Katie & Anthony - Wedding in the Hills

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Katie and Anthony’s intimate wedding nestled up in the beautiful Oakland hills. The day was filled with laughter, smiles, and love for this awesome couple!

Mykel and Jessica - Wedding Film

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Last week I had the honor of being apart of Mykel and Jessica’s big day down in Redwood City, CA. Please enjoy the wedding film above. I had such a wonderful time capturing their wedding day and can’t wait to see how their story continues together.

Moving Away and Starting Over

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A little over six months ago, Emily and I packed up our things and said goodbye to our home in Louisville, KY. (Read about it here: Making A Huge Move Across The Country). The biggest hurdle I am currently trying to get over is how am I going to start over as a photographer and filmmaker in a city where I only know a handful of people. It’s been hard, but not impossible. I’m happy to say that I have started booking a couple clients here and there, I, however, feel that over the past few years I’ve lost the vision I once had as a photographer and artist. I started photography as a way of telling stories. One of the best stories to tell is that of love.

Photographing weddings were something I strive for a ton back when I first began. When I got more and more involved with the photography world and community, there was this weird animosity towards wedding photographers. Feeling that peer pressure and my own inner voice saying, “oh you just shoot weddings, not cool editorials or ad campaigns,” I changed gears and jumped into shooting for magazines, small commercial clients, bands, etc. I basically told myself I want to shoot anything that did not have to do with people getting married. This is where I believe I went wrong.

Following the quiet voice of those in the photography community, I stopped advertising weddings. I deleted all my website galleries and quit telling people that I was taking weddings. Instead, all my energy went to what seemed more trendy to post on Instagram, big lights, cool sets, beautiful locations, published work. I’m changing this and getting back to my roots.

I’m not saying that if an opportunity came along to photograph a commercial or editorial job that fit my style and vision I wouldn’t take it. I am just making a mindset shift, no longing looking down on wedding photography, but embracing what I once loved to photograph.

Emily and I just settled down here in Oakland, and as I start over establishing myself as a photographer, I am going to refocus on what I once loved, telling stories. If you are a potential bride, groom, whatever, reach out, tell me your story, I would love to be there and capture the day you commit to loving someone forever.

Color Photography Is Making You Lose Your Imagination →

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Black and white photography is all about imagination. Color photography shows you the way the world is. The sky is blue, the grass is green, the sun is orange. Black and white forces creativity upon the viewer, it makes you imagine life how you want to. There’s a simplicity in the lack of color that cannot be explained. We’ve gotten lost as creatives and have become lazy letting color tell the story and create emotion, when subject matter, composition, and light should reign king.

A few months ago I challenged myself to shoot nothing but black and white. No color to make those sunsets pop, or cinematic grading to create an “emotion.” Instead of searching for colors that look cool and dramatic, I was forced to focus on what I was photographing. Thinking critically about light affecting my compositions and capturing the feeling of a scene in a photograph.

Now, I wouldn’t completely ditch color. We live in a color world and stories and emotions can be told with the correct use of color. However, the focus of color should not be the priority. Shoot for black and white. Shoot for captivating composition and good light. Strive to make an image that will stand its own without color. If your photo is bad, adding a whole new spectrum like color will not help.

Shoot for captivating composition and good light

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Here are some practical tips for shooting black and white and to really focus your vision.

Tip #1: Buy Some Film

We live in a digital era of immediate gratification and feedback, so this will be a good practice to learn to really hone in your craft as each image will cost some money and you won’t be able to review them until a lab processes them. Shooting black and white film will force you into making images with absolutely no color, only whites, greys, and blacks. It’s a great challenge and one that many photographers adopt permanently into their workflow.

You can find affordable used 35mm film cameras and film all over the web. My personal favorites are Kodak Tri-X and Ilford HP5. A great starter camera is the Canon AE-1 or a Nikon FM2.

Tip #2: Chase the Light

It’s a common phrase in the photo industry to chase the light. It’s a little overused, but for good reason. Chase that light, really chase after it and find ways to incorporate light with your subjects. Shoot in the morning and evening when the sun is low. Shoot at midday when it’s the harshest. Learn to use the sun in every situation.

Tip #3: Search for Shapes

This can go hand in hand with the using shapes to draw attention to a subject. I see this all the time in street photography where a subject is positioned around unique shapes and/or unique light. It creates layers in your image and can help focus you in on a subject.

Tip #4: Don’t Fall for the Preset Trap

Create your own style, don’t rehash someone else. Each artist is different and your work should reflect that. Black and white photographs are easy to post process, and most of the time don’t require a lot of work, maybe just some contrast adjustments.

Tip #5: Focus on your Composition

Probably the most important rule is to really focus on your composition. When shooting you have to worry about composition, color, and light. Shoot black and white and now all you have to deal with is composition and color. With the mindset of shooting for black and white you’ll focus less on your colors during the shooting time and more about how your subject looks.

These tips hopefully will help you find your style and perfect your compositions. When you shoot for black and white with the focus on your subject and composition, your images will be more captivating than if you just shot with the idea of fixing it with a color grade.

#SayNoToColor