The effects of continued good feedback about my photography, in particular after taking inofficial shots at Alice and Chris’ wedding in Scotland and my cousin Nick’s wedding in 2009, which everyone seems to like so much, have done wonders for my self confidence. I’ve taken shots at weddings over the past fifteen years and although my earlier efforts weren’t much to write home about, this area of my photography improved greatly when I switched to digital cameras at the end of 2004, especially since gaining a lot more experience in the area of artificial (“Strobist”) lighting as well as candid street and event photography. The recent purchase of a Nikon D7000, which meets my technological requirements for low-light performance and a whopping 16 megapixel sensor, has given me the final boost of encouragement to start officially saying that I will photograph weddings in future.
This shift won’t cause too many ripples in the wider pond, I’m sure, and it’s certainly not my aim to become a full-time wedding photographer. It’s also not my intention to tread on the toes of friends and acquaintances who earn their living through wedding photography, either here in Switzerland or abroad. I know, through my own experience and the great work achieved by many professional photographers, just how much work and skill is involved in doing a good job and how important the right preparation and attention to detail is. A prime example is Graham MacKenzie-Smith in Greenock, Scotland, to whom Jo and I entrusted our own wedding in 2007 (alongside Nick Yoon, now in Malaysia) and who does a great job throughout the year of creating unique and highly creative wedding photographs for his clients.
One of my primary decisions in photography has been to ensure all along that it remains a passion and a hobby, to which I can turn as a means of relaxation away from the “day job”. I’ve been asked many times why I don’t work as a professional photographer and the twofold answer has always been the same: I don’t want to spoil my enjoyment of picture taking by being forced to earn a living from it, and I want to continue to photograph in my own style. To that end, it’ll be my photographs which will convince clients to engage my services, and not a rock-bottom price or a promise of x-thousand JPGs. I have never understood how wedding photographers get away with selling their services in terms of image quantity: the key aspect of any photography which captures an occasion is surely the quality of the images.
Fuller details of my wedding photography and a set of examples of my work are now available through this website at https://permanenttourist.ch/photo/weddings/: if you’re interested in engaging my services this summer, please get in touch for a personalized quote.
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