Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Just call me the “fiance whisperer”.

Joe is a cool guy. But like most male fiances, he wasn’t the most keen about gallivanting around some park playing kissy face with his girl in front of some other dude (me) whom he barely knows.

However, I am blessed with a unique set of skills that allow me to put most males at ease and can even bring out their fun, softer sides that they might only reserve for private moments with their fiance.

How do I do this? How do I overcome our natural male machismo and get guys to feel comfortable showing their more sensitive sides?

Can’t tell you: it’s a trade secret.

Actually, it’s almost always the guys that claim they don’t like photos that end up being the most natural and loving in front of the camera. It just takes some encouragement!

I suffered my first injury in my entire career as a photographer at this engagement shoot. It was while capturing the shot of Wes and Lyndsie laughing as they were sitting in the grass, that I somehow laid down on a patch of tiny little cacti! I didn’t feel a thing as I was laying on my side with the camera low to the ground to get the shot, but when I got up…

Wow, that was awkward! It wasn’t a bad enough pain to want to quit or anything, but it was the kind of pain that when my shirt or camera strap brushed against my ribs on the left side and touched the little red quills slowly burrowing into my skin, that I wanted to yelp in pain. but yelping in pain would have let on to them that I was more hurt than I claimed to be, so I bit my tongue.

But other than having fire filled quills stuck in my ribs, it was a dream shoot! Chautauqua is very photogenic with the flatirons thrusting out of the gently sloping meadows, and very easy to move around in to get different shots. However, they do have signs that you can’t venture off the trails, and I figured it was some kind of “tread lightly” law and I proceeded to ignore them. In hindsight, the signs might also have been warning of the prescence of the very camouflaged and sneaky cacti growing just under the ground cover… a well, I’m a a little bit wiser now I suppose. You’ve got to suffer for one’s art, right?

Once again, Lyndsie and Wes proved that Char and I are doing something right lately. For about a year now, we’ve been adamant that there is no such thing as a “one size fits all photographer” and we’ve been basically screening our clients according to very simple criteria: our wedding couples must be open, affectionate, fun-loving people who don’t mind goofing around and being silly. This actually turns a number of interested prospects off, and we don’t book those weddings. But the couples who do find that shooting atmosphere appealing love it, and we’ve been having just dream weddings and engagement shoots with all of them!

The best part about that day was I still had one more engagement to shoot in Denver (photos to follow in another blog post…), so I jumped in my car and drove to the studio downtown, grimacing in pain the whole way.

So what did we learn? When signs say, “Do not leave trail”, it would probably be best to follow them…

So you’re engaged!

He’s the man of your dreams and you can’t believe the BIG day is finally going to happen. All of those daydreams of the perfect fairytale wedding are going to pay off in the most fabulous wedding ever…

But where to start? Let’s see… there’s setting the date, the save the date cards, invitations, dresses, tuxes, flowers, rings, wedding party, ceremony spot, reception spot, wedding planner, officiant, favors, table settings, event rentals, music, food, drink… photography?

Wow. I know what you’re thinking: “Where do I start?”

I’d recommend starting with the locales (the “where”), because sometimes you might get some great recommendations from the staff for your other vendors, or you may realize that you want vendors with experience working at your reception or ceremony sites. Personally, I think experience at a venue is a good attribute in a photographer, but not required. You should never base your decisions solely off of whether or not a vendor has worked at a location before. Because, yes, they may have experience there, but they may also be a huge a**!

Which brings me to the absolutely, positively, no-question-about-it, most important aspect of choosing the perfect photographer for your wedding:

Personality!

That’s right. It’s not style or price! Both are valid, but in my humble opinion they’re not as important, and here’s why:

You may absolutely love a photographer’s work, style, and price point, but if your photographer does not make you feel comfortable on your wedding day, then the photographs will reflect that. Make sure your photographer’s personality reflects your own preferred vibe for your wedding day (i.e. fun and sexy, or serious and reverent, etc…)

For example: Charlotte and I are goofy, fun photographers. We love to goof around and play with the couple and the wedding party. I often will speak with a vague artsy European accent as I ask my photo subjects to “give me sexy”, or “work it”… It’s always fun and I’m a clown because we’ve found that laughing fun couples take the best fun/sexy shots. I mean, what’s more sexy and romantic than a shot of a bride completely in love with her new husband and laughing gorgeously as he holds her in his loving arms? Nothing.

And how do you get a bride/couple to do that; to look great on cue? Do you shout out, “Laugh and look good doing it!”? Nope. That only works for professional models, and usually not that well.

To get real people to do what we want, we have to get them to really do it! So if we need a confident and sexy bride, we need to help her feel confident and sexy. If we want a playful shot of the couple, then we need to help them feel comfortable letting their guard down and flirting on camera. And the easiest way that we’ve found to get past most of our clients guards is to simply be honest, friendly, and playful. And it’s almost never a hard thing to do because it’s a wedding! It’s a big party anyway, and we treat it as such and simply make friends.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because it helps to illustrate my point that personality matters most. You may love our work, and you might love the idea of having photographs from your wedding that look like ours, but if my description of how we work sends a chill up your spine or curls your toes, then no matter how much you like our work, in reality we would be a horrible choice for your wedding photographers.

Brides who want a reverent, very serious day with an almost fashion photography atmosphere (where the photographers basically say all that I say, but the difference is they are completely serious about it!), would be making a huge mistake by booking us. I don’t have a serious bone in my body. I’ve been verified by the FDA as 100% pure fun-guy. So, if you’re a couple who wants to basically have a day long party and wants the photography to be fun and artistic, then we’d be perfect for your wedding.

So what’s the key to choosing the perfect wedding photographer?

Start with style and price, but always base your final decision on personality. It’s the formula for perfect wedding photography.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obcFhgKpkaM

A few days ago we realized something was different about our boy, Trystan. A strange, guttural gurgling would growl from his mouth and he would get this really devilish look on his face…

Is he Damian, Chucky, or the Taz the Tasmanian Devil? You decide, and please comment.