Making the leap from street photographer to wedding photographer might seem like a weird career arc for some people. Aren’t street photographers grizzled old photojournalists who just want to capture real life through the barrel of their lenses that look down on wedding photography for its posed and predictable nature? Maybe some are, but not me. I see the amazing similarities between the two genres and use one to strengthen the other.
In street photography, the goal is to capture real life, in real time as accurately as possible. Many street photographers even shoot in black and white to remove the distraction of color and boil an image down to its raw emotion. It takes a lot of practice and a trained eye to see these situations on busy streets and city centers.
About eight years ago I became interested in the idea of street photography. I got out there and my first images weren’t the greatest, but I stuck with it. I got better. I learned to identify real emotion and real situations. I learned how to capture those moments with only a few seconds notice. Then sometime interesting happened. As I started to post these images to Instagram, I started getting more and more followers. Eventually thousands of them in fact. These street photography images were getting hundreds of likes.
Then I had the opportunity to photograph a wedding. I was blown away. This was a situation where there were literally hundreds of opportunities to capture these amazing candid photographs full of real emotion and everyone looked amazing in their best formal wear. It was almost like I found a way to cheat to capture the types of images that I’d spent years perfecting.
I immediately recognized how valuable my street photography skill set was at a wedding. The ability to identify these moments and quickly control my camera to capture them was already second nature.
The best part? The clients loved the images. There was also an unexpected side effect. Because we are capturing these awesome images throughout the day, that means there is never a massive 2 hour portrait session, which means the bride and groom actually get to enjoy this amazing event they spent months planning.
I always tell people that the photos you’re going to look back on twenty years from now aren’t the posed portraits where someone spent 20 minutes bending your body a certain way. It’s the photos of you having real emotional moments with your spouse, friends and family that will bring a smile to your face.
If you want to talk about how I can bring this unique skill set to your wedding day, shoot me a message and let’s talk.