As we roll into the busy wedding season, one of the most popular questions we get asked is this: “Where are we going to shoot our portraits?” which is usually followed up with an inexhaustible list of iconic local places and a slightly shorter list of distinctive architectural/environmental/visual anomalies nearby. These are all great things, and it certainly makes my job a whole lot easier. But as a general rule of thumb, I can’t count on these lists 100% of the time. For starters, some locations that may seem amazing, don’t actually photograph well on the actual day. In many instances, the converse may also hold true: some of the most undesirable locations at first glance may be one of the most awesome locations ever. My job is a professional photographer is to figure out how to make a lemonade empire out of a handful of lemons, because I’m not going to have the NYC as my skyline every day. I’m not going to get those fancy cobblestones in every city I visit either. In fact, I may not even get the luxury of daylight with some of the weddings we shoot. The most important thing that everyone should remember is this: the most crucial elements in the portrait are the actual subjects themselves. Everything else is secondary. If I can capture that special connection (either between me and them, or each other), then I’ve done my job correctly. We don’t need the NY skyline for that, or its cobble stones and fancy waterfronts for that matter. In the end, all we really need is the love, joy and happiness that they’ve allowed me to capture.
And an empty patch of grass wouldn’t hurt either :).
