It’s almost time to say goodbye to 2016, what makes it a good moment to sit back and look back on what happened in my life as a wedding photographer. Again it has been a rollercoaster of emotions and events which got me at the most beautiful places among the most amazing people I could ever imagine. On thing however, which started out a few years ago, finally fell into it’s place.
People who have been following me and my work for the past years, might have noticed something about the look of my images. It has been changing a bit during the past three years.
For me it was a next step in the growing process of my passion for photography. Three years ago I decided on going back to film photography for all my professional assignments. I was already shooting film again for my personal work, but I felt like I needed to take another step in the right direction. That is why I decided at the beginning of the 2015 season to take the big leap and leave digital photography for what it was.
I hear and see many people talking about “shooting film” as it must have something cool into these words, but that wasn’t the fact for me. I knew the medium, it’s just a medium as digital photography is, since I was at photography school many years ago. So to me it wasn’t about being the cool kid on the block… no I wanted to go back to where I started out.
I had been struggling in my digital work with finding the right “look” for my images and delivering consistent work, consulting people and getting different answers every time again. And when I was like “OK” with my editing, it still didn’t feel like it were “my” images… it were digital images with someone-else’s filter applied to it. So I wasn’t really happy with that, which made it hard to me to believe I could make my clients happy with my work.
As stepping up as a photographer to me also meant giving my clients the best possible result, the move to film only felt better. The colours and softness that film images give me, are the perfect fit for the dreamy and romantic style my clients love. The unique feel every image delivers is just the extra little bit to treat my clients the best way possible.
Then there was also the item “time”… I only have one life (unfortunately) and I want to live it as good as possible for my clients and myself. Being able to spend more time in networking with other wedding professionals, getting into education, finding better products for my clients and travelling around different countries to shoot the most gorgeous weddings all added to the value I can offer now. This wouldn’t have been possible spending hours and days behind my computer struggling with the editing of my digital images and feeling unhappy with the result.
Agreed, it didn’t make my life as a wedding photographer more comfortable in the beginning, you just don’t see an “instant result”. But after shooting for years, building up experience, you just know what you’re doing and you know it will look excellent! You just can feel how a certain type of film will react with a certain kind of light… the perfect way you like it.
Reflect, get back to the essence of the story and deliver the images that bring your clients to tears of joy.
I’m at the point now that I feel confident in saying I can handle the majority of circumstances for my weddings, getting the result I feel happy with. Feeling happy to make other people happy.
Now, is a film image better than a digital image? No, I don’t think so… but I found my voice in film and that’s how I would love to tell my wedding stories. It slowed me down, got me thinking about how to shoot my frames, made my work more consistent, lifting myself and my images to a higher level.
One of my friends recently told me: “you gotta aim for the moon… and even when you miss, you’ll find yourself a star!” And he was right, why settle for less if you can get the best out of it? You clients only deserve the best!
Feeling good in what I’m doing… it’s not a “job”, it’s a passion. And I would love to share that passion with you for the following years.