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Congrats to Clint and Jill, who were married in Lethbridge on a cold winter’s day. After dropping my assistant photographer Jessica off to stay with Jill and taking a few images of her having her hair done, I took off to cover the guys getting ready, arriving just as Clint got out of the shower. That’s always the time you want your wedding photographer to show up, right? (Jill, we’ll talk about those photos later). After this I drove back to where the girls were getting the final touches done to their hair and makeup. The girls were—how shall I put it?—so wonderfully self-entertaining. They laughed and joked around constantly and were definitely a blast to photograph.

Their ceremony was held at the Southminster United Church and after the ceremony and some quick family portraits we headed to a new location just outside of Lethbridge itself for the rest of the photography. We stayed here for all of the portraits and I cycled through different people and arrangements so that everyone could take turns warming up in the limo between photos. It was cold! I can’t believe how well Jill did, seeing as she was so lightly dressed—wedding dresses aren’t really made for Canadian winters—and how long we were outside for. Apart from myself, she was outside the longest. And I was wearing a winter jacket and two pairs of socks! Well, and other stuff, too, but I don’t really want to list absolutely everything. Anyway, we had a lot of fun with the portraits, getting some cool fashion-style images as well as fun ones of people messing around and the wedding party roasting marshmallows.

The wedding reception was held at the Grandstand and it was decorated in a tasteful winter theme. We stayed until just after the first dance, also covering the speeches and cake cutting before we had to leave. By the way, Clint, I have heard that the last person the bride cuts the cake with is destined to be their soulmate forever.

I had a hard time narrowing down all our images to a few faves for the blog, but here are the ones I chose.

Here are some rambling thoughts from me on creativity. It is a very important priority of mine to do something in every shoot a bit differently to the one before and then never repeat those ideas again. I want my clients to have images that are unique to them. This is something I strive for constantly and it is probably the most difficult goal I face. Anyone can learn cool lighting techniques or occasionally catch some great PJ moments, but to be able to create images that have something obviously new about them is really tough.

Creativity is like sleep: you can’t force yourself to sleep, but you can create an environment where sleep is easy and natural. Here are some tips and tricks I’ve discovered over the years on how to tap into your natural creativity.

Newness is the essence of creativity, because something that is original is, by definition, new. A new environment, or new gear, or another photographer to work with all are great ways to stimulate your creative juices, because they introduce something new into your standard way of working. Change is good! Embrace it and see where it takes you.

The next creativity booster is what I call forced boredom. This works completely the opposite way to the previous point—but it does work! Some photographers complain that they have the same venues to work in every week. That’s not a drawback! There are an infinite number of ways you can see the same scene and photograph it. If you think about music, there are a lot of songs that use the same chord sequences, but they can all have their own sound. And, after all, there are only eight notes in the musical scale, but that hasn’t stopped people from creating their own unique compositions for ages.

The way this works is to spend way longer than your comfort zone in one area. First of all, you will see it as a challenge and you’ll come up with some halfway decent images. Next, your optimism will start to fade and you will push yourself, but nothing will turn out quite right. Then you’ll feel like there is nothing more to gain from this. After that you’ll be bored and annoyed. Push through this, because the next section is where the rewards are. Once you let go of all of your previous ideas you will start to see. You will respond reactively and instinctively to your environment. The scientific term for this, believe it or not, is called ‘being in the flow’. It is the state that people find themselves in where they can act quickly and at the height of their skill without thinking about it.

Another way to get yourself in a creative frame of mind is to check out the scene and think, “What can’t I do here”? Consider the impossible. Then think of how you can make it a reality. For example, say you are on a high bridge. You might think of someone leaping off it. Obviously, that’s not a good idea, but it might lead you to think about how you could make it work by using tricky camera angles or Photoshop skills. Or perhaps you could take that scene in your mind and think of how you could make something like it work in a different place. Or maybe it will lead you to a completely new idea that you can use right then.

My last tip for this post is to be inspired. Sounds basic, right? But we need to find the line between inspiration and emulation. I recommend that you don’t look for inspiration in other wedding and portrait photography. Search for it in other places, even abstract ones. Be inspired by colours, by sounds, by the wind, by a person’s laugh, through prayer, by whatever touches you.

So there you go. Be inspired.

Yay for us!

Our studio recently won the Canadian Bridal Network’s Best Wedding Photographs contest of this year, beating nearly 500 other entries. Actually, after the contest results went live I heard that the judges had short-listed a dozen of our photos for the winning spots, but in the end they decided to just use the one image below to represent our studio.

I met the couple in the winning image when I was looking for a wedding dress. Not for myself; for a bridal fashion shoot in B.C. The bride, Caitlin, works in Ten Fashions Bridal Boutique and when one of my models didn’t show I asked her to fill in. She brought along her fianceé, Kelowna DJ Dan Freeman, and so my fashion shoot turned into a real engagement session for them. Because they are an actual couple they brought great energy and true emotional connection to the shoot. Their wedding is in 2010 and will be awesome.

Thanks very much also to Trent from Eye For Detail Photography! I actually found out about this contest after receiving an email from Bride.ca saying that Trent had contacted them and told them to check out my work for the contest. Thanks, Trent!

I recently wrote some tips for beginning wedding photographers on the Digital Wedding Forum—which is a handy resource for anyone wanting to learn more about wedding photography—and I thought I’d share them here as well, for the starting photographers who browse my blog. There are a lot of people getting into wedding photography these days and most of them find out the hard way that it can be very difficult and a lot of work. Many of the problems that beginning photographers—and even quite a few pros—face seem to pop up regularly. So here are my tips on how to avoid some of the more common pitfalls before they occur.

How To Not Suck: Avoiding Common Problems

1. Say ‘no’. People will approach you for all kinds of photography. If you really don’t want to do something let them go to another photographer who will happily do this work for them. The clients are happy, the other photographer is happy, and you don’t get the stress of accepting work you don’t like.

2. Do your research before accepting a job. When someone asks you to do something that you think might be outside of your experience, look into it and get back to them later. If you think you won’t enjoy it or might stuff it up, either turn it down or set aside enough time to learn how to do it well before you take it on. Scout locations to see what you’ll need to have or to know.

3. Learn to do things that you might need someday. For instance, even if you love to shoot in natural light, it still won’t hurt to learn how to use flash well. You are not obliged to use it just because you know how, but one day it might mean the difference between sucking and succeeding.

4. Know your gear. Learn to shoot with everything in manual mode. Although there plenty of photographers who get wonderful images shooting in a semi-auto modes, the more you are aware of how the settings effect the results, the better you’ll be at quickly adapting to challenging environments or gear malfunctions.

5. Get paid as a professional. We all have to start somewhere, but not charging professional rates hurts everyone. Very cheap sessions might seem like a good way to get work now, but it will bite you in the future.

6. There is no such thing as a casual agreement. Get everything in writing and cover as many points as you can as clearly as possible. Even if you are the best of friends with your client, get them to sign a contract. No one remembers every last detail you thought you explained to them.

7. Have back-up gear. Have back-up locations. Have a back-up plan. Have an emergency number in case you get stuck.

8. Buy a GPS. Buy a UPS. Buy a screen calibrator. Buy a backup solution for your computer.

9. Half of the websites out there have a bio that starts something like this: “I’ve always had a passion for photography and I love that I can do my passion as a career”. You need to really ask yourself why you like photography. Be specific. This will it make you a better photographer, because you will identify areas that you want to work towards or stay away from. For instance, you might realise that you really like photographing kids, but not adults. That helps you to direct your career and make it more rewarding.

10. Finally, some compositional tips: get close, find the action, find the light, explore the space, and plain backgrounds are everywhere.

Congrats to Rick and Keely! They were married at The Norland Bed and Breakfast, which is a beautiful place for weddings in Lethbridge. It’s so green there in the summer! Their ceremony was outdoors with chairs set up on the lawn and a little pagoda for the wedding party to stand around. Rick and Keely had their dog there as part of the wedding party and I later asked a really stupid question when Rick requested some photos with the dog. I said, “Oh, that’s your dog, eh?” Uh, no, Mark, one of the groomsmen just felt like bringing his dog to the wedding. At the end of the wedding ceremony Keely’s dad played them a song on the guitar. I love her expression as she watches him play.

We stayed at the Norland for the photos, since it’s such an attractive and diverse location. Keely specifically asked for a huge group shot of everyone, so we did that first, with the help of her dad getting everyone organised. The whole wedding party was so easy to get photos of! And Keely was such a stunning bride I couldn’t go wrong. For one of the images below—the one of Keely and Rick with the reflection—there was a brief moment of confusion where I was saying to Rick, “Ok, serious shot now; no smiles” and he kept smiling bigger and bigger. He just heard the word ‘smile’ and thought I had been telling him to smile more! I ended up getting some serious shots, but I actually prefer the photo of him smiling.

Their reception was held at the Lethbridge Sandman Inn. The speeches for the evening turned out to be a bit of a roast Rick night, but he was laughing along. These are the best weddings, the ones with lots of fun, tears and laughing. I would be happy to shoot weddings like this every week.

This wedding was photographed on my behalf by my friend from Australia and wonderful photographer, James Day, while I was shooting another wedding. Check out his fantastic work at his website here. I edited the images, but since I didn’t photograph them you will notice a different style of photography this blog post.

Although I have met Amanda and Jeff I was not at their wedding, so I gave James a call and chatted to him about the wedding day. Here is Jeff and Amanda’s story, as told to me by James and then paraphrased by me for the blog:

“Amanda and Jeff were all about having fun and they were laughing and having a blast all day. I started the day with Jeff and the guys as they got ready at a friend’s place in Calgary. Jeff has actually been to NHL training and his groomsmen were all hockey buddies. (Amanda is also a pro beach volleyball player and recently she and her team won a big tournament in Vancouver). After watching the guys joke around and throw up (well, one of them, but we’ll keep those photos private for now ) I was off to join Amanda and the girls as they got ready at Amanda and Jeff’s place. Amanda was excited and dancing around to her R ‘n’ B music all morning. She’s also a fan of the America’s Next Top Model and every so often would strike a pose for the camera and really ham it up.

Their reception was wild! Once the dancing started up people were all over the dance floor and really getting into it. Jeff and Amanda had brought their dog to the reception and put him in another room, but from time to time he’d escape and run onto the dance floor. Throughout the night, Jeff was also defending his title as reigning beer-pong champ and I’m sure he kept his title. Thanks for having me at your wedding, guys. It was heaps of fun. ”

If anyone who was there has something to add, please put it in the comments area below! We can do the first ever community blog post.

Congrats to Jonathan and Sora, who were married recently in Calgary! We did a fun engagement session with them last February and I’ve been looking forward to their wedding since then.

These guys had two wedding ceremonies, both of them traditional ceremonies, though they were each very different. Jonathan has Ukrainian and Irish heritage and so the first ceremony was a traditional Ukrainian Orthodox ceremony at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary church, which has to be the most ornate and decorative church I have seen in Calgary. It’s stunning! This ceremony was followed by a traditional Korean ceremony in the church’s basement and it was completely different in so many ways. It was a kind of organised chaos from the photographer’s perspective. For one thing the guests were standing up fairly close to the small stage area where Sora and Jonathan were and often I had to weave through people to find a new position. And there were so many different and fun traditions, too, such as family members tossing small items of food to Jonathan and Sora that they had to catch in a large piece of cloth. It was certainly an energetic ceremony.

After the ceremonies and the family photos we headed off for photos. We took a few around some old sandstone ruins for a while before going back to the Hotel Arts, where we did casual images without any real setup or posing, other than for the final image of Sora, where we went for a more stylish vibe. These guys were very cool to work with and, although we had to work quickly because of time, we did get a good variety of images.

Their reception was across the road from the Hotel Arts at the Endevour Arts gallery and this venue, like the one in the last blog entry, had been stylishly decorated with the guidance of Lisa Hanslip from The Wedding Planner. We weren’t officially covering the reception, though they had kindly invited us there for dinner. Thanks for having us at your wedding and all the best, guys.

Lots of candid, photojournalistic stuff for the blog this week!

Congrats to Sandra and Karlo! I photographed their engagement session in Calgary back in April this year (link) and I’ve been looking forward to their wedding since then. They are one of the nicest couples you could hope to meet—really open and easy-going. You’ll be able to see that from the slideshow below, because just about every image with someone’s face in it shows them either laughing or crying, especially from the ceremony onwards.

The ceremony was outside at the Calgary Croatian Cultural Centre and the reception was inside. When we got there to set up I wondered if I had the right place, because there was only one person there! It turned out that everyone else was inside in the air-conditioning. It was a hot day! The area where the wedding was held was nice, but it was directly under the flight path from Calgary airport. Every few minutes the officiant had to pause as a plane went overhead. It was actually funny after a while. There were some red-leaved trees there and I loved how they fitted so well with Sandra’s hair colour and the colours of the flowers and dresses.

After the ceremony we took off for some relatively fast portraits at one of the parks overlooking the city. Because we were a little pressed for time during the portraits I grabbed Karlo and Sandra throughout the day to get a few posed shots whenever we could. You’ll see that in the slideshow. I actually do this at most of our weddings.

The reception was filled with love, singing, and teary speeches. Karlo and Sandra even sang a couple of songs themselves! Shortly before we had to go Karlo took me to the bar for a shot of his national drink, slivovitz. I haven’t actually had a drink in years and so I had something non-alcoholic, but it was a real honour to be treated so warmly.

So here is a slideshow of about 140 images from their wedding day. It takes a little while to load, but it’s worth it.

Here are some images from a bridal fashion session we did in Kelowna. There will be another follow-up post to this one later. You’ll see why.

Our models for the day were Dan and Caitlin—who are actually engaged to be married—Tonya, Steven, and Jesyca. They were all great to work with!

Dan is none other than “Tarzan Dan” Freeman, a radio personality from Toronto who now lives and works in Kelowna. For anyone who has listened to him and is wondering: yes, he is as crazy in real life as he is on the air. Dan, I am still bummed that I forgot to set up a shot of you being sprayed with the hose at Summerhill Winery. Caitlin was originally a last-minute addition to the shoot, but I am so glad we had her along! She was super helpful and excellent in front of the camera. Caitlin is a very skilled ballet dancer and has abundant natural grace. Oh, and I should mention on behalf of Caitlin that her actual wedding dress was not worn for these images. Dan and Caitlin had a fantastic chemistry and a great sense of fun. It was so easy to get cool photos of them.

Tonya was awesomely professional to work with! Even when I had her out in blinding sunlight on a yacht in the Okanagan Lake at noon she was striking pose after pose for me, with no complaints.

Steven was one of the most enthusiastic and patient guys I’ve ever had out on a shoot! We went way later than expected and he wasn’t in as many of the photos as the girls were, but he was so into the whole process and was great to have with us.

Jesyca was really quiet during the day, but always up for whatever I suggested, even my crazy evening shots in the Okanagan Lake. I think we got some very cool images, thanks to her.

More details and an update in a later post. I’ll stop this one now, before I hit my smiley quota.

Kevin and Jen are a wonderful couple who are just so positive and in love. They were married in Coaldale in a moving ceremony with lots of tears, smiles and laughs. We did the main portraits at a canola field in Lethbridge that I happened to drive past a few days before the ceremony and thought would make for a nice location. Don’t you love how the yellow of the flowers and the blue of the sky goes so well together? I love colour.

We also did some quick photos in the Henotic restaurant in Lethbridge and nearby there, too.

These guys could hardly keep their hands off each other and it was really sweet. They were so obviously in love. We have so many images of them laughing, smiling, and just gazing into each others’ eyes. I love it when we have couples like that! It makes it so easy to get wonderful moments of them together. We were only with them for their ceremony and then their wedding portraits afterward, but I wish we’d had more time, just to hang out and get those moments that were happening so naturally and spontaneously.

All the best, guys.