I often notice that some聽of the聽best lifestyle images聽that I come across originate from photographers with experience in shooting weddings. This particular discipline appears to enrich and inform their聽lifestyle photography and聽often mirrors聽the trends in lifestyle stock photography. I’m curious as to how talented wedding photographers harness and utilize聽their experience and how it influences their聽lifestyle stock photography or vice versa.
One of the main lifestyle trends聽in stock photography and advertising is for authentic situations and calls for real models naturally interacting in credible situations. I asked ,聽both a talented lifestyle and wedding photographer to聽comment on her experience of working in both.”Wedding photography naturally lends itself to photojournalism or lifestyle photography.” she says. “When I (Sarah) am photographing a wedding I spend 20% of my time in the director role, setting up group shots and posed portraiture (checking boxes on my shot list). The other 80% I spend being the observer, looking for natural interactions, emotions, details, traditions and subtleties that tell a story.”
I think this聽role of being observer is what lends itself so brilliantly to lifestyle stock photography and results in those spontaneous shots that appear聽so real and natural. It was also great to hear that logistical matters are not the primary focus when doing a wedding but more about documenting and observation which I imagine a lot of people don’t realise. Sarah goes on to add that “Storytelling is the cornerstone to lifestyle work and it’s all about discipline, anticipation and timing. When I am doing lifestyle work, I have to know how to read people and anticipate their behavior and I have to have quick camera skills because the moments I am looking to document are fleeting and cannot be recreated.”
Wedding photography can be聽as much about storytelling as well as posed group shots and as Sarah articulates so well ultimately it is about ‘stirring memories’. She continues that “When people forget about being photographed, they let their guard down and become more relaxed. Natural emotions and interactions begin to take place. When I capture one of those moments, I know it immediately and it’s magical.” When doing a lifestyle shoot she likes to聽go to her client’s home for a few聽hours and document their interactions like making pancakes, reading together, playing games, etc. This is so she can “dig a little deeper and photograph families in their natural environment doing real things because that’s what they will remember in 20 years”.聽See more about Sarah’s documentary and lifestyle work in this聽.
Wedding photography though can be perceived as being a stilted, posed operation, often lower down in the pecking order of photography. , nominated in a list of top 100 wedding photographers in 2015 and 2016, admits that the reason he opted to do wedding photography was so he didn’t have to shoot聽weddings in the way that it鈥檚 supposed to be done. “I did it so I could document, truly document, and not have to pretend to be all gaga crazy over wedding dresses and pretend to be wrapped up in the charade. Because really, weddings don鈥檛 interest me, people do, and weddings are a great place to photograph people…I鈥檓 not thinking like a wedding photographer, I鈥檓 thinking like a photographer, and to me there鈥檚 a whole world of difference”.
I have聽along the way聽come across some聽negative attitudes towards the craft of wedding photographer and I don’t use the word craft lightly here. In this article one of the is “to get rid of your wedding portfolio”. One perspective聽only of course but why knock this valuable experience which informs commercial photography so well? One photographer I met from the US and whose lifestyle work is truly聽outstanding was considering abandoning her wedding photography business. It was seen as being an obstacle in her being sought out for commercial photography even though she loved doing it (wedding photography). It’s a reflection, I suspect, of the unnecessary and unflattering elitism that can exist in the聽creative聽world. I would argue though that doing this kind of photography聽can transport聽lifestyle photography to another level just by nature of the rigid skills that it requires.
I wanted to end with the work of photographer Jordan Voth聽whose I came across聽while researching this. He has integrated both his wedding and lifestyle bodies of work under his聽commercial website. Both his and imagery are successfully聽harmonious聽and a聽reflection of 聽his talent for both.
Are you a wedding photographer and inspired聽to do more lifestyle stock photography? Do you think wedding photography helps lifestyle photography and vice versa? If you have any thoughts or comments let us know!
