Seaton Shoots Photography News

Where is this bandwagon headed?

Where did this come from, and what do you think about it?

It appears the last bastion of traditional wedding photography is giving way and being popularly re-invented. Even discovered for the first time. Certain areas of the country seem to be have been far more into having formal bridal gown portraits made than others. Photographers in a number of areas apparently didn’t even offer bridal portrait sessions until recently since there was no demand. Some still don’t.

As a result there were a lot of new photographers drawn in with the digital age who did not even know that brides would, could, should have a portrait made separate from the hurly burly of the wedding day.

Fortunately for me, I came to Tennessee in 1995 where it was the norm to have a 16×20 bridal included in top packages. While bucking the norm was certainly my inclination from the beginning, I was not in a position to turn away brides wanting something extra like a portrait. Formal portraiture however – studio soft boxes, fussing over hands and sculpting people – was not my thing at all. Mostly my reaction to this product was Eeegch!!

So, what to do? All I really needed was to find permission to do my thing. I already knew this was possible by having done it with the wedding day itself and telling the whole story instead of cookie cutter packages that everybody else was doing.

Bride In a Tree? Really? Read to the bottom to find out

The trick was persuading brides to go ahead and do a portrait before the wedding so we had enough time to really play. And to have the portrait made outdoors.

“What? No way. You’ve got to be kidding? Go outdoors before the wedding with the gown? They’ll never agree to that!”

This is what most photographers of the time thought of this. And they were right! For them. You see, they didn’t really want to, so they never asked or found a way to make it work. They liked the studio. It was easy and risk free. Twelve, fifteen, if you were lucky 24 images were created. Cookie cutter, pose number one, pose number two, put your hands here …….. eeeeeegch!!!

Counting a bridal store and two weddings in Tokyo, I’ve now been photographing dresses and brides for fifteen years. I feel pretty safe in saying that every single one so far has not expressed the desire to mess up the dress.

Go out and have fun in the dress, YES.

With the sole intent of gettin’ it dirty for the sake of different? aitch-eee-double-hockey-sticks NO!

If you want to wreck the dress, I am not on a mission to persuade you otherwise – I am dead certain we can come up with some fun ideas. Be a part of the creative process. I would even hazard to guess that you likely will have seventeen of your own. And if you’re anything like me, at least three good ones.

All, allllmost all, of my bridal portrait sessions are on location, outdoors.

Weather permitting. Unless of course you have different plans.

having some fun, being yourself and showing off the form of the dress on you

And so, either way, plan on getting your dress cleaned afterwards.This does not mean we’re heading out with the goal of totally mudding it up!! ….unless, of course ……. you have different plans.

The focus of the session should be on having some fun, being yourself and showing off the form of the dress on you. Even if you don’t want to go Xtreme, worrying about every move you make is definitely going to cramp your personality from showing through in the portraits.

Now and then there’ll be a location with a stream with stepping stones, a waterfall etc that naturally make a more interesting backdrop and requires a little tiptoeing around to get into the best composition.

Yes, she really did

And then there is Adrienne. Our Tarzan and Jane bride. Even after passers-by pointed out it was poison ivy she was holding onto, up she went. This is as high as she was able to get in the tree, which I’m sure is about twice as high than I could have! I thought about photoshopping her higher in the tree, but figured where she was at was crazy enough.

No animals were hurt in this stunt. And the dress was not trashed. Not planned, just spur of the moment right at the beginning of our walk around the park.

What does trash the dress mean to you?