Difficult recepton venues

[gretchen_steele]

My dilemma - due to the rural area and the lack of available banquet halls

etc . most of the receptions are held in VFW halls, Lion's club halls, old

closed school gyms.... lighting problems are not usually huge..and I shoot the

same venues regularly enough to have those under control..it's trying to

position myself, and compose shots that don't reveal the less attractive

elements of these halls and receptions...these just aren't very attractive

surroundings, dinners are served buffet style in stainless steel industrial

looking equipment, styrofoam plates and the ladies auxillary draped some crepe

paper... You're getting a mental image of this I hope? I need to improve in

this area - and am currently at a loss...I want the bride to have photos that

makes her reception seem magical and beautiful even though that may not exactly

be the way it was in reality...that's how it was for her.

 

any examples or insipiration would be greatly appreciated!

[bill_b2]

Start selling wedding/reception design services and decorate or accessorize all you want. If the people don't want it, so be it.

 

Or suggest the need for a volunteer Community Decoration Committee to help out with different events, public and private. I'm sure there is untapped talent wherever you are waiting for an opportunity to show their stuff. Have an annual decorating contest, evaluating events from the past 12 months.

 

Try some colored gels on strobes or floods to tart up some plain walls.

 

Drag the shutter on many flash shots to get rid of the backgrounds.

 

Get closer to the buffet line subjects so the pix do not show the buffet equipment. Same for other shots.

 

Shoot from high up or down low to isolate the subjects from the background.

 

Shoot wide open to reduce depth of field, fuzzing out the surroundings. May need to get a high speed lens(f/1.4).

 

You want magic? Get a Cokin filter catalog. Just don't hold me responsible for the outcome.

 

Bill

[daydreamsart]

Shallow depth of field and creative lighting can do a lot, and then there's always the B&W conversion that hides a lot of ills. You said lighting problems are not huge and you have that under control. What is the lighting like that you've been using in those places? Getting the shot with whatever the light is one thing, but maybe changing the light is what you need. Do you have sample images of what you've been doing with these places to show us? Great photography can be done in parking lots, garages, bathrooms, kitchens, etc.

[daydreamsart]

Beautiful portrait, David!

[picturesque]

There is also the possibility that your brides and grooms are perfectly happy to see their surroundings as they were. I have to think that if they wanted Ritz Carlton magic, they would have held their reception at the Ritz Carlton? Not that you want to play up the details, but there is a certain charm to the plainer, or home made surroundings because the wedding was supported by friends and family who took the time to actually decorate and make things for the couple--sentimental value may trump hotel chic, in other words.

[bdp]

Ok, spill your lighting/setup for that VFW post, it really nice.

[karina_a]

Hi Gretchen,

 

I think this is a great opportunity; exciting even. The most picturesque backgrounds for me, are ones with a bit of grit to give the photo credibility. It says: this really happened, these people are real, there is real emotion and real relationships here.

 

To me, photos with grit are the ones that stand the test of time and become classic. The photos of all the great PJ shooters (Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa, Willy Ronis, Andre Kertesz to name but a few)contain grit and reality aplenty. Perhaps using elements of this style (whilst making sure you are only using it to find that part of your very own unique style) will help to find the beauty in the mundane. It is harder to find, but when you do - for my money, it is far more beautiful.

 

B&W and shallow DOF tend to lend themselves well to this style. Film cameras, and especially rangefinders do as well, although I am sure there is no need to switch if you are shooting digital, borrowing somebodies Leica M series and using it for a few shots every now and then (after practicing a lot - they take a while to get used to), might help you to find the beauty in that gritiness and mundaneness (is that a word?) so that you can then transfer that to the way you work digitally and your usual workflow. I am sure you can find the beauty in the mundane using colour too, I think I would just find that harder (harder to achieve that classic look - which to me means 'finding the essence', and B&W seems to pare back to the essence more easily), but I have seen it done - it would just take a better photographer than me. But the key to me would be to focus in that case on the emotion.

 

I agree with Nadine, that the sentimental value can definitely trump the hotel chic (of course if hotel chic is real for that couple, then that is as real as anything else). Think of weddings in little rooms in tiny Italian villages where there isn't much money, but loads of emotion and culture and relationships that are very real.

 

In twenty or thirty years time, these photos of yours could be classics - capturing a moment in time - if you have full respect for that moment. For my money, the secret is not in dressing the moment up, but being exciting that it is actually pared right back to the essence of what the wedding is about. Love, fun, emotion, community, family etc.

 

There is some fabulous American (& Australian which is where I am from, and probably from other countries too) photography set in the suburbs, which shows the beauty in the mundane. I love it.

 

I wrote some stuff related to this (getting to the essence of things) on David Schilling's post about his new business card. Again I am just a beginner, so it's just a beginners opinion.

 

I haven't seen any of your shots Gretchen, and would love to (having said that I haven't uploaded any for a really long time, and no wedding ones so will do that myself when I have overcome some tech difficulties).

 

Some of the most subjectively ugly objects (like paper plates and industrial food servers) can become beautiful, in the same way that industrial backgrounds in some photography becomes beautiful. It is about counterpoint to an extent: something beautiful (the bride, the love, the community) against something stark and abrasive. This of course is helped with great camera technique as has been mentioned (eg: shallow depth of field, so the focus is on the emotion and event, and the background becomes a bit more dream like - so you are just getting it's essence). Or just as validly - as people said here: shoot up or down to avoid it altogether. Maybe a mix of both. My husband and I were recently in Hong Kong, and looking in dirty back alleyways for the most (seemingly) ugly things to photograph, because we thought they were beautiful. Many people stopped to ask us why we bothered, but sometimes there can be beauty in everything.

 

On a final note, some of the photography I find most inspiring on this site (and others) is the New York street photography - which is full of grit, but incredibly beautiful. And some of the Eastern European wedding photography where there is perhaps not so much money, but lots of emotion, family, community, and something indefinable that occurs when an event is stripped of pretension. Perhaps looking at some of these sorts of photos on PN and other sites will inspire?

 

It sounds like you are a much more experienced weddings shooter than me, so this is just my two cents for what it is worth. Also - better photographers than me could talk more specifically about the technical reality of finding the magical in the mundane, and I would be interested to hear that too (because I can see it in my head, but can't always work out how to translate it to my photography. Loving Cartier Bresson is one thing, knowing how to shoot like him is another). Looking forward to seeing your pics!

Warm regards,

Karina : )

[alec_myers]

"the beauty in the mundane"

 

As a counterpoint to the above, I suspect it's much easier to find the beauty in the mundane when your own circumstances are very much other than mundane. Gritty street portraits and industrial backgrounds are most beautiful when seen in neatly framed 8x10's on a Manhattan loft apartment wall; but when they're the view from the ventilation hatch in the outside lavatory at the bottom of the yard they're aren't so nice.

[neilambrose]

<p><em>I suspect it's much easier to find the beauty in the mundane when your own circumstances are very much other than mundane</em></p>

 

<p>Alec - a very well-observed truth.</p>

[karina_a]

Alec & Neil - I agree totally, and there can be a fine line between appreciating something, and being patronising. But it sounds to me like the brides Gretchen is working with are happy with the crepe paper and paper plates, and enjoying their day, rather than craving a fancy hotel. I could be totally wrong of course. I was just looking for a way to respect their lives and see the beauty in the ordinariness. Gretchen - what is your feeling about how these brides feel about their wedding days?

[karina_a]

PS: Neil - great photos. Alec - would love to see some of yours.

 

PPS: I wonder how people shooting in the third world tread this line - between making a beautiful image, and patronising the subject - it is an interesting question, and a fine line I guess.

[gretchen_steele]

Thanks so much for all of the good information and thoughtful replies. I think perhaps in my initial post I wasn't clear ..more so I'm trying to figure out how to make the mundane more beautiful or capture it's essence...I will look through after todays work day and find something to post...although I am truthfully terribly embarrssed to do so because after following this board for a few months I now see my work filled with horrific errors and need for improvement! Just call me "Uncle Bob" ....or perhaps "Aunt Mable"

[gretchen_steele]

I wanted to think a bit before responding to the question of the bride's perception. I think that for the most part these girls are happy with whatever they can have. For them it is beautiful...but I strive to always deliver more than promised...and I strive to become an accomplished enough photographer so that this market niche can have beautiful photos...no, not on the scale of a true high end whiz...but not Uncle Bob or a 200.00 wonder kid with a digital point and shoot...Please realize that I live in the third poorest county in the state, with an average unemployment rate of 10% - median incomes in the $21 - 25,000, which converts to very little disposable income. We are talking about brides with minimum wage or slightly higher jobs, dysfunctional families with few resources to pour into a wedding. Nieghboring counties aren't much different. It's not just geography that limits what the brides have for venue choices...it's also an economical descision. While they may dream of a beautiful wedding such as they see on the web sites and in the magazines...they know that is out of reach for them. What I try to achieve is the best I can to give them wedding photos that help them feel that for that day they were a princess, it was beautiful and magical. My intent was not to sound patronizing. My intent was to ask for help in portraying the beauty of their day in spite of not so attractive surroundings.

Probably a great many of my clients are the ones that many here wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole...nor would those folks be able to afford a high end photographer....some are working with a TOTAL wedding budget of 5,000 -

I apologize that tone of my intial question may have been patronizing as it does seem that way in retrospect.

[karina_a]

Hi Gretchen, I didn't take your post as being patronising at all - I was just responding to the couple of comments on my post (which were fair enough and they made good points I hadn't considered, and which have got me thinking). I took it as someone trying to do the best job they can, and working out how they can do that. I think you are doing a wonderful thing, and are a real asset to your community. I bet your photos are better than you think, and if they aren't - they soon will be - because you are thinking and looking and asking questions and looking for answers.

 

David - I agree - your bride does look a million bucks. And the lighting is great.

[picturesque]

I didn't take your tone negatively either. I just wanted to suggest that too much emphasis on making plain/less-than-beautiful backgrounds go away may be misguided. Most of the tricks mentioned above and in the post I mentioned work well for what you are talking about--watching what is included in the frame, use of telephotos, selective focus, lighting and combinations thereof.

[gretchen_steele]

Is there a section with instructions for adding a photo to a post? Technophile I'm not..and I'm not sure how to do it here...or where / how I should post the photo examples for this thread...a link to an online album? What works best? Thanks for all of the great help! And the VFW Bride shot is awesome...I have considered doing that - after seeing how lovely that was...I think I shall!!! Thanks everyone for being so generous with your time and knowledge.