One of the most flattering things that can happen to an artist is to get the recognition of their peers. It is really something special when a photographer that you work with and for asks you to take their personal shots. And so it meant a whole lot to have been asked to handle such things for both of the photographers I’ve worked with this year.
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I have been working with Rob Nicholson of Humbled Eyes Photography. Well… this summer was his turn to get married. I was thrilled when he asked me if I would shoot certain parts of the day for him. He had already hired a photographer to shoot his wedding, but the photographer was not going to be able to cover their rehearsal and certain parts of the day because he was working alone, and was not going to be arriving until the morning of the wedding itself. The rehearsal ended with a bonfire on the beach at sunset, which was both a lot of fun, and a technical challenge to photograph. The next day, I photographed the guys getting ready and the pre-ceremony festivities that took place.
A month or so after, Stephanie Sherwood of Voch Image asked if I would take some portrait shots of her and her husband. I had been working with her for a bit, and she liked my work, which was quite flattering, since she has a great eye and is an outstanding photographer. They both loved the beach, and she had a couple of spots in mind, so we arranged the date and time to meet for the shoot. As luck would have it, there were some heavy storms coming through, and when we met, we were not sure if we would be able to pull it off. We wound up shooting anyway during the breaks in the rain, and it was OH so worth it! I was glad we decided to shoot anyway. The dark clouds and stormy ocean provided a very dramatic backdrop to the pictures, like the one above.
We had been emailing back and forth about the shoot a few days before, and she had mentioned that she wanted to try and go for a look similar to the David Beckham shoot that was done for W Magazine in August 2007, only not quite as… risqué? The idea was, she like the style, but the extent of it was a bit much for what she wanted. The compromise? Looks rather like this. I was happy with it; so was she. And that… is the best of both worlds.
So did these things do wonders for my ego? You bet. I was honored and flattered to have been asked. It honestly gave me the warm and fuzzies to be able to do these sorts of things at all; to be chosen to photograph a wedding, or to take the portraits that will be sent to family and friends. Even more so when it’s someone that you know and work with in the capacity of a photographer, because they have seen not only the glory shots, but also the not-so-glorious ones as well and like your work enough to ask. Am I bragging a little here? Yeah… I am. A little.
