Is your Shot List killing your wedding?
This is a delicate topic but one that I’ve been contemplating quite a bit over the summer. I want to preface by saying that it is not my intention to upset or offend anyone but, as is often the case, I feel compelled to go wandering into potentially controversial and uncharted territory. It’s in my nature I guess, I call it like I see it, and then I write about it on my blog and hope for the best.
So maybe the real question is why did you select the photographer you hired? Was it because you trusted them? Was it because the quality of their work spoke to you? Was it because you had faith in their ability to “see” and the technical know how to execute? If you answered “no” to any of these questions then my next question is why in the world did you hire that person?!?! If you answered “yes” to all of the above then why do you feel the need to micro manage?
Now before everyone gets all up in arms saying “but how do I make sure my photographer knows what photos are important to me?” Let me say that by all means, please make it clear who the key players are and what friends and family members you want to be included. This is not a discussion about family portraits. What I’m talking about is giving an artist a list of fabricated moments and expecting them to produce an organic product as if these items on a list, e.g., “mom fixing bride’s veil” and “bride pinning boutonniere on her father” somehow, in and of themselves, have meaning. The truth is what gives meaning to these moments is the event itself and the spontaneity with which these little bits of magic occur. You can’t fabricate life and you can’t fabricate love, which is what I assume you hired a photographer to capture for you, so why then would you attempt to quantify both with a list? All of our lives are an ongoing process, your wedding is a process and your photographer is there both to facilitate and observe, to see and to react, to have their finger on the pulse of the moment – the real moment, not the one on the list.
Do you see where this is going? Let’s just say that, hypothetically, you’ve given your photographer an impossibly long list of contrived “special moments”, how do you expect them to prioritize? Should they spend the whole day creating the shots on the list or should they spend the whole day paying attention to what is actually occurring? Do you want your photos to reflect the real wedding or the staged wedding? Most importantly, do you want to spend the day having a real wedding or a staged wedding? Spending the day performing items on a list just so the photographer can get shots that were appropriate in 1974 is probably not what you had in mind right? Right?
So what to do then? How do you effectively convey your priorities to your photographer without stifling their ability to do the job you hired them to do? Well first of all, you refer back to the questions in the 2nd paragraph and you hire that person. Once you’ve commissioned the photographer whom you feel is the most qualified, you have meetings and conversations with them, you get to know them and allow yourself to be known by them. Whoa! Sounds scary right? But it’s not, really. Think about it, who would understand you better, an intuitive friend or a stranger with a list? Lastly, you plan the day around your photographic priorities. If you want more getting ready photos then plan the time for it, if you want lots and lots of posed family photos then plan it that way, if photos of you and the groom together are the most important thing then plan with the photographer to make this aspect a key point in the day. There’s no right or wrong set of priorities. It IS your wedding after all and it should be how you want it to be but just be sure that your actions reflect your intentions. If you want the organic and real deal then have faith in the process and the magic moments will happen of their own accord.
-DeAnna Dimmitt
Dry Heat Photography
