Love the photo too!
January 16, 2012
Well said Kirsten, and a great photo!
January 17, 2012
Perfectly said Kirsten - and a lovely image to illustrate too.
February 13, 2012
Perfectly said, and I adore that image of you and your sisters!
February 13, 2012
Really lovely!
February 16, 2012
My exact sentiment about how weddings should be photographed - your words and your childhood image really drive that point home. Often the images shot with minimal interference shows the multilayered truth of the dynamics at play within families, and showcase their personalities much better, and feels far more authentic.