• Learn wedding photography in a weekend, I think not!

      4 comments
      21st Jan 10
      Lesley Pattinson

    So just last week I attended a photography trade show so I could decide on my new album supplier…. more about that later. One thing that did concern me was the amount of companies there claiming that they could make you a wedding photographer in a weekend for a fee.  Now this intrigued me having studied the craft of photography and then spent even more time getting enough experience to actually be a wedding photographer; so I pitched up posing as a novice and asked a few questions, the thing that stuck me most was not one of said companies cared whether or not you could take a photo, just that you had the desire to make some money on the weekend.


    Needless to say this concerned me, I know as brides and grooms its hard to choose a photographer and you are putting your faith in the photographer you pick to capture your day and create images that blow away any your guests could have taken.
    Sadly the term reportage photographer seems to have lead the way for people to think they can document a wedding without any skill or imagination to create a fantastic wedding image.  Lets not forget the reportage is a term used by press photographers who are going to the front line or similar to document an event and get it into the eye of the world.

    Now you could argue that you “document” a wedding and this is true but you also need imagination and creativity to contrive a shot that is full of emotion and show cases the beautiful day that is your wedding.

    I think for some people that if your not photographically minded you do not know a good photograph from a bad one until you see an outstanding one, so with that in mind I would like to show you what an outstanding wedding photograph can look like, and so hopefully help you spot the said photographer who qualifies in a weekend and then shoots randomly throughout the day classing it as reportage.

    I have a couple of photographers to show who are world class and I start with Janis Ratnieks an international award winning photographer based in London, UK, who is an inspiration in the world of wedding photography in my opinion, I leave it for you to decide for yourself but have no doubt you will agree.
    Thank you Janis for letting me use your work to help me get my point across, if you would like to see more of his work his website is www.janisratnieks.com its certainly well worth a visit.

    Believe me when I say this type of creativity and skill can not be learned in a weekend.  This is what wedding photography is all about, beautiful, stunning and intimate images.
    All the images below are copyright Janis Ratnieks, all rights reserved.
      weddings